InsaneJournal

Cal and Parvati vs Mulciber.

Cal ran. He was looking around frantically, his mind focusing on only one thing: finding Parvati. He knew she’d be there, and he had to convince her to head wherever the others had gone. Yes, he knew she wanted to fight, and he understood her reasons as he felt them too - but he wanted her safe.

He kept on running, dodging duellers and misfired hexes that crossed his path, until he saw a familiar figure in the distance. He felt the urge to shout her name, but knew that, under the circumstances, it could be dangerous for either of them to draw attention like that. And besides, it might have been Padma. At this distance, he couldn’t really tell. So he sprinted in her direction, hoping that he had finally found her.

It was pure chaos. Not the sort of chaos that came with frizzy, unmanageable hair and a bunch of broken fingernails. This was the sort of chaos that Parvati hated with a seething, burning passion. She knew that, despite getting better throughout her career as a member of Dumbledore’s Army and all the practice it gave her, she would never be as good a dueller as Death Eaters or the Hogwarts professors or even as some of her fellow students who simply had a knack for it. But there she was, stationed in the middle of a war. It was here. It wasn’t outside the country, outside the castle walls, outside in a world that seemed so far away... it was here.

Parvati had left the confines of the Room of Requirement so quickly that she hadn’t allowed herself much time to come up with a plan. Her wand was so tightly held between her fingers that her knuckles ached and already her feet felt somewhere near fifty pounds each. About ready to turn a corner, something made her feet come to a halt. Like an invisible hand pushed forward and stopped her dead in her tracks. She turned around curiously, wand raised, and let out a gasp before she could stop herself. With the weight of her feet suddenly gone, she put one foot in front of the other and ran as quickly as she possibly could to Cal, a tear streaming down her right cheek.

The moment Cal realized that this really was Parvati, a rush of adrenaline made his feet move even faster. He felt as if the world was about to end and reaching her was the last thing he’d ever do. He couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t let that happen. And then, the moment they finally reached for each other, the danger and urgency dissolved. He couldn’t tell how long he held her in his arms - possibly nothing more than a fraction of a second, though it felt like an eternity.

“I never thought I’d ever see you again,” he said, tears in his eyes, before releasing her. He then looked at her and reached for her hand, squeezing it tightly. “Come on, we must get going.”

The bag of emotions Parvati was currently trying to balance was bordering on dangerous. The relief that washed over her fear and determination made her knees wobble and her breath vanish from her lungs, giving her an almost deflating balloon-like feeling as she wrapped her arms tightly around Cal’s shoulders and shoved her face into the crook of his neck. How one moment could be that way, she had no idea, but it was the sort of moment that she was going to look back at years later and feel lingering pangs. Good pangs, she hoped.

“Oh Merlin oh Merlin oh Merlin,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t tell you, it happened so suddenly, like right at the last second and it was so scary and I just had to go and I couldn't tell you, I couldn’t...” An apology did not seem necessary at the present time, but Parvati decided Cal was long due an explanation. She squeezed his hand back as tightly as she could, sniffling. “Where should we go? I haven’t seen Padma. Or anyone, really.”

The battle had begun, and Phineas Mulciber was exactly where his Lord wanted him to be. He'd exchanged a few hexes here and there but hadn't really gotten a good duel in yet, and he was itching for a fight.

Or for a couple of Hogwarts kids who seemed more interested in each other than in what was going on around them.

He smirked at the ease of his target. He knew he could kill them there if he wanted, but why not have a little fun first? "Incendio!" he bellowed, aiming for the couple.

Cal was about to reply to Parvati’s anguished question, to tell her that they should find somewhere safe where they could discuss what to do next (because obviously they needed to find the others and make sure they were okay), when he heard someone shout a curse. Instinctively, he jumped to the side, pulling Parvati with him, and saw a jet of flames hit the spot where they had stood less than a second before.

He looked in the direction where he had heard the voice as he reached for his wand, and saw a Death Eater, smirking at them. He cursed mentally - so much for finding somewhere safe now.

Parvati was so transfixed that she barely noticed the sudden, abrupt appearance of the Death Eater, and Cal’s quick response left her dazed as she stumbled slightly but grabbed hold of his arm tighter to regain her equilibrium. Her head spun as she raised her eyes and looked at their new company. An urge to run battled with an urge to fight, but even if she had wanted to run she couldn’t get her feet to move. This was bad. This was bad. This was bad.

Nevertheless, she heard the voice of none other than Harry Potter whispering in her head, a simple, helpful response that spurred her into action. “Expelliarmus!” she shouted at the Death Eater.

"Protego," Mulciber muttered, protecting himself for a moment from the spells these two might try. Two against one would be more of a challenge if the two weren't teenagers, he was sure, but he certainly couldn't allow himself to be embarrassed. "Diffindo," he shot back immediately, aiming for the boy.

Again, Cal moved quickly - though not fast enough. The spell hit him in the arm, opening a large gash. “Argh!” he screamed, as he dropped his wand with the pain. Nevertheless, his instincts made him push Parvati behind him, hoping to shield her from future attacks.

“Stop it!” Parvati screamed from behind Cal, eyes suddenly fixated on the blood dripping from his arm. She didn’t know if she was screaming at Cal or if she was screaming at the Death Eater, but she was not going to use Cal as some sort of body shield. Knowing that his wand was on the floor, Parvati shoved herself out from behind him and raised her arm. “Impedimenta!”

The spell hit and Mulciber was stopped, for a moment. How pathetic. It wasn't a lasting condition but it left him vulnerable, if only for a bit. He hoped the girl would be too distracted by her bleeding boyfriend to retaliate again quickly.

Satisfied with her spell, Parvati quickly turned to Cal and began to dab at his arm to try and stop the bleeding. The red began to smear her skin, her shirt, her pants, but she kept pressure on the wound as tightly as she could. Her brain was racing a mile a minute, trying to take advantage of the fading time her spell had given them. Lost, Parvati looked at Cal’s face with silent questions in her eyes.

Thankful as he was for Parvati’s attention, Cal knew that this was not the time to worry about his wound. “Never mind me,” he urged, as his eyes switched between the Death Eater and his wand. “Keep an eye on him.”

