Agnes had been driven back into the center of the room after knocking Georgina toward the bathroom, and was confused as all hell. There were death eaters in the kitchen, in the bathroom, by the window - why the HELL were so many here? Granted, she, Marlene, Dorcas, and Sirius had not yet managed to go down, but let's be honest now? There were two, four, five that she could see. FIVE?! For a bunch of kids? She'd just hit the bong (it was a landmarker of sorts) to see what kind of luck they'd have with the door. None, it seemed, and she skidded backwards, trying to dodge a purple bolt of lord-knew-what that grazed her shoulder. "Stupefy!" She threw back, arm wand out and turning at the recognition of movement in her periphery. And then she heard it before she saw it. "Avada Kedavra - " and she flung herself out of the way and into the path of a different spell meant for (she was sure) someone else. It knocked the wind out of her and she went down, but by Merlin she was still whole and still alive.
"WHAT THE FUCK'RE YOU PLAYING AT?" She screamed, finally dragging herself up from the floor. For such a small thing, she made a considerable amount of noise when infuriated. "WHAT THE FUCK? TRYING T'KILL A BUNCHA KIDS? WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?" And she launched the nastiest jinx she could at the kitchen. Unfortunately, (Lucius) had ducked, and it simply exploded out over the barrier. Eyes narrowing, she barely dodged another spell before pulling a lava lamp right out of its socket and into her arms. It was still hot from where it had been plugged in, and with a loud "UNF," she launched it at the kitchen. Even if it didn't hit the bastard, maybe he'd get some hot goo all over his pretty robes.
Marlene had thrown herself to the ground upon hearing one of them cast the killing curse, not sure where it was coming from and thanking everything that she'd managed to dodge it, whether it had been aimed at her or not. She barrel rolled into the legs of one of the Death Eaters, knocking them off balance, only to spin herself into another potted plant, which crashed to the floor, raining chunks of soil and clay. Sorry Frankie, Marlene winced, scrambling to her feet and readying her wand once more. She stood just in time to see Agnes smash someone with her lava lamp, and couldn't hold back a short snort of laughter, even in the midst of the terror she was feeling. "HA, good one!" Marlene congratulated Agnes on exploding the kitchen with blue and purple goo, and ran (well, hobbled) to her friend's side.
"They're fucking everywhere." Agnes's exasperation was tempered by a tiny laugh, which she managed in spite of herself at the lava-lamp business. She searched for any other projectiles and was saddened to note that the only thing around was her bong. This is it, old friend, and she scooped it. "Sorry about the carpet," she intoned, deadpan, as bongwater splashed out and onto the floor.
Ducking down as soon as he'd cast the killing curse, Lucius was busy tugging at the ropes still binding his left arm when something - and not a spell - exploded next to his foot. He had no idea what it was, but it was hot and sticky, and oh bugger it was burning a hole in his shoe. Yelping in surprise, he leapt to his feet again, doing his best to avoid any more spells that might be headed in his direction. Panicking that the hot substance would disfigure him somehow, he pointed his wand at the sink. "Reducto!" Water came spilling out, but the blast had also knocked some of the hot lava towards his face. Abandoning all pretence of secrecy, he threw his mask off before his face was burnt. But this wasn't his face after all. An ugly smirk spread across the face of the usually jolly little Ministry worker, and Lucius took a step into the room, giving all those around a good look at his polyjuiced face. More blasting curses were soon set off and his face was once again disguised by smoke.
Their language was atrocious and their methods were so sloppy. Augustus couldn't understand why one of them hadn’t permanently fallen yet, but he supposed the lack of killing curses of definitely reduced the possibility of such a feat. Lucius seemed occupied in the kitchen, and Rookwood intermittently cast a few spells that way, though he found his openings for precision spells frequently blocked by his own subordinates. After the third time he encountered it, Augustus began pushing the others out of his way roughly.
