Evelyn & Jo vs Fenrir, Rodolphus, Roman, Lucius (apparition point)
Rodolphus was thrown away from Josephine with a sharp smack to his bones (stinging hexes were more jarring than painful); he faltered, one step, two steps, and was again powerful, dangerous, prepared. Only as he prepared for this wandplay, arm extended, back arched, and thighs cocked, could one appreciate the grace entwined with such power. He was very much the brute - it was indisputable, undeniable, but so to did he embrace a taste of the aesthetic - though whether it was too his benefit or bane was anyone's guess. With a tut that lingered heavily upon his tongue (barely audible over the roar of fire), he shook his head, disappointed in what he perceived as her fear of physical combat - fear of death.
But it would not stop him from achieving his means. He intended to do her more damage than bruises to the hips and bloody teeth; if she forced his hand to magic, he would embrace that means - he would use them. There was no bow in this duel, no pace. He waited a heartbeat and shot his arm forward, back curving and legs straining with the sheer power needed for CRUCIO. Red spat from his wand, violent and angry as it sought out its target. He would have her screams tonight.
Jo was ready for him with a billowing "DEPULSO" and another Cruciatus curse behind that which she reflected back to him. She was intent upon his pain, her movements fluid and concentrated as her wand wove strands of magic into the air. They needed to start shrinking the radius made available to the Death Eaters and if that were successful, they might actually bring people in tonight. She only hoped that the Cruciatus was enough to distract him.
Rodolphus was forced backward several feet, and though she couldn't see it, he leered at her through his mask, knocking back her Cruciatus easily, angrily. "Don't play with grown-up magic, little Josephine," he taunted, aiming a reducto at her feet and stepping away. Toying, now, playing. He could taste the time to abandon this mess of an alley was approaching, and angering the French girl would suffice to fill his time. Unlike his younger counterparts, Rodolphus had nothing to prove, nothing at stake. His ego was not at risk, and if Josephine would not let him near, then his passions would be tucked away until such time as he could get his hands upon her again. "I wouldn't wish you to get hurt." Sidestep, sidestep, and he closed the gap between himself and where Fenrir and the auror wrestled. A slow smile spilled beneath his mask, and he aimed his wand toward a distracted Evelyn. "Crucio."
Fenrir grunted when the spell hit his chest and threw him backwards but even as it did so he snarled and tightened the grip he had on the woman's robes, dragging her along with him. He slammed into the ground and pained ripped through him from his back. He swore viciously and lashed out at the woman's wand hand. He grabbed it then rolled them over, slamming her hand against the ground repeatedly in an effort to get her to let go. He could feel the throbbing from both chest and back and he wanted to bring this fight back to his terms and not hers.
Evelyn was unable to keep her footing as Greyback dragged her down with him, and before she could escape from the werewolf's grip, she quite suddenly found herself underneath Greyback. Her wand arm restrained, she was unable to cast spells in retaliation, and the constant pain shooting up her arm from Greyback smashing it on the ground over and over again was finally enough to cause her hand to go slack, wand slipping from her grasp. There was still a lot of fight left in the Auror, though, and she wasn't giving up -- not yet. With her free arm, Evelyn clenched her fist and swung as hard as she could, directly at Greyback's face. So consumed in her fight with the werewolf that she did not hear the curse uttered from Rodolphus, had no idea he'd slipped up close enough to her with the intent to attack, that when the curse struck her Evelyn took the full blast of the spell. Inexplicable pain seared through her body, ripping her focus away from Greyback and leaving her vulnerable. She felt as if she could barely breathe, her back arched as she cried out, shoving at Greyback in attempt to push the werewolf off of her -- it felt as if someone were trying to pull out her spine.
Jo sidestepped the Reducto, snarling toward Rodolphus as he turned his attention toward Evelyn who was doing her all to subdue Greyback. She watched, almost aghast, as Rodolphus lined himself up and chose to attack Evelyn -- "And you presume to be noble!" she spat, whirling toward Greyback with a sharp "Petrificus Totalis!" on her tongue and an "Incarcerous!" spat haphazardly in Rodolphus's direction.
Again, he slapped the spell out of the way, taking every opportunity in her split attention to close the gap between them short of accioing her to him (that would have been a dangerous maneuver indeed). "And what would the savage know of nobility?" He growled out smoothly, voice as low as was audible without carrying. His only aggressive stance was with his body - a vicious weapon in and of itself - his wand at the ready only to fend off whatever foolish attacks she might make. He desired proximity - terrorizing her would make this night a sweet one indeed.
Fenrir gave a snarl of triumph when the woman's wand dropped out of her hand and he was just moving to attack her properly when she punched him in the face. The blow glanced off his jaw and he grunted as his head jerked. He was about to lunge at her and rip at her with his teeth when she suddenly convulsed underneath him, pushing at him as she arched off the ground. He laughed coarsely as he recognised the effects of the Cruciatus and had to mentally applaud Rodolphus' timing and aim. He'd have been more than a little displeased if that spell had hit him instead. He raised his hand, intending to have a bit of fun with her while she was distracted when he felt a spell thump into his back and suddenly found himself unable to move. The momentum of the spell pushed him forward and he collapsed on top of the woman, snarling and howling inwardly at his sudden paralysis as he tried unsuccessfully to break the spell.