Mulciber fought against the Impedimenta, relieved there wasn't more coming his way. The girl cared more about her boyfriend than fighting him off; that was good to know. The boy was more likely to keep his eye on the ball; this was also good to know. Hurting him seemed to take care of both of them. Finally, he overcame the spell and readied his wand, sending a nasty slicing hex their way.

A surge of panic ran through Cal as he realized what was happening. Once again, he pushed Parvati out of the way, and was hit straight in the stomach by the hex. This time, the pain was such that he didn’t even let out a scream. Instead, he just fell to the floor, blood gushing violently from his new wound.

If she hadn’t been covered enough in blood already, a new splattering hit Parvati straight in the face rather cruelly. The force of Cal’s shove had caused her to tumble quite unceremoniously to the floor, bouncing on her backside and biting her lip in the process. Such positioning gave her the worst view she had ever had to witness in her entire life; it was like a watery blur of red and and the brown of Cal’s hair. Horrified, she screamed and forced herself to her feet, leaning over Cal for only the faintest of seconds before turning back to the Death Eater and, before raising her wand, took notice to a giant piece of rubble on the floor. She quickly levitated it towards the Death Eater, forcefully trying to throw it into his head. The strength needed to be successful alluded her, and though she managed to aim it well, the force she put forward knocked her backwards, causing her to stumble to the ground next to Cal. Her wand flew out of her hand and bounced a few feet away, leaving her vulnerable yet again.

Though not powerful enough to knock him unconscious, the rubble was certainly enough to hurt. He touched his head and realized it was bleeding and cursed. It took him a moment to recover but when he did, he was angry. He followed Parvati's lead and sent a series of rubble toward the two. The boy looked ready to die as it was, and as long as he was distracting her, the girl would be no threat. Satisfied that they were incapacitated, Mulciber stalked off in search of new prey.

Still unable to properly focus now that she was on the ground, Parvati found herself prey to a well-planned retaliation. Though the piece of rubble was smaller than the one she had levitated at him, the Death Eater managed to hit her straight in the face. The larger one, she had no idea where it went. If it had hit Cal, if it had it the floor, if it had bypassed them altogether, nothing made sense. Dazed, Parvati laid in her back with her eyes closed for a long minute. The left one hurt, throbbed even, and the coppery taste of blood soaked her tongue. Mumbling, she searched for the floor with the palm of her hand and pushed herself up.

“Cal?”

Cal saw the rubble fall over them, but whether it had actually hit him anywhere he had no idea. If it had hit his face he would have been able to see it, but it was as if his body had lost all sensation. He did manage to smile at the sound of Parvati’s voice, however. She was alive, and that was all that mattered.

The smile remained in his face even as she approached him and he saw that she was covered in blood and her eyes were half-closed and puffy. He desperately wanted to grimace at this, to show how appalled he was, but it was as if even his lips were now starting to disobey his command. “Look at you,” he said, his voice very weak.

“Cal,” she said again, voice void of any and all emotion. She didn’t know which emotion to feel first. It was too much. Her dark eyes, though sore, moved over to him. The tears that started to form did nothing to help with the stinging. If anything, it made the pain worse. She watched him laying there. Barely moving. A motherly instinct came over her and she screamed on the inside until her body moved and she was in a kneeling position, hovering over him.

“Let me take care of this. I’ll. Um. I’ll do this. Yeah, this is what I’ll do. This is a good idea.” Parvati rambled rapidly to herself as she reached down and tore off a generous potion of the bottom of her shirt. Once free, she pushed the cloth against Cal’s stomach, though she was unable to tell where exactly the wound was -- there was too much blood. It took mere seconds for the cloth to turn red and soak with blood. She desperately pushed it more firmly against where she thought the wound was, but to no avail. His blood continued to leak out and drip to the floor. Shaking, a quiet cry left her mouth as her lips trembled and her hands, crazed, pushed the cloth harder.

“It’ll stop. I just n-need to apply m-m-more pressure.”

Cal was no longer sure of what was going on around him, but he knew that, whatever Parvati was trying to do, it was hopeless. He couldn’t move, he couldn’t even stop smiling. Whatever it was that the Death Eater had done to him, there was no going back. “Parvati...” he called.

“S-shut up, Cal, it’s helping,” she sobbed, knees suddenly sharking so much that her body fell down into a rather strange looking, yoga-like, position. “S-see? It’s, like. Not bleeding anymore.” But that was a lie. There was so much blood that Parvati was surprised she hadn’t fainted yet. “Does it hurt?”

He tried to shake his head, but couldn’t. “No,” he whispered. “Not any more.” The fact that nothing was hurting was the reason why he knew Parvati was lying. If there was the slightest chance everything would be all right, he’d be in excruciating pain, and feeling every single one of Parvati’s attempts to stop the bleeding. He had spent enough time with Julian and his parents to know that.

The thought made him suddenly worry: who was going to tell Julian, or the rest of his family? Worse still, who was going to tell his father? He had no idea wizards existed, let along that his own son was one - there was no way he’d understand if someone told him that his son had bled to death after being cursed by a Death Eater.

“Who is going to visit India with me?” Parvati’s voice was a whisper. It seemed like a ridiculous thing to say, but she was at that point where the truth, the blaring, obvious truth, was unavoidable. With it came the panic, the fear, the emotions. “Who is going to kiss me every morning at breakfast? Who is going to tell me that I’m beautiful and who is going to write me letters every week next school term and who is going to hold me under a waterfall and who-who-who is g-going to sing me a song and propose to me after finally earning my father’s permission?” Parvati’s cheeks were nothing but watery blood drops, her salty tears mixed with her warm blood mixed with dust and dirt. Her sobs were making it harder to breathe, to move, to function, but she quickly scooted herself into a laying position and rested half her body atop his, steering clear of his wound, and half on the floor. She moved her face to his and bumped his nose with her nose, before lifting a hand and cupping the side of his head.

“You can’t do t-t-this.”

“I don’t want to... you know.” His voice was fainter than before. It was getting harder to speak, and he was unable to tell which made him sadder - that she was so distraught, or that he couldn’t do anything to comfort her. “I love you.”

