Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-09-14 01:28:00 |
|
|||
BFOB - Group Log Part 7
Who: A fuckload of people
Where: Hogwarts & environs
When: 11p-1a 13 September
What: A fight
Rating: R
Status: Mostly complete
PART 7 OF 8
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [summary]
Gaius also heard the cries from both Lily and Barty through the din of the battle. Noticing his opportunity, he ran between several sets of dueling wizards, barely dodging a Cruciatus curse that whizzed by his ear. Without taking a moment to collect himself and with breaths coming in quick succession, Gaius yelled "Stupefy!" as loudly as he could, throwing his shoulders back and aiming his wand straight at the back of Potter's bright red head.
Lily didn't even have time to take a breath. Her body went rushing forward, gaining momentum -- Lily could remember a tree, and trying to take a deep breath, and trying to lift her wand hand to stop it all, but -- she hit a tree with a sickening crack, and everything went dark.
Cautiously taking a step to inspect the damage, Gaius glanced at Barty before clearing his throat and pointing his wand at Lily's limp frame. "Mobili Corpus," he said, flicking his wand upward and smirking as she rose from the ground. Though he had no personal vendetta against the female Potter, she was a Mudblood and apparently one of the annoyances affiliated with the vigilantes - if anyone was going to stand in their way, it would be some one like her and her obnoxious allies. He would do what he could to teach her a lesson.
After a pause, feeling as though the time were literally hanging in air, much the same way that Lily was, Gaius withdrew his wand and sent a second Stupefy at her suspended form.
Since she had mended Agnes's form enough to survive the trip to St Mungo's, Beth had felt rather more shaken about the battle as a whole. She kept seeing her friends in this dangerous environment when none of them were trained Aurors or Hitwizards or Healers or anything that seemed to reasonably prepare them for field combat against murdering terrorists, out fighting these Death Eaters and getting themselves hurt. She felt the fear of loss settling in far more securely than it did when reading names in the newspaper, and when she heard the crack of a body slamming against a tree, saw the flash of Lily falling limply, that fear mixed with worry and anger once again.
Shooting an Incarcerous at one Death Eater and a second one at the Death Eater who seemed to be levitating Lily, Beth weaved through the chaos. Just get Lily and go. Just get Lily and go.
Barty would have been more than content to simply work on removing Antonin from this chaos, but it seemed as though he would have other things to handle first. At the sound of a voice screaming, "Incarcerous," he immediately turned from the scene between Gaius and Potter to throw up a quick Shield Charm, which provided adequate protection from the spell. ...Oh, for the love of all things holy -- did Bethany Frobisher really need to be here? Barty knew her somewhat from the hospital and, while he was not especially fond of her, he did not dislike her. As a momentary annoyance, she could have been worse, but she still needed to be dispatched. Caring little for restoring his usual trend of nonverbal spells, Barty snapped, "Confringo!" aiming his wand at the earth around her feet.
Stumbling as the ground blasting out from under her, Beth tripped forward and caught herself and she shot a slightly perplexed scowl at the Death Eater. She thought there were supposed to kill you, and that was not exactly a life-threatening spell, but she supposed she oughtn't press her luck. If she got herself killed for picking a fight, no one could save Lily. Or at least she couldn't. So keeping her eye on the two cloaked figures, she slipped toward Lily in the hopes that they would just leave her be -- unlikely as that might be to expect.
As unlikely as it seemed to Beth, that was exactly what this Death Eater planned on doing. Once he was sure that she was sufficiently distracted, Barty turned his attentions back to the one who truly deserved them -- Merlin, the damage that had been done to Antonin was absolutely gruesome, though Barty liked to think that, had Antonin not been the one who had suffered it, he would not have been nearly as nauseous. Kneeling down, and attempting to work with both speed and care, Barty gingerly lifted one of Antonin's arms and placed it around his own shoulders; standing up happened, but not without a fair amount of difficulty, which left Barty silently cursing the fact that Antonin still weighed more than he did. If they got out of this with their lives, Barty would see to it that this would not be the case much longer. Sighing, Barty muttered a quick charm to make Antonin feel feather-light; it likely would not last that long, but it only needed to last long enough for Barty to get Antonin out of the fray.
Tearing his attention from Potter, Gaius scowled in Beth's direction and closed the gap between himself and the two witches while Barty tended to Antonin. Keeping his wand low by his side, he aimed it just enough to cast a nonverbal Stunning Spell, though it was far weaker than it might have been if he'd given it his whole attention, rather than trying to anticipate what his new opponent's counter-attack might be.
Catching site of the remaining Death Eater's movement out of the corner of her eye, Beth scarcely dove out of the way before the read beam struck her. Nonverbal, how inconvenient. Supposing this one was going to give her a touch more trouble that the previous two had, Beth fired back a stinging hex followed by another Incarcerous. She was not trained for field combat, which was serving to be an unfortunate pitfall, but she was not going to just let this Death Eater attack without any resistance.
The duel was not a lengthy one -- she pulled out anything should could think of to try and just incapacitate him long enough to get Lily safely out of there, but by the time she had managed to land a stunner and an Incarcerous, she was already bleeding and bruised. Lily had been left to collapse to the ground as the spell holding her up was dropped in favour of fighting, but at least she did not seem to have been hurt further during the scuffle. Lifting her up with another Locomotor Mortis, Beth started off for the gates to Apparate Lily out just as she had Apparated out Agnes. The battle seemed to be winding down, but once Lily was safe at St Mungo's she knew she would have to come back and keep looking for stragglers or people who had been taken down -- hopefully it would soon be over.