It took Evelyn a few moments to recover from the Crutiatus curse -- which was quickly followed by the weight of Greyback collapsing ontop of her, knocking the wind out of her, and for a split second of fear she thought the werewolf was going to rip out her throat. However, when she felt no claws or fangs tearing into her skin, she reacted immediately, shoving Greyback off her body and standing back up, just slightly unsteady on her feet. Now with Greyback out of her way, Evelyn was free to help Jo, and she wasted no time in retrieving her and, pointing it at Rodolphus and aiming a silent disarming spell at his wand, even as she approached them.
Jo nodded to her comrade as she rose and they faced Rodolphus Lestrange, she too sidestepped, trying to funnel him toward the burning building to effectively cut off his escape routes. A leer rose in her features as she started to feel the upper hand in her bones; "They're noble enough not to need masks!" was her shout as she cast a silent Stupefy to aide Evelyn's well-timed curses. She would rather see him writhe at the end of her wand; she would rather dispense with his breathing with naught by a gentle snap of her wrists, but it would not be tonight. She had to come to grip with the fact that she would save her ire for another day. Now, the only hope she had was incarceration.
Beneath Rodolphus's mask came a horrible grin, and though he raised his wand in the appearance of defense, he sidestepped into a disapparation, popping out of existence as Jo's spell spilled into the wall behind him. He reappeared back toward the apparition point, moving into the buildings and toward his other comrades. There was safety in numbers, he thought - and though he believed, certainly, that he did not need 'safety' - it made throwing out a curse or two from behind far easier. But there was more action here, aurors and civilians running past, and Rodolphus moved away from the apparition point again, site of the two girls lost in a clot of activity. Ah well, he would simply have to find another target. Pity, that.
Benjy, Peter & Gideon + Evelyn, Jo, Rufus, Pepper vs Fenrir, Rodolphus, Roman, Lucius (apparition point)
To be honest, Benjy hadn't expected the dogtags to come into use so soon, and so drastically. Taking the effort to rendezvous with Gideon and Peter lost them some time, and his stomach sank a little when he realised they were the only ones who had - undoubtably the others had gone on ahead, which meant they were right now in the middle of a firefight with Death Eaters. "Around the side of Gringotts," he decided out loud, then shook his head and clarified for the others, aware that they couldn't read his mind, "On the Leaky Cauldron side, we should Apparate there to avoid the street." Not wanting to take the time to argue about it, preferring action for once, he gripped his wand and Apparated smoothly, pausing to wait for the others once he arrived as he tried to make out what they were coming into.
Peter had been definitely caught off guard, and it had showed when he had showed up to meet with Gideon and Benjy, shirt buttoned out of order and hair all askew. But appearance was the last thing that mattered in a situation like this, and none of it was going to disable him drastically. Trying his best to collect his shattered nerves and ignore the part of his mind that was screaming 'I'm going to die!', Peter gripped his wand tightly, trying to keep a firm grip on it despite the perspiration that was collecting on his palms, as he fixed the apparition point firmly in his mind. He landed clumsily next to Benjy, a slight stumble in his step but thankfully still all in one piece. The sounds that met his ears, however, made his mind that much more certain that that wasn't going to be the case for long.
"What in the...?" Peter gasped out before biting down on his tongue. No need to draw unwanted attention to them.
Gideon was only half a second behind them, stumbling a little as he apparated and putting out a hand to the wall to steady himself. It'd been a long day, but it wasn't over yet. His gaze when immediately towards the street, shown in the ghastly illumination of thrown spells between buildings. "Come on," he said, and started towards the street at a jog, slowly down as he neared the street to peer cautiously around the corner of Gringotts. An ounce of prevention, after all, and there was no use in leaping out in the wrong place.
Rodolphus was circling, assessing his vantage points and attempting to predict when his cohorts would start apparating out. It wasn't a matter fear to him, but practicality - while he had no doubt he could take on three or four of these children, he had no desire to be left holding up against ten of them. Toward Gringott's, now, and he eyed the apparition point, wondering if that might be the wisest defense point at this stage in the game, but remained in the curve of the bank, occasionally shooting hexes back into the fray. As he turned toward his left, he caught sight of someone he never would have expected to be caught up in the middle of these shenanigans. Who could it be but his lowly clerk, Gideon Prewett? Rodolphus nearly hesitated, but instinct kept his body focused even if his brain was reeling. EXPULSO. And though somewhere in the back of his mind he decried the loss of a worthy employee, he knew this had to be done.
Lucius had shrunk into the shadows by the side of Gringotts for a moment to catch his breath. A Stupefy and an Incarcerous at a couple of the aurors he had been fighting, but he was by now mainly on the defensive. For a moment, he thought that Rodolphus' spell was directed at him, and cast the strongest shield charm he could, but moments later he had realised his mistake and spun around to his left, the prospect of new blood to spill bringing back the energy in him. Ignoring the throbbing in his arm, he raised his wand and advanced, taking care to keep to the shadows.
