Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-05-01 02:21:00 |
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2. The Order attacks the Inner Circle & Dark Army (cont)
g. Ursula(6), Rodolphus(1) vs Marlene(1), Remus(4)
+ whomping willow (attacks indiscriminately)
Rodolphus's eyes narrowed in displeasure as a wave of figures spread out across Hogwarts grounds toward their group; he and the other members of the inner circle spread out, flanked by the dark army, though ultimately Rodolphus wasn't about to rely on an untransformed werewolf to do his fighting for him. It didn't occur to him that the order might have been alerted -- merely that Dumbledore had his lackeys at the ready whenever whim required it, apparently (and the irony of that disdain was lost upon him).
A glance backward affirmed that one of the werewolf girls was near him, and he growled out a warning as they veered off the main path and towards the whomping willow. "Don't get too near the tree." He didn't know what Dumbledore was thinking, installing this damned tree. They didn't tolerate shenanigans like this when he was in Hogwarts. He'd learned about it secondhand on their last attack on Hogwarts, but he'd seen the damage it could do -- and it wasn't pretty.
Wand drawn, he didn't bother waiting politely until his quarry had formally bowed and all that nonsense, but shot a stunning spell immediately in the direction of two heading straight for them.
It wasn't difficult to spot the tall figure making its way across the field near the whomping willow, and Remus glanced at Marlene to make sure she was close by as they moved in to meet the Death Eaters trying to infiltrate Hogwarts. And the masked Death Eater wasn't alone -- there was a smaller woman trailing behind him, but it wasn't anyone Remus recognised. She wasn't, at the very least, on their side.
"Protego!" Remus growled, the spell bouncing off the shield as soon as it struck, and he aimed his wand at Rodolphus with a harsh swipe, casting a slashing curse.
Ursula had opted to follow the largest person she had seen. Mostly because she was certainly smaller than any of the other werewolves and the wizards. So sticking to someone bigger seemed apt. She watched with a certain amount of caution as the wizards began fighting with no real preamble.
The male had retaliated (he was another werewolf, but she didn't concern herself with that because she honestly didn't care) so she lurked in the large shadow her wizarding companion made, focusing on the girl he had with him. The tree they were fighting under lurched, a branch coming out of nowhere and lashing Ursula across the arm. Snarling, she walked away from the tree in a hurry, finally getting bored enough with lurking and running at the girl fighting with the other werewolf, aiming a solid punch for her jaw.
It was hard for Marlene to not notice someone that Death Eater's size lumbering towards her. Masked or not, she didn't need to see his face to recognize who it was. She could tell from the way he walked and just out outrageously huge he was that it was Rodolphus. Why him, why here again? "Remus, if you have ever gotten the desire to cast the Cruciatus curse before," Marlene whispered as she kept her wand trained on the Death Eater and ducked behind the Protego, "this is not the time."
Whether it was Rodolphus's size or Marlene's one-tracked panic, she had completely missed any sign of Ursula being there too. Before she knew what was happening, she'd been clobbered in the face. "Deprimo!" she yelled out, aiming her wand in the direction of the woman, barely able to make her out through the stars she was seeing as she took a few stutter-steps away, wincing from the pain in her jaw. As soon as the werewolf woman wasn't practically on top of her anymore, Marlene shot an shoddily aimed Expelliarmus spell at Rodolphus, not wanting to waste time while he got ideas.
If the werewolf had the girl -- whom Rodolphus recognised with a dark sense of satisfaction -- Rodolphus could take her companion. The slash caught him across the arm, and he grinned toothily as blood spattered across his robes, a horrible, toothy expression that was wholly unnatural across those otherwise stark features. He hadn't had a fight since the accident (which was no accident at all, but that Rodolphus hadn't gotten out when he ought to have), and there was something particularly blood-boiling about having that girl and that man within his grasp.
A sharp, guttural noise escaped him as he moved forward with startling, frightening speed, and slashed his wand through the air, a blasting curse aimed at the ground rather than Remus himself -- and a cruciatus followed directly after. Why muck about? He knew precisely what he desired to do with these two.
Remus was already taking a precautionary step back as soon as the Death Eater began to swiftly move toward him -- the blasting curse at his feet only causing him to stumble, and then the ground was coming up to meet him as he fell backwards when the cruciatus curse struck him. One fish clenched around his wand, the other gripping and pulling up the grass beneath him as the pain from the curse seized his body, Remus twisted on the ground, crying out from the agony that ripped through him.
He muttered something incomprehensible, trying to cast a spell but having difficulty concentrating on the words. He squeezed his eyes shut for only a second, opening them to focus on Rodolphus and point his wand at the man torturing him. Gritting his teeth, Remus growled out a gasped, "sectusempra!" He tried to force his attention on speaking the word correctly to distract himself from the pain, but it was difficult, and he resorted to shouting the spell out repetitively, hoping that one of them worked: "Sectusempra! Sectusempra! SECTUSEMPRA!"