In spite of the chaos running rampant around her, Anzhelina managed to keep a high level of composure, ignoring the fear that would have kept her in relative safety. In point of fact, she couldn't stop worrying about her father, and the uncertainty drove her to go and look for him, disregarding the instructions she had been given. She had her wand out, staying in the shadows and throwing up shield charms whenever they were needed, and before long, she found what appeared to be her father being dragged away by Barty. There was no one else in earshot, so she called out to them, approaching them, relieved the mask would conceal her tears.
"Is he dead?"
11. 1.00a DEs vs MWPP & fleeage (ALL DEs vs. James, Peter, Remus, Sirius)
Suddenly, moving along the tunnel had become significantly less straight-forward; Death Eaters were Apparating before them, and there were a fair number of Death Eater still behind them, but while their entire group against Sirius and his stupid friends did not exactly cast the odds against the retreating Death Eaters, Regulus could not help but think that, of all their adversaries, it would be Sirius and his stupid friends that would stick their noses into a large group of fleeing Death Eaters when that would leave them completely and vastly outnumbered. And while he certainly preferred it to be as such, with the outnumbering, there was only one he cared to go after, and the rather anti-climactic truth was that it was the same person he always felt the uncontrollable compulsion to release his frustrations on. James Potter, the root of all evil. Or at least the root of every familial problem Regulus had ever suffered.
Regulus had to admit to himself that the true core of his anger was Sirius, in light of the recent July catastrophe, but he did not even want to see Sirius, to think about Sirius, and frankly, as always, it was Potter's fault that Sirius was even a forbidden topic in the first place, and never, never could it be fixed again. He had successfully avoided his blood traitor brother for the month, but that did not mean he could not find a touch of revenge in he who poisoned the mind of the one attempting to poison the rest of their minds.
When his eyes trained on the older boy, however, he found another Death Eater seemingly busied with preparing an attack, so keeping an eye around, Regulus moved closer, supposing he would cut in whenever the best opportunity arose.
Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew. Severus Snape was not surprised that it would be the Gryffindors that would continue fighting even though the odds were clearly not in their favour. Nor was he particularly concerned. The last time he had faced Lupin in this tunnel he had not been prepared. Last time Black had been trying to murder him, and for far less reason than he might have to try to murder him tonight. Seeing Black and Potter in the tunnel had only brought the memory back into clear focus. Last time he had not been prepared. This time he was. Severus had been training for this night for the entirety of his summer and now he rushed towards the front.
Although the shield charm was a constant in battle, Severus was currently more concerned with attacking and was calloused enough to not care that the injury or death of any of them would likely cause Lily or Agnes a great deal of pain. The death of Sirius Black would, in his opinion, rid the world of a leech, a hang upon, a man who lived off of the kindnesses of others without adding anything to society as a whole. Potter was trickier. Severus owed his life to Potter and he knew it. Thus, Severus knew he wouldn't kill Potter, but he'd be perfectly happy to break him down to a point where someone else could deliver the final blow.
He shot a tripping jinx towards Potter, following it immediately with a conjunctivitis curse shot in the same direction and a shield charm to protect himself from retaliation as he cast a revulsion jinx to push further into the tunnel.
There were far too many of them to take on, and though James was overly brave, he wasn't stupid.
"We've got to get the fuck out!" he shouted to his friends over the noise of twenty or so odd Death Eaters shouting curses. Fucking fuck this was bad.
He couldn't exactly turn his back and run, but he was deflecting far more hexes than any person would be able to keep up with for long. He didn't have time for any offencive spells, and as he turned to his left to see who was firing most of what was coming his way, he felt himself get hit by several things at once. It was too hard to tell one from the other at this point, and he fell to his knees, his wand jolting from his hand. It might have been easier to find it, if suddenly he wasn't blind, and cursing to himself that this was the last place he'd intended on dying, he groped for it with one hand, while reaching behind his back to grab for the cloak at the same time. If he could just get it over himself maybe he could live long enough to find his wand and not end up taking tea with Edgar before the night was over.
Remus stepped forward as soon as he saw James go down, afraid in the face of so many Death Eaters but without hesitation nonetheless. These were his friends, and he wasn't one to turn his back and run while they were in danger. Still, he couldn't stop the brief flicker of thought, wondering if this was going to be it -- if this was the night they were going to die. The tunnel didn't have much room to move around in, making it difficult to maneuver to fight back. He lifted his wand and cast his own shield spell before casting a number of blasting curses at Severus, trying to break though his shield and using his own to protect himself from the spells that rebounded back at him. Trying to buy them some time for James to find his wand so they could run, he followed up the blasting curses with a stunning spell, hoping the fallen Death Eater would slow down the others if his spell struck.
Protego, the thought was automatic, and Severus was thankful for it as the blasts came towards him in the small tunnel. He had never expected to be caught in this tunnel fighting Remus Lupin again, but at least this time he found that he was more prepared for it than he had been as a student. And Lupin was not a werewolf which made him equally vulnerable and no more dangerous than Potter or Pettigrew or Black. Severus had the advantage here because he knew who he was fighting.
It was still a small space, however, and he didn't want to get cocky. There was not a lot of space to spread out and it was very likely that if he wasn't careful one of the rebounding curses would hit him. Confundo, incarcerous, the two spells were shot one after another towards Lupin and Severus pointed his wand at Potter and shot sectumsempra towards the other man. He took this moment to strengthen his shield charm once more, shooting a blasting hex towards Pettigrew knowing that the other Death Eaters were also fighting each of the four. There was no way that all four of the boys that had tormented him throughout his years at Hogwarts were likely to get out of here alive - or if they did, they were going to have the bruises and the scars to show for it.
