RP Thread Who: Dorcas, Barty, Reggie, Augustus, Sirius, Roman, Lucius, Severus, Agnes, Marlene, Georgina When: 14 April, evening Where: Marlene and Dorcas's flat, Grindylow Gardens What: Death eater raid
Rating: PG-13 Status: Nearly complete!
Mondays had fallen into a kind of ritualistic monotony for Agnes. She wasn't used to being cooped up inside of a flat for weeks on end, but at the moment there wasn't exactly a better alternative, and she wasn't exactly keen on being killed or disappeared should the death eaters catch wind of her current state of existence in the mortal coil. She also realized (uncomfortably), the practicality of staying here. However, that didn't stop it from driving her mad at times, and she was currently attempting to relieve herself of restlessness by cleaning up Marlene and Dorcas's kitchen (and occasionally throwing things at Sirius and then ducking below the counterspace). It might not have been the most productive effort, per se, but she wasn't half enjoying herself.
There was something to be said for hanging out in Marlenes place; it definitely kept you on your toes. Obviously Agnes had been given too much sugar, because while he couldn't connect the brilliant insanity that she seemed to have to anything else in the world, he didn't fancy getting a wet tea towel around the back of the head. It was something of a mood killer and believe it or not, he actually fancied a bit of company while James was likely having Lily time and picking out floral patterns. Nothing that girly around here, just Sammie, the girls and Stubby and when it came to first two, he wasn't sure he was more bouncy. Obviously Agnes getting a little house crazy and Marlene and Dorcas weren't the sanest people in the world. No doubt he would too, in her situation. That didn't mean that one of the girls' fine cushions wasn't being hurled at her if she didn't cut it out. He was trying to have some puppy on puppy time!
While some people got to spend all of Monday farting around the apartment, tossing tea towels and couch cushions, other people (namely Marlene in this case), had to work, and without fail, had the Monday Morning opening shift all to herself. (She'd let it slip once to Mr. S. that she was always up around five in the morning anyway; that had been a mistake Marlene had lived to regret.) She didn't hold it against the others that they were home though, of course. She was just bummed that she missed out on whatever it was that they did while she was gone. Especially considering it probably involved smoking a lot of pot. "If you guys knock over my oregano plant, I am locking you out of the flat and keeping the weed," Marlene called to them from inside the kitchen. "Anyone want tea while I'm in here?"
"Thanks darlin'!" Agnes chirped from somewhere around Marlene's feet. She was pretending to clean, but really she was avoiding presenting herself as a target for Sirius - who had decidedly better aim than she did, should he decide to get her back for her ridiculous attempts to amuse herself. The kitchen was looking slightly tidier, but that was more likely a side effect to Agnes's scraping around on the floor with her skirt than any particular effort on her part. "I'll make dinner, yeah? You needta get off your feet, Marly. Ain't doin' em much good." And she scooted across the floor so she could poke her head into the fridge, rooting around for veggies and carbohydrates of various colors. Agnes rarely saw this much food in one place - but she supposed that was the benefit of doing a regular job. The only benefit, she reminded herself.
Sirius looked up from tormenting the puppy, which mostly translated to playing as far as he was concerned and thought for a moment. "Yes, if it's just tea." After all, Marlene did learn from the best. No point inviting something to happen, was there?" He returned to playing a tug of war with the puppy, making some slightly bizarre facial expressions while he was at it. "I know where you are, O'Hare. Might as well come out with your hands up!" He declared, without looking back.
"Yep, just tea this time," Marlene snorted, stepping over Agnes to get to the sink to fill up the kettle. It was a fair enough response; there'd been plenty of times when the tea she'd made had quite a few extra "somethings" added into the mix. "And nothing with tomatoes, if you're taking dinner orders. We had a whole cartload of them explode in the back room today and Becky and me got stuck on clean up duty." Which had been pointless, considering Chanticlear had been the person who's potion had combusted. They were a bloody apothecary anyway, not a grocery. Marlene didn't understand why they'd had all those tomatoes back there anyway, when all they needed were the seeds. "Has anyone taken Sammie out to pee today?"
"Oh, I did!" Agnes piped up with a bit of a look, feeling guilty almost instantly for the touch of sarcasm. She was just -- tired -- of this. As much as she adored harassing Sirius and snuggling up with Marlene at night, this wasn't her deal. She needed to feel the sunlight on her face and the grass beneath her feet. "Sorry," she mumbled immediately, pulling out some potatoes and carrots. "That was twatty." And she shifted across the floor before rising up and dumping the veggies on the counter. She peered over it - raising her hands before lobbing a potato at Sirius. "You got any special requests, Blacky?"
