An Ill Wind - Mod Journal (illwindmod) wrote in an_ill_wind, @ 2009-06-07 23:22:00 |
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Remus VERSUS Fenrir
Fenrir was, well. Bored. He was uncomfortable being surrounded by so much magic and even he was wary of the fires that were currently engulfing the bar. He didn't like being away from his pack (now that he had one) and even less so for something that was likely going to require him to use his wand. He was out of practise. Still, his attention had been caught when he whiffed something else. Or someone else, rather. There was something about running with another wolf on the full moon that made you get very accustomed to their scent and Fenrir could smell Remus Lupin around here somewhere. Of course, nearly everyone was masked, so it was difficult to tell who. He stalked around battles, thus far unengaged and simply following his nose. And yes, this made sense. Fenrir watched the conjured snake recoil from the duelist and a vicious smile pulled at Fenrir's lips. "Oh, my," he drawled, almost lazily putting a shield charm around himself. "How are you, pup?" There was no one in the immediate area - no one that would be paying attention, anyway.
Remus' eyes had been on the Lucius and the snake, watching warily to make sure another curse wasn't shot in his direction. Hearing a familiar voice, and that annoying nickname, Remus' head snapped towards Greyback and he stared as the much larger werewolf came towards him. "What are you doing here?" The question slipped out before he could stop it, so surprised was he to see Greyback in this particular setting. It was like two worlds colliding, and Remus looked around quickly, hoping no one he knew had seen this or knew that it was him beneath this mask. Of course, his friends would know, but they would understand.
"Oh, I was just in the neighbourhood," Fenrir lied smoothly. "I was looking for dinner, actually. D'you suppose anyone tastes very good around here?" he smirked and cast his eyes over the scene, clearly unimpressed with the whole situation before turning them back on the younger wolf. "And you? Running around in a mask? But you always were ashamed of yourself, weren't you? Has the Ministry decided they don't even want to see your face any more?"
Remus' jaw clenched and his hand tightened around his wand, but felt powerless to do anything. He couldn't, and he didn't know why. It couldn't be because they had run together...could it? "Unlike you, I don't particularly want anyone knowing that I'm here," he replied, wondering at the wisdom of revealing that, but it was too late to take it back now. "I doubt you just happened to be here. You're with them, aren't you?"
Fenrir rolled his eyes. "Do you think any of them could win over my loyalties?" he asked, almost sneering really. "I don't tolerate a leash and collar, pup. What will your friends think, I wonder, when they see you simply talking to me." Fenrir idly crossed his arms over his broad chest, just to make it more apparent that this hadn't exploded into a fight yet. "Do they know yet? About the last full?"
"My friends are too busy fighting," Remus retorted, and felt a flash of guilt, knowing he should be doing the same. "What about it? They know I was with you." There was a stubbornness to his tone that generally only came out when Remus was talking to his father, and usually being berated by him. What was it about this man - this wolf - that made it so difficult for Remus to go against him? He didn't remember much of that full moon night, but he knew enough to know that there was no way Moony had been the alpha that night. Greyback exuded power and strength as naturally as breathing and the wolf inside Remus seemed to sense that and responded to it, making it impossible for Remus to challenge him.
Fenrir could sense the hesitance from Remus and felt all the more powerful for it. This was not going to turn into a fight so much as he could tell and though he dropped none of his aggressive stance, he was all the more casual in voice. "Really," he replied, looking rather bored as he glanced over the battle scene. "All of them? Are these all your good mates? The ones you said would stick by you through anything?" He took in the numbers and then looked back at Remus. "You've nearly got a pack all on your own, pup. I'm very nearly proud of you." It would have been easier to believe if he didn't sound so condescending.
Remus had been on the verge of correcting him, then stopped himself. Did he really want Greyback knowing that only a small handful actually knew? The condescension in Greyback's tone was irritating and he tried to shrug it off. "You might not understand it, but these people mean a lot to me, and I'm not going to abandon them." Certainly not to go running off with a blood thirsty werewolf who enjoyed killing people. That was about as far from Remus' reality as it was possible to get.
