Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-09-14 01:27:00 |
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Narcissa glanced around the tent in frustration. Where in Merlin's name was Demetrius? Was he not supposed to be around to aid them with this project? She frowned. He couldn't possibly have left them to pull some heroic stunt and fight, would he? Oh, that would be very bad. And what on earth had happened to Corbina? Lips twisting grimly, Narcissa pushed the pile of bandages she had been sorting towards the masked figure of Astra. "I'll be back in a moment."
She paused inside the door of the tent- were there people talking outside? 'If you're going to fight, you'd better actually do damage..' Did that mean what she thought it meant? Bursting out of the tent, Narcissa looked around frantically for Corbina, but she was nowhere in sight. Fantastic. "Demetrius Mulciber," she hissed furiously, turning to the figure who remained. How could he possibly have been so incompetent? "What have you done?"
"I haven't done anything!" he said defensively, turning to face Narcissa (or he assumed it was Narcissa, she was the tallest next to Corbina of the women). It wasn't his fault Corbina wanted to go out into battle. He couldn't have really stopped her. Though letting her was probably a death wish in itself.
"You just let her leave! I heard you speaking." If there had been any confusion at all on Demetrius' part on which woman the mask-wearer was, it was certainly dispelled by now. Narcissa Malfoy sounded very much like herself when she had this level of icy anger in her voice. "What possessed you? At the very least you should have knocked her out and dragged her back in the tent." Narcissa was incredibly fond of Corbina, but this was sheer stupidity on both of their parts.
"I had no choice! I tried to convince her to stay but she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself," he retorted stubbornly. Rolling his eyes at the suggestion of knocking her out, he shook his head. "Why would I knock her out? That would be incredibly disrespectful of me. Not to mention once she woke up she'd probably be after my blood for it. She wanted to go into battle, and if she doesn't want to see reason, I'm not going to try and stop her by force."
Narcissa wrinkled her nose with disgust, though it was highly unlikely Demetrius could see it through the mask. "Well, you had better be hoping very hard that nothing happens to her, because I can name several who would be after your blood in that case. And even if nothing does happen to Corbina, do you honestly think Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Marius will be perfectly fine with you letting their sister charge into battle?" Turning on her heel, she stalked back into the tent to inform the other women without a backward glance.
Of course, he knew Narcissa was right. Rodolphus (if not the entire rest of the Lestrange family) would be furious about Corbina going into battle. Especially the "letting" part. "I've lived a good life, I can accept death," he told himself gravely, sitting down on the hard, cold ground. "I should probably have someone inform Severus and Aquila of my untimely demise," he added under his breath. Though there was always the slim chance that Corbina would come out the hero of the battle, not a scratch on her, and everything be fine. ...Not entirely likely, Demetrius.
THREAD FOUR- MWPP PLOT AND HEAD NORTH
Meet near the Apparation point next to Asphodel Avenue. This was the final decision for the Marauders before they left. They had decided to apparate into different areas, just in case they ended up right in the middle of a group of Death Eaters, they wouldn't all be trapped, and the others would be available to come to help. Remus apparated away from Godric's Hollow, appearing at the apparation point near the Three Broomsticks. He didn't like the idea of not being near Marlene, but he knew that she would not be alone, at least. Although, she hadn't been alone when they were at Dorcas' flat, either, and look what happened there? They had made it out alive, but it had been the three of them against two Death Eaters -- not to mention the last massive attack they had participated in not ending well, either.
Just as the time before, they arrived in the middle of the battle, although there was no immediate rush into battle. Remus could see, in the distance, several people at the gates of Howarts. Had they breached the walls aready? They couldn't exactly apparate in there what with the anti-apparation wards on the grounds. Edging over near the houses at Asphodel Avenue, Remus kept several spells in mind, ready to cast in case he wasn't as alone as he thought he was as he waited for the others to show up.
"Remus," James whispered, after apparating and seeing that his friend had landed near him as planned. "Have they breached or are they breaching?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the gate and his hand on his wand. "Doesn't matter I guess, fuckers will get through one way or the other," he mumbled. "We need to find Pete and Sirius," he said, tearing his eyes away from Hogwarts.
This was killing James, being away from Lily, seeing his beloved Hogwarts attacked, not knowing exactly where Sirius was. It was like a nightmare, but it didn't frighten James. Adrenalin surged through his veins as all his thoughts focused on making this right. They could do this. When the Marauders were together there was nothing they couldn't do.
"We're going to need a plan," he added, turning his eyes back one last time to the gates.
Sirius had taken a slow jog around, trying to stay out of sight as he went down to Asphodel. He hadn't seen much of anything on the run so he took that to assume they were further up, closer to the school. That probably meant the girls were going to run into them pretty soon and going in firing off was probably not the most effective way of dealing with that situation, especially considering it was Lily and Marlene. He didn't want to deal with Remus ripping someone apart or James kicking the shit out of people because they got hurt. Not that you could really do that people like the Lestranges, but hopefully, the girls were no where near them. Hopefully, they were nowhere near them, come to think of it. They were still teenagers and didn't want to deal with whopping great giants if they could help it.
He spotted James first and sped up to meet with them. "Alright, lads." Sirius said, coming to a running halt beside them before leaning his hands on his knees and taking a deep breath out. "Nothing too close to us -- reckon they've gone for higher ground." He looked back the way he came before echoing James' earlier thoughts. "Girls seem alright for now, they're heading up there. Reckon we need to make a move and get the hell up there, but they're going to see us coming." It was a major flaw in any plan that they were going to get their arses kicked and they couldn't afford to. "Suggestions?"
