InsaneJournal

Emily, Demelza and Chloe vs Professor Blishwick.

Making the decision to stay had been an easy one for Chloe. Harry was here, he was here and he was ready to fight, so she would too. And Colin and Ginny were back, and for a brief moment almost all of Gryffindor sixth was in the same room again, save Jane. And almost all of them were staying, so of course she would, too.

But then, as the reality of what she’d signed up to do dawned on her, she started feeling a pit at the bottom of her stomach. Though she had a general idea of the shape she’d never gotten a fully formed Patronus, and her hexes were off. Some of her spells were stronger than others, but really, she’d focused on healing magic, not offensive magic, or even defensive.

She’d managed to hold her own so far, mostly out of pure luck, or by fighting alongside someone much more talented than her. Running into Demelza and Emily she gave a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. We’re all still alive,” she said, knowing as soon as it came out of her mouth that it probably wasn’t the best joke to make. “Look, Professor Blishwick,” she said with relief, spotting their Care of Magical Creatures professor approaching them. It would be a lot easier with a professor backing them up.

Saying goodbye to Andrew had been tough for Emily, but she knew she was making the right choice. Still, she couldn't help but think of him and all the younger years he was escorting away as she prepared to fight. The problem was, she wasn't really sure how to go about fighting. She got the impression Chloe and Demelza weren't sure either--were they just to wander around the school until they found a Death Eater? Or until one found them? "Professor!" she called ahead as Chloe pointed out Blishwick. Gryffindor or no, she knew they'd be better off fighting alongside a professor--and an adult--than they'd be just the three of them.

Demelza had never been so sure of anything in her life as she was that she wanted to fight in this thing. After saying a very tearful and shockingly tender goodbye to Madison and Juliet, grabbing them both and hugging them, before telling them to “fucking go and find mum, da, or Lucy,” before shoving them into the capable groups of whatever prefect would take them. This wasn’t their fight, this really wasn’t hers either, but, that didn’t stop her from shoving her wand into her sock and joining the fight.

Harry Potter was there, he was ready to fight, she knew he’d come back for them, she always knew he would come back for them. Seeing Ginny and Colin, it felt so good to see the two of them, she wanted to run right over there and grab him and pull him into the biggest hug she could muster. That could come later, now they had other business to attend to. She looked around, seeing Chloe, Emily.

“Thank fuck for the two of you.” She joined them, looking around for someone, some sort of sign “fight here,” or something. “Where do we start?” She asked them, glancing over at Professor Blishwick. She was never a fan of the man, he wasn’t Hagrid, who made COMC so random and easy. “Say we join Blishwick, safety in numbers and some shit.” She gave a shrug and pulled out her wand defense style. Demelza was decent at hexes, she could do some defensive work. Her Patronus never really formed, but it had some sort of shape, small and sort of furry. She knew she wasn’t exactly as prepared as she could be, but this was it, there was no more time. It was a now or never sort of deal and she couldn’t stand here pondering what she could have done better.

Caligula Blishwick hadn’t exactly minded being assigned to teach Care of Magical Creatures. He was a social creature at heart, and the opportunity to observe the future of the Wizarding World had been interesting, to say the least. He had been much more subtle about it than some of his colleagues, who had pretty much walked around the school pushing their Dark Marks into peoples’ faces. Caligula wasn’t very impressed by this. For him, the mystique had been half of the attraction of joining the Dark Lord’s cause, and it was obvious that terror didn’t work all that well as a way of keeping the children in line. Unlike Amycus and Alecto, he was aware that once the Dark Lord had taken his rightful place and defeated Potter for good, there would be a period of rehabilitation, and the more people they could get on their side now, the easier it would be.

Of course, before the Wizarding World could be educated, it would have to be cleansed, and Caligula had accepted his role here today to help in that purpose. It had become boring pretty quickly to just hit people in the back with a quick spell, however, which caused him to paste a smile upon his face when he recognised three of his sixth year students. “Hello, ladies,” he said, casting a glance around them, which to them would appear like he was checking whether they were safe, although he was really trying to make sure no one would interfere. “Still alive, I see.” He was amused by the irony of that statement, his lip curling up slightly. “You might want to stick a bit more closely to the walls, however,” he advised.

Something about Professor Blishwick's statement rubbed Emily the wrong way. Why wouldn't they still be alive? And who would take lightly about something like that at a time like this? Perhaps he was scared too, she realized, and why wouldn't he be? He had to know the risk as well--if not better--than the girls did. She nodded to his later instruction and kind of pushed herself back against the wall, pulling her friends with her. She looked up the hallway behind them, following the professor's gaze but looking away from him in the process. "I've got to say, I'm glad we ran into you, sir."

Demelza looked at Emily and Chloe. What was up with that statement? “Still alive I see?” She kept replaying that over and over in her head. “What the hell is that supposed to mean, sir?” she asked. She felt she had nothing to lose at this point. They were going into battle and if he was offended, well, he’d be more offended by having curses tossed at his ass. She stepped in front of Emily and Chloe slightly, defending them against whatever came their way. At least she had some practise from the pamphlets she had been receiving, she didn’t know about them. Maybe his statement meant nothing and she had been reading into it wrong. maybe she was just on edge from the battle. But something inside of her felt nervous, shaky. She followed his instructions, moved herself closer to the wall, but still, something didn’t feel right at all.