Oh good lord. Peaceful day at the beach, this was not, Benjy thought, and then there was no time for thinking as he shifted his grip on his wand. They'd been seen already, and he moved forward to flank Gideon with a, "Protego!" to guard against the spells heading their way. "Move forward, push them back!" he insisted, mind going bizarrely to a game of chess. You could never win when you were on the defensive, it was practically the first rule of the game. Sending out a couple of stunners, he tried to keep an eye out for anything dangerous, hoping he could do this long enough to, well, survive.
Rodolphus slashed the spells to the side, annoyed that his pursuit of Gideon had been interrupted. "Depulso," he growled, single-minded as ever and desiring only to shove Benjy out of the way so that he might hex his single opponent. He'd lost site of Jo, so fixating on the next best thing kept his attentions. This was all a game to him. A painful one - but still, just a game. Benjy would have to be punished for interrupting his plans, however, and Rodolphus send out a rather unpleasant, bone-crunching curse.
Benjy's shield didn't quite hold up under the assault of spells stronger than he'd expected, not when the bulk of it had been in front of Gideon, and he yelped sharply as something hit him in the chest. Something detached in his mind assessed the damage even as his eyes streamed with pain - broken ribs, fractured at the very least, he'd definitely be needing a Healer and they'd only been here a couple of minutes. Furious with himself, he recast the shield, using the combined anger and pain to fuel it, and sent back a, "Deprimo!" at the slightly smaller of the two dark figures closing in on them. He would not give ground, dammit.
The shield charm he cast wasn't quite quick enough, and although most of Benjy's curse was deflected, Lucius felt it graze his left elbow. 'Felt' being something of an understatement - that hurt! If the arm wasn't broken before, it certainly was now, and Lucius gritted his teeth as he raised his wand arm (fortunately still fully functional) and prepared to retaliate. Although his first reaction was to just go straight for the Avada Kedavra, the rational side of him realised that he couldn't risk it being deflected by a particularly strong shield charm, or Gringotts' own wards. "Incendio!" Nothing like setting someone on fire to make yourself feel better.
One good turn deserved another; Gideon's protego leapt in front of the sizzling hex late enough that he was sure he felt his eyebrows crisp. Now was clearly no time for concerns about personal grooming, however. Now wasn't even the time for catching your breath, apparently, just the time for casting your own blasting curses at the black-cloaked figures looming out of the night.
Stepping into stride next to Lucius, Rodolphus leveled a shielding charm between the two death eaters before aiming another curse at Gideon. He was intent upon retribution: the crime? Deception - not that Rodolphus had any right to claim his trust violated. Perhaps it was his own foolish trust in the Prewett that he felt the need to expunge. And expunge he would, with blood if need be. "CRUCIO." He would have payment for those crimes.
It seemed each shield was good for one spell only and Benjy worked furiously to keep recasting it, sending off what hexes he could in between. The two Death Eaters were still advancing, and he did not like that, not one bit - gritting his teeth, he growled out a, "Depulso!" at the larger one, furiously trying to push him back and away from Gideon. "Expulso! Petrificus Totalus!"
Lucius, blocking out the pain in his left arm the best he could, wordlessly flicked his wand. Levicorpus! Maybe he could have some fun hanging them in the air while Rodolphus finished them off. Personally, he wanted this to be over with as soon as possible. They'd fought for longer than he'd initially anticipated, and he was quite looking forward to finishing off the defenders before even more turned up.
Gideon had just hit the second m in impedimenta when the world turned upside down, and not in the amusing 'what would you do if gravity realigned itself that way?' way they used to theorise about back at school. Gideon's flailing hand brushed at Benjy's sleeve as he went up. What? Fucking levicorpus. At least the good thing about having a generally skewed outlook on the world was that it took barely a fraction of a second after that for Gideon to orient himself, twist around until he found the reflection of a mask pointed in his direction. That'd be the culprit, then - and Gid fired off the first hex he thought of, fast and non-verbal and unfortunately an itching jinx.
Holding Gideon up in the air by his ankle meant that Lucius was not able to cast a shield charm, and he took the full hit of the itching jinx. Swearing under his breath, he twisted round, forgetting about the Levicorpus he had just cast and scratching every part of himself he could reach while desperately trying to remember the counter-jinx. After a few seconds he was able to stop dancing his strange jig enough to cast the counter-spell on himself, but this lapse in time had caused him to break the original curse, sending Gideon crashing head-first for the floor.
Rodolphus's irritation at Benjy's meddling was rising to a head, and he took advantage of the boy's idiotic need to defend his friend (blind heroism would be his undoing). With a brusque depulso, the sound of Benjy slamming into the side of Gringott's didn't even warrant a second glance. He moved, instead, into the now fallen Gideon, wand held above him, taunting but unused. Why waste magic when one could instead send a swift, well-aimed kick into his side. It wasn't about power, always, but precision. It wasn't even an especially hard kick, he thought. Not like this one. Just well aimed. A tight smile pulled at him, unbidden and unseen beneath the mask. And it was enough. "Is this a dance?" He cocked a head at Lucius, vaguely amused.