Fenrir sighed, clearly bored with Remus for the moment. As much as he was lying, he had skipped a hunt to be here and he was not used to skipping meals. The animalistic perk of his ears might have been comical if it hadn't been because of someone's screams elsewhere on the make-shift battlefield. He was clearly distracted for a moment as he watched some girl squirm under what he vaguely recognised as the Cruciatus Curse. "You're going to lose if you stay with them," he said finally. "The Ministry will rip away all your rights and they'll all cheer while they throw you in a cage and let you tear yourself to pieces every month. They're not like you and as much as you try to deny yourself, you'll never be like them."
Remus' stomach churned as Greyback described one of his greatest fears. That day was coming closer and closer and Remus hadn't yet figured out what he was going to do about it. He had less than a month now before everything changed and he naturally expected the worst. In fact, Greyback's description wasn't that far off. "I'm not going to let them do that to me," he insisted, raising his chin slightly. He didn't know how exactly, but he would fight against being caged. Running away to Australia might be a good idea then, depending on what the laws were like down under. Likely they were just as bad wherever Remus went, which was a depressing thought. Glancing around the battlefield at the chaos, Remus was horrified to see Sirius in the thick of things and knew he couldn't waste time talking. "I'll worry about that when it happens, right now there are more important things to be doing."
Fenrir smirked, automatically straightening his posture a bit as Remus raised his chin. It wasn't something he thought about any more. It was instinctive after being the alpha for so long. "Well, good, at least you have enough pride in yourself for that. When the time comes, you know how to get in touch with me." It was an open invitation and Fenrir was going to leave it that way. Let that hang over the young pup's head for awhile. Fenrir didn't think it would take very long before he heard from Remus again.
No sooner had he said that though, then he picked up a scent of fresh meat and blood. His senses immediately turned toward the source and again, his attention was on the girl who had been screaming just moments ago. Fenrir licked the back of his teeth. "Yes. Like dinner. I'll see you soon, pup." And with that, he stalked toward his newly found prey. Salazar, he was hungry.
Remus had known that the invitation would be there from Greyback, given the nature of their past conversations, and tried hard not to think of it as any sort of back up plan in case the worst actually did come to pass. Following Greyback's gaze when he turned away, Remus caught a whiff of blood and felt sick. He couldn't tell who it was on the ground and bleeding from this distance, but he knew he couldn't let Greyback do what he was so obviously going to do as he stalked away from Remus. Raising his wand, he hesitated, considering his options and in that moment, a nearby Death Eater took advantage of his distraction.
Fabian VERSUS Bellatrix
Fabian scrambled to his feet, favouring his ribs as he cast a quick shield charm around himself before pointing his wand at the masked face of his new opponent. "Expelliarmus!" he cast, simply using the first spell that had come into his head. He'd quite had enough of blasting hexes for one night, thank you very much. His body ached as bad as it ever did after a long day of work. He suspected this night had more to offer in terms of abuse. Fucking hell.
Bellatrix had watched as the first of the Order members had arrived on the scene but had not paid them more than a cursory glance as she focused her efforts on destroying the village itself. The Hog's Head was by now an unrecognisable mass of fire and now other buildings were being given the same attention. That was before the body of one of the Order members landed quite neatly at her feet. Well that was convenient. Even more so when she recognised his face. Oh. A Prewett. It hardly mattered which one to her as one blood traitor cousin was certainly as good as the next. She deflected his attack and quickly fired back with a bone twisting hex, not particularly caring where it hit so long as it made him scream.
Great. This was just fucking well brilliant. The death eater's hex caught him in his already burnt arm and he couldn't help a scream of pain before he fired an incendio and then a slashing hex. Anything to make it stop because really, having your bones wring themselves out like wet sponges wasn't the height of pleasure. And Fabian, of all people, ought to know.
Forced to deflect Fabian's attack, Bellatrix lifted the bone twisting hex but didn't have time to throw up a proper shield and instead spun out of the way. The incendio flew harmlessly past her and the slashing hex just narrowly grazed her cloak, neatly slicing through the side of it. She did not even notice, instead rounding on Fabian again for her next attack. Red tendrils of fire flew from her wand, intended to curl around her opponent like a sinister whip that would tear flesh from bone.
Fabian felt a rush of panic and before he even had time to react, dark magic wound itself around his shoulder, upper arm and part of his chest. It burned and the longer it was there, he could feel how deep it was getting, eating through flesh and muscle. When the whip-like magic pulled away, it tore off strips of flesh and the wounds poured blood. Fabian lay in a heap, trying to catch his breath, anything to make it stop hurting so much. He could feel the blood dribbling down his back and sides, pooling in a boney crevice before continuing downwards. None of it was good and he could barely think of a spell that would do any good right now.
