Now, Amycus was far from the most cultured bloke, but he'd been generally taught (by men) that women should be seen and not heard. His mother and his sister were exceptions to the rule, so Amycus could dig a loud female every now and then, but good lord, this bint was annoying. That's why, upon shattering their makeshift fortress, Amycus's first spell was not a hex or curse, but a simple third-year silencing charm, aimed straight for the one who seemed to enjoy obnoxious banter. Marius and Rabastan were the type that enjoyed hearing their victims scream, but Amycus was just looking for some bloody peace and quiet while he tortured them into insanity; was that too much to ask for? And hey, maybe they'd luck out and she'd be crap with wordless spells. Double points.
"Fucksticks." Agnes didn't even scream as their cover was blown, though she shielded herself with her arms to avoid a brick to the face. Brilliant. More blood. Oh happy day. It was sort of inevitable wasn't it? They'd been getting fucked by death eaters since day one, and today wasn't much different. The only thing Agnes wondered was if she ought make Marlene take another partner next time since she always seemed to be getting the other girl in trouble. Next time... she hoped there'd be a next time. Turning on Amycus, Agnes made the foolish mistake of leaving herself open to Rabastan in order to give the lumpy death eater his just desserts. Incendio - right to the crotch. She hoped he wasn't planning on procreating anytime in the near future, the twat.
"Fuckin--!" Oh dear, of all the places to be hit with a spell. Amycus's eyes widened in panic, the flame eating its way through his robes quickly. Instinct told him that the next thing out of his mouth should be a scream, but Amycus was hoping to avoid any pain and humiliation tonight, and that motivated him enough to douse the fire with as many spells as he knew that could stop it. All he had to say was, thank Merlin for layers.
And Agnes felt a single moment of triumph as Amycus panicked, even going so far as to let out a bit of a woop! Unfortunately for her, Rabastan Lestrange had taken the opportunity to drive through the spells thrown at him and the debris of the broken down wall. A flash of red light heralded her downfall, and she stiffened in an instant as if electrocuted, mouth an open O of surprise and pain.
James & Lily + Millicent & Edgar vs Liam, Regulus, Severus (between 5, 27, 1)
Despite the past few weeks, Lily had felt relatively safe falling asleep next to her husband. They had their flat to themselves, which hadn't been the case lately, and Lily had been naively hoping that maybe things would be settling down a bit. The moment she woke up, alerted by the dogtag vibrating against her skin, Lily stifled a curse under her breath and groaned. It wasn't that she didn't want to get up and help, she was eager and willing to help for the cause, it was a groan in frustration that such help would even be needed. Lily checked the journals to see what, exactly, was going on, and her dismay increased. What the bloody hell was wrong with the world?
Lily wasted no time getting prepared for this battle. In her nightstand was the set of robes in case of emergencies, such as this. Her wand sitting on the nightstand as well, only after enough warning that keeping it under one's pillow might not be the safest of places for a wand. After a very brief moment to remind James how much she loved him, and to be safe, (and vice versa), she and her husband apparated to Diagon alley, near the post office.
It was a very sad sight to see - the flames, the fighting.... It was heartbreaking and sickening, but Lily was prepared, wand out. She was going to do whatever she could to take out as many of the sick bastards hidden behind the cloaks and masks. Someone ought to pay for what happened to Ted, the Lupins, and Marlene's brother. If there was any justice in the world, that is.
Severus had only just seen Bertha Jorkins appear out of nowhere and get captured by his tripping jinx. He'd known her from school, or at least, knew of her, and so it didn't surprise him much when she had appeared to be running about in a panic and had been caught in the confusion. However as he shot another jinx towards Bones, he was extremely surprised to see Lily Evans - no Potter approaching him - well them - her wand out and ready for battle.
Fuck, was the only response Severus could come up with. He didn't often swear, he didn't like swearing. It reminded him of his father and of all of the crude and coarse people he preferred to leave behind him as he moved up into a better social circle, but in this case the sentiment seemed appropriate. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised that it would come to this. It was obvious enough that James Potter liked to get his nose in where he didn't belong, and so it if he'd thought about it, he would have realised that sooner or later he would end up living his worst nightmare which was essentially fighting Lily.