Sirius looked back up at the tone, slightly surprised to hear it but not altogether surprised she was irate. They were no closer to finding the Death Eaters responsible and she was caged in. He considered pulling the puppy into his arms and attempting puppy talk to make her laugh but The Smutty Puppy was a show Marlene would probably enjoy a hell of a lot less. "Food is food, O'Hare. I'm not fussy." At least, not when it came to eating. He had a tendency to put anything and everything in his mouth.
Agnes's reaction had caught Marlene off guard as well, mostly because it was so rare to hear that sarcastic sort of twinge on her voice. Marlene didn't blame her for it, of course, but it had been surprising all the same. "Don't worry about it," Marlene shrugged, hopping up to sit on the counter while she waited for the kettle to start hissing. "I'll take her out in a bit. I need to shower first. Work makes my hair smell like cabbage."
As if to make up for her rare succumbing into unkindness, Agnes turned from chopping carrots (a bit dangerous given her general predilection toward precarious motor coordination) and leered at Marlene. "Cabbage is sexy, darlin'" - and she laughed, instantly cheered from both the innuendo and the fact that the potato had bounced squarely off of Sirius's head and onto the floor. Thick headed git. She adored them both.
Sirius had only noticed the feeling of The Amazing Bouncing (And Slightly Deformed Looking) Potato. "Cabbage is sexy?" He repeated, in a slightly amazed tone. "I don't want to know what you two do with cabbages, girls. Leave me young and innocent." He snorted. "As much as I can be." He picked up the puppy and headed into the kitchen, as this seemed to be people central. "I think she wants her Mama." He told Marlene, nodding knowingly.
Marlene took Sammie from Sirius and held the puppy up in the air, their noses touching as she babytalked at the poor dog. "Is that right Sammie? Does Sammie want her mommy? Who's a cute puppy? That would be youuuuu, yes it would yes it would!. Does the Sammie need to go potty?" Marlene asked the puppy, finally dropping the silly voice and realizing that holding the dog in the air if she did have to go to the bathroom would have very very bad results, especially considering they were in the kitchen and Agnes was getting out the food for dinner. "Ahem. I mean 'good dog. Let's go get you potty trained.'"
The portkey led directly to the end of Diagon Alley, centrally between The Daily Prophet office, Artemis Theatre, and Grindylow Gardens. Augustus had decided to go go first, just since he was "leading" the group. Still, he hadn't been against the others bringing some of their own ideas along. One of Rookwood's ideas, however, was disguising voices by potion. He had gone over the different tones available at his family home, and Rookwood himself had chosen a countertenor for himself. The streets were generally bare, but he did notice some activity near the entrance to Knockturn; that was usual, since the drinking holes there usually filled in once the sun went down. Hopefully, the wait for the others to arrive wouldn't be long; if any had decided to steal from his own in his absence, he'd literally skin them alive. Most involved he trustworthy, though; and even if Regulus decided to try anything, he doubted some of the others would stand for it. Rabastan had done well in explaining the best route to the flat, so getting to the front door likely wouldn't prove difficult, unless of course there was squabbling along the way.
Roman apparated to the coordinates he had been given from Rookwood’s house, dressed already in his cloak and mask, just in case anyone was around. He looked around quickly and saw that it was empty as he stepped into the shadows and pulled his mask off. "How long are we going to wait here?" he asked, his accent thick and so low class that it almost hurt Roman to hear himself speak. "I would much rather get this done sooner rather than later, I am sure I’ll catch something in that house," he said already anticipating the kill and then later on the cleansing shower before a night of deep sleep.
Portkeys were not generally how Lucius chose to travel, but tonight he was more concerned with the uncomfortable sensation of his robes being far too tight. The Ministry worker (who was something to do with the Quidditch teams head office, Lucius wasn't sure what) whose hair he had used for the polyjuice potion was both significantly shorter and stouter than himself, and he cursed his lack of foresight in not acquiring new robes. He wasn't quite sure why he was the one who had to be polyjuiced, but if the worst came to the worst, he would not be recognised should they fail. Not that they would fail, of course. Lurking in the shadows, Lucius glanced around in anticipation. Despite the quietness of the street and his own changed appearance he left his mask in place, fearful someone would happen upon them. "Patience, Selwyn," he muttered in response to Roman's question. He shuddered at the sound of his voice, the Ministry worker had a rather unpleasant squeak. "And put your mask back on, what if someone sees?"
After taking the Portkey, Regulus took a few steps away and pursed his lips, loosely crossing his arms across his chest to wait for further orders. It was strange hearing voices in the room that did not match up with who they were meant to match; even with the masks, he knew who had come, after all, but the strangeness was balanced by the knowledge that it would help with disguising their identities further. After all, he knew that he himself had felt an element of relief at the suggestion: he did not feel like suffering another connection to illicit activities. His voice had been altered to a slightly deeper Scottish accent, somewhat foreign to his ears and unceasingly surprising any time he opened his mouth. He was settling to not speak unless necessary, so he was glad when Roman had voiced the question in his own mind, even if it was not a question he felt the need to ask. Adjusting his own mask as a self-conscious response to Lucius words (it mattered not that they were directed toward Roman), Regulus straightened his shoulders and continued to wait silently.