"Oh Prewett," Bellatrix cooed, still not knowing or particularly caring which one was now suffering at her feet. "Cannot even defend yourself? How sad." Not that she truly cared. Or that his seeming defenselessness was going to stop her. Another wave of her wand brought black, bony hands forth from the ground. Hands that sought to grab at Fabian, searing whatever flesh they touched with their dark magic and pull him through gravel and soil to bury him alive.
Fabian was panting, trying to see through the haze of pain that clouded his head. At first, he didn't even realise he was being dragged underground, down and down. Not until the searing of the hands cut through what was already an immense amount of pain. On his legs and chest and arms and he couldn't find his wand. He struggled, screaming as he tore away from the hands, even as they burned through his skin. They were fast and it seemed like as soon as he broke free from one, two more got hold. Finally, he got it in him to roll away and scramble and kick and finally he was free, three or four feet away now. His hand closed around his wand, only a foot away the entire time he'd been struggling and cast a handful of blasting curses at his attacker - who had a rather familiar voice, which wasn't anything he'd realise right there.
Sometimes Bellatrix really did find too much amusement in her own creations. It was, she knew, a weakness that was easy to use against her when she allowed herself to be distracted by the oh so compelling sight of other people suffering. And the hands were a relatively new curse (or really, an ancient curse that was newly discovered by her) that she had been wanting to try properly for some time now. Oh, that was definitely one she was going to have to use again. Even if Fabian had managed to escape their grasp, the reaction they had provoked from him was all too pleasing to Bellatrix's sadistic tendencies. A smile curved across her lips beneath her mask... right up until the point where the first of Fabian's blasting curses crashed into her stomach and sent her flying back and onto the ground. That was not supposed to happen. A shield went up to deflect the rest of his attack and it was only a moment before Bellatrix was back on her feet. One hand went to her stomach, which felt as if it had just been kicked quite solidly while the other sent a thick grey haze at Fabian that intended to smother him and suck all of the air out of his lungs all at once.
Fabian couldn't help but feel a bit of dull satisfaction as at least he'd done something. But it was short-lived and she was back on her feet much too quickly for his liking. He swore and tried for his feet again, despite everything that hurt. It felt like it took too long and it had. By the time he'd managed to get his feet under him, a thick grey haze was enveloping him. "What the fuck..?" he mumbled. And then realised he couldn't breath. More, there was no air in his lungs. Empty, sucked away, and now he was being smothered by the thick haze as it filled his throat and nostrils. Fabian would have made him noise in acknowledgement to just how much that hurt, except he had no air to put past his vocal chords. On his knees again, choking on nothing. Well, he thought, somewhere in the still-functioning part of his head. This is a pretty shitty way to go out.
Oh, Bellatrix did not intend to let Fabian suffocate to death. No, she had grander, if quite nebulous and subject to change at any given moment, plans for him. She just wanted him to reach that point of sheer, desperate panic that invariably set in just before death and before Fabian could pass out from lack of breath, she flicked her wand and the haze dissipated and fell into nothing more than a pile of black dust. Another burst of the fiery red tendrils came from her wand next, before Fabian had the chance to recover and this time she aimed them straight for his chest. "Flaying is such an unpleasant feeling, wouldn't you say?"
He was almost thankful. He got a deep breath and then dissolved into a fit of coughs, his body almost rejected the sudden supply of oxygen. He was completely light-headed. But before he even got a chance to go for his wand again, a familiar burning was wrapped around his abdomen and back, hooking itself into skin and muscle and then tearing away. Fabian wasn't in any condition to control his cries of pain. Or even do much moving at this point. He felt half-delirious with pain and he could almost only just pant as he bled. "You fucking-- you cunt," he choked out, down to hurling petty insults.
Bellatrix just raised an eyebrow at Fabian's insults, although the effect was obviously lost behind her mask. For a moment she debated questioning him on the obviously failed logic that left him thinking he would attack her with words rather than his wand but if he could not even be bothered to defend himself (as she refused to recognise the fact that she had injured him to the point where he couldn't) then she was going to amuse herself with him. Her only response was a soft, almost reverent "Crucio," that fell from her lips.
