Chapter Fourty-Six
Confronting the Faceless 💀 CompleteMay 2, 1998
"You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born"
Zara's Snatcher troops were divided between the school and the Ministry by order of Yurina, and while that's extremely annoying, Zara was able to choose which people she wanted here with her, and of course she'd only chosen her best.
She'd led her team through the destroyed barrier, flanked by a couple werewolf packs and followed by a nest of Acromantula, and she's feeling on top of the world.
They're in the castle now - it hadn't been a difficult task to get through the pathetic attempt at resistance they'd met on their way - and Zara is only too happy to set fire to just about everything flammable that she sees. She always hated it here.
However, her happy destructive spree is rudely interrupted when a witch with stupid pink hair tries to stun her.
Zara dodges smoothly and returns fire herself, and pink hair dives for cover. Zara rolls her eyes.
"I'd run away now if you want to live." She calls mockingly, and sure enough the witch throws another spell - another stunner, really, no creativity to make up for the predictability. But at least Zara will get to kill someone a little more directly - so far she's mostly just set things on fire. Death is so much more satisfying than destruction - there's a lot more fear and power to be gained from it after all, her mother has said as much time and time again.
"Well, don't say I didn't give you the option." She grins and blasts apart the woman's cover with a precise Confringio.
She hears the woman curse, though she does manage to dive out of the way, and Zara scowls. Fine, she wants to make this harder on herself? Zara can do that.
She doesn't give pinkie a chance to retaliate, flinging another curse that has the woman on the defensive and clearly outclassed.
"That the best you got? Real heroic there, throwing a spell when my back was turned and then not actually being able to fight for ." Zara taunts cheerfully, continuing her barrage of spells.
Then the woman does something unexpected - she crouches to avoid one of Zara's hexes and casts her own Petrificus Totalus at the same time.
Zara hops over the attempt easily, but she's feeling way better now. "That's more like it! Gimme some actual fight!" She laughs as the woman attempts to once again find cover. Zara preempts her by blowing all of it up and she can't help the giddy laugh that bubbles up.
She hasn't had this much fun in months. Between Theo and his sabotage hogging her leadership role and Yurina deciding to be more active with the Snatchers after Zara had finally gotten rid of her worthless co-leader, Zara hasn't had a chance to let loose and show what she's truly capable of in far too long. Mind games and manipulation are fun enough, sure, but this is where the real joy comes from - showing others exactly who's in charge and why.
She dances around another pathetic attempt at an attack from the woman, who's hair has gone brown now - a Metamorphagus, those are pretty rare, killing her will definitely be worth bragging about - probably in an attempt to blend into the stone around them.
Zara thinks her own dark robes and full face mask are doing far more to allow her to blend into the shadows, but of course she shouldn't expect anything actually clever from an Order member - they aren't very bright, considering they're basically a bunch of Gryffindors and maybe a few Hufflepuffs (who lower an already embarrassingly small overall IQ, she's sure).
She throws three quick hexes in succession, pouting when the woman successfully gets a shield up instead of trying to dodge any of them (she wouldn't have been able to - Zara had placed the spells in such a way that movement in any direction would result in a hit).
"Oh come on, I'm bored." She taunts. "Entertain me, give me a reason not to just take you out and leave your body for the wolves."
The woman bristles, and obviously something Zara just said had hit a nerve because the woman is now on the offensive. Perfect - that's what Zara had wanted.
The duel is a lot more intense now, with no breathing room between spells being thrown, deflected, or dodged, and Zara is feeling on top of the world.
But all good things must come to an end, and she decides after a few minutes that she should probably wrap this up so she can go fight someone else where her fellow Deatheaters can actually see her - glory only comes if people are around to tell the tale.
Throughout the fight she's been scanning the area and driving the other woman towards one of the side walls, where one of the few undamaged columns stands. Once the witch is perfectly aligned underneath the towering structure, Zara pulls another triple hex and as predicted the woman throws up a shield instead of dodging.
