Monday, 29 June 1980. WHO: Barty Crouch, Hestia Jones, Bellatrix Lestrange, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Marlene and Remus Lupin, Alastor Moody, Iago Mulciber, Severus Snape and Gaius Travers. WHAT: Srs bsns. WHERE: St Mungo's Rehabiliation Centre. WHEN: 29 June 1980; late evening. RATING: R STATUS: Complete.
Extractions required more finesse than missions whose end-goals were to simply burn and destroy. There was a greater risk of failure -- and failure, where the well-being of one of their own was concerned, was not an option. And so the spells of crude attack and destruction were left well enough alone as Frank worked his way down one of the hallways. Over the course of his career as an Auror, he'd been admitted several times into the spell damages department in St Mungo's and had gotten enough glimpses of the infamous Janus Thickey ward to know that the sterility of this centre was probably not conducive to the sort of healing the people running it were trying to sell. This place was starkly impersonal, and the thought of what they did to people here was enough to bring bile to his throat.
He worked methodically. A door protected by a simple lock and key yielded nothing but a store room, and Frank moved on, making use of the arsenal of the breaking and entering spells that members of the former DMLE were familiar with. The doors that gave way with no struggle contained nothing of value -- whether an object of some source, or human life -- and so he would turn his attention to the next, increasingly aware of the sounds of explosions (ah, so they finally had company) as he worked.
Severus made his way through the halls of the Rehabiliation centre looking for the trouble that was apparently here. He knew the source of the trouble - or was fairly certain he did and he'd even been expecting it eventually but he was still vaguely annoyed that he had to be among those fighting. The last time he had ended up against a member of the Order, it had not ended well for the member of the Order (or Severus really, for that matter) so the idea of going up against one again was not on the top list of Severus' priorities. But it was inevitable considering what he was doing and he would just be better this time. Or at least, he hoped he would be. He would get injured less, the Order member would not die. These were the goals.
It was about this time that he came upon one of the reasons they were there. A man was moving through a hallway and clearly had already moved through much of it, looking behind locked doors, and Severus signed internally even as part of him was invigorated by the challenge of putting some of his more recent training to good use and getting both him and his opponent out of this place alive. The Incarcerous he shot at the man was wordless if not motionless, and not as strong as it might have been had he spoken it aloud, but then this was magic he was still learning, and he hoped that what the spell lacked in strength the surprise factor would balance out. He followed that with a spoken Imperio - the easiest way to get the Order member to leave the building and keep him alive to fight another battle would obviously be to have him walk out on his own two feet, and thanks to Mr Mulciber's training, Severus could cast that spell with a great deal of power behind it.
Frank had just happened upon one of the centre's patients -- lying in bed in a glassy-eyed stupor -- when he heard the footsteps that rebounded sharply off the narrow hallway. Friend or foe? The former would have announced themselves, and so the grip of his wand was readjusted into readiness for combat as he drew a step out of the room--
And promptly found himself hurled backwards and onto his knees by the speed and suddenness of the Incarcerous. The spell that would counter it was instantly on the edge of his tongue, ready to be cast like he'd cast it so many times before in situations that were far tighter than this, until suddenly it... wasn't. A vague, pleasant sort of emptiness seeped into his mind, and while it was instantly at odds with a distant mantra of Focus, concentrate, FOCUS, there was suddenly a void where once was the desire to break free and put this Death Eater in his rightful place.
So this one was a bit more strong minded this most - pity. Well, an Imperius curse would probably not be the route to go and Severus would have to come up with something a little more creative. If he could keep the man distracted and on the defensive, that would probably be the best, and there any number of ways to perform that task without actually injuring the man in front of him. Smirking under his mask, Severus cast avis, sending birds fluttering straight at the man's - as he drew closer he recognised Frank Longbottom from the wanted posters for the Army of Albion - face. Those would serve as a completely harmless distraction while Severus got down to business.
A blasting charm cast to the right of Longbottom exploded into the wall directly behind the man. No doubt some of the shrapnel from the wall would cause Longbottom some surface injury but it shouldn't seriously injure him and had the nice side benefit of destroying the Rehabiliation Centre at the same time. This was followed by a second incarcerous, although Severus did not bother casting this one silently.