Fabian barely had time to register that another curse had escaped her lips before every nerve in his body was on fire. He couldn't stop screaming, writhing on the ground as fire coursed through his veins. Godric, why couldn't she just kill him already? Surely it would be a relief in comparison to this. Every second stretched into eternity, time slowed down by agony.
An almost sedate feeling settled over Bellatrix as the power of her curse coursed through her veins. Her smile was broad and twisted beneath her mask as she relished the sound of Fabian's screams that cut through the din of the battles raging all around them. For not the first time in her life she wondered if it was possible to kill someone through the cruciatus alone and she was very tempted to use this opportunity to find out once and for all. It was only the sudden crash of another body into the ground mere metres from her feet that broke her concentration and brought an abrupt end to her curse. A flash of irritation consumed her as she glanced towards the source of the interruption, intent on killing whoever it was quickly before returning to her prey. That was before she saw just who it was. Fabian was all but forgotten as Bellatrix left him where he had fallen and turned her wand on Sirius instead. With any luck, Fabian would simply bleed to death anyway, but Sirius - that was a fight she had been hoping for.
Lily VERSUS Lucius
Lily hadn't even bothered to argue with James about it; once Aberforth's patronus had arrived in their sitting room, she'd been on her feet, gripping her wand tightly as she apparated to the Hog's Head. She wasn't expecting to see the entire village going up in flames, what seemed like an endless parade of Death Eaters, and complete and utter chaos. "Jesus," she whispered, panicking as she realized just how vulnerable she was standing there, nearly eight months pregnant. Her immediate reaction was to leave--she was painting a massive target on her stomach, showing up unmasked, carrying a child that was ending a pureblood line--but found she couldn't disapparate. Oh God, she thought, feeling her heart rate speed up and her mouth go dry.
Still shaken from the snake he had thrown at Remus but that had turned on him, Lucius was looking for another fight. It wasn't hard to miss Lily Potter, the mudblood. If it wasn't the red hair, the stomach would have drawn his attention. And they said that she was a brilliant witch. Apparently she wasn't brilliant enough to be masked when there was an attack. Even if she were masked, it wouldn't have taken much thought to deduce that the pregnant woman was her. To say that the baby bump didn't put Lucius off would be a lie: Narcissa was pregnant, after all, and it would only be a matter of time before she was in a similar state. For a split second he almost turned around, almost left her to someone who's fiance wasn't pregnant. After that split second, he came to his senses. He and Narcissa were carrying on a prestigious blood line and the child that the mudblood was carrying was ending a once great and powerful bloodline. He would be doing society a favor by killing her or at least killing the whelp and sending a message to her blood traitor husband in the process. Stepping toward her with a decided swagger, he lifted his wand. "What do we have here? Potter's mudblood bitch and the bastard to boot." He disguised his voice, making it deeper. "Confrigo" he said with a snicker, aiming his wand at her swollen stomach.
While the Death Eater was busy being a cocky fucking bastard, Lily cast a shield charm in front of herself, and his blasting hex bounced off easily. She doubted that anything that followed would be so simple to deflect. "You'll have to do better than that, you scum sucking cretin," she spat back, not surprised that she was being attacked for incubating a halfblood child. Lowering her shield she silently threw a forceful Confundo at him, followed by a vicious and practically bellowed, "Expulso!"
Perhaps speaking first had been a mistake on Lucius's part, but no one (except perhaps his mother) had ever accused him of being humble. He just barely managed to throw up a sheild charm before the Confundo came at him and kept it up through the Expulso, though it nearly failed. He would have to concentrate on stronger shields with this one. Her words angered him. Where the hell did she get off being so arrogant? She was lucky that no one had gone after her when her pregnancy was made public knowledge. "Incendio!" he growled out, sending a powerful flame toward her. "You're lucky I don't know the abortion spell, bitch, or the only cretin here would be long gone."
Lily met Lucius' flame in mid-air with aguamenti, eyes narrowing at his comment as she whipped a massive flock of angry sparrows at him with a silent avis. "What a perfect example of purist, upper-crust society you are, Mr Big Bad Death Eater," she snapped, whipping another silent spell, furnunculus, at him while trying to maintain her balance. She could still put a great deal of force behind her hexes despite how awkward she felt dueling at her size. "Attacking a pregnant woman! Wouldn't your mother be proud!"