A colourful string of curse words had been running on a loop in Peter's head as soon as he had realised what they were up against. The chaos and confusion they were were thrust into certainly hadn't been what he had been expecting when he made this suggestion, but it was what they were going to have to deal with if they wanted to get out of this alive. Hearing James's shout and watching him go down among the rest of the insanity, Peter only noticed the blasting spell that was coming in his direction until it was almost upon him, throwing up a shielding spell only in time to protect himself from the worst of the direct damage, getting knocked backwards by the force of the impact. Keeping a tight grip on his wand, Peter moved to try and regain his footing. They definitely weren't going to beat them back, but maybe, maybe if they disabled them enough, they could get away without losing anyone.
Running through the list of spells in his mind, Peter finally settled on attempting a conjunctivitis curse, silently hoping that that training with Moody had helped to improve his offencive spells beyond being completely hopeless.
Remus managed to deflect the first spell with another shield spell, taking a step back, but the second one caught him off guard. The ropes from the spell curled around his legs, pulling them together until he fell onto his back, his head hitting the ground with a solid thud. He was left dazed momentarily, the ropes wound themselves further up his legs, and Remus tried to collect himself enough to concentrate on pulling them off. He pointed his wand at the ropes, casting severing charms to quickly cut them off and pull himself back to his feet, using the wall for support, trying to ignore the throbbing pain on the back of his head. They couldn't die here -- they couldn't. They were all just teenagers, just the four of them against so many Death Eaters, and Remus didn't know how they were going to escape alive. He focused on the Death Eater attacking them again, considering for a moment casting the fire spell, but considering the tunnel they were in, that might prove to be dangerous for them all. He pointed his wand at the ground in front of the Death Eaters, casting a silent Aguamenti to cover the dirt with water, causing it to become muddy and slippery. It wasn't much, but he was desperate to buy them any time they could get. Pointing his wand at Severus, fired back the incarcerous spell in retaliation.
Severus's shield charm held against Pettigrew's curse but faltered slightly as the slippery dirt caused him to slide forward. He hadn't been expecting something as simple as aguamenti and he cursed as he caught himself with his hands as he fell forward and hit the ground. The incarcerous flew over his head and he could hear someone behind him make a noise of surprise as the ropes bound them instead. He was filthy, mud all down his robes, and it infuriated him that he'd been so caught off guard by it. Furnunculus, he shot furiously at Lupin almost before he was to his feet again. He was furiously cold and determined as he followed the already nasty boil curse with an even nastier sectumsempra the instant he was on his feet.
Protego, and he walked carefully ahead to try to avoid such sliding again. The shield charm cast, he moved quickly as much to the side as he could so that it would be more difficult to shoot at him and he switched his wand to his right hand for a moment to wipe his wand hand on his robes, despite the fact that they were so muddy it was not particularly useful. He shot a blasting curse at the wall ahead of the boys: confringo!
Remus was getting pulverised and there wasn't exactly anything that Peter could do about it. Trying to press forward to cover him would likely result in himself being put into the same situation, and while offencive actions were definitely a good idea, Peter didn't exactly trust himself not to bring the whole ceiling down on top of them. Though, to be honest, it seemed like the Death Eaters were trying to do that themselves. Casting a quick Protego (his shielding charm being one of the few things that Peter was actually confident about when it came to his duelling abilities) to shield himself from some of the worst of the debris, Peter wasn't able to avoid all of it.
He could feel the oozing warmth blossoming along his hairline before he really registered what it was, but that second that it clicked in his mind, the situation solidified in his mind. There wasn't any holding back this time. There wasn't any reason for him to try and curb his own actions. It was all or nothing here. Either they made it out alive, or they didn't. Whether it was by Death Eaters or friendly fire, either way, something was going to happen. So he might as well make it good.
Aiming his wand at one of the larger chunks of the wall that the blasting curse had knocked free, Peter focused as much of his concentration as he could, "Expulso!" and the rock went up in a fine mist. If anything, that would confuse them. Charging into the falling dust, Peter had to trust himself to go to the right blurry figure. He just hoped he got to Remus and not one of the random guys trying to kill him. Because that would be bad.
Remus had the advantage, at first, when the Death Eater fell into the mud -- he'd been prepared for the next attack, and when the spell came at him, his wand was at the ready. "Protego!" The shield blocked the boils curse, and as soon as it deflected, Remus was pointing his wand at Severus even while he was still getting to his feet. Obscuro. The spell was cast shortly after Severus began casting sectumsempra, leaving Remus open without a shield spell to protect himself, several gashes cutting over his body. There were too many of them -- he kept getting distracted trying to keep an eye on everyone, and the fear that his friends could die was the foremost thought on his mind. He gasped from the pain of the curse, stumbling but using the wall of the tunnel to keep himself upright. How could this happen? He didn't have enough experience in battles, not to fight like this. There were just so many of them... but if he let himself believe they weren't going to get out of here alive already, he was going to lose hope. Remus grit his teeth in an attempt to ignore the pain, throwing a gouging curse at Severus.
