Blurred Lines Mods (blurred_mods) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-08-31 17:23:00 |
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THE FINAL BATTLE [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
The main road Indigo couldn't decide if he was scared shitless or having the time of his life. Considering he'd spent so much of that life stoned to hell and this was well beyond the confines of his typical life in Soho (which, despite the giant attacks a couple years back, had always been out of the wizarding scare loop), it was probably the latter. Still, he wasn't here out of enjoyment, and he sure as hell wasn't here to get his jollies. These bastards had killed his kid and his wife, and he wasn't going to just sit around when there was a chance of getting them. He was generally a pacficist, but sometimes even pot-smoking hippies had to stand up and fight for something, and right now that something was these death eating twats. "Oi you," he yelled, pointing to Egnorwiddle, "you want to team up, mate? Ain't safe to just be wanderin' around these places by ourselves, now, is it?" He had no idea who this fellow was, but he knew he sure as hell wasn't equipped to take on a death eater alone, so enlisting help was the best option. Egnorwiddle Belby was not quite certain what he was doing there at Hogwarts. After his sister's death and subsequent revelation that she had been a vigilante he had been angry - very angry. It was just like her, his flighty sister to go get mixed up in something stupid. She had so much potential, being Head Girl and receiving a number of NEWTS, but she squandered her life away at the post office and ended up becoming a vigilante and dying before reaching thirty. It was easier for him to be mad about it, and when he later found out that his younger brother, too, was a vigilante too, well, irate did not begin describe it. The more he read in the papers and the more lies that had been revealed in the last month, though, his anger turned to worry and fear, and by the time he heard the WWN broadcast calling wizards and witches to arms, he kissed his wife and son goodbye (despite Dorothy's protests) and headed to Hogwarts. After all, despite how much he disagreed with them, at the end of the day his siblings were still his siblings and he did not want to lose another. Damocles had always been a useless sod when it came to charms, at least compared to Egnorwiddle. "All right," Egnorwiddle agreed, secretly rather glad he would have someone to watch his back. Judging from the look of the man, the eldest Belby did not expect him to live through the battle - he was likely somewhat simple - but perhaps Egnorwiddle's presence and quick-wits could help the man and save his life. Now, of course, they just needed to find a Death Eater. He wasn't sure who they were, but Egnorwiddle knew he would be able to identify one on sight. It probably would have been much easier for Egnorwiddle to go Death Eater Identifying had this been a year ago, when the Death Eaters were still in danger of being arrested if discovered, thus prompting them to do the Dark Lord's work under a mask. Secrecy didn't matter anymore, though, not when they were the ones running the government. Egnorwiddle was also likely expecting said Death Eaters to be men, not girls who had only just reached their second decade of life. Corbina moved down the main road, firing off spells at anyone she came across who she didn't recognize as one of their own, but was presently a bit more concerned for her own self-preservation. She didn't want to go charging into a fight against someone who would best her right away. The two older men she came across first weren't people she recognized, but she was hesitant to start casting unforgivables straight away when there were two of them, and neither at all injured yet. Ducking behind a nearby tree, Corbina turned her wand towards the men, casting "Sectumsempra!" and a blasting curse in their direction. Indigo reacted quickly for a man who'd spend most of his life (and this week) stoned off his head, and his armed snapped out to push the stranger he was walking with out of the way of the spell. He could have sworn that the attacker was a girl, but as a militant feminist, he didn't see this as much of a problem. Maybe he was a bit startled that the big boy's club had let a lady in, but hell maybe they could have come round to sanity and realised that women were just as good at fighting as men, especially where magic was concerned! He almost wanted to congratulate the girl for having the balls to stand up to the oppressive male patriarchy. Instead, he sent two successive blasting curses in her direction, complete with a FUCK to seal the deal. Egnorwiddle, on the other hand, was not nearly as quick on the uptake and had he not been pushed aside, he would likely have been