The sight of her shook him more than he would ever admit to anyone and he faltered for a moment as his mind fought to figure out the best course of action. She wouldn't know it was him, thank Merlin, and even if she did know it was him, would she not fight him? He refused to do anything that would hurt her, and hated the idea that one of his fellow Death Eaters might do something to hurt her as well. It was quite literally his worst nightmare come to life. Reality catching up with him, however, Severus realised that perhaps he was looking at it wrong. Perhaps this was an opportunity to make certain Lily didn't get hurt in a situation where she might otherwise have been injured. Perhaps even, Severus could be her unknown guardian Angel, if you would. It didn't have to be a bad thing.
Millicent also noticed the new arrivals, turning to look with a curse (of the non-magical sort) which she then reconsidered upon seeing the flash of a bare face, and a swish of red hair. Uncloaked, unmasked... there was no call for leaping to conclusions, but it seemed a strong possibility that the reinforcements weren't, actually, on the side of evil.
Either way, their arrival had distracted the Death Eaters, and Millicent was casting even as she turned her full attention back to the fight, a slashing blasting curse to clear away any remnants of shields (and if there weren't any? ...she wouldn't cry) followed by a twinned Incarcerous (the hit-wizards' favourite for a reason).
In a split-second reaction, Regulus shouted out a slicing hex at the ropes coming for them; hopping backward and out of the way (just in case the severed ropes continued after them), Regulus shot a look to Severus to make sure he had not managed to suffer any notable hexes whilst staring off into space. He had not yet discovered why it was that Severus stopped reacting quite the same, but now was not really the time with Bones and whoever that woman was after them – with the pop of people Apparating in, he could not tell if their side was getting larger or smaller yet, but getting caught was not in the game plan.
Glancing between their two original foes, his eye was caught by a flash of red. Taking a brief moment to make sense of it, he saw none other than Potter’s wife – Evans, married or not, and sure enough, beside her was James Potter. The last person Regulus ever wished to see. Of course they would appear where he was. Of course.
Shooting a handful of slicing hexes at Bones and Bagnold, Regulus turned his wand on the Potters and shot a blasting hex in their direction; this operation was supposed to go smoothly, and he was determined to not get caught. Sirius’s friends had quite the knack for getting in his way when he was trying to carry out a successful mission, and it was very troublesome.
The hexes whizzed over and past Edgar, slamming into the wall behind him with a shower of sparks -- his shields were largely forgotten now, and he worked purely by guile. His own surprised at seeing Lily and James appear was stifled under a pretense of ignorance: the Potters might be influential members of society, but that didn't mean Edgar Bones was familiar with them. It was getting difficult, these days, to separate his professional life from the Order's activities: try as he might, the two worlds were forced to keep interacting. Deflecting another Regulus' spells, Edgar shot the quickest of nods at Lily -- enough to let her know that he knew and -in whatever way Edgar could- was grateful for their appearance, but vague enough that any of the others (including Millicent, his own teammate and as sharp as a tack) wouldn't be able to put two-and-two together.
Time for a little subterfuge. Edgar fired a Blasting Hex directly at the feet of the taller wizard, and almost immediately shot a Burning Charm approximately a foot higher: if all went well, he would avoid the first jinx, and fall directly into the path of the second.
Millicent's Incarcerous had brought Severus back to reality. Lily might be here and she might even be throwing spells in his direction, but he couldn't let that keep him and Regulus from making it back to their Apparation point. The two of them had to get out of this and if the Potters were here that was two more people they would have to work around. Severus moved quickly to avoid the blasting hex, and as as Bones had anticipated, ran into the Burning Charm. Furious at how he had allowed himself to get distracted Severus spat out Protego too late to avoid all burns completely and shot an Expelliarmus towards Potter and more debris towards Bones. His left hand had caught the brunt of the burning charm and while Severus knew several salves and potions that would heal the injury in short order, none of them were immediately at hand on the battle field. He clamped his teeth together.