“Hey. Hey. M-maybe if we just wait a minute. Someone will come. Someone always comes in these situations. A Healer. A well-trained healer who can get you patched up in no time.” But even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true. She was grasping at thin air here. There was nothing for her to hold on to anymore. She moved her lips and dragged them up his cheek, ghosting them over and then down to his mouth so she could blow softly against his lips, as though trying to share her life with him. Then she kissed him gently.

“I love you so much. I-I don’t know what I am g-going to do. I want to come with you. Y-y--you can’t just. Leave. Me.” Her sobs where so heavy that she fell into him, almost childishly. Like a child who didn’t want to leave their mother on the first day of school.

“I won’t,” he said. “Not really.” He wanted her to look at him again. There was so much he needed to tell her, and he knew he had no time to say it all. “I want you to... be brave.. for me.” Please, he thought, look at me. “Can you do... that?”

“No.” She knew that he wanted her to, but how was she supposed to be? It was like asking for this entire thing to be one of those nightmares she had after watching a way too scary muggle horror film. “B-but-but I can try?” Lifting her head, which was so stuffed up that she wondered if it would ever loosen, she blinked rapidly and looked at his chin, then his lips, then his nose, then finally his eyes. “Thank you. For. Just.” Her voice faded.

She would try. That was all he asked. He knew she’d be brave - not the kind of bravery that would mean rushing back to battle, even if that was what he knew she’d be doing, but the kind that would mean she wouldn’t give up. He wanted to make sure she’d keep on living, instead of pleading to come with him. “No... thank... you...” he said, his mind replacing the battered and bloodied Parvati before him with the one he knew so well. He managed to smile again, and closed his eyes with a sigh.

She knew that she should return his smile and give him something nice to...go...with, but she just couldn’t. It was like she was just laying there watching the life leave his perfect body, his warm, caring, loving soul becoming nothing more than an empty shell of a boy who meant more to her than she ever would have known that afternoon they took their very first walk together. And the guilt, the guilt of merely being alive and the guilt of having not been there for his birthday, the last birthday he would ever have, was overpowering and sending her down into a spiral that she would never crawl out of. Cal was everything to her right now, and though she knew she had other friends and Padma to worry about, she simply could not care. Her eyes did not leave his face as his lips sighed, and then froze. The arm that had been over his body could no longer feel the steady rise and fall of his chest. She wanted him to wake up. Where was the punchline? Where was the rebuttal to this unfair twist of fate?

There was none. There was only her, so alone that she started to shiver as she cried into his neck and laced her fingers into his hand. “Cal,” she whimpered. “Cal.”

But there was no response. There would never be a response. Unable to muster the energy to do anything more, Parvati simply cradled her body into the silent, warm shape of the boy she loved so much and sobbed.



Susan and Ernie vs Alecto.

Alecto was itching for a fight. She had been ever since she was transplanted to this Merlin-forsaken place and forced to teach. She believed in everything the Dark Lord wanted and would do anything for Him but -- teaching? Really? Alecto Carrow was not and would never be a Teacher. And it wasn't like it was a good subject like Amycus got. It was Muggle Studies. She hated Muggles! What was the point of that? Still, it was what the Dark Lord wanted so it was what the Dark Lord got. When he decided to make tonight the night he finally struck, Alecto was more than happy. Her arm had been aching all day and she wanted nothing more than to start a fight. Unfortunately, she would have to wait, so again, wait she did.

She was being lazy right now, clutching her wand loosely and not really expecting anyone to attack her. After all, she was feared and intimidated throughout the school. No one would dare.

Susan stuck closely behind Ernie as they moved through the corridor. They had been separated from Hannah earlier, after they had aided Professor Sprout in several successful attacks using the plants that they had gathered from the Greenhouses, and Susan could only hope that their friend was safe. She’d gotten hit by a stray Slicing Hex earlier, and the skin of the minor wound on her leg tugged with every step she took, making her hiss softly under her breath. She was more grateful than ever to have Theodore’s wand, and she gripped it tightly in her hand, ignoring the looks that Ernie occasionally threw her way when he wasn’t being extensively cautious about being seen or heard. After their rather public scene in the Great Hall, she would have been more surprised if he hadn’t noticed anything, but she couldn’t bring herself to care, and this wasn’t the time and place to discuss it, regardless. She couldn’t allow herself to linger on any hurts and feelings.

“So what is this plan of yours?” she whispered urgently, feeling like they were just wandering around aimlessly. Whenever Ernie got something into his head there was no stopping him, but still, Susan wasn’t about to leave her cousin on his own. She felt safer just with the small comfort of him being there, realising that his paranoia would come in handy this time, at least.

Ernie had returned to the Great Hall post haste after escorting the younger years to the passage way out of the castle. When he’d gotten back, the professors had been dividing up the students between the various groups. He found himself with Susan and Hannah and Neville, helping bring in all sorts of plants. But when they’d been split up in the ensuing chaos, Ernie had deemed it prudent to find cover. Though he was a good duelist, Ernie had never truly faced anyone lacking a moral code. Keeping in mind that they would be prime targets for Death Eaters, he’d kept to the walls, trying not to drawn unnecessary attention to himself or Susan.

“To fight for as long as possible,” he replied. Death he could accept, but only so long as he was able to maximize his contributions to the effort. He couldn’t help but feel a bit self-important about the whole thing, rather convinced that Harry was depending on all of them to fight off as many invaders as possible so that he could find and dispose of Voldemort. He was going to elaborate on the destination he had in mind, but footsteps in the corridor around the corner caused him to halt in his tracks. He raised a hand up, signalling for Susan to follow his silence. “Stay behind me,” he mouthed before turning back to creep up toward the corner. Peering around it with his wand out in front of him, he immediately recognized Alecto Carrow. He ducked back out of sight, unsure of whether or not she’d noticed him.

“Carrow,” he whispered to Susan, eying the borrowed wand she was gripping tightly. Ernie trusted Susan, he didn’t really trust the wand of a known purist. He wished there had been time to find Susan’s own, but breaking into the Headmaster’s office now wasn’t high on their list of priorities. The one she had would have to do -- and he could only hope it would work well enough for her. Now wasn’t the time to contemplate wand lore though, a fight was on hand. Knowing his cousin would back him up, he stepped fully around the corner this time, pointing his wand in the direction he’d last seen Alecto, “Expelliarmus!”

