The Spare

Chapter 1

We were losing.

That's all I could concentrate on. We were losing and it was hopeless. I dodge curse and jinx after curse and jinx, managing to send just as many. In this chaos, this crumbling ancient castle, surrounded by dozens of witches and wizards I didn't know, everything is becoming too much. These literal children fighting the darkest and most powerful of our kind is heartbreaking. A part of me is aching for the life I had before all this.

The member of the Order of the Phoenix I'd been deployed to the grounds with, Arthur Weasley, is nowhere to be seen. I can no longer tell who was part of our group and where they were, the figures in the dim light are indistinguishable from good and bad.

I duck behind a thick tree to avoid a curse. Another one doesn't follow and I chance a peak around the corner just in time to see the Quidditch Pitch ignite with a deafening boom. With the new golden glow lighting the field, I can now see around me. Well, as much as I could see without my glasses anyway. Only a few yards away, a hooded figure stands from his crouched position, his height silhouetted against the flames.

"I thought that was you," he says, chuckling darkly. He moves closer, taking slow, sauntering steps. He removes his hood, a wicked smirk across his handsome face. "I believe you have something of mine."

I point his wand at him and shrug, desperate not to show my fear. "Luckily you're here to see me put you on your ass with it."

Before he can say anything else, I throw a stunning spell at him. He easily reverses the spell, sending it back to me. I duck behind the tree again, swirling around to the other side to shoot beams of light like lasers from the tip of the wand. He quickly raises the length of his cloak like a shield, the beams landing on the black fabric and sizzling like the burnt end of a cigarette. The second I take an advancing step out from behind the tree, he waves his wand and an invisible force knocks me off my feet. I land flat on my back in the grass, a root from the tree digging into my side.

A familiar hysterical cackle comes bounding down the hill from the direction of the castle and I twist my head up to see her. She stops dead in her tracks when she spots me. She looks curiously from me to the other Death Eater.

"Surely you aren't still dealing with this filth, Thom?" Bellatrix taunts, her eyes wide and wild as she stares at us. "The Dark Lord requires us in the Forest."

He was beside her now. "You know how I take pleasure in tormenting them," he purrs to her.

With her eyes on his, she points her wand at me, and the most excruciating pain I've ever felt in my life courses through my body. I don't know how much time passes under the cruciatus curse, but when it ends, my voice is hoarse and I could have passed out asleep right there in the grass, every part of my body aching and exhausted. I'm barely aware that Bellatrix and Thomus were still there.

"THAT is how you torment them!" she hisses, pulling out a dagger. My eyes widen. I know what this woman could do with that. With what little strength I have, I'm desperate to try to get to my feet. "And this is how you kill them."

The force of the dagger in my side sends me back to the ground. The wand lands at their feet.

"As if you needed reminding," she says coldly, brushing past him in the direction of the forest.

He pauses a moment, eyes lingering at the blade embedded in my side. I can feel the warm blood quickly dampening my clothes as I stare back, seeing stars. His eyes flicker to my face briefly before he picks up his wand and continues on after Bellatrix. I close my eyes.

~*~

After months of making my Polyjuice potion and the several trials to make sure it would last long enough, at long last it was perfect. When I look in the mirror hanging on the back of her office door, the middle-aged face of Rita Skeeter stares back at me.