Peter had taken several quick glances around after apparating, first, to make sure that he had ended up where he had intended to end up (stress, could, occasionally, shift his apparating ability several miles off course), but he seemed to have gotten lucky this time. After making a quick check to make sure he hadn't splinched anything important, Peter headed towards the Asphodel Avenue apparation point and the area that he could see the others grouped together. Wand at the ready in case he ended up being taken off guard in his progress, Peter headed north to meet the others.
Sliding in next to Sirius, Peter looked between all of them before a slight smirk blossomed on his face, "Nobody knows this area better than us, mates. They don't have to see us coming if we don't want them to."
Remus almost wanted to suggest they meet up with the girls, because wouldn't a larger group stand a better chance? Then again, splitting up into several smaller groups had it's advantages too, such as being able to surround the enemy from all sides (so long as they didn't get ambushed first). He felt relaxed now that the rest of them were here, the four of them together again in Hogsmeade, just like old times -- how long as it been since they've all been here like this together? It was unfortunate that it took an attack on Hogwarts to get them all there. It seemed like those lighthearted days were becoming harder to come by now, but as always, there was no time to waste on nostalgia.
It didn't take long for Remus to catch on to what Peter was implying, and he smiled slightly at his friend, raising an eyebrow at him. "If you're suggesting what I think, then I'd say that would certainly put us at an advantage. While the others advance from the front lines, we can get them from the back."
"Brill," James agreed. "Let's get moving before anyone spots us," he said, stepping more toward the shadows to avoid being seen and tugging at Sirius almost playfully. He knew the seriousness of this, and a part of his mind was certainly on Lily, but he was shoving that aside, knowing that if he was worried about her there was no way he'd be able to keep his head in this fight. Besides, like he told anyone who would listen over and over and over: When the Marauders were together, there was no fight they couldn't win. They could face all of the Death Eaters at once and still come away unscathed... James was absolutely convinced.
8. 12.20a DMLE pushes forward
9. 12.40a DEs pushed back
THREAD ONE - MWPP MOVE TO THE SHRIEKING SHACK
Moments later, they were running up towards the shack. It felt strange to think they'd be going there for a reason other than to mess with a werewolf. Though if there were werewolves hanging about, he rather hoped that they were closer to them because they knew how to deal with it better without dying horribly. That said, the girls had a great running headstart on them and as they couldn't see them around while they ran up Hogsmeade, he could safely assume the Death Eaters did too. What else was there to wreak havoc on besides Hogsmeade or the school? Merlin help them if they destroyed the Quidditch Pitch as some sort of evil plan. The school would revolt. What else would you do, though? Go inside the school? Weren't there wards for that kind of thing?
The questions ran through his head in a muddle, checking back on the guys and making sure they could keep up. It was teetering close to the moon so he made a mental note not to piss off Remus, though that was infinitely harder considering he wasn't being overly vocal. The worst thing you could do in battle was announce 'here I am!' and he didn't half wonder if that was Marlene's trouble half the time. They could hear her coming! In a way, that worked in their favour too. If they wanted to find the girls, they'd just have to listen for Marlene and Agnes swearing and that's where the trouble would be.
Remus was, admittedly, a little concerned about risking the secrecy of the Shrieking Shack. It had always been their little hide away, and a safe, secure place for him to transform on the full moons each month, and Remus was reluctant to risk destroying that. What if there were Death Eaters nearby and saw them go in? What if someone discovered the secret? What if he didn't know someone found out about the shack, and came in there one night on the full moon? He would just have to be extra careful, and perhaps ask Dumbledore about the wards on the shack to make sure it was still safe. Even so, defending Hogwarts from the Death Eaters took priority over risking the discovery of the truth behind the Shrieking Shack. Remus would just have to find someplace else to transform during the full moons.
There was no time to distract himself with these worries now; Remus had to be on alert as they ran through Hogsmeade to reach the Shrieking Shack, just in case they ran into the enemy. He kept his wand out, mind alert and attentive to their surroundings, and he tried to ignore the posters on the buildings with his face on them claiming that he was a killer. People could be so foolish, believing lies fed to them so easily. He could only be glad that more people were accepting of halfbloods and muggleborns than they were of werewolves, and hoped there would never come a time when they were treated just as badly as his kind are.
Peter's eyes were darting back and forth in front of them as they headed in the direction of the Shack, heart hammering in his chest for the fear that someone would realise that they were heading away from the main chaos of the battle and follow them to see what they were up to. Maybe, if they were lucky, anyone that did spot them would just assume that they were cowards and let them pass.
Stumbling along behind the others, Peter was struggling to keep up. Shorter than the other three by a rather sufficient amount, his legs weren't nearly a long and couldn't manage anywhere close to the strides that Sirius, James, and Remus could. In fact, when he tried, he usually ended up falling on his face or getting pretty close to doing so. Sadly, as he bounded forward taking a step that was far more than he should ever try to manage, it was the former that ended up being true in this case.
James was lost in worry about Lils with every second that passed, but he did notice when Pete did a faceplant, and his initial reaction was to whip around with his wand raised, looking for whomever had hexed him. It took him a moment to realise Peter had managed it all on his own, and he reached down a hand to help his friend up.
