Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-05-01 02:21:00 |
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BASH 7/13 e. Marius(6), Ursula(6) vs Marlene(1), James(4) Marius hadn't been expecting a call to come for his help at Hogwarts but he was glad for the opportunity to prove himself after his disastrous failure the last time he'd been involved in a wand fight... Not that what had happened with Lupin could constitute a fight so much as a complete derrière kicking. He entered through the gate and seeing fighting all around headed first in the direction of someone who resembled Bellatrix but then spotted Marlene McKinnon and took off after her. He would have his revenge before the night was over. He shot a curse at her but it missed above her head. He shot another as he ran but it was intercepted by the flinging arms of a large tree. James was late to the party seeing as he didn't live at Hogwarts but as soon as he'd apparated in he was casting shield spells and blasting hexes toward any Death Eater he could see. One in particular caught his eye though... someone who was throwing curses at Marlene and seemed to have the build of one Frenchy Lestrange. James aimed his wand at the man's back. "Expelliarmus!" Marius felt his feet lurch forward as his wand flew out of his hands and he hit the ground hard. Luckily the wand was only a few inches out of his reach and he rolled breathlessly to grasp it and cast a Protogo to protect himself. "MARLY! BEHIND YOU!" James shouted to his friend, racing toward her in case she hadn't heard through all the noise of battle. Marlene had been preoccupied with running back to re-engage Ursula in a fight, keeping her distance as best she could as unlike wizards, werewolves could only fight hand-to-hand. As long as she could keep her from getting her claws (and teeth) in her, Marlene would be fine. She'd had more than her fill of physical scuffles with Rodolphus, if you could even call what had just happened there a scuffle. She shot a blasting hex at the tiny werewolf woman (hoping to send her flying clear into the damn Whomping Willow) when Marlene heard someone yell out her name. Without a second thought as to who or what she was being warned about that was behind her, Marlene spun around on her heels, hair whipping around her as she cast a slicing hex at the shape moving toward her, immediately followed by a shield charm of her own. As soon as James saw Marius's wand move to do a shield charm he sent another blasting hex right at him, knocking his shield down at just the right moment for Marlene's slicing hex to hit him square in the chest. He gasped and put up another shielding charm followed quickly by a spell at Potter because that was the direction he'd turned. He could feel blood soaking through his shirt but all his thoughts were on the Cruciatus he was casting. James felt the crucio nearly before the spell hit him. Every fiber of his being, every nerve ending, every hair on his head became electrified and the pain was blinding. He dropped to the ground, writhing and screaming in spite of himself. He'd been hit with a few before but Marius was more proficient at them than Regulus apparently and the pain was unimaginable. Marius turned his back on Potter and shot a Cruciatus at Marlene next, though his arm was shaking now from the pain that was splitting him in two and he missed as he began to cough and tasted the tang of blood in his mouth. He looked up at Ursula hoping that she could distract McKinnon long enough for him to try and heal himself. Ursula snarled, ducking away from the hex sent at her (she really hated fighting wizards. Really.), and watching as it blasted a hole in the side of the thick tree they were fighting near. The tree gave an angry shudder, swinging its branches wildly, quite nearly striking Ursula as she looked around, creeping up behind the woman she had been fighting with earlier and plotting the attack. Mostly, she wanted to get the hell away from that tree. Speaking of the tree, a thick branch swung down just as she was within a few feet of the rest of the fight, catching her across the chest. Letting out a string of swears that didn't appear to belong to any language spoken by humans, she took that moment (as she had surely caught Marlene's attention again) to lunge at the younger girl. The moment that the spell hit James and he began to scream in pain, Marlene's attention became focused completely on her friend and being certain that he came out of this okay and alive as well. Ignoring retaliating on the wizard for a moment, Marlene instead pointed her wand at James and cast a "finite incantatem," wanting to stop the cruciatus as quickly as it began. She had a shield charm up that could take care of her for the moment while she made sure he was all right. However, shield charms did nothing against physical attacks, and Ursula diving at her caught Marlene around the waist and knocked her to the ground, the woman much heavier than she looked, given her size. She screamed and immediately went into panic mode, kicking her and beating at her shoulders with her hands and trying desperately to make sure she wasn't able to bite her. Realizing that she was only delaying rather than defending herself, Marlene grabbed for the woman's hair with one hand to hold her back while trying to aim a blasting hex to push her away. Tumbling down with Marlene, Ursula laughed slightly at her struggle. Though her good humor instantly dissolved when she was hit by stupid fucking magic which knocked her into the stupid fucking flaily tree. She fell to the ground in a quite useless little pile, her head spinning. Her vision blackened for the briefest of seconds, and she blinked a few times and shook her head before standing up feebly, unsure of if she should attack again or wait for her head to clear up. She didn't like magic and she didn't feel the need to risk getting herself torn up by some little girl. When the spell ended it took James nearly a minute to get himself back to his knees but at least he could cast a shield spell in the mean time and then though it exposed his secret if anyone was watching he yanked at the cloak that was tucked into a bag on his back and pulled it over himself, crawling a few yards and trying to catch his breath. Marius had taken his eyes off of Potter for only a moment as he'd sent the spell toward Marlene and then watched as Marlene had thrown off the werewolf, but when he turned back to look for him the man was gone. Marius knew he couldn't have run in his state so what he was doing or playing at he couldn't be sure. He sent a hex in the directly where he thought Potter had been but it hit only dirt. He had no