[OPEN/GROUP] End of Year Party, Anyone?

((I apologize in advance for just how many of my characters are in this post)).

Casey had not seen Lily in a long time. Correction. She had seen her. She had spotted her. But she had not spoken to her best friend, her cousin, her sister in so many ways. Not since Lily had dropped off the face of the earth. It was almost a year now. Almost a year of stony silences, of resentment.

But Casey had not abandoned Lily Potter. Every full moon, she watched as Lily crossed the grounds, watching from the Astronomy Tower. Some nights, she fell asleep there so dawn could wake her and she could watch her cousin return.

Casey had accompanied her cousin too many times to feel comfortable with her soul sister's absence. Time passed, and seconds stretched to minutes. Something had gone terribly wrong.

She had first run to the hospital wing, in a mad panic. But then, she remembered their exit strategy, the plan in case something blocked her escape to the shrieking shack or the forest...

Casey began running.


Lily knew Jenna meant well. But she was a prefect. And if she found out, she had to tell someone. The professors would know, her peers, her family, the Ministry. It was sweet, and Lily would apologize to the daughter of her late mother's friend... But right now, she wasn't thinking like rational Lily. The wolf was edging her out.

Jenna was not going to examine her. She couldn't. Lily let out an irritated growl and took a step forward. And that's when her intestines began to shut down.

She let out a howl of pain, and a howl was a pretty good description of the sound that emitted from her lips. Her skin was prickling and crawling, her vision blurring. She cast an eye around her - the broom closet. It had probably been summoned for angsty couples - no one would have thought it would be a werewolf holding cell.

Her spine crackled, forcing her upright and she let out another bellow of pain. Her arms were pounding, pounding, pounding. And suddenly, Ducky was in her face.

"Hey, Potter."

He had meant to grab her, steady her, show her he would take her ailment more seriously. But her surname caused a flash of fury, and her muscles were contracting and twitching. Lily grabbed the front of his short, and with an animal glare, threw him from her body.

No one was more surprised than Ducky at how strong Lily Potter was. The girl was skin and bones, but there was a monster of strength within her. The world spun and he couldn't catch himself. He slammed right into the wall, his nose breaking the fall.

"HOLY F*CKING HELL!" came his scream. Finn let out a terrified gasp and ran to her friends side - blood was pouring from his nose and his eyes were blinking heavily, as though he was losing consciousness. "Jenna!" Finn managed to call.

Lily recognized what she had done. But the beast was laying claim to her body and slowly infecting her mind. She could hear the twins beginning to follow, but she bolted through the crowd, as people dove out of her way, headed for the broom closet.

Finn had turned Ducky around - blood was still seeping from his nose, staining his shirt, which clung to his chest. It was bad. And his nose didn't look like it was in the same place as before...

Lily was a slight girl and she shouldn't have been able to fling a guy Ducky's size across a room. That, along with the body-contorting agony Lily was going through gave Jenna a fairly good idea of what was going on (get everybody out, the back of her mind told her), but she needed confirmation.

She transfigured her boots. Heels were terrible for running in. Sliding to a stop in front of Ducky and Finn, she knelt and siphoned blood from the boy's face.

"You should know how to fix a broken nose by now," she told the Hufflepuff as her wand twirled. "Episkey."

Her wand lit once again and she shone it into Ducky's eyes one at a time.

"You know what's wrong with her?" she asked him casually. "Because if you did and people got hurt because we couldn't get them out of here before... something happened... that could be bad for you."

[ooc: Jack, I went off of the chat we had about Lily, but I can edit this if I need to]

Why was she even doing this?

Katherine couldn't really remember what had made her leave the Hospital Wing and make her way to the Room of Requirement. She had heard about it from Christian but hadn't truly intended to go. But the end of the school year was approaching and she hadn't exactly been interacting with anyone very much lately. So she supposed it was about time that she at least gave it a go.

As she entered the party, however, she was shoved out of the way by someone that she recognized very well. "Lily?" she gasped, stepping to the side. Behind the brunette, Kit saw both Zabini brothers running out the door.

Shaking her head in confusion, Katherine looked around and saw Ducky and Jenna, the latter of which looked utterly unamused. "Jenna-" she attempted, stepping forward timidly. "What in the world's happened?"

---

"Apollo, piss off!" Christian snapped, pushing the elder twin away as they stepped towards the door Lily had just opened and rushed past.

"A closet, Potter? Really?" Apollo questioned loudly, ignoring his brother. "Why won't you just let someone help you for once, Lily?"

Apollo's hand reached for the doorknob, swatting Christian away when the Hufflepuff tried to pry him off of the entrance. "Seriously, mate?" he challenged, glaring at his younger (hardly) brother. "I'm trying to help. Isn't that what you Hufflepuffs do? Just back up and let me get her to the Hospital Wing!"