Susan nodded, even knowing that Ernie wouldn’t be able to see her reaction. None of them had gone into this discounting the possibility of death, almost expecting it, rather. It wasn’t that she particularly wanted to die, but some things were more important than her own skin, and helping Harry to stop this all definitely counted. For once she didn’t even argue before following Ernie’s instructions, pressing herself almost flat against the wall behind him and holding her breath as he peered around the corner, ready to react at the slightest noise.

Carrow. It didn’t matter which one it was. A wave of anger coursed through her at all the pain that they had caused this year. If someone deserved to be stopped it was those two, and her knuckles turned almost white with the strength of her grip as Susan followed Ernie’s lead. “Incarcerous!” It felt good to use magic again, own wand or not, and her fingers tingled with the power of her spell.

Because Alecto had been lazy, it was really no surprise that she had fallen prey to Ernie's Disarming Spell. She hadn't seen him (or Susan, for that matter) and, of course, was not very pleasantly surprised, to say the least, when she realized her wand was lying on the ground a few feet away from her. Whirling around quickly, she found the dark corridor extremely unhelpful in spotting who had attacked her. Thankfully, the darkness did help her to luckily dodge Susan's Incarcerous spell, as she had just as quickly dove to the ground to find her wand. When she found it, she clutched it tighter, as if it would keep it by her side at all times, and sent out an "Incendio!" towards where she felt the spells had come from. Sooner or later, they'd have to show themselves.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Unsurprisingly, the way Alecto Carrow delivered that line was just... creepy.

Hearing Alecto’s wand drop and hit the ground, Ernie’s reservations were lost as he jumped out into the open corridor, wand out. Of course, he wasn’t prepared for her to duck into the darkness, picking it up with a speed he hadn’t foreseen. When the corridor was suddenly lit with a stream of fire hurling his way, he registered what was happening only seconds too late. His entire head exploded in pain as he felt the burning sear of fire scorch the right side of his face.

“Aguamenti! Aguamenti!” he yelled, the spell rolling off his tongue in a scream of pain. Even after the fire had subsided, Ernie’s flesh continued to blister up and the agony of it made him drop to his knees. Clutching his wand, he tried to will his thoughts back toward the fight at hand, knowing that the seconds he’d wasted in his painful haze could have killed him. He wasn’t sure where Alecto was, and the smokey haze and spotty vision he still had, made it difficult for Ernie to even find her. Pointing his wand at part of a caved in wall, he said “Confringo!” watching the bricks blast apart, hoping that his efforts would either separate them while he regathered his wits, or else provide enough of a distraction for Susan to advance on the Death Eater.

Apparently her line of attack had worked as Alecto saw the fire brightening up the hallway so that she could make out the vaguest image of the person she was battling. However, the only thing she could ascertain was that he was a student, or at least young-ish looking. She saw the fire attack Ernie, grinning as it did. She relished in his pain -- evidently, a little too much as she did not take steps to protect herself, even though she should've after the first disarmament. The bricks did blast apart, creating a wall of separation between her attackers and herself. Of course, it didn't help that some of the bricks hit her as well.

"OW!" Alecto screeched as one hit her square in the face. "You'll pay for that!" Pointing her wand right back at them, she cast an "Expulso!"

Susan was less quick in following Ernie, staying to the wall even as she turned. Her eyes went wide when fire suddenly lit up the corridor, watching it soar towards Ernie at an alarming speed. She lifted her wand, but it was too late, and Susan looked on in horror as blisters welled up on his face. She’d known before that the Carrows were cruel, had been subjected to their torture herself, but it wasn’t until now that she realised how completely sick Alecto Carrow really was.

“You bitch,” she hissed, cursing for what was probably the fifth time in all her years of living. Since chances were big that she was going to die here tonight, she figured it fell well under her allowance. Aiming her wand at the floor where Alecto was standing, she added, “Deprimo!” She had only a moment to check that Ernie was doing okay before another curse came hurling towards them, and Susan quickly threw up a shield around the two of them, hoping that it would be enough to hold off the brunt of the spell.

Only Alecto’s scream indicated to Ernie that any of the bricks had hit her. Unfortunately, it was obvious that it hadn’t been enough to knock her out when he heard her screaming out a spell not very long afterward. Fortunately, Susan had the forethought to put a shield up, and Ernie felt only a slight pressure pushing him back when the spell hit. Although his face was still screaming in agony, the pain of the injury was offset by pure determination as he struggled back to his feet, moving to stand in front of Susan so that she was not in direct line of sight of anything else Carrow threw their way.

“Diffindo!” he said, hoping to slice off her fingers since his previous attempt at disarming her had not been particularly effective in the end. He tried to choke down the part of him that wanted her to hurt, but he struggled with the pent up feelings from the entire year of watching her harm others, making him incapable of keeping a cool head.

"Protego!" Alecto cast, almost gleefully. She was coming alive at this sign of a full fledged battle, finally getting to streth out the wings that had so long been clipped in Hogwarts. She watched with a ear splitting grin as the two spells bounced off her shield. "Is that really the best you've got?" She taunted, walking closer to where the spells had been cast. "Who are you?" She was actually curious as to if she was fighting the blasted Order or the student group.

Susan was getting rather frustrated. She didn’t need her cousin to jump in front of her when he was the one who had been injured, and to see both of their spells jump off Alecto’s shield as easily as flies against a swatter didn’t help either. She wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug smile off the woman’s face.

“Stop that,” she told Ernie with a glare, stepping to the side. Looking at his face made her wish that she had the time to do something about those burns, but they were in a battle here, and she was more than aware of what the She-Carrow was capable of. As her gaze shot back to her former Professor, she held her wand up high, trained directly at the woman’s face. “I suppose you’ve tortured too many people to remember their faces, have you?” she spat. Maybe a Knee-Reserving Hex would refresh her memory, she thought spitefully. It seemed like Duelling Club might come in handy after all. Susan moved her wand in a complicated pattern, shooting the spell in Alecto’s direction.

"Nah," she said, in a blase manner, "the people I've tortured are much too inconsequential for me to remember," she finished off, grinning ear to ear still. And she believed it. She had long since passed the point of no return, the point of which she had any remorse for her victims. She was a proud member of the His army. Unfortunately, this hubris was also a disadvantage for her, as she had let her shield down just in time for Susan's hex to hit her. Immediately, she fell backwards hard onto the cold floor. She tried getting up but she had no idea how to do so. Disoriented, she sent angry sparks up with her wand.