time to consider what was going on and used his wand to protect Ursula. He cast a few spells at the tree, one to slow it, one to blast it, and one to stun it. He wasn't sure how in the world one dueled a tree but leave it to that fool Albus Dumbledore to plant one on the grounds of a school. The moment that Marlene had gotten Ursula away from her, she flipped herself around to her stomach and pushed herself up to her feet, muscles aching but driven completely by adrenalin. She immediately began looking around for James, who seemed to have vanished into thin air. In the heat of battle, the thought that he'd had the invisibility cloak with him had completely slipped her mind, not sure if he'd just ran elsewhere or had been combusted into a million tiny pieces or if he'd been captured by someone on the other side. "JAMES?!" she yelled out, praying he'd answer but knowing there wasn't time to sit and worry about that. Marlene instead took advantage of Marius's distraction with the willow to try out a spell that she had been looking forward to trying quite a bit. She slashed her wand in front of her while casting a silent Flagrate spell, leaving a sharp line of fire drawn in the air, burning red and hot against the dark night sky. Affixing the streak of fire to her wand, Marlene narrowed her eyes and wound her arm back, letting the streak of fire spiral threateningly in the air for a a moment before sending it blazing toward the death eater with a crack. Marius saw the whip of fire coming for him but there was no avoiding it. It slashed across his shoulder, searing through layers of skin and muscle straight to the bone. His wand fell from his hand as the nerves and muscles that controlled his right arm were severed. The wound didn't bleed, it cauterized itself, but the pain resembled a dozen concentrated crucios at once. He dropped to his knees in shock, feeling very much this might be the end of his life. "M'right here," James said, giving Marly a few seconds to register his voice before tugging the cape to the side. He took the three steps to her side and then turned toward Ursula with his wand. "Looks like you've got Frenchy under control," he said, his voice slightly raspy from the screaming from a few minutes before but full of exhilaration from the battle. "That was fucking stellar. Just leave me to the werewolf and we'll have each other's backs." "Holy fuck," Ursula said, dodging another branch and kneeling down beside her new extremely tall companion with a rather shocked look on her face. She looked at the wound with apprehension. If they were going to do that to a human, what would they do to a fucking werewolf? So she stood back up, drawing herself up to full height (which wasn't much), and looking at her opponents warily. With her foot, she nudged Marius's fallen wand just a bit closer to where he had fell. If he went without it, he would be royally fucked. Wizards didn't fight hand to hand. So without another moment of hesitation, she lunged at the bloke (avoiding the girl mostly because well, what she had just done was fucking scary), not caring what he did as long as she could get a hit or two in. James was more adept than most at facing a charging werewolf, not because Remus had ever attacked him out of form, but because he'd been attacked enough by a transformed werewolf to not flinch when one was lunging at him. He could've used his wand, and he would soon enough but his reflex as her body came within a few feet of his was to throw the hardest punch he could right at her face. Vaguely he remembered telling Remus once that he'd never punch a girl, but a whole fucking lot had changed since then. He brought up his knee, attempting to slam it into her chest and use her momentum against her. Marius appreciated that the wolf thought to help him get his wand back, though left handed and nearly blinded by pain he was at a distinct disadvantage. He sent a slashing spell of his own at Marlene, knowing it would be the easiest wandwork to manage with a fairly new wand and the wrong wandhand. His vision was hazy, shock beginning to work its way through his system. It was hard to breathe but he did what he could to focus and sent another slashing hex at her shoulder. "Right," Marlene had said quietly in reply to James, feeling her face go hot at the thought that that wasn't just a death eater, that was Frenchy. And not only was it just Frenchy, it was Rodolphus's son. Well. That changed everything. James could play with the werewolf. "Be careful," she'd warned him, and before waiting for a reply had begun stalking toward the fallen Marius, wand pointed at him as she approached. She tried to dodge away from the slashing hex, but had moved too slowly, it slicing through her shirt and her left shoulder... although, granded, not as deeply as it would have for most people. Marlene almost had to laugh. It was his (and Pryce's) fault in the first place that nearly her entire left shoulder was made up of scar tissue. "Oh, Marius. You should know better than anyone else that I'm MISSING HALF MY FUCKING SHOULDER THERE," she yelled, shooting a blasting hex at him. Ursula had expected a spell, anything, being punched in the face was a bit less expected, to be honest. Not that she really cared that much, she had rougher fights with the other wolves, this little boy wasn't going to do anything to her that she couldn't give right back. Recoiling from the hit, and winded from his knee jamming itself into her sternum, she stood just a few feet away from him, breathing heavily. "I've gotten punched harder by little girls," she said in an annoyed voice. Taking another step forward she aimed a heavy punch right for his stomach. Let's see if the poncey wizard was willing to have a good, old-fashioned fist fight. She wagered he'd go right back to his wand in a second or two. "You asked for it," James said, not feeling terribly afraid, particularly this close the whomping willow. While most people feared it, and for good reason, James had always viewed it more as a protector than an enemy, and fighting along side it only served to improve his confidence. It was a levicorpus that he used on her, at close range, just as her fist connected with his stomach. It was a strange sensation because one second she was punching him and the next her hand whipped away as she was lifted by the ankle. James smirked up at her as a branch from the willow came swinging her way. They'd gotten a pinata for Lily's birthday when she'd turned 18 and it reminded James of that, except this time it would hopefully be a lung that would come flying out as opposed to candy... Which was awfully morbid, but fuck all if he wasn't feeling giddy that he and Marlene