She dropped the Portkey immediately after arriving at Diagon Alley and Georgina wandered to the group of masked individuals. "Does anyone know if there are exits aside from this one?" asked Georgina, her voice altered to that of a man's. This amused her greatly and she liked to take the opportunity to speak as much as she could despite the gravity of the circumstance. "I can volunteer to station myself there, if you deem it reasonable." Her hand twitched involuntarily on the wand she grasped beneath her cloak. Georgina fell silent once more as she regarded the others, all of them seemed to be taking the operation seriously so she adjusted her manner to suit. She'd rather have them think well of her than otherwise; she didn't exactly want them to think her as a typical twittering female. Georgina liked to think that she could be of use to the Dark Lord after all.
Barty was utterly unfond of Portkeys and, if he'd had a say in anything, he would have selected any other form of transportation -- well, no. Even suggesting that was ridiculous. He obviously would not have selected an ostentatious form of transportation, such as broomsticks, but, honestly, Portkeys were an utterly nauseating form of transportation and, after joining the other Death Eaters in Diagon Alley, Barty took a moment to steady himself first, reminding himself that he'd been right about O'Hare and that he'd made wise suggestions about the whole situation, even if they likely weren't what had been used to work out the fact that O'Hare was still alive. ...This was ridiculous. No matter how much he was looking forward to this, his stomach was still upset by the whole process of getting to Diagon Alley, and it shouldn't have been! It was not as though he had never used a Portkey before. "I rather doubt it," he commented quietly -- even more quietly than normal, as he was still adjusting to the fact that his voice now sounded not too entirely unlike his mother's. "There are likely windows or exits such as those, but they should not be too difficult to guard. Also, they should injure whosoever is imbecilic enough to jump from them."
Severus had joined the raid mainly to improve his standing within the Death Eaters. The truth was that he had felt relieved when Agnes had been discovered alive and felt uneasy about going to hunt her down again. However, as he continued to tell himself, she was a ditzy girl, full of drugs and idealism that didn't really belong in this decade, if in any decade. If she was stupid enough to speak badly of her betters, did it matter what she said that might happen to make sense? No. And Severus knew he needed to do more field work with the Death Eaters. He needed to be involved in more raids, and more frequently, and with luck, he'd lead one or two in the next year so that he could move up and closer to the Dark Lord. So he had volunteered, he had supplied the potions, and now he stood, mask over his face, waiting for Rookwood's instructions, even though there were parts of him that were protesting his involvement tonight.
Upon seeing the group had indeed arrived, Augustus did a final headcount, feeling very much the schoolteacher, perhaps not including Lucius and Georgina in the "students" group. "Not very long," Rookwood answered Roman abruptly, in his own altered voice, a very proper-sounding countertenor. Augustus' real tone was something closer to a spielbariton, or lyric baritone. "Do as he says," he added, pointing to Lucius. "We don’t need extra exposure. That goes for all of you." Georgina lightened his mood when "he" finally spoke, and Augustus glanced over to her attentively. "There are windows, front, and one back door. I would appreciate if someone assumes the stairwell. Doors are unnecessary. And yes, I am hoping the windows are utilised. They won’t go anywhere with broken necks."
Augustus then motioned for the group to follow and quickly made his way to the front door to Grindylow Gardens, not bothering to keep it open for those behind him; he hoped they could keep up at this point. Once inside, he looked for the stairwell, a narrow looking thing, and ascended to the third floor, after three flights of stairs. After a brief pause to catch his breath and let the others catch up, Augustus made his way beside the door to the flat, conveniently located next to the stairwell and pressed his back against the wall. Reaching over, he knocked four times. "Package delivery for Miss Marlene McKinnon! Sorry about the time - the post's been running late today." Rookwood made sure to speak as though he was in a hurry, as most late deliverymen usually did, at least from his experience.
"Yay mail!" Marlene replied excitedly, passing the puppy back to Sirius as she hopped off of the countertop and made her way towards the front door of the flat. "Maybe Sophie is finally sending me those presents from Greece she promised, oh, two months ago," she pondered to herself (and Agnes and Sirius, if they chose to pay attention). She hadn't been expecting anything, and there was a slight bit of Christmas excitement-like delight to her voice as she ran through the millions of different possibilities of what could be in the parcel, especially if it was large enough to need a delivery person, instead of an owl. Moving to unlock the door, Marlene stopped herself short, remembering to check the door's peephole first before throwing it open. No one there. The postman must have been busy, dropping the package up against the door (or so she assumed, as she couldn't see directly next to the door, either) and taking off, without even waiting to be sure that his delivery wound up in the right hands. "I think he must've just left it; postguy's gone already," Marlene called, turning back to Sirius and Agnes in the kitchen as she opened the door.