in a great deal of pain. Instead he just landed on rear end, and a moment later he pulled himself to his feet, looking around for the young woman who had just hexed him. "Hey wait miss!" he yelled to Corbina, "you've got it all wrong! We're not Death Eaters - we're on your side!" If they weren't Death Eaters, then they certainly were not on Corbina's side as the younger of the two men seemed to believe, but she still lowered her wand slightly, conjuring up a shield charm rather than throwing any more hexes at the two. If they believed that they were on the same side, that could certainly be used to Corbina's advantage. "I... what if this is a trick?" she called to them, using the "almost on the verge of tears" voice she'd perfected from years of observing Mrs. Burke throw hissyfits. Indigo looked a bit surprised at the voice coming from behind the tree, and was both suspicious and worried. He hoped he hadn't just blasted a lady on their side -- but he also didn't know why she would have sent such a nasty dark spell towards them if she was actually part of the Ordery whatsit his kid kept going on about. But how the hell was she supposed to prove who she was? Or how were they supposed to, for that matter? "Well uh," he started, trying to think and finding it a bit more difficult than he remembered. "Come out with your wand up, then, and let's take a good look atcha, yeah? I mean look at us, lady, we ain't got hoody robes on or nothin' like that!" Corbina didn't put her wand up -- she wasn't an idiot -- but continued to only cast a shield spell around herself as she stepped out from her hiding place. Surely these warriors of mudblood virtue or whatever could appreciate a young girl attempting to simply protect herself (and this would save her from any potential stray curses that might fly Corbina's way undetected). "I'm so sorry that I tried to hex you before, I thought you were going to try and kill me." Egnorwiddle breathed a sigh of relief. It would be horrible to mistake someone for the enemy in a situation such as this - it could end up being deadly. "Don't you fret, missy, " he said to her, motioning for her to join them. "You just come over here now. We'll look out for you." Goodness, she looked so young. And... quite attractive too, even if she was ridiculously tall. He pushed that thought out of his head though; it was a bit inappropriate and she probably knew his siblings. "You shouldn't be here," he told her, "you're too young. Let the rest of us beat those bloody good-for-nothing Death Eaters and wipe out their whole families like they did to us." "Miss Lestrange," Seraphina shouted from her spot several yards away. She couldn't believe that Corbina was standing so close to people who were obviously the enemy. Surely her assistance was needed. She was not exactly privy to many of the battle spells that the Death Eaters used, but she had her own -- occasionally useful -- form of magic that she could find some way with which to retaliate. She wasn't about to let some poor woman be accosted simply because she couldn't think of anything clever enough to help. "Engorgio!" she said, pointing her wand toward the nearest of the two men. Bugger. Corbina's amusement that she had these two buffoons drawn into her plan, thinking she was on their side, very quickly drained away as she heard Seraphina call her name out across the field. Even if they didn't automatically put the pieces together that she was a death eater, her surname was enough cause anyone to immediately deduce which side she was fighting on. Not pausing to wait for either of the men to turn on her, Corbina slashed her wand in the older of the two's direction first, casting a blasting curse, and then switched up her aim to focus on the pompuous one's throat. "Angor!" Indigo stared open-mouthed as Corbina's cover was blown, and all he could think about was what a twatty little bint she was and how he knew he shouldn't have been taken in by a woman acting helpless and how utterly male chauvinist it was and -- ow mother of fuck his leg had just been blown up to the size of a large dog. Falling over with a loud grunt of pain, he narrowly missed a blasting curse (though he was halfway wishing he could blast off this damned useless leg), and, after realising he couldn't even get up with the weight of it, lay on his back and cast a knee-reversal jinx at Corbina. Not his best work, but what the hell. Egnorwiddle, once again last in everything, had barely the time for it to register in his mind that this girl standing next to him now was a Lestrange before he found that he suddenly couldn't breathe and he dropped to his knees, his face feeling hot and his head light. He had to do something quickly - and nonverbally - and he cast the first spell that came into his mind at Corbina, the one that turned the other person into a canary for about