seemed to have the upper hand for once. Marius had not been expecting McKinnon Lupin to laugh. He met her eyes and all he saw there was insanity. It didn't bode well for the rest of this duel. He had his wand lifted again to cast a protego but the blasting hex came too soon. It threw him backward under the tree and several branches came swooping down on him, one hitting his hurt shoulder and the other tossing him into the air like a rag doll and causing him to lose his grip on his wand which was now hopelessly lost on the other side of the tree. He'd tried a wandless accio before and managed it but his concentration was busted. He couldn't think as he scrambled lamely to get out from under the tree which only brought him closer to Marlene, his eyes trained on the ground as he crawled on hands and knees. "Accio Marius's wand," Marlene cast, her voice quiet and cold, never looking away from Marius for an instant. She didn't want to give him the chance to try anything shifty while she was distracted casting other spells. His wand flew into her hand. "Looking for this, sweetie?" she asked him innocently despite the hate and anger that was clear in her eyes, snapping back her foot and kicking him square in the groin. "How do you think Astra would react if you didn't come home after tonight and we sent her ashes in a vase, hmm? You think she'd take that well?" Marlene demanded, stepping over Marius so that she had one leg on each side of his body, glaring down at him, hair hanging in her face. "Or maybe we could just send it to your dad instead. That'd be fun," she mused, keeping her wand pointed straight at his face as she pulled his mask off with her other hand, slapping him with it before she dropped it to the side, forgotten. "You picked the wrong people to fuck with, Frenchy." Being strung up by the ankle was quite a new sensation for Ursula, and she wasn't exactly pleased as the blood began rushing to her head. She heard the branch coming from behind her, and couldn't do much other than brace herself for the impact. The thick branch whipped her across the back and she thought absurdly of being paddled by a nun before reacting. Reaching out as quickly as she could, Ursula grabbed onto the branch before it could swing away, digging her nails into it as tightly as she could. If he was going to let her down any time soon, she could at least have a bit of leverage. Marius wasn't in much of a position to argue in the first place, but after being kicked squarely in the balls he was too busy gasping for breath and rolling to the side to say much of anything. That didn't mean he was going to give up without a fight though and seconds after Marlene reached down and yanked off his mask, he took the opportunity to grab for her hair as she slapped him with his death eater garb. He wound his fingers in tightly, and yanked hard, bringing her head down toward him. He reached up with his other hand and grasped for his wand as he brought his forehead up to headbutt her. James watched as the werewolf dangled in the air and then grabbed desperately for the tree limb. He hit her with a jelly fingers jinx so she wouldn't be able to hold on and then a leg locker so when she fell something would break when she hit the ground. He wasn't toying with her, as much as it seemed that way. It felt shitty using slashing spells or things like that on someone who was unarmed, but if the fall broke both of her legs and then he let the tree do the work then he didn't need to worry she'd continue joining in the attack. Still, if she wouldn't give up he had plenty more spells to use on her. He cast a protego around himself in case anyone else was coming, but from the looks of things, he and Marlene were fairly isolated at the moment. There was something completely and ridiculously juvenile about pulling someone's hair in the middle of a battle , but it had been the last thing that Marlene had ever expected, and thus was incredibly effective. Her wand was momentarily forgotten aside from a brief instinct to use a blasting hex to get him off her, but also didn't want to lose a chunk of her hair in the process. Letting out an animalistic scream of pain, her hands immediately flew to try to pry his fingers out of her hair. She was momentarily dazed as his forehead collided with hers, stumbling slightly and losing her focus just enough to where Marius was able to grab back his wand as she kept trying to pull her hair free from his grasp. As soon as Marius had his wand in his hand he didn't care which way it was turned as he stabbed it in her direction and shouted "Crucio!" The curse hit its target and Marius scrambled out from beneath her as she screamed in agony. It served the bitch right but he didn't have time to enjoy her pain because he was in plenty of pain himself and with a moment to breathe he did what he could to patch up the huge gashes on his chest and arm. He had lost a lot of blood and there was no replacing it without potions so he still felt dizzy as he leaned over his knees and concentrated on the last of his wounds. Marlene's screams drew James's attention and apparently Frenchy had completely forgotten. "Finite Incantatum!" James cast at her, repaying the earlier favor before casting an Expelliarmus at Marius and knocking his wand out of his hand yet again. He cast a levicorpus at the man to give Marlene a chance to gather herself before turning his attention back to the werewolf to see how she fared in her fall. The curse ended almost as quickly as it had begun, and Marlene mumbled a weary "thank you" to James that he probably wouldn't've been able to hear from that distance. She pushed herself up on her elbows first, and then up to her feet, the aching in her muscles not nearly as concerning as just how pissed off she was at Marius. She swiped his wand off of the ground and moved to where Marius was suspended upside down in the air, glaring up at him. "That wasn't very smart," she said matter of factly, then snapped his wand in half, letting it fall in two pieces to the mud-covered grass. "And now we don't have to worry about you doing stupid things like that anymore." With a flick of her wand she removed the spell from Marius, letting him crash to the ground, then placed a Petrificus Totalus spell on him, preventing the death eater from moving a muscle, from being able to do anything but just watch. "You wait here for just a moment. I have other things to do, but don't worry. I'll be back for you," she smiled at him, tapping her fingers on his cheek lightly while kneeling down at his side, then slapped him once harder across the face before hopping up to her feet and running where James and Ursula were fighting, shooting