Surprise forced Rodolphus backwards, and despite his dodging, and his shields, one curse nicked the edge of his shoulder. He could hear fabric tear, feel the blood spattering hot and wet across his sleeve from the single, deep gash. He could heal it later -- it would scar with the wait, of course, but what was one scar against so, so many? Pain narrowed his attentions, and took a requisite step backward, face smeared with an ugly expression of satisfaction. Reduced to dark magic and so early in the fight? Well then.
Dodging an errant branch, Rodolphus turned his wand instead on the tree, a brief fire spell meant to aggravate it -- to make things interesting. And then again upon Remus, now with a knee reversing spell. He was playing.
Remus had nearly forgotten about the whomping willow, having been a little distracted with the ripping pain from the Cruciatus curse -- but he was quickly brought back to reality when one of the branches crashed down near him. "Protego!" The shield blocked the spell the Death Eater had cast, but just barely, and it shattered immediately to leave Remus unprotected again. He stumbled quickly back up to his feet, breathing labored as he still tried to recover, but with enough breath left to shout a blasting curse at Rodolphus.
Marlene had learned a long time ago that when it came to dealing with angry evil ravenous werewolves, as long as you kept your distince, in theory you could be okay. It was when the claws and the kicking and the bitings and the wand-losings happened that a wizard would find themselves in a pinch. Spells were a lovely lovely thing.
And that is exactly what Marlene planned on doing: Stay away from the werewolf, stay away from the tree, stay away from Rodolphus, and cast every fucking spell she had ever learned in her life. Slicing spells, binding spells, blasting spells, each right after the last as she continued to back away from her. As soon as she heard a cruciatus spell hit Remus, though, Marlene's attention on Ursula wavered, more focused on the fact that her husband and that hulking half-giant family killer were dueling. Oh god, what if he knew about what Remus had done to Marius... Panicking slightly in the moment, Marlene pointing her wand across the field at Hagrid's hut, shouting "OPPUNGO!", sending one of the large pumpkings growing outside of it shooting across the grounds, hurtling straight towards Rodolphus's head.
Rodolphus met Remus's blasting curse with one of his own, and the two spells exploded between them into a burst of nearly blinding light. He took a step backwards, turning away from the glare, unwittingly aiding in the momentum of a rather large pumpkin that went slamming into his shoulder; though the muscle and bone took the brunt of the force and remained fairly intact, pumpkin innards splattered across his neck, his face, and the long incision that he'd forgotten about until now. Blood mottled with orange goo and he was, as it were, remarkably damned displeased.
The culprit was obvious, and as he shook pumpkin shell from himself and swept off a thick mess of stringy pulp, Rodolphus cast a shield spell and stalked after Marlene, not even bothering to cast anything yet.
Dodging Marlene's Deprimo and wincing as she watched it blast a hole in the ground (that could have been her chest, holyfuckingchrist), Ursula backed off Marlene and growled a little. There were a lot of things Ursula could handle, but a hole blasted into her probably wasn't one of them.
Jumping away from a branch of that stupid whomping tree, Ursula observed the large Death Eater go for the girl. She was a little in awe of how wizards fought, but she knew she stood no chance. Watching the other werewolf get back to his feet, she moved quickly, blocking him (though it would be absurd and impossible for anyone of Ursula's size to use herself as a block for anything, really) from where his female companion was, and where Rodolphus was heading.
"Hey, puppy," she snarled. "Catch your breath and fight like a real werewolf should."
Remus stopped in his tracks, feeling torn -- he knew ignoring the werewolf and trying to get around her would be a mistake, but he didn't want to leave Marlene to fight the Death Eater alone. And so -- not responding to Ursula's taunts -- he tried to think of a way to solve both problems at the same time. There weren't very many options, so he tried to knock Ursula back into Rodolphus with a blasting curse.
That had been precisely the reaction that Marlene had been expecting from Rodolphus, but that didn't make it any less TERRIFYING when he began hulking after her like some slow-moving horror film villain. She froze for a split second, wand pointed at him, ready to cast any spell she could think of... but instead spun on her heels, nearly tripping over herself and ran. This was not happening again, no fucking way. She fired a blasting curse over her shoulder at him, but barely even looked back to see if it hit, let alone slowed down in the slightest. "REMUS JUST GO, LET'S GO," she yelled across the field. They could find someone else to fight, someone who wasn't Rodolphus. It sounded like a splendid plan to her.
Ursula ducked away from the blasting curse with remarkable agility, returning to her position in front of her opponent as soon as she deemed it safe to do so. The big guy wanted the girl, he could take the girl.