ten seconds. Corbina's attention had been completely focused on the Throat Compression Curse, and in such, had unfortunately been unable to concentrate a shield spell around herself at the same time. Then suddenly everything seemed to happen at once: Indigo's knee-reversal hex missed, but only because Corbina's knees suddenly weren't where the man had been aiming. Her wand fell from her hand as it was quickly morphed into a wing, and her entire self was transfigured into a very small, very confused canary. The tiny bird flapped in the air for a few seconds, looking extraordinarily tiny and out of place on the battlefield, before the canary went shooting as though it had been Oppugnoed into Egnorwiddle's eye. Almost as quickly as she'd gone all birdy, the transfiguration lost its effect and Corbina popped back out of the spell, landing on top of him. At the appearance of a canary where Corbina had previously been standing, Sera had taken several steps backward away from the pair -- she was not eager, by any stretch of the imagination, to spend the rest of her life or even an instant as a bird. If her family ignored her existence now, she could not imagine how she would fare as some sort of pesky little yellow beast. Though she was somewhat relieved when Corbina reappeared from her bird form, she wasn't about to leave her to deal with these two mongrels herself, not that she would be able to offer her very much assistance. Pointing her wand toward the men, she found herself stumbling over the incantations -- "Impervius, no, that's not it...Scourgify!" Indigo raised his wand to get another spell off, this time on the bitch who'd made his leg look like something out of a bad acid trip; but he'd barely gotten his mouth open before it was filled with soap suds, and he sputtered and choked, and the blasting curse he'd been concentrating so hard on backfired, tearing through his better hand and a good chunk of his arm. Holy shit, that was not the plan. Not the plan at all. And now he was drenching himself with blood and staring on as if watching a bad film at the cinema. It didn't even hurt, he was so shocked, but that didn't last long, and when he grabbed his wand away from the stump with his other hand, he screamed in sudden pain. Fuck, all he wanted to do was go home and smoke weed, why the hell did he choose a blasting curse, fuck his life. Fuck everything. "CONFRINGO," he screamed, pointing his wand somewhere in the direction of one of the girls. Merlin, he just wanted to roll over and die -- except the dying part was where he objected. Egnorwiddle, too, was screaming, his eye feeling like it had been pecked out (and perhaps it had, he couldn't actually see out of it) and now he was on the ground, his wand arm twisted and pinned very uncomfortably underneath him. "G'roff me," he growled, his words slightly unintelligible with his face shoved half into the grass. "Ow, please," he cried, not at all used that much pain. He thrashed about, kicking at the air, the only thing he could do, trying to get his arm out so he could use his wand. Leave it to a Travers to whip out cleaning spells on the battle field. Corbina wasn't going to question it, though; the spell had been effective against her opponent, and that was what was really important. Indigo's Confrigo, though, along with Egnorwiddle's flailing knocked Corbina off of the latter, sending her tumbling in the opposite direction. Twisting up off the ground, Corbina aimed her wand at the man who'd blown off his own arm, shooting "Ossisverso" at the fellow's remaining appendage, then turned her attention back to Egnorwiddle. "Please what?" she asked after rising to her feet, kicking his wand out of Egnorwiddle's reach. Sera jumped back, out of the way of the first man's Blasting Curse -- but they couldn't have in doing that the whole time, could they? She certainly didn't want to thrown on her rear -- that was hardly proper. With a flick of her wand at Indigo, she cast a Sewing Charm in hopes of either sewing his fingers together or his mouth shut or anything that might make his little spells a bit harder to cast. Indigo was not having a good night. No, he was having a damned atrocious night and though he appreciated that two girls were able to wallop his pants off, he rather wanted them back now. Flailing to get away from the thin girl's curse, he managed only to take it to the back, followed by Sera's sewing charm, which found the first open seam and stitched it up. Unfortunately for Indigo, that opening happened to be his mouth. With a hushed cry of pain and silent flails of agony as his back crunched and twisted and did John Lennon knew what other unmentionable things, he clung to his wand and cast the only spell he could do nonverbally: a burrowing spell (don't ask). With uncharacteristic cowardliness, he pointed the spell right at the ground and