Unfortunately for her, none of the hexes was actually aimed at her, and a moment later the column collapses on top of her.
"Sorry sweetheart, but I've got places to be." She coos at the unconscious form with a grin. Then, just to make sure it sticks, she hits the limp form with a Killing Curse before continuing on her merry way. One down, many to go, and Zara is going to take them all on.
She's pleased to find a few more opponents quite quickly, and this time she's got an audience of her allies to watch her work - she even recognizes a few as older leaders in the group, and their accounts will be worth a lot when the time comes to present her worthiness to the Dark Lord in order to finally be given a role worthy of her skillset.
She loses herself in the heady rush of adrenaline, even dives into a few other fights to end them when her allies look like they're about to fail, and if that isn't proof she should be in charge of who's actually allowed onto the field she doesn't know what is.
She's having the time of her life when she spots him, and her mood immediately crashes back down.
Theodore Yaxley, fighting side by side with some brown skinned Order idiot against the people he was supposed to be loyal to.
Her blood boils and she locks on, abandoning her current fight and moving towards Theo, intent on finally releasing the months of aggravation he'd caused her that have still been writhing under her skin all this time.
He sees her coming though, and shouts something to the man beside him who grins and rather rudely flings a disarming charm at her that forces her to duck down for just a moment. But when she's back up the two men have vanished.
Coward. She seethes, blasting one of the other resistors in the room with a Cruciatus to calm her nerves. I'll find you again Theo, now that I know you're here. You'll pay for what you put me through.
She moves towards where she'd last seen him, knocking others out of her way as she goes and only briefly checking to ensure the people she's taking out are in fact on the other team. Her goal is clear, and she's going to chase it down and get her well deserved revenge.
She spots them a few halls over, still together and shouting to each other regularly. Zara scoffs. How weak, needing to have someone else watch your back - Zara has been handling herself quite well on her own. It only shows again that she should have been in charge of everything from the beginning.
She decides to make her entrance as grand as possible - a little spectacle does wonders to preempt some fear, and fear leads to mistakes as her mother always says. So she fires a Killing Curse at the two before they spot her, and the disposable non-Theo crumples immediately.
"Clear out, this one is mine!" She shouts firmly, grin a little manic on her face but she doesn't care. It will only add to Theo's panic, which is good for her.
He spins to face her, though he puts up a shield as he does so, which is probably smart but Zara isn't giving him any credit: he could have launched an attack immediately but squandered the opportunity and there's nothing impressive about that.
She watches as he kneels next to the other man, and she can tell the exact moment he realizes his partner is dead by the look on his face.
She revels in that look.
"Hello there partner." She drawls sweetly. "Funny running into you here, I figured you'd be thousands of miles away by now avoiding the consequences of your actions. Since that seems to be your style."
"Zara." He replies, flat in tone but his voice is tight. Is he grieving? Who, the Order member? The timeline alone means he can't have known the guy for very long - how sentimental.
How weak.
"Pity, I was hoping you'd be more interesting." She sighs. "Avada-"
"Crucio."
Zara will never admit it, but she hadn't expected that, and she barely dives out of the way in time. But she's grinning as she rolls back to her feet and throws up a shielding charm. So this will be fun after all!
"Look at you, already falling back into better habits." She mocks. "Was that your boyfriend? Are you seeking justice now?"
Theo sneers. "You ought to be thankful his boyfriend isn't here, he wouldn't have missed." He says lowly. "You going to drop that shield or are you scared?"
Zara laughs at the obvious taunt. "Of you? Please, we both know you can't do without a partner, I'd be more afraid of a Crup. You on the other hand, we both know that you can't take me. And who else is going to back you up?" She makes a show of looking around. "I don't see anyone rushing to your aid. Tell me Theo, do they really trust you in the Order? Or will they be relieved to find your corpse here when the dust settles, not needing to always watch their backs anymore, uncertain if you're going to drive a knife into them." She tilts her head, tries to make herself taller, mocking. "It's not like you don't have a reputation for doing exactly that, after all."
