Blaise Alexandros Mordred Zabini (widows_child) wrote in unforeseen_rpg, @ 2007-09-17 22:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | blaise, draco, harry, neville |
Potions Run (Flashback)
Who: Blaise Zabini, Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom & Professor Slughorn
Where: Hogwarts
When: May 22nd, 1998, middle of the night / early morning (Flashback)
What: The boys meet up and head to Ol' Sluggy's office to replenish the hospital's potion supplies; The Inferi get in the way; Slughorn is his sluggy, self-serving self
Notes: More Inferi!
Status: Complete
~ ~ ~
Blaise made his way out of the hospital wing, heading swiftly towards the stairs to head down a level to Slughorn's office. The old Slytherin probably wasn't there, but it was the best place to start the search for him, and at least Blaise could grab some of the Potions Master's stash to resupply the hospital. It seemed that the Inferi hadn't headed in this direction yet, but the stairs were unlikely to be completely clear. He arrived at the landing and saw heading downwards two welcome figures, Draco and Harry. Thank goodness, competent people.
Draco was so keyed up that he nearly hexed Blaise, pointing his wand at him before he recognised him. He took in his singed and soot-covered state. "They are down here too?" he asked.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked, lowering his wand again as he stepped up to Blaise. "Have you seen anyone else along the way?"
"The Inferi attacked Slytherin," said Blaise bleakly. "Neville Longbottom and I managed to fight them off. There are some dead, and a couple injured. Some idiot hit Theo with a stray spell. He's in the hospital wing right now." He ran a hand through his sooty hair in frustration, remembering what he was doing. "I'm fine," he said to Harry belatedly. "Nev is going to try to find McGonagall, figure out what's going on. I need to find Slughorn, and get more potions for the hospital. They're running out."
Draco took in the information. "Were both dorms hit? We found Inferi on the stairs, but... Death Eaters in the library," he explained.
"With Dementors..." Harry looked around quickly, not putting his wand away just yet. "Do you think there are anymore? We got rid of a good few, but, they just kept coming out of nowhere."
"I don't know," admitted Blaise. "There were so many of them, and there are a lot of wounded in the hospital wing. There could be lots more for all I know." Death Eaters. Always the fucking Death Eaters. This was supposed to be over now. The war was supposed to be done with. He sighed, leaning against the bannister of the stairs, and saw another form coming up towards them.
Neville was approaching cautiously, looking over his shoulder when he heard the voices from further down the stairwell. He gripped his wand tightly as he edged closer, relaxing only when he saw the familiar figures. He nodded his greeting. "You lot alright?" He kept looking around as he spoke, keeping watch for any threats just in case.
Draco nodded. "So far," he said. "How is Theo?" he asked Blaise.
Harry raised his wand again when he saw yet another person coming up the stairs, sighing in relief when he saw that it was Neville. But that only reminded him of the other Gryffindors. Were they attacked as well? "Have you seen anyone else, Neville? Ron, maybe? I wasn't in dorms...I don't know if everyone's all right..." He felt responsible for their lives, berating himself for deciding to go out this particular night. But at the same time, if he wasn't in the library, Malfoy might've been killed without his help.
"Theo is alright," Blaise said quietly to Draco. "He's not great, but he's stable, Goldstein says. When this is all over I'm going to hex the bits off whoever hit him with that stray blasting spell." He glowered at the memory of it.
Neville shook his head. "No, haven't seen Ron but I'm sure he's fine. He's a good fighter. He'll have kept them together." Neville sent a reassuring smile Harry's way. "I let Professor McGonagall know what happened down in the Slytherin dorms. She's called in Ministry and Order reinforcements." Neville looked over to Blaise. "I gave her the list."
Draco shifted nervously, glancing up and down the stairs. "They Apparated in, the Death Eaters," he added. "That means there could be more of them."
Harry nodded, still feeling responsible if anything did happen to Ron or anyone else. "If there are anymore, we'll fight our way through them. You all know that fire works against them." He glanced at Blaise's and Neville's clothes. "Yeah, you know. And the same with the Death Eaters. Though, I doubt there are anymore, since those two just Apparated into the library for a reason. They were getting books."
"Look, ignore the Death Eaters for now," said Blaise. "Help me hit up Slughorn's office. Whether he's there or not, he'll have potions that the hospital can use, and they need them badly."
Neville looked thoughtful for a second. Death Eaters stealing books? Granted that Hogwarts had an extensive library but what was it that they could only get here. Well, what were they willing to risk detection for? Neville's mind was ticking over. He made a mental note to see if there was a way to track the books taken later.
Pulling himself back to the moment, he spoke. "Slughorn's office is a good idea. Even if he doesn't have potions, he's got the ingredients to make them."
Draco took a deep breathe and nodded. "Let's go then," he said, turning to begin down the stairs. His wand glowed, lighting the way and he made sure the others were with him before he went far.