"You little bitch!" Alecto screeched, glaring at Susan. "You'll pay for that! Crucio!" Always the ever faithful to her old curse.

Ernie didn’t have much time to respond to Susan’s chastising, even though his first response was something of an annoyed snort. After she’d spent so long in the dungeons with him completely unable to do anything to save her, the least he could do was try to keep her from getting too banged up now. Hearing Alecto fall with a thump made Ernie surge with pride and he turned to grin at Susan, only to watch her fall into a fit of pain when the Cruciatus Curse hit her.

He couldn’t see where Alecto was behind the wall of brick, so attempting to stop her was impossible from his vantage point. Glancing quickly through the other open spaces between the bricks, he noticed a statue of a gargoyle sitting up against the wall. “Snufflifors!” he said, aiming his wand at the statue whilst trying to block out the sounds Susan made so that his concentration was sharp. Transfiguration was a strong suit of his and when the statue came crashing down into a a sea of mice he sighed with relief as they pattered right toward the direction Alecto’s voice had been coming from.

Susan was too busy seething over Alecto’s words to react to the curse that was flung her way, and she went down with a scream at the pain wracking through her body, igniting every nerve. Even after how many times she’d been subjected to the spell, its effects never got any less painful. Susan clenched her hands into fists as she tried to keep herself from reacting in an audible way, not wanting to give the woman the satisfaction. All there was to hold onto was the hope that it would be over soon, and when the pain finally did lift, Susan coughed loudly as she caught her breath, resting her head on her arms for a long moment.

Then she was stumbling back to her feet, her head still feeling a bit light with the pain, but that didn’t impede her determination. With a “Depulso” she blasted the remaining wall of bricks between them towards Alecto, pushing with her mind as hard as she could.

Finally -- finally, Alecto had figured out how to fix the situation with her knees. She had hurriedly been focusing on her knees and in trying to deflect any potential spells. This meant that she was not doing a good job on either of the tasks. Before she knew it, she was bombarded by mice, all scurrying towards her feet. "Fuck!" she screamed, again clutching her wand so tight that sparks shot out. She blasted them away at first before casting an "Oppugno!" so that the mice shifted from attacking her to flying at her opponents. The mice, though, mostly only met the wall of bricks and Alecto only just threw up a hasty Protego to ward off the bricks.

"Diffindo!" Alecto cast, slashing her wand in the same way she wanted the spell to go.

“Evanesco!,” yelled Ernie, targeting the few mice which had managed to make it through the crumbling brick blockade between them. He yelped in surprise when he felt his shin suddenly throb with a searing pain, blood dripping down the cut and oozing from his torn sock. That was twice now Alecto had got him, which was twice he was lucky she hadn’t used the killing curse. He had to neutralize her in a way that would keep him either him or Susan from facing any more danger. But he had no desire to stoop to the same level as she and her counterparts.

A sudden idea popped into his head, and disgusted as he was by the potential result, he stepped forward with confidence. “Shield me,” he said to Susan as he dashed past her and right up to the bricks. It was risky, maybe even stupid, but he was certain that if he could get line of sight on Alecto, it would work. “Obscuro!”, he yelled in the general direction of Alecto, though not certain if it would hit when he couldn’t really see her.

Sticking his wand through one of the holes, he rambled off an entrancing enchantment, hoping it would be effective enough to force Alecto into becoming so smitten with him, she wouldn’t be able to continue fighting.

Thankfully (in a way), Alecto had been in the middle of sending a "Furnunculus" towards Ernie (or his direction, at the very least) that it caught some of his entrancing enchantment. But only some of it. Unfortunately for her, the rest of it was not met with her curse and hit her with enough surprising force that she fell backwards. When she got back up, she was dizzy, but she wasn't sure if it was because she had just been knocked back or because the charm was working. Please please please please don't let the charm be working. She didn't fancy herself falling in love with a teenager. Especially a Mudblood loving one. If she was aware of her surroundings, she would be shuddering at the thought, but she was in a daze, walking forwards in a disorderly fashion, as if she was searching for Ernie.

"Well, hello, there," she started, her words coming out sluggishly. At the current moment, she was not even facing Ernie, but a pillar that she had taken for him.

Susan only just had the time to aim her wand up and do as Ernie asked, her body still trembling slightly with the strength of the Cruciatus. She had no idea what he was planning to do, which wasn’t a feeling that she particularly enjoyed, as she knew her cousin to be prone to reckless behaviour. Keeping her eyes firmly on the brick wall in anticipation of any spells that were blasted their way, she held her breath, hoping that she would be able to shield Ernie from the worst.

An Entrancing Enchantment? Susan gave Ernie an incredulous look, mentally shuddering at the thought of having any of the Carrows fall in love with her. “Are you serious?” she asked, completely baffled. In other circumstances it might even be funny to hear Alecto trying to chat him up. It was a bit brilliant, in a completely insane way, but in the heat of battle Susan found it difficult to see the humour of the situation. Nevertheless, Alecto was distracted now, and they would be stupid not to make use of the situation. “Stupefy,” Susan yelled, following it up quickly with a Leg-Locker Curse in case her first spell failed to hit the mark.

Why wasn't Ernie responding? She was baring her soul open, waiting for some tender, loving care and he just wasn't responding. Could he not hear her? Was she too meek? She always had that quality buried under her normally aggressive nature. Love just did things to a person. "Can you hear me?" She asked, with a desperate tone in her voice. It was better to tackle the problem head on and figure out why he wasn't responding that way. During this entire... thing, Alecto had been lucky that Susan's Stupefy had indeed missed its mark at Alecto, but was not so lucky when her following spell hit its bulls-eye.

She screamed as she fell backwards, her body hitting the floor in a loud 'clump'. "Was that you, my love?" she inquired, looking around for the culprit. "Finite!" she cast, wanting to get rid of the spell so that she could find her mysterious lover. "Don't hide from me!"

