evan rosier died young and left a pretty corpse. (ex_convincin111) wrote in find_horcruxes, @ 2010-03-17 22:28:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | dorcas meadowes, evan rosier, severus snape |
RP Log: Dorcas Meadowes, Evan Rosier, Severus Snape (& NPCs).
Who: Dorcas Meadowes, Evan Rosier, Severus Snape, Auror Jason Collins, and Julian Rosier (both NPCs).
When: Evening (app. 11 PM), 17 March 1980.
Where: Euphoria Lane, London.
What: Dorcas has patrol on St Patrick's Day (... night). The DEs have a mission. Things don't quite go perfectly for either side.
Rating: Um, there's some violence, some torture, and character death.
Notes: Character death.
If this was about two years ago, even just a single year, Euphoria Lane might have been a lot more rambunctious than it was tonight. Even several months ago, the war had not been at the point that it was at now, and this wasn't just because she was in the Order and an Auror trainee and saw and heard about death moreso than your regular civilian. Every other witch and wizard seemed to be on the same page, which was probably why there wasn't as much partying as they would have expected there to be. But partying was still there, as was the increased danger as more people were either getting killed or kidnapped. Hence, the patrolling. Yeah, if it had been last year, Dorcas wouldn't have been required to spend St. Patrick's Day on a patrol with Auror Collins. It wasn't that doing the patrols were displeasing - hell, it was her job, and she had to get used to it if she wanted to be an Auror - but more of the reason behind it. And yeah, possibly because she had gotten too comfortable with Peadar before coming out here. The sour look on her face was likely apparent because she heard Auror Collins chuckle slightly. "Don't look too excited to be out here, Meadowes." Dorcas frowned at him, but kept an watchful eye around, rotating her wand absentmindedly in her hand. "Isn't going to be anything satisfactory about this till people are in Azkaban because of it." The older Auror's mirth disappeared as he gave a sober nod in agreement. Their squad had lost one. The DMLE as a whole had lost more, but the wizarding world they were supposed to be protecting was losing more and more, and they were almost unable to keep up. He gave another nod before turning away, training his eyes and ears on the opposite end of the street. Even if it was at it's minimum, they still had some amount of music and cheer to listen over. They weren't going to learn another innocent person again. Well, to be sure the Dark Lord had no intention of bringing unnecessary fire and brimstone to the innocents of the Wizarding world. He had offered them peace. Anyway, in Julian Rosier's eyes, those who did not submit to the inevitability of his rule were hardly innocent any longer, but instead complicit in their own sure destruction. Like this Meadowes girl, for instance; neither her blood nor her profession would have necessarily damned her, and even her mother's foolishness could possibly be forgiven. But her own choice to stand against the Dark Lord, that was simply – as the vernacular goes – asking for it. It was easy enough for Lucius to get the information about the patrol schedules, and to pin her route down. And once the Dark Lord had her, it would be so easy to crack her open like a shell and let the secrets – of the DMLE, of whatever nascent vigilante activism might be taking form – spill out. It was the prerogative of Julian to bring her to him. With his younger son and promising young Severus Snape flanking him, the trio waited in the shadows as the pair of Aurors proceeded further down Euphoria Lane, before— "Silencio." —they struck. The Silencing Charm was only for convenience, Evan knew, as they did not want a fuss tonight and the smaller the disturbance, the quieter the job, the better. He took the cue from his father to hurl a Racking Curse at the other Auror, the more senior one, who was patrolling alongside their target. There wasn't any changing of the atmosphere, or hair prickling at the back of her neck to warn her of what was to come. All that was in her mind was the training she received - to be alert and to react quickly. No feeling of clairvoyance to help her know there was someone lurking in the shadows. But the second the spell hit Auror Collins, he cried out in pain as his arms suddenly pulled outward. Dorcas immediately cast a Finite spell before throwing a Shield charm over herself and spun around, her eyes moving quickly, but taking in anything that moved, even a small piece of garbage on the floor. Auror Collins didn't even take a moment to compose himself. While his trainee had her shield up, he threw out several stunning spells in the direction he believed it had came from. The Aurors were outnumbered and that gave them the advantage Severus thought grimly as he matched the stunning spells with a shield charm to keep them from hitting himself or the others. As with so many things, there was no warning, and Severus didn't know if there had been, what he would have been able to do. The gritty fact that he hated admitting to himself was that he was going to continue to watch people die and be injured and right in front of him - perhaps even be involved himself. Dropping the shield charm, he cast a sectumsempra at the man, trying to aim close enough to hit, but not truly damage. Severus followed that with a stunning spell. Evan remained focused on the Auror – he forgot the man's name, surely it was not important – instinctively trying to sidestep a Stunner that came speeding his way, though it only bounced harmlessly off of the shield Severus had cast. Without missing a beat he returned the favour, sending a Stunner straight back toward the man with an added Conjuncitivitis Curse for good