Too easy - once the door had opened, inwardly, Augustus motioned for Roman to keep it open. Meanwhile, he took advantage of the opening, deciding it only fair he entered first. "Wait a moment!" was his cheery exclamation as he made his way through the doorway. Rookwood already had his wand at his side, but didn't bother with magic just yet; instead, he decided to attempt roughly pushing the girl back inside. "Is Agnes home?"
Roman pulled his mask back on after a few moments before the group left, ignoring more of the people around him. He did not like them so why should he even bother to talk to them. Really it was a waste of his time. He rolled his wand between his fingers in a small nervous habit before following Rookwood to help him with the door. He pressed himself up against the back on the other side of Rookwood, feeling the comforting weight of the dagger at his side as he chewed on his bottom lip behind the mask. Taking a more firm grip on his wand he watched Rookwood knock on the door.
He could hear voices talking behind the door and then it opened and Rookwood pushed his way in. He followed quickly, wand out in front of him, keeping his back against it and holding it open for everyone else, with a grin, nervousness gone and excitement setting in.
With an air of satisfaction, Regulus slipped easily inside the flat and watched as the horror dawned at least on the face of Marlene; it did not take a person long to realise that a crowd of (rather distinctively dressed) Death Eater for forcing entry into one's living space. She was unceasingly bothersome, and if she was going to harbor their target, she was going to get caught in the crossfire. Grabbing his wand out of his pocket and holding it up, he looked around at the others. There were far more of them than was necessary, really, but he wasn't going to miss a raid like this. This time, they were not going to fail.
Binding Marlene with an Incarerous spell, Regulus moved further inside to allow the others to enter.
"Someone kill her quickly." Augustus might have yawned, if he didn't suspect there were still a few others to root out. Or perhaps they were out? Thinking it more amusing than stupid, he decided to just call out for their main target. "Miss O'Hare? We know you're here somewhere..." His words were sing-song, if a little menacing. Momentarily, he noticed the carpet, a garishly yellow stain upon the floor. "Quaint."
Lucius entered the apartment soon after Regulus, and fanned out towards the left hand side of the room, holding his wand defensively in front of him towards what looked like a tiny kitchen area. Really, these people were living in squalor, a fact that didn't really surprise him. He felt secure and confident in his disguise, knowing that it was impossible for him to be recognised, unless they were here long enough for the polyjuice to wear off. But that wouldn't happen. In, kill, and out. That was the plan. Recognising the girl on the floor as that McKinnon girl who had tormented Druella and Narcissa, he smirked beneath his mask. She deserved everything that was coming to her. But she was not their main target, and his eyes never stopped raking the room for O'Hare or anyone else stupid enough to cross his path.
Severus stepped into the room behind Regulus and Lucius, his eyes quick underneath his mask. He frankly found the masks to be an irritation to his work. He felt like they kept his vision from being all that he would like it to be, and kept him from moving as he would like to. This did not mean, of course, that he did not understand the necessity of them, and so his had been on from the time they had used the Portkey into London. His voice, when he spoke was much higher than he was used to, and it had disturbed him, so he kept quiet, instead glancing around the room to get his surroundings in the small flat. It seemed unlikely that it would take long to get the surroundings as it was so small. He stepped forward, ignoring both McKinnon and the ridiculous furnishings, looking instead for Agnes as well as anyone else whom might be staying in the flat.
Agnes's reaction to hearing her own name as Rookwood shoved himself through the door was to duck, cutting knife still in her hand. She pulled her wand out, mental "fuck!"s resounding loudly in her brain. How the hell had they... she hadn't left in a goddamned week. FUCK. She navigated around Sirius's legs, knowing he could handle the scrawny one heading toward the carpet (Severus). She had to find a way to deal with the one heading toward the kitchen (Lucius) and get Marlene before somebody fucking killed her on Agnes's account. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Well. She would do the bloody well best she could.
One hand lashed out around the border separating the kitchen from the living room, and the knife went hurling across the room toward (Regulus); she didn't have the presence of mind to pay attention to whether the knife struck its mark, but emerged, only long enough to shoulderbutt (Lucius) in the knees and clear his annoyingly tall self out of the way. "Accio Marlene!" She screamed, and as the bound girl hurtled across the room, she bowled Agnes right the fuck over.