then dove into the tunnel it created, leaving Egnorwiddle to face the two harpies alone. This wasn't good, Egnorwiddle realised as he looked up at the girl - the Death Eater - who had just kicked his wand away and was standing right in font of him. He was afraid to move even an inch less she do something horrible to him, and for the first time in his life he felt pure and unadulterated fear. For the first time in his life, he realised that someone using an Unforgivable on him was a real possibility and he wondered why in the world his sister and his brother had willingly stayed with an organisation in which the fear of pain and death was never-ending. He was glad he didn't have the time to think in depth about his sister's death and what it must have been like for her. He wasn't sure he could fully handle it, and for the first time in his life - in this moment of so many firsts - he realised that maybe his two younger siblings had known something about life that he didn't. "Please don't hurt me," he said, knowing how pathetic it was for him to say that, but he had a son at home and a wife who would kill him if he left her to raise Marcus alone. "Please just let me go home to my family." Corbina wasn't particularly moved by the man's pleas. He had a family. Lovely. So did several of the people fighting on their side who'd been murdered simply for having a cause to fight for. She considered, briefly, using the man for spell experimentation -- there were some spells that Corbina knew the incantations to, and had studied, but they weren't exactly things that a person could practice on one's fellow Death Eaters considering the damage that would result. However, this wasn't the time for it. Most of those spells took so much concentration that Corbina wouldn't have been able to focus on keeping her shield charm up. And she wasn't Bellatrix -- Corbina didn't particularly want to torture the fellow. She just had a job to do. "What's your name?" she asked him, only waiting a few seconds for him to try to answer before she cast "Avada Kedavra" to silence him forever. "Egnorw-" The word, his name, had barely left his lips when he saw the flash of green and suddenly the fear and the worry were gone. He felt guilt for just one short moment, guilt for leaving his wife and son, guilt for being so angry at his siblings for what they were trying to do, but soon even that was gone. If there was one good thing about being dead, it was that he did not have to feel the regret. Iago was more than tired of the vigilantes, far beyond the short threshold of patience that he possessed -- and that the Dark Lord was dead, that Severus Snape had betrayed him all only added more fuel to his rage. They had trusted him. The Dark Lord had trusted him, and this was how the mudblood would repay them? How had he not noticed? He wanted to kill Snape with his bare hands; the Killing Curse would be far too kind for what he deserved. The Death Eaters had scrambled every which way as the gates onto Hogwarts ground had been opened, and Iago was casting spells at everyone who was not a Death Eater that he could see -- stunning spells, killing curses, and silencing spells at the younger ones to inhibit their abilities to fight. As he passed by the Quidditch pitch along the main road he spotted a familiar figure, one he remembered fighting in the first attack on the Rehabilitation Centre -- and with a snarl he pointed his wand toward Moody. "Avada Kedavra!" Having been an Auror for however many years (Moody wasn't vain enough to keep tally mark notches in his belt), Moody had gained an uncanny ability to detect the Killing Curse. Maybe it was that, or the fact that his magical eye saw the flash of green before it could come close enough to be harmful, but either way, he was able to move out of the way with a few quick steps. He didn't recognise the deliverer of the curse, but it was difficult when he was so far away and hooded, but that was easily remedied. "Accio Death Eater!" he said with a flick of his wand, not waiting to see if his opponent could somehow keep himself planted before delivering several Blasting Curses in his direction. Lavinia was racing through the battlefield far more quickly than a young lady of her calibre ought, in search of Gaius. She was supposed to be staying with the women so that she could help heal whomever needed it, but her primary concern was her brother's well being and everyone else could be damned right now. She wasn't even sure what she was running past, mind too cluttered with fears about whether he was getting hurt to notice the death and carnage littering her surroundings. Unaware, at least, until a blasting curse caught her in the leg and sent her bowling over with a squeal of pain. Tears were in her eyes as she crawled a few paces forward and tried to look at her leg. Blood. She shuddered and shied