measure. He had no compunctions about hitting-but-not-damaging. If any of the combined volley of spells hit the Auror, if it did damage or just hurt like hell, then – well, good. Julian, in the meantime, was already growing a little annoyed with the fact that they were fighting back at all; of course they would, but that did not make it any less bothersome. For his part, he had no intention of sparring; get the girl, get out. That was the important thing. He raised his wand, sent the next spell right toward Dorcas, the incantation slicing through the night air like a quiet hiss: "Crucio." One spell bounced off his shield charm, and another hit him just as he had taken off his shield to throw another spell. A clean slice through the abdomen had Collins doubling over, just barely missing the Stunning spell, and then threw out several Gouging spells. There had to be at least two or one person who was very quick at dodging and throwing spells at the same time, she realized. And Dorcas had had an experience with that last one far too many times. Her shield charm was up, but the Crucio was stronger. It broke through her shield and she was down, feeling the pain take over her entire body. She was no stranger to this feeling anymore, after all the attacks she had-- They were here to get her. Dorcas' heart sank, amidst the pain. She was a target. They knew that. And they had pretty much cornered her. No! Focus! The girl willed herself to put her attention into her wand that she raised from her crouched position on the floor, pointing it in that direction, and forcing out a strong Blasting curse in his direction. And hopefully it was going to work, because the next step was contacting the DMLE. Severus knew that a lack of offensive spellwork in this situation would likely be noticed by the Rosiers, and he also knew that if he were just defensive any of them could end up getting captured -- it was all in all a less than ideal situation. The realisation that he needed to fight offensively (because he could not truly fight defensively) was struck home as the blasting curse connected with a nearby building causing a battery of brick pieces, glass, and cement flying towards him. Superficial cuts and scratches all of them, but he could not stand there and do nothing. If it was a blasting curse they wanted, then a blasting curse they would receive. "Confringo," he muttered, pointing his wand directly at the feet of the still standing Auror. It shouldn't blast them apart, but it wouldn't be comfortable either, and it would easily fit the bill for 'offensive' spellwork. Euphoria Lane had rapidly become as chaotic as a construction site, which was utterly counterproductive to the prerogative of the evening. Julian's lips thinned as he threw up his free arm to block the rain of flying debris, though a sizeable amount was stopped well in their tracks by the shield his son had hastily cast. Nevertheless, his attention had been diverted enough by the fact that Meadowes managed to fight through his Cruciatus. Maybe there was something to her. He lifted his wand again to cast a Transmogrification curse this time in her direction and another Silencing Charm – best not wake up the entire neighbourhood with screaming. Evan in the meantime seemed rather seized by a fit of quid pro quo: any spell you can cast, he can do... at least equally as well. If they wanted to play at gouging, then he was game; as soon as the shield was dropped, two Defodio!s in quick succession were dispatched toward the doubled-over Auror, before he sent a fireball hurtling in their general direction as well. If he had been in the frame of mind to make jokes, he would have ribbed Severus about his aim, but as things stood he was far too intensely focused on taking down the Auror. The more noise, the better, honestly, and so neither Dorcas nor Auror Collins thought much of it. If they didn't get a chance to call for backup, perhaps someone in the neighborhood would report it. But the fact that nobody had seemed to be coming out, only brought of a gut-wrenching thought that their battle was completely silenced. No matter, because as soon as the curse was lifted, Dorcas took a tenth of a second to take a deep breath and hoist herself to her feet, throwing up her shield charm again, at the next spell that came her way. No reason to act reckless and stupid here. They'd sooner incapacitate her if she took the moment to think of the most happiest moment in her life and shoot out a Patronus. Though taking the time to write on the journal would be even more dangerous, the least she could do was toss it out and make a move to write in it after taking down at least one of them. If not.... Then whoever arrived could figure out what happened just by finding it. She slipped it out of her pocket and kicked it behind her, hiding the evidence with a tilt of her body and her cloak. The fireball that came her way, however, wasn't able to spotted soon enough with her distracting action, and her robe caught fire. As if that wasn't bad enough, just seconds before that, Auror Collins was suddenly thrown off his feet, landing some metres away. Fuck. Dorcas had about two seconds to get water gushing out of her wand to save herself from death by fire. Severus couldn't help but wonder how long they were going to wait around - a capture or a kill, the longer they stayed put, the more likely that back-up showed up and then they were potentially in all sorts of trouble. Knowing Edgar Bones and Sturgis Podmore was not going to get him out of the situation. He was half tempted to use sectumsempra on her wand hand, but at the distance, the calculation required to injure but not permanently maim were too great and he wasn't willing to chance the risk. Instead, "incendio!" cast towards the feet of her robes, let her deal with a bit