Sirius had begun to feel slightly wary about the post, due to a paranoia about certain poisoned chocolates so he automatically looked over to have a nosy. However, the puppy was unceremoniously dropped into the sink (though no more than about five inches about it anyway) when he heard what he thought was 'Agnes'. This turned out to be a good thing as Agnes then ducked and in marched the masked morons. He went for his wand on instinct, suddenly thinking this was a lot of people for a single person. They must really be hacked off.
He moved his hand, taking aim at the latest entrant with a disarming spell or two; hopefully something would hit. There were far too many people with wands and he didn't think throwing cutlery was going to work all that well against a wand and a decent freezing charm. We need a clear path, he noted mentally, looking around them for things to use. There was the furniture, some pots and pans and a lot of plants. "I don't think we're going out the door." He noted, more to himself than to the girls.
Marlene was going to vomit. It had hit her very quickly and very hard as soon as the voice from the hallway spoke that she had majorly fucked up. Despite her best efforts to reslam shut the door, Marlene found herself shoved back into the flat and bound in seconds flat, a sea of black cloaks and masks washing into their tiny apartment before she had a chance to react. Someone had given the order to kill her, and she was stuck there, restrained on the ground and completely unable to defend herself. She practically bloody deserved it, Marlene thought, for being such a complete idiot.
...And then suddenly she was flying backwards across the carpet, smashing into Agnes and smacking her head into the ice box. The slight concussion managed to jostle Marlene back into awareness from her terrified frozen self-loathing, at least, and she tried her best to scoot herself into the kitchen, ropes be damned. "We have to get Dorcas. Dorcas is in there and sleeping maybe and fuckfuckfuck oh my god I am so sorry shit shit shit shit," Marlene babbled panickedly as Agnes helped her rip off the ropes. Why the fuck are there so many of them, she wondered silently, flailing for the wand in her pocket, hands shaking. The size of the flat was definitely making it look like there were even more Death Eaters than there really were, when there already were way too many for them to get past.
Dorcas's mother frequently told her that she was capable of sleeping through just about anything, but Dorcas never thought her tendency of being a deep sleeper would actually put her life in jeopardy. Dorcas had spent her Monday in work and then doing a bit of baby sitting for her sister, and needless to say she was exhausted and upon her arrival home she had given everyone a drowsy hello, Sammie a kiss on the head and a scratch behind the ear, and had promptly passed out on her bed, still fully clothed, and awoke not because of the fray of bangs and voices in the other room, but rather on her own accord.
Rolling over a bit, Dorcas gradually sat up, feeling quite disoriented. It took a few minutes for her senses to come back to her in full force, and when they did she realized there were apparently quite a few people in her flat, though this was hardly unusual and so Dorcas didn't quite see the need to grab her wand, which was lying idly on the floor next to her discarded jacket. Dorcas slowly made her way out of her bedroom, rubbing her eyes and letting out a huge yawn as she did so. Dorcas was quickly knocked out of her drowsy state of mind as she was greeted by the sight of several death eaters standing in her living room with her friends right there, vulnerable to attack. Dorcas felt a wave of terror over come her as if someone had slapped her across the face and she let out a rather loud "Fuck!".
Dorcas became painfully aware of the fact that her wand was still in her room and she promptly spun around and darted into her bedroom. "Oh shit," she hissed as she lost her footing on her rug and went crashing to the floor. Stumbling into a standing position, Dorcas shakily grabbed her wand and ran haphazardly out of the room. "Petrificus Totalus!Petrificus Totalus!!" Dorcas cried, throwing stunning spells at the first two death eaters who entered her reign of vision (Augustus and Barty), praying to God, Buddha, Merlin and any other deities that might be sitting up there that they would hit, despite the fact that her hand was far from steady.
She had entered the room a few minutes after the first rush of Death Eaters; being smaller than most of the men, Georgina was shunted to the back of the line. Arriving a few crucial minutes later, however, enabled her to catch several movements that the others in her group, who were already busy fighting, might have missed. Georgina saw that Meadowes girl aim her wand blindly at a clump of cloaked and masked figures who she recognised as Rookwood and Barty. "Protego!" she yelled just as the other girl cast the Body Bind curses. Ducking, and hearing a potted plant shatter behind her, Georgina joined the fray.
WHY was Dorcas coming OUT OF HER ROOM? She could've gone out the fire escape or something and been fine. "Dorcas, NO, go back," Marlene began yelling at her roommate as she kicked off the last of the ropes from around her feet, only to be interrupted by a terrifyingly familiar sound of smashing clay pots that caused the little bit of colour left in Marlene's face to drain completely. She jumped to her feet, glaring in the direction of the crash and pointed her wand at the Death Eater closest to where the potted plant had once stood. "You FUCKER, that was my ginkgo plant!" she yelled, shooting a leglocker curse in their direction.