"We're going to have to be a little more careful than that," he muttered. It wasn't that he was impatient with Peter so much as he was impatient with everything at the moment. Both his nerves and his senses were on high alert, and he didn't have enough capacity left for niceties. They were coming up on the shack now anyway, and James held back, letting the others go in first so he could look out behind them one last time to be absolutely certain they were not followed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Sirius spun around thinking the same thing: that they were under attack and had missed someone. He began walking backwards just long enough to roll his eyes and wonder if there was anything you could do with someone who had two left feet. He could always ask the next severed limb Remus got in the mail to be a right leg and attempt to attach it but this really wasn't the time to be thinking of performing limb attachments.
He pulled himself around, stumbling slightly himself because he wasn't looking where he was going and he was no where near as bad Peter, thank you very much, so they'd be back on track soon enough, considering. "Makes a change going in this way," He commented, coming to a slightly more graceful halt. "They already have a head start so lets try to get there in one piece, shall we?"
Remus, too, had stopped, turning around to see James helping Peter stand back up. Even when he saw there was no Death Eaters in sight, he still did not allow himself to relax, glancing at Peter as they began walking again. "Alright?" he asked Peter, concerned for his friend; he knew he could be clumsy at times, and only hoped it was due to nerves that would settle down. Finally reaching the shack, Remus went up first, unlocking the door, the movements familiar and routine for him. The old shack creaked and groaned in protest as he pulled open the door, but he paid the noises no mind, stepping inside and moving into the shack to give the others room to follow. "It's not quite the full yet -- I'm sure we won't have a problem getting there in one piece," Remus commented. "But we should hurry."
Nerves and physical limitations, but there wasn't any lasting damage, nothing beyond a few scraps and a bruised pride. "I'm fine," Peter said, his voice holding a deep apologetic tone as he followed Remus into the shack, stepping aside for James and Sirius to enter. "Agreed. Before anyone notices we're gone, and they start expecting something."
Sirius nodded and took off at a brisk pace into the shack. There wasn't any time to waste on pleasantries and Peter would get over it. He took a moment to wonder where everyone else was going to be and what they were walking into. At least they had the element of surprise on their side as they took the tunnel as they had done so many times before. He shot a look at James and with a spark of playful banter in the battlefield, he smiled and said, "Race you!" as he took off down the tunnel.
THREAD TWO - BFOB BETWEEN DMLE/ORDER/DES
Kate was still in pain from whatever it had been that the Death Eater she'd been fighting had hurled towards her. She had lost track of how many Death Eaters she had been fighting and it was only getting more intense. She'd been startled by a hex behind her and whirled around to find the tallest fucking Death Eater she'd seen the entire time she'd been fighting standing directly behind her. The Protego was an automatic response but she wasn't certain it would be enough and as soon as she realised that he'd not yet cast at her, she determined to get in a shot - disarm him before he could damage her, perhaps.
The shield dropped, her expelliarmus was directed at him, and she snapped "Protego" again, hoping that it would hold.
Rodolphus's own protego (still standing, as he didn't run around recklessly throwing spells when they were unnecessary) burst into red, littering the air for a moment before it was gone; he sneered, lifting his wand and pointing it at the woman - auror, from her robes - but not very well off, it seemed. He sent three successive nonverbal spells: a blasting curse, confringo!, to the ground - to startle her; then an expelliarmus - for her shield, which he knew no good auror took three steps without. The final? A cruciatus. He hadn't had the pleasure of a scream in a long while.
Kate had not expected his size to be particularly indicative of his skill. She'd met many a very large man that was anything but competent and while she had not exactly expected incompetence, she had not expected such swift rebuttle. The blasting curse startled her, and she had just time to register in her mind that he was not speaking his curses. That would make it harder but not impossible, she thought, but her shield charm was down, and before she could strengthen it for whatever was next in line, the cruciatus hit her. She screamed with the pain of the unforgivable. It was only extremely strong instinct that managed to keep her fingers attached around her wand, for her thoughts were of nothing but how much pain was coarsing through her body, and would it ever stop?
Rodolphus held the crucio, second after second, until he was finally satisfied that she had truly felt it in every nerve, in every bone. Finally, he released, raising a protego horribilus - though he very much doubted a little girl was going to try any sort of dark magic on him. He took two steps left, closer - and the gap between them narrowed. He didn't mind inflicting magical damage (one could do a great deal in a very short amount of time), but getting his hands on someone was far more satisfying.
The spell broke off and Kate gasped audibly. Every nerve ending in her body felt on edge as she worked to get her sense back. She didn't think he'd give her much time, and this time she snapped a furnunculus at the tall bastard followed immediately by an impedimenta and a shield charm, but she wasn't convinced any of the spells had enough strength of force behind them to be useful. She couldn't let the unforgivable stop her. She thought to herself. "Protego," she snapped, reinforcing the shield charm once again, as she felt her determination pulling together again.
Rodolphus slapped the furnunculus away with a quickly formed protego, but the impedimenta knocked him back a few steps - bringing a macabre leer to his face. When were the righteous 'good guys' going to realise that childish jinxes and repelling charms were useless against those willing to go further... and he was willing. Forced to maintain his distance with the impedimenta, Rodolphus decided to rely on magic - and let loose a barrage of curses - the worst of which would blow her spine through her back, and the least of which would merely set her on fire. He was quite enjoying himself!