a slicing curse at the werewolf. A lot of things happened at once for Ursula, and she was vaguely displeased by it. One, she couldn't keep her grip on the branch, which swung away gratefully when she let go, and then two, she fell, landing on her left hand and shouting in pain, and then she realized she couldn't move her fucking legs. "Goddammit. You wizards are the fucking pinnacle of fairness," she snapped, flat on her back and really really annoyed. Rolling over and sitting on her locked-up legs, unable to really do much of anything, the most recent barrage sliced through her back, and another string of half-English, half-Portuguese and entirely unintelligible swears were shouted. She wasn't going to take this. Pushing herself up, dangerously unbalanced, she laughed and forced her body forward towards the wizard. Aiming a punch and she mostly let herself fall on top of him. She was heavy enough (deceptively so) that it could at least knock the breath out of him. James's focus had been on Marlene for a brief second, but it was enough for the wolf (whom James should have known better than to underestimate) to attack him again. A punch landed squarely against his jaw and her weight knocked him over. One hand remained on his wand and he used the other to try and punch her off, but something was wrong with it, all painful and sticking out at a weird angle. As soon as his fist connected with her side he swore loudly as a sharp crack was heard. If his arm had been slightly broken from the fall it was severely broken now and everything was happening so fast. He could see the bone protruding out of his elbow and blood was pooling there. "Mother fucking merlin," he said, stabbing at her with his wand as hard as he could since his left arm was now useless. Marius watched the whole scene unfold helplessly. The werewolf would be no use to him now... not without his wand. Without his wand and frozen stiff, he was as good as dead. Would McKinnon have the balls to do what her husband could not? Marius didn't want to find out. Ursula got an immense sense of satisfaction from hearing the snapping of her enemies bone, even as it painfully collided with her side. It was a particularly delightful noise. She didn't relent, throwing as many punches at the man as she could manage. She yelped- loudly- when he stabbed her with his wand, the tip of it burning a hole in her shoulder, just above the already roasted flesh of her torso. "Fuck you," she snapped. Looking over she saw that her wizarding companion was in bad shape. She knew that if she got up now, knowing she couldn't even walk properly, she couldn't be of any assistance. "Take this fucking spell off of me," she said, knowing he likely wouldn't. Annoyed, she raised a hand and slapped him hard across the face. "Get off of him!" Marlene shrieked at Ursula, crying out "Relashio" to get the half-naked werewolf the hell off of James, fiery sparks shooting from her wand as she ran up towards them. James was one of the only members of the Order left who hadn't had to deal with getting bit by an untransformed werewolf, and if she could prevent anyone else from having to deal with that sort of pain and the annoying cravings for undercooked meat around the full, she was going to do it. Not waiting around for Ursula to get a hit in, Marlene cast a binding spell in her direction, followed by a conjunctivitis curse as she rushed to James's side, trying to avoid looking at the fucking bone that was hanging out of his elbow. "I... don't know what to do to heal that..." she said, casting a shield charm around the both of them and hoping that he knew what to do. She could fight off the werewolf in the meantime if she came back at them. Ursula snarled as she was forcibly pushed off of her 'prey'. She was in a lot of pain though, and didn't instantly charge. Though that was a regrettable decision, as the girl caught her with a bind, her body snapping completely rigid just a few feet away from where the two wizards were crouched. This was totally, and completely unfair. Not only was she stuck, her eyes almost instantly were in more pain than she could have fathomed, to the point where clawing them out seemed preferable. Now she was trapped. Were they going to just leave them there, or kill them? "S'fine," James said with a wince, "and thanks," he added. "we make a pretty fucking stellar team," he said, trying to focus on words instead of the pain. "V'never healed any bone so broken-- but Quidditch taught me a thing or two," he said. Pointing his wand at his own arm he cast the only bone mending spell he knew and with a sickening twist, the bones sort of joined together. It wasn't pretty, and fuck all if it didn't hurt like a bitch, but skin mended over the top of it and he wasn't going to die, even if he was going to be completely incapable of doing anything with it until it was healed properly. "Think we're gonna have to--" James stopped in mid sentence. People were running everywhere. Something was happening-- something had changed. And then he saw him. "SHIT SHIT SHIT!" James swore. "It's fucking VOLDEMORT!" James stammered, lacking the good sense not to say the name. "I've got to find Lils," he said, pushing himself up to his feet even though his arm was a mangled mess. "Find Remus," he insisted, casting an annoyed look at the werewolf and then Marius. "Leave them." And with that, James gave Marlene a half smile and took a step away. "Don't die." A barely audible "you either" escaped Marlene's lips as she stared at the person approaching the grounds, draped in shadow. Nearly the entire battle seeming to screech to a halt upon his approach. Marlene's earlier fire was doused out at once by complete and total terror, a chill shooting up her spine. She had been so close to finally ending things with Marius and now she could barely find the sense to force her feet to move. She couldn't just stand there. She would die if she just stood there, but her legs seemed to have forgotten how to walk, leaving her frozen and petrified in her place, only able to watch. Finally after one last glance in the direction of where she'd left Marius and the werewolf immobile on the ground, she huffed with a slight bit of frustration before spinning on her heels and running in the opposite direction, needing to find somewhere to hide. They weren't worth getting herself killed over, especially not by the most evil wizard who'd ever lived. f. Rodolphus(1), Alecto(7) vs Abe(1), Damo(4), Hestia(6) New waves of reinforcements for both sides meant that Dolph wanted to get the goddamned hell away from that accursed whomping willow. He'd managed to avoid getting a direct blow from it, but being whipped by the long