Birds of a Feather
Chapter 11: The Hands of Doom
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
As Fawkes flew back to the barn he saw Severus drop to the ground just ahead of a green flash. His wizard was trying to help! That was so sweet of him! But Baboon-Face and his lackeys might hurt his wizard. He'd better get to work.
Fawkes wheeled and dove through the front door. "The phoenix!" Jones shouted, forgetting about the attacking pixies. "Stun him! Stupefy!"
Fawkes rolled and dodged the spell easily. Baboon-Face had been his intended target, but this idiot was asking for it. Fawkes grabbed Jones by his wand-arm, and the man cried in pain as the claws sank in and he was ripped from the ground.
"Stupefy!" Susie yelled as Fawkes sped out the back door carrying her husband, but her spell missed. She started to run after them but a pair of pixies tripped her with a length of wire they'd found, and she fell flat on her face on the floor.
~~~~~
Severus was pleased. He'd accomplished his objective and freed the phoenix. Now it was time to get out of there. He started to get up off the ground, but a series of spells and curses flashed out through the wrecked window and he dropped back down. It was not a good time to get up. Then he saw Fawkes fly back into the barn. He groaned. What was that stupid bird thinking, anyway? Didn't he know when to quit?
Cursing and swearing to himself, Severus crawled out from under the window and crept around the corner of the barn. Maybe if he could get to the back door, he could stun Dolohov and Rowle before they realized he was there. Then he'd have to hunt down Yaxley. Where was that dunderhead, anyway?
~~~~~
Yaxley reached the front of the barn just in time to see Snape disappearing around the corner. "That won't help you," he sang softly, "I'm gonna get ya!" He dashed past the front door, ducked under the shattered window, and looked around the corner. Sure enough, there was Snape with his back turned, sneaking along the edge of the barn. It was almost too good to be true. He could nail the guy with his own curse! "Sectumsempra!" he cried.
Unfortunately for Yaxley, that was the moment when Dolohov happened to come around the opposite corner of the barn. Severus spotted Dolohov, and as he dropped into a crouch and started to raise his wand, Yaxley's curse passed over his head and sliced into Dolohov's arm. Dolohov cursed obscenely, grabbed his wound, and vanished back behind the barn.
"Oops!" said Yaxley. Now he was in for it. Dolohov would kill him for sure.
Severus whirled around to cast at Yaxley, but the Death Eater had dashed back around to the front of the barn where, to his surprise, he came face to face with Captain Clark and the bunch from the boat. Before he could raise his wand, Clark clobbered him with a broom.
~~~~~
Dolohov ran back into the barn. His arm was bleeding and it felt like it was on fire. He'd kill that lazy lummox Yaxley, just as soon as he was finished with Snape! But first he had to tend to his arm. Where was Rowle? He turned to look for the man, when suddenly a pixie poked him in the eye with a stick.
Dolohov jerked sideways and convulsed in pain. Clutching his eye, he staggered into the shelves beside the back door. They wobbled precariously and the jar of hands hit the floor and shattered. Dolohov slipped in the liquid and fell.
~~~~~
Fawkes flew up over the barn carrying Jones, who was swearing and kicking frantically. He gripped the dealer's arm tightly so the man couldn't use his wand. He had to get back into the barn. It was Baboon-Face that he really wanted. Baboon-Face was the mastermind, and he had to be stopped. But first Fawkes had to get rid of his struggling burden. What should he do with the idiot? Maybe he should just drop him. Then he spotted his friends from the boat fighting with someone in front of the barn.
~~~~~
The severed hands had scattered across the floor when the jar shattered. They began to twitch, and then one by one they rose up on all five fingers, as if they were about to play the piano. They moved slowly at first, walking on their fingertips, and soon they were hopping and scuttling around like pink and brown spiders. One scooted over to Dolohov who was lying on the floor, holding his bleeding arm and trying to wipe his eye. It extended its index finger to touch his leg. Dolohov didn't notice. Then the hand took hold of his pant leg and started to climb.
~~~~~
Yaxley had put up quite a fight, but Clark and the gang managed to subdue him and stun him with his own wand. Clark was putting the finishing touches on an Incarcerous spell when Susie came running out the front door with the pixies and the dragonfly in hot pursuit.
"Get her wand!" Clark yelled. Biscuit promptly tackled her, but she kicked him in the head and would have gotten loose if Stan and Jack hadn't piled on, too. She threw Jack off and gave Stan a nasty head-butt. Kat pounced, but she rolled out of the way and sprang to her feet, ready to duel with Clark. If there had been a Wizard Wrestling Federation she would have been a star.
Fawkes, meanwhile, had found an excellent way to get rid of Jones. He swooped down and dumped the dealer on top of Susie.
~~~~~
Rowle stuck his head out the shattered window to look for Snape. The half-blood was nowhere to be seen. Then his alcohol-fogged brain realized that there was some sort of ruckus going on out there. It was all those jerks from the boat, fighting with Jones and his wife. Well, he'd put a stop to that. And so what if he hit Jones and the woman, too? Then they could rob the place and be on their way. Why bother to sell anything when they could just take the money?
~~~~~
Severus stepped through the back door of the barn with a sneer on his face and Stan's wand in his hand. Even without his billowing black robes he was a fearsome sight, not that anybody noticed. Dolohov was lying on the floor moaning, and Rowle was leaning out the window.
Seeing that Dolohov was out of action for the moment, Severus hit Rowle squarely in the arse with a stinging hex, followed immediately by a full-body bind. Rowle jumped and yelped, and then he stiffened and fell out the window like a lead brick.
Good, Severus thought. That's one down. Now for Dolohov …
~~~~~
Dolohov felt something moving on his chest, and something else on his leg. At first he thought it was his imagination, but then he looked down. His vision was blurry, but there were … hands! … severed hands, crawling on his body! He screamed and scrambled to his feet, thrashing at the hands, but they hung on and continued to climb.
"Help me!" he screamed. "Get 'em off me!"
One of them reached his throat and started to squeeze.
Next time, "A Show of Hands."