RP Log: Seamus and Katie at the Orphanage Who: Katie Bell, Seamus Finnigan, a few survivors and a lot of Aurors. Where: An orphanage in Muggle London When: Late Sunday evening. What: Katie and Seamus discover the scene of the Death Eaters' latest attack. Warnings: Messily dead children.
Katie knew a herd when she saw one. Having spent most of her life in a farm, she knew the difference between a random stampede and an organized group of animals, and she knew that what she saw just then belonged to the second category. The differences could be subtle for the inexperienced, but they were there – the one animal slightly in the front shifting direction before the rest of the group followed, the rhythm of all feet following a single pattern, the similarities in the length and speed of the paces.
Either way, she thought that it didn’t quite matter whether they were organized or not, considering the strangeness of the sight in the first place. What the hell could a pack of wolves possibly be doing sprinting down a Muggle residential street miles away from any sort of woods whatsoever? How on earth did they get there? In normal circumstances, Katie would have thought that amusing; but just then, for some reason, she didn’t. For some reason, instead she felt an odd, chilly sense of foreboding when she saw them. She remained very still to the side of the road as the wolves galloped past, holding her breath in her makeshift hiding place behind a large rosemary, fiercely hoping they wouldn’t smell her. Right then, she was very glad indeed the English were so fond of gardens and hearty shrubs.
Once they were gone, she stepped back onto the pavement, frowning into the night as her mind worked furiously. They were headed to where she had just come from, and that worried her. As much as every single prudent nerve in her body was adamantly bidding her to do otherwise, she decided to follow. And how bad could it be anyway? She had a much more developed brain and a wand for Merlin’s sake. She could handle a small pack of wolves. Apparently, Katie didn’t have too many prudent nerves after all.
But when she got there, it was already too late. And she had taken what? Ten, fifteen minutes? She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the orphanage door blasted open, off its hinges, with a star-shaped scorch mark marring the otherwise pristine wood. That was not the work of savage beasts at all. That had been made by a wizard. Feeling the blood racing through her veins, Katie seized her wand, took a deep breath, and moved forward.
She was about to step inside when she froze in shock again – and, this time, she remained unable to move for a long while. It had been a rapid succession; the terrifying screams - children’s screams, a beast (or was it a man?) growling loud orders to others, a deafening bang followed by ravenous howling, more screeching coming from the humans within, a second blast and then, at last, crowning the flurry of horrors, a complete, ghastly still, dead silence.
Later, she would never quite remember how exactly she managed to find the Galleon in her pocket and transfigure it without really being fully conscious of what she was doing, but fact is that she did and, soon, Seamus had been there. Only then, at the sight of him, she recovered her senses, even if she was still temporarily unable to speak. But she didn’t really need to – the Dark Mark hovering in the sky above the building spoke for itself.
It was only coincidence that Seamus had seen the flash of the galleon when Katie changed hers. His plans for Sunday had fallen through, leaving him time to sit in his living room with his guitar for the evening. He had steadily worked on a new song most of the evening, and he was just idly playing with the galleon as he took a brief break from it. Then, as he deftly flipped it over again, it changed for just an instant. Seamus read there a name, a name he recognized from conversation with a friend.
The name of the orphanage was there only for a second or two, but Seamus felt compelled to go to the location, just in case there was some sort of emergency. When he arrived, he was glad he had....and at the same time part of him wished he'd never looked at that damned coin.
In the foyer and living room of the orphanage was a scene that Seamus didn't think he'd ever manage to get out of his head. The amount of blood there -- that wasn't just violence, it was carnage. He'd never seen so much blood in his life, not ever, and he thought frantically and inexplicably of when he was ten years old, and his mother cut herself in the kitchen. She had nicked a vein and made a mess and she had to convince him that she was not in fact going to die. He couldn't say why he thought of it, not really, because it didn't even begin to compare with what he looked at now. Bodies filled the room, except that some of them weren't really even bodies anymore. They were pieces of what used to be bodies, scattered about the place that had once been their home and safe-haven.
The smell was overwhelming - he would remember that for the rest of his life, too - and the sight was horrifying, but somehow he detached himself enough to keep from being sick. He had to hold together, because Katie's aunt worked here and she could very well be in this same condition, and if Katie wasn't going to be able to hold up Seamus was going to have to. He had to find her, and fast - at first, he had no idea if the perpetrators of this horror had even left the scene yet. Drawing his wand, he went looking for her.
Luckily Katie was found quickly, and Seamus went running to her with a shout. "Katie! Are you okay?"
Katie was as pale as humanly possible.