Hitting the wall aggravated Benjy's broken ribs - now there was an understatement. His vision went red and then white and he cried out, a strangled noise of violent pain. He clenched his eyes shut and then attempted to climb to his feet, making it on the second try in time to see the largest Death Eater kicking Gideon where he lay on the ground. His mind was blank, he couldn't remember any spells, he didn't know what to do, so he gave in to the first thing that came to mind. "Crucio!" he hissed, free hand wrapped around his side as he shifted forward unconsciously as he aimed the curse.
The jinx had seemed like such a good idea at the time he'd fired it; it was only when gravity reasserted itself and swung the ground at Gideon that he reconsidered, flinging up an arm (also a bad idea, he realised) as everything, but mostly he, went crunch. Untangling himself was painful, but would have been even more so without the adrenaline. All he managed was to roll over onto his back, drawing up one foot to push himself up when the shadows above him coalesced into cloak-and-mask, and a boot thudded into his side. He flinched away, which just meant that the second kick impacted even harder in his back and side (ow, kidney) as Gideon gasped for breath, trying frantically to roll away and really only managing to flop over onto his front. (And cobblestones? Taste revolting.)
The second that he'd seen the spell rocketing toward the three of them, Peter had ducked for cover. It wasn't something that he was proud of, but with his dueling skills, Peter was better off cowering behind one of the fancy moldings of Gringotts rather than trying to engage the clearly much more skilled opponents and getting himself killed. However, there was one thing that he couldn't do, and that was sit there and watch his fellow Order members get slaughtered. He'd heard the crunch of bone, the sickening sound ringing in his ears, and he barreled toward Benjy, taking careful consideration to avoid getting in the way of his way as he lifted his wand and threw up a shielding spell in front of them. While offensive spells were a failing for Peter, there was very little in the way of defense that he couldn't manage.
"We're not playing by the rules of war here!" Peter exclaimed as he grabbed Benjy's sleeve to pull him back out of the open. "You are allowed to take cover. Firing spells from behind things results in less full body injury."
"Gideon--!" was Benjy's only protest, allowing Peter to drag him back behind the molding, Really, now that he was out of the line of fire, his brain was very much telling him to stay there. Well, no, his brain was telling him to flee, but Gideon was there and he was no more capable of leaving him than Peter was. There was such a long distance between them though-- Stupid, stupid, stupid, he thought suddenly, cutting himself off-- "Accio Gideon!"
Emmeline, Remus, Sirius, Agnes, Marlene vs. Marius, Rabastan, Amycus, NPC (next to 30)
Remus heard the screams before he could see Agnes and Marlene, and a twisting, nausiating feeling of fear settled somewhere in his gut. The most he could hope from hearing that was, at least, that they were not dead, but that thought didn't calm him down much; they were still in pain. "Padfoot, this way!" Remus glanced at Sirius to make sure he was following, before he took off running towards the sound of screams, rounding the corner to see the group of Death Eaters that were standing around them. The sight filled him with anger -- could the Death Eaters be any more pathetic than to gang up on two women like they were? Granted, they were Marlene and Agnes, so they were certainly not just ordinary women to fight against. However, there was no time to dwell on these thoughts, and Remus put his rage to use, pointing his wand at the Death Eater who was torturing Agnes and snarled, "diffindo!" He didn't care where on the Death Eater the cutting spell struck, so long as it was effective enough to stop him.
What the hell was that? Screaming was generally not a good idea. Well, they'd been wondering what they were going to do to find Marlene and Agnes so the scream was a good start. He sped off close on Remus' heels, thinking he probably had better hearing and it would be a lot quicker just to follow him. What he saw was a bunch of girls trying to hold their own against the odds. Well, they could change that, couldn't they? It stood to reason that where ever Agnes and Marlene were was where the party was. Leaving Remus to help Agnes, he shot a freezing charm charm at one of the casters little friends.
Agnes lay near Marlene, bits of brick shattered across her, Marlene, the road, the heavens - whatever the hell else there was in the blast radius that hadn't protected itself. As if being smashed with bricks wasn't enough, she was halfway through a damned cruciatus curse, and it was more than obvious to those approaching that she wasn't taking it well. Screams rang out against the ground, against brick and occasionally against Marlene as she writhed, arched, and choked on a mixture of agony and bitter anger. You knew it was bad when Agnes couldn't pronounce "fuck you, you capitalist bastards" - and so she had to content herself with mindless shrieking until the owner of the crucio decided to knock it the hell off.
