
-59-
It shouldn't come as surprise, but it still is... Lucius Malfoy - Draco Malfoy's father, is a Death Eater! Now it all makes sense why Severus wanted me to stay out of his way. Then again... Severus knew about this and didn't tell me? Lucius has very smug look on his face, like he has already won this battle. "Couldn't figure another way to earn money? Other than chasing young children in middle of Christmas?" I mock. "Money isn't the price here, darling." Lucius answer as he takes a small step forward, not dropping that smirk. I do a quick nod:"Yeah? You sure do have a way spending the holidays. Can't stand the wife at home?". That made the smirk drop down on his smug face. The Death Eater on my left takes a step forwards, almost as a warning to stop talking.
Without their notice, my fingertips finds their way to my jeans's pocket. Lucius tries to keep his composer:"Brave. Indeed. I'll give you that much, Professor.". Then he smiles again:"What was it that you teach again? Herbology, was it?". All three of them start to come closer to me as a plow formation. Even I get more nervous, I force a sneaky smile:"You really should update your knowledge, Lucius. My subject is History.". Before Lucius gets to say anything, I snatch the beans out of my pocket:"And you're about to be a part of it.". Everything happens so fast; I quickly cast three spells on each of them as distraction, knowing they'll block them immediately. Then I kneel down and shove a fistful of beans into the muddy ground. The effect of the cold water and mud creates a reaction, causing the beans grow in a blink of an eye into powerful vines that crawls towards the enemy.
The mystery Death Eater seemed to be more alert than their friends, since they immediately turned into the black smoke to escape somewhere in the sky. Right away, the vines tangles around by Lucius's and werewolf-man's ankles. Malfoy's face goes pale:"Wha..-?!", with strong pull they both get dragged six feet under. Just when I'm about to celebrate the victory, I realize the vines are about to come after me. Oh, shit. Somewhere between the panic and wanting to survive, I forgot how they are simple plants, and that they'll attack anyone or anything surround them in over 100 meter radius. And I am not planning on getting buried anytime soon. With that in mind, I start running as fast as I can. The sound of the ground breaking behind me as the vines keeps coming up in the surface increases the panic. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
While running for my dear life, I try to figure out what to do. Since I'm not actually a fast runner, there is a high change the vines will catch me. It's only matter of time. If only... Quickly, I raise my wand towards the Burrow and yell:"Accio!". Soon enough, two black smoke clouds appears flying right above like hawks. Wasting no time, they try to cast spells on me, making this all way harder for me. To them seeing everything go down from the air, I am pretty easy target. Dear Merlin! It's almost like a raise between the two Death Eater who can get to me first. They keep casting spells here and there, sometimes one of them even blocks the other ones curses. "C'mon..!" I hiss under my breath while running my ass off here. Then finally, Harry's broom swoops in and while on the move I hop on it. It takes a second for me to adjust on the broom, but that won't stop me from flying fast away from the enemies.
Now that I don't haveto worry about getting buried alive, I start fighting back. Flying on the same level as them, different colored lights of spells starts to flash on the dark sky. Feels like I'm doing defence and attacking spells in turns. It's really hard to hit a moving target. While flying and dodging, my hands are starting to feel numb because of the cold. Wind keeps going thru the sweater and the wet socks are turn into partly icy. Remus sees how I'm starting to struggle against the two Death Eaters, so he shoots a spell and actually gets a hit on one of them. "Argh!!" a female voice groans as they go crashing down. The curiosity gets the best of me in middle of all this and I try to take a quick glance over my shoulder to see what the person looks like. But right in that moment I turned my head, a spell gets cast on the broom, causing it loose the ability to fly. The sudden fall makes my stomach do the jolt. "WAAHH!!" I scream when going down.
Just when I'm about to hit the ground, a black smoke plunges in - breaking my fall, but only momentarily. My body then hits the ground and rolls few times before stopping on my stomach. "Aahhrr..." I groan from slight pain. What the hell was that?! With shaky arms, I pull myself on all fours. My left knee and arm are hurting a bit. Can feel how they start to ache. All of my clothes are covered in dirt or mud - and I'm freezing. Brilliant... Without my notice there is also a small wound on my forehead that is bleeding. When I get on one knee, black smoke lands in front of me, four meters away. My head quickly snaps up to see the Death Eater. I notice they are the same one who got the werewolf-man step aside. As fast as I can, I try to find my wand, only to realize it got snapped during the fall. My breath shudders. No!
