Perdition Mods (perdition_mods) wrote in perdition_rpg, @ 2009-05-01 22:31:00 |
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Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones vs Selwyn (8) It was bedlam. If Susan had thought that the first part of the battle was insane and confusing, this was by far worse. People were swarming around her everywhere, and she wasn't sure of where to go or what to do. What's more, if being surrounded by Death Eaters wasn't bad enough, Voldemort himself was here now and jets of green light were streaming from his wand, seemingly at random. As she moved through the Great Hall, she was desperately looking for Hannah or Megan or Ernie or someone she could cower with because by god, she did not want to fight anymore, and where the fuck was Harry and what if Voldemort came and killed them -- A jet of green whistled at her seemingly out of nowhere, and with instincts she didn't know she had, Susan ducked and rolled onto the ground. The Killing Curse skidded across the floor, leaving a black, rancid-looking streak and, sore and tired, she could barely seem to pick herself up, but knew she had to do so, because otherwise she would surely be trampled. When Ernie felt as if he had a clear purpose and direction, he felt a bit less terrified. Everything about the situation he willingly, and rather boldly, allowed himself to get caught in was terrifying, but as long as Ernie had something to do he felt better. It was the moments when he had nothing specific to focus on that the full gravity of the situation set in. Ernie found himself caught in one of those moments right now. It was during those moments that Ernie saw, heard, and learned things he didn't want to know, like how Justin was dead. Justin was dead. Ernie felt sick thinking about it, how could he have died when they literally just got him back? It made Ernie's head spin to think about it, and it made him want to just disappear and be done with everything, even if that was cowardly. After all, what was the point of being brave and doing the "Right Thing" when that didn't stop your friends from dying? Ernie was beginning to lose sight of what he was fighting for; the battle was far from over, and he already felt defeated. Suddenly, Ernie saw something that pulled everything back into a painful point of focus- he saw Susan, he saw a jet of green, and then he saw Susan on the floor. "No...no," Ernie gasped. "SUSAN!" Ernie cried and made his way over to her. In the minutes it took for Ernie to reach her, Ernie questioned what he had just seen; had the green light hit her, or had she dodged it? He couldn't be sure, but the mere possibility that the curse had hit Susan, that he had actually stood and watched it happen was enough to make Ernie panic. He collapsed at the ground beside her, and was instantly relieved to see she was alive. "Susan...Susan, are you okay?" Ernie asked. His voice was still shaky, he could see now that she was alright, but the nerves had not yet gone away. Susan was still lying on the ground, a bit afraid to stand up lest another curse came sailing her way. It was safer here, on the floor, because people might think she was dead and leave her alone. However, it wasn't really fair to whoever had come running towards her to just lie there, feigning death, so she looked up. Her ribs still hurt from the encounter she'd had earlier that evening. "I'm fine," she said, pulling herself up into a kneeling position. "I ducked, a bit too enthusiastically, I think..." She looked over. Oh. It was Ernie. "We should get out of here," she said, and used his shoulder to steady herself as she stood carefully. "It's not -- " Another curse, this time gold in colour, sailed by her and she ducked again, this time into a crouching position, and it hit one of the few chairs left in the hall with a bang. "Damn, that was close," she muttered. "Let's go, before our luck runs out." Faustus couldn't understand how persistent these children could be. Didn't they understand that the Dark Lord was here and they should be readily accepting his rule and submitting to his lordship. Why they weren't doing so was beyond him, but he would just have to teach them a lesson. At least they were hiding now, definitely scared of him. "Come out, come out, wittle ickles! I want to play-ay," Faustus said in a happy singsong voice. He smirked as he spotted someone dash behind some cover and sent a playful hex after them. Certainly his first curse had hit the girl, but that boy, oh, he was definitely going to get it. "Don't you want to stand and face your future, boy? Expelliarmus!" Ernie ducked beside Susan when another curse came soaring in the direction, and he was fortunate enough not to hit his hand on anything. "Yeah, let's go," Ernie agreed. He wasn't sure where they should go, but he was sure that he was ready to leave. He didn't want to be around an area where killing curses were flying at random, though admittedly, Ernie wasn't sure if there was any place in the castle where Susan and himself would be safe from that. Ernie was exhausted, he wanted this battle before, and he needed time to himself; time to mourn Justin. He also wanted to make sure that he didn't lose any other friends, so as Ernie picked himself off the floor he tried to focus on nothing else but keeping himself and Susan safe. He felt a strange jolt of surprise when another voice called out to them in the distance. A sing song voice, and there was something about the way he referred to them as "wittle ickles" that absolutely repulsed Ernie. Ernie spun around when he was quite obviously being addressed, and he looked at Faustus completely disgusted. Ernie felt a wave of anger start to boil inside of him. It was people like the man who stood before him who killed Justin, and how man others of Ernie's friends had they hurt? He was fed up with it; Ernie was ready to fight now, and at the same instant Faustus sent his Expelliarmus, Ernie yelled "Impedimenta!". Ernie's spell wasn't able to block Faustus' disarming spell, however, so when it came his way Ernie was shocked to feel his wand fly backwards out of his hand. Shit. Well, that sentiment had been expressed a few moments too late, it seemed. Here was another Death Eater, after their blood, and honestly, like Ernie, Susan was sick of it. She wanted to stop fighting, lie down, and get some proper medical care. But that wasn't exactly an option right now, was it? As soon as Ernie had cast the Impediment Jinx, she pointed her wand on the Death Eater and shouted, "Stupefy!" Red light burst from her wand, but she didn't bother keep her attention trained on him to see if it hit. Instead, she turned to where Ernie's wand had landed and muttered, "Accio