Despite the injuries he had already sustained from the battle, the pain that he was acutely aware of, Rabastan Lestrange was smiling, not smirking, but smiling. He was surprised how much he was actually enjoying this - watching Agnes smashed with bricks, withering, and screaming in pain. She deserved this, for everything she ever said about Rodolphus. She deserved this for being on the wrong side of the fight. She deserved this for being an obnoxious bint that didn't know how a proper lady should act. She disgusted him, and the fact that Rabastan held her under a cruciatus curse was a cause to celebrate. There was a voice in his head telling him to use the killing curse now, while he had the chance, but the bottom line was that Rabastan didn't want it to be over quick and painless. He wanted her to suffer. He wanted her to regret ever crossing them, and he wanted to instill a fear so great in her that if she lived she would think twice before broadcasting slander and accusing his friends and family of being Death Eaters. Granted, it was true, but that fact was irrelevant.
Rabastan's biggest mistake of the night was forgetting about the rest of the world whilest he crucioed Agnes. Forgetting to be alert and aware of others around them, a mistake that he would not be quick to forgive himself of later. He knew better, but found himself so caught up in his anger and hatred toward Agnes that the rest of the world no longer seemed there. It was just him and the screaming bird.
The impact of the blasting hex had slammed Marlene into the ground, the decimated wall showering down on top of them in in exploded pieces with her wand hidden somewhere in the rubble. She struggled to pull herself up off the ground out of the sea of shattered brick, climbing shakily onto her bruised hands and knees as she fished around in the debris for her wand in a mad panic, knowing that it had to be buried somewhere nearby. Marlene had barely been off the ground for a moment when the cruciatus curse began shooting through Agnes next to her, all the while with Marlene frozen and staring in horror. Shit, no. No no no, not that curse, not on Agnes, where the FUCKING FUCK WAS HER WAND?
Instead, Marlene found herself face to face with another brick as she was knocked off balance and into the ground again by Agnes, who was still thrashing about and shrieking under the curse. 'STOP IT! STOP IT YOU FUCKING SHITHEAD ARSEWIPE! LEAVE HER THE FUCK ALONE!' Marlene screamed angrily at the Death Eater as she continued flailing about desperately in search of her wand, disgusted that she couldn't even hear herself yell over the sound of all the pain Agnes was in.
It hit her (ironically, just after practically being bludgeoned to death by a ton of bricks) a moment later that the reason she hadn't heard herself crying out had nothing to do with Agnes's screaming. Oh. Fuck. She was bleeding like a stuck pig, she couldn't find where her fucking wand was, and now she couldn't even bloody scream for someone else to come help them (not that Agnes wasn't plenty loud enough to alert the masses). Who the hell silencios people in battle?? What were they, TWELVE? Marlene didn't have the slightest idea as to what the fuck to do, but she wasn't about to sit by helplessly while that vile monster tortured her best friend to death. Knowing there wasn't time to waste trying to dig for her wand (or even how well she'd manage trying to perform silent spells with her arm all ripped up by dark magic), finally began heaving stray bricks at the Death Eater with all her might with both hands, praying that something would hit him hard enough to cause him to stop the crucio.
"Shit." This was followed by a groan as Emmeline picked herself off the ground; a small gash had appeared near her collar where the Severing Charm the Death Eater she had been duelling caught her. The warm trickle of blood soaking into her robes made her fully aware just how much damage it could have inflicted if she hadn't ducked into the cramped back-alley between Florean Fortescue's and the Magical Menagerie. Hazarding a glance from her cover, she saw it was relatively safe for her to wander out. The minutes after she Apparated into Diagon Alley had not been kind to her: a poorly aimed Blasting Curse had sent her flying into a wall, which therefore rendered Emmeline dazed, in pain and suitably incensed. The partial cover of the alley had given her a few moments to compose herself, distance herself from the oddly distorted sounds of yelling and muffled bangs as spells hit targets, and that was when she heard the screams.
The simmering anger Emmeline felt was replaced by horror as blood drained from her flushed face. It was a woman. And by the sound of it, it wasn't too far. Emmeline at first slowly made her way north of Diagon Alley before the screaming reached such a pitch that she abandoned all caution and set off in a sprint. There was a spark of fury when she saw the Death Eater looming over two figures on the ground, the smaller one screaming and writhing in pain. So much for fucking fair play, she thought in disgust. Emmeline could see by the faint moonlight that it was Marlene was on the ground next to Agnes' writhing figure, groping around in search for something. The anger that had temporarily left her when she was searching for the source of the screaming had come back in full force. Emmeline wanted nothing more than to cause the same amount of pain and torture upon the Death Eater.
"NO," she snarled as she approached them, not bothering whether or not her warning was heard. Emmeline’s wand was already outstretched as she racked her mind for a hex. Another Blasting Curse wouldn’t help them, seeing how close everyone were. This had to be precise. Her anger was threatening to break loose, for her to abandon all reason and sense but a small voice in Emmeline's head told her to calm herself. The Death Eater was in her wand's range now and a split-second decision later, she yelled, "Impedimenta!"
