InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I'm just doodling."

“I can’t believe you’re actually doing this.” No, that wasn’t quite right. “I can’t believe that I’m doing this!” This was not how she planned to spend her evening. Mind you, her evenings usually consisted of drinking in a cemetery, but everyone had hobbies. “This whole thing is idiotic. The war is over. Can’t we just go back to before?”

Except she knew there was no going back. Madison had made her bed years ago. She wasn’t the hero here, but, damn, she was getting tired of being the bad guy. That might have something to do with the strange prospect of future auntships. Of course it was Alice. Brave, bright, perfect Alice, and her band of plucky vigilantes who wanted to see this shit done and dusted. She could get behind that.

Only then there was Nathan, quite literally at her side. Nathan who always had her back as they navigated this dark and twisted path. Even ones that had them scouting a dragon sanctuary in Wales. “Rodolphus -- sorry, Lord Commander Lesrange -- should just shove off. His wife attacked a hospital. How is he still running free? Or coming at us, like we’re the criminals here.”

"Hmf!," snorted Nathan, all his dismissiveness and superiority wrapped into a single sound. "Blokes like him never pay for what they do. It's much better to be useful to that type than to get in their way.

"Speaking of which, be quieter. Getting arrested for trespassing on a dragon preserve is one of the better possible outcomes." Nathan pulled his hood over his head, dropping his face back into shadows. It was far too warm for the cloak to be practical and Nathan suspected that the "anti-dragon fire" cloak had a money-back guarantee only because of the low survival rate for people encountering dragon fire kept the returns down.

“Gotta say death by dragon, not on the list.” At least she lowered her voice. Madison readjusted her crouch, watching the dragon keepers a few yards away. “So, fair warning, I’m leaving your arse post haste if anything goes south.”

Might as well get this show on the road, then. She closed her eyes and began the chant. Like many skills in her wheelhouse this too was a ghost ritual, more than enough to cause chaos and confusion. She just never attempted it on a pride of dragons.

"I love this one. It's like an anti-boggart." Nathan smirked as he watched the spell take effect. First the keepers seemed edgy then the dragons picked up on it. It could've been from the spell or just reading the emotions of their people. Nathan wasn't much of an animal lover, but he'd spent some time learning to ride, and horses were amazing at reading nervous people.

Nathan couldn't help but add his own touch to the misery, casting a weather-altering charm that made the weather worse. Some dragons loved bad weather, but not a sudden hot and muggy summer storm. If the keepers weren't already being affected by Maddy's spell, they might've thought it was unusual. As it was they were wet and uncomfortable.

The weather and the tempers got worse and eventually two dragons began to fight. The keepers scrambled, including Avery.

"I'll go back to The Centre for more keepers!" he shouted, and apparated out. As the keepers followed the action, Nathan looked over at his sister. "Good. Let's do this now, while he's out."

Madison finished off the ritual with a nice crescendo. Surely enough to give them a solid ten minutes of distraction. That was well within her limits of patience. “Quick in and out.” She took off down toward the outpost. Rather intent on not dying tonight, she easily dodged an errant burst of dragonfire. (So not dying tonight.)

The door was unlocked, really no reason to assume otherwise. The keepers were at work. There were dragons. People didn’t usually wander. Still, didn’t mean she was going to be careless. Charles Avery always made her uneasy. Then again most Beasts people did. She wasn’t exactly keen on going into his office, having a look around and planting an object or two.

“Do you have it?”

Nathan reached into his jacket pocket. Not everyone would wear a suit in this weather, but Nathan had paid a lot to make one that included heating and cooling and he wore it far more often than he should. "Right here. It would be pretty dumb to come all this way out here and not have it. " He pulled out an envelope and tapped it on his forehead. "Behind that picture do you think? Obvious to a DMLE searcher, but not a place Old Avery will look."