There were four now against the Death Eaters and those weren't odds Severus liked. The Death Eaters needed to disarm their opponents, and move away from them as quickly as possible so that they could make this out without capture. If they happened to injure James Potter in the meantime, Severus would be all right with that. Severus followed the flying debris with an entrail-expelling curse directed at Bones, and then shot Rictusempra towards Lily. If she were being tickled maybe she would be out of the fight and if she were out of the fight, she wouldn't get hurt. And tickling was, as defensive magic went among some of the least fatal, but keenly distracting spells.
The Death Eaters clearly thought the new arrivals weren't on their side, both hexing in their direction, and that was enough for Millicent to be going on with, taking advantage of their distraction to move in a bit closer, swinging wide close to the building to increase the angle between her and Edgar (and the new arrivals). She dodged around most of the hexes, feeling a sting as the tail end of one clipped the tip of her ear. Utterly ignorable, and Millicent did, flinging a low Impedimenta at the shorter cloaked figure.
Regulus had not intended to take his attention from the Ministry duo, but between Severus being burned and Lily Potter breaking into giggles, Millicent's spell his him full on. A feeling of irritation settled over him as his movements slowed. He hated having the lack of agility -- especially considering he depended far on that than he ever could on bulk or size -- and this had happened at that battle, as well. At least it wasn't Bones again.
Lifting his wand in irritation once again, Regulus shot a stunning spell toward Edgar, followed immediately by Sectumsempra. The woman had focused on him long enough to cast the spell, but he did not know if Bones was paying attention at all.
Edgar had not been fond of the debris flung at him, and had shouted a few rather un-Pureblooded curses as the better part of a whole roof came through the air towards him. He flund his wand out in front of him but, before he could establish a Shield charm, the wreckage struck him with a full-bodied 'thump'. He crashed to the ground under a hail of brick and dust, his hat rolling off down into the gutter. Laying there on his stomach, the anger coursed through him: this was not the proper behaviour for an Auror, lying on the ground with no hat on.
He looked up, directly into the path of three curses flying right at him. There was little time to think: with a loud crack, Edgar Disapparated from under the debris and reappeared, still on the ground, directly behind the smaller wizard. Oh, he'd been paying enough attention through the clouds of dust; his wand momentarily forgotten, Edgar physically kicked at the back of the wizard's leg with as much force as he could lever, to give him the cover to stand up again.
As soon as Edgar's foot connected solidly with the back of his leg, Regulus crumbled to the ground with a surprised yelp. He had not expected a physical assault, nor for there to suddenly be an Auror right behind him -- that was a rather painful kick, he might add.
With a sound less graceful than he would have liked -- somewhat along the lines of eurgh -- Regulus shifted onto his knees and stood back up, regaining his footing and looking rather vexed under the cover of his mask. Stumbling back to where Severus was standing, Regulus kept his wand raised toward Edgar, ready to throw up a shield if necessary.
Edgar's Disapparation should not have surprised Severus, but nonetheless, it did, unnerving him.When Regulus fell to the ground beside him, Severus turned, his own wand raised at Edgar and Protego on his lips. With the new arrivals, Severus felt their advance had been halted, and he did not like the feeling. He preferred to be in control of these situations, and this seemed to be unraveling. Although he had caught only snatches of Lily's giggles over the sounds of the battle, he wished they'd been for a reason other than his hex. They had also ceased, which Severus guessed was because someone - possibly Potter - had cast the counter spell.
He followed the defensive spell, but another set of offensive ones. A calculated three spell cast, Severus sent Tarantallegra towards Bones' legs, a Jelly fingers curse towards where Severus believed his wand hand would be in a moment, and finally a Crucio for good measure. Casting off the slight guilt he felt at casting an Unforgivable in Lily's presence, Severus turned to make certain that the woman and Potter had not snuck up on him and Regulus in the meantime. With the idea that they could begin moving back towards the center, Severus cast a shield charm and a second one, trying to push the Aurors and the Potters away from him and Regulus so that they could move back towards where they were supposed to Apparate away.
