Shadow Claw: The Life Story - The Final Chapter

Ch. 14 - Stars In His Eyes

"Oh, do fuck off. I've had enough of you already." Jenny spat.

"Oh, what a colourful mouth you have." Estos' sly maw curled in a smirk.

Hermione screeched and sobbed in the corner but then fell silent, whilst Bellatrix almost danced around her with her wavering arms, but I hadn't noticed Griphook, a goblin that knew Harry Potter, was out of the dungeon with a slashed face and a true copy of the Gryffindor sword. Jenny made a desperate motion towards them both, but Draco yanked her back and forced her to hide behind a wall lest Lucius or Narcissa saw her.

"... it is a fake." Griphook murmured.

"... are you sure?" Bellatrix was hissing. "Quite sure?"

"Yes." He replied. He was lying, for Harry's sake I believed, and the rest of them - Ron, Hermione, and whoever else had been brought into the manor.

"... and I think," said Bellatrix, a calm smirk overtaking her pale lips from across the room, "we can dispose of the Mudblood. Greyback, take her if you want her." Greyback advanced towards Hermione.

My eyes widened. James let out a blinding scream, and burst into action at the same time Ron smashed his way into the drawing room. I snarled and leapt around Estos, but Salem knocked me sideways, his eyes dark. "We may have had a fling, Shadow, but that doesn't change my perception of the world." He growled, preventing me from protecting my friends.

Spells flew back and forth, shouts and hollers came from all sides of the hall.

"No!"

"Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!"

"STOP OR SHE DIES!"

"-... Draco, pick them up! The Dark Lord is coming, Potters! Your deaths approach!"

I tensed my claws, backed up against the wall with Estos and Salem facing me. "Get out of the way." I hissed. Estos' lower half shifted into position, as if to leap, but Salem snarled at him with a murderous expression. "No- she isn't to be hurt!" He demanded. In his moment of admonishment, I raised my wings and reared, eliciting a bellowing roar and charging at Estos. He was taken by surprise and knocked over with my harsh strength; I shifted in the after-drop, rolling on the floor as I almost collided with a chair.

I felt the hairs on my neck stand up as Salem's paw only just missed my leg as I leapt over the long centre table. I dropped to the floor again, narrowly dodging Estos, who flew over me and slammed into a wall, slumping against it in pain. He had left a scratch over my cheek though, but the adrenaline in my veins was enough to render my pain levels at almost nothing.

Jenny was running with weeping eyes- Harry, Hermione, Ron were battling Fenrir Greyback- James was alongside Jenny- I met them in the middle.

The chandelier clinked suddenly, plummeting to the floor in a shattering crash moments later. Dobby appeared, and Bellatrix (carrying her silvery knife that sent shivers down my spine) and Narcissa screamed at him, but in my seconds of lacked-concentration, Salem plowed into my side. I gasped, held to the ground, but there was a split-second where we simply stared at one another, dazed, before I kicked him hard between the legs and he went sprawling to the side, where he used Estos to get up, and together they charged at us all.

I felt at my side briefly with trembling hands, only to find I was bleeding heavily - Salem's claws had caught and ripped at my side, exposing a glimpse of my ribs and the muscle layer under my skin. My breath caught in my throat.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Jenny, James and Griphook seized one another, and just as they began to Disapparate, I leapt at Jenny and managed to grasp her hand in my own bloodied one.

We turned into the darkness, and as we did, I caught a roar of denial, a blur of silver, a flash of blonde, and then it was just agony.

Pain.

Everywhere.

The air was salty, like the sea. The ground was sandy, like the beach. "Shell Cottage-...!" I croaked out. I felt around, trying desperately to find somebody.

I was alone, bleeding to my death.

But not for long.

"SHADOW!" It was Shade's voice.

"Mummy!" Tobias and Snowy... my babies... they shouldn't see me...

Warm hands surrounded me and I groaned, my eyes flickering open for a brief moment. Shade had not changed one bit - and I loved him so, but the guilt was crushing my heart - there was a small claw mark over his nose that had scarred over. He lifted me from the sand and I screamed out, my back arching, causing even more paroxysm's of agony shooting through my bones.

"Shade, get her inside, she's bleeding badly-" Bill-?

"-... no - HELP - HELP-!" That was Harry's voice, somewhere down from us on the beach.

"Oh- God- Shade, please- AHHHHHHH!" My mate shifted his arms to hoist me further up, and I could not help but elicit my cries and pleas for it all to be over.

"Shadow, hold on- you're going to be alright- just hold on-..."

Then I heard James.

"Shadow- SHADOW! GET OFF OF ME! SHADOW! SHADOW! SHADOW!"

It went dark.

Jenny's POV

I hit the sand harshly and fell away from Harry and Dobby, groaning, all our hands almost touching.

"Dobby, is this Shell Cottage?" I whispered, not daring to raise my voice lest the Death Eaters had followed us. Where was Shadow, and James? Had they made it through? What about Salem- I hoped he hadn't followed us to Bill and Fleur's home...

Harry half sat up, clutching the two wands he'd taken from Malfoy Manor, ready to fight. "Have we come to the right place? Dobby?" He questioned, his voice raising at the end, somewhat cracking.

We looked around weakly. The little elf stood not even a meter from us.

"DOBBY!" I choked.

The elf swayed, stars reflecting into his wide, glazed eyes. Together, we all gazed down to the silver hilt of Bellatrix Lestrange's knife protruding from the elf's raggedly heaving chest. "Dobby- no - HELP - HELP-!" Harry bellowed towards the faintly-lit cottage, and yet I looked to the skies with watery eyes, the stars rippling off of my tears as they shed down my cheeks.

"HELP US!" I screamed to the sky, balling my hands to fists and hollering to the starlight in vain.

The dark taint spread across Dobby's front, his arms reaching out with an expression of exhortation. Harry caught him and laid the elf between out laps on the cool top grass above the beach. "Dobby, no, don't die, don't die-" Harry pleaded. I could only watch, frustrated that I could not help, or even do anything of benefit.

The elf's eyes found my brother's, and, trembling with the effort of speaking, he spoke two word.

"Harry... Potter..."

And then with a quivering shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more than great, glassy orbs dusted with light from the stars that they looked through, but not quite at.