Selwyn and Georgina seemed to be absent at this point, and between catching a glimpse of some odd lamp-type object being hurtled toward the kitchen, as well as abruptly turning when he heard one of the plants in the flat break, Augustus spent most of his time looking for some sign of the two missing Death Eaters. Two of the girls were nearby and he supposed that left possibly two others from their band. Whether they were back in the rooms dueling Georgie and Roman was yet to be seen. He finally turned upon the girls, intent on killing both in a quick succession, since they were so close together.
To those Death Eaters nearby, he motioned for them to clear a way. When they either didn’t hear him, or were likely too busy running for the duo themselves, Augustus took matters into his own hands, suddenly lunging for the two. With one hand, he roughly pulled the shorter one down by the hair, trying to lead her away from her pal, while also keeping her in front of him to serve as a type of human shield. After a cursory glance behind, he continued pulling her away from the direction of the front door. Augustus was slight but had enough height to make it count; he let Agnes go and then attempted backhanding the girl roughly.
Agnes yowled as someone copped hold of her hair, small frame twisting so she could cast something at the fucker - or, at the very least, jab the pointed stick squarely into some soft fleshy bit - but he had her firmly from behind, and away from Marlene within seconds; dropping her was a mistake, though, because a backhand served only to infuriate her more. Agnes was a fairly competent witch - when she bothered to cast something. And she wasn't bothering now, as color rose in her cheeks and the clots of blood began to dribble out of her already-broken nose once more. "YOU FUCKING FUCKER." Oh yes, her language was atrocious - and she bloody well liked it that way. In an impulse of fury she swung herself at him, bong and all, and smashed her precious possession into Rookwood's midsection as she followed after, all fists and teeth and anger. She wished she could reach higher, but she was hardly the tallest of people and he had a significant bit of height on her.
The language continued, and Augustus definitely considered a well-placed stomp after 'fucking fucker.' Instead, he raised his wand, and cast the killing curse; what he didn't expect was Agnes to use a tube and herself against him. The green spell harmlessly collided with the carpet, killing whatever was living inside it; however, Rookwood had to close his eyes for a few seconds due to the flash. In that time, the little girl managed to latch on to him like a leech, biting him in the hip, as well as striking him somewhere a little too close for comfort. "Dreadful rabid little thing!" was all he said; there certainly was some pain involved, but Augustus prided himself on professionalism at all times. His methods currently weren’t looking as professional, though; Rookwood kicked Agnes three times and followed it up with a few kneeings. While he hadn’t forgotten about his wand, Augustus wasn’t so sure casting a blasting spell so close to his person would make sense. He began walking backward as quickly as he could with the additional wait, hoping for the dirtbag to eventually fall off.
What the shit was this, Agnes wondered (thoughtfully), to herself - a convention of uppity pricks or a goddamned fight? The kicks knocked her over, but she'd be damned if she was done yet, and launched herself right bloody back at him. Little fists swung every which way, haphazard, hitting barely once or twice - though maybe it made her feel better in the face of how embarrassingly badly she was doing spellwise. Her bong was gone and he was still standing - mocking her, even, which just made her angrier, sloppier, and less attentive to her magic. Finally he kicked her off, forcing her to the floor with an unf. "DEPULSO." Oh yes, the wand thing - she remembered it now, and angrily threw a purple bolt of light at him, not realizing that pushing him away was only going to encourage him to blast her right into the floor.
The others weren’t likely as physical in their duels, from what he had witnessed; Augustus himself had never been very pugilistic. Still, a slag trying to bite you was a slag trying to bite you. He’d be damned if he wasn’t going to bloody her up even if she did survive this day. She finally fell off of him, thank the heavens, but before he could even summon a spell of his own, his thoughts were interrupted by the latest annoyance - little punches. Chuckling a tad at this point, Augustus began to toy with his ‘opponent,’ stepping back enough where her punches, while definitely backed with genuine anger, did little next to no harm. He managed to kick her away and to the floor after a few rounds. Miraculously, this one did know a spell, but her aim was considerably off. In response to her carpet-bound depulso, he looked to the floor and then back to Agnes, giving her a chiding finger wag. Augustus then raised his wand and cast a curse her way; one, if successful, would cause her wand hand to turn into the equivalent of rubber. He followed it up with a quick (and silent) Expulso aimed at her torso, hoping for the spell to end Miss Foul-Language’s life.
