Chapter 8: Fight Against The Dark

'How is this possible?!', Annie was screaming mentally.

She did not know how, but she could see the men from the inside. She could see the darkness in their souls, the destruction they had made and still attempted to do.

Her hands were shaking.

However, Newt didn't dare to look at her. He was looking at the ground. Surprisingly he didn't seem anxious now. More like determined to get both of them out of here.

"Hide behind me", he whispered.

But his attempt to try to hide what he said did not work very well. The place they were standing in had almost no people walking around, so anybody saying something quietly spread out into the space.

Even though she was a bit upset at him for letting them walk to Knockturn Alley without thinking about the consequences.

'No. You can be upset at him all you want later.', Annie thought. She did not have the luxury of being upset right now. She had to help Newt in getting out of there.

In one piece, preferably.

"Look who we have here. One of Dumbledore's pets.", the man standing in the middle said. Probably the one who was leading the group.

He smiled wickedly and spat on the ground. His friends had that same smile.

They were all wearing trousers and shirts. No jackets, no suitcases. Like they were always on the run.

"What do you want?", Newt asked, trying to control his anger from what the leader of the group said and did.

"What do WE want?", The leader laughed and his fellows laughed with him.

"We only need you to give us what you have with you, Newt Scamander. I think you already know that by now. That girl", He pointed at Annie and continued, "is special, our orders are to bring her to Him. She is extremely important and useful for the cause."

Newt tightened his hand around his wand and said, "Well, you're not getting her. Not today, not ever. You want to make another good person fall for your lies like my sister-in-law did when you lured her in. But I think everybody here can see how that turned out."

Annie swore this was the most words she had heard Newt speak at once. He was talking about Queenie.

"I knew you weren't going to agree on the first try. You people are either extremely courageous or extremely dumb. Maybe both."

"I think you're right.", Newt said provokingly, turned around in a split second, and exclaimed, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Slowly, Annie's body started floating around.

 "AAAHHH!", she let out a real scream this time with her hair floating in the air.

Where was Newt taking her?

She wanted to cry, but that wouldn't make things better than what they already were. It would worsen it, probably.

Down on the ground, she could see Newt swaying his wand almost with the speed of light and the others fighting back, black lights from their wands and red from Newt's.

She could feel the soul corruption in the magic, that's why the lights were black.

'Is this a power, like determining what a wizard's magic is made of?' 

She could also see Newt's. It was like a light, kindness supporting it. And he was fighting dark wizards…

Suddenly, she was swung away and she felt something hitting her head and she blacked out.

Sometime later,

Annie opened her eyes. She was lying on the floor of a big room. There were countless barrels on the floor, next to the walls, on top of one another, The smell of wine was in the air.

'Great. As if I hadn't gotten enough trouble in the past hour or however much time had passed while I was unconscious.' she thought while massaging her legs.

 Looking around she realized that she was lying in a winery,

"Why the hell did Newt send me here? I hate alcohol."

CREAK

Someone was coming into the room. Without standing up, she tried moving herself on her hands as much as possible to hide behind one of the barrels. At least they could be useful on this occasion. However, her body pained, and her muscles felt outstretched. She couldn't move her legs. She hoped nobody found her, because…

"Do you THINK we don't know where you are, Miss Cresta? You're in grave danger! Hehehehe!", Said a low male voice somewhere in the room.

Annie wasn't sure whether they were the same people who met them on Knockturn Alley. If they were the ones, then Newt…

"Accio!", shouted that same voice.

In a split second, Annie saw a white magical rope tying around her waist and starting to pull her to the wizard.

Suddenly, something inside her soul arose.

"RESIST!", it whispered to her.

Annie let it control her and attacked. The rope started ripping off but it was not off completely. It needed a push. She pushed her power into the spell, the rope becoming even more loose around her.

"Come one. One more. Just one more."

 She gave that power, whatever it was, one more push. She had no idea what was going on with her.

She felt crazy.

CRACK

A loud sound came from the other side of the room. A wand had fallen on the floor, divided by two, as if... that thing, that power, whatever it was, broke it.

She had broken a wand. She had broken a wand without even having one in possession.

"YOU FUCKING IMBECILE! You cannot even make a basic charm?! How useless can you be?!", the leader of the group said angrily.

"B-But I-I-", The guy tried to come up with a reply while being absolutely dumbfounded how his wand broke apart.

"Get out of my way!" The leader shoved the guy aside and said, "I will do it myself!"

With his wand at the ready, the leader slowly walked forward while shouting, "Now, now, Miss Cresta, why don't you show yourself? It's going to be easier for you if you surrender now."

Impressed by her own powers, Annie still sat behind one of the barrels from where she could see the two men. Right now she just wanted to get out of here.

'You only wish, you pig! Come and try me.', she thought with a mischievous grin on her face.

After one silent minute, the leader smiled and said, "Okay, then. Let the fun begin."

"ACCI-"

Annie had concentrated on his wand while he was pronouncing the spell and channeled that power lying deep down to attack. This time it happened from the first try, but not only did the spell not get to her, but the wand... The wand ricocheted in the man's face and struck his face.

Blood poured out of his nose, he fell unconscious on the ground. 

Looking at the unconscious leader on the ground, Annie smiled and thought, 'I don't know how the fuck this happened, but maybe for the first time ever I'm proud of myself. Right now, l don't depend on anybody else. Not Dumbledore, not Newt, not Kowalski, not Queenie, not Tina. It's me, Annie.'

She set her eyes on the other grunt and thought, 'I have to finish this up and find Newt quickly. I have to make sure he is okay.' 

Although... her legs were definitely going to be a problem. They still refused to move. She had to defeat the last wizard while sitting, but how?

Suddenly, a wand flew towards her. The wand of the leader. She watched it fly across the room toward her hiding spot and settle in her palm.

And, before she could understand what happened, a voice in her head said, "Hello!"