away from it, able to bear the pain easier than the sight of her otherwise extremely feminine leg spattered with crimson and bits of her torn dress. Her eyes widened as she forced them upwards, realising that Mr Mulciber was engaged with a terrorist, and she struggled to pull herself together so that she could heal herself and help him (an entirely laughable concept). Iago was pulled several feet forward before a quick finite ended the summoning spell as he stumbled to a stop. There was someone else entering the area, but he reacted to self-preservation first, the blasting curses exploding into small flashes of light as he deflected them with shield charms. He recognised the injured girl on the ground as he glanced over, and with no small amount of irritation, he threw a shield charm over in her direction. Why was she not remaining with the other women? He swept his wand back toward Moody again, retaliating with several blasting curses of his own, followed by a silent angor. The appearance of the girl had not gone unnoticed by Moody either, who simply scowled in her direction -- why was she there anyway? -- before turning his attention back to the Death Eater, whose Blasting Curses he blocked with Shield Charms. The second curse caught him by surprise and he took a few steps backward as he felt the tightening around his throat along with the alarming inability to breathe. It was fortunate that he was able to cast silent curses, since there was no possible way he could have pronounced the curses accurately in his condition. Holding a hand to his throat, he waved his wand toward the Death Eater, ignoring Lavinia for the time being, and cast as vicious an Incendio as he could manage before turning his wand to himself, eyes watering from the lack of air, and casting finite so that he could once again fill his lungs. Another shield charm blocked the fire spell, but Iago was forced to take several steps backwards -- only to place one foot upon a false ground, and he tumbled backwards with surprise into a deep hole in the ground. But he did not land on dirt; instead, he fell upon a large, muscled mass of fur that roared as heavy weight crushed down on top of it, and the tigers' reflexes were too fast for the startled Death Eater and Iago was welcomed into the feline's pit with razor-like claws tearing across his chest. "Imperio!" The spell was cast upon reflex, but it was well enough to save Iago's throat from being torn out -- the tiger immediately stopped, remaining still as Iago used the wall of the pit to stand back up. Controlling the mind of an animal was easier than a human, but different -- Iago had to keep the orders simple for the best results. He instructed the tiger to attack Moody before he levitated the beast out of the pit first, using it to distract the other man long enough to get himself out of the hole in the ground, transfiguring footholds into one of the walls to climb out. Moody almost laughed to himself once Iago had fallen into the hole in which he knew a tiger was likely very, very hungry and hopefully ready for the task of tearing him limb from limb. He ignored the girl near the two of them, particularly when the tiger made its appearance above ground. He was not versed in the Imperious Curse, so he could not even begin to try and remedy what Iago had done to it. Instead, he cast a Shield Charm and tried to push the tiger back into its pit with a Deprimo before he paid any attention to the Death Eater himself. "Avada Kedavra" he he shouted, hoping that his opponent would be too distracted with the tiger to dodge it. Lavinia cried out as Iago fell backwards, and with a look of horror, she realised what was IN the pit he'd disappeared into. Was that a tiger? A real one? She'd only seen tigers in books and they certainly looked much friendlier than this beast! Moving as carefully forward as she could, she assured herself that Mr Mulciber was getting himself out all right before casting a very quick "episkey" on him and trying very hard not to imagine what that horrid beast had done to him in such a short time. The tiger tumbled backwards as it was hit with the spell, clawing frantically at the ground to keep itself from falling back into the pit, cutting deep gouges into the dirt and grass. Any other tiger may have been frightened from the invisible force that pushed him back, but under the Imperius Curse, it had no choice but to continue to carry out its orders and run toward Moody again, leaping once it was close enough to pounce. Iago was out of breath once he'd pulled himself up and out of the pit, and he felt the tingling of a healing charm working its magic on the gashes across his chest; grateful for the aid as he was, the middle of a battle was no time for pleasantries or 'thank you's -- especially not when your opponent was throwing Killing Curses. He stepped aside as