Millicent was fed up to the damn eyeballs with tearing down the shields of these irritating little cockroaches. (At the same time, she was making a mental note to review the shielding training in the hit-wizard curriculum.) She cast again, and again, and then just as she framed a third cast, a hex shot in from the shadows.
Millicent turned her wand on the taller, shooting off a wildly cast blasting curse, and the second - more carefully aimed - at the street beneath his feet. Keep him busy, keep him off-balance.
Remus & Sirius + Rufus & Pepper vs Barty (@ 12) - Barty apparates out
The feeling of the dogtags around Remus' neck startled him awake as soon as the charms were set off on them, causing him to sit up before he was even fully awake. It didn't take long for him to become to his full senses, though, once he realised exactly what woke him up -- quickly, he got out of bed, pulling on his shoes and grabbing the first set of robes he could (not one of his better robes, that was certain), and pulled them on. Snatching his wand up from on top of the books on his nightstand by his bed, he grabbed his journal even as he was walking out of his room. "Sirius?" he called out, not sure if his friend had remembered to wear the dogtags or not and wanting to make sure he was getting up (or if he was just still awake). Remus already had his journal open, flipping through the pages quickly until he saw the entry he was looking for, scribbling down a reply. Once he was finished, he stuffed the journal into one of the pockets inside his robes. An attack on Diagon Alley? He was already trying to think ahead of where they should arrive, considering the apparation points were likely unsafe.
Sirius was wide awake, as per usual at this time of the morning, so the alarm going off made him startle more than anything else. It took him about half a minute to realise that meant that they were in trouble and that he needed to get off his arse and do something. He turned the music off with a flick of the wand and was soon pulling his shoes on and and reaching for his journal. Where was the bloody thing? He heard Remus calling for him and he yelled back, "I'm here, I'm up!" He grabbed his wand off the side table and headed out into the living space. "What is it?" He asked, thinking it was probably a great deal quicker just to ask him than to play at hunting to find his journal and find out if something big was going on and it wasn't just another than a bit of vibration in the night.
"Something's going on in Diagon," Remus said. "Marlene and Agnes have already gone -- we should hurry out there to help." After everything that's happened, after all the things Remus has seen them say to the purists over the journals, he couldn't help be a tad concerned over what those two would face out there. No doubt it wouldn't be anything good, he was certain of that much. The Death Eaters weren't the type of people who easily forget and forgive, Remus knew. "Let's apparate out to behind Gringotts -- I reckon it's probably late enough that it's safe to not use the apparation points. We can use the alleys to try and figure out what's going on before we move in," he said, looking at Sirius to see if he was prepared to head out. "Ready to go?"
Marlene and Agnes. These two were basically fighting the war four handed if the amount of skirmishes they got into were to be believed. As they seemed pretty high on the hitlist, Remus was probably right; they should definitely go and find them. He nodded; using the apparition points was probably suicide and it wasn't likely you were going to have an unpleasant collision behind Gringotts at this time of night. He grinned at him, knowing he always knew what he was trying to do. That was Remus for you though, he always wanted to assess the situation to death before doing anything. "Come on then!" Sirius rolled his eyes as if he'd been the one waiting, apparating out with Remus close behind him.
Sirius had already gone before Remus could give him an annoyed look, but he didn't linger on it, quickly following after, apparating to the designated spot he had decided on behind Gringotts. He had hoped they picked a safe, quiet spot to apparate to -- who would be in the alleys, anyway? -- and so when he arrived, he was surprised to show up in the midst of what seemed to be a battle. Shite. The first thing he did was attempt to locate Sirius, hoping they hadn't apparated too far apart from each other -- the last time he fought with a Death Eater alone, it didn't turn out well, so he'd be damned if he was going to repeat his mistakes -- or let Sirius do the same.