Remus was in no mood for play fair against these Death Eaters, considering, and he wasn't about to wait turns to cast another spell. Between Emmeline joining the fray, and Marlene lobbing bricks at the Death Eater, this shouldn't be too hard to get them out of. Taking a chance while Rabastan was being bombarded with other attacks, Remus attempted to close in on Agnes and Marlene so he could have an easier time of protecting them from anymore spells -- Merlin, they certainly looked like they've seen better days. Once he got closer to the girls, trying to put himself between them and their opponents, Remus threw another cutting hex at Rabastan, immediately followed by a shield spell. Backing up a few steps closer to Agnes and Marlene, Remus kept his eyes forward should another spell come their way, but turned his head just slightly to ask, "can either of you stand up?" There was no sense in asking if they were alright; he'd already seen the damage that had been done.
The curse lifted and Agnes felt some pain spill out of her muscles, her joints, her everything - but she was trembling as she saw a familiar face, and tears sprung to her eyes in relief. "Remus." Her voice quavered and she struggled to lift a hand, determined that, should he help her, she would bloody well stand. "Thank you, thank you," and by Merlin, she was grateful that friends had arrived, because she didn't know how much longer she could have taken it. Taking his hand when he offered it, she hoisted herself to her feet with his help, unsure of where her knees and ankles were but managing to balance atop them long enough to say "help Marly, I'm fine" - which was, perhaps, the biggest load of tripe this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Marlene continued attempting to heave chunks of brick and mortar at the Death Eater with her right hand even after the curse on Agnes let up, (the pieces mostly falling right back into the rubble less than two feet away, her aim thrown off course both from the pain and an untrained arm), her entire left side feeling cold and numb and still oozing out just as rapidly as before. Trying to blink back a wave of nausea, the noise of the battle all sounding very far away (maybe the shield charm had a sound-proofer on it!), Marlene noticed Remus help Agnes struggle to her feet out of the corner of her eye. She did manage to hear Agnes's blatant lie of "help Marly, I'm fine," though, and pushing her hair back away off her face -- oh look at that, apparently her nose was bleeding now too, fantastic -- glared up at Agnes, and was half way through snapping "oh fuck you, you are not," when she realized once again that there was no sound coming out.
Huffing a silent scream of frustration, Marlene furiously shook her head no -- then stopped, because that brought on another wave of freezing-cold dizziness -- she was fine, she could get up herself. ...Or maybe not, she realized, as she snatched hold of Remus a split second before falling back to the ground to pull herself up. Oh, and there was her wand, shockingly unsnapped, considering the reason she hadn't been able to uncover it before was because Agnes had been thrashing about on top of it. Struggling to pick it up with her numb left hand while still using Remus as a support, Marlene sighed and switched her the wand to her right arm, doubting she'd even be able to feel it if the wand slipped from the other.
Once Remus was sure Agnes was on her feet (and would stay that way when he let go of her), he turned his attention to Marlene who seemed intent on standing up on her own -- but he was ready to catch her when she began to fall, helping her to stay on her feet. It was hard not to notice Marlene's silence, espeically when she tried to say something to Agnes, and yet Remus couldn't hear a thing. (Well, there was a first time for everything, right?) Now was not the time for jokes, however, and Remus held onto Marlene's arm as she continued to use him for support when she bent to pick up her wand. Once she was standing again, he cast finite incantatem on her, giving her the ability to speak again.
He'd spent too much time helping the girls, however, and didn't notice the spells coming at him -- Death Eaters, it seemed, did not care about shooting a man in the back. Luckily the shield Remus had thrown up blocked one of the spells, but the red light of the stunner destroyed what protection he had set up, leaving the three of them vulnerable once again. There were two other spells coming toward them cast from Marius and Rabastan, but Remus only had time enough to turn around -- not enough time to cast another shield. Noticing Marlene was in the crossfire, Remus swiftly moved in the way of both curses to block them; the first to hit was sectumsempra, and he gasped in shock from the pain as blood began to quickly seep from several deep slashes over his body. The first spell did not compare to the second curse to hit him, and this time he cried out, vision blurring and legs giving out from beneath him as the Cruciatus Curse took it's toll.
Agnes tumbled down as her crutch was hit by two spells, and she gasped as blood spilled out over Remus's front. She was exhausted, but she wasn't useless - and she pushed her wand into his chest, mumbling out mixed apologies and healing spells. Thank Merlin Sirius was there to get Marius and Rabastan off their asses or there might have been some serious (haha get it?) problems what with the blood and torture and all. She wasn't clear-headed enough to heal him up properly, but her natural abilities and sheer determination provided enough to close up the wounds and ease some of the pain. "We gotta get outta here, Remus. You think you can get up?" Oh how the tables had turned. She really hoped he said yes, because she sure as fuck could not lift him on her own.
"You stupid noble idiot," Marlene whispered under her breath as she offered her hand, trying to help Remus up while also struggling to keep her own footing, which wasn't going very well at the moment (especially after nearly toppling over as Remus jumped in to play Human Shield). She was getting more and more lightheaded as each second passed, but that wasn't something that she could worry about right now. She needed to stay focused. Or at least try to stay focused, despite the pain shooting through her body not wanting to cooperate. "What the HELL, Remus?! Why would you do that. Don't you ever do that again," she scolded him, relieved at least that she could talk again, her voice shaking from both the cold and her panic as she realized the multitude of other curses that Remus could've been hit with on her account. They needed to get out of here. The Death Eaters weren't letting up, and sticking around to try to fight to the finish would almost definitely finish in their very messy, painful ends.