Caligula resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Demelza. She’d always been the mouthy one, from what he’d been able to tell, and it was about time that she learned to keep her mouth shut. Too irritated to continue his facade for much longer, he said, “As am I. Though it was really quite unwise of you to stay.” Charming smile falling off his face, he added, “Sorry about this, girls. I’m afraid you are a tad in the way. Incarcerous!”

The ropes hit Emily square in her back, before she even had a chance to realize what was happening. "What the hell?" she muttered quickly as she tried to turn herself around, falling to her side in the process. Her eyes grew wide with shock as she suddenly understood what was going on. Blishwick was a Death Eater? She struggled against the ropes, but the more she pushed, the tighter they got. "What the HELL?" she repeated, this time shouting at the man.

Chloe was able to duck and roll out of the way quickly at his spell, and then, confused, looked behind them to see who was in the way that he’d been aiming at. It took a moment or two for her to realize that he’d been aiming at them, and Emily’s comment was what cemented it for her, as she glanced between the two of them a couple of times. Once it sunk in she sprung to her feet. “Depulso!” she cast, aiming at him, and then rushed to Emily to quickly but carefully cast some severing charms on the ropes and free her roommate before he could get back to them.

Caligula hadn’t exactly expected Chloe to duck away from his spell, but he had been prepared for a retaliation from Demelza, her defensive stance rather obvious. For that reason, he was aware enough to react to the spell suddenly thrown his way, his shield preventing him from being pushed back more than a foot or so. He sighed a bit as Chloe turned her back to him in order to help her friend. It really was too easy. “First rule of a duel - never turn your back to your opponent,” he said, in the same helpful voice as if he were teaching a class. “Serpensortia.” He smiled at the serpent that shot from the tip of his wand, moving towards the girls. Such graceful creatures, snakes. “Engorgio.”

Emily pushed the ropes away as Chloe helped her out of them. Well, she certainly couldn't say she'd seen this coming. Luckily, she did manage to see the giant snake before it struck at them. She screamed and pulled Chloe out of its path as best she could. She fumbled with her wand, trying to figure out what she could cast against a giant snake. "Mel, look out!" she shouted as the creature lurched toward her friend.

Demelza turned around just as Emily yelled her name, and was greeted with a giant snake ready to strike. What in the actual fuck was that? She furiously, mentally searched for a curse or charm she could use against a snake. What could she use to protect them against this thing? “Protego.” She casted just to give them some time to collect themselves and figure something better out. “We need to get Blishwick out of the way.” She told Emily and Chloe. “Stun him and get the fuck out of here.” That was Demelza’s great plan, or not so great one, she wasn’t exactly prepared for this, as much as she thought she would be.

“He’s a professor. And I think he wants to kill us. What the... well, what the fuck?” repeated Chloe, trying to stun the snake, still a bit squeamish at the idea of stunning another person. After managing a stun, she vanished the snake, “Evanesco!” and then looked back at her friends, knowing better this time then to turn her back to him. “I can’t stun a professor!” she said, realizing just how over her head she was. Casting a quick revulsion jinx to buy them a bit of time, she tried another banishing spell, just wanting to get away.

Well, that just wasn’t on. Caligula was quite proud of his little - or not so little, if one were getting technical - creation. To have it vanished like that didn’t do anything to improve his mood. He was done playing nice. Finding himself temporarily inconvenienced by Chloe’s jinx, he made a noise of frustration, before lifting his wand again. “You know, you are really quite rude. I am standing right here.” Aiming at Demelza, he called immediately after, "Incendio,” followed by a slicing movement towards the other two girls. “Diffindo!” He wasn’t going to give them any time to escape.

Emily's Protego wasn't exactly a strong one, but it was enough to push off the spell coming toward her and Chloe. She was really at a loss for what to do. She knew, rationally, that the man before them was an enemy, but he was still a professor. And a professor she'd liked, at that! On the other hand, he was actively trying to hurt them and may have succeeded already. She shot a jelly-legs jinx toward him and turned toward Demelza to see if she was hurt.

“Motherfucker.” Demelza eloquently spat out, nursing her burned arm. “We need to get the fuck out of here before that crazy son of a bitch kills us.” She tried not to look at her arm and tried not to get all dramatic and worry her future pro career and all those endorsements were over. “I need some burn paste and we can still do this shit.” She wondered if she could cast an aguamenti on herself or would that be totally ridiculous. She mustered up whatever will she currently was still holding on to keep going in this and tried to throw a trip jinx at him, hoping that would buy them some much needed time.

Caligula found himself a little bit too pleased that his fire charm had hit the mark after all the evading that had been going on. He liked a proper duel, and the girls weren’t exactly living up to their reputation as Gryffindors at the moment. Blisters were already beginning to form, and he looked on in rabid fascination. In his smugness, however, he failed to move out of the way of Emily’s jinx in time. As his knees started wobbling, he only just managed to dance around the trip jinx, and it took him a few moments to get the right aim as he pointed his wand down himself. “Finite Incantatem.”

Stretching his legs contentedly, Caligula moved back from the girls for a bit, keeping his wand pointed at them. Reaching the statue of a hag nearby, he pulled it down to the floor with a charm before calling out a “Depulso!”. It began rolling towards them at a rapid speed, and if Caligula had ever heard of bowling, watching the three girls lined up like that might have reminded him of the game.