Severus did not have the fear of his friends dying. To begin with, he would have been surprised if any of the group in front of him would have had the guts to throw a killing curse, and beyond that, although he knew Regulus was nearby, he also felt like the sheer force of numbers meant he could concentrate only on his own actions and making certain he did what he had to. He was pleased to see the spell hit, and he cast incarcerous towards Peter, then went to throw up a shield charm, however he wasn't quite quick enough and the gouging curse cut into his leg and he winced with the pain of it. "Protego, dammit," he hissed, suddenly not remotely sorry he'd thrown the sectumsempra towards Lupin. They might not be aiming to kill, but it did not mean their curses were a trifle either. And with the shield charm up, he snapped a minor healing charm at his leg - something to hopefully keep it from bleeding out before he reached the damn shrieking shack. "Incendio," he cast the spell at Lupin, following it immediately by a second Sectumsempra and a Protego - he did not plan on being caught off guard again.
Each spell that Peter heard among the din sent a sharp spike of worry straight into his gut. The sooner he got to Remus, the better. At least together they might stand some change of getting out of this place alive. So focused on finding his friend, Peter didn't notice the incarcerous heading his way until it had bound his feet and sent his sprawling out onto the ground. Struggling to get himself into a position to deal with the offending ropes before they could work their way into a position that he couldn't remove them on his own, Peter shot several cutting charms at them, wincing slightly a few small cuts that blossomed on his leg from the spells that weren't quite as well aimed. They could be ignored at the moment, though, as he shoved himself back to his feet and stumbled the rest of the way to Remus's side, throwing up the strongest Protego he could manage in hopes that it would be able to protect both of them from the spells being lobbed their way.
"We've got to get out of here," Peter said, reaching out and gripping Remus's arm. Peter always did have such a knack for stating the obvious, but at the moment, the sheer stupidity of his statement was the least of his worries. Distracting the Death Eater that was laying assault to them enough so that they could attempt to make their way back. His mind ticked quickly through the options until it feel on something simple enough that he wouldn't have to worry about accidentally overdoing it. Aiming his wand just to the right of the Death Eater's head, Peter's wand issued a jet of sparks, brilliantly bright and hopefully enough to distract him from the tripping jinx and jelly-legs jinx that were aimed at him in a quick secession afterwards.
"Come on," Peter said in hushed whisper, giving a tug at Remus's arm. They had to find James and Sirius and get the hell out of here.
It was lucky for him that Peter showed up when he did -- the first Sectumsempra curse had already taken it's toll on Remus, and he wasn't sure he could handle another one and still be able to keep fighting. He would make sure to thank him later, but for now, he just nodded in agreement to Peter's words. For good measure (and, perhaps, a little revenge for the spells cast at him already), Remus took a moment to aim his wand at Severus again and cast the gouging curse as Peter cast his own spells, hoping the Death Eater couldn't dodge them all. Once he did so, Remus cast Protego before he and Peter quickly tried to make their way back over to Sirius and James. All they had to do now was get far enough away from Hogwarts so they were able to apparate out of the tunnel.
Severus ducked to avoid the sparks and fell right into the tripping jinx, which threw him to the ground for the second time that evening. As he dropped to the ground, the second gouging curse hit Severus in the abdomen and he winced with the pain of it. Merlin, his leg ached and his stomach now ached, and he mumbled "Protego" to avoid any further curses the pair might throw at him, but so far as he could tell as he looked up, they were moving back towards their friends. His hand moved down to his abdomen and he could feel blood from the gouging curse and he winced yet again, but he was already getting to his feet and moving after Lupin and Pettigrew, this time throwing a series of quick, fast, and sometimes immature hexes such as jelly legs, and Tarantallegra.
Rather than leaving himself open to be pummelled or taken by surprise, Regulus had deflected a fair amount of stray spells, keeping himself on his toes and scanning the area; the vast outnumbering made it much easier to avoid being pulled off or surrounded, but all the while he kept his eye on James in the hopes that he would get his shot -- it was tradition, after all, to get a good scuffle with Potter, and it relieved stress. Even without his typical amount of stress, it seemed wasteful to let everyone else get in an attack when it was Regulus that he had taken everything from so many times before.
Seeing an open opportunity to jump in, Regulus shot a stunning spell at James's chest, slipping through the chaotic crowd to get closer and aim more precisely; just looking at James Potter was enough to stir the frustration. Here's to July, indeed.
James saw the light from the stunning spell through nearly blind eyes, at the exact moment it hit him. He felt his breath catch in his chest and the arm that was groping for his wand fell to the ground. He couldn't move, couldn't even pull the cloak over himself. He fought with the pain, willing himself to move. His hand was so close to his wand-- inches away. Move. His fingers twitched but that was the extent of his progress.
Through the light of the wandwork, he saw a Death Eater approaching him, the one that had sent the stunning spell, and somehow he knew this time would be different from the last. He wasn't protecting anyone here, and so if he died, at least it wouldn't mean the death of anyone else.
The few seconds that were passing afforded him time to recover, and his hand managed to grasp the bottom of his wand weakly, and turning it on the ground, he shot off a blasting hex toward his target. His aim was off completely, but it managed to hit above the Death Eaters head and shower him with a bit of debris.
Crinkling his nose and brushing the dirt from his hair and robes, Regulus let out a soft huff and turned his attention back to his opponent. Without hesitating, he zoned back into their purpose and shot a swift and silent Furnunculus, eyes training to see if the spell would land. He had spent weeks intensively practising silent casting, and although it was not as powerful or reliable as spoken casting while he was still learning, now that Potter was paying attention to him, he would quickly sacrifice actual power and even the probability of the spell working at all in exchange for keeping his voice hidden. Although Potter would not be able to prove by his mere word, he refused to make any more mistakes. He was going to leave no more chinks in his personal armour for his enemies to grapple and exploit, nor was he going to risk the spotlight anymore. This would be flawless because he could no longer expect anything less.