the green light rushed past him, and with a hard flick of his wand as the tiger began to leap, vines sprung up from the ground around Moody's legs to ensnare him in place. With a growl to match the tiger's, Moody's first inclination was to step out of its path until he could eliminate the stupid beast, but Iago's vines held him firmly in position. It wasn't how he would have preferred the scenario to unfold, but with a slash of his wand across the air, he cast Sectumsempra and a Blasting Curse in the tiger's direction. Without stopping to untangle himself, he turned his attention to the Death Eater -- he'd show this bastard what happened when people sent others to do their dirty work for them. Literally. Conjuring a swarm of wasps, Moody sent it toward Iago. Only then did he stop to eviscerate the vines around his ankles. A shield spell could only do so much to protect Iago, the wasps too small and too large in number as they swarmed around him; he pointed his wand at small groups, wasps bursting into a pale straw-coloured goo as he threw spells at them -- but many were still getting by to sting his arms, neck, and face. It was taking too long; Iago created a shield around his body, weaving the tip of his wand through the magical barrier to set the outside of it aflame and burning the wasps as they tried to get near. He slashed his wand in front of himself before pushing forward, the fire shield expanding around him before exploding forth in a wall of flames. At the flames coming toward him, Moody only groaned and adjusted his robes over his peg leg -- he couldn't afford for that shit to get burned up. He only had one. Keeping his magical eye on the tiger, lest it somehow manage to pounce him again in spite of its injuries, Moody cast a Flame-Freezing Charm on the wall of fire that was only inches from washing over him. And then he stood tall against it, waiting for it to pass over him before he retaliated with a Stunner, Blasting Curse and Killing Curse in tandem. Then he paused to wipe away the gooey remnants of the wasps. Livi lay watching in horror behind the tiger trap. She knew she should move or hide or do something, but she just stared agape at the spells these two men were throwing at each other. A few wasps came her way, but she lay very still, whimpering as she was stung and trying hard not exasperate them or let Moody notice her. The appearance of the killing curse had her pressing herself as hard against the ground as she was able, hands flying over her head. She wished Gaius was here. No. She wished she and Gaius were at home. And she wished she was sewing. Or baking. Or doing anything but hiding in the dirt while two men (one of whom she respected terribly) beat the hell out of each other. The tiger, which had collapsed in a heap after hit by Moody's spells, did not seem as if it would be getting back up anytime soon; the pool of blood beneath it was growing rapidly, its only movements were slight twitches of muscle as life drained from his weakening body. The stunning spell and blasting curse were easily cast aside, and Iago summoned the half-dead tiger in front of himself to block the Killing Curse -- and the creature slumped lifelessly in the air as the green light struck. With a swift movement of his wand, he send the corpse flying through the air toward Moody, followed by a silent incendio to set the body aflame. And this time, Moody had no clever tricks up his sleeve to protect himself from the blunt, flaming force coming at him. He could have used a Blasting Curse or a Shield Charm or anything, really, but a moment's hesitation cost him and he found himself sliding on his back beneath a five hundred pound tiger. To say that his breath had been knocked out of him was an understatement -- it was practically impossible for him to even take a breath, and the heat of the flames on the opposite side of it were causing him to break out in a full sweat. Trying to manoeuvre his wand beneath it, he cast Evanesco and immediately, the pressure was relieved. Air flooded into his lungs and through watery eyes, he glared up at the Death Eater and snarled the incantation for the Killing Curse -- again. Iago sidestepped another stream of green light, wand raised to continue the battle -- and then he heard the summons for a retreat and scowled. He twisted his wand around in a small circle in front of himself, conjuring a liquid ball of acid that he had used in defending the Rehabilitation Centre the first time before sending the green liquid toward Moody in a large wave. While he tried to protect himself from the acid, Iago cast shield charms on both himself and, when he turned his back on Moody to face Lavinia, he cast the other on her as he strode toward her. "Get up -- back to the triage tents," he ordered, wasting no time in the retreat. The acid would not keep the auror distracted for