"Impedimenta!" Emily yelled, slowing the rolling statue to a more leisurely pace. Unfortunately, it nearly spanned the width of the hallway and it was still coming toward them. More importantly, it blocked the way to Blishwick, and if the girls were serious about being there to fight Death Eaters, they'd have to try to trap him, too. She aimed past the statue, hoping some ropes would be enough to hold him, at least for a while. "Incarcerous!" she tried, figuring turn-about was fair play.

“Deprimo!” attempted Chloe, aiming at the head of the statue, and wincing and ducking as it exploded, sending shards of shrapnel in all directions. Now lighter, a banishing charm did better to slow the leisurely roll to a full stop, though it wasn’t enough to get it rolling in the professor’s direction.

“Let’s go!” she said to her roommates, moving around the statue to go after him again.

He was tired of this. Inexperienced young witches as they were, luck had to be on their side, because they were simply failing to bleed like they should. Deflecting Emily’s spell, Caligula moved right at them. He could kill them now. It would be so very easy, but perhaps, with the right stimulus, they could still be persuaded to see reason. They were only young, barely aware of their place in the world. Perhaps they just needed a bit of time.

Waving his wand, he levitated the three of them up, the air around them swirling as a strong elastic bubble began to form. He would leave it up to fate. Perhaps they would suffocate, once the air inside ran out. Perhaps someone else would come by and finish what he had started. Or perhaps their luck would continue, and they would somehow make it out alive. Either way, Caligula was done here, and with a last salute at the girls - the oppressive air inside the bubble ensured they would be unable to hear him, he turned around, leaving them behind.



Angelina and Alicia vs Burke.

Alicia Spinnet had her wand out in a defensive stance, she was sticking close by Angelina for courage, strength, and support. She wasn’t the strongest dueler, she tried to mentally file everything she had learned in the DA, everything she had learned since, and everything she needed to survive. She looked at Angelina, wondering if she had the same doubts going through her mind, wandering what was waiting for them on the other side of things.

“Did you think we’d be back here like this.” She asked her quietly.

“I thought we’d be in this situation at some point,” Angelina said softly, throwing a glance over her shoulder to see if they were being followed. A Homonem Revelio spell showed that for the time being, they weren’t. “Things have been tipping for a while, you know?”

Alicia looked around, feeling paranoid and uneasy, she pulled her cloak tighter around her frame. “I know they have, and everytime I opened the paper, or listened to the wireless I was ready for bad news. But this is Hogwarts, I never thought I would see the day where we’d be here, ready to fight like this.” She was an optimist, it was her best and worst quality at the moment. She glanced over her shoulder again, just to make sure they had these last few moments of peace.

“They were using kids.” Angelina shook her head, attempting to dismiss the anger she still felt over that. She needed to be calm, focused on what was in front of her to do. “They had to be stopped. We’re Gryffindors. We always do what needs to be done, don’t we?” She gave Alicia a small, reassuring smile.

Alicia would wonder as she did patch work at St. Mungos, or poured over her text books, worried about what she may read or hear, if it were better to be in there, or out here. Hearing they were using kids to punish other kids, that made her cringe. Seeing the wandless wandering, or hearing of friends in Azkaban, that also made her cringe. “We always do, we take care of business.” Alicia tried to joke lightly, masking her ever growing fear. “We get drinks when we make it out to the other side.” She told Angelina, pushing her dark plait over her shoulder.

Angelina raised an eyebrow. “You’re buying,” she declared sleekly. “Actually, scratch that. Oliver’s buying.”

“Oliver is always buying.” Alicia retorted. She looked over her shoulder again, just in case of course. She realised she had been clenching her wand tighter than she needed to be.

Together, the two continued forward.

Cornelius Burke was moving around Hogwarts castle, trying to find the right type of people to kill and battle. And by type, he meant those he knew would be an easy kill. Unlike a lot of his collegues, he wasn’t one to battle the best of the best. He battled those who seemed weak, meaning it made it easy for him to get the job done. The more people he killed, the more pleasing it is to his master.

He spotted some women not too far away, guarded but in conversation - distracted, Burke thought with a malicious grin. That should be easy.

“Expelliarmus!” Cornelius shouted, making his presence known, but hopefully not long enough, as he hoped to disarm both women and easily add them to his list of casualties.

Alicia’s wand flew from her hand, the voice behind her made it’s self certainly known. “What was that, who’s there?” She asked. She was desperately trying to keep her composure, she couldn’t let this man know he had shaken her up. She had no wand, she wasn’t exactly the bravest of Gryffindors, but at the very least she had Angie by her side.

Angelina reacted quickly, throwing out a shielding charm in front of Alicia. Her friend had no wand – this was bad. But her mind worked in steps, and clearly what she would have to do was get a wand for Alicia. “Expelliarmus,” she said, pointing her own at the man.

Cornelius already had a shield up by the time the other girl sent out the same spell he did. He smirked as he took hold of the other girl’s wand. Clearly, it already seemed like an easy fight, considering one girl was already wandless.

“If you cooperate, this will be as painless as possible, ladies. For me, at least,” Cornelius said, his voice malicious, as he approached the both of them, wand out and a spell already coming out of his mouth. “Imperio,” he casted, wand pointed out to the one with the wand. He wasn’t particularly good with the spell, but he hoped he would be able to control it long enough to control the girl to kill her little friend. “Kill her,” he ordered, knowing if the girl’s will wasn’t strong, the girl would easily follow his orders.