The outcome of all of this -- finally shaking off that Imperius, avoiding the birds, and the instinctual ducking to avoid the detritus of the explosion -- was that Frank hunkered down, almost curling in on himself, forehead scraping the floor, bracing himself as the second Incarcerous struck him. He was ready for it this time, however, and as soon as he felt his body lurch from the force of magical bonds, the counter spell, accompanied by a tiny twitch of his wand, was cast. The bonds, severed, fell to the ground and dissipated. Still practically kissing the floor, Frank then directed an Impedimenta and a Revulsio at the Death Eater's feet, then rolled and pushed himself up.
Longbottom was quick and in reality Severus would have expected no less from a man who had been a former Auror as well as being a member of the Order - although the Ministry as a whole might have proven inept, the individuals within it were not necessarily so. He ducked the first spell, but managed to get himself hit by the purple stream of light from the second one and was forcibly pushed away from Longbottom by the force of the spell. He was slammed against a wall and he frowned, his wand immediately casting again at Longbottom.
He sent a second blasting spell aimed more directly at Longbottom and a sectumsempra that was aimed enough left of where the man was that it was not likely to hit him. He followed these with a "Protego." Pushing back towards the Order member once again.
Even as the Death Eater was hitting the wall, Frank was casting the next series of spells intended to put this man out of action. For all his speed, however, his opponent was swift as well, and so the Petrificus Totalus he'd intended was reconfigured into a Protego just as the blasting spell came hurtling his way. The muscles of his legs tensed as he instinctually wrenched himself out of its path -- and straight into that of the second spell. His own shield was enough to absorb the brunt of if it, but the sudden sting of a scratch down his left arm was enough to tell him that something had gone through.
"You people," he muttered as he shot off a spell that would hurl Severus into the air and drive him into the angle where wall met ceiling.
A Petrificus Totalus would have been caught by his shield charm, but the spell that Longbottom actually shot his direction was more powerful than the man's first choice would have been and Severus found himself thrown back against the wall and ceiling, his head slammed against the wall as he slid down to the floor. Dammit that had bloody hurt. From his position on the floor Severus waved his wand at the former Auror this time blasting out the entirety of the door behind him - just for fun - and aiming a series of spells: "stupefy, incarcerous, incendio" at the other man. And if the incendio caught part of the door on fire, really, all the better. Severus was not opposed to having the opportunity to destroy Travers' baby and blaming it on the Order.
This was getting irritating. While Frank was actually pleased about the fact that the centre was taking some serious damage, there was a very real possibility that patients (whatever they were in for) might be taking some of the heat due to the helplessness they'd been reduced to, and so the tail-end of the incendio was chased by an extinguishing spell that left him completely open to... another incarcerous. In the past several weeks (or, to be more accurate, in the past year) he'd been AKed, cruciated, had had his bones twisted and beaten by spell and werewolf alike... and now a Death Eater was relentlessly trying to tie him up? Unbelievable. He turned sharply to the side, letting the binding spell wrap around his shielded arm as he aimed a summoning spell at the Death Eater's mask.
Severus had moved to his feet, but that appeared to be a mistake because the summoning spell caught him off guard. He could feel his mask sliding and Severus slashed his wand to reverse the spell, but not quickly enough for the mask to stay put. But he wasn't going to spend a lot of time worrying about it. Thanks to Warrington it was truly pointless to worry about whether or not he was known as a Death Eater, and the distraction could cost him the fight if he allowed it to do so. Thus, maskless, he gritted his teeth and waved his wand at Longbottom throwing a finger removing jinx at the other man, and as he pulled himself up to his full height, yet another blasting curse. This time carefully aimed to take out half the wall on the other side of Longbottom. If the rehabilitation centre was in pieces, it was going to take them a while to be able to rebuild and rehabilitate others.
The stolen mask ripped through the air and Frank caught it with his free hand, then jerked it abruptly up as he saw the jinx coming his way. There was something amusing about blocking a Death Eater's attack with his own mask -- but it was not as amusing or perverse as the fact that a pureblood's blood was now dripping down the angular planes of the false, white face, ushered forth by the lesions the spell had inflicted on the tips of his fingers, which had protruded outwardly from the edge of the mask as he wielded it. At least two had taken the intended damage, and while the full extent of the pain was still masked by the adrenalin pumping through his body, Frank swore under his breath and took a step away from the fresh assault of explosions.
