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What's In a Name?

A/N: This ficlet was written for the Flourish and Blotts Livejournal community. The challenge was to create your own spells and use them in short story context. The first spell I made is "Ferio" from the Latin "to strike." I actually kind of cheated, seeing as how I invented it for ‘the Hunt' way back in May…but oh well. I admitted on lj too ;)

Hearing the uneven footsteps approaching, Wilkes drew his wand and ran.
Heedless of the blizzard raging outside, he whipped open the back door and dashed into the garden. Frantically running through snow and icy wind, he reached the forest at the edge of his property and crashed into the underbrush. All he had to do was find a place where he could be alone just long enough to concentrate. He would Apparate away from here and move on to his next hiding place. "Shouldn't be too hard," he muttered to himself.

He passed a familiar copse of trees as his feet lead him down the trail to the cave where he and Evan had disposed of the blood traitor, Dearborn. He wasn't halfway there when they caught up to him. It was that fool witch, Heloise, and two others he didn't recognize.

She called out to him but he couldn't hear her over the din of the blizzard. They were wasted words anyway, whatever they were.

Pointing his wand at her, he screamed, "Avada Kedavra!"

The green bolt went flying towards her, unerring, fast, and deadly. The Auror to Heloise's left leapt in front of her catching Wilkes' spell full in the chest. He fell in a heap on the snowy ground, dead.

The other unknown Auror launched a hex at him. Wilkes blocked it with ease and responded with five of his own, one after the other in rapid-fire succession.

The man managed to block three of them, but went down with Stunners to the head and chest.

Heloise was running towards him now, firing jinxes as she came. These were faster and performed with a great deal more skill than her companion, Wilkes noted.

He ran at her as well, blocking her jinxes and casting the Cruciatus in response.

She performed the Counter Curse as though it was second nature to her and cast the Impediment Curse at him.

Wilkes ducked and the hex whizzed by him. "You're good, I'll give you that!" he shouted over the storm.

Her response came in the form of a Disarming Spell. He moved to block, but wasn't fast enough and his wand flew from his hand. He stepped in, lightning fast, punching Heloise twice in the face before sinking an upset punch into her gut. She doubled over in pain. Wilkes ripped the wand from her weakened grasp and hit her again, knocking her to the snow. "Now it ends, Auror," he hissed.

He raised the wand to cast the Killing Curse, but stopped and threw himself to the ground when he saw movement off to his left. Four more Aurors were running his way. Wilkes cursed and ran back the way he'd come, taking the fork in the trail that would take him to the cliff's edge. "Not a bad place to make a last stand," he said as he rounded the final bend. His heart froze in his chest when he saw who was already there.

Alastor Moody shook his head, scarred visage fixed in a half-smile. "Slow and steady, Wilkes."

"You!" Wilkes shouted.

"Me," said Moody. "Shall we dance?"

Wilkes roared and charged forward, sending the Impediment and Cruciatus Curses Moody's way.

The Auror brought his wand up, blocked the incoming hexes with a flick of his wrist and sent three more back towards Wilkes. Wilkes dodged and rolled, coming up not two feet away from the edge of the cliff. He brought his wand up to cast again but Moody was faster.

The scarred Auror point his wand at Wilkes and shouted, "Ferio!"

A yellow bolt shot from the wand and caught Wilkes in the side.

He fell backwards as he heard his ribs crack; it felt like he had taken a blow from a  Beater's bat wielded by Goyle. He squeezed his eyes shut in pain and stepped further backwards. His feet found nothing but empty air. Crying out, he flailed and reached for a handhold.  Finding none, he toppled over. There was a brief rush of wind, then a loud crack before the darkness took him.