There's a flash of something on Theo's face. It's only a moment before he schools it away, but Zara knows she's hit the nail on the head with that one. Good. He should suffer in every way possible - it's only fair.
"You almost sound like you miss me." He mocks. "Sorry you're so impossible to be around that I'd rather turn traitor than have to look at your hideous face for another day, but that seems like more of a you problem."
Zara flings a blasting curse at him in response. Not because he's upset her - she knows she's pretty and she definitely doesn't miss him at all - but because talking has become boring.
Theo flips out of the way, and Merlin's beard overkill much? Who's he even showing off for, Zara had cleared the room ages ago?
She ducks away from his return fire, throwing a few hexes of her own. Silently of course, there's no need to tell him what's coming. She only spoke the Killing Curse before to make a point and scare him further. Cowardly traitors like him fear more for their own lives than anything else, so he'll be on edge, desperate, and an easy target because of it.
She feels a bit like Princess when her cat is toying with a mouse, and she definitely understands now why cats play with their food - it's just so much fun.
She hears Theo curse and grins, wondering which hex made contact. She doesn't bother to check, throwing out several more curses in quick succession, though this time Theo gets a shield up in time to avoid them.
She pouts. "Hiding again, so only other people get hurt because of your stupid decisions." She sighs loudly. "You really are predictably pathetic Theo, it's no wonder your uncle didn't bat an eye when I told him you'd run off. He clearly didn't expect anything better from you."
That's a lie, but it's not like Theo knows that. Corban Yaxley had been furious to learn that Zara had been right about his nephew, and it's one of the few times Zara had been on the same page as Yurina - that page being that a furious, flustered Yaxley was a very amusing sight.
However, Theo doesn't seem bothered by the comment, instead focusing on something Zara hadn't expected (or appreciates now that he's brought it up). "Someone got hurt when I left? Was it you Zara? Do you miss me?"
Ugh he's infuriating.
"As if, though it's good to know your ego is as overinflated as ever." She grumbles as the duel continues. Theo is definitely on the defensive, which is a nice fact to note, but he's unfortunately good at being on the defensive, keeping his back to the wall but not going anywhere that would allow Zara to drop something onto his head. Clearly he's scanned the room same as she has and is refusing to be herded to where she wants him.
But that's the joy of a challenge, she reminds herself. And besides, if this was over too quickly it wouldn't be as satisfying. Theo's just delaying the inevitable, which means Zara gets to have more fun.
And despite his skilled defense, it's still clear that Theo is the one losing ground. Zara had spent hours in school working to perfect her silent spellcasting precisely for moment like this - if your opponent doens't know what's coming his way he can't prepare for it, and it makes Zara pretty much untouchable on the battlefield.
Her wand helps too - it knows her well enough that there are moments it seems to cast spells before she's even realized she wants to cast them. And it all comes together to spell utter doom for her former co-leader.
If Theo realizes he's losing he doesn't show it, throwing hexes and charms her way whenever he can find an opening (more like when Zara lets him think he has an opening - this fight is on her terms). Zara blocks and dodges the pitiful attempts easily and returns the favor tenfold. He continues to use Protego Horriblis rather than a simple shield, which is particularly irritating since she can't just break through his shield with an Unforgivable in one go - she has to wear it down steadily, but he continues disspelling and resummoning it every time Zara lets up even the slightest bit with her spell casts.
She could just bombard him endlessly with the Killing Curse, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun as getting in several verbal jabs that she can see scraping at his resolve in ways that will ultimately lead to stupid mistakes. And she wants him to die knowing he'd been an absolute idiot - so she lets him refresh his shield.
