The Dragging Dawn [Book Three]

Chapter 14

Dementors were suddenly surging towards each group of Wizards and Witches from all sides. Spells flew around the different rooms they were in, trying to hold them off and deal with them.

Credence was at the forefront of it all, poised and determined, wand raised. When the dementors burst into the area that him and his team were in he closed his eyes momentarily, thinking of his wedding day and shouted "Expecto Patronum!". A silvery dog flew out from the tip of his wand and charged towards the shadowy figures, causing them to retreat and howl in pain.

He managed to hold them back for a short while with the help of everyone there with him but soon he found people being cornered and having their souls sucked out of them.

"The dementors' kiss!" He muttered to himself in anguish. "David!" He called to the younger man about five feet behind him. "Be careful! Stick behind me, I'll protect you."

David nodded as he fell in behind the older man, his own wand raised with a glimmering snake coming out of the end, snapping menacingly and the cloaked horrors.

Credence called his patronus back to try and fend off the people being attacked, trying to get the dementors to leave them alone and let them live.

"I won't allow there to be a large death toll, not on my watch." He gritted his teeth determinedly.

- - - - -

Percival and Daniel were stood back to back, their patronuses (Daniel's rabbit and Percival's lion) circling them and lashing out at the dementors whenever they got too close.

Although they had to put up a fight, they soon found that all of the dementors within the room had been dealt with within about an hour an a half. Not only this, but there were few injuries and no deaths.

Everyone looked around in confusion, lowering their wands but still keeping them drawn, causing their patronuses to fade away into nothing. No one said anything as the room temperature slowly increased to a normal level again, their panting breaths echoing around the room.

- - - - -

The swarm of dementors were still flooding into the room where Credence crouched, sweating and out of breath. He gritted his teeth against the pain he experienced from the sheer effort of it all, and darted forward suddenly, grabbing David by the collar of his shirt and ducked both of them out of the way as three dementors suddenly launched themselves at the area the two of them had been mere seconds before. Hiding behind a stack of packing cases, they were closer to where the monsters were entering the room, but were better hidden.

"You alright, David?" Credence panted, looking over at the young man.

David looked pale but nodded nonetheless. "Yes... At least... Perhaps. I think my arm is broken, I fell on it awkwardly a short while ago."

"You can stop if you need to, stay hidden here-"

David cut him off quickly by shaking his head fiercely.

They heard a short, harsh bark of laughter come from behind them and they whipped their heads around quickly and found themselves face to face with Modesty herself.

"You've put up quite a fight, Credence." She said softly, glaring down at them from the top of another pile of cases. "But I'm afraid you're soon going to see just how fragile you are." She chuckled again, a crooked smile widening over her deluded face.

"You can't kill me." Credence stated defiantly, glaring at her. "You won't win this."

"I don't need to kill you to beat you. Don't you understand what's going on?"

Credence said nothing as David watched on in fear.

"You took the people that I loved away from me. My Mother... My sister."

"Our Mother. Our sister." Credence corrected her. "I could have killed you, but I didn't, Modesty. I wanted you to live. I did that on purpose." He watched on as the woman's features almost seemed to soften slightly, before hardening again into its usual stern composure a second later.

"Even so. You took something I love away from me. You were a fool to bring so many that you love here tonight. I might take one of them from you. You've made it so easy for me, bringing them here. And they've made it so easy, being so bad at fighting. After all, a false sense of security will do that to a person."

"What do you mean?" Credence was starting to panic. "What are you going to do, Modesty?"

"Have fun trying to explain to your daughter how you lead her boyfriend to his death. Ciao." And with that, she slipped away.

"Modesty!" Credence screamed after her. "David." He said, turning back to the boy. "We need to get to Daniel. She's going to kill him, otherwise."

- - - - -

"Have we won?" Said Daniel, unable to conceal his happiness.

"I don't know." Percival said uncertainly. "If there's one thing I do know, it's that we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves-"

He was suddenly cut off as a swarm of dementors entered the room. Too fast for anyone to react, everyone was suddenly swept to the walls, wands knocked out of reach. Modesty stepped into the room calmly, hands clasped behind her back and drank in the sight.

"Good evening, it's nice to see that my plan is going perfectly well." She motioned to one of the dementors and it swooped down to pick up Percival and Daniel's wands from the ground, handing them to her before the dementors holding the two of them retreated, allowing them to move freely once more. "You're safe without your wands." She said at the confused looks on their faces.

"I'm going to keep this short." She continued, moving her right arm from behind her back and holding it out in front of her, brandishing what Percival recognised to be a gun- a weapon used by No-Majes to kill. "My brother took so much away from me that I'm going to make him pay. And there's no better way to do that than to take someone his daughter loves away from her."

As she finished her sentence, her finger pulled the trigger and time seemed to slow down for Percival as a loud sound reverberated around the room. He had realised a split second before what Modesty was trying to do and needed to put a stop to it. He had to protect his future son-in-law. Almost on instinct, he leapt to the side and threw himself in front of Daniel, taking the bullet for him.

- - - - - - - - - -

Hay guys.

Please don't kill me ok I know that it hurts.