wand," so that his wand came sailing into her hand. "Here," she said, pressing it into his hand and stood, a little clumsily. There was no point in allowing herself to be attacked when she was down. So they still had a little fight in them, did they? Well, that was unfortunate, Faustus thought, sidestepping the spell from the girl. Faustus had been looking for some easy to kill. He liked the whole torturing thing, but children were just too easy and he wanted a bigger slice of action, with people who could actually duel. "Confringo," he casted at the girl, almost lazily, but followed it up with, "Accio boy," pointing his wand at the boy and calling it to him. He had plans for this boy, but the girl seemed not to want to give up. Well, a few minutes under his recently sharpened would have them both crying like the babies they were. "Thanks," Ernie said hastily to Susan, and pointed his wand back at Faustus. Ernie wasn't completely confident that they would be able to handle this duel. After all, this man was a grown, full-fledged Death Eater, and they were, well, Ernie and Susan. However, Ernie did know he wasn't going down without a fight, and when he went after Susan, Ernie stretched his wand close towards the Death Eater. He was ready to throw another hex in Faustus' way, but Ernie didn't get the chance. There was no possible way Ernie could have prevented what Faustus did, he hadn't seen it coming at all. Ernie never expected to be summoned in a duel, so when he heard the words leave Faustus' lips and felt himself drawn close to him, Ernie was shocked. He merely blinked rapidly when he found himself drawn straight to Faustus. Ernie wasn't immediately afraid or worried, he was too confused for any of those emotions to really settle in just yet. Well, this wasn't good, Susan thought, easily dodging the Blasting Curse, though she wasn't sure of how to handle the fact that all of a sudden, the Death Eater was holding Ernie. This made things much more complicated. She was still wondering how, exactly, Ernie had gone from standing next to her to whizzing across the Great Hall. Rather desperately, she pointed her wand at Faustus's feet, shouting, "Depulso!" Hopefully, if it hit, he would drop Ernie. Faustus yanked Ernie in front of him by his arm - who better to use for a shield than her friend? He jumped back, stumbling as the spell hit in front of his feet, but instead of dislodging him or breaking his grip, it just pissed Faustus off. He grabbed the boy's shoulder in a painful pinch and tried to shove him down to his knees. "Accio wand," he growled, not actually wanting the wand but not wanting an impertinent brat with one being so close to him. They were pretending to be fighters when clearly they were not. "You see what you've done little miss," Faustus raised his voice, glowering at the stupid girl. "For your antics, he is going to die and you will watch. But first, you need to see the consequences of your actions!" Faustus leered in her direction. "Impedimenta," he cast in her direction before angling his wand at the boy, "CRUICIO!" Susan didn't really understand how this at all was her fault. She had only been defending herself, after all. Did this Death Eater just expect her to roll over and die just because standing there? Not likely. But she didn't have the time to really give this much consideration, because the Impediment Jinx that Faustus cast hit her square in the chest and she was thrown to the ground, her already-aching ribs cracking again. She swore outloud, but of course, couldn't move until the jinx wore off. Hearing him shout an Unforgivable, she raised her wand, though, and yelled, "Stupefy!" Ernie struggled to break free from Faustus' grip, but it was pretty useless. Ernie wasn't strong enough to break away from a fully grown adult. Still, Ernie's instincts told him to at least try and get away, because Ernie desperately wanted to be as far away from Faustus as possible. Ernie let out a sharp hiss of pain when Faustus pinched his shoulder, and he bit hard down on his lip when his knees banged down into the hard floor below. The real blow came, however, when Faustus summoned Ernie's wand. The dread Ernie felt from being separated from his wand was evident on his face, as if it wasn't bad enough that he was so close to this Death Eater, Ernie now felt completely helpless without his wand. A sense of panic overwhelmed Ernie when Faustus said, "he is going to die". The more Ernie felt like that could very well be a possibility, the more desperate he became to get away. He knew any sudden movements would probably just attract Faustus' attention too quickly, so Ernie began to slowly back away. His escape plan was quickly thrawted, however, when Faustus cast the Cruciatus Curse. The spell hit Ernie dead on, and with an agonizing scream, Ernie's body crumpled and twitched on the floor. It felt as though every nerve in his body was on fire, and all Ernie could think about was the pain, and all he wanted was for it to just end; he didn't care how. Oh, god. Oh, god, oh, god, oh, god. Susan couldn't stand it, she couldn't stand the sound of Ernie's screaming. She didn't bother pull herself to her feet, just lay on the ground and pointed her wand at the Death Eater, hoping that, if she distracted him long enough, he would stop Cruciating her friend. His cries were ringing in her ears and she kept her wand trained on the Death Eater, yelling, "Stupefy! Diffindo! Depulso! STUPEFY!" Ducking the stunning spell, Faustus was forced to break the hold on the curse to avoid getting thrown across the room and turned into the cutting curse. He bit his tongue from shouting out and pressed his hand against the deep cut on his non-wand arm. This girl was absolutely infuriating. Didn't she realize that her school yard spells wouldn't work against him? Kicking the boy in the side for good measure, he practically growled at the girl (because even in a battle situation, growling was not proper) and scowled. "You are going to die, missy. Painfully and slowly-" before he even finished his last word he had his wand up, pointed at her and cast a particularly favorite spell, one to explode her eardrums (hopefully in both ears) and looked upon the boy triumphantly. "Looks like you don't have anyone to come for help," Faustus was practically gleeful. Finishing off two impertinent muggle-lovers in one battle was definitely a story to tell. A rejoiceful story. One that he could tell his children about when they were older. But first, he needed to finish them off. "Say good night, little one," Faustus waved Ernie's wand at him and then pointed it directly at his abdomen and cast a blasting curse right close. For good measure, he put the toe of his boot right