The smoke was beginning to turn Agnes's head, because instead of rolling away from the verbal spell, she rolled right into it - and while it had the effect (the lucky effect - and it seemed that this little section of the Order seemed to run on luck and weed and not much else) of knocking her out of the way of the expulso to end all expulsos, she cried out as her right arm seemed to go all - well... all woobly. "YOU BASTARD." Agnes was going to look back on today and need a lot of work on her karma, for sure. But that was for later worrying, right now she hadn't the use of her more important hand, and thought she still had some sort of weird sleep-grip on her wand, she couldn't make her fingers do what she wanted. A "stupefy" went flying off in some haphazard direction, missing Marlene by a hair's breadth and shattering a window somewhere. Bugger and bollocks! She scooted back a bit, trying to scramble toward the coffee table for some semblance of cover.
Through some sort of massive amount of luck, Marlene just barely managed to dodge getting stunned for what felt like the eight-millionth time in ten minutes, jumping out of the way of the Stupefy spell, only to fall on her arse tripping over Sammie Lennon. The poor dog was running around the overcrowded flat as if the world was ending. (And really, the dog had the right idea; it was nauseatingly surprising that no one had gotten killed yet.) Casting a shield charm around herself without a second to spare (some bastard had tried to hit her with Incarcarous again, and there was no way in hell that Marlene was going to let that happen if she could help it.), she shakily pulled herself back to her feet, using the new ledge created by the smashed-out living room window to pull herself up. Why couldn't there be a fire escape at THIS window? It was right freaking there.
Spotting Agnes having even more trouble than she was, Marlene turned her attention to the Death Eater who was focused on her. She shot an Expelliarmus spell his way (simple as the spell was, she could cast it without speaking and if she could get his wand away from him, that would be such a big help), just as she noticed Sammie zip by her feet again, apparently having a different idea as to how to retaliate. The basset hound apparently really did have to go earlier when Marlene had been babytalking her (and no wonder, that felt like that had happened days ago), and chose to use the Death Eater as her own personal toilet, relieving herself on his robes.
More profanity aside, Augustus was tiring of this one. Whatever this group ran on was likely luck, because much of what he had witnessed here had been nothing more than narrow escapes and miracles. Luckily, Agnes' aim was definitely off now, and while it might trouble of his companions, he now felt he had a complete advantage. Maybe he could finally exterminate this one and move on to the rest. Raising his wand for the umpteenth time, he thought the two very-familiar words, no more than a casual thought in his mind, but he didn’t quite think the rest of Kedavra. In the corner of his eye, he saw movement, and not black-garbed movement.
Rookwood didn’t have the time to use a shielding charm or even try guessing what the spell cast in his direction was, though he assumed it was something lightweight, if coming from one of the vagrants. As a result, he hastily sprung to the left, almost losing his footing in the process. The damn hound dog apparently was still running around the flat as well, and before Augustus could even consider an appropriate return curse for the other girl that had damaged his concentration, he noticed the dog seemed to linger over his robes.
Once he finally realized what had happened, wide-eyed, the dog had run off. He was quite too angry with the dog to concern himself with the girls at the moment; he cast a small blasting hex at the animal, no more than a boot to the behind. Too worried about his sullied robes, Rookwood cast a shielding charm on himself and moved backward for a moment, using a few cleaning and drying charms and the like on his robes. Hopefully one of the others would find this an ample opportunity to try their own hand at killing the duo.
But Agnes wasn't about to give anyone the opportunity - she was getting the damned hell away from Rookwood, and after crawling a step or two, she dragged herself to her feet, wand in left hand now while her right recovered, and began to take off toward the back of the house - dodging stray spells and the occasional curse that flew toward her. "Marlene, get Sammie!" She cried, as if the other girl needed any advice.