more fire, which would certainly keep her occupied. Seeing the Auror crumple as he hit the floor and Meadowes squarely catch fire sent a rush of triumph through Evan – not the fact that they were hurt, necessarily, but the fact that they were clearly losing ground fast; it was the triumph of apparent victory, and a job performed well. For a brief instant he felt annoyance bubble close to the surface as well at the fact that they were wearing their masks, not for the obscuring of their faces but rather the need now to make any communication verbal. Nonetheless, he turned to his father, who was still sending curses left and right toward the girl as she fought to defend herself. "What about him?" "Immaterial," Julian replied without even turning. "Kill him." Evan froze. It definitely took more than two seconds to get rid of all the fire and by the time it was done, the searing pain told her she'd already been badly burnt underneath. The Crucio and fighting against it had already weakened her. She was growing more and more agitated by the second, and Auror Collins wasn't having a field day either, but he was struggling to sit up, and from his position on the ground, he was still firing hexes. He had a trainee with him. Damned if he was going to let another from his squad die. Despite the burns, and her charred robe, Dorcas struggled to get back up, holding up her shield charm. She had to call for the others. It would just be stupid and reckless to stand here and try to take them all, so as she held up the shield, she willed herself to think of the all the most happiest moments of her life: her and John's first dinner, the sublime sensation when she rode Bhaltair for the first time or stood at the edge of the cliff by the lighthouse, all the campfire moments with her family. Anything. Severus had heard Julian's command and he swallowed underneath the mask. It was far and if he aimed wrong, he could hit one of them accidentally -- but it was also far enough that missing could at least be explained through penance and the desire to practise his aim. And he knew what he'd told Regulus -- ruthless -- move up enough to know about these things before they happened. Severus pointed his wand in the direction of the auror on the ground. A command that simple could only be followed with one spell and Severus had knew he had to mean it. Anything less and anything he might gain in the casting (and hopefully missing) would be lost by his lack of technique. A split second for these thoughts to race through his mind, and then, "Avada kedavra!" and an instant of holding his breath to see if the gamble had been worth it. The green that shot from his wand was as steady as it had ever been in practice and the aim could not have been more fortunate if he'd drawn the course the beam took precisely. Collins had moved and as fortune would have it, to his right and not to his left which would have taken him precisely into the path of the spell. The end result covering even the fact that the aim had been slightly off to begin with and Severus dared not release the breath he'd been holding, but instead followed the spell with a second and forcibly more irritated, "Expelliarmus" directly at the man. The fact that Severus had uttered the Killing Curse momentarily stunned Evan – stunned him right out of his previously frozen state, induced by his father's cold command. A wave of something indescribable rose within him, composed of equal parts embarrassment and competitiveness and something hot and burning, something vaguely like horror (at what precisely?) but a sensation for which there are no words; rising to the uppermost, however, was the ugliness of his temper as triggered by a deep aversion to losing (as if that was all that was at stake, even if the spell from Severus had not ended the man's life) and failing. He would not be able to look his father in the eye if he could not follow this command. "Petrificus Totalus." The coldness with which the incantation was uttered rendered Evan's voice alien to his own ear; the spell connected squarely, and the Auror duly froze like a soldier at attention. If he was not the first to start the job, then he was damned if he could not finish it without incident. "You can only dodge so much, and scampering like that is unseemly. Avada Kedavra." The second jet of green that night lit up the trajectory toward the senior Auror right as Julian directed yet another Cruciatus at the girl. Dorcas could barely even get a word of the Patronus charm out when the first Killing Curse was muttered. It was inevitable, and she saw it coming, because she was the useful one, not Auror Collins. Perhaps it was stupidly altruistic of her to interrupt her own spell, but after nearly three years in the programme and the Order, her mindset had rearranged itself to protect the innocent before yourself. And perhaps, if the Order knew, they'd be mildly annoyed at the exchange of spells, but Dorcas couldn't not help her colleague. And so, she went for conjuring canaries instead, expelling them out as a blockade on Collins before the second Killing Curse could land on target. Whether it managed to turn Collins' faith around was left in a mystery when the Cruciatus hit her again, the affliction amplified from the burns on her skin. Dorcas bit back a cry, and attempted to focus her mind on her wand. Another blasting curse, or even an expelling charm. Anything that could distract him. Just one thought... They're going to kill me. Her free hand clenched into a fist, nails digging into the skin, as she tried again to focus on a spell, but what came up instead were faces. People's faces. This wasn't the flashbacks before a person's brain shut down completely, but memories rising up, triggered by the curse the Death Eater held on her. Her mother's, the last time