The Death Eater continued to approach, and James looked around desperately for his friends as another spell landed and he felt painful boils erupt all over his skin. Not exactly an Avada Kedavra, but painful as shit. He cried out, in spite of his determination that he would not do so, and found that at least this new pain gave him the kick in the arse he needed to raise his wand. He shot another blasting hex at the oncoming Death Eater, this time with far better aim.
He could see more spells flashing all around him, and in the dim glow they would create he realised that the tunnel was possibly full of every Death Eater there was. Fucking Snape. That was the only way they'd have known how to get in here, and now he was going to die and it was that greasy gits fault. If he lived through this he was going to make damn sure he made his life a living hell. Anger was good, hope for retribution was better and James shot off another blasting hex, trying to ignore the fiery pain of the boils. Several more erupted on his hand and he swore as it made it far more difficult to keep his hand on his wand.
Despite his attempt to pull up a silent shield, Regulus was forced to stumble backward a step or two as the spell struck, bumping his head roughly on a low dropping section of the tunnel ceiling that had not be blasted away by the previous attack; although the hex had been partially padded by his attempt, he supposed he could not resort to complete silence on that particular charm just yet, even with sufficient concentration and focus. That was next on his list, and he should have thought of that before, but it was a touch late for should-haves. Once again taking no time for hesitation, Regulus shot a silent stinking hex at the older boy -- another of the offencive spells he had taken ample time to practise with. The offencive was not typically the route he enjoyed in every day life, but being a Death Eater was about being powerful, and enjoyable or not, that was the fact of the matter when it came to battling.
James was glad to see that his blasting spell had been more efficient this time, but it wasn't going to save his arse. He needed to use an offencive spell that would do some damage this time, and as he dodged whatever the hell it was coming his way, he figured an eye for an eye, and took the time to take more careful aim as he shot a "Furnunculus" of his own, before sending another blasting hex right above the Death Eaters head. This time a large chunk of the tunnel came raining down, blocking James's ability to see (even in the dim light) if it had hit its mark.
The effort of those two spells was nearly all James had left in him, and he collapsed, closing his eyes for a moment in weariness, even as he struggled to remain aware. A stray spell hit him from a different direction and he swore. He hoped to Godric that his friends were all on their way out safely. In this one instance he wouldn't mind being left behind, if someone was going to have to die.
Failing to pull up his shield in time, Regulus first felt the boils erupting painfully over his skin -- keeping his hands from flying to the sores took a concentrated sense of self-control, but Merlin those were not nearly as pleasant to suffer as they were to cast. He was only lifting his wand to shoot a rather irritated hex back when another large chunk of the ceiling collapsed over him, a rather sizable and hard clump of earth striking him on the side of his head and sending him staggering another few steps back, this time unable to stop his hands from flinging to the offended spot. It was a splitting sort of pain, and although the fabric of his robes against the sores on his arms was painful, he could not help but tend to throbbing section of his skull. That hurt.
Jaw clenching and forcing his hands to stop massaging the spot on his head so that he could focus on the battle, he felt a renewed irritation flaring as the pain flared. Moving past the fallen rubble, Regulus eyed the collapsed and rather broken form of James Potter before him. Traitor, ill example, destroyer of Regulus's family -- the thing that meant most to him. He was so tired of having things taken from him, and he could not, would not, allow for Potter to leave without that message well-ingrained. His skin hurt, his head hurt, and his mood was suddenly very ill as he found himself simply wanting to ensure this fight was sufficiently over and that Potter would stay incapacitated when he walked off; lifting his wand again as his head continued its painful throbbing, Regulus shot a pointed and silent blasting curse, feeling that calm, battle-inspired anger mixing with the fury he kept locked away, pulled out for such special occasions. It was a personal battle that would never truly be over, but he was going to win.
It was getting very crowded in here and it was starting to get a little difficult to keep track of where everyone was in relation to a fuckload of masked morons. There was enough noise and chaos that Sirius was really starting to worry about the guys but he had to find them first. Seeing something hit something that looked suspiciously like James in this light, he sent another curse into the fold, trying to divert enough attention to get over to him. He needed to push him out of the way so he sent a blasting curse to try and push the bastard out of the way.
He took one look at his friend and his anger flared; he definitely looked hurt. Surmising he wasn't dead - yet - he sent a freezing charm at the assailant, hoping to get some room to check him over to make sure he wasn't dying completely. He didn't like how close this bloke had gotten and decided to put himself firmly between them for round two.
Rather taken off guard by the blasting curse, Regulus was knocked against the wall of the tunnel with a rather painful thunk -- a blinding pain shooting through him as the boils on his back struck the hard earth, nearly crippling him for a moment's time. A particularly pointed rock protruding from the dirt wall suggested another colourful bruise would soon be joining the others he had thus far acquired, but a concentrated effort was needed to remember that he was currently in a fight. Only a brief second was allowed to scold himself for not paying more attention to what was going on around him before he caught the flash of a freezing charm, scarcely throwing a shield up in time to stop it with a whispered Protego. To have his ability to move and function in a battle such as this could spell not only potential torture, but also potential capture, and he was not going to be getting himself imprisoned by the enemy.
Stumbling away from the wall and looking to see which of their four opponents had sent the two spells, Regulus found himself slightly jarred to see his brother; perhaps it shouldn't have surprised him in the least -- not only had Regulus rather thoroughly roughed up Potter, but there were only four of them to begin with. Even so, physically seeing Sirius always tended to stir a variety of emotions, be it anger or betrayal or frustration, and always with such emotions came an unfortunate loss of footing. He couldn't risk running when both an injured Potter and a preoccupied Sirius stood before him, begging for attack -- and and frankly, they did not deserve to be fled from. They oughtn't stick their noses into places they didn't believe, and foiling Death Eater missions was not where they belonged if they wished to leave in any fair shape at all.