long. Lavinia got to her feet as quickly as she could -- no will or even desire to disobey a direct order; whatever small wounds she had made no difference and Mr Mulciber was still alive and, relatively, unhurt. They would go back to the tents and maybe she could find Gaius. Maybe he would be all right. Hurrying ahead of Iago, Lavinia gave a tentative glance backwards at Moody before breaking into a full run. Ladies do not run, she could hear her mother shrilling, but right now Lavinia was not a lady, she was just a girl who wanted to make it back to her brother. As they had anticipated, the acid did not keep Moody distracted for long, though he did find it a slight bit more difficult to handle lying down than he might have were he standing. On the off chance that Shield Charm would not work -- or would be eaten away by the acid itself, Moody transfigured the ball into water and let it splash him. He needed to cool off anyway. And by then, the two were already taking off and he was too tired and in need of a deep breath to bother with chasing after them. With any luck, they'd run into some one along the way who would make quick work of them and be done with it. As for him, it was back to the castle -- the Death Eaters all seemed to be retreating and that meant they needed to plan their next move. Onward and upward, &etc.! Wandering around, Graley looked around him, stepping and turning, feeling his knee pop and he winced a little bit. He was getting too old to do this, he should be sitting back at home, with a nice bottle of scotch and letting the young ones do all of the fighting. They were expendable, children grew up every day, people didn't live to be his age everyday. He wasn't expendable, at least this was the way that he saw it. He shifted, beginning to head towards a part that seemed rather empty, he would stay away, everyone else seemed to have a good grasp on things, he would help when needed. No point in diving head first into the fight. Aberforth was more than ready for this fight. His weeks in the rehabilitation centre had given him a close personal view of the depths the Death Eaters were willing to sink to and the deaths that had occurred while he'd been out of touch had angered him beyond belief. Especially little Neville's death. That was unforgivable. he had summoned up all the anger and indignation the events of the last few months had caused and was currently using it to ignore his aging body. He would grumble that he was too damn old to be out fighting battles but he doubted anyone would believe him. He had decided on his targets though. The older ones. The senior Death Eaters. He'd heard what had happened to the Death eaters and he applauded the idea and had decided to run with it. If you wanted to kill a snake, you cut off its head. He saw an older man edging away from the battle and snorted. There was a good start. He aimed his wand at the man and barked, "Expelliarmus!" Graley hadn't been paying attention, but as soon as he heard the yelled spell he threw up a shield charm without thinking about it, years of practice and being on the defensive making it easier to do it without a word as he turned a little bit too quickly, hearing his back crack and he winced a little bit, before spotting who the person was. It wasn't a face hard to miss, he knew it, he'd drunk at the man's pub before all of this had started, but his name still escaped him. "Confringo!" he shot back, never one to beat around the bush, wand pointed straight at the other man. Abe snorted and gave a flourishing flick of his wand that sent the curse flying into the air harmlessly then immediately regretted his action as a muscle twinged and twisted in his side, sending pain shooting up his body and down his leg. He winced and yanked his arm back down in a hurry which thankfully eased the pain immediately. When he cast his next spell, he was much more circumspect. "Turning into an old crock," he muttered under his breath before barking, "Deprimo!" Graley had to twist out of the way for that one, the half formed curse knocking him back a couple of steps and he was not supposed to move like that anymore, his body sore as his back cracked more times than it should have. He twisted back around, perhaps a little bit slowly and he raised his wand. "Incendio," he said followed by a silent Silencio Abe raised a shield as the fire came sweeping towards him, letting it wash over him. He'd have swept the flames away except his side was still feeling a little ginger as he wanted to give it time to settle. He then pointed his wand at the Death Eater but his tripping jinx ended up at only half strength when he found himself unable to speak the spell aloud. He snorted and turned his wand on his throat to Finite the Silencio then followed that up with a barked, "Furnunculus" Graley was glad when his spell seemed to work, even