A Change of Plans

Chapter Fifteen

Annie was hopelessly confused.

The night was dark (how weird it was to see that dark, be in that dark; only moments ago she'd been across the world, where it was light!). The moon was not full, but still it was there, dimly brightening the sky, speckled with tiny stars. So tiny; Annie felt small herself, staring at that sky.

"I hope you have a good explanation for this," Annie hissed at Patsy, as the two of them headed off into the night, toward the school. Annie's wand was in her pocket; the gun was loaded, in her hands. Patsy held her wand outstretched, ready.

"I can't say I do," Patsy whispered back. The girl, Annie's lively best friend, was ashen-faced and near trembling. "I heard a rumor and I'm acting on my gut."

"What rumor was that?" Annie demanded.

Patsy stopped. A tear fell, much too slow, down her cheek.

"They're going to wipe my memory."

"What?!"

"That's what the healer said. Dumbledore cut her off before I could get details. It's the law. That's why they were keeping me in Mungo's. To destroy my memories."

"You sure?"

"Of course I'm not," Patsy snapped. "But let's forget about that. Let's concentrate on getting through this thing alive."

Annie cracked a grin.

"Alive is good."

Patsy smiled faintly.

"That it is. Let's kill some slime."

Annie let out a whoop, loud and high, quickly silenced herself and started giggling madly. Patsy joined her. They laughed so hard they could hardly stand, and Annie had the strange feeling they were both slowly going insane.

Hey, that's not a bad thing, she thought, grinning. Insanity is good. As long as it hurts Death Eaters, insanity is good.

<><><><><><>

There were actually Death Eaters posted around the school.

"This is crazy." Annie was grinning. Patsy was too. It felt great to smile. "Why hasn't anyone seen these gits?"

The two of them were just strolling up to the school. So far no one had bothered them, even though they were in plain view of everything and everyone. Patsy didn't even have the mind to find this odd. She was too charged up with the happiness of actually doing something.

Her walk was nearly a skip. She strolled up the driveway to the school, bounding all the way. Everything would work out after all. She was here, at the home of the men who had killed her parents. She'd destroy a few of them, kill Voldemort, happily tie the rest up after their hopeless surrender, and sail off into the damn sunset thank you very much. The wizarding world would be so much in her debt that they wouldn't be able to wipe her memory. Her parents would be avenged, Sirius would be safe. She added Eugene, alive and well in some cell ready for rescue, just to accessorize her fantasy. Her grin was so wide, she was amazed it wasn't blinding the Death Eater guards. Everything would end happy ever after.

Patsy liked the sound of that.

"Happy ever after," she said aloud, just to feel it rest on her tough and to hear it reverberate in the air.

Annie stopped walking and looked over at her.

"What?"

"Happy ever after," Patsy repeated. "That's how we're going to live when this thing is over. Happy ever after."

The two of them stepped forward together, and hit the first magical barrier.

<><><><><><>

The fog clouded Annie's mind. It was thick, consuming. It's voice was heavy and red, like sharp bricks.

Turn back...it hissed in a voice that seemed loud enough to blow her eardrum. Turn back...you've forgotten it....you've forgotten it...

"Forgotten what?" Annie cried to the fog, half believing it. "What have I forgotten?"

You've forgotten it....turn back and retrieve it...

"Tell me!"

Turn back...turn back...

Out of the gloom came Patsy's voice.

"No! No no no no, you're not getting me! Stay away!"

Suddenly it clicked in Annie's mind.

"No!" she screamed. "No, I'm not a muggle, no barrier is getting me!"

She groped into the darkness, the swirling black fog, with both hands, grabbing for Patsy's. She found it, and heaved.

The fog disappeared. The voice was gone. The night was still.

"What--what happened?" Patsy gasped. Annie turned, and saw that her friend was wide-eyed and on the verge of collapse. Annie held out a hand to steady her.

"Muggle-repellent charm thing, I'm guessing. Remember, fourth book? World cup?"

Dawning comprehension.

"Page 95-96, American edition," Patsy cried. "'Every time muggles have gotten anywhere near here all year, they've suddenly remembered urgent appointments and had to dash away...'...Wow."

"Yeah. Can you stand?"

"Yeah," Patsy echoed. "I think I'm fine now."

"Not for long," came a leering voice from behind them.

Both girls whirled around. Annie held tight to her gun.

Many Death Eaters were now surrounding them--Annie didn't take the time to count--dressed in black, masked and pointing their wands threateningly. Patsy burst into giggles. Annie began to join her; it was all so surreal, like a dream. Death Eaters are pointing their wands at me, Annie thought. What will they think of next?

"Lucius Malfoy!" Patsy cried, still laughing. "It's an honor to meet you at last."

"Are you sure you've pronounced his name correctly, Patsy?" Annie asked, joining into the game that had thrown off so many of her mother's dates. "Mr. Jim Darling calls him Lucius, but Chris Columbus calls him Loo-see-us. Who's right?"

"We'll ask him, of course. Mr. Malfoy, is your first name Lucius or Loo-see-us?"

"And tell us," Annie continued. "how's your beautiful wife, Narcissa?"

"You're son? Or does he even exist in this reality? Does Draco exist?"

Lucius--all the Death Eaters--were staring, confused and transfixed. Annie decided to take a big chance.