Regulus cast first a silent Expelliarmus, pointing his wand squarely at Sirius's back, followed quite swiftly by a silent Reducto. Not very threatening spells. He needed to attack, but it felt wrong to actually fight Sirius rather than just bicker with Sirius -- it was Potter that Regulus felt he had business with in a fight, not Sirius, but Sirius was in the way. Certainly, Potter didn't appear to be moving, but one could never tell when that could be a trap. He was angry, but did not feel like fighting Sirius, and there was no way Sirius would have mercy on a masked Death Eater. Regulus was a masked Death Eater, and he had to focus, but his head and skin still hurt -- which was Potter's fault, cursed Potter.
Sirius apparently didn't have time to waste. Moments after he checked to see if his friend was alright to be moved, his wand went flying out of his hand. Well, that wasn't good, that made him a sitting duck and that probably meant there was a second spell on the way. He tried to move only to get knocked on to his backside, which really hurt. "Bastard," He seethed, rolling over to grab his wand. He tried to spare a look for where Remus and Peter were but James was the main priority considering his damage. He needed to get him out but at the same time, he needed to take care of this little prick.
He sent a stunner over blindly, because it wasn't the best place to aim but on the off chance it hit, he wanted time to get up and sort himself out. The noise and and commotion seemed to be causing a distraction in itself, though. The second he could see enough in the chaos down there, he sent a Jelly-Fingers Curse at the Death Eaters hands, hoping to disable him. Maybe then they might have some kind of victory after the night appeared to be a bloody shambles, as usual.
There was hardly a need to even dodge the stray stunner, slipping somewhat jaggedly to the side (it hurt a bit to move) as it shot past him to someone or something behind him -- he could not be certain. The Jelly-Fingers Curse to follow, however, proved to be exceptionally unfortunate as he suddenly felt his wand fall from the firm grip of his hand. Scowling rather uselessly from behind his mask, Regulus instantly dropped to the ground to retrieve, mind reeling for a way to fix it. Fix it. He knew the counter-curse, but he could scarcely control his own fingers...and although he could ask one of his less busy Death Eater comrades to assist him, he wasn't particularly interested in drawing their attention to the duel. A backup plan, at best.
Keeping his eye trained on Sirius, he took only a brief second to retrieve his wand with the palms of his hands, leaping back up once again to keep moving. Staying still left him as a target, and he would not expect nor ask for mercy as he gained his bearings. Adjusting his rather useless fingers to fit around the wand and using his other palm to hold it in place, Regulus carefully attempted the counter-curse's incantation and wand movement in a mere whisper once again. The first two attempts yielded no result (and it was a real trick avoiding any shots sent at him, whether intentionally from their enemies or accidentally from his fellow Death Eaters), but his third attempt restored proper control once again, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He could not think of a combination much worse than in pain and wandless, and Regulus was becoming more interested in fleeing than fighting -- but he could not ever leave without his wand, so he needed a good grip on it. Defenceless and identifiable. That was quite possibly a worse combination.
Sirius slumped his shoulders at his crushing misfire but he didn't want to dwell on a single bad spell, no matter how epically badly performed. He sent another blasting curse into the wall, firing dirt and dust into the air to give himself a bit of a distraction. It was bloody difficult to concentrate as it was, he didn't fancy caving the tunnel in with them in it. It was difficult to do anything particularly harmful in an enclosed space. He grabbed James, pushing him over to the side. He didn't want him getting trampled or hurt in his current surroundings. He was breathing and Sirius would very much like him to stay that way. Hopefully Remus could keep an eye on Peter and make sure he didn't fall headfirst onto a Death Eater by mistake. He couldn't let the bastard get off scot free though and he sent a severing charm out, hoping to take him out. The idea of capturing a live one, as it were, was too much of a temptation.
With dirt from the wall flinging at his face, Regulus found himself glad of the mask for a reason completely unrelated to its normal concealing use that he most typically found himself grateful for. The earthy shower was just enough to pull his attention away from the oncoming attack and once again steal those critical moments to summon a shielding charm, so in a more reflexive rather than strategic reaction, Regulus jolted to the side as the severing charm sliced open his left arm. A self-muffled yelp escaped before he stifled it in himself, and as the fringe of his sliced sleeve began to stain a dark red, he shot a scathing, if unseen, glare to the older boy. If they were going to play that game after all, he was not going to stand and let himself get diced, runaway ex-brother or not, and while the desire to flee lingered, he could not allow himself to run away wounded without anything to show for it, and at this rate, there was not much to show.
Firing an impediment curse at Sirius followed by a slicing hex in quick succession (each in a slightly louder whisper amongst the chaos as silent casting ambitions were quite nearly abandoned), Regulus slipped to the side to keep himself moving, blocking out the pain that seemed to be multiplying in the boils, the throbbing in his head that remained unceasing, the seeping bleeding from the slice on his arm -- blocking them all until they were dull aches colouring the edges of his goal: knock Sirius out of commission long enough for their Death Eater ranks to finish escaping.
The immediate sound of pain gave him a feeling of exhilaration. It was like 'fuck you, you bastard' and it made him feel a hell of a lot better after what had happened to James. They had to learn never to touch his best friend. It might have been a little sadistic but no one said you couldn't take pride in your work.