Alicia felt strong waves of panic, pure panic flowing over her, she had no wand. This man seemed clearly deranged and though, if she had to go, she would rather go here, fighting the best she could, for Hogwarts. “Fight it off, Angie, you’re stronger than this.” She tried to reason with her, she hoped her words meant something in the very end. She looked at her best friend, the person she closest to in this world, and hoped maybe she would think of a plan like she always had and they would get out of this alive.

She was Angelina Johnson, and she had not lived through an entire war by bending to anyone’s will. It took some effort, but eventually she was able to resist the curse, forcing herself down in a crouching position with her hands clenched at her side. “I...won’t...” she managed.

Cornelius faltered in his stance as the girl fought against his curse. He felt a bit on the edge then. Perhaps, they were stronger than he thought. He felt the start of panic fill him, but clearly with two wands in his hand he was the one in control. If anything, he should just stop it before anything else could go on.

“Then I will - Avada Kedavra!” he shouted, wasting no time, as he pointed his wand to the wandless friend, the jet of green light heading straight for the girl’s heart.

It had all happened so quickly. One minute Alicia was standing, her eyes pleading with Angelina not to succumb to the curse; the next she had collapsed bonelessly to the ground. If the man had attempted to kill both of them then and there, Angelina wouldn’t have been sure if she’d had enough wits about her to react, but instead he sprang off into the distance as she stood dumbfounded, his work apparently done. Leaving her alone with her friend - her friend’s body.

It was an instinctive reaction to bend down to a crouch beside Alicia, to check for a pulse, for one vain spark of life that she could work with, something she could use to restore the brave and vibrant young woman who had been her best friend since their day in Hogwarts, but the rational side of Angelina knew that she would find nothing, that Alicia would even now be growing could. Her friend’s eyes were open in a last beseeching appeal. You were supposed to keep me safe, they seemed to be saying. I trusted you.

“I’m sorry, Aly,” Angelina choked. “I am so sorry.” She held herself together long enough to cast one last Shielding charm around the area where she was crouched over her friend’s body, then sunk onto the floor, folding herself around the other girl and dissolving into sobs.

Eventually she stood up, dashing the wetness of her cheeks. She was Angelina Johnson. She always got back up. And while there was still that dead, leaden feeling inside of her, she felt her survival instincts kicking back in and a steely determination enveloping her. There was one last thing she could still do for Alicia. She hadn’t been able to protect her, but she could still keep her body safe and whole, still leave something untouched for the rest of her family to mourn.

Standing back, she drew her wand and cast concealment charms in a cocoon around Alicia’s body, then circled further Shielding charms around her, finally marking the spot by making forget-me-nots spring up from the ground. Now Alicia looked like she was resting. Peaceful, almost.

“Saddle up, lock and load, Angelina,” she told herself, then took a step forwards the castle.



Nathan and Molly vs Rabastan.

Rabastan Lestrange was seething. Oddly though, his rage was directed more at the Carrows and Severus Snape than at the children who were staying to fight. Alecto and Amycus had bungled their task. They should have stamped out resistance properly, and completely cowed any other truculent students so they fled or turn in Potter from fear alone. When this little skirmish was over, he was going to have words with the twins and it wouldn’t be a pretty outcome.

He stalked through the dust-clouds swirling in the corridors of Hogwarts, his wand snapping out to shoot curses at any foe he encountered. However, he had decided to avoid using any fatal curses on the children. The Dark Lord had said he didn’t wish to spill magical blood, and Rabastan agreed it was foolish to kill too many of the children. They were the next generation and could be taught to follow the right way with the proper schooling. Better to incapacitate them and then, when the battle was over, weed out the mudbloods and the blood traitors who were beyond hope, like the Weasleys.

Turning a corner, he spied two figures ahead and readied his wand.

Molly was aware of making the decision to stay, of reassuring Professor Sprout that yes, she was of age (lies) and ushering Yue away with the rest of the students while struggling to keep her tears in check, but part of her hadn’t accepted that she was still here. It seemed too surreal that she could be dead in a moment, that she and Nathan who was alongside her didn’t have decades of promise and potential stretching ahead of them.

She glanced again at Nathan, then froze with horror as a man loomed up behind her boyfriend’s shoulder, his wand raised. A heartbeat later and her own wand shot out, flicking a curse at the intruder. as her free hand grasped at Nathan’s shoulder, pushing him down out of range. “OPPUNGO!”

A flock of crows, black as sin, flew out, their beaks snapping hungrily as they zoomed at the man’s face.

Rabastan laughed, a contemptuous sound, and with a quick sweep of his wand cast a silent Expulso that blew the crows into tiny bits. “Have to do better than that, child,” he mocked, following up the spell with a slashing hex towards Molly.

Molly pushed Nathan with surprising force, for he completely tripped over himself and almost stumbled to the ground. Once he finally righted himself, his blue eyes narrowed in on the masked, cloaked figure. He saw the slashing hex coming at his girlfriend.

“Molly, block quick!” he shouted, then pointing his wand at Rabastan, hoping to distract him from her. “CONFRINGO!”

There wasn’t enough time for fear, for thought. “Protego!” Molly shouted, flinging her wand a second time towards their attacker. There was a slight stinging, wet sensation on her cheek. The shielding charm hadn’t been strong enough to stop the hex completely, but it had diluted its effect enough. Surprisingly, her overwhelming emotion was one of anger. A child, was she? She’d show him! “Tarantallegra!”