The closet door opened and Charles Avery stood there, his wand pointed and his nostrils flaring. "'Old Avery' has seen enough, thank you. Rodolphus warned me you'd try something. Now, before I deal with you, who sent you? Neither of you is smart enough to come up with this on your own."

“Rodolphus!?” Madison repeated. There was started and then quickly aborted colorful words -- “Oh sod this. Throw it!” She lifted her wand hand, swooping it in a well practiced motion with a spark of white light pulling into them. Back up plans were grand. Back up plans that redirected spirits and now dragons into the little outpost. Well, it hopefully created another distraction.

"Rod sent us, traitor!" Nathan knew his role in this and lunged at Avery, taking the stunner to give Madison a clean shot. "Oooof!", he said, but stumbled forward to foul Avery's outstreched wand. He'd prepared for this, even if it meant he wasn't going to be on top of his game until it wore off. He hoped Madison didn't mean it when she said she'd run off. He wouldn't do well against Avery, dragons, keepers, AND whatever Maddy summoned.

The little office building shook like a boat in a storm, and perhaps that's what it was. Avery and Nathan went down in a heap. Nathan was still twitching from the stunner and Avery had not expecting a 200 pound man to fall on him.

Outside there was a terrible roar and it started to get a good deal warmer inside as the roof melted away. Not a storm. Also not a good idea, but those were debates for another day. Avery was pinned under Nathan. “Okay. Exit strategy, Madison. Before the house comes down.”

The ghosts were in full force, wailing. At least the Ministry was slow to respond to these types of events, best to let the dragon keepers sort it out first as long as the dragons didn’t go off reserve.

A large green snake about 12 feet long, thick as a man’s thigh, slithered around the desk. “Stupid girl!” Avery bellowed.

Madison quite literally jumped back into action. She dove to get a hand on her brother and apparate out. And just as she was about to get away (there were promises!) she felt a horrible stinging on her ankle. Oh she was going to have more than words with Rodolphus.

The siblings snapped back to The Park, out near the green houses. They landed prone and none too gracefully.

"Ugh. Thanks for lying to me earlier, also for not splinching us" said Nathan. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. "You OK? I think I broke some ribs landing on his bony old carcass. I'll need some skelegro later."

“No! I am not okay!” She looked around, only vaguely recognizing where they where. Of course she was rather focused on one thing. “I bloody well said the whole thing was idiotic. And now I am going to go tell the Lord Commander what’s what.” Any meager attempt at dignity was long gone when she tried to stand up and wobbled right back down to the ground. “What that--”

Madison shifted so she could pull at the torn and blood soaked trousers. Okay, that looked bad. And once the boot was off, it looked way worse.

Nathan leaned down to examine her injured ankle. "That looks great. It's a snakebite and it's swelling. If we'd been smart, we would've brought a healing potion or two. Want me to wrap it up?" He frowns. "If we'd been smart, Rod wouldn't have successfully set us up."

She hit him. Or rather she tried to hit and didn’t quite land. “Not exactly where I would start.” Madison pulled off her cloak. The world was getting a bit fuzzy around the edges, which wasn’t normal, especially before any alcohol. (And maybe that was the real tragedy here.) She shook it off and focused long enough to solving the not bleeding out part. “Can you help me up?”

Nathan dodged her swing casually. It was slow and half-hearted, but it was the thought that counted. He quickly cast a spell duplicating his shirt sleeve and used it as a makeshift bandage. "I'm gonna make this tight. You really need to get to Mungo’s. I need to see a man about an ambush." His voice dropped when he said the last. "I can't think of anything either of us did to earn his displeasure, so what was this about?"

“Hell if I know the great machinations of a mad man.” Madison hissed, applying further pressure on her ankle. Hospital didn’t sound like a bad idea.

Rodolphus came walking down the path, dismissing Tilly as he approached. He was the king of this little land, wand casually at his side, face schooled. “I can’t say I was expecting visitors, and I can’t tell if we are facing success or failure.” Although in quick assessment, the answer was probably both, it just depended on the metrics.