Harry followed close behind Malfoy, his wand lit as well. He couldn't hear anything else but the sounds of their steps and that was slightly upsetting to Harry. He didn't know how many people were really hurt or who needed help.
Keeping his own wand at the ready, Blaise trailed along close to Harry and Draco, glancing around nervously. Inferi were maddening creatures, and when they weren't dragging their bloated bodies along a surface they were eerily silent. As they went down the stairs, they turned to go into the corridor leading towards Slughorn's office, and Blaise saw shapes moving in the darkness in front of them. "Stop," he whispered.
Neville kept tight to the wall as he moved along with them. He was listening carefully for the distinctive shuffle of steps. He was just about to speak when Blaise whispered. Neville stopped, wand pointed at the figures in front of them, waiting until the figures came closer to the light to start casting.
Draco was in front, so he stepped to the side, making sure that if any of the others fired, they wouldn't hit him. "Who is there?" he said quietly, just in case they weren't Inferi but injured people.
Harry couldn't exactly tell if they weren't regular people or not, but it soon became known once they stepped into the light of their wands. He cursed and raised his wand, glancing around at the others. "Ready..."
"Incendio!" barked out Blaise, flourishing his wand and sending a bright gout of flame heading towards the undead moving towards them. They'd apparently been battering at the door of Slughorn's office. Clearly someone was inside if the Inferi were trying to get in, and that someone was likely the professor. It figured he'd bar the door and hope the things would go away. That was so like him.
"Incendio!" Neville echoed Blaise's cry as soon as he heard it. The spell hit one of the creatures in front of them and engulfed the creature in flame. The light was more than enough to see how many of the creatures they were facing.
Draco sent a Reducto into a flaming corpse, shattering it into pieces before it could come at him with it's flaming arms. He glanced over at Harry, finding it oddly reassuring to be fighting alongside the man instead of against him.
Harry yelled incendio along with them, walking forward as he spoke. He managed to look around where the crowd of them were standing, noticing that it was the door to Slughorn's office. "Why were they all crowded around there!" he yelled, waving his wand at yet another one of the creatures. "Slughorn should at least do something..."
As the Inferi moved en masse towards the boys, the door to the office flew open as if on cue, and the large frame of Professor Slughorn came out, wand at the ready. Without speaking, the old man called up the same flaming serpent spell that Blaise had used earlier and sent it spinning into the crowd of undead. "Keep them away from me, boys!" he shouted, and Blaise nodded at him and hissed a cutting spell at the legs of an Inferius shambling towards the Potions Master, cutting it down before it could reach him.
Neville frowned but started casting faster, cutting hexes coupled with incendio's. He had to admit to being a little confused at Slughorn's behaviour.
Draco added his own spells to the others, crouching to keep from hitting others or being hit. He let them catch the creatures on fire and the blew them apart. It was messy.
Harry frowned as well, wondering why Slughorn wasn't doing more to help them. But either way, he worked with the others to burn the rest of the inferi until there was only one left, stumbling around as if it didn't know what to do next.
Slughorn lashed his whiplike strand of fire a final time, engulfing the lone Inferius and watching in satisfaction as it crumbled to dust. He sighed and sagged against the wall, his bulky chest heaving. "I only just was able to get away from them," he gasped, fanning himself. "Barricaded myself in my office. Far too many of them for me to take on by myself. I'm glad you showed up, my boys."
Blaise stepped around the smouldering remains of the Inferi to come close to the shaking old man. "Are you alright?" he asked. Slughorn nodded and patted Blaise's shoulder.
Neville moved, taking up a covering position. It looked like the Slytherin common room hadn't been an isolated event. Who knew how many of these things there were around the castle. He spared a quick glance back to the Professor. "Where were you when they started following you?"
Slughorn muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'heading back from the kitchen'.
Draco stood up and dusted himself off. He didn't put away his wand. "We came for potions for the Hospital Ward," he said.
"Ah, excellent idea," said Slughorn, pushing himself off the wall and leading the boys into his office. Blaise was once again amazed at just how quickly the old man could move when he wanted or needed to. With a few murmured spells, Slughorn threw open several locked cases in the opulent chamber. Shining vials and flasks lined the shelves, all neatly labelled. "Take them," said Slughorn, pulling them down and packing them into a few smallish bags he took from a cupboard. "There aren't a lot, but I suppose anything helps at a time like this." He sighed and shook his head. "Inferi in Hogwarts. I never thought I'd see the day."
Neville moved closer to the door as the Professor and Blaise moved inside, still on alert. The burning bodies were giving just enough light to see that the corridors were empty. He took the time to glace over Draco and Harry and make sure that they were unharmed. Everyone looked uninjured. That was twice that they were lucky. He hoped that they wouldn't run into another batch of Inferi between here and the infirmary.