Once again, Augustus couldn’t help but inwardly groan at the lack of order within his ranks. Of course, they could always be taught some kill of orderliness later on, but it was still as irritating as it was unhelpful in the present situation. Finished with cleaning his robes, Rookwood noticed that Agnes was still making her sluggish exit; he threw a few cutting hexes and burning at her legs as she ambled on. Hopefully one or two would bring her to the ground. What effrontery!
Things were not looking good. Half of the flat was on fire, the other half was filled with pissed off Death Eaters, but at the moment all Marlene wanted to do was ignore the flashes of red and green spells missing her by millimeters to cheer on Sammie Lennon for her choice of Urination Target. If they got out of there alive, there would be time for that later. "ACCIO SAMMIE LENNON!" Marlene yelled, figured that if it had worked for Agnes earlier in getting her out of harm's way (at least for the moment), it had better work for her dog. And it did; Sammie came barreling into Marlene's arms before the Death Eater that had gotten drizzled on could retaliate against the puppy. "Good dog," Marlene whispered to her puppy as she backed against the wall, trying to keep the dog from squirming away from her with one arm while continuing to shoot out stunning spells with the other, knowing that even if they weren't hitting their target, at the least she was buying them more time, knowing that the Death Eaters wouldn't be able to properly aim spells either if they were busy dodging hexes from the other side.
Buying time was not good enough, though. There were so fucking many of them, and getting hexed and slammed into walls and refrigerators hadn't done Marlene's stamina any favours. And Sirius had been more than right when this had all just begun: they wouldn't be getting out the front door. Did shield charms work against fire? Was this karma paying her back for Incendioing Fenrir? Where the fuck were Sirius and Dorcas and Agnes? The flat wasn't that big, but all she could see was a growing cloud of smoke and black robes. Forcing herself to stop thinking, to just MOVE, Marlene covered Sammie in her shirt and sped as fast as her legs would carry her over the flame-ridden yellow carpet and into her room, knowing that was probably their only chance at an exit.
Rookwood had hit Agnes in the leg with something that bloody hurt, but she wasn't exactly in the best position to pause and go all first aid in the middle of a clusterfuck of people. She needed to get out. Smoke was everywhere, robes and masks and burning smell. She couldn't see a fucking thing, and wherever Sirius and Dorcas were at was up for debate. "DORKY," she cried out, blinking heavily against acrid smoke. Fuck! This was all wrong.
Backing up toward the bedrooms, she threw a few stupefies at black robes as they passed her, but it didn't seem like anyone had much idea what was going on anymore. Eyes watering, she stepped back and back, hand stretched out to feel the door handle beneath it. "Ah! Shit!" She'd found the burning rug, and side-stepped it hastily before it could do much damage. Through the door, and maybe she could call outside for some help. But there was someone else in the room, and Agnes whipped around with her wand, every nerve of her body tensing - and Marlene almost got a blasting hex to the face. "Jaysus." With a breath, her wand hand fell to her side and she moved swiftly to the window. "Marly you gotta get outta here and get some help. Unngghh." Who the bloody fuck bolted windows closed? Agnes stared in disbelief, finding it ironic that there was a fire escape directly outside the locked windows, but her appreciation for irony had worn extremely, extremely thin. Impatience bubbled up in her, and in a rash move (that she would soon regret), she turned her face away and smashed her elbow right through the glass.
Bad move. Despite the adrenaline racing through her, agony and blood spilled over her arm as she stared in shock, and Agnes didn't even have time to appreciate the escape route. That had probably been the stupidest thing she'd done in a long, long-ass time.