"No," she responded blankly. "No, I'm not." She stared into Seamus wide-eyed, her breath coming in short, nervous gasps. "There were wolves, but..." She hesitated, suddenly realizing what she was about to say. "I don't think they were normal wolves..."
"No, they weren't," Seamus concurred grimly. Five Signs for Identifying a Werewolf. He could hear Professor Snape's voice cutting in sharply, defining each sign in its turn. Seamus was quite certain he'd just seen them all. In combination with the Mark he'd seen above the orphanage house, they were even more worrisome.
"We need to call for the Aurors," he said quietly. "An' we've got to go through the rest o' the house an' see if there's anybody we can help in here." He didn't want to wait for the arrival of the authorities. If there were any survivors, or any more sources of danger, they needed to go ahead and start dealing with them.
"I don't think there are any survivors, Seamus," she said almost in a whisper, her gaze never leaving his. She didn't want to look around again... she couldn't. Shutting her eyes tightly for a moment, Katie inhaled sharply, gathering strength, and at last she nodded. "Okay. We should check the bedrooms first, that's where the children were when I left, they had already gone to bed. Maybe some managed to get away hiding somewhere..." She was trying hard to believe her own words, but found that she couldn't. She swallowed dryly. That was pointless. They were all dead. Every single one of them.
He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it once. They were going to be strong, and they were going to get done what had to be done. "Get yer wand out, an' we do not separate for any reason 'til we're sure the threat's clear," he said, and then Seamus pointed his wand upward to send the Auror emergency signal up to join that strange variation of the Dark Mark in the sky. That should bring help soon, hopefully before any more trouble came. One last squeeze of Katie's hand, and then he let go to take point on the careful walk up the stairs.
As they went, he tried not to look at the children whose remains littered the living room. The sight pulled his eyes with a strength that almost overwhelmed his will to keep away from it. If he looked, he wouldn't be able to get through what was still left to do.
Katie's body seemed to move on its own accord as she started following Seamus upstairs. She was gripping her wand firmly, though, and her senses were more alert than ever before. As they moved further through the slaughtered, she tried to concentrate on the sounds rather than the sights. The silence was so complete she thought she would have heard if there was anyone breathing in there besides the two of them.
But there wasn't. Soon they had looked everywhere; every room, every corner, every piece of furniture big enough to hide a child. There was nothing in there but stillness and death. Katie hadn't seen her aunt, but she knew she was there somewhere, dead, possibly unrecognizable. And she froze at the thought, leaning against a wall as she felt herself slipping into despair again, her face in her hands. She needed to get out of there, she simply couldn't stand being in that place one minute longer... and then, suddenly, she remembered. There was still one place left to check.
"They... they have a basement," she said slowly, raising her head to fix her eyes on Seamus again. "We need... we need to look there as well."
Seamus nodded his assent, and they made their way back through the carnage to the other set of stairs. He was fairly certain now that whoever had been here, they were long gone. If they weren't, he and Katie would have had a fight on their hands already. The check for survivors wasn't complete until they'd covered the whole house, though. As they reached the living room, where the worst of it seemed to be, Seamus took a loose grip on Katie's hand. He needed something to hold on to in the midst of all this. If there was to be no fight to distract himself with, friendship would have to take its place.
Katie was glad for the physical contact; Seamus' hand was warmer than hers and the contrast seemed to ground her somehow, anchoring her to reality. She held onto him as they walked down the stairs, the grip tightening as they reached the door to the basement. Bracing herself for the disappointment that she knew would follow, she stepped forward and pushed it with her free hand - but it didn't budge. The door was locked. Moving back slightly, she pointed her wand at it and tried a string of unlocking charms, but still nothing. Apparently, the door was not only locked, but also barred. Katie frowned, looking back at Seamus.
"I think we'll have to blast it open."
"Hold on..." Seamus said. "We dunno what's behind it." Before attempting to blast their way through, he called out through the door. "If there's somebody in there, the house is all clear now!" he shouted. "We're here to help!"
And slowly, the door creaked open. Whoever was behind it was apparently too dazed to think to question him. "We...we're...we..." the stammering voice came from a corner of the basement, but was soon consumed by sobs. As soon as that voice broke, several others joined it - children's voices, crying. Relief washed over Seamus as he heard the cries; somebody had survived!
For a moment, Katie was almost as shocked as when she had first entered the place; she had given up hope almost completely. Then, slowly, as she saw the faces and heard the cries, she allowed herself to feel relieved, too, and suddenly, she felt a surge of hope that her aunt could still be alive. Letting go of Seamus' hand, she stepped inside, searching, and when she did so, one of the children came running over, apparently having recognized her. At this point, Katie could do nothing but kneel and hug the little boy that was clinging to her. Katie had always considered herself a strong person, but that was simply too much for her... or for anyone. She had an emotional connection to those kids. Soon, she had broken down completely. She sat on the floor then, holding the child, at last letting go of all semblance of control she still held.