Finn shook with fear as Jenna hunched over Ducky, and she felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment at the Ravenclaw's words. She was right - and she knew the spell. But the second she had seen that blood gushing from Ducky's face, his nose suddenly off center on that usually handsome face... all thought had fled except for fear and concern. She shook, managing to stutter out the words, "I'm s-sorry." It was evident she was not useful in an emergency.

Ducky let out a groan as his face was righted, and he blinked the blood that was carefully being siphoned off of his face. He screwed up his eyes in confusion at Jenna. He managed a cheeky smile through the pain. "I don't know if you know this, Jenna... But of everyone at Hogwarts, I typically know the lease."

Finn stepped forward, saying, "He doesn't know. She used to..." She shook her head, embarrassed to say it, glancing towards Kit.

"There was lots of drugs. And alcohol," Ducky said. Tentatively touching his nose, he added, "But that doesn't look like a relapse. If it is, I want to meet her dealer."


She was almost at the closet, but a voice reached her itching ears. And, in the last scrap of humanity before the wolf took over her body, Lily felt her heart break. Because there went her last friend.

Lily clamped down on her jaw as her body began to shake and contort. Her neck snapped backwards and her eyes rolled back into her head. All of her pores were opening up, skin crawling in preparation. She felt her shoes beginning to break - typically, she had the chance to strip herself before she transformed. Her nails were itching, and there was an incredibly annoying racket coming from the doorway. With a scream of pain and frustration, she swatted at the elder Zabini twin, nails raking his body.

The door of the Room of Requirement flew open and there was the short figure of Casey Weasley, looking fierce for the tender age of thirteen. She cast one eye around the room and spotted the kerfuffle. She immediately took off for the closet, dodging the arms of people like Finn who were trying to get her out of the way of danger. Being small had its advantages.

She pushed the Zabini boys out of the way in time to see Lily, moments from being fully transformed. Casey slammed the door on the wolf, concentrating as she magically locked the door. She turned around, back against the door.

"We should probably get out of here," she said.

The gig was up, Lily. The gig was up.

((I've already gotten permission from Linds to scratch Apollo).

Jenna glanced at Katherine.

"I'll tell you later," she said. "We need to evacuate the Room."

She turned back to the duo by the wall as Ducky spoke.

"You didn't know she was a werewolf?" she asked, disbelief etched across her features. "Then why were you trying to waylay me?"

There wasn't enough time for anyone to answer before her hand hit her forehead.

"No, I've got it. You thought I'd dob you in about the drugs. Because that wouldn't make me look bad at all, you idiots."

Abruptly, Jenna stood and surveyed the scene. The doors to a closet behind Casey Weasley strained against their hinges, while the girl ordered everyone out of the room.

"I agree. Everybody out."

"Someone needs to watch Ducky, he has a concussion," she added. Perhaps if she didn't insist on his going to the Hospital Wing immediately, they'd be more trusting in future.

What the actual f*ck was happening?

Apollo's chest felt like it was on fire, and he doubled over just as another student came up to shut the closet door. If the Slytherin hadn't been so distracted, perhaps he would have bothered finding out who it was. Christian noticed, though, and wasn't naive enough to miss the connection between the two girls.

All the younger brother knew was that the cut was way too deep to allow his twin to come out of everything just fine. Not if they didn't do something about it. They needed a professor. They needed a healer, preferably. But a professor at the very least. Looking around, Christian's eyes settled on someone he felt he could trust to get the job done.

"Finn!" he called, noting that Jenna seemed to have a good handle on the situation with Ducky. As much as he loathed taking her away from her best friend - or, Christian assumed Ducky was her closest one - while he was injured, surely she would help him now that his brother was bleeding through the rips in his shirt? "We need a professor. Arryn's office is just down the hall. See if he's there, would you?" He asked, gesturing to Apollo's chest as the Slytherin doubled over.

[ooc: Selwyn, if you want Jenna to take a look at the cuts, that's chill. But I'm bringing Declan in, and the goal is that Apollo is messed up pretty bad. Probably needs dittany or something like that. Basically, he'll need to be shoo'd off to the hospital wing, preferably.]

Finn looked up at Christian, and found the strange urge to argue - an urge rare within her frail body. There on the ground was the human she worried for and cared for the most, and she was being asked to step away. But one look up and her eyes fell upon the pained expression of Apollo Zabini, blood dripping to the ground. She turned pale and looked to Ducky, trying to tell him she would be back soon, but only managed to mouth the words. She tore out of the room and turned down the corridor.

She had barely taken a few steps when she ran smack into the Gameskeeper, Dom Weasley. "Please - Room of Requirement-" was all she managed to get out before running down the hall, skidding to a stop outside of Declan's office. She knocked rapidly, her breathing shallow, and pushed the door open. "Please, I think - there's a werewolf in the Room of Requirement."