Then, still gripping tightly onto the mask, he brandished his wand again, blasting a hole into the wall above the Death Eater's head before aiming a stunner in the place he predicted the other man would move to.
Although Severus would have loathed being predictable, it was only the fact that he followed his spell with a shield charm that kept him from being stunned as he moved away from the blasting hex and right into the path of the stunner. The edges of the shield shimmered as the spell moved off of them and Severus grimly looked at the blood off his mask, taking only a seconds thought to be thankful it wasn't his own.
"Longbottom isn't it?" He asked, flipping his wand at the man, and throwing Diffendo at Longbottom, although it was mostly aimed to mostly miss. "I'm sure if you surrender yourself, we'll be happy to rehabilitate you - although," he added dryly "Possibly not here."
Miss it did, and Frank returned the favor with a Deprimo aimed at the storeroom he had found on before getting interrupted. "Is that what you're trying to do?" he returned, adjusting his -- admittedly slippery -- grip on the man's mask. "I'm sure we can return the favor, Death Eater number... Nine? Ten? Got a name?" Another blast into another wall.
Severus cast protego, although it suddenly appeared as if the former Auror seemed less interested in actually blasting Severus than he was in blasting the walls around Severus. Well Severus could deal with that for the time being. "None that's any business of yours," if he didn't recognise Severus, then Severus wasn't going to fill in the details for him "And I'm in no need of rehabiliation," Severus said, and oh, the double meaning with that phrase. "You on the other hand, seem to be blowing up facilities of healing and torturing women in your spare time, so clearly..." Another blasting curse at the ceiling behind Frank, followed by an additional shield charm. Severus was almost enjoying this.
Moving his shoulders in a shrug shouldn't have smarted the way that it did, but the injury, minor though it was, dealt him by the sectumsempra was the latest among a long line of traumatic insults to that limb -- and now that limb was protesting, loudly. "And in your spare time," he returned, forcing back the wince as he redirected his wand so that it was once again leveled at the Death Eater, "you tear a country's people apart, then stand around talking to me. What gives?" And the question was emphasized by two spells, blunt and painful, aimed at the man's kneecaps. "Doesn't look good for you to be talking to me and causing more damage than I did to one of your projects."
The shield charm caught one of Longbottom's spell, but the other one managed to creep through, causing Severus to stumble slightly from the spell. He winced, setting his jaw, and answering Longbottom's spells with a "furnunculus" aimed at Longbottom's wand arm. If it hit the boils would be painful as hell, if not permanently disabling, and frankly, the memory of Agatha's fingers severed off meant that Severus didn't entirely mind aiming something painful at one of the men that very well was behind that entire incident.
"This country would be peaceful if not for your lot," Severus snapped. And there was at least some real feeling behind that. There were certainly moments when he wished the other group would just stop fighting - just to see if maybe the Death Eaters, once they were in complete control, would start making the world the better place Severus had thought he was making it when he joined. Even if he knew it was unlikely, he couldn't help but feel that the violence simply encouraged more violence. "And if you'd prefer I not talk-" he finished the sentence with a Deprimo,this one very definitely aimed at Longbottom.
His assaulted arm was fortunately spared the painful irritation of boils, the protego he had in place swallowing the nasty curse up. "I would. I'm not here to argue ideology," he growled as he slapped the blasting spell to the side, forcing it to crash into the ceiling that stretched directly above Severus. Plaster and debris rained down on the Death Eater, looking as though it caused more damage than it actually did; as it collapsed, he drew to the side, shooting a quick glance down the length of the hallway that would lead him back where he'd started at. Then, just as rapidly, his attention was back on Severus, eyes squinting through the dust as he worked out just what to do. It was true, the Death Eater had actually caused more physical damage to this loathsome place than he had -- perhaps, then, there was some role he played. With that in mind, he committed the face to memory, and sent off a volley of spells: another revulsion jinx, followed by an incarcerous and a stunner.
