"Do it," Alan said, his focus sharpening as he seized control of the door flying inward. With a precise flick of his wand, he reversed its momentum, sending it hurtling back horizontally. The Death Eater outside was just beginning to let out a triumphant laugh when he saw the massive slab of wood screaming back toward him. Caught off guard, he could only fire a desperate, frantic barrage of spells to shatter the obstacle.
The moment the two Death Eaters at the threshold blew the door to splinters, they were met by a volley of spells launched by Lily, Alice, and Augusta from the cover of the barricade. One Death Eater was struck squarely by two overlapping hexes and was blasted backward, crashing into the stone corridor. The second reacted with a seeker's reflexes, sidestepping into the shadows of the doorway just as a jet of red light whistled past his ear.
Almost immediately, another masked figure surged forward to fill the gap, unleashing a flurry of curses into the room. Lily's Protego held firm, the shield absorbing the impacts with a dull hum, while Alice and Augusta maintained a punishing counter-fire.
The exchange was frantic. The two Death Eaters at the door were forced onto the defensive, their boots skidding as the pressure of the combined spells pushed them back. The few dark curses they managed to cast were effortlessly swept aside by Lily's steady defense.
The stalemate broke when a fourth figure appeared behind the attackers, casting a powerful, wide-range Shield Charm that neutralized the incoming fire. Under this collective protection, the three Death Eaters rushed the room together.
Alan, however, had been waiting for exactly this moment. While providing support with concussive Shield Charms, he had been silently preparing a far more subtle trap.
As the two lead attackers stepped across the threshold, the stone floor beneath them gave way with a sickening crack. They sank instantly, their legs trapped up to their thighs in the suddenly hollowed earth.
It was the Extraction Charm. Alan knew the situation would escalate when the third Death Eater arrived, so he had begun targeting the soil beneath the flagstones in advance. While the surface looked intact, Alan had effectively turned the entrance into a pitfall.
"Now!" he shouted.
The women behind the barricade didn't hesitate. They focused their firepower on the two trapped wizards, who were struggling to regain their balance. The third Death Eater tried to shield them, but the sheer volume of magic buckled his Protego. Within seconds, the two trapped in the ground were slumped forward, unconscious.
The remaining Death Eater, seeing his comrades fall, snarled. He pulled a vial from his robes and, while maintaining a one-handed shield, drained the potion in a single gulp. His eyes turned a feral, bloodshot red, and he let out a guttural roar.
His magic surged. The spells he threw were suddenly twice as fast and far more destructive, instantly forcing the women back behind their cover. He became a whirlwind of violence, even casting two Killing Curses in rapid succession. Lily reacted brilliantly, levitating heavy furniture into the path of the green light. The wood was reduced to splinters, but the sacrifice held. The frenzied wizard pressed his advantage, his casting speed reaching a level that forced Lily, Alice, and Augusta into a desperate, passive defense.
But just as he prepared to vault over the barrier, his movements seized. His roar died in his throat. He clutched at his neck with one hand, his wand arm trembling as his spells sputtered and failed. Within seconds, he was clawing at the air, unable to draw a single breath or utter a word.
"Quickly, hit him!" Alan strained to maintain his focus, his face pale with effort.
The women seized the opening, combined their spells, and sent the suffocating wizard crashing to the floor. Silence finally fell over the cellar.
Alan lowered his wand, his breathing heavy. He had applied the Extraction Charm again, but this time, he had targeted the air itself. Through his experiments at Hagrid's, he knew that while he couldn't cast directly on a resisting living being, he could manipulate the environment around them. He had extracted the air from the space immediately surrounding the Death Eater's head, creating a localized vacuum.
The advantage was terrifyingly clear: while a curse has a visible trajectory that can be blocked, the Extraction Charm is an instantaneous manipulation of space. The drawback, however, was the immense mental tax; he had to maintain a constant, high-pressure pull to prevent the surrounding atmosphere from rushing back in. He had been so focused on the vacuum that he only had a split second to alert the others before he hit his limit.
Lily and the others leaned against the barricade, hearts racing. The high-intensity exchange had left them drained. Before they could even speak, a new shadow flickered at the doorway. Instinctively, they raised their wands, firing a reflex volley.
"Don't attack! It's me!" a gravelly voice roared. A shimmering shield flared to life, absorbing the spells.
As the dust settled, they recognized the scarred face and spinning magical eye of Mad-Eye Moody.
"Thank goodness," Augusta exhaled, her wand hand finally dropping. "You're late, Alastor."
"Good heavens," Moody muttered, stepping into the room and surveying the wreckage. His eye spun toward the two wizards still half-buried in the floor. "What happened here? You took these four down yourselves?"
"Hmph. What else? Do they look like they tripped?" Augusta's sharp tone returned now that the adrenaline was fading. "What took you so long? How did they manage to reach the cellar?"
Moody began to explain the chaos outside. He, along with several Aurors and Order members, had been patrolling the area when they were ambushed by a secondary group of Death Eaters. It had taken them precious minutes to break through the perimeter and reach the house.