tendril-like limbs was not the high point of his evening. The battle with Marlene and Remus had made him frustrated, filthy, and blood-thirsty in the worst possible way, and after cleaning off pumpkin guts and mud with an angry slash of his wand, Rodolphus spotted Alecto, pointed at her and gestured her over. He liked her. Vicious. Brutal. Clever in a simple sort of way. Good fighter. Thoughts were coming in shorter bursts as he attempted to suppress fresh, hot waves of uncharacteristic emotion. All he wanted to do was get his hands around someone's throat and squeeze. "Carrow," he growled out in greeting, though it could hardly be called a friendly one. Fortunately, from the distance he saw Hestia nearby and made his way to her, exhaustion clearly reflected on his face. "You all right?" he asked, sounding rather strained. Abe was in what he could only describe as a snarly mood. His blood was up and he was frustrated from his initial fight. They had been just too evenly matched and it had been stalemate after stalemate until the arrival of reinforcements on both sides had driven them apart. There seemed little point in seeking out the man again just to clash futilely once more. Instead he decided to look for some of the Order. It didn't take long to find some of them and he hurried up to Damocles and Hestia, using his wand to tie back his hair to keep it out of his face. "You two alright?" he barked, looking around with his wand at the ready now that he was done with his personal grooming. "This is turning into a damn mess." Even in the middle of a battle at night, it wasn't like Rodolphus Lestrange was difficult to identify, and it also wasn't like Alecto was in any way minded to ignore or avoid his summons; next to a Lestrange was always a good place to be in a battle, whether what you wanted was to survive or impress. Or both. So Alecto crossed quickly to join him, wand at the ready and scanning her surrounds (why, why must peripheral vision be so damn shit in these masks?) which was how she spotted movement in the shadows, shapes congregating in the lee of the greenhouses. Still a few metres from Rodolphus she said sharply, "Sir," and pointed her wand in their direction, turning it into an incendio, good as a flare and twice as dangerous. Abe saw the spell coming towards them out of the corner of his eye and cast a quick protective spell around them, deflecting it off to one side. He looked over in the direction it had come from and his eyes narrowed. The tall one couldn't be anyone other than Rodolphus Lestrange. The shorter one could be anyone. Not that Abe cared overly much at this point. He pointed his wand at the two of them and with the barest flash of a grin, cast a bleedingly obvious blasting curse, followed by a far more surreptitious Tarantallegra. He'd always wanted to know if Lestrange was light on his feet and if there was one thing he'd learned about evil over the years, it always took itself terribly seriously and hated being made to look silly. Dolph batted away the blasting curse impatiently as he took a step closer to the collected figures -- and closer to Abe's subtler Tarantallegra. He didn't know what was happening at first; his feet were moving beneath him, faster, faster, and definitely without his permission. A sharp bark of anger escaped him, and he responded too seriously, indeed, with flashes of nauseous green light that illuminated the greenhouse in their malevolence, and a blasting spell that, in a jerk too far to the left by his ridiculous feet, blew up the farthest corner of the greenhouse rather than those who hid behind it. He'd finite himself when he was ready to and not a goddamned moment before. The big one had to be Rodolphus Lestrange..."Gigantor," they called him, and it was easy to see why, now that Hestia was actually seeing him in person. He was huge, and thanks to Abe, he was dancing and blowing up random bits of greenhouse all over the place. Had the explosions not been caused by familiar-seeming jets of green light, Hestia would definitely have found the entire bizarre spectacle extremely funny, but now definitely was not the time to giggle. "Nice shot, sir," she commented to Abe, and nodded at Damocles in greeting, before pointing her wand at the shorter Death Eater and casting stupefy in her general direction. Abe didn't bother to hide his amusement at the sight of the gigantic Rodolphus Lestrange jitterbugging all over the place even as the glasshouses next to them shattered then burned. The Death Eaters would likely consider it insulting, undignified and unsuitable for the battlefield and such thoughts were sometimes distracting. "Such grace!" he called out with a great laugh, aiming his wand at the two Death Eaters. "Such lightness of feet." He waved his wand at some of the debris of potted plants, dirt and such that had come flying out of the now ruined glasshouses and sent it flying towards the two Death Eaters then threw a shield around himself, Hestia and Damocles. Rodolphus was unamused, and finally cast a finite incantatem upon himself before lunging forward again. Blasting curse after blasting curse rained greenhouse glass over the hiding idiots, and he batted away a plant soaring for his head. Snarling as it burned his hand, he jettisoned it right back, a geminio curse splashing over it to ensure than any contact would be doubled, tripled, and would burn twice as badly as it had him. To Aberforth he responded with a growled stupefy and a more vicious crucio. They'd see who was lighter on their feet. He could hardly miss the spells that came towards him and he let his shield take the first one. The spell impacted with it then seemed to stop and just dribble to the ground. For the second one Abe raised his wand and deflected it towards the smaller of the Death Eaters. Let that one deal with a little friendly fire. He then pointed his wand at some of the shattered glass lying around and sent it flying towards the two Death Eaters. Busy flinging her impedimenta into the mix, Alecto only just got out of the stunner aimed her way in time. Any congratulation she might have given herself was cut short as she stepped straight into the rebounded crucio. Sure, it was a reflection, but Rodolphus didn't do things in half-measures, and the pain ripped through her like the jagged end of a broken bottle, tearing a hoarse cry out of her and loosening her knees. She didn't fall, but definitely wobbled, stooping, her other hand coming down to brace against the ground. Which was when the glass hit her. Some shards snagged in the folds of her cloak, some tore straight through, ripping gashes in her shoulder and arm, her side, the back of her head as she turned her