There was something completely disturbing about Alecto calling for him. Maybe he should have reconsidered his plan before enacting it but so far it seemed to be serving its purpose. She seemed to be mostly neutralized which meant that he and Susan could get away safely. Still, he wasn't the sort to take any undue chances, so he retreated from the wall debris, coming up next to his cousin. He merely shrugged at her comment though. Now wasn't the time to debate his methods.

"It worked," he pointed out. Now they just needed to make sure she continued to leave them in one piece. Ernie flung a body binding curse her way, hoping it would hit. "We need to get moving," he told Susan, hoping she could help him keep Alecto bound in some way.

So it had. Susan shrugged in return, trying not to be too disturbed by Alecto’s gushing. She felt somewhat vindicated at the sound of Alecto’s scream and the thump of her body hitting the floor, though to her disbelief not even that managed to shut the woman up.

Trying to peer through the wall of bricks, she nudged Ernie’s arm as she was hit with a sudden thought. “I have an idea,” she whispered, moving closer to the wall herself. It was only a matter of time before Alecto would regain control again, both of her mind and her legs, so she had to move fast.

Susan carefully aimed her wand down towards Alecto’s feet. “Wingardium Leviosa!” Her ability with charms was certainly an asset now, the careful balancing act that she was performing not unlike the magic that she and the rest of the Charms Club had performed at Christmas, carefully levitating the fragile ornaments into the trees that Hagrid had set up. Except this time her subject were shoes. Possibly of unmentionable worth, too, but Susan had never cared much about such matters. After dangling them in the air for a few moments, she released her levitation charm to hit them with another spell immediately afterwards, blasting the shoes off unto the corridor beyond.

Why was he forsaking her love? Was it the age difference? Was it the professor-student thing? Because age was just a number and it wasn't like she planned to be a teacher forever. So those obstacles were solved. She was just about to reassure him of the answers when she noticed a Body Binding Curse heading for her. "Protego!" she cast, watching as it deflected the spell. Was that from her beloved? Why would he harm her? "My love!" she yelled. "I am right here! Please don't hurt me!" It was, of course, extremely odd to hear Alecto Carrow pleading with people, let alone profess her 'love.' She was about to continue her pleading when she was suddenly lifted into the air, dangling upside down. She was only released when her shoes were lifted off her, dropping Alecto straight onto the floor in a loud (and painful) thump. Fortunately, though, it helped her regain her senses, although she was dizzy. But her attentions were viciously torn away when her shoes went flying past her into a dark corridor.

Oh, hell no. Her shoes were not going to go missing. With a strained look at her opponents, she reluctantly turned away from them, got to her feet, and ran after her shoes. Damn them for hitting her where it hurt.



Hannah and Neville vs Amycus.

Neville ran down the corridor swiftly, his feet skating across the stone floor as he tripped over one of the tendrils of the Venemous Tentacula in his arms. Its was weaving and curling expectantly, and as he rounded a corner, he saw a Death Eater with his back turned to him. Lifting one of the Tentaculas, he reeled back to hurl it at the Death Eater when he realized he knew that Death Eater.

Amycus Carrow. He couldn’t think of a better target.

Determination settled across his features and he lobbed the Tentacula as hard as he could, grunting in the effort. It smacked directly into Amycus’ back and immediately started to wrap its tentacles around him.

Where was Alecto? That was the foremost question on Amycus’s mind. However, just as he thought he spotted her, something hit him squarely in the back. He couldn’t turn to see it as whatever it was wrapped around him. Looking down, he rolled his eyes at the tentacles. Really? Plants?

Hating anything green, he had no trouble blasting a tentacle. He watched with satisfaction as it withdrew and he turned to face his attacker.

“Longbottom,” he muttered, raising his wand. “Stupefy.” He’d stun the boy and then do some damage, he thought, advancing.

Amycus Carrow was obviously not well-familiar with Herbology, otherwise he’d have realized that the Venemous Tentacula expelled venom from its shoots -- shoots that he’d just blasted apart with a spell, sending poisonous juices everywhere. Neville supposed that would suit his purpose as much as having the plant pierce Carrow with one of its deadly spikes, and as he avoided the splatter, he just missed getting Carrow’s stunner full on.

“Shit!” He normally didn’t use expletives, but Carrow was advancing and he’d had his arms full of plant, not wand, so he wasn’t able to deflect it in time. The spell glanced past him below the knee, and instead of knocking him out completely, it left him dazed and staggering.

Hannah raced down the corridor, the thud of her heart seeming even louder than her pounding footsteps as she tried to get away from a would-be attacker. Eventually it occurred to her that she didn’t hear any signs of pursuit, so she slowed down, coming to a halt several feet before the corner. Between heavy breaths, she listened carefully for signs that she was not alone. Nobody seemed to be behind her, but it sounded like something was happening around the corner. At least, she heard a familiar voice swearing. She couldn’t quite place it, but whoever he was, he probably needed help. She wished she could take a minute to catch her breath, but for all Hannah knew, that minute could be crucial to whatever was happening around the corner. So she only paused long enough to cast a shield charm before stepping around the corner.

The first thing Hannah saw was Neville, and she knew that she’d made the right decision in not hesitating. Down the corridor was Amycus Carrow. Neville had saved Hannah from him once, and she was happy for the chance to return the favor. She grasped Neville’s upper arm to steady him, then pointed her wand toward Carrow and shouted, “Impedimenta!”

Amycus was delighted to see that Longbottom was thrown off balance. The boy had been nothing but trouble this year. Alecto had given him the benefit of the doubt because the Longbottoms were a pureblood family. However, Amycus had grown weary of his antics. Him and his stupid army.

He was focused on the boy that he did not see the blond girl until it was too late. Her jinx wasn’t as strong as Amycus was used to so it only slowed him for a moment. Deciding that he was done playing games with these two, his wand slashed through the air and he aimed a cruciatus at the girl.

It took Neville a moment too long to realize what was happening in the whirl of action around them. The signals from his brain were still on delay, but the word Crucio hit him like a solid wall, especially when he realized Amycus was going after Hannah again. Hannah, who was gripping him firmly and had given him more time to recover.

“NO!” Neville’s protest burst out of him like a roar. Thrusting his wand arm forward, he fixed his eyes on Amycus. “PROTEGO!”

Luckily for Hannah, the combined force of the shield charm she’d cast before coming around the corner and the one that Neville had just cast was enough to protect her from the brunt of the cruciatus. The wave of pain that washed over her was bearable, and through it all she was focused on what to do next.