It shouldn't have surprised Severus in the slightest to have the debris rain down upon him like it did. The structure had been weakened by one too many blasting curses - many of them his own - and so the dust in his eyes, no longer protected at all by his mask, and the wood and plaster and Merlin knew what else falling down around him made his responses slow.
Uncertain what Longbottom would even do afterwards, he cast protego around a mouthful of dust. The sell caught the revulsion jinx, and held against the incarcerous, but the it was the stunner - as first year as the spell might be - that actually caught him and Severus could feel every muscle tighten up as he quite literally collapsed in a mound of deconstruction. Well, dammit. He was going to have to hope that Longbottom was not feeling in a particularly murderous mood and recently Severus wasn't certain he could dare to expect it like he might once have been able to do.
No, he was not murderous, but thoughtful beneath the far more immediate urge to wrap this mission up and leave. A second stunner was sent off, deliberately weaker than the one that had knocked the Death Eater down, aimed at his legs so that its full effects would have to seep upward, effectively keeping him immobile but conscious; and as it hit, he strode to the fallen man, putting his foot down so that it pinned his wand to the ground. "Listen," he said, voice low and harsh, crouching slightly so he could lock gazes with the Death Eater's own. "There are patients here. If you value human life at all, you'll get them out before this place collapses around them." A final moment -- and then he stepped back, turned, and with long-legged strides, left the way he'd came from, still searching for James in the last few minutes that remained to them.
Severus' dark eyes betrayed nothing but utter dislike and contempt for the man in front of him, but despite the effects of the stunning spell creeping upwards his mind was anything but still. Of course, actually getting patients out when he was stunned seemed utterly impossible. Thankful that Longbottom seemed to have left him his wand (in tact), and himself alive, Severus' eyes watched the man as he strode out of sight.
Trying to focus his energy on the wand still in his hand, wordless magic was perhaps the only way he could get any human life - including his own - out before the place collapsed around him. Although Severus could feel the effects of the spell it didn't seem quite as strong as it ought to, and although Frank was long out of sight by the time he actually began to feel movement returning to his arm, he could feel movement returning to his arm.
As the effects of the spell were reversed Severus moved to his feet, wishing for all the world that he had not lost his mask. Although Longbottom clearly had no idea who he was, Severus wondered if he'd given too much away in his motions. But should anyone ask, he'd meant to hit Longbottom and even had hit him several times, and even Longbottom would not be able to prove that Severus had not meant to hit him with his curses. He pressed his lips together grimly and got to his feet, carefully testing his legs before he stalked off in the opposite direction of Longbottom. The man was right about one thing - patient deaths were most certainly not the type of press the Ministry needed at the moment.
Gaius had been almost ready to leave for home after a long day of work, one which marked the growing trend of progressively lengthy days as the number of patients within the facility grew. Years spent with no one to rely on but himself had made the practice of delegation difficult for him, particularly with the looming fear of being blamed for the potential mistakes of whomever he delected to entrust with the task. On this particular evening, he wished that he had handed some of this work off to others -- then maybe they could have dealt with whatever breech in security the Centre was facing. From inside his office, Gaius scribbled a hasty message to the Death Eaters -- it sounded as though there were several such intruders and he knew he wouldn't be able to neutralize the situation on his own.
With that completed and knowing that there would be others there in a matter of minutes, Gaius crept to the door of his office and cracked it open, peering out into the lobby. He focused in on the nearest target and poked his wand through the opening in the doorway. "Expulso!"
Already this was not going well. Alice had been hoping that no one would be left in the Centre by the time that Remus sent word. Should they be so lucky. She was too pregnant for this, and the baby was kicking, kicking, kicking as she waddle-ran through the doorway, only to see a bright flash of light coming at her. Reflexes slowed slightly and too pregnant to duck and roll, she flung the door shut, hiding behind it. There was an ear-splitting crack as the door burst open, splinters hurdling through the air.
Good Merlin. Through the gaping hole in the door, she pointed her wand, shouting, "Depulso!" As soon as she could, she ducked down to where the door was still intact, her large belly banging against her knees, which ached.