Kate's protego held through the first of the few curses - although it would not have had she not strengthened it once more as soon as the first few hit. The air around her felt charged with the curses as they snapped off of her charm, but she couldn't keep it strong for the numbers of curses that the Death Eater was sending her direction, and one hit her, gauging deep into her left arm, and she snapped up a shield charm again, only to deflect one spell, and be hit with another.
It was the fire that hit her full force, and the entire sleeve of her right arm caught fire and Kate screamed, quickly switching her wand out of her right hand, so that the last shield charm she'd done was halted mid-spell, a half-strength spell, and she cast aguamenti as quickly as she could to douse her sleeve in water, but the heat of the fire had burned through her robes, and the shield charm had been half-done, so that she was hit with another spell mid-dousing her sleeve, so that the fire kept climbing up towards her shoulder, and she cried out and case the spell again.
She was in trouble, and the pain of the burn was shooting up her right side, and she had managed only to slow him down - once. She snapped a series of blasting curses towards him, suddenly furious at this fuckwit Death Eater and his nasty, nasty curses.
Pain had a way of making people sloppy, and though Rodolphus was thrown backward as one of the blasting curses erupted in the ground before him, he was mostly undamaged by her backlash. Though not an especially proud man, he did have some sense of decorum - and rather disliked being planted on his behind in the dirt, so - with a grumble of discontent - he dragged himself back to his feet, holding a shielding charm before him to disrupt the rest of her badly aimed blasting curses (two of which glanced off the shield and exploded in some nearby shrubbery); at the next pause he aimed a deprimo right at her feet, followed by a vicious downslash of his wand. Sectumsempra.
Kate could feel deep gauges opening up and down the side of her body. Every muscle in her body seemed to be crying out in pain, and she although she moved to stop the hot blood pouring from her arm and her shoulder, she was coming nowhere close to stopping it. She had been hit with so many curses that she felt as if she had been beaten with a hundred rocks pounding her from every direction and as she looked up at the Death Eater, she wondered how long it would take.
And that thought alone frightened her. She was going to die. And it was at that moment that she felt rather than saw arms pull around her and she could feel the strength of the shield charm protecting them, and then there was nothing.
--
The battle was already well underway by time Corbina had made her escape from the tent, but she knew there'd be little point to turning back now. She'd already dealt with Demetrius's fussing, and knew she was in for it once the night was through and her family caught wind of what she'd done, but this still felt like something that Corbina needed to do. It would be worth it in the end.
It was hot behind her mask, and she was not used to having her peripheral vision blocked like this when engaged in a duel, but it was a better option than being seen and recognised. Nonetheless, Corbina's slightly limited vision did not keep her from picking out a proper victim, a fair-haired male who must have been one of the vigilantes. (He certainly didn't seem the Auroring sort. The Ministry may have had its problems, but as far as Corbina knew, the dresscode wasn't skewed enough to allow its champions of justice above ground wearing hats that looked like that.) Without hesitation -- after all, Corbina had promised that she wouldn't get herself hurt, and waiting around could very well provoke the opposite to happen -- she shot a slicing spell in the man's direction, hoping that the attack would catch him off guard, leaving him vulnerable and herself with the advantage.
Dedalus, more than anything, knew he had to keep himself alert while on the battlefield. His purpose for showing up was obviously very different from those on the opposing end -- he didn't wish to kill or injure anyone; he wanted that to be the last resort. He wanted to save people, make a stance against his foes, and protect the ones he cared about in the most nonviolent way possible.
Apparently, that was too much to ask. The slicing spell hit Dedalus on the back of his leg, and the pain almost threw him to his knees. He turned around, stared for a moment, and then finally tipped his hat at his masked attacker.
"Good evening," he said quietly.
Corbina stared back at Dedalus, the fact that her expression slipped to one of slight confusion hidden behind the mask. He was being awfully formal for a person who'd just had their leg gouged into by a slicing spell.
Nonetheless, Corbina had been raised on formalities, and while she didn't have a hat to tip back and couldn't be bothered to bow (or curtsy) to her opponent, she did pause for a moment, nodding slightly before sending a silent freezing spell at his feet. The spell unfortunately failed (which was extraordinarily irritating to Corbina; her intention of not speaking at all had run into a major setback), dousing Dedalus in a light shower of snow rather than cutting into him with ice. "Levicorpus," Corbina hissed again, keeping her voice low and steady, hoping that it wouldn't be immediately noticable that she was a girl.
Dedalus wasn't paying attention to the tonality of Corbina's voice. Whether or not she was a woman was the furthest thing from his mind, especially considering as how spells were being thrown at him and he wanted to get away without a scratch. Making sure his hat wouldn't fall off, he hopped and rolled out of the way, dodging the attack by an inch.
"Now wait a minute," he raised his voice at her, lifting the hand that wasn't clenching his wand. "I don't want to hurt you."
Corbina didn't want the man to hurt her either. Not that she was worried about him doing any harm to her, of course, considering he was too busy chattering and protecting his ridiculous hat from accumulating any damage to shoot any spells in her direction.
It was hard to take him seriously, treehugging dialogue or not, with that purple eyesore sitting on top of his head anyway. Pointing her wand at it, Corbina cast a blasting hex at the violet accessory, not caring if it blasted it away or rained down into millions of tiny purple fabricy pieces. She wanted it out of the equasion.
Reacting a little later than he needed to, Dedalus shut his eyes, thinking the spell would hit him instead of his hat. When it was the hat that fell to the ground in shreds, he breathed a sigh of relief, and scrambled back to his feet. Finally, he aimed his wand at his opponent's chest, opening his mouth to speak once more.