Dirt and grass rained down across Rodolphus, the shrapnel of Remus's blasting curse, and he was beginning to feel a bit unseemly; pumpkin guts hung from his shoulder and hair, now speckled with brown and green and bits of stone. He remembered his first mentoring session with Bellatrix -- something about duels rarely being fair -- but this was just ridiculous. He remembered back in the day. When men were real men. Duels were real duels. And -- damn, that was a blasting curse headed straight for him. The faint shimmer of magic before him reminded him that he need not make a fool of himself by leaping out of the way (he was far too old and too unwieldy for acrobatics, anyhow) and the curse rebounded off his shield and into the roots of the whomping willow.
It did not take kindly to these shenanigans.
With a fury Rodolphus hadn't expected, the willow launched several long, whiplike branches at himself and Marlene. Several slapped the ground furiously, leaving long deep ribbons of earth in their wake; several swung for Rodolphus, which he managed to freeze so that they broke into icy shards with the force of their momentum. Were he a more whimsical man, he'd be delighted at how exciting this had become. As he was not, he merely frowned after Marlene and continued hulking along, wand casting out an incarcerous. It would be more interesting to get his hands on her than kill her from afar.
Spotting one of the tree's branches come flying toward her out of the corner of her eye, Marlene shrieked and dove to the ground and out of its path, covering her head with her arms and hoping that the fucking tree would take Rodolphus out itself. If anything would cause her to love Herbology more than she already did, it would be that.
No such luck. The tree only missed her by inches, tearing up the ground to the left of her, leaving Marlene shaking with adrenalin and fear. The death eater was still lumbering after her across the newly jagged cuts in the terrain, the tree still had some branches that were flying her way, and there wasn't time to just lay there and hope that someone would make it all go away. Just as she was pushing herself up to her feet, though, the binding spell came straight at her.
She rolled out of the way, thinking she'd missed getting hit by the spell, only to fall flat on her face again as ropes began to coil tightly around one of her legs and to one of the tree's roots, leaving her trapped in her spot. Panic won out over logic in the moment, and Marlene began kicking and pulling at the ropes, trying to untie herself before realizing that this could have been accomplished so much easier and faster with a cutting spell. Aiming her wand with a shaking hand, Rodolphus was only a few feet away by time she had secured her release. Fuck standing up; Marlene started to crawl out of the way. Wasn't there a tunnel or something under the tree she could hide in? Had they blocked that? It didn't matter, she was close to the ground and he was very very tall and that gave the tree lots more opportunity to knock the shit out of him before he got to her, right?
Frustrated, Remus prepared to send another spell at Ursula -- perhaps just levitate her and throw her at the other Death Eater -- but before he could, the whomping willow had chosen that moment to become angry, wildly swinging its branches around. He ducked out of the way of one, barely having a chance to regain his footing before another swung at him. He threw up a shield spell, but the branch still crashed against it, and Remus stumbled a few steps backward. This wasn't good. "Stupefy!" Remus tried to cast a stunning spell at the tree, aiming for the knot he knew could stop it -- if only for a few moments -- but it was difficult to aim with so many of the branches swinging around to avoid.
The spell missed. Damn. He turned on Ursula again -- refusing to lower himself to her level, to fight like a werewolf when he was a wizard -- but that didn't mean he could not be any less fierce. Aguamenti, at the ground, to make it slick and difficult to keep one's footing, since the werewolf could only attack him up close, and then: "Incendio!"
Ursula was more than a little miffed that Remus seemed more interested in fighting the tree than he did her. How dull. Though the tree gave another great lurch and a branch came down dangerously close to where she was standing. She jumped out of the way only to skid in the newly formed puddle of mud on the ground, as she started to get up, the jet of flames hit her square in the stomach.
The flames ate up her shirt and through her skin, and the pain was absolutely unbearable. Wounds opened and cauterised in the matter of seconds, and the pained, animalistic scream didn't even fully express the pain. Ursula fell to the ground rather quickly, remembering somewhere through the pain that he had wet the ground, rolling her upper torso through the wet patch of ground, she nearly completely extinguished the flames. Patting the rest of them out and blowing on her hands, she laid on the ground, grinding her teeth a little before pushing herself unsteadily to her feet. That had taken maybe a minute, at maximum, probably not even half of that, but it had felt like a lifetime. Now she was burnt all to hell and sans a shirt. Stepping carefully through the wet ground, getting within arms reach as quickly as should could- before he could react, hopefully, she swung at Remus's head, grabbing at whatever her hand came into contact with.
That sending a fire spell at Ursula would result in destroying her shirt was the last thing Remus had expected -- well, he hadn't thought of it at all, really, but this was going to make dueling with a werewolf who couldn't do magic all the more awkward. He grappled with her when she grabbed onto him, wincing as her claws dug into his skin, and he held onto her shoulders as tightly as he could, twisting his body around to try and push her down to the ground.