Hopping backward with a bit of a stumble (and bumping unceremoniously into someone), Regulus scarcely avoided the leglocker curse and did not bother to check if it hit anyone else instead. Instantly his attention turned to Marlene once again, seeing that she had finally managed to worm her way out of the binding. The chaos made his head spin a little, and he wasn't even sure where O'Hare was or if they had her, or who all had been in the flat when they arrived -- McKinnon and Meadowes were over by the door (and had clearly sent that curse at him), then there was O'Hare, and he thought he had seen Sirius; more than ever he was grateful for the voice-disguising, even if he had not done very much speaking at all. There was an even greater feeling of security -- more so than even just the masks and the cloaks, as these were people who, these days, would not need a huge leap to recognize him.
Nudging the now wrecked potted plant rather cheekily with his foot, Regulus shot a stunning spell back, following swiftly with a Confundus Charm; he wasn't sure if either would make their mark with all the people moving about the small flat, but this was one situation when he did not feel he could sit back and do nothing. These people, he had a grudge against.
Severus' true interest was in Sirius Black. His old enemy had mocked him one too many times, and Regulus certainly too many times. Severus was aware enough to know that he couldn't risk being too involved with Black. The real mission was O'Hare, and he would do nothing to get his peers in trouble, but on the other hand, what more perfect opportunity to actually get rid of a waste of precious oxygen?
Severus stepped out from behind Regulus, whose unceremonious jostling had jostled Severus to the side enough to avoid the leglocking curse, and moved forward. He was grateful for the masks and the vocal alterations now that he was faced with Black, whom seemed to think (albeit correctly) that Severus was a Death Eater. He raised his wand and shot out at one of the plants on the counter top sending it hurling in the direction he was certain he had seen Sirius Black. He shot another stunning spell towards McKinnon and Meadowes. If it was possible to get rid of Sirius Black, while fulfilling this mission, Severus was intent on doing it. He just had to force the moron out into the open first, something that Severus was fairly certain it shouldn't be difficult to do. And if he could do that, Severus and his friends way outnumbered Sirius and his hanger-ons so Severus was certain that he'd have an excellent chance.
With Marlene off of her, Agnes managed to crawl back into the kitchen between Sirius's feet (which didn't seem the best place to be since a rain of dirt and plant was now showering down over the both of them). "Fuck! What do we do?!" She rose high enough to peer out over the kitchen counter and a cold chill ran through her. Fuck, there were a lot of them.
"Who throws a fucking plant?" Sirius noted, feeling for the spot the damn thing had hit before crouching. He didn't fancy tempting fate and ending up knocked out. He looked to Agnes and stopped to think; there were a lot of people in a very small area. "We need to dwindle those numbers a bit." That was going to be hard without causing a lot more damage to the flat. They couldn't rush head on, there wasn't enough space to stop stray curses and they seemed to be separated. "Is there another way out of here?" He asked, thinking it was better to be all come out in one bit than not at all. She could get another flat and she couldn't get a new brain if hers got splattered all over the walls.
He didn't really look where he was sending an impediment curse into the mix. He trusted that Dorcas (who was apparently awoken the insanity going on) and Marlene to stay out of it's way. "I hope Marlene isn't too keen on her furniture."
Agnes looked over at Sirius with a wry sort of expression - didn't anything faze him? He almost looked like he was bloody enjoying this nightmare. She reached up carefully to feel his forehead - didn't seem terribly soft, so he wasn't hurt... and then bopped him one right where the plant had hit him. "We ain't gonna be able to dwindle nothin, darlin'," she whispered frantically. "We need to get the fuck out and stay out before we gets killed." A sudden sort of realization hit her, and she reached up to feel the damp beneath her nose - the irony that Marlene had been the first to draw blood was more than she could stand, and she erupted with a sort of nervous giggle. "This is insane." But the way out of this debacle was not through giggling denial, and she sobered up quickly, pointing to the back of the house. "We can get out the windows, I think." She looked to Marlene for confirmation and then up in horror as Sammie began whining from where she was trapped in the sink.
"Right," Marlene nodded to Agnes, ducking behind a chair while trying to dodge both of the stunning hexes and the Confundus curse, and subsequently got caught in the path of a blasting curse, throwing her back against the corner next to the closet. "Fuuuuck," Marlene whined, trying to kick herself back up into a standing position, wishing there was a way to delay the pounding in her head until after they were safe. Which, well, from the look of it was probably never going to happen, but at least Marlene would be able to remain headache-free until she died, yeah? "Bugger off!" she yelled, echoing the last curse she'd been hit with, deciding to return the favour and cast another Blasting curse at the Death Eater closest to the kitchen.