on the fingers of the poor little boy and pressed down. He continued to add pressure until he heard one of the bones snap and smirked to himself before grinding his toe into it to break the rest. Ernie did not move an inch after Faustus broke the Cruciatus Curse. He didn't even make an attempt to get away, because he could not get any of his body parts to move. He didn't even want to move them, really. Ernie just wanted to lie there until it was all over. There was some level of relief once the Cruciatus was lifted, but it was nothing significant. His body still ached horribly from the curse; the pain from before didn't just go away once the curse was lifted. Eventually, Ernie did move, but all he did was curl into himself. He heard Faustus threaten Susan, and he heard Faustus call out an incantation that Ernie wasn't familiar with. Despite the numbness the pain had caused in Ernie's mind, there was a part of him that still wanted to get up and help Susan, but he couldn't make himself stand. He thought about it- about standing up, snatching his wand away from Faustus, and saving Susan, but he didn't have the strength; every part of him just hurt too much. When Faustus spoke, Ernie stared weakly up at him. At this point, Ernie really thought that Faustus would kill him. Ernie didn't even know what he'd done to Susan, and never mind not being able to move, Ernie didn't even have his wand. Ernie thought he'd have a bit more fight in him if only he still had his wand, but he didn't, and Ernie couldn't see the point in struggling. Faustus would do whatever he wanted to do to him whether or not Ernie crawled onto his knees and tried to pull himself up or not. Ernie let out a blood curdling scream when the blasting curse blew into his abdomen. Ernie couldn't even describe the pain, it was so bad- it was so bad that Ernie actually started to cry. He didn't want to think about what had just happened to his insides- he didn't want to think about what exactly caused the pain, and fortunately for Ernie, he wasn't actually capable of thinking much at all at this point. All he could think about was the pain. Ernie instinctively grasped at the wound with his hands, and when he pulled them away, he saw that they were covered in blood. Ernie let his right hand fall limply to the ground, just in time for Faustus to smash it with his foot. Ernie let out another cry of pain as the bones in his hand began to break, and another yell when Faustus broke the remainder of his hand bones. Ernie felt as if he was falling a part, both physically and mentally. All the pains began to merge into one, and Ernie's body didn't even feel like his own anymore. Very slowly, the world began to blur around Ernie. Shapes, colors, and the malicious figure above him began to merge together until they were completely indistinct, and then everything, including the pain, fell away to darkness as Ernie slipped out of consciousness. Susan heard the words you are going to die, missy, and when Faustus's curse hit, she certainly thought that it was true. She couldn't hear her own scream of agony as it brushed against the right side of her face. It felt as though someone had jammed an enormous needle into her ear and her head had exploded. Blood was gushing from her right ear, down her neck and into her hair and the pain was absolutely unbearable as she pressed her hand to her ear, trying to ebb the flow of blood issuing from it. Everything was hazy and she tried, uselessly, to pull herself to her feet, but it didn't work, she lost her balance and fell over. Her vision was swimming in and out of focus, but as she came to, she saw Ernie lying on the floor. He looked dead. Susan's heart was pounding in her chest like the quick beating of a drum. The thought that Ernie, another one of her best friends, was dead, kicked some sort of survival instinct into her, and she saw, lying next to her, a sword, dropped by one of the suits of armor. With a flick of her wand (she wouldn't remember, later on, what spell she used to do it), she sent it spinning at the Death Eater, and then a Stupefy and a Tripping Jinx. She hoped, prayed that at least one of them hit as she held her wand steady in her hand. Smug with pride at his accomplished goals, Faustus was already turning away to find another battle to get into. Or at least to observe a little, to gain the finer points and use it for retelling later. If they didn't survive, who would know the truth? Or he could just modify their memories. First he needed to check to see if the girl was actually out for the count, and he turned back around to head in her direction. Oblivious to the girl's actions, he glanced down at his arm to look how bad it was - just in time to see the hex out of the corner of his eye and duck the red one but missed dodging the tripping hex and stumbled, dropping Ernie's wand and tried to catch himself on nothing. There was nothing to catch, so he stumbled to the floor, right in the path of the spinning sword. There was an odd pressure at the base of his lung as the sword cut through his ribs and into the soft tissue. Faustus slumped to the ground, pushing the sword in further, to the hilt. He rolled onto his side as far as possible and looked down - no, what, this wasn't possible. He was...STABBED. Through, like a pig. He was a STUCK PIG. Faustus coughed weakly and felt the blood on his lips, the tangy iron taste on his tongue. He pointed his wand at her, sputtering the words to the curse but nothing came. This was horrible. He gasped for breath, unsuccessful. With each cough more blood filled his mouth. He was lost, utterly lost, to the hand of a silly girl with a sharp, pointy sword. How stupid. As she watched the sword she'd charmed spin into the Death Eater's chest, Susan let out a scream of horror that she couldn't hear. The sword was sticking out of him. Oh, god, he was dead, he had to be dead, and seeing the blank look on his face, Susan screamed again. He was dead and she had killed him. Any relief that she might have felt was overridden by pure disgust at what she had done. And then she remembered Ernie. Frantically, she tried to stand, but her head was spinning and she was dizzy and her legs couldn't hold her... she fell forward onto the ground and crawled to where her friend lay. "Oh, no, Ernie... Ernie, don't be dead, please don't be dead..." She grabbed his shoulders and shook his unconscious form, as if trying to wake him. Her hand was shaking as she pointed her wand to his temple and muttered, "Rennerverate!" He didn't wake, though, and a deeper sense of panic and dread hit her like a bag full of rocks. "No, no, no, no..." she sobbed, desperately, as if saying this could stop Ernie from being dead, She was