The door behind which Gaius was hiding flung back as the spell hit it, pushing him back into the room where he crashed into his desk. He was going to have some really unpleasant bruises in the morning. Wincing as he picked himself up, he crept slowly back to the doorframe to see where his target had gone. With her nowhere in sight, he aimed his wand at the last place he'd seen her -- behind the door that was now half in pieces. "Deprimo!"
"Protego!" Gaius's Blasting Curse glanced off of the hastily-thrown spell and ricocheted off towards the ceiling, pieces of dust and plaster crumbling down in a haze. Frustrated, Alice pulled herself up from her knees, wiping splinters of wood and plaster dust off of her face. She was too. Bloody. Pregnant. For this. Her knees hurt, her back hurt, and she had a baby to worry about. The Death Eater (it was Travers, wasn't it?) would have to be taken care of quickly and easily. No messing around today. She kept her wand trained on him as she sent out a silent incendio.
Gaius recoiled from the doorway as soon as he saw fire and cast a hasty Shield Charm just a bit too late to prevent the flames from touching him. The sleeves of his robes began to burn and he tried to pat them out against his sides. He wanted this to be over just as quickly as Alice did, but their desired outcomes were obviously different. He still couldn't fully see Alice with the dust from the ceiling hanging between them, but he supposed it didn't matter who she was so long as he could keep her from causing any more damage. With a flick of his wand, he lifted some of the rubble off the ground of the lobby and pointed them in the ex-auror's direction. "Oppungo!"
At eight (nearly nine) months pregnant, Alice was not limber enough to duck as she might have been able to in her heyday. Instead, she Summoned what was left of the door from its hinges with a sharp crack and the debris glanced off of it. With a flick of her wand, the door was sent, whipping in a circle, at Gaius's head. A quick look around revealed the desk as well, which she levitated off of the ground, its contents spilling haphazardly onto the floor, and sent it, too, sailing towards its owner.
No amount of training or practice ever seemed to prepare Gaius for an actual duel -- he had his experience in the Dueling Club and Iago's mentorship to thank for what skills he had ascertained over the last few years, but he was not nearly skilled or clever enough to think of any flawless way to repel a desk-sized attack. A Shield Charm took care of what was left of the door, but he knew that he'd need to think of something else before he was crushed by the much larger object careening toward him. Using a Blasting Curse, he split the desk into pieces, some of which fell harmless to the floor; however, the rest of the desk, in sharp shards of wood, met its mark, impaling him in several places.
Letting out a cry of pain, Gaius bent over to inspect where he'd been hurt -- once in his leg, in his abdomen and his shoulder. At least the important bits were still intact. With his adrenaline finally beginning to rush, he was able to ignore the pain a bit as it dulled, at least enough to deliver a counter attack. The incantation for a rather malicious spell was on the tip of his tongue when he finally saw his opponent. He stopped mid-word and stared at the very pregnant woman across the room. "Merlin," he said, eyes and mouth gaping. "Are they so desperate that they send pregnant women to fight their battles, now?"
Alice couldn't help it -- a smirk crossed her face. They always seemed so surprised to see a pregnant woman fighting, and then they were even more surprised when she bested them (or, at least, didn't run away screaming like a spooked cat). Ah, well. Being underestimated, though not terribly good for the ego, did have its advantages. "It hasn't hindered me thus far," she pointed out to Gaius, which wasn't exactly true -- if she weren't pregnant she might already be out of here.
"Levicorpus," she muttered, casually. The last time she had faced down a Death Eater, it had been Iago Mulciber, and Alice had been frightened of Iago Mulciber. Travers? Not so much. Oh, sure, he was probably trained, and probably ruthless, but she was older, wiser more experienced.
If there was anything more horrific to Gaius than a woman fighting, it was a pregnant woman fighting. He had been too busy gawking to respond appropriately to the curse she sent at him, and so as soon as it hit, he found himself hanging up by his ankles. In between his trying to overcome his shock and do something, he was mostly glad that he'd remembered to wear pants today. That could have been rather embarrassing. "Put me down!" he said, trying to gain enough composure to point his wand steadily at her. Unfortunately, he could not and so his poorly aimed curses met walls, chairs and tables that were nowhere near where Alice was standing.