face away. She went down on one knee then, vision blurring and the blasting spell she threw back unaimed. Glass clamoured off his shield with an horrendous noise, and with a snarl, Rodolphus slashed a hand out towards Alecto, shoving her behind him. He was hardly a charitable sort of person, but having a younger death eater rent to pieces under his supervision was generally not the sort of thing he considered responsible. He did little else to help her, though, too focused on the cowardly defenders of Hogwarts who hid from him. "Why not come out and duel, old man," he growled. "Or must you hide in the shadows throwing childrens' spells?" And out of the darkness came a plant, and in his utter atrociousness at herbology, Rodolphus was certain it was something deadly and tried to dodge it; given his earlier grace, it wasn't hard to see why it smacked him right in the shoulder... and rained down flowers upon him. Confusion swept over him and he reached down to collect it, avoiding Alecto's blasting curse and getting covered with flowers in the process. Charming. Very cute. This was ridiculous. Pulling himself back up to full height, Rodolphus levelled his wand at the cowering vagrants, two blasting curses at the greenhouse followed by an incendio; he whipped his wand, sending the now burning hot glass shards into Hestia and Damocles. Abe gave a snort at Rodolphus' growled comment. "Because I'm not an idiot," he called in a dry tone as he did his best to deflect some of the spells the large man had cast, especially the Incendio, towards the smaller Death Eater. He chuckled as Rodolphus was suddenly covered in flowers. First his successful Tarantagella and now flowers. Rodolphus Lestrange's dignity was not having the best of days. "Very pretty. They suit you," he said before casting a Rictusempra, another Tarantagella then an Incarcerous in quick order at Rodolphus. Abe's deflection had worked to an extent--at least the shards of glass weren't on fire--but Hestia couldn't help but scream as the broken glass from the greenhouses tore into her skin and hair. She was being the exact opposite of effective here, and couldn't help but feeling like maybe Caradoc had been completely right when he told her to go inside at the beginning of the night. It took her a moment to get her bearings (as tends to happen when one is being pelted with sharp fragments of glass), but she finally had the presence of mind to cry, "IMPEDIMENTA!" at the glass and freeze it in midair before any more of it hit her or Damocles. The damage already done was fairly severe, however. She felt like she'd been slashed to ribbons, and there was enough blood over most of her body to support that feeling. After a moment hiding - not that she'd admit to the word, but hiding nonetheless - behind Rodolphus, Alecto gathered herself enough to step back into the fight; hiding definitely seemed the wiser move, but timid Death Eaters never got anywhere. She threw up a shield that barely lasted for the first spell to sizzle against it. Focus, Carrow! She saw one of their opponents turn her head, and hurled a stunner with all the force she had. It passed the blasting spell coming the other way, and Alecto just couldn't move fast enough. It took her in the side, the night turning black and ultraviolet behind her eyelids and the ground gone from beneath her as she went flying backwards. Something went crunch as she landed, as she bounced, and the pain came crashing over her like a wave washing her up on the seashore. Fuck. She should get up. She should move. She would, just give her a fucking minute. With a sigh, Rodolphus was forced to put up a shield and, instead of attacking, move Alecto back several hundred paces so she was out of the way. He'd have to pick her up when he was done with these trifling idiots, assuming she hadn't bled out by the time he was done. Glass puckered into his shield and then fell to the ground as he readied himself again. Hm. Well. They were far enough away that he could probably use an otherwise ill-advised spell to rid him of his woes. Thrusting his wand sharply outwards, Rodolphus cast fiendfyre -- and watched it burn. Abe swore quietly under his breath when he recognised the spell Lestrange cast. Damn brainless Death Eaters, thinking that it had to bigger in order to be better. Probably spoke volumes as to the size of their... manhood. Abe hesitated for a moment then grimaced. No, there was no choice. It would have to be done this way. "You two concentrate on Lestrange. Draw his attention," he bellowed at Hestia and Damocles over the sound of the Fiendfyre. "Leave this to me." He immediately hurried over to a better position and surrounded himself with the strongest shield he could manage. He drew in a deep breath and steeled himself to concentrate on the runes he would need to bring the Fiendfyre to a halt. He could not be distracted by whatever happened to the others, no matter how bad it was. He was alarmed by the Fiendfyre, and his concentration wasn't working too well because of the pain -- there was a part of him complaining that this shouldn't be how it is, that he couldn't fight any more because that would only risk his life. But there was also another part of him that wanted to keep on fighting even if he was already hurt. He had gone too far to stop now. He aimed his wand at Lestrange and shouted "Confringo!" Granted, the spell was probably not that strong because his energy was starting to run low. After casting a mediocre healing spell on himself, which worked mostly to lessen the pain rather than solve the actual problem, his wand snapped back towards the two youngsters fighting him. Ossisverso. Abe could hear the fight going on outside his shield but he firmly kept his mind on what he was doing. If he mucked things up on even just one rune, he'd have to start from the beginning again. He flinched slightly when the Fiendfyre washed over his shield but it held and he kept going. Hestia and Damocles were young and inexperienced and he knew they would struggle against Lestrange but if the Fiendfyre got out of control, which it would because that's what it did and the sooner idiots like Lestrange learned that, the better, it destroy the whole school. Raising the boy up in the air, up, up, up, Rodolphus paused a mere second to let Damocles ponder his situation, and then crashed him down into the earth. He did not even wait to see the damage, too focused on this new arrival. Turning, Dolph leaned to grab Alecto by the collar. She was bad, this one, but he'd get her into the arms of someone who could deal with her. A few long strides, and he was on the path towards a rapidly assembling crowd. Damocles had been distracted, his