Oh shit. It wasn't particularly quiet or peaceful around here, despite him attempting to go in somewhere where he wouldn't really have any chance of collision. Coming out from down the Alchemists Secret, he managed to spot the back of Remus' head (which was probably a sign that he had known him too long considering he was pretty sure it was Remus) and the smell of smoke was hanging quite heavily in the air. "Moony!" He hissed, trying to get his attention. He tried to get a look around. "Do you see them?" Them could be interpreted as Agnes and Marlene or the Death Eaters. Anything that would require them to get involved.
The two pops off to the upper left of Rufus's battlezone did not bode well for Rufus and Pepper. They'd managed to drive off one or two of their attackers from the other side, focusing their attentions on the small bastard hiding behind Gringotts, but these newcomers could have been anyone. "IDENTIFY YOURSELF," Rufus bellowed, sending a repelling charm down the side of Gringotts to keep the death eater momentarily at bay while he pushed from behind Pepper. He didn't recognise them immediately - that meant not ministry - and he pointed his wand toward the new arrivals, ready to blast them off the grass if they gave the wrong answer.
Pepper shot a quick glance at the new arrivals and then did a double-take - while Rufus didn't recognise them, he did, and their arrival did not fill him with glad tidings. "Fucking civilians," he growled, attention drawn partially away from the remaining Death Eater for the first time. "Black! Lupin! Get the fucking hell out of here before you get hit by unfortunate friendly fire!"
Barty hated having to work with other people sometimes. They were just so inhumanly unreliable when they put their minds to it -- Merlin, they'd all gotten injured and decided that that was enough reason to run out on a duel they had already started and leave one of their so-called comrades behind. Naturally, Barty held no ill will for Mister Lestrange, and he could even find it in him to forgive Greyback, given the man's utter embracing of his animal nature, and he certainly would not express his complete exasperation with Malfoy, as Malfoy was his superior in the ranks -- but Carrow, at least, had no excuse. The only positive side to this that Barty could see was that he was going to handle four insufferable nuisances on his own. And, as luck had it, two of said nuisances were actually important. Scrimgeour was still among their number, and who would have so fortuitously Apparated into the battle but Sirius Black himself? Oh, revenge, she was sweet. There wasn't any way Barty would be made a fool of by Black this time, even though there were three others with him. He would handle the lot, and he would prove himself worthy of his Dark Mark.
Really, though, that insufferable Hitwizard, Pepper, was making this too easy. Getting distracted in the middle of a fight? Who did something so utterly foolish? Well, no matter -- opportunity presented itself and Barty seized at it, first casting a Disarming Charm at Pepper, and following it up with a well-placed Conjunctivitis Curse. Creative and practical -- he liked it.
Some great secret organisation they were turning out to be. Firstly, it probably didn't help that he'd managed to actually call out to get Remus' attention (well, what else was he going to do, wave his hands around?) and that caused - who was that? He sounded important and chances are, that meant ministry. He really needed to start paying attention. Of course, judging by the usual charming diatribe, that was Pepper so basically, they just both got recognised. Fantastic, he thought, casting his gaze to the opposite end. Oh, and there's a Death Eater in the mix. This was going to make for an interesting night, assuming they didn't get arrested. He couldn't see Marlene or Agnes from here, which probably meant they were shoulder deep in trouble. They couldn't go and they couldn't really yell "Have you seen a small girl that probably isn't wearing much and one that's probably screaming bloody murder?" at Ministry personnel, could they?
Then the Death Eater starts firing off curses. They didn't really have the best of covers but you had to make do with what you had. He caught sight of the wand go flying and swore; that was not a good sign. He attempted to throw a disarm of his own but damn it, this was a small space and he didn't want to hit anyone. Fucking coward should be out here fighting like a man, not throwing curses like a trapped rat. He moved up against the wall to get the hell out of the way, grabbing for Remus' arm to do the same.
The last thing Remus planned to do was identify himself to any members of the Ministry of Magic -- he already had one account of an arrest on his record, and in his opinion, that was one too many. At least Sirius didn't use his real name when he called out to him; now was good a time as any to use nicknames. Although, the use of nicknames quickly became a moot point when Pepper called out to them to back off. So far it looked to just be the four of them here with only one Death Eater; lucky odds indeed.
