A Marauder's Guide to Falling Forever

Chapter Thirty Five

The Aurors that were already stationed below took action immediately to begin working on a protective enchantment. Marlene yelled at a few healers that had fled from their units to see what was going on, instructing them to make their way to each wing and do the same. She could already see figures apparating into the lowest level of the building and knew instantly that keeping them out now would be futile. Their best hope was to seclude them away from the mass crowds of people within the hospital walls.

Realizing that she had yet to call for help, Marlene sent off a patronus of warning, hoping it would be received before too much damage had been inflicted. But she didn't have time to contemplate as she took the stairs downwards, pushing past the physical limits of her body.

Another explosion shook the building.

It was loud, unforgiving.

She fell sideways into the railing. Her hands grasped the metal bar to steady herself and then she continued to run down without a second thought.

Something hit her feet. Hard. She went crashing down, tumbling a good five feet down the hard edges of the staircase, the sudden surge of pain shooting up her spine. She was only momentarily dazed by the blow, likely the result of either a stun spell or a trip jinx.

Pushing the pain radiating in her lower back and ankle aside, she continued onward.

The chaos was beginning to form on the upper levels now as the rest of the hospital above became aware of the intrusive activity.

Screams of terror bounced off the walls, competing with unrelenting explosions.

Marlene screamed at a few more people that she passed by, trying to convey the importance of securing the building. But she couldn't stick around to see if they were listening.

They had covered lock down procedures in training so all she could do was hope that the remaining healers in the building would take procedural action quickly, and get security spells in place before the death eaters infiltrated the rest of the building.

That is, if they hadn't already.

She hit the fourth floor and helped a couple of the healers lock down their unit, the blast of another explosion ringing her ears as she took off to the next. By the time the fourth floor was secured she hit the staircase again to move down to the third.

If it had been chaos before, she had no words to describe the current state of the hospital as she tore down the staircase, deflecting a couple of different curses that shot out at her. The bodies fighting were greater in numbers and it was obvious that they were now fighting amongst one another.

It was clear that her patronus had delivered well.

The Order members had arrived.

She didn't have time to stop and engage in battle, or make observations of who was present. She hopped over the corpse of a woman slumped horizontally on the stairs and reached the third floor below. Trying to get into one of the units, she was unable to make it through the doors. Apparently the healers on the third floor had successfully secured one portion of the wing.

She only hoped that the occupants inside were safe.

Another burst of light grazed her cheek and she felt the raw sting of broken flesh. The trickle of blood rolled down the side of her face as she flung her body aside instinctively.

There were too many bodies moving around and it became difficult to decipher who she was supposed to be fighting. Though she would never grow accustomed to seeing the mass of dead bodies littering the ground, she was becoming quicker at repressing the emotion that came along with it. Instead she subconsciously tucked the emotions aside for her conscious mind to process later.

Then a jet of red light shot out at her.

"Protego!" she yelled with authority. The curse struck her invisible shield, bouncing backwards towards the castor.

"Flipendo," her attacker boomed in retaliation. She recognized the voice even before she caught sight of the long, billowing blonde hair. Marlene wasn't able to deflect it. It hit her chest and she went flying backwards, hitting the wall and then sinking down into the ground.

"Did you seriously think you were going to walk away from this?" Rose was leaning over her, no longer an image of beauty with her vicious sneer. Apparently the stun spell Patrick had put on her had worn off.

Marlene, slightly dazed, kicked at her leg and the blonde beast went tumbling to the ground next to her. "And you seriously thought it was that easy to kill me?" she barked back with more confidence than she felt. Truthfully she would already be dead if Patrick hadn't interfered.

The thought of Patrick's lifeless body back up on the fifth floor caused her stomach to churn. Was he still up there? Had Rose done something to him upon waking?

She didn't have time to stop and think about it. Marlene gripped her own wand and the two of them scrambled to standing. She regained her balance first and shot three more stun spells into her chest. Rose flew backwards, a string of expletives filling the air between them, and...right into the path of a death curse that had been meant for Sturgis Podmore.

She knew she was dead even before the weight of her body fell lifeless to the marbled floor. There was a loud, anguished cry from somewhere across the hall as her body crumpled gracefully into her death.

Like always, Marlene didn't stick around to process.

She fled.

A curse flew past her head and she threw herself sideways to steer clear of its path. Then she was running down another flight of stairs, into another unit, and then another. Monotonous in motion, the same mission every time. Make sure people were safely secured by protection spells, deflect any incoming curses.

Defend. Survive.

She shot at a few recognizable death eaters, hitting one with an impediment jinx which slowed him down long enough for her to disarm him. But she was immediately hit with another trip jinx and she went down face first; her nose smashed into the floor and the sudden gush of blood flooded into her mouth.

As she lay momentarily dazed, rolled onto her side she glimpsed James and Snape engaged in a heated battle on the opposite end of the hall. Snape shot another furious attack towards James and Marlene watched with horror as it struck him in the chest and he fell backwards to the ground, screaming in pain.

She stifled the strangled cry that had crept into her throat as Snape screamed "Crucio!" James' already fallen, beaten body began to convulse, shrieks of pain and torture rippling through his chest.

"Not so great now, are you Potter?!" Snape sneered. He advanced on James and stepped on his wand; the sound of cracking wood indicated it had broken. And then his own wand was pointed once again at his chest. "James Potter. Hot shot, king of Hogwarts. It will give me immense satisfaction to watch you die."

And before Marlene could even raise her wand, he went in for the kill.

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A/N: Sorry for the week long break! I'll be uploading 2 additional chapters today. As always, if you enjoyed it please vote and review :)