wand pointing to Hestia to levitate the beam from the greenhouse -- but instead, he was being lifted up into the air. As he was already feeling rather dizzy by the loss of blood, he was quite confused, wondering whether he had cast the spell on himself instead. He glanced down, panicking a little -- and then he felt it; the feeling of falling down. He couldn't even come up with a spell to soften his fall, and landed on the ground. There was a crack somewhere, and for a moment he wondered if it was his head or neck; he wondered if he was dead -- but he was still breathing and he was staring up at the dark sky. Then, as he moved his neck to look at Hestia, he realised that it wasn't broken. He slowly got up -- there was something weird about the position of his left arm, and the fact that it was hurting a lot, but there wasn't much time to waste; Lestrange had already gone. Using the levitating spell, he lifted the beam from Hestia's abdomen and crouching down next to her. "We should get out of here while we can," he said breathlessly, wincing a bit at the pain on his shoulder, sides and his wrist. Abe kept his breathing steady and calm, forcing himself to ignore the sounds around him as he drew the final runes. For a moment nothing happened, the runes simply glowed placidly on the ground in front of him. He glanced up for a moment to ensure nothing was coming towards him then with two swift moves he removed the shield and activated the runes. They glowed blue and shot into the air, swirling in a circle faster and faster. As they did the Fiendfyre began to twitch and jerk then at first slowly then faster and faster it began to be drawn towards the circle of runes. Abe stood solidly behind his runic circle, never flinching as the first tongue of flames closed in. But it didn't touch him, instead it was drawn into the circle where it seemingly disappeared. As though that was the catalyst, the Fiendfyre almost leapt towards the circle, funneling through it into whatever oblivion it led to and leaving only charred ashes and ruins in its wake. When it was finally gone, Abe let the runes fade into nothing and slumped with momentary exhaustion. It was only then that he saw what had distracted Lestrange - the figure of Voldemort descending on the fight. And he also saw a far more important figure emerge from the castle. His brother. He quickly checked to see that the fire was completely out then hurried towards the castle. This was coming to its finish... one way or another.
WHO: Order, Gairloch, DEs, DA, Voldie, Dumbles
WHERE: Hogwarts
WHAT: A big fucking battle
WHEN: 11pm 30 April
RATING: R, violence & death
STATUS: Complete
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3. Reinforcements arrive; BASH! (cont)
+ whomping willow (attacks indiscriminately)
+ greenhouses
Hestia had already helped to push back the handful of Death Eaters that had been filtering onto the Hogwarts grounds, or at least stall them for a short time, but now they seemed to have multiplied...likely a decidedly negative side-effect of letting wards down to allow for the Order's reinforcements from the people-formerly-known-as-the-DMLE in. The idea that they still weren't done made Hestia's stomach flip flop unpleasantly; while she could still stand, could still duel, bruises were already beginning to show in ugly green and purple splotches all over the place, and she'd only just managed to mend her broken nose.
There were still people worse off than she was, though, and so Hestia hurried out to do battle once again, looking for signs of her fellow Order members as she did. Things would be much easier if she had backup at least--duels always went better when there was a second involved.
Damocles was quite shaken from his previous duel; but at least he was still able to walk around and still fight, though the pain from the spells and injuries he had to go through just now with the female werewolf and Nott were starting to take effect; he was starting to feel the pain, and he wondered how long this was going to last. He wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up in his bed and sleep. Or something unproductive like that. Damocles had been looking around for Elsie after his scuffle with the Death Eaters, but she was no where to be found. Or rather, there was too much pandemonium going on for him to really be able to find the people.
If Alecto was indulging in even half a moment of ill-advised levity, it was done very quietly and behind her mask and no one would ever, ever know. She did, however, skip quickly aside, out of the way of flailing Lestrange-limbs (which had quite a range on them) and incidentally ducking out from under a spell that went whizzing over her head. Hey! Skidding on the grass, Alecto flung an answering spell wildly at the huddled fools, and -- whoops, set the greenhouse on fire. She drew herself up steadily, for the moment more focussed on making the next one hit and hit hard than on defending herself.
Damocles reminded himself to thank Aberforth later once this was over for saving his neck a number of times now. To tell you the truth, he was starting to get a little annoyed at the destruction they were causing to the greenhouses. This used to be one of his favourite places at Hogwarts and watching it get burnt down was something he didn't want to see. But there was no time thinking about that nor be nostalgic, and he pointed his wand at Alecto (since Abeforth seemed to be preoccupied with Lestrange) aimed a strong "Stupefy!" her way.
Any levity the sight of a dancing Rodolphus Lestrange may have brought to the situation was quickly done away with as one of the plants that had gone flying in his direction came hurling back in Hestia's direction and only just brushed against her shoulder. The contact was enough to set the duplicating charm into action and Hestia hissed out a swear of pain as the multiplied plants showered down her left side, burning as they went. She still had the presence of mind to jump out of the way, avoiding the bulk of the nastiness, but Helga, did it hurt.
Being near the Greenhouses (especially now that they were blasted open for the world to see) could have its advantages, however, and Hestia grabbed for a pair of bulbs that seemed particularly nasty-looking (bouncing bulbs, maybe? It was impossible to tell in the dark) and sent them hurtling at Lestrange and his second with her wand. With any luck, they'd hit their targets and cover them with boils or burns or something similarly nasty.
Or at least they would have, had they not actually been puffapods, which Hestia only realized as a third bulb burst into flowers at her feet. That was really not the effect she was going for...