Hannah wasn’t exactly known for keeping her head in stressful situations, and it was only her experience in the DA that kept her from turning Amycus into a flock of flamingos. Instead, she remembered the very first thing that Harry had taught them: Disarming Charms. She remembered Ernie’s flourishes and how they’d given her time to anticipate the spell, so she quickly moved her wand in one swift motion. “Expelliarmus!”

Amycus’s mouth flattened. The boy was being a pest again. Alecto was usually right about most things but she was wrong about this one. Pureblood or not, he was a nuisance. As was the girl.

He laughed when she tried to take his wand, easily blocking the spell. “You’ll have to try harder than that, little girl.” He took aim again, intending on stunning the girl so he could focus properly on Longbottom.

Neville gritted his teeth. It was bad enough that they’d had to sit in Carrow’s “Defense” classroom all year, learning illegal spells, now he was jeering at them for not using them well enough?

He pointed his wand at Amycus. “Levicorpus,” he said. They’d see how Carrow fared at shooting spells dangling upside down, particularly as spells and debris flew around them. He lifted Carrow higher and higher until his foot was nearly at the ceiling, and still concentrating, said to Hannah, “Would you like a go before I let him fall?”

Hannah was really not cut out for battling. While she could defend herself reasonably, attacking was a different story. She looked up at Professor Carrow’s body, danging far above her head. It seemed wrong, in a way, to just hex him while he was helpless like that.

But then she thought about this past year in Dark Arts, of all the things he’d made them do. She thought of her friends being tortured, and of nearly being tortured herself before Neville disarmed him. She thought of how both the Carrows had forced Neville into hiding in the Room of Requirement, and of how worried she’d been about what they would do to him if they found him.

Hannah thought of all these things and raised her wand up in the air. Her hand shook slightly, but her voice was steady as she said, “Diffindo.” And again. “Diffindo, diffindo!”

Amycus sneered. That little girl couldn’t do a damned thing to him. She was too timid; he’d seen that in class. When the first cut slashed across his face, he was stunned. Blood dripped down into his eye and he wiped it away. The next one caught him on his thigh and he roared with pain. Jerking his wand, he tried to aim for the girl, thinking she’d look nice with her insides on the outside. However, between the blood in his eyes and the fact he was upside down, he wasn’t sure he’d hit his target. Before he could take aim again, a chunk of the stone hit him in the head and his world went black.



Devon and Romilda vs a Giant.

Romilda had slipped away from her prefectly escort, hoping that none of them would notice and worry, bless them. She sidled back into the action, trying to look nonchalant and incognito. If only Yue had been there he could have cast another disillusionment charm on her. She had not really perfected the knack herself. Actually, there wasn’t much she had perfected, and this was certainly true for duelling too, but she wasn’t worrying about it. Act now, think later, that was the Gryffindor way. And so she walked straight into a room full of professors and prefects before realising that actually someone was going to notice she was a 5th year. She backed away and hid herself under a mahogany table with a white cloth and a vase of flowers on top. Surely if she came out once the fighting had started, then nobody would notice her or send her back.

So she waited, somewhat impatiently, until everything seemed busy enough that everyone would be much too preoccupied to notice her, and stood up, wincing at the pins and needles in her legs. Right. Now to fight someone. She rubbed at her legs until the feeling came back and then strode in the direction of fighting noises. Before she could reach the main venue, however, a massive oak door crashed to the ground inches away from her and she looked up, her mouth a round O. What the-?

There stood a giant, mean-looking, beclubbed, and big. Man, they weren’t joking when they named those things. He must be on the Death Eater side. Well, Romilda would hold him back and stop him stomping on Harry. She raised her wand and cast a conjunctivitis curse, hoping that impairing the giant’s vision would make him easier to fight.

No such luck. The spell connected, but served to enrage the giant, who began indiscriminately smashing things with his club, kicking things over, and sending debris flying in all directions. Romilda ran to shelter but fell over as a chair leg slammed at force into the back of her knees. She cried out in pain, for the first time thinking maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

Devon hadn't moved far from his hiding place. He wasn't convinced that he wanted to fight but he knew, no matter what happened today, it would be historical and he wasn't about to miss that. He knew his life would be better off if Harry Potter and the idiots who followed him were gone, but for as cruel as he could be, Devon didn't actually want half his classmates to go and die for it.

But no matter what, he wanted to be there to see what happened next.

He'd hidden himself in a wardrobe in one of the classrooms just off the path to the Room of Requirement. He could leave it when the fighting slowed down, he thought, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen anytime soon. Suddenly, the crashing around him grew louder and more intense and for a moment, he was frightened. The moment didn't last long because before he knew it, something had crashed through the wall behind him and the wardrobe he'd hidden inside, knocking it to the ground and crushing it.

Devon took only a moment to catch himself and register the situation. He was exposed; whoever or whatever had blasted his hiding place could see him. Worse than that, he was stuck. His legs were caught under the crushing weight of the rubble and his wand had clattered out of his reach. Worse still, the giant hadn't yet calmed and was still swinging its club at random. "Ohfuck," Devon breathed.

He scoured the room, looking for something--anything--to get him out of this. He was not thrilled when his eyes fell on Romilda Vane, but he didn't see another option. "Help!" he called to her, keeping low to avoid the club.

The word “help” to a Gryffindor is perhaps the most potent one in the English language. Romilda was getting unsteadily to her feet when she heard it, and immediately looked all around her until she saw Devon, all stuck and helpless. He was a bit of a dick, she thought, but he didn’t deserve to be squashed by a giant. One of the first spells she’d ever learned came to mind, and she cast “Wingardium Leviosa!” at one of the pieces of rubble. Seeing that clearing it all was going to take a really long time, she instead turned her attention back to the giant, who was bearing down on Devon. With a grunt of effort, she aimed the big stone she had lifted at the giant. It struck him on the thigh, but not with as much force as a more accomplished witch could have managed. Still, it slowed him down and Romilda was able to scrabble over to Devon, picking up his wand en route and handing it to him. She tried to lift yet more pieces of rubble, hoping against hope he would be free by the time the giant recovered, but fearing that Devon might have to cast the next hex.