"I can tell your mind has been poisoned. You think what you're doing is right. Your reasons for attacking me aren't to defend yourself or those you love, but because you think my presence in this world is some sort of threat to you. Am I right? I'm here to tell you that you've been bamboozled -- You-Know-How is a very tricky man, evidently."
Corbina raised a Protego around herself when the man aimed his wand at her, waiting for some sort of an attack to bounce off her shield. She waited.... and waited... and waited, but the man was clearly so focused on using his wand merely as some sort of baton to accent the points in his speech that it never occured to him to actually use it to cast magic.
He was likely a muggleborn.
"Bamboozled?" Corbina scoffed out loud, unable to believe that they were standing in the middle of an already bloody battlefield, and he was trying to convince her that she'd been brainwashed. Yes, that was it exactly. There was no point to the Cause. They were all just puppets. CLEARLY that was it. "I believe that you are mistaken," Corbina explained to him, continuing to speak with a lower tone, disguising her voice. "I think that you are the one here who is the "bamboozled" puppet." And it was time for her puppet to dance. "Tarantallegra!"
"Don't toss your life away!" he managed to shout before he felt his body moving, skipping and swaying on its own volition, and with a loud grunt, he tried to regain control, flicking his wand in her direction and muttering Reducto!, hoping the spell would hit and send her body flying away from him. His leg, the one that had been cut, was still jerking involuntarily.
Corbina was thankful that she'd "wasted" her efforts on a spell like tarantallegra on the fight, as it was the flailing of the man's feet that kept his aim off, causing her to not be hit by the full affect of the spell. She was still knocked off her feet, however, landing hard in the dirt beneath her. And deep down, part of her was glad that Dedalus had finally begun to fight back. Things would get extremely boring very quickly if he intended to simply stand there and let her attack him.
Glaring from behind her mask, Corbina touched her wand to the ground as she pulled herself to her feet, calling out "Glacius" to send a freezing spell along the ground towards Dedalus, turning the grass and mud into ice. Once she was standing again, she shot a stinging hex at the man before raising another shield around herself.
The stinging hex connected with Dedalus' arm, after he slipped on the ice, once again finding himself on his knees. Though his arm hurt, he still raised his wand at her, eyes narrowed. "I won't lie to you. You're obviously quite talented, but it's foolish for you to use your skills for evil. Do you even know why you're attacking me? And look at you. Look at how young you are. I didn't realise your master was so desperate for followers."
Corbina stared silently back at him, tilting her head curiously as she wondered just how naive he could possibly be. That was definitely a poor choice of conversation topic on Dedalus's part. Of course Corbina knew why she was attacking him: he had the nerve to dare to say things like that about the Dark Lord; insulting him; insulting everything that her family had been working towards. But Corbina said nothing to answer his questions; the man could fill in those curious blanks at his own volition. Anger burned deep within her as she narrowed her eyes at him, keeping her wand steady as she hissed out, "Crucio."
Dedalus was overcome with sharp, unimaginable pain surging through his body, and he felt the anger she felt, though far more intensely. He fell to the ground once again, struggling to get to his feet but finding it impossible.
"Hurting people is a weak thing to do. You're weak," he spoke, his voice almost failing him. "You're weak and you don't have to be. You've taken the weak road, but you can still turn back." Though somewhat disoriented, he aimed his wand at her chest again, blasting a slicing hex, hoping it would hit in a place that'd paralyze her for a bit.
Corbina had been content to leave him laying there in a heap, feeling satisfied with her contribution to the battle. She'd been absolutely correct: she'd done what she'd come out here to do, and would be returning to the tent uninjured.
Until she found herself sliced into by a cutting hex to her chest, the spell slicing through her robes and leaving a thin but deep gash across her chest. The shock of Dedalus actually hitting her with something tripped her up, and Corbina rolled to the ground with a gasp, ever-careful to make sure her wand was not damaged in the process. "You vile little pissant," she seethed, shouting a blasting hex at him as she climbed back to her feet.
"I could same the same for you, fiend," Dedalus retorted, before his dastardly adversary threw his body into the air with her wand. He slammed into a tree, his body seizing up with pain once more, and all he could see was his masked attacker and the remnants of his top hat, littered across the dirty ground.
Corbina cast another shield spell around herself while she dusted off the dirt on her robes and repaired the slice in her robes, wanting to be certain for both her sake and Demetrius's that she looked as unharmed as possible upon her return to the tent. The little blond man wouldn't be a bother anymore. "Have a splendid night, sir," she bowed to the fallen fellow before taking her leave, returning with a hurry towards the tent. It looked as though the others were beginning to retreat, and Corbina was intent making it appear she had never left.
--
After her little tête-à-tête with Beth, Agnes headed toward the gates of Hogwarts, where she could see the last of the order and ministry pushing through. Part of her reeled at the notion that Hogwarts had been breached; that wasn't supposed to happen - where was Dumbledore?! How could this happen! But she didn't have time to think too hard on it, for as she made it onto the grounds, she played witness to the greatest clusterfuck she'd ever seen. "Holy fuck!" She cried out - eyes going wide at the sheer amount of spell fire that was flying back and forth. Right. Well. She was just going to have to kick somebody's ass.
"Hey you! Dickhead! Yeah I'm talkin' to you! Get the fuck out of here!" She put up a quick "protego" before yelling "Stupefy!"