".....Wand, Agnes!" Marlene stared at her in shock for a moment, unable to wrap her head around the fact that Agnes had just punched through the bloody window. It almost would have been impressive had Marlene not had the added terror of the possibility of Aggie bleeding to death now on top of everything else that was happening. "Bloody fucking hell, okay, stand back," she said between interludes of turning back towards the door, just to be sure that they weren't about to be joined by more arseholes in masks, and shot a blasting curse at the window, causing the remaining glass to shatter and crash to the floor, taking some of the wall down with it. "Take Sammie, and... be careful because I am not sure how stable that thing is but it is probably all we've got," she said, referring to the fire escape. That would just add to the brilliance of the night, the fucking fire escape collapsing.
"I know, I know!" Okay, so everybody made stupid mistakes in their lives - maybe not when their lives were in Real Imminent Danger, but she was allowed her damned mistakes. She watched the door while Marlene fixed up the rest of the window and then moved forward, hesitant to abandon the other three for the SECOND TIME (and it wasn't like Stubby was here for Marlene to foist her upon) - but she took the dog and did as she was told. "Make sure Sirius and Dorcas get the fuck out." Her lips twitched, and she cuddled the dog into her shoulder, trying to ignore the blood dripping down her elbow, and keep hold of the dog, and keep her wand out, AND keep an arm free so she wouldn't go plummeting to her death. "And if you die, I'll fucking kill ya." She couldn't quite bring herself to laugh - even a pretend one.
"We're not going to die," Marlene attempted to assure her, wishing she sounded more convincing than she felt, which she was well aware she didn't. There was no way that she was leaving without Sirius and Dorcas, though. It was her fault that the Death Eaters had gotten into the flat (even if they likely would've blasted down the door had she not opened it by her own means), and she was not stepping foot outside of the apartment until after she was sure that the right people had gotten out. Casting Aguamenti between coughs and waving away the smoke in the air, Marlene ducked outside of her room again, searching the apartment for her friends, and still managing only to find a convention of people who'd been sent to kill them. Had Sirius and Dorcas gotten out some other way?
Well, if they hadn't, at least Marlene could do what she could to give them a chance to make a break for it. Shooting a stunner at the closest Death Eater, Marlene yelled, "Hey, great job here today, shitheads! They send all of you to take on three girls and you can't even do that right. Top form there!" she mockingly applauded their incompetence, keeping herself pressed close enough to the open doorframe so that she'd have room to dodge any curses that she couldn't block.
How making them angrier was supposed to help Dorcas and Sirius, Marlene wasn't sure, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. She'd blame it on the concussion later.
Agnes crawled over the window ledge and onto the metal stairs that provided the fire escape. She wasn't sure why it was there, except that maybe for squibs or people who didn't know enough magic to put out fires, but she'd never been happier to see something that was a relic of the muggle world in all her life. Shaking and holding onto Sammie, who (bless him!) seemed to know better than to struggle at a time like this, she dragged herself down the stairs, one by one, wand out in case there were death eaters waiting for her. Luckily, it seemed the streets were still too busy for the Death Eaters to risk it, and so she made it down four flights and took off running. She had no idea where to go - her familiarity with Diagon was reasonable, but was there a magistrate's office? "Fuck." She was getting stares now, and she hurried to the closest apparition point, dog bouncing in her arms, and disappeared with a crack.
At this point, Dorcas had no idea where to go or what to do. Fighting the death eaters at this point seemed pointless, and she knew they needed to retreat, but Dorcas would be damned if she was leaving until she was sure Marlene, Agnes, and Sirius were out, or at the very least knew how to get out of this death trap of a flat; the only problem was Dorcas couldn't seem to find any of them. Amidst all the flame, smoke, and death eaters Dorcas's flat was no longer familiar to her, and having to focus on dodging an onslaught of hexes and curses made it difficult for her to find her friends. There were just so many of the death eaters and so few of them that all Dorcas saw were black robes and white masks and no semblance of either Marlene, Agnes, or Sirius.