crying, there was a mess of blood, tears, and snot all over her face, neck, and shirt, and she leaned down and pressed the ear that wasn't still gushing blood against his sternum. Relief swept over her as she felt a soft thudding that she recognised as a heart beat. "Oh, thank god," she muttered, still sobbing, and not daring to move. It would be better, she thought, in a haze of confusion, just to lay there on top of him, and lay there she did. Abigail Runcorn, Lavender Brown vs Gregory Goyle (8) Driven by rage and loss, Lavender limped through the crowds, trying to find someone to take this anger out on. Someone had killed Parvati, and so help her she was going to curse every Death Eater in this place if that's what it took to get her vengeance. She barely noticed the shooting pains in her body and the fact that she could barely hold a wand straight, but she carried on, face set in a grimace of effort until she found herself a mark. And then, finally, there was someone she recognised. Gregory Goyle, someone she knew to be a part of the Inquisitorial Squad, and someone she knew had been assigned to use the Cruciatus Curse on her best friend. Lifting a wand in her shaking hand and taking aim, she bellowed out the curse with all the anger she had held inside her. "CRUCIO!" She had no idea whether it would work, whether it would hit, how much it would weaken her afterward. Lavender had only successfully cast the Cruciatus curse once before, but she knew that she had to angry for it to work, and angry she certainly was, so she wasn't too surprised when the angry jet of red light headed toward her target. The smell of smoke filled his head and he could not get the image of flames to fade. One minute he was searching for his wand and then the next he was scrambling up piles of junk to get away from the spreading fire. His best friend was dead and instead of pushing it to the back burner and worrying about the battle he chose to sulk. There was a wand in his hand, though it wasn't his own. His had been lost to the fire and now he held the tossed off wand of some younger student. The kid wasn't dead but Goyle nicked the wand anyway. He hadn't even seen Lavender coming and the curse hit him. He'd never had an Unforgiveable used on him before and the pain the shot through him was surprising. Goyle dropped to the ground, still clutching his wand. He couldn't believe that he'd been brought down by a Gryffindor. With some effort he lifted his hand and tried a blasting curse, which failed. The second failed as well and he swore. He couldn't even get a spell to shoot from the bloody stick he was holding. He tried the spell a third time and light flew from the wand, heading in Lavender's direction. There was a moment, just a moment, in which Lavender regretted using an Unforgiveable Curse without one of the Carrows standing behind her demanding that she do it... but the moment passed quickly as the spell wore off and Goyle started fighting back. As the blasting curse headed her way, she leapt to the side, and the jet of light narrowly missed her, crashing into the wall behind her instead. As she cast a shield charm and crouched low to the floor, rubble rained down on Lavender, most of it bouncing off her shield but some shards striking her regardless. One particularly sharp piece of rock hit her head, causing even more blood to darken her blonde hair and stars to swim in front of her eyes. As soon as she was sure no more stone was going to fall on her, Lavender pointed her wand at a particularly large piece of rubble. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The rock rose up into the air, and she flicked her wand quickly, sending it straight for Goyle. Goyle grinned with joy as he watched the bits of stone fall down around Lavender. She was bleeding from the head and he wondered how long it would take for her to get dizzy and fall over. Blood loss was supposed to make people weak. He didn't have time to react to her attack with the small boulder and it smashed into his chest with a fair amount of force. There had been a crack, the sound of a rib or two cracking, and Goyle wailed in agony. Who did Lavender Brown think she was, throwing rocks at him? He was the one who threw rocks at people. He was having trouble breathing but he was still standing and that had to be good for something. He bent over and picked up the rock she had sent at him. With a groan he heaved the stone away from his chest and sent it back at her. Now that wasn't something that Lavender had been expecting. Some kind of weak magical retaliation, maybe, as this was only Goyle, but actual physical retaliation? She had no time to react, her senses dulled by both injuries and loss, and the rock hit her full on. Unlike Goyle, Lavender had always been petite, and the force of the rock swept her off her feet entirely, flinging her body into what was left of the wall behind her. Like a ragdoll she collapsed on the floor, losing her grip on consciousness, a broken arm twisted at an odd angle and blood from her wounds pooling around her. They'd reached the school again right on time, it seemed. Abby had been traveling with Professor Slughorn's group of returning students, parents, and other helpful persons all night, and now, they were back, and it looked very much like Harry Potter was dead, which made her decision to return a very poor one, retrospectively. There was nothing for it now, however...she couldn't very well say that she'd returned to fight alongside the Death Eaters, and it seemed a bit like their opponents were doing slightly better anyway, for some odd reason. It was entirely chaotic, overall, but perhaps everyone was getting a second wind? Or perhaps not. Nearest to Abby, Gregory Goyle had just tossed Lavender Brown against a nearby wall, and the girl wasn't moving from the ground where she'd landed. And, for possibly the first time in her life, Abby made a split-second decision and threw herself between Lavender and Greg, wand drawn. "Really, Gregory, where are your manners? Sending a girl flying against a wall like that, it's just bad form," she clucked at him in her most demeaning voice. Goyle stared at the newcomer in confusion. Where the bloody hell had she come from? And why was she standing there, blocking the Gryffindor and...lecturing him? On manners? What was she on about? "Get out the way, Abby. This girl attacked me and now I'm going to put my learning to good use. I thought I could practise the killing curse on her. She deserves it. She's friends with all those Gryffindor idiots." He opened and closed one fist, his other hand still clutching his stolen wand. "Where did you come from? I thought you left for good." Abby ignored his questions about the morality