Oh dear. It was hard, really, really hard for Alice not to laugh. She almost felt sorry for poor Travers, dangling there, upside down, trying desperately to aim in her direction, but the spell kept him swivelling in the air, and she had to admit that she would have had trouble aiming properly in such a position as well. He was barely putting up a fight now, and while Alice knew that no good ever came of pitying Death Eaters, but the sight of Gaius slowly revolving with his legs exposed wasn't really one that induced her to murder. More like laughter. Her wrist flicked, and Gaius was sent sailing towards the glass doors that constituted the entry to the building.
As soon as he was moving, Gaius lost track of where he was in the room and so when he crashed into the glass doors, it came as both a physical and mental shock. He landed just outside the building in a pile of glass, most of which was repelled by his robes, but his bare legs bore the brunt of his injuries, as did his hands when he finished trying to catch his breath and lifted himself. Shifting in an attempt to situation himself, the glass under him crunched beneath his palms and the weight of his body. He was stiff from the fall but he took advantage of his being on a more stable surface and able to aim more effectively. With a final wince, he raised his wand and sent an Incarcerous Curse through the broken door.
It was clear that his last move would still be to try and take her down -- that was an essential part of duelling, and winning -- fight until you can't any more. Thus, Alice was ready with a quick Shield Charm, and the ropes that shot from Gaius's wand fell, useless, on the floor a second before a red shot of light burst from Alice's wand. "STUPEFY!" The Death Eater slumped, unconscious, to the floor, and she was content that would be more than enough to keep him out of her hair for the time being. Brushing off her robes, she trotted off to try and find James.
Moody had been anticipating this evening for the last week, making whatever minute preparations he could to ensure the Order's success. They'd encountered a string of good fortune -- or rather, they'd finally learned how to do it right, since Moody didn't believe in things like luck. What was real were the things he could control, such as the outcome of this infiltration. Their plan had seemed easy enough to execute once they knew Remus was inside and able to give them an entrance. Taking the wards down had been more challenging, but Moody hadn't made fighting dark wizards his career for nothing.
Unfortunately, there was one thing for which their plan did not account: the possibility that there were still people inside of the facility that might have other ideas as to their retrieving James and Peter, if it turned out they were keeping him here. And even more unfortunately, that seemed to be precisely the case. They were not alone. What he assumed were Death Eaters began entering the building, but by then, the lobby had already begun to erupt in chaos.
Quick as he could, Moody tried the doors in the hallway until he found one that opened. He then went inside and crouched down, leaving enough of a gap between the door and its frame to watch as a hooded figure approached. Counting to himself, he waited until the Death Eater was almost on top of him, then stuck his walking stick through the crack and just in front of his enemy's feet.
He'd been expecting spells -- or even an ambush from behind -- but Iago had been unprepared for a stick suddenly appearing in front of where he was walking. He stumbled a few steps forward, a hand going to the wall to catch himself from falling, and he pointed his wand behind himself to cast a shield spell to protect his back. He turned, looking through the eyes of his mask, wand raised, and the moment he saw the intruder he sent several blasting curses toward the opening door.
Getting to his feet, Moody cast a shield charm to block the blasting curses coming toward him. While they protected him, the door exploded, sending splinters of wood in every direction. His eyes fell to the doorknob lying on the ground and he smirked before glancing back at the Death Eater. Pointing his wand at the discarded knob, he transfigured it into a bottle of vodka before summoning it to his hand. Holding the bottle from its neck, he held it up for Iago to see. "Let's have a drink, shall we?"
Iago sneered, his mask hiding his disgust, and he twisted his wand sharply in the air as he took a step closer to Moody, conjuring a watery, acidic ball of green liquid. The droplets that fell to the floor in front of his feet burned and sizzled the tiles, and he thrust his wand forward, sending the acid toward Moody in a blast of fluid.
Moody side-stepped and cast a shield charm against the fluid heading in his direction, but his walking stick caught on some of the door's debris and the liquid ball hit him in the shoulder, burning through his robes down through the skin. He let out an angry, growl-like noise before he regained his composure -- pain was fleeting, as he had learned over the years, and what was important now was finishing this bastard. Breaking the bottle he was holding against the wall, he produced a strong gust of wind to send the transfigured liquid in the bottle in Iago's direction, followed by an Incendio that he hoped would make this duel a bit briefer.