Casey had turned to Apollo, looking at him in fear. Her eyes darted to Christian and she said, "That may be a very lasting injury." Her face was full of seriousness, and she felt her stomach twisting. If Lily had just turned her first victim, it was going to devastate her.

She heard Ducky groaning to Jenna, "Why the f*ck would I know that? You're a prefect - of course, I panicked." Casey felt a heavy thud against the door and she screwed her eyes tight. "We need to go!"

"What the f*ck is going on here?!" Dom Weasley stared around the room in confusion, concern beginning to grow within her features. "I just ran into Grimm and she was babbling like an idiot." Casey cursed under breath just as Dom spotted her. "Casey?"

The door jolted behind her and she winced. "Hello, cousin. Can we please work on getting people the hell out of here?"

"You're her friend," Jenna shrugged. "Isn't sharing secrets what friends do?"

It was what her parents had done, she knew. It was hard to live in the close confines of the Hogwarts Houses without things, even things held close to the chest, becoming known.

One of those things had been Terry's substance abuse problem. Jenna was well acquainted with it, because it had started out in the form of calming draughts taken when he joined up with Dumbledore's Army and the real, true, unadorned story of the reign of Snape and the Carrows was told in the Boot-Corner household every anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts.

When Terry told the story, he made it sound shameful and awful and like he ought to have been strong enough to stop himself. This was the version she most often heard and considering how much of a perfectionist Terry was, his rendition was unsurprising.

But Michael was a healer. In fact, everyone in Michael's family were healers; even his squib sister who was a special healer for muggles.

When Michael told the story (or when Terry had and he got her alone afterwards), he always made sure to emphasise that the members of Dumbledore's Army had enabled Terry. None of them, not even himself, had tried to get him off the potions, or even spoke to him about it. They'd just pretended they didn't know, because Terry was brilliant and they needed his mind.

So regardless of her official position, Jenna was hardly the first person to judge people's habits. Sure, she thought doing Spice (and let's face it, that's probably what he was talking about) was stupid, but she didn't know all the facts.

"You need to get out, now," Jenna informed the Gryffindor. "Make sure you don't fall asleep before you get that checked."

One of the Zabini twins was bleeding where Lily had clawed at him. Hopefully just a scratch, but Jenna didn't know enough about healing or werewolves to make a reliable guess.

"Let me see?" she requested, although in a tone that indicated she would look regardless of whether he let her see or not.

"You might have to be isolated as well."

Declan looked up sharply when the Hufflepuff's knock sounded and the door opened. It wasn't all that late, and he had a round of essays he had to grade before their actual professor returned to give their final exams of the year. He had assigned the topic, so it was up to him to give them their marks. But he didn't take more than a moment to push his chair back and follow Fiona down the hallway. He strode into the Room of Requirement, ready to force out anyone else who might have been in there.

He halted in the doorway, though, catching sight of a student on the floor and the woman he cared the most for standing in front of a closet that looked like it was about to burst open. The danger was still present, but they had an injured student to worry about.

"Everyone stop," he shouted, stepping forward. "If you aren't related to this student, or whoever is in that closet," he added, gesturing with a pointed finger towards the door, "get back to your rooms. Or get to the hospital wing," he added, glancing at Baker. "Thank you, those of you who tried to help. But right now we need to diffuse the situation and make sure Apollo is alright.

"Jenna," he turned to the prefect. "Can you get Baker looked at? I'm not sure we should move Apollo," he added in Dom's direction. Declan couldn't quite look at her, but he supposed it was a decent start.

"Lily Potter doesn't talk to anyone," Ducky snapped, really feeling the affects of the recovering nose. He blinked heavily as Finn dropped back down to his side.

The name Lily Potter caught the blonde Weasley's attention. "Lily Potter?" she repeated, spinning around. Was that who was in the closet? Who had hurt everyone? What was going on?

Dom felt a invisible for a moment, as no one seemed keen to pay her any mind besides her cousin. So this is where she initially focused. "What is going on, Casey?" She cast an eye around her, spotting Baker who looked about to pass out, and the Zabini boy was losing blood. She turned again to see a very familiar face stepping into the room.

Oh, Merlin. Of course. OF COURSE DECLAN WAS HERE.

She tried to stay cool and collected as she crossed the room towards Casey, who shuddered beneath the shaking door. She shook her head and pointed to Apollo.

"Can I look?" Dom said. She wasn't much of a Healer, but she enough from Victoire to know a serious injury from a minor one. And as she checked out Apollo's injury, she knew she was dealing with the former.

"He was scratched-" Casey said, looking very serious. "Werewolf."

Dom looked at the closet. If Lily was in there... And it was a werewolf problem.

She REALLY did not want to get into that right now. She turned, looking about and felt her eyes lock with Declan. Declan would help, would know what to do. And despite everything that had happened between them, she was glad he was there. "We need dittany - for Apollo."