Thank Merlin for Agnes, Remus thought, as soon as he was able to think clearly -- he gasped in a few breaths (he hadn't even realised he'd been holding his beath in the first place) once the healing spells did their magic. It was still painful, but no longer searing and overwhelming. "Yes -- yeah, I think I can stand," he said, not quite sure if he was telling the truth, but he hoped his body would cooperate with him. With Marlene's help, Remus was back on his feet again and being scolded by one of the people he had just saved. The thought of being hit with any other curse had not even occurred to him -- it did not matter what the spell was, Remus would have jumped in front of anything if it meant protecting his friends fromharm (or even death). Despite being in the heat of the battle and having just been struck down by two curses, Remus still managed to respond to Marlene's questions with a small crack of, "I can't help it, I'm a Gryffindor."
Remus would have liked to get them all out of there at that moment, but that would mean leaving friends behind, which was something he could never do. Sirius was still there, as was Emmeline, and who knows who else would show up? No, he had to stay and fight with them. Remus intended to get Agnes and Marlene some distance away from the battle before returning, but he looked back just in time to see Marius throw a blasting charm at Emmeline -- however, the aim was slightly off, and knocked the girl off her feet. "Can you two get to safety?" he asked, stopping to turn and cast a stunning spell at Marius, which missed by only a few inches.
"You bet," Agnes replied, saluting and limping into Marlene's arms. Hey, she was less damaged, right? That meant she could play crutch until they got out of Remus's worrywart-sight.
It was just a couple of moments, not even a minute, that Emmeline turned around to see if Remus had gotten to Agnes and Marlene alright that something exploded into a nearby wall. For the second time that night, she was again knocked off her feet and fell face-down unto the ground. She heard something crack amidst the sound of falling rubble and there was a sharp stab of pain as the bridge of her nose cracked. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," Emmeline practically chanted, hysteria rising in her voice. She squeezed the bridge of her nose gingerly. Yep, definitely broke. "You bastard," she got up quickly, pointing her wand at the Death Eater who aimed the Blasting Curse, "You bloody, fucking bastard."
Anger had temporarily overridden the pain, she wanted to throw so many hexes at the masked figure that she was temporarily speechless before Emmeline finally blurted out, "Furnunculus!" Her enunciation was quite bad, especially with the blood pouring from her nostrils but she kept repeating the hex and shooting them randomly in the direction of the masked Death Eaters. Emmeline’s vision was becoming slightly blurred around the edges and was about to slip into unconsciousness when she felt Remus tug her arm. This was enough to jolt her back to her senses. Quieting down, Emmeline allowed herself to be dragged away. "Are Agbes and Marbene alrigh’?" she slurred, the blood was dripping more freely down her face now. She tried to wipe the most of it with her sleeve and continued running.
Not longer after, Sirius joined them and all three began sprinting towards the direction where Agnes and Marlene disappeared earlier.
James, Lily, Dorcas + Millicent & Edgar vs Liam, Regulus, Severus (between 5, 27, 1)
Dodging a stray hex from Millicent, Regulus cast another Shield Charm on himself. By now the adrenaline was pumping thickly through him, and with the feeling of a heightened rush, he shot a rather enthusiastic Incendio toward Edgar. Bones was always a severe source of irritation, and quite conveniently, he was on the list of people that offered an element of comfort to Regulus as they suffered -- or at least struggled.
For half a moment, Edgar had felt something of a thrill: he'd got up close and physical with an assailant, and acting like he was still nothing more than a young gun fresh out of training. He'd probably pay for it in a day or two, when his muscles got over the utter shock and realised what he'd put them through, but until then he was going to be walking on sunshine. No man was his master, and the other Aurors would be forced to bow down to his--
It suddenly got very hot, as Auror Bones' robes went up in flames. He cried out in surprise and pain, flames frazzling the small hairs on his arms. He could smell burning, and though for a horrible moment that it could be his own flesh. His wand swept down, Vanishing his robes before they could do much further damage -- but the skin on his arms and face was already pink and tender. Ignoring the fact that he was now clad only in his silk pyjamas, Edgar gritted his teeth and fired a Hurling Hex towards the short Death Eater. This had become personal, and he knew (or rather, hoped) that Millicent was know well enough to keep the other one busy enough for him to enact a little street justice.
Severus smirked to himself under his mask when Bones' robes went up in flames. That had been an excellent piece of spell work from Regulus. Noting Well Done to himself, and noting to mention it to Regulus later, Severus turned his attention to the woman and the Potters - particularly James Potter. Casting Levicorpus at the woman auror, he turned to James and threw Furnunculus towards him. It seemed almost slow motion to Severus as James moved forward, and the hex moved past him and towards Lily. Severus' eyes widened in horror as he watched the two collide. What he had intended for his one of his worst enemies, had instead hit a woman that had been one of his best friends.