Rabastan cast a Repello in time to stop Nathan’s spell, sending the effects of the spell into an oncoming suit of armour which exploded with a loud bang. Then his legs were moving in a mad dance. With a snarl, he sent a blasting hex hurtling at the pair, his intentions to let them live rapidly vanishing, before casting Finite Incantatem on his feet.

He dared. He dared to cast a blasting hex at Nathan. Molly’s temper rose to fever pitch. It wasn’t enough for these people to infiltrate her school, torture her friends, but now they had to come in and attempt to kill them with no provocation? She’d been considering the Confundus curse, but now that wasn’t enough. She wanted to give at least one of these bastards a fraction of the pain they had caused her and hers all year round. She ducked and the blasting spell shattered over her head, peppering her hair with rubble.

Calling on something she’d gleaned from her practice sessions with Michael, she threw a Conjunctivitus Curse at the Death Eater. That ought to slow him down. “Am I a child?” she shouted, scarcely aware of how she was shaking with rage, how colour was rising to her cheeks. “Am I a child now, you bastard?”

“Lay OFF her!”

All Nathan could think was how much he didn’t want Molly to be there at this present moment. She was good with a wand and certainly a more than capable enough witch, but the thought of anything happening to her caused Nathan’s stomach to wretch. It didn’t bloody help that this Death Eater seemed keen on sending hexes her way.

Riding his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Nathan made a move to cross protectively toward Molly while sending a silent Body-Bind Curse at Rabastan.

Molly’s spell had made the Death Eater’s eyes agonisingly painful, as she knew it would. He stayed on his feet – something that would have earned Molly’s grudging respect if she hadn’t been so angry - and continued casting spells, but once she’d figured out to stop shouting so that he couldn’t approximate her location, every single one of them went wide. She confused him still further by sending a charm which created the noise of footsteps running in the opposite direction past him, then Nathan hit him with a full body bind. He wavered for a moment, then crumbled flat to the floor.

“Expelliarmus,” she said dully, and snatched his wand out of the air as it came flying towards her. “Stupefy.” She pocketed the wand and wiped at her face with her free hand, staring at it momentarily as it came away red. “Ow,” she said. “Oh, that hurts.”

“It generally does when you’re bleeding,” Nathan said, looking down at Molly as he tucked her hair behind her ear and away from the blood dripping down her temple and cheek. “But hey, at least we bloody took out a Death Eater.”

Grinning, he gave Molly a soft, quick kiss and then looked back over at the lifeless body of Rabastan -- stunned, body-bound, and blinded. Nathan narrowed his brows as the smile faded from his lips. He had absolutely no compassion for the masked figure. None whatsoever.

“Let’s make sure he doesn’t get up again, shall we? ”

With a wave of his wand, Nathan lifted Rabastan and put him upright against a dark wall. Then with another wave of his wand, he animated one of the Hogwarts stone suits of armor to wrap its arms around him keep him there in an uncomfortably tight, choking, and claustrophobic position, with no means of budging anytime soon. If Rabastan ever were to come to, he would find himself in a difficult sort of predicament indeed.

“All right, let’s find someone with some murtlap to treat that bleeding,” Nathan said to Molly, grabbing her hand. “Stick together, right first mate?”



Michael and Anthony vs Yaxley + Cho Chang.

Michael Corner didn’t have good days anymore. He just had days, slow painful, never ending days. But today was different. With Death Eaters swarming the castle, their peers taken up arms, tonight was the night it all changed again. Hopefully for the better.

After a blow out with his sister as the Gryffindors were leaving the Great Hall, Michael had been directed to join the group heading to the north towers. It was that or leave with the younger years. That would have been the logical thing to do. He couldn’t stand for long periods of time, let alone hold a wand steady, but this was the day he was fighting toward and he wasn’t going to run away now. So, he took his defensive position on the third floor balcony, overlooking the grounds from the green houses to the Forbidden Forest. For the first wave of the battle he offered the people fighting on the grounds support from above. And it was almost enough.

At least until he saw Cho Chang, go down hard by a stunner and some Death Eater bastard moving in for what he imagined was the kill. The freeze hex from above wasn’t quite enough to stop the man approaching. With all the chaos happening down below no one was moving to help her. “Oh fuck this,” he said.

The quickest way to get down there was to jump off the balcony. It wasn’t the smartest thing he thought of, but at at that moment he felt it was the only option. Casting a cushioning charm to ease his landing, which only helped a little because the bones in his legs were still not fully mended. On uneasy legs he ran to her casting a Rennervate and completely unaware of anyone else around him except Cho and the Death Eater piece of shit.

But he still needed to give them more time. So he hurled the first curse that came to mind - the entrail-expelling curse. It did seem oddly fitting.

At some point in the chaos the battle had become, Anthony had lost sight of Morag, and Michael and Terry. As he progressed through the corridors, dodging hexes and firing some of his own, he finally spotted Michael up ahead. That’s one. Truth be told, he was more worried about Michael out of the three. He’d be the one primarily responsible for nursing his friend back to health and therefore he was familiar with the present state of Michael’s legs. So it was no surprise that his heart practically stopped when Michael took a leap off the balcony. “No!” his first thought was that Michael had been put under Imperio and made to suicide. However, Anthony soon saw the reason when he looked over the balcony.