of the situation; truth be told, even she didn't know why she was defending Lavender Brown from one of her housemates, at least not without going into a very detailed explanation of history and probable futures and the predictability of the lower classes, all of which would probably go right over Gregory's head, and he wouldn't have the patience for that. She kept her wand fixed on him just the same, though, as she did answer his second question. "I came back, with Professor Slughorn. The time for killing is over, Gregory. Put your wand down, you've already incapacitated her," she stated in a calm and rational voice, though inside, she felt anything but calm and rational. He was still confused and his face showed it. Why was she being such a stick in the mud? He had the chance to kill Brown and he was going to do it! "You should have stayed gone if your plan was to come in and ruin other people's fun. Her friends killed Vincent and now I'm going to kill her!" Just mentioning his best friend brought forth emotions that he had no desire to address in front of this girl and so he smashed through them quickly and then extended his wand at her. "If you don't move out of my way, Runcorn, I will be forced to take you down with her." "I don't know what happened to Vincent, Gregory, but I doubt Lavender had anything to do with it. You don't need to do this. Just walk away from this." Reasoning with him was going to be more difficult than Abby had anticipated, and she really hoped that he wouldn't come after her. She wasn't the best duelist in the world, having avoided DADA since taking the OWL two years before, but at least something similar could probably be said for Goyle. Then again, there was no reason to believe that he wouldn't just throw her out of the way, if it came to that. Still, Abby held her position and tried to look as stern as possible. "HER FRIENDS KILLED HIM." Beads of spit flew from his mouth as he screamed and he could feel the tears welling in his eyes against his will. It wasn't the truth, not really, but already he'd started to convince himself that Harry Potter was to blame for his best friend's death. He had been unconscious. He couldn't have helped. Crabbe might still be alive if Hermione Granger hadn't...No, he was not revisiting that right now. No he was going kill Lavender, whether Abby liked it or not. "Get the hell out of my way, RUNCORN!" He flicked his arm forward and bellowed. The blast was chucked forward and he ran towards her, hoping either scare her off or plow her over. Either way, he wanted her out of the way. Oh Salazar, he was coming toward her, barrelling like a rampaging elephant (which actually was a rather accurate description, when Abby thought of it), and she had to do something. Basic defense, that's all she needed..."NO, Gregory!...PROTEGO!" she cried, throwing up the strongest shielding charm she could manage and staggering as the blasting charm hit her shield. That would hurt in the morning... He was still running at her with everything he had and he reached the shield at the same time as his blast. Goyle hit her shield with brute force and as he was thrown back he saw the sparks he'd fired come back at him. The spell hit him in the face and he screamed in agony, flailing on the ground like a child having a temper tantrum. "JUST LET ME KILL HER, YOU CRAZY FEMALE!" His voice was full of pain as he continued to thrash around, feet from where she was standing. He couldn't see, couldn't really hear, but he could speak and so he pointed his wand in what he hoped was her general direction. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Gregory's aim was not very good, and the spell hit the wall behind Abby, causing several fragments to break off and graze her face as they fell. This was getting ridiculous. Gregory needed to calm down and think about what he was doing, but she doubted that was going to happen, and the fact that he'd just sent a killing curse her way broke the previous calmness she'd had in place. "STOP IT, Gregory! That's ENOUGH!" As if to prove her point, Abby cast a blasting curse at him, trying to aim for the ground underneath his feet, but he was thrashing around so much that it was hard to tell where the spell would hit when it did hit. The blast hit inches from his chest and he felt the fragments of floor spray against his face and shoulders. None of this would have happened if she would have moved out of the way. He took a deep breath and fought to open his eyes. It burned and he knew his face was scarred. Maybe now he could have a scar comparing contest with Harry. He would clearly win. Potter was an idiot. He rose to his feet with some trouble and stood there, staring at Abigail. "Look what you've done to me, you traitor. You're just as bad as her!" He poked his fat finger in Lavender's direction. "Why are you protecting her? SHE'S A GRYFFINDOR. YOU'RE A SLYTHERIN. YOU DON'T MAKE SENSE." He was stepping closer to her, making a fist at his side again. She should not have gotten in the way. "You move or I make you move." "THINK, Gregory!" Abby wasn't moving, but she wasn't fighting Gregory either. She didn't want to fight him; she'd known him, been in classes with him, and generally seen him as a mostly-harmless (at least to her) buffoon for the past almost seven years. Fighting against someone she knew was never part of the plan, but she couldn't change her mind. "House divisions don't matter anymore, we're through with school! If you kill her, you'll go to prison or worse--you can't do this! I won't let you!" "I won't go to prison. They will give me presents and medals for killing her. She's trash." He couldn't understand why Abby didn't see it that way. Why was she trying to make him behave? She could walk away and not be a part of it if she wanted. He didn't need her help to finish the job. He rolled his shoulders back and sneered. She could stand in his way but he would just go around her. "Avada Kedavra!" He moved at the last second so the flash of green light was not obstructed by Abby. It sailed through the air towards Lavender and it would have hit her but by some dumb luck her compact had fallen open and the curse smashed into the mirror and with great speed it bounced back. Goyle had not seen it coming because he was too busy beaming with pride that he'd pulled a fast one on Abigail. The killing curse hit him and there was nothing he could do. His last thought was about how much cake he could buy with the money they would give him and then his mind went blank and he hit the ground with absolutely no grace whatsoever. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, Abby wouldn't have believed that Gregory could actually move fast enough to keep her from getting in the way of one of his spells. Her own heart nearly stopped when she heard the curse being cast at Lavender...she couldn't stop the curse, she didn't know how to stop the curse, and sweet Salazar would this look bad for everyone involved. This was not what was supposed to happen; she was supposed to rescue somebody and be a hero, not stand by dumbly as they were murdered by one of her classmates and then inevitably have a finger pointed at her when all was said and done. But a funny thing had happened, and had happened too fast for Abby to really register what it was. The flash of green light seemed to have rebounded off of...something...and suddenly, Gregory was lying motionless on the ground. Abby couldn't move for a moment, trying to absorb what had happened, and when movement finally came back to her, she carefully kicked Gregory's foot with the toe of her shoe. "Gregory?" she asked hesitantly. There was no answer. Of course there wasn't. She hesitated a moment longer before stooping to awkwardly drape Lavender's arm across her shoulders and drag the other girl away from the battle...and the corpse of Gregory Goyle. George Weasley, Lee Jordan vs Lycurgus Yaxley 'CRUCIO!' Yaxley had no idea what had just happened -- one moment, Harry Potter had been dead, ensuring complete victory for the Death Eaters, and now the battle had somehow started again, with the other side supported by proper reinforcements this time. The tide of students and adults rushing back into the castle when the chaos started had made it difficult for him to face his two opponents -- two more children, although older than the dead Mud-blood and little girl he had been humiliated by earlier -- but he had managed to blast his way through part of the crowd so he could fight them proper. They were too deep in the the Great Hall for him to throw either of them into the stone walls with Blasting Curses, but that didn't mean he couldn't throw around Unforgivables at them. After shooting the Cruciatus Curse at the red-haired boy who had to be one of those disgusting Weasley blood-traitors, he turned to the other boy and blasted Deprimo at his feet, followed by Incendio, not caring if he hit any of the other students who were fighting their own battles around them. It was impossible to get used to the fact that George was helping Lee fight off this Death Eater without Fred by his side. In the entire time that he'd known the twins, he'd rarely seen them apart, especially when it came to something this big. It still hadn't completely clicked with him that Fred was dead, and really, it wasn't something that Lee could let himself think about yet. He shot right through the denial stage and moved on to anger, and so far it seemed to be working out. The Deprimo shattered against Lee's shield spell, but there wasn't enough time to throw up another one around himself when the fire hex came blazing toward him, it hitting him in the arse of his jeans as he tried to dive out of the way. "Augh, fuck!" Lee proclaimed as he dropped to the ground to try to smother the flames. "Mate, seriously. Now is not the time for hot pants," he snickered, casting a severing charm up towards one of the house banners hanging from the ceiling, aiming it to fly and fall over Yaxley (and hopefully start strangling the bastard, if he had done his spellwork right). Not that he waited to find out, and shot an Incarcerous at the Death Eater in the interim. This fight was different than the last already. George had much more time to mentally force himself back into the game, he'd seen Angelina with who knows how many broken bones, and he had been able to find Lee amongst it all. Their instincts with one another weren't as fine-tuned or as easily discernible as they had aways been with Fred - but the fact of the matter was George was used to being part of a pair, and Lee was an honourary Weasley twin anyway. They knew how to work together, and George had his head back on straight. George's shield along with a quick dodge to the right managed to keep the Crucio from hitting him and he spun as Lee's pants were set on fire. Lee went for the banner above and George tried to keep the Death Eater's eyes down at their level, if able to see at all. A blasting curse fired from his wand to near the Death Eater's feet, then he brought it up above his head. "You're no bloody fun, Lee!" he shouted over to him. "You never think it's time for hot pants!" Squinting, George let forth an extremely bright light from his wand and tried to shine it in the older man's eyes as he tread backwards. Amazing how he could actually be smart, when he had someone to make smartass remarks with him while fighting. Apparently he was just wired that way by now - it helped him concentrate. Unlike the previous two students Yaxley had fought, these two were surprisingly competent enough -- but they were still children, and children with no willpower to kill and fighting against a Death Eater who had no qualms about using dark magic at that. He dodged the ropes, blocked the first Blasting Curse, and ducked the second (cursing when it was obvious he hadn't needed to do that), but the light in his eyes was completely unexpected -- he turned away and threw up his free hand to shield them as he stumbled backwards, blindly shooting two Sectumsempra curses in the direction of the boys. And to add insult to injury, just as he regained his footing and sight (sort of), a banner fell down from nowhere and started to strangle him. He'd had more than enough of being constricted and choked by things tonight, and he wildly cast Severing Charms to attack the fabric -- if any of the missed spells hit his opponents or someone else in the room, then that was a pleasant extra. "Hey, that's not true; it's always time for hot pants when it's not me wearing them!" Lee corrected George with a laugh, dodging out of the way of the Sectumsempra (which wasn't too hard, since the Death Eater couldn't see and was casting spells into the wind), but catching one of the Severing Charms before he could get up another shield spell, it slicing at his arm and taking half his shirt sleeve with it. "Dammit, man, this is my FAVOURITE SHIRT!" he yelled, yelling out "INCENDIO!" at his bottom this time and running over to George's side. "Hey, mate, where's Peeves at? He could have fun with this bitch too," Lee cackled a bit, shooting a gouging hex at the Death Eater's stomach. George's response was delayed by another slashing curse flying his direction and he dodged quickly enough to have it only slice by where his missing ear had been. A rare moment of thanks for not having it anymore - "Not sure!" he told Lee as he focused on firing his own blast at the Death Eater. "He's off