her smile was on her face, and then the first she saw her after rediscovering her body. John's, the night before he was murderered, their last night together. And they were both gone thanks to these narrow-minded fuckheads. As Dorcas fought against the Curse to stand up, more faces came to mind, these belonging to the Order, and those outside. But the Order had become just like family, and if she was taken, any of them and innocent civilians could end up dead -- Emmeline, Michael, Sturgis, Gideon, Fabian... Edward, Sarah or Douglas. Oh, hell, Peadar. "No," she spat out. She would not let them take anyone away from her. Damned if she had to take them down before any info could be taken out. Letting her memories fuel her, Dorcas pointed her wand again in the direction. Fuck the red tape, fuck any protocols she had to look forward to, fuck the merry band of murderers, because she was not going to let them take her. And before she knew it, the words coming out of her mouth were not one to disarm. "Avada Kedavra!" Even as his cold anger flared up again with a wave of frustration at the fact that his well-aimed Killing Curse had still not managed to find its way to the intended target (severely injured and Petrified and still not dead, what sort of karma did this Auror have?), Evan was registering the flash of unmistakeable green rapidly approaching in his right periphery. But even then, the reality did not seem to quite impress itself upon his mind; for all that he had worried in the last few months about facing an Auror who would actually be able to cast an Unforgiveable, it was almost unthinkable that this was happening. He was a half-step out of the direct path of the Curse, barely three feet in front of Julian and partly obscuring the direct trajectory of the spell; the instincts that governed self-preservation screamed at Evan to move his ass, while another voice told him to stay the ground – because if he moved, it was his father on the line. If there had been a second longer for him to think, perhaps he would have done what Meadowes just did, conjured up some sort of blockade, material and not magical, to squarely deflect the deadly magic. But what Evan registered in that instant was his father's hand on his shoulder, an insistent push, momentum with which his body so wanted to comply. Instead he planted his foot down and shoved back, hard. The momentum sent Julian staggering – three steps, it was enough – and it sent Evan squarely into the path of the curse. The green hurtled through the air, the third of the night; this one finally found its course. No time to think, to rue, or to say anything more. He simply fell. "Defodio. Extensio. Crucio." The curses came in rapid succession from Julian's wand, following a long breathless instant of motionlessness. His voice, like his son's had been not too long ago, was nearly alien to his own ear by sheer virtue of the ice it hinted at. "You're very lucky I'm not leaving your entrails to paint the ground red, girl, that the Dark Lord wanted you alive. But in a way, it would be too good for you to die now. Too easy. Too painless." There was a brief respite of the magic wavering, as Julian bent to pick up his son's body, hand shaking near-imperceptibly as it encompassed Evan's shoulders. The next command was barked, in that same icy clipped tone, at Severus: "Grab her. We're done here." It was Severus' turn to freeze, his feet feeling planted to the ground for a moment, as the realisation of what had happened -- so quickly, all too quickly -- made its way through his brain. And as he turned, Evan's body slumped to the ground and a sudden new rage, for there was nothing else he could think of to call it, forced Severus into movement. The hundred pieces of his mind that were screaming that it hadn't happened, that Evan was faking, that this as not happening were propelling him forward along with Mr Rosier's command. The Auror had actually used an Unforgivable and Severus had never been certain that they actually would. He suddenly didn't care that Meadowes was an Auror, or one of the vigilantes, or that he was supposed to be on her side (or that he was, in fact, on her side when it boiled right down to it). It didn't matter either that he'd felt like he and Evan had been growing steadily further apart with ideological differences that were not even something Evan had known about (if anything that fact only fueled guilt which made Severus even more angry, however irrationally so, with Meadowes). She'd killed not a Death Eater, but rather one of his friends. The only thing he could think of as he stalked towards her with his wand ready to stun her at the first sign of any wrong movement, was the fact that he actually was in complete agreement with Mr Rosier: A killing curse, was far too kind. Even a far more painful entrail expelling one would be as well. Putting all her anger into that spell zapped a whole lot of energy, that from her position on her knees, even if the Cruciatus was lifted, she collapsed, falling face-first onto the ground. Then the first spell slashed across her back, the second pulled out her right arm, dislocating it from the socket and because of it, her hand went limp and her wand fell. And the last... oh, fuck, he would have been doing her the biggest favour if he had just killed her in revenge. From her angle, she couldn't even see if Auror Collins was okay, if he was still alive and just under the petrification spell, or even where her journal had landed. Dorcas bit down her tongue, keeping herself from screaming and instead, gave a muffled cry from the pain, and she was vaguely aware that someone was approaching. Even if it was probably not going to matter and she would likely hurt herself even more by doing it, she didn't care -- she wasn't going to be taken peacefully. |