for a little bit. It was something, gave him a chance to take a deeper breath. This was not as easy as it had been before. He cast a shield charm, the spell hitting it and making him grunt a little bit, a bit of the spell washing over his arm and causing boils to break out on his forearm and they hurt, but this was not as hard as he thought it would be. "Impedimenta!" he said sharply, voice a little louder than usual and he followed it up with a finger-removing jinx., Abe wasn't able to duck out of the way of the Impedimenta and it knocked him down. He went down in a flurry of robes and long limbs and cursed fervently even as a second spell flew over his head. He could feel a few bruises forming from his ungraceful fall and he predicted they were going to be the first of many. "Getting too damn old for all this rubbish," he growled. "Protego horribilis!" He glared over at the Death Eater. "You can just damn well wait if you please or have you lot forgotten basic duelling rules already." With that he started to lever himself to his feet with a few groans and muttered swear words. Graley hadn't been knocked down yet, and so it wasn't as hard for him as the other man apparently, but he was never going to say no to a break as he watched the other man and shrugged. "Fine," he said casting the same spell as the other man, you never knew with your opponents, before he crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the other man, tapping his wand against his arm absently. "Will this take long?" he asked, demanded actually. Abe slowly got to his feet and turned form side to side, hearing his back creak and crack as he did so. "It'll take as long as it damn well takes," he growled back, deciding suddenly to drag this out just a bit longer for that. Never let it be said that Aberforth Dumbledore couldn't be a petty, petty man. He shifted and shuffled his robes back into place and smoothed down his beard just to add to it. "Alright, I'm done," he said, all the warning he gave before throwing a Tarantallegra in Graley's direction. It had worked so well with Rodolphus Lestrange after all, why not try it again here? Graley chided himself for being stupid as the spell hit him, and he danced his legs moving against his own will and he mumbled something before casting an Expulso followed by a Crucio at the other man, hoping that one of them would hit before he managed to stop his legs, throwing up a shield charm, just in case. Abe managed to duck out of the way of the first spell the Death Eater threw back at him but he wasn't quite quick enough to get entirely out of the way of the second and it just grazed him. The pain that darted through him was enough to tell him what it actually was and he growled under his breath at the stupidity of those who thought using the Unforgivables made them powerful. In return he lashed out with an Incendio. A ghost of a smile passed over Graley's lips for a moment when he saw his spell had hit, but, it faded quickly enough as he saw the other man recover and he growled, low in his throat. He ducked out of the way of the spell, twisting and he was sure he hurt his back, as he felt his graze over his arm, leaving burnt skin and pain in its wake. Mumbling to himself, he glanced down at his arm and ignored it, he could deal with it later on. Raising his wand, he glanced over at Abe before casting his own return Incendio, putting his all into it. Abe threw up a shield to protect himself from the fire. The spell was strong and some of it leaked through. He gave a flick of his wand to deflect the rest of the fire up into sky where it could spend itself uselessly then he quickly beat out the flames on his robes, wincing at the burns that were left behind. He then pointed his wand at Graley and barked, "Incarcerous!" Graley's want slashed to the side, a slicing spell leaving his lips before he thought about it, the ropes useless as they fell to the ground. His wand came up and around, casting an expelliarmus at the other man, aiming towards the mists around them, he was done with this fight. Abe gave a sigh as the ropes were cut away before they could do their job. He could only think this was going to be a long day if this was how it was going to go. He saw the spell coming towards him and darted to one side in order to avoid it... and straight into a cloud of mist. Whereupon he immediately become confused, wondering where he was and what he was supposed to be doing. he came to a halt and turned around in the mist. Now he was sure he'd been doing something but what? Maybe if he went that way he'd figure it out. Graley watched as the other man stumbled into the mists and he nodded to himself, proud. That would keep the other many busy for awhile. Turning on his heel, he headed off, on his way to find something better to do.
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