Dorcas began to cross her flat, sending a frenzy of stunning and blasting hexes in the direction of the cloaked figures as she went. The smoke wasn't making matters easier, and the closer she got to Marlene's room the thicker it got and the harder to breath it became. Between fits of heavy coughing, Dorcas managed to cast the bubble head charm on herself so that she could breathe at ease. With everything else that was happening, the last thing Dorcas had to worry about was something as mundane as breathing. Finally, Dorcas caught sight of Marlene and she rushed over to her side. She let down her bubble head charm momentarily and with a panicked "Protego!" she made a shield to protect Marlene and herself from the hexes that were flying left and right throughout the flat. "We need to get the fuck out of here, where's Agnes and Sirius?" she asked.
"Agnes is out, she has Sammie, I don't know where the hell Sirius is and I don't know why because this flat is not that fucking big," Marlene informed her in a rush, making room for Dorcas to get past her in the doorway and into the bedroom. Thank fucking Merlin that none of the Death Eaters had followed that far south into the flat, because while Dorcas's shield charm would hold out for some things, if the Death Eaters started getting desperate to kill something (which they likely were, given that THAT'S WHAT THEY DID), they were kind of screwed. The pounding noises on the other side of the bathroom door was also terrifying the hell out of Marlene, because she knew that wouldn't hold up forever either, and the second that door flew open, well... there she and Dorcas were. "SIRIUS WHERE THE FUCKING FUCK ARE YOU?" she screamed into the living room area, hoping he was okay, and that nothing had happened to where he wouldn't be able to answer. "I'll go find him," Marlene muttered, hoping that he would get his arse in gear before she had to leave the bedroom and that it wouldn't come to that. "Dorie, you should go after Agnes and make sure she's okay; she's bleeding kind of bad."
Sirius ducked out of the way of a blasting curse, the resulting blast having helped lead to a smoked out flat, not to mention the spells flying back forth. The flat was a warzone, a dead loss and not exactly somewhere he could stick around for much longer. He already had a thumping headache and he didn't want to add 'death' to that. He was all for a good fight but coughing up his internal organs wasn't part of the deal. He'd ended up closer to what he thought was Dorcas, though his vision wasn't brilliant. Mostly he could make out that it was female and had gone into the bedroom.
No, wait. That was Marlene's dulcet tones screaming so he pushed back from the wrecked kitchen area and went towards the bedroom, sending a few slicing hexes at the group; if just one hit, it would make him feel a hell of a lot better about last time and would buy a little more time. He sincerely doubted after all the other damage to the flat that blood was going to be an issue. "You called?" He coughed, joining them.
"It's about time you showed up," Marlene replied, practically pouncing on Sirius in relief as he came through the doorway, it obvious from her tone that her sarcastic remark actually meant 'thank you for not being dead.' They were all okay. They were going to get out of here, definitely worse for the wear and with bruises and injuries that were going to hurt like hell as soon as the adrenalin wore off, but the window was right there and all the Death Eaters were still screwing around in the other room and all four of them (and their dog) were going to make it out; Marlene could feel it.) "Both of you: window, now, go," Marlene shooed Sirius and Dorcas toward the window (or, well, the massive hole that'd been blasted where the window once was), spinning around Sirius and nudging them both towards the void in the wall, keeping her wand trained on the door.
Dorcas felt a great rush of relief wash over her once Sirius entered the room. They were all okay, more or less, and most importantly they were going to make it out alive. "Let's go," Dorcas agreed and allowed Marlene to steer her in the direction of the gaping hole/makeshift window. Dorcas stepped through the crusting plaster but didn't descend down the fire escape just yet. Dorcas wanted to be absolutely positive that Marlene and Sirius were out before they all made their grand get away. Dorcas craned her head to catch sight of Agnes on the fire escape, and once she spotted her she gave her a quick wave and a thumbs up. Perhaps it was an unnecessary caution considering her voice would most likely be scarcely noticeable over all the chaos inside, but Dorcas was afraid to call to Agnes lest she should attract the Death Eaters to their whereabouts. Dorcas took a few steps backwards so that she was occupying the right corner of the fire escape, leaving Sirius and Marlene with plenty of room to step outside, yet all the while Dorcas held her breath and stared intently at the bedroom door, her hand clenched in a fist around her wand and a 'Stupefy!</s>' ready on the tip of her tongue should one of those jack asses try to sneak up on them.