Severus should have blocked the blasting curse. He knew it in his head, even as he found his reflexes screaming at him to duck - which he did. The curse screamed over his head, taking out half of the wall of the flat behind it, and he was covered in a shower of plaster, brick, and who knew what else falling down around him. It would have been girly to scream, so Severus would later swear that the girly noise had been the fault of his vocal alterations, and that he had merely cried out. This claim was probably only partially true. He tried to stand up again, his entire body protesting against the shower of debris - he would have bruises tomorrow probably. But there was no time for that now, and Severus was rather ticked off.
Roman threw another spell in the direction of the animals they were attempting to put out of their misery before suddenly he felt a blasting curse hit his shoulder and he spun around, stumbling in the direction of the bathroom, one hand flying out to grab the edge of the door as he roared out another curse, hurling it without much care in the general direction of where his previous one was. At this point, he didn't care who had hit him, as long as someone else got hurt in retaliation. They were destroying his shirt and he would not stand for it on top of everything else. This sort of disrespect would not be tolerated. He pushed away from the door and threw a blasting curse towards Sirius before turning and throwing a Incendio at Agnes for good measure before taking another step towards the fray.
Agnes didn't take kindly to someone trying to set her hair on fire, and as she dodged for her life (literally, Jesus, there were death eaters everywhere and spells exploding under feet), she copped hold of whatever was closest to her hands (it was a chair), and chucked it right into the death eater's stupid masked face. Her wand was out and as she howled out "Depulso!" after him, she began to feel an uncomfortable sort of warmth -- and a burning sensation. "FUCK!" She screamed, slapping her hands at her hair - that bastard had actually hit her! In a blind sort of anger, she kept her wand trained in Roman's (general sort of) direction. "Depulso! Depulso!" The problem was, she was so busy slapping her hair with her hand that she wasn't keeping much track of where her spells were flying - and it was only out of sheer luck that one hit a target - Georgina.
"Stupefy!" Georgina hollered, directing Stunning Spells at that blood traitor’s back. "Stupe--" A spell brushed past her elbow, leaving a shallow gash on her skin. There was hardly any blood drawn but the fact that one of those mudbloods managed to actually retaliate was enough to injure her pride. Georgina waved her wand in a wide arc in front of her and just as she was about to yell a curse, another spell hit her and the force pushed her back into a half-open door. Roaring in anger, she directed a Blasting Curse at the fray, directing it at the disgusting O’Hare woman’s head. It missed and Georgina hastened to cast another hex when the door behind her gave way and she toppled inside what looked to be the bathroom.
Augustus was far too busy with his own targets to notice Georgina falling into the bathroom. For a second, he considered killing the dog that ran across his line of vision, but instead looked for a human target; they were incredibly harder to find than the damn dog that seemed to appear every five seconds, frantically running for the temporary safest place to hide. Augustus himself was across from the kitchen. For a second, he glanced in both directions, mindful that no one was casting Avada Kedavra at the while. Rookwood then darted forward, partially hunched down, and picked up the ugly yellow rug in the centre of the room, before jumping back to his original position. "SOME OF YOU HOLD THE DOOR!" he roared, though shrilly, due to the fact his voice was so high.
Rookwood could have sworn Georgie had been beside him before he entered the kitchen, but she disappeared from his sight. Instead of looking for her, he concentrated on setting the rug on fire, and then launching it with another silent spell to a door where he saw one of the girls disappear last. If they were going to play hide and seek, he might as well smoke them out.
Marlene had run into her bedroom, wondering if smashing the window and jumping through it would do her any good. Why did their flat have to be so bloody high off the ground? She wasn't about to go running for it (jumping for it?) without the others, though (it was hard enough for her to leave without her hibiscus plant, which she was almost certain had gotten blasted to bits earlier in the battle.) Back pressed up against the wall and peeking around the corner, Marlene glanced through her open doorway just in time to see a second Death Eater topple into her bathroom. "Colloportus!" she hissed, cursing her complete failure to do unspoken spells while aiming her wand and focusing the spell at the bathroom door, which slammed shut and locked them inside the loo. Hopefully that would keep at least two of them out of their hair for a moment.
She'd been about to run back into the brawl (at least, as soon as Marlene could get her legs to do what her brain wanted them to do, she would have gone running back out there, wand in hand) when the sunny-coloured shag rug came soaring into the doorway, ignited in flames. "SHIT." Marlene screamed, that seeming to be the only bloody vocabulary word that hadn't completely escaped her memory, and slammed the doorway shut on reflex. A split second later it hit her that "wood door" plus "something on fire" wasn't going to be a very productive shield in the long run, and threw the door back open. She ducked under the flaming rug and peeled out of her bedroom and back into the main room, shooting an Incarcarous spell at the nearest death eater and prayed that it hit. "Let's see how you bloody enjoy that," Marlene yelled, hoping that it was the same one who'd shot that spell at her when they'd all first stormed in.