Sure enough, after a comment about how the Order will probably think he killed the colored boy Zara had offed early, Theo makes a major mistake. His shield drops but instead of immediately dodging he tries to curse her again.
Zara grins and fires her own spell before leaning out of the way of Theo's - his anger is messing with his aim. Good.
Her hex lands, and Theo stumbles back, shoved against the wall by the force of the impact and now bleeding heavily from a gash across his stomach. Nothing deep enough to kill him right away, but so long as Zara is distracting him and keeping his heart rate up he'll bleed out within the hour. Slowly and painfully, just like he deserves.
But she'd still rather he kick it sooner rather than later - she has places to be, people to kill, etcetera and so forth. So she needs to up his heart rate even more, make this go a little quicker.
Easy enough.
"So tell me Theo, I haven't seen you much at all these past few months. If you were with the Order how come you weren't doing anything with them, huh? Did they not let you do anything? Didn't want to let you out of their sight?"
"Fairly so, considering my last known interactions were with you." He snaps, but his voice is edged with pain, and Zara revels in it. She flings a lazy string of hexes that force Theo to dive aside or be hit. None of them would have really hurt him if they hit - she just wants to get him moving and get more blood out of his body and on the ground below them.
She can still hear the battle raging down the corridor, and she feels a pull to go join it. But she needs to take down Theo first - she's waited too long for this moment to let it slip away from her that easily.
But her distraction costs her - Theo manages to land a hit with a disarming spell.
She swears and flings her hand out, shouting the summoning spell and cursing her momentary glance towards the rest of the fight. She can't cast silently and wandlessly. Luckily for her her wand hasn't gotten far, and despite her shakiness with wandless magic it does change trajectory and fly back into her outstretched hand on command.
Theo has moved when she turns back to him, and she growls when she sees that he's partially closed his wound. Well, she'll just have to fix that.
"Not so fast partner." She growls. "We're still dancing here." She throws several cutting curses his way but once again his stupid Hit Wizard training seems to kick in and he avoids them, bending in ways she could swear should break his spine.
"What are you, an Occamy? What the heck is your flexibility?" She groans out loud, and that was definitely on purpose and not an accident she... she wants him to drop his guard, to think she's distracted and tired when she's not.
He scoffs. "Not all of us rely on magic alone, you know. If you lose your wand and can't still fight you're basically useless."
Zara bristles. "Well I still killed your friend there so I guess my way is working a lot better than yours is right now." She snaps back, and smirks when she sees Theo's hackles rise again. Alright, so mocking the dead guy is an easy way to rile him up. Good to know.
Though she already knew that - it's why she said it. Ugh she needs to finish this fight and go do something else, she's actually getting bored. She really thought Theo was done disappointing her but apparently that's simply impossible for him.
They duel a bit longer, and Zara tries to rekindle the fire she'd had before, when she'd hunted him down, but it seems to have fizzled and died alongside his refusal to really give her the reactions she was hoping for.
Screw taking her time then.
"Alright I'm bored, time to die." She declares brightly, and immediately begins firing off back to back killing curses, forcing Theo to throw up his shield and not giving him any time to renew it as it slowly begins cracking under her assault.
And there's the enjoyment she was expecting. Should have done this sooner, clearly. She watches the magical barrier around Theo shudder and crack just as the barrier covering Hogwarts had, and she leans forward slightly anticipating the moment it shatters completely and Theo's limp body tumbles to the ground. She's been waiting far too long for this moment, and she's going to enjoy every second of it.
She sees the movement a moment too late, and a shouted "Expeliarmus" once again rips her wand from her hand. This time it's snagged out of the air by someone standing much closer to Zara than she likes.
Zara immediately tries to call it back, but the other woman has a tight grip, and Zara is a little insulted to see how quickly her wand stops fighting. Zara sizes up the other woman - slim, black hair pulled up in a bun that's coming undone, not looking at Zara as if she's a neutralized threat.