Abe affected disappointment when he saw Rodolphus ending the spell. "Such a shame," he called out. "And we were so impressed with your skill. The flailing was particularly spectacular."
Damocles. She had to make sure that he was alright, but she wanted--no, she needed--to contribute something to this fight besides covering Rodolphus Lestrange in beautiful flowers. With a grunt, she cast a Deprimo in the direction of the smaller Death Eater, figuring that Abe was handling Rodolphus just fine on his own. Without checking to see if the spell hit, she called out to Damocles, "You alright?"
The hot, burning shards of glass had hit Damocles rather badly even though he had cast a Shield Charm -- but a little too late for that. He had raised his hand to cover his eyes first before he cast the spell, but that didn't prevent the glass to pierce through his sides and shoulders. At first he didn't feel the pain, but then he saw blood and realised that it did hurt. sequence of events that was happening didn't give Damocles much of an opportunity to tell Hestia that he wasn't all right, but Damocles forced himself to get up anyway. They were just cuts. He would be able to fix them up later.
Hestia felt her jaw falling open at the sight of the Fiendfyre. She'd never seen it before in her life, at least not in person, but she knew exactly how dangerous it was and was all too happy to let Abe take charge of it (though she did worry about him...a little). Focusing her attention on Rodolphus Lestrange seemed like nearly as dangerous a course of action as fighting off the Fiendfyre, but then, she knew that Abe couldn't multitask when dealing with that stuff, and they couldn't afford to have him being hexed left and right by Lestrange right now. She paused to wipe sweat and blood from her brow, and flourished her wand at Lestrange, following Damocles' Confrigo with a Furnunculus of her own.
Rodolphus grinned, a horrible, malevolent expression that did not belong on anyone's face in the sight of fiendfyre. A flick of his wrist sent it dancing haphazardly from the greenhouses towards Aberforth, but he knew the old man's shield's would protect him. That wasn't the point -- he now had two substantially easier targets to attack. Blocking the confringo seemed an easy task at first, but it was more difficult than Rodolphus realised to control the fiendfyre and focus on other spells at the same time; it sent the blasting curse to his feet, and the resulting explosion knocked him sideways -- right into an oncoming furnunculus. Boils erupted all down his wand arm, and Rodolphus gave a loud roar of pained anger; the fiendfyre flew out of his control, rampaging wildly now across greenhouses, chaotically spilling towards Damocles and Hestia. Normally, Rodolphus would regain responsibility of the rather dangerous spell -- but right now it was far enough away and he was in enough pain that he couldn't really give a damn where it went, so long as it wasn't 'towards him'.
Hestia, meanwhile, was not doing quite as well as Abe was, even despite him being the one to fight against the Fiendfyre. The roars of the cursed fire as it tore up the greenhouses had Hestia distracted, and she didn't quite manage to deflect or dodge the bone-twisting curse that Lestrange sent in her and Damocles' direction, and it hit in what was probably one of the better spots for it to hit objectively, but one of the more inconvenient spots at the moment--her leg. She cried out in pain, annoyed with herself that rather than attempting to think of some way to stop the curse or throw something back at Lestrange, she could only remember her anatomy textbooks and that the tibia and the fibula were not supposed to move that way. And then she heard a snap that hurt like hell and the bones were still twisting and this was just getting worse and worse.
From where she'd fallen, Hestia could barely see Lestrange anymore, but she knew it was crucial to keep his attention fixed on herself and Damocles so that Abe could deal with the Fiendfyre. If she was able to distract him from the bone-twisting curse, her leg bones (which had now broken through the skin and were still twisting) would stop hurting, so she sent an Incendio aimed for his legs and prayed, prayed that it would hit.
Seeing Hestia falling down and the painful expression on her face, Damocles could compute that the curse had hit her, and he was about to make the instinctual move of making sure that she was all right and fixing her leg if he needed to, but he knew he couldn't let his own guard down. That would only put all of them in more danger, too. Besides, it seemed like she was still capable of fighting, so he focused on Lestrange again and aimed his own Incendio to him as well, hoping that it would either make up for Hestia's curse if she missed it, or double up the damage.
If nothing else, it seemed like the combination of her spell and Damocles' had distracted Lestrange enough that the bone-twisting curse was lifted, before Hestia's leg was twisted right off her body. She lay on the grass for a minute, gasping in relief and pain and trying to remember how best to mend a bone that's been broken so badly by a curse. It was dark magic, so it would take longer and be more complicated to mend...
It was a bad time to be thinking about healing charms, though, as Hestia discovered when another of Lestrange's spells came flying her way, causing the ground around and in front of her to explode and propelling her upwards and backwards, toward the castle and, more immediately, the burning greenhouses. "Shit shit shit shit shit..." she chanted, praying that she wouldn't land in the greenhouses...there wouldn't be much hope for her in there. Thankfully, she managed to miss that target by a few feet, landing heavily on her back. Nothing seemed to be broken, except maybe a few ribs, and for another second, Hestia felt a rush of relief through her pain. Things were bad, but not as bad as they otherwise could have been...
...and, of course, as always seemed to happen, no sooner had the thought registered than one of the beams from the greenhouse nearest her came toppling down onto her abdomen, before Hestia could even move to get away from it. Great.
One down, and Rodolphus was cheerfully aware that Abe's inability to focus on anything but the fiendfyre. From the corner of his eye, he realised suddenly, deliriously, that a dark figure was descending through the gates -- his Lord-- and that he would not have much time before he was to stand by his Master's side. "LEVICORPUS," he bellowed, wand pointed at Damocles. A broken neck should do the trick.
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