Nathan moved between Madison and Lestrange. "Avery was waiting for us, it was a trap, Lord Commander. How did he know?" Nathan's wand was out from treating Madison, but not directly pointed at Rodolphus. Yet.

With her off hand, Madison did point her wand Rodolphus. “Did bring back a friend.” And from her wand trickled one last ghostly mirage. Not her best idea, but also not her worst. Unfortunately the little spirit didn’t quite seem to have the vengeful spirit of those left in Wales.

It also wasn’t very difficult to deflect the spirit toward the greenhouses. “Now, now, that’s not very nice.” He turned his wand on Madison.

"Master Rodolphus! The Dowager Mistress wants you to deal with the intruders in the gar-- Ooof!" The interrupting elf caused Rodolphus to swing around and fire his spell through Madison's summoned ghost. It hit the diminutive elf hard and the creature was down and not moving.

Nathan took the opportunity to pull himself and Madison behind a fountain. He wasn't sure he could apparate, and it didn't look like she could, either. First objective break contact with the pursuers, second objective keep contact broken. Nathan looked around trying to see where he could go that would be relatively safe from Rodolphus. He didn't see anything immediately. He lay back against the fountain, catching his breath.

“Are you going to kill him?” Madison leaned on the fountain, using it to prop herself up less she fall again. “You should kill him. Seems fair.” Right now she needed to worry about breathing, trying to calm her racing heart. That might only kill her faster.

Rodolphus wasn’t deterred by the felled house elf, merely annoyed that the Travers had run. He pressed forward, starting the wand work on the transmutation spell to turn the water into acid. Oh how Bellatrix might have loved this.

Nathan heard the spell and recognized it, and realized how precarious his temporary shelter was. When he heard the water start to boil, he popped up and cast "Vertus" into the fountain pool. If Rodolphus wanted to hurt them with the water or with something it was transmuted into, then Nathan would take away his toy. He managed to dodge or deflect the acid that was heading toward himself and turned to see his sister. "We've got to move!"

Okay. The world was definitely spinning and her ankle smarted something horrible. Her limbs flew into a panicked action, reaching for Nathan to help stand back up. Nathan might have had a few stone on her, but Madison could be mighty in all the wrong ways, toppling them both over and into the fountain.

The splash added little to the burst of acid hurling right at Rodolphus. Not that he cared. The acid signed his flesh, burning away at his clothes. It slowed him down, but didn’t stop him. Or the stupefy that he aimed at the siblings.

Nathan went down into the fountain, which was slick from years of algae growth. The remaining acid was diluted by the incoming water, but still stung in his many cuts and abrasions. It was hard to breathe. He managed to get his bearings without crushing his sister's ankle when he took the stupefy curse straight to his head and fell, unconscious, over the side of the fountain.

There was an aborted curse -- the vulgar kind, not magical -- before Madison passed out in the fountain. The little spirit from earlier, rammed straight through one of the glass panes with a shriek, sending shards of glass down on the skin exposed when Rodolphus's clothes were burned by the acid. It buzzed past Rodolphus. Instinctively he tried to brush it off.

Thwip!

His wand hand was wrapped with a nimble and powerful vine, circling down his arm to get better leverage. The spirit pushed through him, causing him to topple closer toward the greenhouse. And another vine. Rodolphus struggled, but had no leverage and no wand; his struggles just made the cuts and acid sting more. Imal was still immobilized and no help either.

It was only a matter of time before he lost the struggle completely and yielded to unconsciousness.

Which was about when Rabbit came out of the house, curious about all the ruckus--and a moment later kicking into a run, hauling his wand out. He slowed as he neared his brother, trained by a lifetime of justifiable paranoia when it came to Lestrange-related flora, giving the severing charm he flicked at the nearest vine just the right little twist to slide serrated through fibrous green matter.

Which may have been a mistake. It sliced through the vine, all right, but that just made the thing angry.