Apparently Lucius really had a problem with silently casted spells as he only had time to throw up a flimsy shield by the time the time the birds hit him. "Incendio" he sent at the birds, burning them to a crisp by the time they hit the ground. Another thin shield was put up at the furnunculus, causing it to falter an bit and boils popped up over his left arm. "Fuck!" he said in pain, his eyes blazing with anger. "You have no right to bring my mother into this, mudblood." he spat at her. Ignoring the painful boils for the time being, he noticed her trouble with balance. He sent a jelly-leg jinx at her, followed quickly by a silent Confrigo, which he forced twice the strength of his previous spells into. "Keep talking and you won't live to be a mother yourself."
"And you have no right to attack an unborn child!" Lily said sharply, stopping both of Lucius' curses mid-way with a well-placed freezing charm, shattering the pieces with a blasting hex, sending the ice chunks back in his direction. "This mudblood doesn't give a flying fuck what you think I have a right to do!" Lily added, punctuating the last of her emphasized words with two silent hexes: levicorpus, and then reducto.
Lucius was prepared this time, his shield withstood her assault. A silent hot air charm melted the chunks before they could reach him. "Oh but I do when the unborn child is a half breed. Believe me, I would be doing it a favor." He guarded against the two hexes, feeling the force shake his shield, but it held fast. She was really starting to annoy him, even more so as the boils on his arms burned on. "Hmm, let's do an experiment." he said, holding his shield while he spoke. "I wonder how long I can hold you under the Cruciatus Curse before that thing you are carrying is affected and claws you from the inside out." He lowered his shield, throwing a incarcerous at her while he gathered the anger a cruciatus required.
Lily caught the ropes on fire. "Fucking try me you inbred, self-entitled shit," she growled. Enough of this. She barely had her wits about her stay sharp outside of her duel, having no idea what might be going on around her anymore. "Sectumsempra!" she practically screamed, slashing her wand across what would be Lucius' stomach and legs with a relish before conjuring a shield charm.
Lucius's leg was slashed before he could throw up a shield. "Fuck!" he yelled, one arm covered in boils and one leg injured, thankfully the one that worked properly. He took a limping step toward her, his jaw clenched as he felt hot blood run down his calf. The pain only fed the anger that he'd been gathering up. If he didn't act soon, he would do something foolish out of his anger. "You bitch, I'll make you wish that you were never born," he growled, lifting his wand with a steady hand and lowering his shield. "Crucio!" he bellowed, taking all his anger and channeling it into the red jet of light that shot out of his wand.
Lily held her shield charm, but Lucius' crucio was powerful. It fought hard against the protective barrier, so much as to push her backward and toward the other frays taking place around them. She grunted in her attempts to deflect it, but it seemed to have a mind of it's own. "Argh!" she yelled as she finally lost control, unable to support her weight any longer. "Buggering hell," she exclaimed as she fell backward, landing on her arse, her shield going up before failing and the crucio bounding off of it and upward, colliding with the flaming upper half of the Hog's Head, sending debris flying every which way.
"Shit, shit, shit," she muttered, having difficultly hoisting herself up without anything to push against besides the ground. She gave up after a moment and cast another shield charm to protect herself as much as possible while she fought to get back up on her feet.
To say that Lucius was pissed when her shield stayed up would be an understatement. He watched as debris went flying, ducking and dodging as pieces flew toward him. He looked back to Potter. She looked a bit like a turtle stuck on its back and even through his anger, Lucius let out a malicious snicker. Using his wand, he guided a piece of debris from the sky and sent it hurtling toward her. His aim wasn't good enough to hit her square in the stomach but as long as it injured her in some way, he would get to killing the child eventually. "No need to get up," he said in mock politeness, sending a silent incendio at her. He would try to hit her with as much as he could while she was still down and vulnerable. As an after thought he shot a sticking charm at her, so that she would stay put.
The debris broke her shield charm. Lily had managed to struggle into a standing position by that point, but still unsteady, the debris hit her arm, almost knocking her over again. She managed to keep upright, putting out the small fire it had started on her dress and hair and ignoring the pain for the time being. The incendio she deflected, but the sticking charm caught her, holding her in place. Well, she thought, casting a silent oppugno on the now smoldering bit of wood that Lucius had flung at her and directing it forcefully back in his direction. At least I'm standing up and not flailing around, stuck on the ground. She followed the wood up with, "Stupefy!" hoping that he would be distracted enough by the wood to not be able to dodge it, and using the brief moment she had to cast the counter-curse to his sticking charm and free her feet.