"How's your rampant love affair with deal old Voldie going?"

<><><><><><>

Patsy had to work extra hard to keep from laughing. If she laughed now, Lucius would have time to catch up with what they were actually saying, and then they'd be dead for sure.

"Voldie? I thought he was having an affair with Mr. Wormtail there, for sure."

"Oh, but remember Patsy," Annie grinned. "Wormtail is not evil in this world. I think that you are thinking of Mr. Nott there, father of Theodore, I think it is, who was Mr. Malfoy's lover before the Dark Lord came into the picture that is his love life. Or was he having an affair with both of them at the same time?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Patsy noticed the Death Eaters becoming restless, beginning to catch on with what was being said. She began to slowly, ever so slowly, lift her wand. Annie, she saw, was beginning to do the same with her hunting rifle thing.

"I suppose," Patsy continued the rant. "that we shouldn't tell Rodulphus Lestrange just what naughty things dear Lucius has been doing with his wife, I mean--"

"You bastard!"

Patsy's wand came right up, expecting to be attacked, but no one touched her; she had incensed rage in Rodulphus Lestrange, and the man was leaping at Lucius.

"Avada Kedavra!" cried Lucius, and Rodulphus slumped dead, falling onto the ground.

"Yes," Patsy heard Annie whisper to herself.

"Lucius!"

"You killed him!"

"One of our own!"

"Were you with Bella?!"

"Die!"

It turned quickly into a free-for-all. Death Eaters were jumping on each other, cursing each other, killing each other. Patsy and Annie were safely off to one side, laughing, hysterically happy.

"Don't forget when Zabini cheated with Goyle!" Annie cried into the fray, and fresh yelling was heard.

"C'mon," Patsy hissed, pulling Annie along toward the school. A spell nearly hit her as a Death Eater dodged away. "Let's go."

"Patsy--omigod--that worked perfectly! How'd you know?!"

Patsy laughed, flattered.

"You're giving me the credit for this? Well, I'd take it, but it was you who began the thing about Lucius having the affair with Voldie-poo."

Patsy opened the door to the school, and she and Annie slipped inside.

<><><><><><>

"This is way too easy," Patsy muttered. "The door wasn't locked. No spells that are bringing Death Eaters to us. Nothing. Way too easy."

"Count your blessings, not your curses," Annie returned. "Let's find Sirius."

The school was dark, much darker than Annie had ever seen it. The heavy doors blocked out al sound of the mess that was going on outside, and the doors had no windows. Of course, she was not scared--she was not scared--but even a reasonably unfrightened person was able to get the slightest amount of shivers when shadows formed in dark corners and drafty winds blew from the crack in the door behind them.

Annie was still, of course, not scared at all. She only shivered, not trembled, it was cold, she had a right--

A loud BANG! echoed in the hallway, and Annie's scream was stifled by a hand around her mouth and an arm pulling her into an empty classroom.

"Will you calm down?" Patsy hissed in her ear. "You're shaking like a bloody leaf. You're going to bring them down on us."

She let Annie go, and then opened the door to the classroom a slight crack for hearing, crouching down below the window into the classroom. Annie sat behind her, far enough to hear the voices but not so far that she'd still be seen out the window.

"Where are those idiots?" one voice growled. "Someone's entered the building without identification, they should be here with wands pointed down their necks!"

"I think there are two of them," Patsy muttered, so soft that Annie almost missed what she was saying. "There are two pairs of feet walking."

Annie nodded to show she understood. She didn't want to risk speaking too loudly.

"Maybe the intruder was one of those bastards, having forgotten the spell," suggested another voice.

Yes, thought Annie, think that. That's a good thing to think.

"Conceivable," spat the first. "But let's check outside first, see if they can tell us."

"The bastards probably didn't even notice," muttered the other, but then the door must've been opened, because everything was drowned out by the sound of the fight out of doors.

"Shit," Patsy muttered. She began to back up, but ran into Annie and tripped over her. She landed on Annie's chest, knocking all the wind out of the girl.

"Patsy!" Annie cried, too loud. Both hers and Patsy's heads snapped immediately in the direction of the hallway, but the noise from the battle was still too loud.

<><><><><><>

"Damnit, Annie," Patsy muttered, soft enough this time. "We can hope those two are just going to end up joining the fight outside, but just in case--"

She gestured to the door on the other side of the room, one that seemed to connect to another classroom. It had no window.

"What if the room's not empty?" Annie asked, softer now.

"Then we'll be in trouble. But what's the choice?"

Patsy advanced on the door, wand raised. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Annie had her gun ready.

"Ready?"

"Set," nodded Annie.

Patsy grinned.

"Go!"

They, together, raced to the door, found it locked.

"Still want to try it?" Annie hissed.

"Oh yeah. Alohomora!"

The door swung open and the two ran into it, closing it softly behind, ready for the next danger.

The danger was two people.

Two very much alive people.

"Mom," Annie whispered, not because she remembered that she needed to stay quiet, but because she had suddenly seemed to have lost all breath. "Sirius."

And another person. Another person, if Patsy could call it a person. Her voice, when she spoke, was not full of hope, pain, or shock; it was full of hatred.

"Voldemort. How nice to finally meet you at last."