His eyebrows drew together and he leapt up on to the balcony, casting the same cushioning charm Michael had cast earlier and jumping down as well. He landed better and was heading towards Michael, and Cho, as well as the Death Eater in an instant, his wand ready to give his friend back-up.

Yaxley had been completely focused on the girl in front of him, so, so close to killing her, when out of the blue his entrails burst out of his front. It hurt like hell, but worse than that, was incredibly alarming. A less experienced wizard would have crumbled in the face of a curse like that, however inexpertly performed, but luckily for Yaxley, it was not the first time he had dealt with this particular curse. Gritting his teeth, he uttered a counter-curse that would push them back inside. It was effective, but even more painful than the initial curse, and for a second Yaxley was out of duty. Once his body parts were safely back inside, however, he raised his wand and cast multiple Incarcerous spells in the vague direction of the boys running towards him as he straightende up. Ropes filled the space between them and the Death Eater, wrapping themselves around whatever they could find.

His legs carried him just far enough to collapse just next to Cho. “Come on, get up.” She had come back at his request and Michael wasn’t going to let her die on him. To add insult to sustained injuries, that was also the moment his hand started to spasm unable to keep a solid grip on the wand. Dropping his sister’s wand, the one he took forcefully, to the ground and ropes flying to bind him - all he could do was hope that Cho came to in time. Today might not have been a good day, but maybe it was a a good day to die.

Anthony wasn’t about to let Michael, or Cho, die today. As the ropes hurtled towards them, he dove for the pair and cast a Repello, the strength of his desire to keep them back strong enough to keep the ropes from their target. However Anthony knew he couldn’t just count on that to keep them safe, the Death Eater would have other tricks up his sleeve.

“Incendio!” he gasped out, sending a jet of fire towards Yaxley, and then glancing back at Michael and Cho to check on them.

Michael ducked as the spells flew above him. He didn’t spare a glance back at his temporary savior as Cho flailed back to life. It was almost a relief, but it wasn’t quite quick enough. “Thank me later, ropes now,” he said as she reorientated herself to the world.

Free of the ropes, Michael moved for his wand and pushed himself back onto uneasy feet, not moving as quick as he would like. “Now get out of here.” If he was smart, he would have gone with her, but Michael wasn’t backing down from this one. And looking now, he had Anthony at his side. Why not take down a Death Eater in the process?

Now that he knew the boys were there, Yaxley had no trouble dodging the fire sent in his direction. It was almost pitiful, that they could do nothing more, so focused were they on getting this girl out of the picture. He shook his head, laughing, and advanced on the two Ravenclaws.

“Serpensortia!” he cried as he moved, producing a large and vicious-looking serpent. “Oppugno!” The serpent hissed and quickly slithered across to the boys, intent on attack. Then, just to make it more deadly, he cast two Petrificus Totallus in their direction, hoping they would then be powerless to resist the snake’s attack.

The Protego Anthony cast managed to keep him from being tumbled by the body-bind, but concentrating on keeping up the difficult spell meant he was vulnerable to the serpent’s attack. The snake was on him and fangs sank into his thigh, the pain of it causing him to scream. Wildly Anthony cast Diffindo, slicing through the snake’s neck so it released him. Blood poured from his leg wound and he stumbled, falling down on the knee of his good leg.

Cho was safe, Anthony was not and now there were snakes mucking about. All he wanted to do was make the Death Eater bastard hurt like hell. He didn’t care if it made him a bad person or not. Michael quickly fired off two curses, the first to send the dead snake back at Yaxley paired with Impidementa for good measure. Only he didn’t think that was enough.

Michael picked up his left hand to help support his right for the wand work. It might have looked a bit clunky, but hopefully it got the job done. “Crucio.” He could thank the Carrows and his own curiosity for his particular skill with that spell. However, he could also thank the She-Carrow for his unsteady wand hand that really caused a problem for any sort of duration hex.

With a flick of his wand, Yaxley adjusted the course of the dead snake so it landed to his left. Blood splashed from the serpent’s neck and splattered all down one side, but you didn’t become a Death Eater if a bit of blood put you off. He ducked the impediment jinx, which flew behind him and struck another Death Eater in another duel. However, Yaxley was unprepared for the torture curse which hit him. It wasn’t a particularly powerful cruciatus, cast as it was by an inexperienced and predominantly good wizard, but the hatred behind it was powerful enough to make it effective. For a few seconds Yaxley was out of action as he bent double in pain and staggered to one side. He had been subject to this curse before, but it never lessened in its effect. As the pain dulled to a throb, Yaxley gnashed his teeth and stood up. He was pleased to see that both boys looked on their last legs - one bleeding and one weak.

“Diffindo! Diffindo! Diffindo!”

He raised his wand and, making cutting motions with it, sent a series of slicing spells as he walked towards them, thinking to cast a couple of killing curses when he was closer and could be more accurate. He took no notice of his surroundings and heard none of the screams from elsewhere around the castle. When Yaxley thought he was about to kill, he became completely focused on that.

How good a person Michael might be, was not something he wanted to consider. His morals had always been grey at best. But even there was one rule that he never bent - make sure his friends were safe first and foremost. Seeing the next onslaught of spells, Michael threw up a shield charm to protect them both.

Only all the spell really seemed to do was deflect the severing charm away from Anthony and right toward him. Michael cursed loudly as the first one sliced right through his clothes and into his left side. The following curses sliced deeper, crossing over each other in places to create quite the mess. The immediate pain forced him to lose his grip on his wand, leaving him as an easy target.