He allowed Sirius to pull him back with him against the wall, but he didn't tear his eyes away from the battle. He caught sight of the wand as it was blasted out of Pepper's hand, and pointed his own wand at it as soon as it hit the ground. They may have wanted them out of the fight, but Remus wasn't about to leave when they were disarmed -- he knew well enough how defenceless that could make a wizard feel. "Locomotor wand!" Remus said, pulling away from the wall so he could guide the wand back to it's owner easily. "Catch!" he shouted to Pepper, hoping he'd be able to see it well enough to retrieve the wand from the air beside him after the Death Eater cast a Conjunctivitis Curse at him.
Blinded combat was covered in hit wizard training, but training had been a long time ago, and it was hard to hear what was going on with everything else around him. Pepper did hear the "Catch!" though and managed to grab hold of his wand, flipping it to cast a quick, "Finite incantatem!" that cleared up his vision somewhat, though it still left it a little blurred and stinging. He shook it off, ignoring those damn meddling kids and picking out the masked figure cloaked in black. Goddamnit, he was pissed now. "Defodio! Diffindo! Duro! Repello!" The spells rolled off his tongue one after the other though he didn't see if any of them hit, moving around to try and make sure the Death Eater would have to pick one of them to target instead of them clumping together.
Lupin and Black? Rufus scowled from behind his alleyway, keeping an eye on Pepper, who managed to get slammed with a conjuctivitis. Bollocks!. "Disapparate immediately," he bellowed out, though his wand turned back toward the Gringott's wall behind which Barty had shielded himself so that he could send a reducto down along the wall. The bank was too heavily warded to take any damage from the spell, but the ground exploded at the corner, giving Rufus ample time to assure himself that Pepper (who now had his wand back), wasn't crippled. From the angry slurry of spells flying out, he guessed the hitwizard was fine, and he turned his attention back to the vagrant civilians.
"DEPULSO" - he wasn't taking crap from anybody right now, bad guys or idiots, and he threw the warning shot to shove Sirius and Remus toward Knockturn, out of harm's way. "GET OUT. NOW." This was grown up business. "Think you can hold this one? I'm going to look back apparition side."
Oh, honestly. Barty had to roll his eyes at how utterly hopeless these ridiculous people were. This was what the Dark Lord's followers were up against? Incompetent, foul-mouthed Hit-Wizards, easily distracted Aurors, and meddling, self-important Blood Traitors and their inane, Halfblood friends -- some threat. The only one who was even remotely paying attention to the required degree was Pepper and, as luck had it, he'd been conveniently blinded -- or at least handed rather deprived vision -- and throwing out spells that, besides one, weren't even useful, at the moment. True, it wasn't quite as satisfying as the Cruciatus Curse was supposed to be -- Madame Lestrange had yet to cover such things with Barty, though he hoped for a lesson in it every time he reported for a mentoring session -- but it was still a victory. And it wasn't even tainted by appalling failure yet! Barty was, admittedly, startled when Pepper's Gouging Spell whizzed right past him, just barely missing the side of his head as he ducked behind the wall, and the explosion at his feet from someone's hex forced him to jump a few feet further into cover, but Pepper wasn't being trained by Madame Lestrange; if he wanted to play rough, then Barty was more than willing to oblige.
It was, admittedly, a shame that Scrimgeour was trying to force Black and Lupin away -- after all, Black deserved whatever he got from the Death Eaters and Lupin was just a bother for the sheer virtue of being on the other side. Well, Barty wasn't going to just let them go. Not that they had the collective brains between them to leave, but he couldn't let them go without getting some form of say in the matter. True enough, Barty had already been down this path once before with Black, but it had been so lovely the first time. Smirking devilishly behind his mask, he whipped out from behind his cover long enough to aim a Slicing Hex at Black's chest, and then promptly ducked back. Here's hoping that the Blood Traitor actually bled to death this time.