The voice, the grammar, and the swear words were utterly unmistakable, "Protego", Severus snapped immediately. The spell was flying towards him and it hit the shield bouncing off of it and into the distance. He swallowed hard as Agnes, fierce, tiny Agnes came rushing towards him and he snapped up a second shielding charm as a dozen thoughts and memories whirled through his mind. He could not afford to get emotional now. Focus on the task at hand: stun her: take her out of the fight: don't let her die.
His Incarcerous was whirled towards her silently, followed by a blasting charm towards the ground near her. If he could distract her and stun her and maybe leave her somewhere she wouldn't be found - the thought was so swift it was barely coherent. She was just another Order member. Take her out, try not to kill her. It had been the decision he'd made long before tonight for if he'd come up against any of the vigilantes he actually cared about. And hopefully it would not end as it had the last time he had faced Lily, with him harming her while trying to help her.
Catching sight of the blur as well as hearing the rather unpleasant, grating sound of the unmistakably uncultured, Regulus turned just in time to see the small form of Agnes O'Hare charging Severus. It clearly had not worked too well for her, but he supposed running at a wizard (and a Death Eater, at that) who had a wand was not the most intelligent move, in his opinion. The result wasn't terribly surprising, to be honest: it was his supposition that, given the severe amount of brain-addling substances she used on herself (and others), she had likely had destroyed the sense necessary to keep oneself from doing stupid things. While that served no personal detriment to him, he could not help but be embittered still from those biscuits she had sent and the constant stream of inappropriate commentary and language that she seemed to contribute to the journals -- it mattered not that he had scarclely spoken or written a handful of sentences to her in his entire life, and it mattered little that it had been months since he had been the target of any of their accusations or pranks, but that did not make the past any less vexing or ponderable.
He was not exactly concerned that Severus would be unable to handle fighting the tiny, rather beaten girl, but in case she might have backup arriving, he wished to ensure he did not leave Severus without backup, as a precaution.
Agnes yelped as the incarcerous hit her shield and the ground exploded before her; but she was small, agile, and already bloodied up (her shirt was half torn and she hadn't even bothered to fix it) - so what was a little dirt? She threw herself into the ground, refusing to stop just because some pigheaded fuckwad had decided to join them. She paused long enough to give (Regulus) two inappropriate fingers, and then cast a loud CONFRINGO at the pair. She might have been addled, but her spellwork had never been bad.
Crinkling his nose in irritation (certainly she was crass, and they knew it, but that did not make it any better -- the nerve), Regulus managed a startled Protego -- only enough of a shield to soften the blow and send him a few rough steps back, as he had not expected the quick turnaround of an attack. She was supposed to stay on the ground. Not waiting to see whether or not Severus had been struck or not, Regulus countered with an irritated Incarcerous, supposing it would be easy enough to kick the girl to the side and leave her there to be trampled by the masses without notice. Honestly, a rude gesture like that had been entirely inappropriate.
Severus quickly threw up a Protego to Agnes' spell, and reinforced it as he quickly ran through the spells in his arsenal that would keep her alive but not kill her, and would hopefully distract her long enough for him and Regulus to get away. Fortunately it did not seem that the younger wizard was interested in killing her, and Severus dropped his shield charm long enough to cast a quick and quietly determined "tarantallegra", followed by a tripping jinx. As soon as the spells were cast at Agnes, he threw up a shield charm to protect himself from anything else she might try to cast at him. There would be a ridiculous irony to getting injured by Agnes when she didn't know it was him - not, the thought briefly and absurdly flew threw his mind, that she'd change her actions if she knew it was him under the mask.
Agnes was well acquainted with the protego, and she used it twice to some success - until Severus tripping jinx caught her square on and she "oofed" to the ground. It was hardly fair - two against one, but she wasn't incapacitated yet (though somewhere in the back of her mind she was forced to wonder why death eaters were using such childish spells. She didn't even drag herself up, but pointed her wand from where she lay in the dirt. "FURNUNCULUS," followed by a freezing charm - the first pointed at Severus and the second more quickly at Regulus.
This time far more revved into the mindset of battle -- after all, most of his wandwork thus far had been against inanimate objects -- Regulus strengthened his shield and followed up with a pointed slicing hex at the girl, only mildly put out that the Incarcerous he had attempted had not landed as it was meant to.
Severus was thankful for the Protego as Agnes' hex bounced off of it. Without thinking things through too much, he pointed his wand at Agnes again, this time stepping towards her a bit. "Silencio," he said, wondering if she'd be able to cast spells silently - somehow he felt not. He followed it with a silent expelliarmus, and yet another protego.
Agnes was hit with the slicing hex as she attempted to block Severus's silencio - her casting was fucked by the sudden pain that ran up her ribs, and she gasped - and no sound came out. Scrambling to her feet, she desperately tried to silently cast a protego or a finite incantatem - but to no avail. The next she knew her wand was flying out of her hand - and she was forced to throw herself near Regulus to retrieve it (though what good it would do her when she couldn't bloody cast was anyone's guess).
When Regulus noticed the expelled wand come flying toward him, he could not help but think what a pleasant convenience and perfect opportunity that was. Giving her a brief moment to scramble toward them, Regulus lifted his foot, waiting until her fingers were mere inches from the wand before promptly and solidly stomping his foot down with a crack. The wood snapped fairly easily under his foot, and he could not help but feel a mild satisfaction that it was fair retaliation for the rude gesture and the improper language and all of the filthy things O'Hare had probably done or thought or said over the past few months that he had not been keeping up with her.