Lucius didn't run, but followed quickly enough with Narcissa beside him. He sighed as he reached the ruined fountain, ruined Tentacula plant, and ruined people. "Rabastan, wait. We'll need to sedate the plant to free your brother. Rodophus, you're probably going to be sedated as well." Lucius looked around and put his other hand on his wife's arm. "We'll clean up here, as well."

Narcissa was looking at the fountain. "What do we have here? You two can deal with sedating the tentacula and freeing Rodolphus and I'll get these two out." She levitated Madison and Nathan out of the acid bath in the fountain. Their robes had protected most of their bodies, but their exposed skin was all burned. "And Rabastan, where do you keep the potions and ointments? I'll need them to deal with these two. And possibly your mother."

Rabbit edged back, eyeing the malevolent plant life. Imal was stuck over there, which still left-- "Tilly!" he called, hoping the elf was at least listening, even if it never wanted to respond to him, "fetch Mo--"

Then he ducked sharpish, as a green burst of light shot overhead and enveloped the flailing vines. Each limb gave a little shiver, and then they settled lethargically to the ground, twitching once before they relaxed and lay still.

At the end of the path, Priscilla Lestrange lowered her wand, and looked over the disaster that had been made of this corner of the grounds. She gave a little sigh, the sound faint but somehow still speaking volumes of her disappointment. "This way, Narcissa. I'm sure the gentlemen can set this to rights."

"Of course," Narcissa said, levitating Nathan and Madison along behind them. They weren't dying; they could wait a moment longer, especially since they were blessedly unconscious.

Rabbit didn't waste any time ducking in to untangle his brother. Sure, the vines were dealt with. For now. You'll excuse him if he's naturally inclined to distrust greenery.

Lucius left his wife to take care of the casualties. Whatever had happened, it was difficult to see how it wouldn't eventually end in a funeral or three. Rather than ducking in to help Rabastan, he used his wand to peel back and unwrap vines from Rodolphus. It looked like he'd also gotten hit by the acid and he definitely had taken more than his share of tentacula venom. Lucius hoped Rodolphus wasn't allergic. He spared a glance for the house elf. Stupefied and bathed in acid, it was a mercy it was unconscious. Lucius levitated Rodolphus up so that Rabbit could finish separating him from his mother's prized plants.

"He really ought to see a healer, but that would have been Mulciber."

Rabbit snorted. "Yeah, thanks but no thanks." He peeled one last tenacious tentacle away with his hand, breaking the contact as quickly as he could and shaking the sting out of his fingers. "Let's get him inside. This way. We keep all sorts of antidotes in the mud hall." It wasn't like someone--whether native to the Park or not--getting a dose of plant-based poison or other sort of injury was precisely a rarity.

Lucius was the voice of reason, but he knew when to allow himself to be overridden. He strolled back towards the house, Rodolphus floating along ahead of him. Lucius took his time, making sure Narcissa had a chance to get the Travers children away from the house. It wouldn't do to have the Second Battle of Lestrange Park occur on the same day as the first.

They entered the mud hall and he laid Rodolphus out like an outsized pheasant on the huntsman's table. "I can help with the acid burns, if you can handle the tentacula venom. Possibly some pain relief as well, if you've any murtlap essence to hand."

Rabbit was already rummaging through the cupboards that lined one wall, the inner door displaying an array of shears ranging from the garden equivalent of embroidery scissors through to a set of arm-long monstrosities. He pulled out what looked for all the world like a small cut-glass decanter and held it out to Lucius. "Murtlap," he said, without looking away from the rest of his rummaging, and eventually coming out with another glass vial, and a roll of green-tinted bandages. He wasted little time getting to work, applying both to the places where Rodolphus had borne the brunt of the plant's attentions, and letting the tincture and treated bandages in combination start drawing out the venom.