Remus felt two against one was fair enough, and if they wanted them gone, he wasn't about to protest. After all, they were also trained in combat, so one Death Eater shouldn't be too much trouble for them to handle. He wanted to hurry and find Agnes and Marlene, anyway, worried about their safety. This time it was his turn to attempt to grab Sirius' arm to pull him back, away from the spell thrown at them by Rufus. He knew that the Auror was just trying to protect them, but it annoyed him nonetheless (he supposed it was just his general bitterness toward the Ministry that fueled it). However, before he could suggest to Sirius that they should get out of there and look for the girls, he noticed the flash of light from he Death Eater's spell heading directly toward Sirius. "Shite -- protego!" Remus tried to react as quickly as he could, swinging his wand out to expand the shield to cover Sirius, hoping he cast the spell in time to stop the hex from hitting his friend.
Sirius brushed off the irritability of being spoken to like a ten year old just in time to see he'd gotten something fired at him. Thank Merlin for Remus and his shielding charm because what it ended up feeling like was a bit like a paper cut. He made a face and looked to Remus for the next step. He nodded a thanks to Remus and tried to think quickly as to what he needed to do. They weren't needed nor wanted here. Best do what they came here for and leave the law enforcement to do it's job. He pushed up close to his friend and spoke as quietly as he could, "Lets go find Marlene and Agnes before we both end up on the wrong side of the Ministry." Not that the Order was ever on it's right side but Remus couldn't get into trouble with his little monthly problem and he didn't fancy spending the night in the DMLE either.
Pepper would really have preferred the kids Apparate out rather than stick around to get in the way of someone else, but there wasn't bloody time to worry about that. Let them get killed if they really wanted, he had work to do, and a bit of blurred vision wasn't going to get in his way anymore than a couple of upstart teenagers. "I'm fine!" he assured Rufus tightly, casting the arrow-shooting curse that Appleby fans had used at games until the practice was outlawed late the previous century. The spell itself was borderline, but he was hoping that if Rufus knew that he'd at least overlook it, considering the circumstances. He followed it quickly with another flagrante, turning the arrows into burning hot missiles rather more effective than the swarm of birds he'd summoned earlier.
Well, that was annoying. Shield charms made things thoroughly and painfully uninteresting -- but never mind. There were distinctly more important things at hand. Naturally curious, and rather fond of his own handiwork when it came to making Blood Traitors bleed, Barty made the mistake of coming out to check on Black right as Pepper shot flaming arrows in his direction. Merlin -- it was creative. He had to admit that much. That was all he'd admit, though, especially when dodging the arrows took literally diving back behind the wall, a process that involved crashing into the ground and landing on his shoulder. Barty winced -- between whatever came from that and the cut on his arm, he'd certainly have enough to explain, though the cut was easily concealed and he could think something up about his shoulder later, if anyone even noticed it. Pepper and Scrimgeour had the upper hand -- two against one; Barty was almost tempted to sympathize with how Black must have felt when squaring off against both Barty and Rabastan at O'Hare's commune -- and, once they were rid of Black and Lupin, they'd no doubt close in on Barty. While it was certainly beguiling, the thought of how Father would have reacted to learning where his only son's loyalty's lay, now was not the time; things were not yet perfectly in place for that revelation. The last thing Barty could risk was exposure. He'd have to leave before any substantial damage was done.
But he wouldn't go without one last good-bye. That would've been rude of him. Resolved, he came back out from behind the wall and took a brief moment to properly aim his wand at Pepper's chest. Pepper deserved this, for being insufferable, for ratting out Regulus and Evan some months before, and for countless other things. And then there was Father, and the promise of proper retribution. Summoning that man's face to his mind, Barty focused intently, directing all of his energy into the silent spell: SECTUMSEMPRA!
