Dinner and a Duel
Dinner and a Duel
Barnaby, Alexi and I arrived at the Leaky Cauldron about a quarter to seven that night. We'd discussed it ahead of time and agreed that the least offensive way to inquire about Lupin's full moon activity was to ask him for advice for Alexi. As a new and unregistered Werewolf with no access to Wolfsbane potion, we would ask Lupin for tips on how he kept himself contained and others safe every month.
We comandeered a large table in the quietest corner of the busy pub and sat down to wait for Chiara and Lupin to arrive. One thing we hadn't forseen happening however, was running into Ben in the first five minutes. I saw him at the same time he saw us, his eyes locked on mine for a second before shifting over to Alexi and narrowing in what looked like pure hatred.
Ben was sitting in the very opposite corner of the room, at the bar with a young witch who I'd only just recognised. Tonks had changed her hair to blonde to match Ben's, for whatever reason. She'd had her back to us before but she had turned, following Ben's death glare to where we sat.
I squeezed Barnaby's hand under the table so he'd follow my gaze, hoping he'd just take stock of the situation brewing without saying anything. But it was already unfolding rapidly. Ben had jumped to his feet, wobbled once and started pushing his way through the other patrons towards our table. Tonks had jumped up too and was following, trying to speak to him or pull him back. Barnaby stood up from our table in an effort to cut Ben off before he got to Alexi, who had only just realised there was about to be a problem. Before I could even decide what to do Ben had reached us, his wand pointed straight at Alexi over Barnaby's shoulder.
"Get up." Ben demanded of Alexi. Trying to keep the peace, Barnaby put one hand on Ben's chest and gently said, "Cool off mate, no one's dueling here. Just go home, okay?"
Ben looked a bit insane as he shoved Barnaby backwards into the table, spilling our drinks. "I'm talking to him, not you! GET UP!" He screamed it so loud the whole bar fell to silence.
Then everything seemed to happen at once. I let myself into Ben's mind and saw there was no stopping him. I reacted a second before he fired his spell, shouting "Protego!" I shielded Barnaby, Alexi and myself. Ben's spell rebounded knocking him off his feet, along with Tonks, several patrons and Tom the bar man who had come up behind him to break up the disturbance.
Alexi sprang to his feet and drew his wand as Ben shot another hex at him from the floor. Alexi pulled me from my chair just in time, tucking me into his chest and turning around to take the full blast of the spell on his back. He fell like a sack of bricks through the table, smashing it to pieces and crumpling on the floor. I turned back to see Barnaby had grabbed Ben by the front of his shirt, pulled his arm back and punched him so hard in the face I thought his head went half way around. He then grabbed Ben with one hand by the throat and lifted him off his feet, his face contorted in rage.
"OUTSIDE!" Tom screamed at us. "I won't have brawling in my pub lads, get the hell out of here!"
Barnaby didn't react, I don't think he even heard Tom. He had Ben in a death grip and Ben's face that wasn't bleeding was turning purple. I'd never seen Barnaby resort to violence like that and I was genuinely terrified he'd kill Ben accidentally. I got up to disarm Barnaby however I had to, but I slipped in something and fell back to the ground on top of Alexi. I'd slipped in a pool of blood. Alexi was laying unconscious on the floor with a hideously deep slash running diagonally across his back, and it was pouring out blood all over the floor.
I lost it. Grabbing my wand with blood soaked hands I started firing off spells. "Relashio!" Purple sparks lit up the dim pub as I hit Barnaby squarely in the chest. He dropped Ben and stumbled backwards into Tom, taking down several other people as he hit the floor. Then, "Incarcerous!" I watched the ropes shoot out from the the tip of my wand and snake their way across Ben's torso, arms and legs, binding him completely immobile.
I turned my attention back to Alexi, screaming for help. Chiara was beside me in less than a second, white faced and horrorstruck. She helped me flip Alexi onto his side and told me to work on the gash that was still bleeding profusely while she attempted to revive him.
"Vulnera Sanentur" I started chanting, drawing my wand back and forth over the wound while Chiara was sobbing next to me. "Rennervate!" She cried, over and over, each time was accompanied by a blinding flash of red light. Finally, on the fourth try, Alexi sucked in a huge breath and started coughing.
"Alexi! Alexi, can you hear me? Say something please" Chiara begged. He coughed some more before saying something that sounded like "Chi-agra" in a very weak voice. Chiara broke into strangled sobs as she clung to him. I was beyond emotions by then, all my concentration was on stopping Alexi from bleeding out.
Over and over I chanted the spell, tracing my wand backwards and forwards over his wound until the skin started stretching, knitting together and the bleeding slowed, and finally stopped. I sat back against the wall completely drained, and watched vaguely as a very limp Ben was carried out of the pub by Tonks and none other than Remus Lupin.
I scanned the room and finally spotted Barnaby. He was helping Tom, holding up a frail looking old wizard as they attempted to heal a bloody cut on his forehead. I was so relieved to see that he was okay after everything, and he'd come back to his senses at some point after I'd jinxed him. He caught my eye and there was thankfully no fire left in the look that he gave me.
My emotions that had mysteriously evaporated during the chaos returned to me in full force as I sat there, covered in blood with broken glass and smashed bits of the table all around us just staring across the room at my fiancé. I held it together as best I could but I couldn't stop the tears from flowing. How in the hell had this happened?
What had changed in Ben to the point where he'd attack someone who wasn't any kind of threat to him? How could he have hit Alexi with such a dark curse, and how could he have done it with me sitting right next to him? My mind flashed back to the moment he'd fired that second spell and I watched it again in my mind, almost in slow motion.
Ben hadn't even registered that I was there, he hadn't even seen that I was in the way. All he saw was Alexi, and all he'd wanted was to wound him so badly. Had he wanted to kill him? He easily could have. Or me, if Alexi hadn't been so quick to grab me that spell would have hit me straight on and there would have been nothing I could have done to stop it.
I thought about what I'd have done if I'd watched my friend nearly kill Barnaby. His violent reaction still terrified me but it was a bit more understandable from that perspective. But still, I honestly hadn't known Barnaby was capable of that. After he'd hit Ben and picked him up again, the look on his face, it had been inhuman.
My mind glitched on that image of him. I must have blacked out for a minute because the next thing I knew the pub was almost silent again and I was being carried outside. I could hear people talking in low voices around me but none of it made much sense, at least not until I zeroed in on Barnaby's voice.
"Yeah, maybe that's best. Just take them back to our place for now unless you think it's really necessary. I'm going to help Tom clean up here and then check in on Ben. Tonks took him back to her parents house right? Yeah, okay. I'll be home in a bit." I felt him kiss my forehead and a minute or so later I realised it wasn't his arms that were cradling me. My eyes snapped open and I looked around in panic. Remus Lupin was holding me. When he saw I was awake he set me down very gently on my feet. I felt a blush burn my cheeks at the intimacy of it and took a step back from him. "Samhain? It's okay, it's just Remus. We're all okay, but we need to get going, can you Apparate?" Chiara was just behind Lupin. I relaxed at the sound of her voice. I nodded my head as Chiara shuffled forward. She had Alexi's arm draped over her shoulder but she looked like she was about to buckle under his weight. Thankfully, Lupin took over then. I got a proper look at him as he hoisted a very rough looking Alexi over his shoulder. Lupin was thinner than I remembered from when I'd met him before, and he looked older but otherwise the same. Lupin smiled at me even though he was straining under Alexi's weight. "We really should be going, can you take us with you? I've got your friend but I don't know where we're going."
I awkwardly held out my arm and felt Lupin grasp it firmly before stepping into nothingness.