A more modest woman would be more bothered by being half-naked and all burnt-to-a-crisp in front of a total stranger, but Ursula couldn't be called a modest woman. Digging her claws in as tightly as she could, she jerked him forward as he tried to force her down. Though the weight of his pushing in combination with how it was moving her freshly singed flesh was more pain that her body would let her take, and her knees buckled. Tightening her grip again and grabbing his shoulder tightly with her unoccupied hand, she fell, determined to take him down with her.
Rodolphus ducked another furiously whipping limb and followed Marlene -- though the screams behind him gave him moment to pause and look back. Good God, what was that werewolf doing? Was she naked? He averted his gaze immediately, a look of mixed revulsion and irritation smeared across normally stoic features. Typical degenerate, Lupin, setting a woman on fire. Rodolphus couldn't really talk -- he'd done rather unpleasant things to women as well (murder sprang to mind), but at least he didn't reduce them to nudity in the middle of a battlefield.
Normally, he'd interfere and have Ursula do something about her immodest state of dress, but she was rolling on the ground, caught up in a visceral fight that he had no interest interfering with and, more importantly, he didn't want to. His attentions fixed on the McKinnon girl, eyes narrowed in predatory amusement. "Where are you running to, little ladybird?" He called after her, voice low and insidious. A flick of his wand sent out a long string of magic, whiplike and sudden, as he attempted to grab her by the ankle and drag her backwards toward him.
Marlene didn't bother to dignify that with a response, since the answer was completely obvious: away from him. She didn't want to stop moving even for a second; maybe it was running away from her problems, maybe it made her a shitty Gryffindor, maybe she'd regret it later, but Marlene had completely psyched herself out when it came to duelling against Rodolphus, and was terrified that even trying at this point would result in something much worse than just failure.
Rodolphus's spell whipped out behind her, though, while she had been doing everything in her power to avoid looking back. It snaked around her ankle, binding her tightly and yanking her off balance, sending Marlene flying at the ground and dragging her backwards toward the Death Eater. The branch from the willow she'd grabbed onto in a panic to keep herself from being pulled snapped uselessly in her hand, and digging her fingers into the muddy ground to try to slow (or preferably stop) herself from being pulled back was useless, accomplishing nothing but scraping tracks into the ground. Marlene landed in a heap right at Rodolphus's feet, jerking to a halt as she collided with the ground and his legs, but didn't wait for a second before attempting to make a break for it again to get away from him. She had no idea if she was still caught at the ankle by that spell and if it would snatch her back again like a yo-yo; she didn't care. She just needed to move.
Well now, if it wasn't a heap of McKinnon at his feet. How fortuitous. Rodolphus felt an almost childish delight as he peered down at Marlene -- for about half a second. Her weight hit him right in the shins and he felt his centre of gravity change. If having pumpkin innards and dirt all over him wasn't enough, he was now plummeting to the ground, backfirst, into the mud. He landed with a comical sort of THUD before rolling over and throwing himself forward, wand ignored in his dominant hand as he lashed out with the other. He felt slippery ankle, and with a pleased growl, he yanked her backwards.
Marlene was pretty much positive that she had felt the ground shake underneath her when Rodolphus crashed into the mud. The puddles went splashing everywhere and covered everything, Marlene herself included. The fact that she was muddy as hell quickly was forgotten when she felt Rodolphus's hand grab her around the ankle, caught in his grasp as he thrashed her backwards closer to him. Her other foot immediately went at kicking at his knuckles, desperate to get him to let go so that she could get away, and she twisted on the ground, wand shaking in her hand and aim likely a mile off as she yelled out "ACCIO RODOLPHUS'S WAND," planning on throwing it the fuck away from where he'd be able to get to it. He might've had her, but if she could avoid him crucioing her all up close and personal-like (or potentially worse), she wanted to try to make that happen.
Losing his footing -- because while he originally meant for the water on the ground to slip her up, Remus found he couldn't keep his footing either -- and he went right down with Ursula, feeling horrified and uncomfortable. He wished he had cast something else at her, or at least that she still had a shirt on, but his desire to come out of this alive was far greater than his usual nobility. His free hand went right for Ursula's hair, trying to yank her head back so he could aim his wand at her throat to cast incarcerous.
Ursula swore when they went down, splashing mud everywhere and becoming more and more supremely annoyed. Still trying to keep a grip on her opponent despite both of them being somewhat slippery and her being in more pain than she wanted to display. Shouting out in pain when he jerked her by the hair, and another- more strangled- shout when ropes wrapped themselves around her neck, she kicked and clawed at him angrily, before shoving him away and gasping for air. Clawing at the ropes, she got them mostly ripped off before she readied herself for another attack.
Coughing and running a hand through her hair (a few thick hunks fell out as she did so), she pushed herself to a squatting position, her knees bent and her elbows resting on them, sitting unsteadily, but wary and ready.
