ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Whispers from the Past, ch. 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"Get her!" Mag shouted as his stouter self was slower at getting out of bed.

"Snape!" Harmony screamed before flying down the stairs. She felt Marek's fingers graze her shoulder before she leapt down three stairs at a time. A red stunning spell shot by her head, inches from her ear. When Harmony's bare feet landed on the last stair step, she felt up her sleeve for her wand. She whipped it out and sent a spell over her shoulder.

She was sprinting to the door when out of her peripheral vision she saw the innkeeper reading his newspaper behind the counter. "Wands outside!" he shouted without looking up from his paper.

Harmony was out the door a second later, and she was blasted with the cool salty breeze that blew in from the sea. Off to the left was a massive tall grass field and just ahead was a forest. She had a chance to escape if she was nimble enough to race through the dense wood. But she didn't like the thought of keeping her back to a couple of determined Death Eaters. She was going to fight and the open field was the best place for it.

When Harmony placed herself near the center of the field, several more spells had flown by inches away. She tried conjuring a Cascadia, but nerves kept her from focusing. So when she faced the Death Eaters she was left with nothing but her wand skills—most of which were learned from Voldemort himself, so her abilities were far from lacking. But when she turned to face the men, she wondered if what they saw was an adept witch. She could imagine them taking in everything from her bare feet, wrinkled black shirt, unruly hair waving about her head in the wind like a halo, wisps blowing across her hard, determined eyes. She hoped that when they saw her they didn't see a stubborn seventeen year old teenager, but a woman well used to defending herself. The Death Eater Marek was close behind her, as expected, with Mag striding toward them from the inn. He took his time walking over; he seemed to think they had her, that she wasn't getting away.

Harmony gripped her wand tighter, driven to prove just how wrong they were. They weren't forcing her anywhere.

"Get her, Marek," Mag called, standing by his accomplice's elbow. "Let's have this hunt done with."

Harmony raised her wand straight at Marek's heart in warning. If he made any move he was going to pay for it. But she was completely unprepared for the spells that suddenly flew at her with lightning speed. He was quick, very quick. But Harmony noticed what he made up for in speed he lacked in power and he conjured them as though halfheartedly. Fortunately, Harmony was both equal in power and speed, so she was lucky to deflect each of his spells, though at the very last second. This lasted a couple minutes: cast a spell, deflect a spell, cast, deflect, cast.

"Enough of this!" Mag called, his face scrunched up in impatience. "Playtime's over! Please just finish her, Marek!"

Even from that distance Harmony could see something change within her opponents wide brown eyes, and he conjured a spell that ignited their surroundings like a flash of lightning. The second Harmony was distracted by the burst of light, he sent a stunning spell at her. The spell hit her in the chest, making the air rush out of her lungs. She fell back, the tall grass rising around her and the sky, pink with dawn, filled her line of vision. For a short moment the air was silent except for the ocean breeze and Harmony watched as a flock of geese soared peacefully across the sky. Then somewhere, she couldn't turn her head to see where, footsteps moved through the grass. The sound came closer and closer until it was almost upon her. Then Marek's dark shadowy form appeared, taking place of the sky like a dark thundercloud. The silent Death Eater's cloak drifted in the wind. His hood had blown back while he ran after her. With the bottom half of his face covered by a black cloth, she saw his longish dark hair falling into his wide brown eyes, which were raptly set upon her. His shoulders rose and fell steadily as he fought to catch his breath.