A shield charm went up barely in time, the flames from the burning alcohol raging around the edges of the shield, catching the bottom of his robes around his legs. He squinted from the heat and brightness, sweat breaking out across his forehead, and he quickly pointed his wand down at the fire around his legs and cast a water charm, extinguishing the fires. Another step forward -- Iago retaliated with a silent crucio.
A wizard with less experience would have met his undoing at Iago's Cruciatus Curse, but Moody saw the flash of light from the tip of his wand just in time to produce his own. Though he had spent years practising combative magic, dark magic was not among the things the Ministry encouraged their Aurors to use, particularly since it was precisely that which they were fighting against; however, over the course of the last year, Moody had made the decision that it was impossible to fight dark magic without more dark magic. In spite of whatever practise he'd had with dark curses since then, he was still no dark wizard and as his curse met Iago's somewhere between them, he knew it was not strong enough to hold the other off for long. Discarding his walking stick, Moody reached for a shard of the bottle he'd smashed against the wall and threw it in Iago's direction, hoping to distract him long enough to stop the curse.
The choice between protecting himself from a sharp shard of glass and Moody's curse was an easy one, but Iago had no desire to waste time in a dominance battle over their spells. He ended his own curse as he side stepped out of the way, and the other man's spell flew past him. He pointed his wand at Moody's discarded walking stick, transfiguring the wood into a large, slithering snake, which reared its body upright as soon as it noticed Moody's proximity to it. The snake hissed, and its fangs unfolded in its mouth as it opened its jaws in preparation to strike.
The snake at his ankle did not immediately catch Moody's attention -- at least not until its fangs were already half an inch deep in his prosthetic leg and caught there, causing the snake to hiss and coil around the wooden limb in its struggle to remove itself. Oh well. It could stay there until he needed his walking stick back. Shifting his attention back to the Death Eater, Moody pointed his wand at the ceiling above his head and sent out a silent blasting curse, followed by another Incendio to set the debris on fire.
Iago arced his wand through the air to send the flaming debris toward Moody instead, but he didn't catch all of it, and he lifted his other arm up to protect his head from the falling debris, too late to cast a shield charm. He was knocked down to one knee, head bent and flames catching on his robes as the pieces fell around and on him. He took a moment to put a shield charm up in front of himself before turning his wand on himself again, putting the flames out with water, gritting his teeth as he struggled through the pain of burning skin. The fires had left behind charred cloth and flesh, and with a grunt he stood back up again, wand aimed, and he growled: "Angor!"
Distracted by fending off the burning debris from the ceiling, Iago's spell hit Moody full on and he immediately recoiled, taking several steps backward, when he felt the constriction around his throat. There was no way that he could speak to perform a spell, but fortunately, he could still perform nonverbal curses. Knowing that he had a limited amount of time before Iago's spell would choke him, Moody set his jaw as best he could while struggling to breath and sent a silent Confundus Charm at his opponent.
His curse failed as soon as Iago was hit with Moody's Confundus Charm, stumbling a few steps back as he put his hand to his forehead, dazed and for a moment, unsure of what he was doing, and he he struggled through the charm to refocus his thoughts.
Moody was relieved when Iago's curse was lifted, though his throat still burned with the weight that had been there moments before and he wheezed as he bent down to turn the transfigured snake back into his walking stick. Once he'd retrieved it, he used it to shove the confunded Death Eater out of his way and started trying all the doors in the hallway as quickly as he could. The only rooms he could get into were empty, and the others were sealed with wards that would have taken him much, much longer to take down than he had.
"Bloody fucking hell," he said under his breath, glancing over his shoulder to see how the Death Eater was doing. Noting that he still appeared distracted, he fought off the urge to finish their duel in the proper sense and instead apparated back to the safehouse. Perhaps they could try this again in the future, but there was no way they were getting anyone out of that place tonight.
The spell hadn't lasted for very long -- but by the time Iago had sorted out his thoughts and refocused on what was happening, Moody was already gone. Frustrated at having been outdone by such a simple charm, he didn't leave the Foundation Centre just yet, and he continued to search the hallways for intruders -- and anyone he found would not be escaping so easily.