With a grunt, Rodolphus took a shoe to the face -- as if his night wasn't going messily enough. An attempt to grab her other ankle resulted in him gaining possession of her shoe -- and now a dirty, muddy besocked foot was flying toward his chin; in struggling to avoid it, he was hit full on with the accio, and his wand went flying out of his hand. It took half a heartbeat for him to react: jerking her leg hard, Rodolphus dragged himself over Marlene, grappling for her arms in an attempt to retrieve it -- if she'd been a man he probably would have punched her for good measure, but this was already sloppy enough that he didn't need to compromise his ethics (tenuous as they were, when all was said and done).
The wand flew into her hand just as her leg was jerked back, it feeling like he'd nearly dislodged the damn thing from its socket. She screamed again, this time from a mix of both fear and pain, wriggling and struggling to try to kick and push him away from her and getting nowhere due to Rodolphus's size. Her eyes went wide as soon as he started moving to grab for her arms to retrieve his wand, and whipped her arm back and threw it as hard and far away from them as she could...which, granted, wasn't very far at all, but it was out of his reach. It felt like that was what mattered. "Let GO OF ME" she yelled at him, hoping she sounded more angry and potentially dangerous then absolutely terrified, trying to pull her uninjured leg free to kick at Rodolphus's groin, but found it trapped and pinned under his weight.
Rodolphus laughed, a bit unintentionally, and it came out as a sharp, jagged bark of sound. She was smart to throw it, but not smart enough, and lunged forward, grabbing the back of her shirt in one hand before rolling away towards the wand. He had an unwieldy figure, to be sure, but over 30 years in this body had made him used to it, able to utilise it to its best purpose. Throwing his weight opposite her, he dragged Marlene a few inches, working as hard and fast as he could so he could get his wand before she found something unpleasant to do with hers. He was a foot away, inches now, as they struggled together through the mud.
Marlene was having an incredibly difficult time keeping herself from just breaking down and sobbing. The collar of her shirt was starting to choke her, cutting off her air supply as Rodolphus dragged her along with him. Her leg kept kicking at him all the while, and while it was still a relief that she still had her wand, the angle she was at with her wand arm smashed and dragged against the mudsoaked grass made it impossible to cast anything. She blinked back the tears that were welling up in her eyes as she struggled to keep breathing, and then, as they moved through a particularly large mudpuddle, she had a thought. Switching her wand to her right hand and hoping she could manage the spell, she pointed towards the ground near Rodolphus's feet, making the soil he was passing through harden up, hoping to make him the immobile one this time. She wasn't sure if it would work -- if anything it would probably only slow him down for a few moments and piss him off -- but at that point, anything felt like it was worth a shot.
For the love of -- Rodolphus felt his lower half slow to a near stop as the mud around him caked up and dried into a glue-like slurry. He lost momentum and Marlene's struggling pulled him back. God DAMN it, he was within INCHES of his wand. "You little minx," he said, a trace of admiration filtering into his otherwise annoyed voice. With a sharp jerk of his hand, he pulled hard at her collar, trying to circumvent her backdrag so he could move forward, centimetre by centimetre. "If only brains were enough to keep McKinnons alive. Alas, that was not the case, as I recall."
Marlene opened her mouth to retaliate only to have her speech cut off by a gasp as her shirt was yanked again, choking her as her entire body was thrown forward. Hell, she should have just slicing spelled her own shirt off -- she could get away, Rodolphus would still be stuck (and probably disturbed), and she could go teach that skanky werewolf woman a thing or two about getting topless around her husband. But then Lestrange brought up her family, and Marlene felt her face grow hot with anger. "I'm sure you had plenty of time to think about that in Azkaban," she spat, sending a kick at his knee. "Don't you fucking talk about them. I'm the one who still has a wand," she threatened him. She wanted to use the fucking Cruciatus curse on him for that, the fucker. Dorcas would probably be cheering her on up on the cloud of dead Order members for doing what she hadn't gotten a chance to.
As soon as Remus was pushed away, he was already aiming his want at Ursula again -- noticing she was soaked with mud, he cast a freezing charm at her. But his attention was divided as he heard Marlene's shouting, and with a glance at the werewolf, he tried to run from her to the other fighting pair. He didn't want to cast anything too dangerous with her so close, and so as he got closer, he cast a jelly-fingers curse at Rodolphus to try and help Marlene escape from his grasp.
Marlene's collar was slipping through Rodolphus's fingers like honey, and he growled at the interruption to his playtime, particularly since the interruption resulted in him being unable to drag himself forward. Fine. If the werewolf wanted to get involved, Rodolphus would take his wand and go home. Or at least go to the fresh, less dirty prey that he spied out of the corner of his eyes. Prey that probably didn't think breast-bearing was an appropriate offensive maneuver. People were apparating in everywhere, and from the look of it, they were rearing for a fight.