Zara growls and launches herself forward. She can take this stick of a woman.
"Willow, watch her." Theo says, and Zara hates that she doesn't have time to revel in how his voice trembles ever so slightly. She needs her wand back.
The woman spins to face her, and with a single flick of her wand Zara is thrown backwards which is not fair. Nonverbal spells are only fun when she's the one using them.
"Don't worry Theo, I've got her. I may not have taken up the family business, but I still know my way around wands, and this one enjoys silent spellcasting."
And that's the moment Zara realizes the woman had used Zara's own wand to throw her. Something burns in the pit of her stomach, and she crouches where she'd landed, scanning the area for anything she can use - these two are going to die. She's going to make sure of it.
And thank goodness no one other than these two was around to see that. Corban and Yurina would never give her her due place if they knew she'd been hexed by her own wand.
Theo is laughing now, weakly which is good, but the fact he's smiling at all isn't okay and Zara is going to stop it. She begins slowly creeping along the wall, keeping to the edges of the room. Let them think she's trying to run - she'll attack when they're least expecting it.
As expected the woman - Theo had called her Willow, Zara remembers - turns her focus to Theo and finishes reversing Zara's hard work.
"It'll scar." Willow says after a moment. "But you'll live. Or, you won't die from this, anyway."
"Thanks." Theo rasps. He hesitates, glancing at Zara who glares at him but keeps pretending to be making for an exit, and then turns back to Willow. "Why'd you help me?"
"You're Order, and beyond that you're Kent's best friend. I wasn't going to leave you hanging when I saw the brat getting the upper hand." She looks over at Zara now as well, and Zara is pretty sure she'll be able to rip their skin from their bones barehanded at this point considering how much rage-fueled adrenaline she's feeling right now. "You must be Zara, we've heard plenty about you. None of it good, I promise." She grins.
Zara growls and stops moving. She needs them to stop looking at her so she can brain them from behind with the large stone she's now standing over. She thinks it's rubble from the castle wall, but how it ended up this far into the castle itself is a mystery. "Considering your source I'm sure it's all biased anyway." She drawls. "Can't say I know you, can't say I care to."
Willow shrugs. "Alright then. You're good here Theo?" She checks, and he nods slightly. Willow moves as if she plans to leave, then hesitates and passes Zara's wand over to Theo. "If half of what you told us is true... I wouldn't tell." She says simply, looking over at the body on the floor. "I wouldn't blame you either."
Theo hums but doesn't watch as Willow leaves, his eyes remaining focused on Zara. And there goes her chance to kill the girl. She'll just have to hunt Willow down once she takes care of Theo and gets her wand back.
"Guess you were wrong." Theo says after a moment. "And don't think that rock will be of use to you, it's going to be too heavy to lift."
Zara just glares, remaining motionless and refusing to respond.
"I admit, I wasn't sure I was Order either. I thought you were right. But as it turns out, Zara, fighting for the right reasons will inevitably gain allies, and ones that actually care about you. Your fear is only effective if there's nothing to combat it."
Zara rolls her eyes. "Very sentimental." She sneers. "Yet somehow it's us who are invading your safe zone and not the other way around. I think our methods work just fine."
"I think your methods also cause you all to hate each other. Tell me Zara, if I cut open your stomach right now and left you to bleed out, who would come to your aid? Willow doesn't even like me very much you know, we just tolerate each other." He finally looks away from Zara, shifting his gaze to her wand. "You can't defend yourself right now, nothing is stopping me."
"Yet you're just standing there like a coward." She taunts. "Go on then. Kill me. Prove your methods are so much better." She drags out each word mockingly, but her heart is picking up pace against her ribs. She can probably dodge a few spells, but she'll need to get closer to him and get her wand back as quickly as possible. Her eyes flit around the room, trying to chart the best path to accomplish her goals.