Seamus was relieved as well, if not so intensely as Katie was. Just to see that some of the kids had survived the attack offered a bit of hope. He took a deep breath, surveying the scene and raking his fingers through his hair. About a half dozen of the children had made it to the basement, and it looked like one of their caretakers. The woman in the corner with her arms around two kids - was that Katie's aunt? He didn't know. He'd heard her talk about her aunt before, but he'd never met her.
The Aurors were arriving in force by then, as the few who had first arrived had called in reinforcements. With Katie on the floor with the small boy, Seamus figured he'd need to be the one to talk to them. Someone would have to fill them in on everything - the werewolves, the cloaked man with them, and the strange variation of the Dark Mark they'd shot up into the sky. The rest they could easily see for themselves.
Seamus knelt beside Katie for just a moment. "I'm for upstairs, to talk to the Aurors," he said quietly. "Don' head for home 'til I come back for ye, all right?" He didn't want her trying to apparate on her own, not just yet anyway. In her current state, she'd splinch herself right in half.
Katie nodded feebly, meeting his eyes for am instant, even if she was pretty much unable to focus on anything right then. "All right," she complied quietly. Not that she could do otherwise anyway. At that moment, she hated herself for being so weak. What would have happened if no one had answered the call? Would she have been able to carry on by herself, find those people? Possibly not. She couldn't even begin to thank Seamus for coming along and taking over.
By then, she had already realized her aunt was not there, among the survivors. The six survivors. It was too small of a number. Katie shut her eyes, wanting reality to go away.
Seamus hugged her tightly, then took a deep breath and headed up the stairs to the main part of the house. He met one of the Aurors there, and quickly stepped out of the house to the yard in front. He didn't want to stand near those poor children any longer than absolutely necessary. He sat on a curb and lit a cigarette, and told the Aurors what they'd seen. Seamus was mostly glad that the silence had been broken - the scene was crawling with Aurors and Obliviators and Muggle Relations officers going swiftly into motion to manage everyone and everything, find out what happened and prevent the Muggles from getting any more involved.
He told the Aurors everything he knew, though his voice shook from the telling. The cigarette kept his hands from shaking, mostly. By the time another Auror had brought Katie and the survivors up from below, Seamus was on his third smoke. He still sat on the curb, but when he caught sight of Katie coming out, he stood to wait for her.
The presence of the Aurors had managed to soothe Katie a little and, by the time she stepped out of the house, she had apparently regained some of her self-control. Her expression was still remarkably tense, though, as she walked over to Seamus.
"I've told them everything I could remember," she said, sighing heavily as she watched the Ministry officials taking the orphanage caretaker and the surviving children away, undoubtedly to be Obliviated. "They said we're free to go for the moment, but that we have to be available should they need us for additional interrogation." Katie looked away from him at this point, a small nervous frown emerging on her features. For a few heartbeats, she seemed to be struggling with something.
"Seamus, I don't think I..." she hesitated, now lifting her eyes to meet his again. She hated to admit weakness, but, right then, she believed she didn't have much of a choice. "Could you... could you stay with me for a while more?"
Seamus didn't skip a beat in his answer. "Sure thing, love," he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "I don' exactly wanna be alone right now, either. Yer place or mine?"
In fact, the idea of going back to his flat and trying to stay sane seemed impossible to contemplate. Seamus was by nature a social person, not caring much for the solitary life in general. That night he'd simply seen too much to want to sit by himself. Staying in Katie's company seemed the best solution - not only would he not have to be alone, but he wouldn't have to explain anything that he'd seen.
"I don't care," she responded, massaging the bridge of the nose. "I just don't want to be alone." Unknowingly, Katie was pretty much thinking along the same lines as him. Right now, the last thing she wanted was to meet anyone else who would want to ask her questions. Actually, she thought she would rather not talk about that ever again.
"Could be my place," she offered with a small shrug. "It's closer."
"Let's do that, then," he said with a nod. "Apparate, an' I'll meet ye there." She agreed, and Seamus made a quick apparation back to his flat for a bottle of Irish firewhiskey before following Katie to her place. The two of them spent a few more hours in Katie's living room, until finally they'd both fallen into a restless sleep on the sofa. When Seamus woke up only half an hour after drifting off, it was with the violent start of a nightmare. He finally went home then, and he hoped that Katie's sleep would be less troubled than the few unsettled hours he managed.