Before Marlene could take advantage of his loosened grip, he shoved himself back in her direction as roughly and quickly as he was able. Using his legs to pinion her against the ground, he wrapped an arm about her throat before jerking her upwards. "Don't struggle too hard, little sparrow," he rasped in her ear. "Breaking your neck would be very poor sport."
The instant that Marlene had a chance to scramble away to freedom was gone in a flash. She was slammed back to the ground painfully and uncomfortably, her arm (and, unfortunately, her wand) trapped underneath her own body and her body pinned against the ground by Rodolphus. God, she was going to suffocate. Her mind was racing, all of this seeming far too familiar as she gave a desperate glance in Remus's direction, silently begging him not to try anything crazy while the thought "not again" ran through her head over and over again. This was exactly why she had ran. She was going to get used as a fucking human shield again, except he'd probably just kill her when he was done this time.
She still struggled despite Rodolphus's warning, the lack of oxygen making it to her brain probably greatly affecting her judgement. Marlene dug the nails from her free hand into his arm, trying to pull it away from her throat with little success, struggling feebly under his weight and attempting to pull his arm away from her neck just far enough so that she could bite the bastard. "If you were going to do it, you would've done it already," she choked out, her words barely audible, trying to twist herself out from Rodolphus's grasp. Marlene hoped that was actually true. If he was going to kill her, why hadn't he just fucking done it already?
Wild thoughts of taunting him about what he had done to Marius ran though his head, but Remus held his tongue. What could he do? Any spell he tried to cast, he was at risk of hitting Marlene. Even trying to summon her could just result in choking her more. Except, maybe... he cast an apologetic look at Marlene, and then cast aguamenti at both of them, aiming for Rodolphus but not caring if he got them both -- quickly followed up with a freezing charm.
He didn't know how strong the ice would be, or if it would slow him down long enough, but Remus ran toward them as soon as he cast the freezing charm. If he could just get close enough -- he jabbed his wand at Rodolphus with a shout: "Relashio!"
With a sharp bark of discomfort, Rodolphus tightened his grip on Marlene as the water poured over them both, freezing across their skin, hard, cold, painful shards of ice. He struggled to move forward but with mud and cold and the weight of Marlene, he wasn't going anywhere. So he just tightened his grip and shielded as much as he could with her. Unfortunately, she wasn't an ogre, and that left a large enough chunk of him exposed for Remus to jab.
At the relashio, he and Marlene flew apart, ice shattering everywhere; the force was enough to jostle him free of the hardened earth, and he threw himself forward, hand wrapping about the wand before turning it on the two. DEPRIMO.
As soon as the relashio hit, Marlene booked it as fast as humanly possible, crawling away from Rodolphus as quickly as she could when she felt like a human popcycle, scurrying up to her feet as soon as she was out of reach of Lestrange reaching out and grabbing her again. She nearly bowled Remus over as she sped to his side, half-hid behind him, not sure anymore if she was shaking out of fear or adrenalin or from the freezing cold of Remus's last spell. She kept her wand trained on the Death Eater, immediately casting a shield spell as she just tried to tug Remus back and away from where Rodolphus could do any more damage.
She screamed as the Deprimo hit her shield and followed that up with another almost immediately, her teeth still chattering from the cold and shards of ice still hanging from her hair. Now that she wasn't alone against him, and it seemed like more people were beginning to flood through the front gates of the school, Marlene felt slightly braver, shooting an "Expelliarmus!" at him. "And it's not McKinnon anymore anyway, so I guess there goes THAT plan of yours, huh," she sassed at him, her moment of snarkiness not sounding nearly as cool once it was out of her mouth.
Batting the spell away with a slash of his wand, Rodolphus drew himself up to his full height, looking angrier, more deadly, than he had in any of their previous battles. "How pleased I would be if you were no more," he scowled, wondering if perhaps he ought to have taken the chance when afforded him. Did she think hiding behind a werewolf would save her? He thrust his wand out before him, vicious features shadowed macabrely by a sudden green glow.
Avada Kedavra.
Did shield spells stop that curse? Marlene had no idea, it wasn't exactly something that a person could test without potentially leading to their death, but she wasn't going to just stand there and let it hit her or Remus. Especially not Remus; she'd lost her entire family to that wannabe Hagrid-sized fucker, he wasn't taking anyone else away from her. She just dropped, practically tackling Remus down with her as the flash of green flew over their heads, wondering when the fuck she was going to learn to stop saying words; it NEVER helped.
From the ground, she queued up the most powerful shield spell she could muster, immediately sending everything she could think of at him in hopes that he would have to retreat: Impedimenta, Incendio, Aguamenti, Deprimo, Stupefy, Incarcerous, another shield spell in case it had been hit with something and had gone down while she hadn't been paying attention. "PISS OFF," she shrieked. Another Expelliarmus, another Stupefy. She wasn't even taking care to aim properly, she just wanted him to stop.