Supposing he probably ought to actually do fair damage with Severus, another Death Eater, standing right there watching him, Regulus whispered a quick Furnunculus following a blasting hex – boils didn't like to be touched, after all, so that theoretically seemed like it ought to count decently.
Severus stopped short, as he saw Regulus step on what could only have been Agnes' wand. Shit! His intention had not been to leave her without any way to defend herself or to get out of there, but he couldn't stop to think about it. At this point the only thing he could do was to get close enough to her to hopefully keep Regulus from actually killing her - could Regulus actually kill her? But he could, Severus was sure of it, the only question was whether he would, and he quickly stepped forward so that he was closer to her and Regulus. She had boils, and her wand was broken, and she couldn't speak, and he winced, but cast a conjunctivitis curse at her. He knew it would hurt her like hell, but it could be healed, and she'd be alive, at least...
If Agnes had been audible, she'd have been screaming in rage (and pain) - and her mouth made the motions to do so -- and then the pain hit her eyes and she doubled over at Regulus's feet, tears starting to pour down her cheeks. Fuck this. Fuck them. She wasn't going down without a fucking fight.
Reaching up, she curled her tiny fingers around Regulus's cloak, dragging herself to her feet with it. She glared him right in the mask and swung her fist around. CRACK!! Right to the jaw. And then tall and pointy over there? She lunged the fuck at him, eyeballs screaming in pain and skin looking like something out of a troll horror story, and slammed her fist as hard as she could - right into his stomach. If only they could hear her "FUCK YOU"s - for they were the very pinnacle of epic.
Severus winced, first at Agnes' face, and immediately afterwards at the feel of her fist into his stomach. He doubled over and caught himself before he actually said "bloody hell" out loud. It was Agnes, and the chance that she'd recognise his voice was not particularly slim. He raised his wand at her again, although he could hardly see her, and he knew that she was furious - it wasn't the first time he'd had her fists directed into him - and probably cursing at them both. He raised his face so he could see her and cast the "Incarcerous", not bothering to cast it silently although he did lower his voice beneath its usual pitch. It was not as if she was going to be able to do anything about it.
Bind her. And without any defenses, the spell caught the angry, tiny girl and magical ropes bound her hands and legs together. Sev glanced at Regulus and shrugged, more coldly than he felt. His stomach still ached from her first, but the sight of her made him ache more. He hated this, but with Regulus here, he couldn't do anything other than play his part completely. He wasn't going to kill her though. He refused to. He pointed his wand at her, "Levicorpus," he said firmly, guiding her out of the way of the main battle and towards the sidelines before he dropped her, rather more harshly than he would normally have done without Regulus' observation.
As the girl was plopped down on the ground once again, Regulus hesitated only a moment -- they had come to eliminate those in their way, and she was consistently in their way. It was time to make sure she would remain down, even if she wiggled out of the ropes, as leaving loose ends untied usually did not end in pleasant consequences. Pressing his lips together, Regulus fired a swift Sectumsempra, detaching himself as always from the idea of torture and focusing rather on the cleansing out of the rubbish of their society. The scrubbing away of the dirt, one might say, indeed? Certainly, she fell into that category, after all, so without waiting to see the blood (that particular spell always had a queasy sort of effect), Regulus gave a nodding gesture for Severus to come with him before he turned to move away from the scene itself. Their job was done, and he felt that the job was rather thoroughly done, and as Severus was now in a fair better favour as far as the Death Eaters went (though he loathed to admit that, even to himself), Regulus know he could not avoid to be gentle, even if he had wished to be.
Agnes shrieked and writhed against her bonds - and felt more furious at the helplessness than the pain and, really, what seemed like imminent death. It wasn't so much that she wasn't afraid as she was too furious to feel anything else.
And then it hit her. Severus's voice. An octave up or down, it was still his. voice. She stopped dead, absolutely stunned, and her eyes widened at him before she was out of sight and being plopped beside the Hogwarts wall. How could he have--? But there was no time for philosophising and denial. Agnes's stomach lurched as a wave of wet heat spilled out over her back, her hip, her thigh - the entire side that was still visible. She arched, spine protesting the pain that followed that insistent hotness, but she could not cry out. She couldn't even crawl for help. Red ran in rivulets through her clothes, to the ground, painting filth and grass an angry red - and hot soon became cold. Fuck. She was dying, and there was something far more horrible in knowing you were going to die with treachery tainting your very last breath.
Dammit, Severus's face was hot with anger and frustration. Regulus was only doing what Severus himself should have by all accounts done, but the sectumsempra meant that Agnes would have very little time before she'd bleed out and if she didn't get found she would die and she was the one thing-
He stood stock still for the space of a heartbeat but he could think of nothing to do so long as Regulus was there. He could go finish her, he supposed. Or make Regulus believe that was what he was going to do. Make certain someone found her, sparks or something - but if he was seen. DAMMIT. He could feel Regulus move off beside him, and he should be turning his back: moving away, and he started to, but his mind was still working and the battlefield was chaotic, would anything he could do even be noticed? He turned his head back to look at her, his heart twisting at the sight of Agnes' body. The bound and mostly unmoving figure was a contradiction to the vibrant, tiny bundle of energy he'd grown to love. He couldn't let her die. He couldn't let her die.