After cleaning his robes and helping force the tramps toward the bedrooms and repelling them from the doors, Augustus forced his way to the head of the group of Death Eaters. Casting two more shielding charms (of course only on himself) emboldened him enough to venture forward to pursue those fleeing to the bedrooms. A few hexes came his way but harmlessly clinked against the shields, but whether or not the hexes hit any of the others was entirely up to them. Before reaching the bedroom door, Rookwood thought he had heard voices; looking to his right, he noticed that the bathroom door was closed. "Shite,/i>," he mumbled, realising where Roman and Georgina had been for at least the past five minutes. He cut the doorknob off of the door and pushed the other side of the locking mechanism inside.
Not bothering to open the door, Rookwood moved forward and paused before opening the door to the bedroom directly in front of him. He stepped to the side of the door and leaned over, opening it, only to recoil back only a second two after doing so. However, his right arm hadn’t disappeared, and Augustus used this opportunity to blindly send a few cutting and blasting hexes into the room.
Brushing the non-existent dust from her shoulders, Georgina emerged from the bathroom looking harassed but otherwise unharmed. Spotting Rookwood just across the hall, she hastened towards him and looked around her. She wasn't surprised about the mess, of course, but she had expected a dead body or two. "They got away?" Georgia asked and kept the incredulous tone in her voice. She didn't want to offend anyone. Actually, no, she occasionally liked to offend but she drew the line at insulting her superiors.
Busy with the contents of the bedroom, Augustus hadn't expected Georgina to surprise him on the side. He slightly jumped as she spoke, mainly as the voice wasn’t recognisable. "Get DOWN--" was the best reply he could give her at the moment, mainly as he didn't know whether or not they did get away. With Georgina standing practically in front of the open doorway, she might have been open to attack. He didn't know what was inside the room, but expected they had holed up or escaped through it. With great effort, he attempted to get in front of Georgina and stepped into the doorway, casting a flashing charm that he hoped would cause any within to close their eyes for more than two seconds.
Marlene wished that Georgina's question had been more correct than the actual situation. Dorcas at least was outside, and as far as she knew (and hoped), Agnes had gotten out and hopefully to safety with their puppy, and they were so close now, she could almost smell it (somewhere buried under the smell of the smoke that continued to cloud the bedroom). And then she heard something explode just outside of the bedroom door, only to be followed by a rapidfire of hexes slicing into the room. Directly to her right, the foot of her bed was hit with a blasting curse, slamming it up against the back wall, and one of the cutting hexes sliced at her leg. Wincing at the injury, Marlene jumped back towards the window hole, grabbing Sirius's non-wand arm and yanking him towards the exit with her, all while forcing herself not to look down at her leg. If she didn't actually look at it and see the damage, she could pretend it hadn't happened. Right?
She was sliding outside onto the fire escape, shooting stunning spells back into the bedroom while Sirius started outside, when the flashing charm enveloped the room, with Marlene staring straight into it. Buggering hell, Marlene thought, yanking her other leg through the window in a wild panic while trying to blink back her ability to see, and lost her footing on the metal staircase, toppling down a full flight of stairs to the next floor down, feeling like she hit every bloody stair on the way down as the wind was knocked out of her. The metal gate around the balcony on the next level "luckily" kept Marlene from falling down any further, her head practically breaking her fall as she skidded into the wall pate-first. Miraculously her wand had somehow managed to survive the nosedive, but even trying to think about moving made Marlene hurt, let alone trying to keep fighting back against them. They'd gotten outside. That was practically home free. Any time that the Death Eaters wanted to stop trying to kill them would've been fine by Marlene, since she really wanted to just stay where she was and go to sleep.