causing chaos somewhere no doubt! We'll just have to do him - " Quick cast a shield charm before you're vulnerable, George thought to himself mid-sentence. " - proud!" The last shreds of the banner fell to the ground just as Yaxley still had his back to the two boys -- and if this entire battle couldn't become more humiliating after tap-dancing and sprouting antennae in his fight with the dead Mud-blood, it just did once he felt the backside of his robes erupt into flames. He gave an undignified yelp as he wildly reached behind himself with his wand to put out the fire with Aguamenti, shooting the water in the wrong directions (and dodging the Gouging Hex by accident) before giving up and settling for desperately shrugging his robes off his shoulders. The flames had burned through the fabric though, and he was still smoking slightly when the Blasting Curse caught him off-guard, throwing him into the pair of wizards fighting behind him. That was it. He wasn't going to make the same mistake he made last time, and aiming at the boy who had set him on fire, he fired the Cruciatus Curse at him, followed by a non-verbal Expulso aimed as his feet. As for the Weasley, there was already a dead one, wasn't there? No one would miss another one -- he pointed his wand in his direction and shouted, 'Avada Kedavra!', but lost his footing on a puddle of water from his Augamenti only moments before. Lee wasn't sure where his luck was coming from -- maybe his mum wasn't kidding when she'd been joking about slipping Felix Felicis in his cereal every morning -- but the Cruciatus Curse somehow missed hitting him by inches. There wasn't much time to celebrate, though, as the blasting curse exploded at his feet, sending Lee flying into a wall and ripping straight through one of his shoes, the rubber soles on the bottom thwapping annoyingly against the floor as he groaned and picked himself up. He heard the beginnings of the Killing Curse on the Death Eater's tongue, his wand pointed at George, and without a moment's pause cast a wedgie-jinx on Yaxley to yank his pants up as high as they would go as the Death Eater slipped on his own water spell. If all went according to plan, he'd have those things pulled back clear up onto his Yaxley's head. "Shi-" George couldn't finish his cussing before he was forced to lunge sideways, tripping up a bit, but dodging well out of the way of the green light. "That was RUDE!" he shouted, checking that Lee was all right through the corner of his eye and backing up to regain his footing. He outstretched his arms as if to challenge the Death Eater, but was hoping to cast a non-verbal levitating curse at the strewn piece of bench nearby. "Don't your mums teach you proper manners?" he mocked, hoping to keep up the distraction before swinging his arm widely, sending the bench flying at the older man. Yaxley had his mouth half-open to snap back at the Weasley -- he couldn't believe that both of his Unforgivable Curses had missed -- but he was stopped short when he felt his pants riding up much higher (and much much much more uncomfortably) than they should be doing. He didn't even have a moment to wonder what was going on exactly when he suddenly couldn't see, as his -- oh, for Merlin's sake, that could not be it. However, there wasn't time for him to reach up and undo his own pants over his face before he was rammed through the combatants behind him and into a wall by a heavy object he couldn't see. Several of his ribs were definitely broken and he was dazed from hitting his head against the wall, but he took a quick moment to lift the pants over his head befor he fired a Revulsion Jinx and a Blasting Curse to send the bench flying back at the students he was fighting against. As he got up, he also pointed his wand at a spot of ceiling above them and shouted, 'Expulso!', then threw another Cruciatus Curse in their direction. "All right, mate?" George had been moving over to Lee, thinking the Death Eater was down for a spell, and he didn't have enough time to react as the bench suddenly came flying back at him. He tried to blast it away, but the corner caught his wand arm and all he could do was grip it tightly as the bench rammed into his side, sending him tumbling and rolling over the stone floor. He felt a sharp pain flare in his chest and he knew something not quite right had probably just happened to his insides as he lay there for a moment, panting. It wasn't long though before he heard the rumble and cracks of more broken building and he shoved himself along the floor more, rolling out of the way enough so a few stones came down on a leg, but not much else. He cast a weak shield as he managed to get back on his feet and with one arm pulled in to protect his throbbing torso, he advanced up over the bench, good-spirited mocking gone for the moment. Lee didn't have a chance to answer. Once the bench took George down, Lee ran between him and the Death Eater, hoping to put some distance between the two while George picked himself up. He shot a blasting curse at the Death Eater, mockingly calling, "I guess that answers the question "boxers or briefs," eh?" His moment of banter was cut short, though, as bits of the ceiling began to rain down on top of their battle. His shield spell helped him there, keeping Lee from winding up clobbered atop the head by various pieces of plaster and candles that fell towards him, but he was unfortunately left unprotected as Yaxley's Cruciatus Curse slammed into him. Lee immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming out in complete agony, every muscle in his body twisting and contorting in directions that he didn't even know they could move. The Blasting Curse was blocked by a counter-spell this time as Yaxley advanced so he could continue holding the Cruciatus Curse on the boy. He had fired so many of those during the night at these filthy-blooded upstarts and been foiled again and again that he momentarily forgot about the Weasley as he concentrated on channelling his anger, frustration, and hatred into torturing his victim in as excruciating a manner as possible with a wild and vicious grin on his brutal face. It was a pity he wouldn't have time to drive this one into insanity. While George was in pain, he knew that the agony on Lee's face showed he had it much, much worse. Feeling panic bubble up in his throat, George didn't even have time to shout Lee's name - he just reacted. Ignoring his throbbing side, he lept forward, "Incarcerous!" he shouted, aiming for the man's wand arm, then moving to again throw the bench used against him back at his head, but this time transfiguring it into a thousand (or so) large beetles with nasty pincers with an extra flick of his wrist. Who knew all