Furious with himself, and horrified at the way the evening was turning out, Severus blinked back sudden tears of anger and frustration and sent a blasting hex towards Millicent. He and Regulus needed to get out of here, and they needed to get out of here quickly before he could hurt Lily further.
When Regulus saw the hex fly toward Lily, Regulus was reminded once again of the Potters and their irritating presence; as if taking a cue, Regulus tore his eyes from the satisfying picture of Bones bursting into flames and shot a series of hexes at James and Lily -- the Impediment Jinx was beginning to wear off at least very slightly, and he could not believe he had so easily been distracted from the Potters. Any chance to cause Potter and his Muggle wife any amount of pain was an opportunity to be cherished.
Blasting Lily backward into a pile of rubble, he was only just preparing a Sectumsempra for her when he suddenly heard the cry of an Expelliarmus. Before the word had fully processed in his mind, he felt his wand fly from the tight grip of his hand in a very alarming fashion. This was not good. Not good.
As if watching Lily injured wasn't cause enough to warrant Edgar's fury, his burns and the outright frustration that this battle had gone on for as long as it had with both members of the Order of the Phoenix and the DMLE present fuelled his wrath into something that, rather than causing him to become sloppy, actually made him a better warrior. The noises of the fighting around him had faded, and Millicent, James and Lily were only on the periphery of his vision: what fully occupied his attention now was the fact that the short Death Eater was entirely unarmed. Protocol dictated that, being unarmed, a simple arrest would be sufficient, but...well, unfortunately for Regulus, Edgar was in his pyjamas and a little too cold to adequately remember proper procedure.
"Diffindo!" he cried, following the relatively small-scale hex with a Boiling Jinx. The effects of that would be enough, but Edgar's wand slashed through the air: a long whip of what looked like ice issued from the tip and cracked through the air. Fighting fire with fire was something that every Auror had to be prepared for; fighting fire with ice was infinitely more satisfying.
Regulus had scarcely started to retrieve his wand when he felt an onslaught of very different but very painful hexes strike him. It was as if his arm and chest had split open, blood seeping out into the black fabric of his robes and trailing down the skin. He hated the sight, smell, excess of blood, and for that matter, he felt his own blood belonged inside of his body. Once that initial shock had lost its bite, he noticed something like a painful, burning, bubbling sensation from under his skin. He knees shook slightly, and as he took another step toward his wand, the icy whip struck him fully to the ground.
Merlin the combination was blinding, and he wanted nothing more than to curl up on the ground in the hopes that it would bring some form of relief. The fetal position sounded quite appealing, really, but he knew that he would only be surrendering himself completely and risking his chances of getting out alive if he gave up. He couldn't give up.
Sucking in a steadying breath, he started crawling and looking for the wand; he thought he had a general idea of where it was, but in the chaos, it was difficult to locate, and it was so hard to think with bleeding and blood-boiling and uncontrollable shivering coming at him at once.
"I don't think so, lad." Was it a lad under there? Edgar couldn't remember, but women didn't seem to be equally represented in their group, and the grunts of pain sounds masculine to him. It didn't matter -- if it was male, then he didn't sound very developed. His wand arm outstretched, Edgar shot another Blasting Hex towards the short upstart. He allowed himself the briefest of glances upwards as he searched the scene for Millicent's face. Not that he didn't expect her to have the situation well in hand, but it was better to be safe than crying pitifully on the floor with your blood on fire. "How's everything going on your end, Mrs Bagnold?" Bones risked a quick grin, his wand still trained. The man might have been in more than a small amount of pain, but his aim was still true.
How were things going on her end? Still trading hexes with the other one, and though she definitely approved of the handle Edgar had on affairs, that didn't stop her snapping, "Focus, Bones," nerves still making her tone clipped and her tongue sharp. She had come forward from the building, still keeping sufficient distance from Edgar to make them two targets instead of one. Hurling one more incarcerous at the taller Death Eater before returning her attention to her (perenially necessary) shields, she raised her voice (no magic, just years of hollering over a crowded hit-wizard briefing room) and shouted, "Throw down your wands and come quietly and there'll be no more rough stuff." Well, probably not, anyway.
Regulus made a bit of a huffing sound -- that last blasting hex was particularly painful on top of the rest, and he could not for the life of him find his wand. It was an extremely stressful dilemma, and he should have taken Potter out in the beginning. Now he couldn't find his wand, and he simply could not get captured.
Distress and cold frustration was just starting to prickle through him when he caught site of something flying toward Severus's hand; as soon as he could properly focus, the object revealed itself to be his wand -- a flood of something like relief flushed out a degree of the distress when he once again had it in his hands. It was time to get away, and they simply could not waste anymore time attempting to fight people off when they were outnumbered two to one.
Stumbling to his feet, Regulus limped away as quickly as possibly; he was planning to stick by Severus (as he did not feel entirely capable of defending himself alone), but when he caught sight of what he thought might be Selwyn, he slowed a bit, breaking off to the side while Severus continued on to the Apparition point. There was business to be taken care of first.