บท 414: Unforgiven

The Death Eaters were no longer playing around— confronted with the very real possibility of suffering punishment at the hands of their master, those who had remained behind to cover Bellatrix and Lucius's escape had switched to more dangerous Curses.

They redoubled their efforts, forcing Oleandra to throw herself to the floor and roll behind the Book of Names' pedestal to avoid a volley of Killing Curses.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

One, two, three, four, five, six— Oleandra had counted six remaining Death Eaters. She had seen three bolts of green light flying over her head, which meant that she could at most expect three more Killing Curses coming her way within the next few seconds if she tried sticking out her head from behind the pedestal…

Killing Curses were extremely hard to perform, so Oleandra reasoned that even seasoned Death Eaters, for all of their hatred, probably couldn't fire them off in quick succession. After all, they were still human.

Of course, there were a few notable exceptions like Voldemort and Bellatrix; his inhuman lack of empathy and her fanaticism made them both especially well suited for the spell.

At any rate, to cast the Killing Curse, one needed to muster an enormous quantity of killing intent against one's target— which was much more difficult than it sounded. If the goal was murder, it was much easier to use something much less personal, like the Expulso Curse— you simply had to want to create an explosion, and if the detonation resulted in the death of your faceless target, then perfect— fire away and forget!

But to use the Killing Curse, you actually had to want your target dead, with all of your heart— you had to face the fact that you were about to take a fellow human's life, and that was not something that was easy to do. Even if you truly hated them, if you even had a semblance of a heart, you would be seeing the terrified faces of your victims in your nightmares, for the rest of your years…

One, two, three— three more green bolts of death magic flew past Oleandra's hiding place.

"Reducto!"

Upon hearing the Reductor Curse finally being invoked, Oleandra hurriedly scarpered from behind the pedestal, moments before it was reduced to dust by a blue ray of light.

As she leapt to her feet, Oleandra spotted out of the corner of her Mystic Eyes a tall man, who was summoning his magic to cast a spell.

"Legilimens!" Oleandra shouted loudly, brandishing her wand in his direction.

The man— whose name was Jugson— reflexively aborted his spell and attempted to close his mind, as one was wont to do when faced with a blatant attempt at having their mind read.

However, Oleandra had only shouted the words, without putting any of her magic behind the spell. It was merely a bluff— she couldn't afford to be distracted reading another man's thoughts while she was dodging Killing Curses!

Unfortunately for Jugson, he had closed off his mind with Occlumency for really no reason at all; in other words, Oleandra had tricked him, allowing her to take something from him with her Fairy magic… his allegiance.

Jugson's eyes briefly turned cloudy and unfocused, his brain creating temporary new connections to make sense of his 'new' reality. The men fighting at his side were his comrades, and yet, they were trying to murder his mistress…? That was unacceptable, wasn't it?

"BOMBARDA!" Jugson shouted, turning his wand against his fellow Death Eaters.

The two Death Eaters closest to the explosion were grievously injured, while a third was flung against a wall— his head produced a dull cracking sound upon making contact with the hard surface, and then he slid to the floor in a crumpled heap, unmoving.

Despite taking them by surprise, Jugson was almost immediately Stunned by his fellow Death Eaters, which meant that there were only two remaining enemies for Oleandra to neutralize.

"When did she cast the Imperius Curse!?" one of them cried out in panic.

"Legilimens!" Oleandra cried out again, eager to repeat her earlier success.

She pointed her wand at the other one of her two remaining foes, a rugged-looking man sporting a 5 o'clock shadow. Now that there were much fewer enemies for her to face at the same time, she could afford to spare some of her concentration to read her opponent's surface-level thoughts, in order to anticipate his moves.

"By all means, look all you like!" shouted the man in sinister glee. "What I've done to your parents, Blood Traitor, is nothing next to what the Dark Lord has in store for you!"

Oleandra's mind was suddenly filled with a series of bloody images.

Every single waking moment, sharpening the skills that had dulled in Azkaban on her father and her mother…. The man was a sadist of the worst kind; he was practically shoving these mental images at her; he wanted her to see them!

"DOLOHOV!" Oleandra screamed, her vision blurring due to the tears streaming uncontrollably from her eyes.

"You're next, Prewett spawn," said Antonin Dolohov matter-of-factly. "And then it'll be your little sister after that…"

Oleandra saw red— she felt hatred bubbling up from within her, like nothing she had ever experienced before. A certain spell came to her mind— she remembered the incantation very well, as she had seen the fake Moody use it in front of her, in class.

It was forbidden, but surely that man deserved it…?

"Crucio!" Oleandra hissed, as she whipped her wand towards Dolohov.

Angry red lightning crackled out of her wand, striking the man in the chest. Dolohov fell to his knees, his body wracked by spasms— but somehow, he began laughing through the pain.

"Don't you dare interfere, Avery!" he shouted, upon seeing his comrade aiming a spell at Oleandra. "She's mine!"

Oleandra redoubled her efforts, but gradually, the stream of Dark magic erupting from her wand began weakening, granting Dolohov the opportunity to stagger to his feet. Her anger had completely evaporated, replaced by a deep sorrow…

"Pathetic. Is this the extent of your hatred?" Dolohov spat. "In that case… Purpureus Infernum!"

He raised his wand, before performing an extremely fast downwards slashing movement.

"Protego!" Oleandra cried out feebly.

Having seen him summoning his magic, Oleandra was not taken by surprise, but the impact of Dolohov's spell still shattered her weak Shield Charm, sending her sprawling to the floor.

Confident in his victory, Dolohov slowly advanced towards her, his wand raised…