She was getting sloppy now, and Rodolphus felt a grim sense of satisfaction at that; satisfaction, however, did not render him impervious to the plethora of spells flying straight at him, and, knowing he didn't quite have the stamina to dodge, deflect, and shield them all, he opted for a more brute force solution.
Shoving his wand forward, Rodolphus dragged up the earth in front of him into a barrier between himself an the couple. Dirt flew everywhere, clods of grass struggled and fell to the ground, dashed by the force with which they were cast aside. He supposed he could stay and fight them -- but the reinforcements on both sides made him think again. There was better prey, and he was rather disgruntled at how this fight had gone. Though he would never confess to a wounded ego, there was something rather unflattering about the state in which he now found himself. So he walked away, leaving the wall to explode beneath Marlene's desperate spells while he took to a cleaning spell.
The light of the killing curse rushed towards them, and the next thing Remus knew, he was tackled to the ground with Marlene on his back. He still held tight to his wand, but it was trapped between his body and the ground. By the time he managed to free his arm, Rodolphus was already walking away from them behind the safety of the earthy wall. It was almost a relief -- they had nearly died -- but Remus still wished they could have finished the fight. "Are you alright?" he was asking, but he knew they didn't have time for a chat -- more Death Eaters were already arriving as he stood up.
Marlene had rolled off of Remus's back, laying on the ground for a few seconds behind the safety of what was left of the wall that had been pulled up out of the ground, staring up at the sky as she caught her breath. "Yeah. Fine," she nodded, still shaking a little as she got up to her feet. More people were flooding into the grounds with each passing moment, both masked and not, and there wasn't time to stand around recovering. Popping up on her toes, she wrapped her arms around Remus's neck and gave him a kiss that was over almost as soon as it had begun, then pulled back, searching out her next fight. "Thank you for that," she gave him a worn halfsmile, then shrugged off the panic that had accompanied the last fight. "I'm gonna go kick that naked werewolf woman's arse now; teach her to go all topless around my husband. ...Be careful, promise?"
Remus found himself laughing, despite being in the middle of a battle, despite that they had barely avoided a Killing Curse. Maybe it was just nerves. "She'll never know what hit her," he said -- a hand on her shoulder, a kiss on the forehead. No matter how many battles they fought, he was always most afraid when they were separated: That when the fight was over, she might not come back. But he knew she was strong, and he couldn't stay there when she could handle herself and there were other people who might need help. "I promise. You be careful, too." And with that, he released her shoulder, spotting a familiar bunny mask caught up in a duel herself, and he ran off to help her.
h. Peggy(3), Seonag(3) vs Alice(3)
+ gargoyle (attacks hags)
Having spent most of the takeover of the Ministry crammed into the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office taking down wards, Alice had almost forgotten the utter disarray that occurred whenever a battle broke out. She almost couldn't believe that this was happening. It had only been a few short weeks ago that she and Frank had ruminated optimistically over the fact that they still had Hogwarts, and now, they were trying to take it away. Well, Alice Longbottom wasn't going to let that happen, very much. The Order had scattered as the Dark creatures and Death Eaters broke through the castle's defenses and already flashes of many-coloured light were bursting from wands, and Alice had, with slight reluctance, run along the path leading the castle, trying to move away from the fray.
The baby. She had to protect their baby, and despite her unwieldly desire to fight, she knew that she should try to get out of harm's way, because there were Death Eaters who would kill her without question and werewolves, and if one of them bit her... she cringed, visibly, because she knew that werewolves could not have children... they couldn't survive the transformation... This child was the only thing really worth protecting. It was the future they were fighting for.
Seonag was moving slowly through the throngs of people, looking for an appropriately weak-looking victim when she caught a whiff of infant. Well, what was that? She lived her wrinkled head into the air and sniffed delicately. How strange. What was a baby doing in the middle of a battle? Seonag didn't particularly care, she only suddenly felt extremely hungry and followed her nose.
"Do you smell that?" she asked Peggy, turning to her companion. Then, she saw the blonde-haired woman sprinting past her, very obviously pregnant. Ahhh, so that was it. Seonag, personally, preferred her meals already-born, but beggars can't be choosers, after all. Pointing in Alice's direction, she began to move towards her.
Peggy had smelled it, and she cackled as she saw to whom Seonag's finger pointed. She personally had never eaten a meal that young, but if the smell was any indication, she would most likely enjoy it.
She turned to follow Seonag, picking up the hem of her skirt with her hands and quickly shuffled as quickly as she could toward the pregnant woman. After a few steps, Peggy realised she was not catching up to the woman - short legs and and old body will do that - so she let go of her hem with one hand and raised it at Alice, sending the strongest tripping jinx she could manage. "RAWR!" she cried out with a snarl.