Said pride was short lived, however. As he raised his arm for the next spell, he found himself pushed backwards. A rather childish counter in his opinion but he was grateful for it, but this was short lived considering the sudden rip of pain when what he thought was probably a slicer hit him in his ribs. Well, that hurt! With a growl of irritation, he sent a possibly more pathetic spell back in the form of a hopeful tripping. He didn't like firing back the same jinx but he needed another moment to regroup and check nothing vital was wrong. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to see a Death Eater cut down to size.
Summoning a shield this time (though he supposed it would have been more helpful to have managed the shield on a more painful attack against him), Regulus blocked the tripping jinx and took only a brief moment before determining his next more; in a fairly characteristic move, he opted to take an eye for an eye -- or rather a head for an eye. Or perhaps, in this particular case, making Sirius's fingers disappear if he felt it so necessary to turn his own into jelly-like things. It was like justice, sweet justice, as far as he was concerned. Opting not to wait for another attack to hit him, Regulus shot a pointed finger-removing jinx, watching carefully for any blocking or following retaliation so as to be sufficiently prepared.
That came as a slight shock! It's not often ones fingers leave of their own accord. Well, that was not only inconvenient but downright childish. He half wondered if this was someone he had fought before -- it wasn't the first time he had taken a good slicing or the first time someone had hit him with what he could only describe as "play" spells. They weren't back at Hogwarts anymore but he supposed he couldn't argue if someone didn't have the balls for something stronger and it definitely played to his advantage. Moving swiftly, if he this guy wanted to play like school boys, he knew exactly how to do that. Concentrating on the intense anger than came with hitting him and his best friend, he did something he hadn't done since he was still a student and slammed his (unfortunately closed so it hurt like hell) other fist into the mask. Take that, you son of a bitch!
With a somewhat strangled-sounding yelp, Regulus felt his mask crush harshly into his nose with a crack and promptly jostle free, slipping exposingly from his face. Pain pulsed staggeringly; he blinked his eyes rapidly, body rigid and pain on top of pain on top of pain seemed to shoot through him. On top of the sore jaw (from O'Hare) and the boils/throbbing head combination (courtesy of Potter), the fact that his nose felt like it had snapped out of place could not possibly be a good thing, and Merlin it hurt very, very badly.
Taking in a shuddering breath, Regulus's eyes shot up to Sirius only to realise there was no longer the frame of a mask around his eyes, no longer the gentle pressure of its placement over his face. He was silent.
For that brief moment, Regulus was caught in an open, frozen stare.
Sirius pulled his hand back with a feeling of pain and shock. He should know better than to hit on instinct because now his knuckles were throbbing and he'd have to bother someone else to put his fingers back. None of this was at the forefront of his mind, however, as there was something much more pressing. If there is something every older brother knows, it's what their little brother sounds like when he has a shrieking attack. Suddenly, despite the fact he was sore, his side hurt like hell and he had enough adrenalin to want to run like hell, he was standing incredibly still. There was absolutely nothing more disturbing than seeing your own eyes (technically his brothers but it took a moment for him to realise he wasn't hallucinating) staring back from a dislodged death eater mask. He was fairly sure he was going throw up from the sight alone.
He let his hand drop to his side, dimly aware that his brother had done that. His brother, the little child who could barely throw a hex, had made him bleed. This was impossible. This wasn't happening. He'd passed out and was having a bizarre nightmare.
Reggie? He opened his mouth but the sound didn't come out.
James had recovered enough to lift his head and watch the exchange, glad that the increased action of spells provided enough light for him to witness what he had known all along. If his eyes hadn't been recovered enough for him to tell it was Regulus, Sirius's reaction would have been enough to tip him off anyway. Regulus Black was a Death Eater, and now they knew it for sure.
After escaping from Severus with Peter's help, the pair of them had quickly made their way back over to James and Sirius. The first thing Remus noticed as they drew near was James, injured and unconscious by the wall, and then his eyes moved to Sirius just as his friend was punching the other Death Eater in the face. Remus rushed over to Sirius' side to help protect James so they would have more of a chance to get all of them out of there, but then he saw Sirius stop moving, staring across at the Death Eater in front of them. Remus, too, turned to look, and although he had long believed Regulus was a Death Eater, is was still a shock to see him standing there with a dislodged mask. He wasn't sure what to do; on one hand, he knew this must be a shock to Sirius to see, especially after all his denial. This was his brother, and even if Sirius had been disowned from the Black family, he knew that Sirius still cared, especially if he was willing to go so far as to make deals with Bellatrix Lestrange in order to meet with him.
However, the fact of the matter was that they didn't have time for shock -- they were in the middle of a battle, and no matter how Sirius and Regulus felt about each other, Remus was quite sure the other Death Eaters in the tunnel would have no qualms about killing them all right where they stood in this moment of hesitation. Remus looked at Sirius then, knowing that they needed to hurry, or they were all going to get killed. "Sirius, we -- we have to get out of here." He should have cast a shield charm. He should have thrown a curse at the Death Eaters bearing down on them. He should have done a lot of things, but Remus had allowed himself to become distracted by his friends in that moment.
Jolting back to attention at the sound of Remus Lupin's voice, panic flashed in Regulus's eyes before he immediately grabbed onto his mask and forced it back onto his face. Despite the pain of it knocking roughly against his broken nose, he found himself suddenly caring very little in comparison to the fact that Sirius had seen him. Sirius's friends had probably seen him. For all Regulus knew, someone else among his own comrades could have seen him, though the hood of his cloak was mostly successful in shrouding his face from any other direction.
He had to get out. He had to get out, and he had to get out now. Sirius had seen him.