Theo, however, doesn't move, not even to raise either of the wands he's holding, and Zara slowly begins creeping towards him, hoping to use his obvious weakness to her advantage (if it was her he'd already be dead, so really he's just proving her point about him being a coward).
"No." He says suddenly, and she freezes, but he's not looking at her. "I'm not a coward. I'm just not a monster." He puts her wand into his inner robe pocket (no, damnit) and finally stands up from where he'd been kneeling. "I'd get out of here Zara, I doubt others will be as kind as I'm being right now." He warns. "And they won't know you're unarmed."
Zara sneers but can only watch as Theo turns and leaves as well, leaving her alone and seething in the now-empty room.
No wand, no dead Theo, no nothing. She kicks the corpse left behind angrily, getting some minimal satisfaction out of feeling the still-soft skin dent under her foot.
Then she realizes that Theo had made a bigger mistake than he'd realized - the body still has its wand.
She grabs it from the lax hand and grins manically. Unarmed, is she? We'll see about that Theo.
She heads in the direction Theo had vanished, determined to hit him from behind with a paralysis hex and then make sure he sees her when she kills him. The dead guy's wand feels foreign in her grip, but a wand is a wand, and she's a great witch.
She spots her quarry soon enough - she hadn't given him much time to get away after all - but he's fighting someone else now, and that Willow girl is nearby covering his back.
Good, she can get both of them and get on with her life. She smiles - she loves when things just fall perfectly into place.
She raises the stolen wand and gives it a firm flick - and nothing happens. She frowns and tries again, and this time she swear she can feel the wand pushing back against her.
"Hey, your old owner is dead, you're with me now." She hisses at it. "Now freeze him." She again makes the movement, and again nothing happens. She swears the wand is mocking her.
"Fine, I'll say it." She grumbles. "Stupid finicky disaster wand, not nearly as nice as mine." She complains, lifting the wand again. "Petrificus Totalus."
This time something happens - but it once again isn't what she wanted, what is with this broken worthless wand?
There is a fire burning up the tapestries now though, so that's something. Not what she wanted, but better than nothing. It's just too bad the spell had gone terribly wide and the fire is nowhere close to Theo and Willow, who are now moving away from her again.
Zara gives chase, slowed by her own fire and the wand's refusal to put it out, and she swears aloud when she loses sight of them again. This day went from amazing to horrible far too quickly and she wants to move it back towards amazing now.
No such luck - when she turns the corner she finds herself face-to-face with a group of teenagers who don't look old enough to be fighting but are brandishing wands nonetheless. Should be easy enough to take care of.
But once again the wand doesn't react at all to her silent command, which gives the little bastards a chance to shoot their own spells off. Zara dives out of the way, swearing the whole way over, and finally manages to get a simple blasting hex off. The wall it ricochets off of bursts apart and the girl in the group shouts when part of the rubble slices through her leg.
Good. That will keep them busy and Zara can go back to finding-
"Petrificus Totalus."
She can't move. Her arms snap to her side and she falls gracelessly onto the rocky, cracked floor, staring up at the equally cracked ceiling above them. She'd swear but it's a complete bind, stopping her vocal chords a well as her limbs.
"There, now she won't hurt anyone else." A female voice - must be the one she injured. "Oh for goodness sake, I'm fine Nate, quit fussing. Let's go set some more Deatheaters on fire."
Zara can only lie there uselessly as she listens to them walk away, listens to the rest of the battle raging around her, though it's nothing compared to the raging storm in her own mind.
She only has a moment to notice it over the noise in her own head, but the cracks in the ceiling are getting larger.
Then the whole thing collapses and she doesn't notice anything anymore.
Author's Note: Welp. That's the end of that then. And yeah, just in case you didn't hate Zara enough, she killed Tonks.
Next Time: Keep your family close
So I'm thinking I might do a final 'afterwords' chapter to share my thoughts and feelings on writing this story, if that's something people would be interested in? I'm also open to answering any lingering questions people might have there as well!
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