The tripping jinx hit, but Alice had years of Auror training and experience -- before she even hit the ground there was a cushioning charm beneath her and she landed on it with a soft thud, but she didn't feel any pain. Gingerly, she rolled away and was not happy when she saw who her attackers were. Hags. Delightful. Two silent Stunners shot from her wand in arcs of red and she hurriedly pulled herself to her feet so that she could continue running off as far away as possible. God damn it, she was so slow these days.
Seonag turned to Peggy with a mossy-toothed grin. The tripping jinx certainly bought them some time. The Stunning spell missed her by inches, thankfully. She was already a fifty-year old woman and she looked at least three decades older -- her body was not made to move quickly. But she waddled along as fast as she could until the woman got up again. Well, that wouldn't do, would it? With a wave of her hands, a circle of flames burst up around Alice. That ought to keep her in one place.
Alice's second Stunner was aimed true, but Peggy was already in the midst of sending her own magic - a burning spell - at Alice. The two spells met in mid-air, Alice's Stunner flying off harmlessly into the sky and Peggy's spell ricocheting back at her, catching her skirt on fire. Peggy shrieked and, unable to conjure water to put it out, stopped, dropped, and began to roll around on the ground. After the fire on her skirt was put out she dragged herself (slowly) to her feet and headed toward the pregnant witch who was still encircled by a ring of fire.
What? Seriously? Hags, it seemed, were not that good at magic, which made sense to Alice, as somehow, she felt as though her wand was a kind of channel that made magic easier to control. She felt rather bad for the red-headed hag, rolling around on the ground under the fire of her own spell. However, that didn't mean that she wanted to let either of these hags to eat her, so she sent an incarcerous towards Peggy and an incendio at Seonag.
Seonag gave a roar of anger as her clothes, too, caught fire. Her elderly skin was not meant to be burned, and it would surely leave scars, and frankly, Seonag did not need any more ugliness in her life. However, rather than stopping, dropping, and rolling like Peggy, she ended the ring of fire and hurled herself at Alice, so that she would catch fire, too, knocking both of them over.
Peggy just managed to dodge the curse hurtling at her - she didn't know which kind it was until the flash of light suddenly turned into ropes when it hit the ground. Boy, that wouldn't have been fun. She caught up to the two women grappling on the ground and stood there a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Ah! There was an arm. An unwrinkled arm. Peggy lunged at it, her teeth bared.
Alice cried out in pain as Peggy's teeth sank into her arm. She desperately tried to remember if hag bites were as bad as werewolf ones... It seemed so long since they had reviewed Dark Creatures in Auror training, and hags were hitwizard business. She'd figure it out later, for now, she forced the heel of her free hand's palm upwards into Peggy's nose. Seonag's flaming robes had singed her own, but she wasn't burnt that badly. She gave the other hag a jab in the ribs and desperately tried to crawl away from them, her wand still in hand.
Oof. Seonag gasped, the wind knocked out of her, and rolled over, letting go of her prey. She cursed inwardly and tried to send a stunner at her, but nothing happened. Damn it. She wanted that baby. She was hungry, and she was curious what it would taste like.
Peggy squealed when Alice's hand made contact with her nose. She was strong for a woman, and before long blood began to pour out of the hag's nose. Didn't she have any manners, hitting an old woman? She moved into a sitting position and quickly grabbed her skirt, finding an unburnt spot and held it to her nose to stop the bleeding. She did not like this woman, even as much as she wanted to eat her unborn baby. She supposed that was why hags waited until after the children were born - they were easier to get at, and Peggy didn't like fighting for her food. She would rather settle for a nice raw liver at the Leaky Cauldron anyday than go through this.
Alice jumped up from the ground, wand in hand. Her arm was bleeding and aching where Peggy bit it, and she quickly pressed the sleeve of her robes over the wound to ebb the flow of blood. She was panting heavily, beaten more than she would like, and she had a feeling that if she slowed down, they would both be tearing at her flesh with their (nastily sharp, she noticed) teeth. "Stupefy!" she cried, aiming for Seonag, and then another Stunner for Peggy. She didn't look back to see if they hit, choosing instead to run off. She had to find Frank, this was a dire situation and they would need reinforcements soon.
Seonag was still lying on the ground, also panting, feeling her old bones creak inside her wrinkled sink and hoping that she wouldn't come out of this with any scars, when Alice's Stunner hit her square in the head and she toppled over, unconscious. When she awoke, she would wish she'd been able to keep Alice down, but as for now, she was blissfully unaware of everything that was going on around her.
"Rubbish, this all is," Peggy said, still holding her nose, as a Stunning spell whizzed straight by her. She barely noticed until the flash of red caught her attention and she saw Seonag motionless. "Rubbish." Getting up, she hobbled over to her fellow hag and set about trying to undo the stunning spell. This would take a while.