When Beth's eyes had trained on the scene from her position near the other Healers, she wondered if she herself had forgotten how to breathe -- and not in the romantic way. With one Death Eater walking away from her seemingly unmoving body and another Death Eater standing beside it, a gripping fear struck her. AGNES.
Telling the others what she was doing would have been the wiser move, but as Beth bolted away toward the remaining Death Eater and Agnes, all she could think of was how Agnes better not be dead, she had better not be dead. She had almost died once already, and that was more than enough, and she had promised not to die--
"Get away from her, you monster," Beth snarled as she came up to the remaining Death Eater, anger and fear for her friend overriding the (majority of) the fear that ought to have been allotted to the Death Eater himself. How dare he -- if she wasn't breathing, Beth would -- she would --
Severus didn't precisely recognise Beth, but he could see that she was a healer, and casting a Protego between the two of them - just to be safe for she seemed angry and while he might have deserved anything she could throw at him, it didn't meant he wanted it thrown at him - he turned on his heel and against everything his heart was screaming, he did what he had to do: he walked away.
He didn't have time to think about whether Agnes was alive or dead or whether the spell had hit something vital. Ruthless, Callous, Perfectly committed, Abe had told him, but when he'd agreed that would be a necessity, Agnes had not been part of the equation. Agnes was not supposed to be the vigilante he was proving his committment on. Agnes was the girl who had believed in him in the first place, thought he might be all right and not truly a prat. Agnes was the one non-Death Eater outside of Abe that he could physically sit down and talk with. The memory of the smell of her and the feel of her and the way she laughed when she thought he was being a prat they were all there and he cast a second Protego automatically, a heart beat after the original to allow him the seconds he needed to clear his mind. He had played his part, the only question would be if he had played it too well. But there was no time: He bannished the memories. He couldn't allow the memories or the emotion of the thing to overwhelm him or there would be the possibility that neither of them would make it off the battlefield. He raised his wand towards someone he was fairly certain was DMLE and cast a curse, the only thought echoing in his mind: Dammit, Agnes live.
Trying not to be utterly taken aback by the Death Eater actually listening to her furious request, Beth shook it off and knelt beside Agnes, feeling her heart pound in a rapid, panicked rhythm. Blood was everywhere, and Agnes was losing more fast -- the wounds appeared to be the result of Dark magic, and there was no time to waste if she wanted to keep her friend alive -- and by Merlin, she was not going to let Agnes die. Hands shaking slightly, Beth proceeded to patch up the gashes enough to stop the bleeding and safely transport Agnes to an Apparatable spot outside of the gates. They had migrated close enough just with the various duels throughout the battle, but not wanting to risk aggravating any of the wounds, Beth cast an easy Locomotor Mortis and carefully moved Agnes along toward the exit. The battle raged around them, but it was with a grave determination that she pushed through and tried to keep her emotions under control. She would take Agnes to the hospital, find someone to start tending to her, and return to the field to see if there was anyone else hanging on to a thread of life. Somehow they were going to all get out of this alive -- Agnes was going to get out of this alive because she couldn't die. Her suspicions of what exactly a handful of her friends seemed to be doing on the battlefield were beginning to grow in her mind, but that was to be dwelt on when there were no more Death Eaters slicing and dicing the people trying to protect the school. For now, she would get Agnes to safety and do whatever she could to help keep this situation under control. They would get through this.
--
Marlene had almost wanted to turn back, to apparate back to the Potters' house, crawl into a bath, and be done with it. She was tired, she was bloody, she fucking hurt like hell, her nose was still throbbing from the shoddy repair job she'd attempted while moving toward the gate, and part of her felt that managing somehow to fight Tabitha Pryce and Fenrir Greyback and to live to tell the tale was more than enough insanity for one night. But the others were going to keep going. And somewhere, Remus and the guys were still heading inside. And from the look of things, the death eaters were already well inside the castle's gates, and if there was anything that Marlene could do to stop them from pushing through into the school, she was going to try to do that. Somewhere in the fray she'd lost sight of Agnes and Lily, which only made that nervous pit in her stomach grow larger. She would've been dead already tonight had Lily not saved her arse, and she'd never been in a fight like this without Agnes by her side (Even though the two never came out of the fight spotlessly. It was a little late for that anyway...). She'd find them later.
Ducking beneath a flash of red spell-light that narrowly missed taking off the top of her head, (and trying not to snicker at the sight of the unconscious death eater with bug-antlers coming out of his head), Marlene spotted someone else who it would have been difficult not to recognise, whether they were wearing a mask or not. Being that fucking large sort of ruined their cover.
Good.
Any fraction of sense or logic was lost on Marlene as she charged up behind the death eater she was positive was Rodolphus Lestrange, hate and anger boiling up inside her. He'd killed her family. He'd kidnapped her fucking cat, and now he was here breaking into the one place in the world that was still supposed to be safe. Fuck that. Fuck him. Hand shaking, wand aimed at his back, Marlene screamed "INCENDIO!", not caring if he heard it, wanting the power behind the spell that she never would've managed casting it silently.
One day Marlene would understand that stealth wasn't just a matter of style, but of intelligence - for though rage and hatred were excellent weapons to bring to battle (at least, as far as Rodolphus was concerned), they did little to aid one in gaining ground on a superior opponent - particularly an opponent who had taken no damage thus far, but for a minor molestation by a magicked tree, and the odd scrape from ill-shielded spells. Rodolphus was in his prime, and though his size made him slow in fights, he made up for it with sheer, brutish power.
And he enjoyed brutality.