Rufus's shield came too late, and he could feel the spell lay into Pepper beside him; the crucial decision came - did he turn toward his comrade or attack the death eater while he was open? - help or attack - help or attack - and in a split second, Rufus had left Pepper's side, wand before him, determination swelling in him so hard he thought he might burst. "CRUCIO" he bellowed, ignoring the distaste that smeared across his belly and left him sullied. But with that dreadful act, he realized in an instant that he was not that man... and he withdrew back toward his coworker - his friend - and pulled him into the alleyway out of harm's reach. "Stay still, Pepper." His gravelled voice rasped out in the narrow space as he did his best to assess the damage.
It was several seconds between the spell hitting and Pepper realising that it had hit, but once the revelation came, the pain did too, a sharp burning line down his chest. His already-impaired vision darkened further for a moment until he clenched his eyes shut for a moment and opened them again to what seemed to be the same level of blurriness he'd already had. Well, that made the crucio make sense, he thought dizzily, free hand going to the front of his robes and coming away smeared dark and sticky. He felt Rufus pulling him back into the alley and bit down on his tongue, hard, to try and bring himself back into the moment - they were still in danger no matter how much he was bleeding and it probably looked a hell of a lot worse than it was. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he insisted, "just patch it up before we get killed."
Barty had meant to run immediately after sending the curse at Pepper, but the actual process was much more complicated. He watched the man's robes and chest slice open, watched the blood come positively gushing out -- and then, for whatever reason, he couldn't leave. It was too marvelous to just flee from his handiwork. ...And it was getting on the grass, something that Black's hadn't done. Of course, there hadn't been any grass for Black to bleed upon at O'Hare's commune, but this... this was lovely. It was like a masterwork painting, and Barty couldn't bring himself to look away -- until he was hit off-guard by a red flash of light. His attempts to keep from screaming did not last long; by the time he was on his back, the sound of his anguished shrieking pierced the night as the most excruciating pain he'd ever felt in his life ran through every capillary, and through every last nerve, no matter how minuscule. His entire body flared up with the agony -- there couldn't be an end to this -- he'd failed again, and now he was going to die like this, screaming like some common whelp, though that would make the pain stop, and he couldn't say that he'd be opposed...
Finally, it ceased. Barty felt exhausted, and the dull, throbbing reminder of the pain still lingered in his limbs, but the worst of it had gone now. How very badly he wanted to just stay in the grass until it stopped, but there would be other times to nurse his wounds. As horribly as his entire body screamed in protest, he forced himself up and made a quick job of Disapparating home. He had to clean up, and then maybe clean the study, or find anything to dust or scrub -- anything to distract himself from another round of his appalling failure as a Death Eater.
Rufus could hear the crack of disapparation, and it freed him to pay more attention to Pepper - not that he'd, you know, stopped paying attention since he started spraying blood everywhere, but his priorities had been a little spread thin. Pushing him back against the wall (and brooking no arguments), he pulled his robes open and tried not to think about all the sexual innuendos Pepper liked to make toward other men (which was reasonably easy given that there were more important stressors at the moment than whether Pepper liked boys or not). He held the other man back by the shoulder and frowned, running his wand over the wounds carefully, thoughtfully. They weren't closing easily and after several passes blood still leaked from the wounds. What the hell.
"I'm fine!" Pepper's protest was ignored as Rufus pushed him back against the wall, trying to keep him steady so he could try another tack. "Stop being an annoying bastard." He grumbled, and this time the magic seemed to work, roughly knitting together the cursed wounds. It wasn't a bang-up job, but it would hold the hitwizard together long enough to continue fighting.
"Can't help it," Pepper gasped out, wincing a little - now that the fucking sod who'd cast the spell had made off he didn't have anything immediate to distract him, and his head was swimming again. "That stings a bit." He followed the understatement with a bit of a grin, mustering it from somewhere under the pain in an attempt to get goddamn well past it. That Death Eater had not been the last. Concentrating, he re-fastened his robes, and by the time he'd done that he thought he could pretty much get back to it - so long as he remained rear guard, as much as it rankled. The Death Eater's screams had been satisfying, but not as satisfying as eliciting some of his own would have been.
He let out a breath, then nodded to show he was ready. "Let's go."