As Michael attacked Yaxley, Anthony used the opportunity to cast a healing spell on his wounds, enough to stop the bleeding, although he was already feeling dizzy from blood loss. It was more of a tourniquet than a proper healing charm, the wounds too deep to treat properly under current conditions. However, it was enough to bring him back to his feet, firing off a hex at Yaxley to push the man backwards and save Michael, his urge to save his friend giving force to his spell.

Yet Anthony was aware that if they stayed in this battle they would lose and die at the hands of this man. They were both wounded and Michael wouldn’t be able to fight on with such a loss of blood. If he’d been a reckless Gryffindor, perhaps he would have tried to fight on, but his pragmatic nature saw no worth in dying uselessly. Desperately he cast around for a solution and then realised that Yaxley was almost under some protruding stone work. Without hesitation, Anthony sent as powerful a blasting hex as he could at the stone, shattering it into rubbled that rained down in chunks.

He didn’t wait to see if Yaxley was hit or only just blocked by the debris, he broke into a limping run, adrenalin pushing him past the pain of putting his weight on his injured leg, grabbing Michael by the arm and hauling him away as fast as possible, seeking a place where they could safely pause to heal.



Wayne and Julian vs Crabbe Sr.

“Enervate.” Julian pointed his wand at the girl, who sat upright and grasped around for her own, then visibly relaxed when she saw herself in the presence of two relatively familiar faces. She was unscathed except for an ankle which turned painfully when she tried to stand up, but this was something within Julian’s range. The body lying nearby had not been. Forcing them to one side of his conscious thoughts, he focused on what he could do, tried not to think too much about who the other person had been while they were still alive.

His first attempt at the healing spell was unsuccessful, but on the second the girl stood up, testing her ankle tentatively. “Thank you,” she said, then bounded back towards the castle.

“Shouldn’t you-” Julian started to say, but she was already out of hearing range. He shrugged; there was not in the way of advice that he could have given her anyway. They were in the middle of a battle. It was a situation for instinct and chance, not level-headedness. His eyes fell upon the body in spite of himself, and the blanket he had charmed on top wasn’t enough to halt the recollection of the face.

“Let’s go back inside,” he said to Wayne, wiping his hand on his knee of his corduroy jeans.

As Julian did his work to heal the girl they came upon, Wayne had stood at his side, his wand out in an attempt to give his friend some cover. So far, they had been lucky and hadn’t come across any hostiles. The main of parts of the battle weren’t far off from where they were but for now, there was relative stillness around them.

As the girl stood up, Wayne lowered his wand and then watched as she abruptly ran away. “At least she said thank you,” he said looking to Julian with a slight shrug before looking about again for any fallen that could be alive. It looked as though they had gotten to everyone that they could. “You want to go back inside? Maybe we could find others?” His tone was almost anxious. He hadn’t expected a battle to actually happen in the school If he knew this was coming, he probably would have thought more about Emily’s idea to leave. Now he didn’t even know where she was.

“Yeah, I think we’re about done here.” Julian saw that Wayne’s wand was out and gave him a quick nod of thanks. “Let’s go.”

He turned to head back towards the castle, but there seemed to be something more to be said. “She’ll be okay,” he added as reassuringly as he could, feeling like a liar. Emily’s safety was not something he could promise, and Wayne knew that. Absently he wondered why people needed to say platitudes in a situation like this. Maybe to provide a sense of comfort, which could end up less false if it actually worked?

Marcus Crabbe was in his element tonight. For all the posturing of the past year, tonight they weren’t hiding anymore. Tonight his side was rising up and letting the wizarding world that they were here and this was it. He was positively gleeful. Or at least as gleeful as he ever was, storming the grounds like the brute he was and just barrelling through people. With all of this puny students running about, Marcus just wanted to see his son taking his rightful place among the rubble. That and maybe break a few bones, because all of these rebellious students needed to learn their place.

Instead what he found were two students healing their wounded. “Wot do you think you’re doing?” He asked. Standing directly in front of the pair, he was a giant mass of man, chubby fingers strongly curled around his wand, all of his favorite hexes on the tip of his tongue.

“We’re doing what our side requires us to do.” Julian was a pacifist, but he was also Maia Lovegood’s son, and the sense of righteousness that he got from being a teenaged boy with a cause, plus the feeling of invincibility that comes with that age, meant that he managed to meet the man’s eye squarely in spite of the knots in his stomach. “What are you doing here?” he retorted, raising his wand higher. “Threatening children? Hurting innocent people who haven’t done anything to you? What do you get out of that, exactly?”

As he wasn’t quite as out of touch with reality as he gave others the impression of being, Julian did indeed realise that this could very well be a Death Eater before him, but as the man hadn’t hexed them yet, he couldn’t find it within himself to initiate the fight.

Wayne wasn’t sure how such a mass of a man had managed to come upon them unnoticed but stranger things had happened in this school over the past seven years. Now there was an all out war. Really, he should just expect nothing and everything.

He raised his wand along with Julian as they faced off with this brute. “Isn’t it obvious what he gets out of it, Julian? He gets out of it what all insignificant, insecure men do. For a moment they feel as though they aren’t complete wastes.” Perhaps the words were careless and meant to instigate but Wayne found it very hard to not say anything. To him, this man was no different then the ones that had come to his home to arrest his mother. This one might actually be worse because he seemed to have no issues with coming to a school and hurting the students attending.