that transfiguring practice for the shop would come in handy? Yaxley's concentration on the Cruciatus Curse broke when ropes came flying out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around his wand-arm, and for a moment, he thought the weepy blonde girl from before was coming at him with another pot of Devil's Snare. He spun around in anger to see which idiot had dared to interrupt him, but found a swarm of beetles rushing at him through the air instead. With a wave of his wand, he cast a Blasting Curse to knock most of them back, but one of them managed to grab onto his nose with its pincers, sending him yelping and stumbling around in pain as he tried to swat it off. At the same time, he cast a Banishing Charm to blast the ceiling debris in the direction of the boy he had been torturing and threw an Oppugno at the beetles on the ground to command them to attack the Weasley. Even after the curse broke, Lee continued to lie on the ground amongst the debris, every last inch of him aching with an intensity he had never experienced before. There was no jumping back up into the fray this time; he hurt, and while Lee knew that other people did too, and had been through worse, he simply wanted to go home and crawl back into bed. He needed to make it out alive, first -- and hell, at least he still had a chance to make it out alive at all. One of his best friends was dead. George's brother was dead. And this pansy-arse yelper wasn't going to get away with it. "OPPUGNO!" Lee shouted out from his spot on the ground, returning the beetles like they were playing an insect-infested game of ping pong. His wand arm dropped back down to the ground with a thud. Aiming towards Yaxley's feet, Lee performed a charm that had gotten him detention so many times back during his school days and cast a spell to conjure up wheels on the bottoms of the Death Eater's shoes. Yaxley had no interest in playing a game with the beetles in going back and forth over who had control over them, and he cast Incendio on them all, setting the swarm on fire before blowing them back at the boys and anyone else fighting near them with another Blasting Curse in quick succession. That ought to keep them busy enough for now -- except then he found himself suddenly rolling forward as the man fighting behind him gave him an accidental shove, sending Yaxley rolling wildly across an expanse of clear floor before crashing headlong into a crowd of younger girls who had returned with the reinforcements. There were high-pitched shrieks as they were bowled over and sent flying in different directions. Yaxley tried to get up, but his feet kept slipping due to the wheels that were still attached to the soles of his boots. The two of them obviously had no issues with attacking a Death Eater who was sending spells at them, but would they be able to do what was necessary if their fellow students were attacking them instead? He aimed his wand at two of the younger males fighting near them, shouting, 'Imperio!' twice and commanding one to move forward and punch the Weasley in the face and the other to fire Incendio at his companion, hopefully before he was able to get up himself. George let out a cackle not unlike the one heard when he and Fred had sent fireworks ablaze under Umbridge's rule. That is, one that was more rueful than usual, but amused at the same time - he completely didn't expect the Imperius though, which upon reflection he'd realise was a fairly stupid thing to do. The kid, luckily, was a bit too short to catch much of George's face when he tipped his chin up and stumbled back out of the way. Grunting, George threw a hand forward to grab the boy's wrist. "That's low, Eater!" he called as he cast a leg-locking jinx on the other student, trying to as nicely as possible shove him over and out of the way. "Can't even fight a couple of Hoggies graduates on your own!" Starting to get back into the groove despite the constant ache, he kept up the mocking. He had to. It kept them going. "The wedgie give you too much of a flashback?" he continued, side stepping more debris and shielding himself again before trying to disarm the man as a distraction, using his own "Incendio!" aimed for the man's hair afterward. George was tiring... his injury was slowing him, and his body was begging him to stop. He and Lee had to end it. "For fuck's sake, stop it with the fire!" Lee whined at them both, his battle-weary mumblings likely completely lost under the roar of the fights that were happening around them. He threw up a water-based shield around himself to help fight off Yaxley's moments of pyromania and concentrated instead on affixing a permanent sticking charm to the wheels on his shoes to make it easier for George and him to (quite literally) push him around. Spotting the Imperiused student coming at him (with ANOTHER Incendio, bloody hell), Lee cast an "Incarcerous" spell in his direction to get him out of the way, then yelled "ACCIO THAT DEATH EATER'S WAND!", relieved that magic was much more about intent once you had the finer points taken care of. Thanks to the Permanent Sticking Charm, there was no way Yaxley could get rid of the wheels, no matter how many Severing Charms he shot at them as he tried to get up. He was, however, distracted enough with the task that he didn't notice the Incendio coming at him, and he screamed and flailed around in a very undignified manner as he put out the flames on his head with Aguamenti while wheeling all over the room on his makeshift roller-skates, falling against a man who then caught on fire himself. And if things couldn't get any worse or more embarrassing, they did when the Summoning Charm hit his hands -- he could feel his wand slipping out of his grip, and as he leaned dangerously forward to grab at it with his free hand, a little girl bumped into him from behind and sent him rolling back towards where the Weasley and the other boy were, then flying through the air as he hit a chunk of the ceiling he had blasted earlier and finally impaling himself on a sharp spike of stone that was lying on the floor as he screamed, very much alive. One of the flaming beetles even scuttled over to pinch him on his little finger, to add insult to injury. With the Death Eater down, George cast a quick Finite Incantatem to free the student he'd locked up and then moved to grab Lee by the arm. "Let's move," he stated. Part of him wanted to go finish the Death Eater off. Wanted one of them at least to pay by his hands for Fred's death... but thinking on it, the emptiness he felt from Fred's absence was beginning to take the fight out of him instead. He grimaced, knowing he needed a break, if not someone to check up on him. After all, he promised Angelina. |