Devon snatched up his wand and immediately went to work getting everything cleared off of him. One leg had a nasty gash in it and he was worried he might have broken something but he pulled himself out of the rubble. He knew he'd need medical attention, and soon, but before he could even think of that he had to get past this giant. He shot a freezing charm at the creature, hitting its arms and slowing things down, at least for a while. It wasn't a solution but it would have to work for now.

"What--the hell--are you doing here?" Devon asked, gritting his teeth. It's not that he wasn't grateful that she'd helped him but he knew she was as underage as he was and she'd come back to what--fight a giant?

He knew very little first aid but he had to do something about his leg. "Nevermind. Look, we don't have a lot of time. Have you ever fought a giant before?"

Even in the midst of a dangerous situation, Romilda lost none of her sarcasm. “Oh yeah,” she said. “All the time. My father took me giant-fighting every holiday. Locomotor Mortis!”

The last part was aimed at the giant, who was sufficiently distracted by his frozen arms to be unable to dodge the spell that would lock his legs together. He let out a bellow of rage and it was with some effort Romilda turned her back to the creature and focused on Devon.

“Can you walk?” she asked. “Can you stand?”

Devon gritted his teeth and shook his head. His leg was definitely broken; he was sure of it. Well, this had been a stupid plan. He kept his eyes on the giant. "No, but I've got an idea."

He aimed his wand at the broken leg. "Petrificus." His leg stiffened. Devon let out a low groan at the pain; it hurt like hell but at least now he'd be able to put some weight on it. Running was out of the question but he should be able to walk, at least--for as much good as that would do them. The giant still blocked they way out of the castle, leg-locked or not.

"Here, help me up," he asked. It would take some effort but the giant was, at least, momentarily stuck. It could be the only free few minutes they had. He watched the creature warily; it was still screaming and bellowing but at least the thrashing around had stopped.

Romilda winced in sympathy as Devon ‘fixed’ his leg. She wasn’t squeamish, but she was sure it must hurt. She hurried forward to help him to his feet, offering her hand, her arm, her shoulder for him to lean on - whatever was at the right height for each part of the painful process. So preoccupied was she that she didn’t notice the spells wearing off and the giant striding towards them until he was almost on top of them. His shadow loomed and Romilda looked up and screamed. Not particularly helpful, but natural enough. Her instinct was to run, but it was overcome by her determination not to leave some other poor kid to get squashed, however much of a dick he was.

“Deprimo!” she yelled, waving her wand inaccurately with the hand not currently supporting Devon. It hit, just about, and the giant was left with a hole gouged in his side that started bleeding all over the floor. “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck,” Romilda said.

Devon scowled at the ever-expanding pool of giant blood. He steadied himself as best he could and aimed his wand toward the creature. "Expulso!" he exclaimed, calmly and evenly. The spell, however, was more advanced than Devon and rather than exploding its target, it seemed only to gouge him instead. The giant, now bleeding in multiple places, lurched toward the two. Devon tried to back up but he couldn't move quickly, and every step hurt more and more. The giant swung again, closer than ever.

There was bravery, and there was idiocy, and two fifth years against a giant, Romilda was beginning to see, definitely fell into the second category. They had to run. Devon may not be able to walk, but they had to run.

“Come on!” she said urgently. “Lean on me, for fuck’s sake.” Without waiting for an answer, she put her arm around him and attempted to pull Devon along. Sure, it would hurt him, but better hurt than dead, right? The giant was oncoming and Romilda was forced to let go with one arm so she could make use of her wand.

“Confundo!” she cried. “Stupefy! Locomotor Mortis! Shitshitshit. Er- Impedimenta!”

The spells were not bad for a fifth year, Romilda always being someone who worked best when she had a concrete reason to, but a giant was a giant, and size made a huge difference to the effectiveness of hexes. He was confused, but not confused enough to forget he was attacking them with his club. He did not need brains for that. His body slowed down, enough for the unlucky pair to hobble a few steps, but it could not last. The giant was upon them, club raised. Romilda uttered a few more choice swear words and cast a weak Expelliarmus that entirely failed to hit home. The next thing she knew, she was flying through the air, watching the world through clouded eyes and a dull and heavy pain in her temple. What’s that ringing noise? she thought. A bell? Then more pain, and then nothing.

Devon was usually quite gifted with spells, but the movement plus the pain in his leg was causing most of his spells to miss their target. When the giant made its big move, it was just luck that it chose to swing at Romilda rather than Devon. As she crumbled and fell to the floor, Devon's eyes widened with fear. She looked dead. She probably was dead; that blow looked like a bad one.

The giant didn't hesitate like Devon did and swiped his club at the boy's side, connecting with his ribcage and slamming him aside. If he thought his leg hurt, it was nothing compared to this. He wanted to hit the creature, and badly, but he was smart enough to realize that it wouldn't do any good. Instead, though it killed him to do so, he played dead so the giant would move on. It took a few minutes, but the creature was finally satisfied and lumbered off in search of new kids to club.

Devon opened his eyes and groaned in pain. He struggled to sit up and put a hand on his side, pulling it away to see the blood covering his fingers. Great. He was bleeding, his leg was broken, and at least a few ribs were cracked. But he would survive.

The thought jolted him and he pushed his way over to Romilda. She was in bad shape but she was breathing. He felt surprisingly relieved. Still, her head was bleeding and she'd need medical attention very soon if she was going to survive. He hoped somebody found her soon.

As for Devon, he needed to get the hell out of there. He wasn't sure the way to the door the other students had talked about, but he'd find it. He struggled and pushed until he was standing again and hobbled toward the doorway, ready to 'run.'

He glanced back at Romilda's body and stopped himself. Someone would find her eventually, he was sure, but by then would it be too late? Every instinct was telling him to run and save himself. Trying to save Romilda would probably get them both killed. He couldn't move quickly as it was and bringing her along would just slow him down even more.

On the other hand, she could have run and let him die, and she didn't.

"Fuck."

He hobbled back toward Romilda, trying to figure out what he could do. He knew of a spell but wasn't sure he could make it work; there was no better time to try. "Levicorpus," he cast, excited to see it start working. Romilda's unconscious body rose and Devon directed it as he could. He needed to get them out of there and find help.