Marcus hadn’t really intended to hurt the children, seriously at least. Teach them important lessons – most definitely. But such rudeness? Such lack of respect – that just wouldn’t do. He grunted and with a flick of his wrist fired off a blasting curse toward the first boy’s wand. Sure, an Expelliarmus could have worked, but where was the fun in that?

“You will watch your mouth. Or I’ll show you who is a complete waste.” It might have been a child he could have easily crushed, who wasn’t really worth his effort, but that didn’t mean they didn’t deserve to be punished. How else would they learn? Marcus pointed his wand at the second boy and muttered, “Langlock. Now, stand down or else!”

Julian yelled and threw himself to one side, the hex blasting a hole in the ground behind him instead. “Whoa,” he began, then his eyes widened still further when the man began to hex Wayne. “Impedimenta - that’s not cool, man!” He darted a quick look towards his friend, not seeing what was physically wrong with him, but casting a Finite Incantatem just in case.

Wayne threw himself back as the ground under Julian exploded. He lifted his wand to cast a spell but quickly found himself unable to talk as his tongue stuck to the ruff of his mouth. His hand came up to his mouth and his eyes widened. It was the oddest sensation to not have the use of his tongue anymore. It wasn’t something he had ever experienced before. He had a smart mouth, had ever since he was old enough to talk and more then once his smart mouth got him in trouble. No one had ever used magic to correct it though. It felt intrusive.

When Julian cast the Finite Incantatem he opened his mouth and moved his tongue around, just to make sure that everything was still intact and working. “Thanks,” he said to Julian before turning his attention to the death eater.

Marcus grunted. He tolerated Vincent because that was his son and heir. He had no patience for any of other children - the two in front of him were no exception. They had only served to anger him. Now how to direct that anger? The had been healing people. Maybe he could give them something else to heal. While a duration curse would have worked well, Marcus never had the patience for those. He was much more a flashy, quick and painful sort of man. So he cast a knee-reversing hex at one and Furnunculus at the other.

Fortunately with the Impedimenta Julian had cast, the man’s movements were slower, and the knee-reversing hex only caused a sprain, which was painful enough but not quite as bad as the alternative. Wincing, he saw Wayne battling with the wizard through his tears. He had to do something to make him stop. Hundreds of more useful spells were crowding his head, yet in the heat of the moment he cast a Cheering Charm. A Cheering Charm. Julian hung his head with disgust.

A functional shielding charm could be hard to pull off and Wayne had very little in the way of field experience with dueling. He raised his hand and cast the Protego but almost instantly the transparent blue film flickered out of existence. Instinctively, he raised his arm to shield his face as the curse just before it hit him and let out cry of pain as boils began to erupt on the underside of his arm. It wasn’t anything life threatening but that didn’t stop it from being painful.

He grit his teeth, pushing back the throbbing in his arm, though finding it difficult to push back the anger that he was beginning to feel. Wildly, he cast stinging hex at the dark wizard.

They were children and while Marcus might not have been the best dueler, and even without hexes slowing him down, he wasn’t the fastest, but he was a solid force. By sheer size it took a lot to truly take him down. He easily threw off the last spell thrown his way. “Why are you still fighting? You can’t beat me!” Marcus laughed, sounding positively gleeful at the situation over hand. “C’mon, give up now and I’ll go easy on you!” What he had intended to be a set of blasting curses ended up as a quite inspired Tarantallegra.

The dancing spell was better than the alternative, but quite agonising for Julian given the state of his knee. He threw himself out of balance and onto his back, which didn’t stop the movement of his legs, but at least took the weight off his feet. “Confundo!” he shouted.

Why are you still throwing out nonsense curses to us? Wayne thought to himself. He wasn’t foolish enough to say it out loud though. it would be an invite for him to hit them with something that could actually hurt more then boils or a twisted ankle. It just confused him though. He didn’t understand why this guy would play around with them.

Taking Julian’s lead, Wayne cast a banishing charm to the man. He knew that they probably couldn’t beat him but Wayne wanted to at least knock him down that should give enough time for him and Julian to get away.

Marcus had been playing around in part because he saw it was a game. What could children do to hurt him? He had been winning fights since he was a child and had a whole host of dark magic at his call. Even with the cheering charm in effect he deflected the confundo, sending it ricocheting back toward the boys. The banishing charm didn’t really seem to do much more than push him back a few steps. However, the cheering charm seemed to take effect again as he mistakenly cast Rictusempra at the two boys.

“You’re...” Somehow the curses the Death Eater was flinging out at the two of them seemed...well, ridiculous. “You’re terrible, man.” Still laughing, Julian sent out a tripping hex at the man’s ankles, almost doubling over with amusement when he sprawled to the floor. “Let’s go, brother,” he suggested to Wayne. “Leave him munching on the daisies.”

“Farwell!” Wayne cried out between laughter to the Death Eater before turning to leave with Julian. It seemed somewhat inappropriate to be laughing at this moment but it was honestly it did offer some relief. This was only the beginning he felt. It could be along night. “You’re not so bad in duel,” he commented to Julian.

“You’re pretty good yourself, brother.” Still snorting, he hesitated for a moment, performing the counter curse on his reversed knee. For some reason that struck him as funny, and he burst into giggles once more. “Worst Death Eater in the world, man,” he remarked, his voice carrying over to where Crabbe lay prone on the ground.