Meanwhile Lucius worked at cleaning the wounds, with a light jet of Aguamenti washing the residual acid from Rodolphus's wounds. He would definitely need a healer to avoid some scarring, but most people wouldn't see the damage. Lucius was careful and made sure that any remnants of Rod's robes weren't in the exposed skin. He wrapped the acid-burned flesh in loose bandages with murtlap essence infused in it. "Any idea why they would want to shower each other with acid? It seems … unsubtle."

"I try not to ask personal questions, but it does seem a bit unnecessary," Rabbit said absently, as he checked that he'd got all the tentacular sites. His gaze skimmed over his brother--decidedly the worse for wear, and neither of the Travers' siblings had looked... "Ah. Hm. He had mentioned having something in mind for the family Travers. I doubt this was part of the plan, though."

It was slow at first. Rodolphus was piece by piece aware of what was going around him. Pain was clarifying. Or at least spurring him into more immediate action. Rodolphus shot upright. “My wand! Where is my wand?” Without an answer, the next step was to start swinging.

Without speaking, Lucius and Rabbit each pushed one of Rodophus' shoulders back down onto the table, leaving his legs kicking ineffectually in the air. Lucius said, in his best bedside manner, "Easy friend, you're safe and they're gone. Let us help you. It'll be easier if you relax."

Rodolphus struggled, but wasn’t a match for the pair. Not that he was happy. “If they’re not dead, then no one is safe!” Snappish as the words came, he relaxed his body. This body was broken, hurt, but the mind was still intact. Wand or not there was a play here, it just required patience.

"They're in hand," Rabbit said, not relaxing nearly as much as Rodolphus. It wasn't that he didn't trust his brother right now, it was--well, anyway. "And possibly in even worse shape than you. We've pinned back the acid and the tentacular, anything else that was flying around we should know about?" Which was the important question before they got onto the pressing what the fuck was that about? elephant in the mud-room.

In hand, but not dead. Rodolphus wasn’t sure that worked for him, but then again, all parties involved here seemed more capable than he first assessed. “The girl had a spirit. I think it got into the greenhouse.”

Lucius nodded. "If it interferes with your mother's plants in there, then it won't last long." He gave Rod a once-over. "I think we've taken care of most of your wounds. You should rest, but if we're not safe, you may need to become ambulatory sooner than is prudent, which would probably involve some slightly dangerous potions that are not likely kept in the mud room."

“Where are they?” That was the biggest question. Someone was going to have to go after Avery. That man might not have been smart, but he was heavy handed.

"With Mum and Cissy." Rabbit shrugged, like any further details didn't matter, and honestly, he was pretty confident on the ability of either of those ladies to deal with two half-drowned rats. He shot back: "What happened, Rodolphus? What were they doing here?"

Rodolphus didn’t like that answer, but he knew he couldn’t enact a better solution just yet. “Being a disappointment, apparently.” He shook his head. “They were supposed to deal with Avery. Or at worst case Avery would deal with them.”

"Or perhaps the worst case is even worse than that. Is there more to the story?" asked Lucius. "Surely they didn't merely fail in their mission and pop back round to take a bath in your acid fountain?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I can see you are ready to return to action, despite all medical advice to the contrary, but before you do, I'd like to hear your plan. I imagine Rabastan would as well. Hearing that you have a coherent and possibly effective way to deal with the problems that have arisen would go a long way toward convincing us that you were not still unwell."

“What the plan was does not matter anymore.” It didn’t work, and now there were contingencies. Or there should have been. Rodolphus at his full capacity did masterfully play the long game. “The objectives remain unchanged. One, create trouble for the Travers family. And two: permanently silence Avery. However, I lack significant information about what happened at the Welsh Dragon Sanctuary.”

"Well," Rabbit said, at risk of stating the obvious, "let's see what we can shake out of the other pair before we go sticking out noses anywhere that cantankerous old bastard can bite them off. Stay here, Lucy old chap, and try to keep my brother from getting into even more trouble. I'll go see how the ladies are getting on." And, more importantly, if the Travers siblings were awake, coherent, and well enough to be persuaded to share.