Lucius was pleased to see that she had been burned, but he didn't have too much time to gloat as a piece of flaming wood shot toward him. He ducked it, though he felt the heat through his mask. As he straightened up, he heard and saw that stupefy coming toward him and like so many times before, a flimsy shield was all that kept him from vecoming completely vulnerable and immobilized. The impact of the curse threw him backward a few metres and onto his arse. He jumped up, adding to the pain in both of his legs but other than a bruise or two, he could tell that the fall hadn't done too much damage. Coming back toward her, he yelled "Defodio", aiming the gouging spell at her stomach.
"Protego!" she shouted, casting another shield charm just in time and managing to deflect Lucius' hex, which would have certainly been fatal for both her and her child. She didn't waste any time after that, lowering her shield and sending another flock of angry, twittering birds at him, following by a silent tripping jinx aimed at his feet. "Reducto," she spat again, this time aiming for the ground in front of him, in hopes of catching him when he fell and sending him backward into the building behind him.
Lucius saw the spell deflected before falling the the ground, casting a shield as he fell, and having a flock of angry birds around him. He slapped them away angrily, banishing them one by one. His shield had protected him from the reducto, but he lowered it as he stood, only for the amount time that it took to cast another spell. "Serpensortia!" he yelled, another snake bursting forth from his wand. He wasn't sure why it had failed with the last person he had dueled, but he put faith in the fact that his snake had never turned on him before and simply put up a stronger shield and was ready to banish it if it, too, turned on him. He didn't have as much energy, therefore the snake wasn't as big as his first. This one was green and fat, a constrictor. He hoped it would move fast enough to squeeze the life out of both mother and child, or at least hold her long enough for him to kill them himself. He didn't think he was in a situation where he could concentrate enough to Avada Kedavra, but there were messier ways to get the job done.
Lily's feet for free and she backed up a few paces. A snake. What the hell. It was slithering toward her, snapping menacingly. Fucking fuck she hated snakes. Lily tried to focus on it as much as possible and cast another silent blasting curse in Lucius' direction before vanishing the snake, hoping to God that stuff like that ended up in some neutral abyss somewhere.
"Fuck," Lucius muttered, his shield shaking and barely holding up through the blasting curse. It was only then that he realised that he should have wrapped his shield around both him and the snake. It certainly would have used more concentration, but at least the snake wouldn't have been banished before it had a chance to do any sort of damage. Just after she banished the snake, he threw a silent confudo at her, followed quickly by a incendio.
The confundo hit Lily and she suddenly felt incredibly disoriented. "What the hell?" she questioned out loud, looking around in confusion and wondering what in the name of Merlin's pants was going on around her. Lucius' incendio caught her hair, and once the heat and terrible smell hit her, it didn't take long for her confusion to be replaced with panic. "Shit! Oh, shit!" she exclaimed, nearly dropping her wand in her rush to put the fire out by dousing herself with water. Once it was out it was all she could do but glare menacingly before putting as much force as she could muster into a blasting hex aimed at the ground just in front of Lucius, followed by yet another flock of angry sparrows (which she was favoring today; they were responding well to her anger and frustration), and an incendio of her own.
The basting hex threw Lucius backwards and he landed on his arm, letting out a groan as it twisted and crunched sickeningly. Hurridly, he healed his arm, the majority of the boils leaving as his bone fitted back together. He wasn't the best with healing charms, but it was good enough to keep him going for now. Standing he found himself with a face full of sparrows, but taking a page from Lily's book, he banished the birds with time for only one to leave a light scratch on his newly healed hand. With the fights around them, he was starting to lose track of where Potter was and what to throw at her. At least he'd burned some of her hair. "Confrigo!" he said once more, hoping that the gouging spell would rid him of the woman and child in one curse this time.
The confringo missed Lily, crashing into the ground in front of her and exploding the street. The force blew Lily backward several feet and her back smashed into a solid wall causing her to wince and cry out. When the explosion cleared she could no longer tell who was who or where the death eater she had been dueling had gone.