Roman watched as one of the other Death Eaters stumbled into the bathroom and that brief moment of weakness is what caused him to allow himself to be open to another blasting attack and he was thrown through the open door and landed on the ground with a groan. A second later the door slammed shut and he was up in and instant, lunging for the doorhandle the same moment it was locked. He cried out in answer, and banged on the door. "Open the fucking door!" he yelled, his voice still sounding coarse to him. He made an irritated sound and and turned to stare at whoever was with him. "Would you mind helping perhaps?" he demanded with a scowl.
"Don't get snippy with me, Selwyn," Georgina snapped irritably as she dusted her robes from debris. She was quite glad that she managed to get herself off the floor before Roman stumbled into the open bathroom door and landed heavily on the same spot where she lay sprawled earlier. Georgina saw one of the targets, it looked like the annoying one who liked to torment Regulus, cast a locking charm on the bathroom door before it slammed shut with a bang. "Stand aside," she pushed Selwyn to one corner and swept imperiously towards the door, knocking on it once. Sealed, eh? Georgina raised an eyebrow and etched a string of runes unto the wood with her wand. As she was about to cast a Blasting Spell, however, her hand was roughly tugged back.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded shoving her to the side in annoyance. He glanced over at the door and saw the runes, not sure what they had meant but he didn't really care right now. He rubbed the back of his head and turned with a scowl. The characters had seeped into the wood and he frowned even more. "Maybe we should try simple spells before you decide to do something idiotic."
Georgina didn't take kindly to being treated like a child; although she was glad that her mask hid the extremely childish pout that came soon after Selwyn pushed her out of the way. Nonetheless, she was annoyed. Stepping on his feet and feigning this as an accident, Georgina pushed him behind again and tutted. "This will save us time," she said, her voice still altered to a low baritone, "We shouldn't dawdle, they might be getting away!" Huffing and standing upright again, Georgina turned to shoot Roman an exasperated look. "Are you scared you might get hit by something?" a smirk spread across her features, and she couldn't help but feel disappointed that this expression was fully hidden from Selwyn.
Roman winced as his foot was stepped on before turning back to the girl. "We are in an small enclosed space you fucking moron. I'm going to assume that those spells are meant to help further the Blasting Curse right?" he said shaking his head with a disgusted scowl. "And we're in a small space, we could get killed. Not to mention we have no clue what other types of wards are always around this place that could react and cause the entire place to blow," he said wanting to smack her across the back of her head but managed to refrain, barely. "So no we're going to stick to simple curses, which I know won't kill us," he said shifting to the side 'accidentally' bumping her rather hard with the side of his body. "And no you stupid insolent child, I am not scared, I simply do want to die because of your idiocy." With that said he turned and pointed his wand at the door. "Remove them now."
"First of all," Georgina began, her voice dangerously low... now achieving greater effect due to her altered voice, "I'm not a moron or a child, so refrain from being vulgar; I thought you were supposed to be brought up well, Selwyn." She used her body weight to try and slam him against the other bathroom wall, wincing a little. Unfortunately for her, Roman was nearly a foot taller than she was and therefore his ministrations to shoving her were more effective. "STOP," she finally yelled, "You stupid, blundering oaf," she added under her breath. "Fine, look, you can't remove the marks." Georgina could hear frantic voices outside the door now and felt extremely left out. She should be out there. "I suppose I can cast a Shield Charm around us, which would remedy the mortality rate that you pointed out," Georgina said pointedly before sniffing indignantly and asking him to step behind her. "Protego totalum." Perhaps the variation of the charm would help ease Selwyn's nerves somehow, she thought as amusement showed on her face. "Be sure that you're entirely covered, Roman, my dear, we don't want you to lose any limbs."
Just as the words for the Blasting Curse were nearly out of her mouth however, the doorknob fell off. "What on earth?" Georgina looked confused and bent down down the pick the broken handle from the ground. Realisation dawning, she threw the doorknob behind her without any other word to Selwyn and walked out the door.
Lucius was having problems. This body was not as physically fit as he was, and his reactions were somewhat slower. He had worked his way around the room, keeping his back to the wall and shooting as many curses and hexes as he could. He had just passed the kitchen when Marlene's spell headed straight for him, and he quickly attempted to block it. But not quite quick enough, and the as the spell caught his outstretched left arm, thick ropes bound it. Great, that would slow him up even more. Fortunately, his wand arm was still free, and he cursed quietly to himself. Just across from him, there was a gruff male voice yelling from inside another room, but this barely registered with Lucius. He couldn't remember which voice belonged to whom, but right now his priority was himself, and he took the opportunity to cast the first killing curse - "AVADA KEDAVRA!" burst from his throat in a high nasal tone, and he ducked down behind the kitchen counter without bothering to check whether his curse had hit.