Stumbling backward again, Regulus turned and shoved his way until he was no longer among the Death Eaters who were fighting the four troublesome vigilantes. The ones who had seen him, Merlin he was in so much trouble if anyone found out, this was not good. Even safe in the crowd, he waited terrified for someone to declare they had seen it -- what if those filthy blood traitors told--
He could not think on that. Not right now, and his nose hurt -- everything hurt, and he was miserable, and he just wanted to be home and pretend it hadn't happened. Just when he had thought he would once again escape with only physical pain and cuts and bruises, one of the single worst things he could imagine had happened to him, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.
Aeneas' eyes had adjusted to the dark well enough by now that he could vaguely make out the sides of the tunnel and the ground, but it was enough. His speed picked up a bit and he headed toward the voices, barely feeling the bump forming on his knee and the stinging from scrape on his shoulder as he rushed down the tunnel. Flashes of green and red were visible up ahead and a grin broke out underneath his mask as he realised there was more fun to be had yet.
This pleased him; he'd already destroyed a bunch of stuff and duelled briefly, but he was still rather unsatisfied with himself. He wouldn't admit it to his wife, but lately Aeneas was worried he was losing the Dark Lord's favour, what with Crabbe ending up in Azkaban and Rowle being... Rowle. His potential wasn't being used, and taking out a vigilante even after the retreat began would be a victory.
It was still difficult to see as he approached, but he managed to make out a shape that was clearly not one of the Dark Lord's men and he held his wand out. "Impedimentia!"
Letting himself become distracted was possibly one of the worst things Remus could have done in the middle of a battle, but that's just what had happened. He'd been paying too much attention to Sirius and James to see the next Death Eater come forward in the tunnel, and it wasn't until he heard the incantation of the spell did Remus realise they were being attacked again. He tried to get out of the way, but the spell tripped him up anyway, stumbling until he fell down to his knees. Remus quickly pointed his wand at Aeneas, casting a gouging spell and then attempting to stun him so he could stand back up again.
Aeneas flattened himself against the wall of the tunnel, hoping to miss the spell but no such luck: it grazed his left arm right below the elbow, ripping a hole in his robe and taking out a large chunk of skin. It hurt but he barely had time to register the pain before he saw a flash of red. "Prote-," he began to shout instinctively, too quickly to even think about casting nonverbally, but it didn't matter. The beam of red went a little to the left while he had moved a bit to the right and it flew by him without even touching. Aeneas wasn't pleased though - it had only been luck that saved him, not skill, and his weakness had given his opponent, merely a boy, the time to get back on his feet. He pushed himself off the wall and faced Remus, wand outstretched and ready. "You'll regret that, son," he growled from underneath his mask.
Although the second spell had missed, Remus was still given the time to stand up again, and he pointed his wand at the Death Eater again. He didn't respond to Aeneas' threat, but he did step back away from him before attempting to cast a silent freezing charm -- unfortunately, the spell failed and froze over the end of his wand instead. Panicked, Remus tried again, this time casting the spell out loud. "Glacius!" he shouted, but the frozen end of his wand just absorbed the spell, causing it to ice over even more. Remus had never had this happen to his wand before, and he knew he was making himself completely vulnerable by hindering himself from the ability to cast spells. "Incendio!" he tried, hoping the heat would melt the ice; thankfully, that seemed to do the trick, but he had wasted too much time trying to fix his wand.
Aeneas would have laughed if he hadn't been so focused, though a small grin crossed his face underneath the mask. The boy was weak and whatever skill he may have had was lost in his haste. This would be almost too easy, he thought, slightly disappointed. Well, it didn't have to be. Aeneas had been practising a new hex and was itching to try it on an actual person rather than Pep the House Elf. The book reported it to be extremely painful, though Claudette would have not been happy with having to replace another House Elf, so he didn't know the full extent of the pain. Well, there was no time like the present, so just as Remus' wand began to melt, a dark blue stream shot out of his own wand. "Ossisverso!"
The ice on Remus' wand was nearly gone by the time he heard Aeneas shout an incantation he'd never heard of before, but it wasn't long until he found out exactly what it did. The blue stream struck the forearm of his wand arm, and he cried out from the sudden, sharp pain, involuntarily dropping his wand when his muscles spasmed. He could feel the bones inside his arm begin to twist under the skin and muscle, and he clutched it against his chest as if that could somehow stop the pain, but it continued up along his arm. The bones splintered as they twisted in opposite directions from each end, fracturing and then breaking altogether, rendering his wand arm useless -- not that Remus was able to concentrate enough on anything else but the searing pain to pick his wand back up.
Listening to the younger man's screams, the hairs on Aeneas' arms stood on end. The small grin had turned into a big smile and he began to laugh with glee - it was almost better than the Cruciatus since he could actually hear the breaking of the bones. It wouldn't be nice to stop there, though, and Aeneas knew well enough that the only way to get one's mind off pain was to make something else hurt. And of course the masked man would be so kind as to help Remus out.
While he knew there was no pressure from the boy screaming on the floor (he wouldn't be going anywhere soon), Aeneas knew there were others a bit further ahead and the retreat was still in progress. Things weren't quite messy enough and he wasn't one to let someone die in peace, so he quickly ran through his head to find the most vile spell he could think of. Now laughing hysterically, he figured the Entrail Expelling Curse would be oddly fitting and with a "whoop!" he cast it. He would have liked to stick around a bit longer to see how the boy fared, but unfortunately he didn't have that time. Satisfied, Aeneas left him for dead and enjoyed the screams as he continued down the tunnel.