Looking at the enemy in front of me in terror. Don't know what to do! The Death Eater doesn't say anything as they take a step forward. I try to get up from the one knee standing fast, but end up falling on my bum. No... My heart is beating fast. This person right here could end my life any second now. Raised my shaky hand towards them and try come up something to say to get out of this deadly situation. They keep approaching slowly, making all of this even more tormenting. Cold sweat falls down my temple as I stare back at them. When they come stand two meters away from me, slowly, they raise their hand towards the mask. Huh? Feels like I'm holding my breath now. Are they going to reveal who they are? Just when they are about to take the mask off, the sound of a whoosh and glass breaking can be heard from the distance. Immediately, we both turn to look what's going on.
My eyes widens out of shock. Can't believe what I'm seeing. All of the rest of the Death Eaters are flying thru the Burrow from every direction, destroying Weasleys home. From my point of view, I can't see anything else except the three highest stores of the building. Then, my heart drops. Sniffy! Rolling back on my knees:"No. No, no, no, no!!". The Death Eater next to me turns to look at me, almost like waiting for me to tell what's going on my mind right now. Desperation consumes and I turn to the enemy:"Please! There is a niffler..- Lo-locked in a cage inside that house!!". No reaction. The house is burning. Flames coming thru the holes the Death Eaters have made. A nasty witch laughter filling the air. Without thinking any consequences, I shoot up and start running towards the burning building - not caring if I get cast a spell on the back. I must safe him!
As soon as I got up and start running, the Death Eater turns into black smoke and flies right above me towards the burning building. Not knowing if they are going help or join the chaos, I keep running. Pushing every grain out of the way while rushing thru them. Can see how there are black smoke going in and out of the house, it's impossible to see which one of them is the one I begged for help. Tears starts to raise on my eyes just thinking what might have happen to the dear niffler. When I finally get back to the Burrow's yard, I see none of them are hurt. They are all watching the house burn as the Death Eaters do spirals up in the sky, leaving the place. Sirius is the first one to notice me:"(Y/N)!". Harry, Ron, Remus and Tonks turns to see me while the rest of them are staring how their lovely home is destroyed. Seeing Tonks holding Sniffy in her arms makes me let out shudder sigh:"Sniffy.". Immediately I run up to Tonks and almost thud our bodies together - of course look out for the belly. "The niffler is fine. We are all fine." she hugs me tight while having one of her hands back of my head. Sniffy is now clenched up against me. Remus also came to us and gives gentle, yet firm rubs on my back.
After some damage control, we managed to put down the fire. Well - the ones who got working wands, that is. Then, we traveled all the way to Sirius's family home - 12 Grimmauld Place. Remus and Tonks are coming this way by the train which will take a while. I did offer to come with them, but they insisted me to come here with the Apparate spell with the others, since I got the most damage. Bruises on arms and legs, and the cut on my forehead. This is all so messed up. "You're starting to remind of my godson there, (Y/N)." Sirius jokes as he places a band-aid over the cut. "Keep that up and I'll make you one too." I snap back, half jokingly. We are now in the kitchen. It's only me, Sirius, Harry and Ron. Rest of them are somewhere in the building, resting.
None of us could have ever imagine this is how the Christmas Eve would end. Well, it's now Christmas Day if we are being specific. Sirius then smirks:"Kiss to make it better?". Lift my index finger at him:"I swear to Merlin..-", "What happened to your wand?" Harry ask. Both, Sirius and I turn to the boy, who's sitting around the table with his friend. "It snapped when I fall down from the broom." I answer. Then I give him pleading eyes:"Again, sorry about your broom.". "It's alright, Prof..- (Y/N)." he says sincerely. We share a soft smile. "Don't worry, (Y/N). That has happen to me too." Ron tries to cheer me up. Light chuckle comes out of me:"It's alright. I got some experience of broken wands in the past. No worries!". There are couple of occasions my 'lovely' parents snapped the wand in half when they were angry with me.
An hour later, Remus and Tonks managed to come here without any complications. Seeing them again makes me feel like I can breath again. We all feel little bit shaky and tired about what happened. It is after all nearly three in the morning. With that being said, we all rushed into the bedrooms to take some rest after taking some hot showers and baths. When I get under the covers, I can feel how chilly the fresh sheets are against the skin. Even I have borrowed pyjamas on, I still feel quite cold. In times like these it's a good thing to have a fellow niffler to bring some warmth. Burying my face against his fur and snuggle up with him under the blanket. Sniffy presses himself more against me, slowly falling asleep. I'm glad you're alright. After pecking many kisses on his head, slowly, but surely... My eyes starts to feel heavy and eventually fell asleep.