Beginning of the end?

Frank was terrified to see he had almost slept through a battle between the students he had promised to protect. He pulled on a cloak, grabbed his cloak, and took off running down the halls. A few kids were gathering. He heard a soft voice. “Mr Longbottom?” It was familiar. He dug his heel into the ground and turned, spotting Cecily.

She and a group of her friends were peering at him from a corner, obviously in pajamas and terrified. The girls were haunts of his office, and he had learned to sort of favor them. Cecily led the skittish group towards him. “Whats going on?” He put his hands on her shoulders and shook his head. “Get your friends up to their common rooms and hide. Or go to the Room of Requirement. Just stay safe and out of the way.” She nodded and quickly turned. “C'mon, girls, let's go.”

And he was off running again, bursting through the front doors, before turning and casting several locking spells- no students out, no threats in. He headed for the battle, spotting Jess and intent on reaching him. But he spotted something much more important- spiders. And they were taking over a girl.

He reached down and swiped up a heavy stick, more akin to a small log. He quickly lit it on fire and ran to the spiders, whacking them with the fire, brandishing it and yelling, “Ah! Ah! Get back! Ah!” He reached out his free hand and tried to grab the girl by the hand and drag her away.

Simon would have been dead if it had not been for the guardian angel who flew to his rescue and smashed his face into the dirt. He would have been likely to stand there, unmoving, while the spiders surrounded him and overtook him, swallowing him in a wriggling mess of hairy, twitching, trashing legs.

He did not know who it was that did it, but he heard a Shield Charm cast and he felt a a strong force push him to the ground. He fell downward, putting his arms out to catch himself and his face fell into the dirt. He coughed up some grass and said, “Who is it? Who's there?” It seemed his savior was invisible.

Jacob had appeared a second after Jess at the train station he was still smoking his cigar from earlier he threw it on the ground and the placed his broom which he brought with him on the ground. Looking around he saw they were next to the train tracks he wondered why there wasn't a death eater near to keep watch. He fumbled into his pocket for another cigar frowning when he couldn't find one.

He picked up his broom and quickly soared up into the air with Jess and the others that had brought brooms. He watched Jess preform his trick with his broom rolling his eyes until it hit a death eater nearby. He chuckled slightly and dived for the ground but not at the same speed Jess had and not with the same intentions. Personally he just wanted to get the whole ordeal over with.

He landed a few feet from Jess and jumped off just in time as the broom he was on was hit by a spell and was destroyed. Jacob raised his wand and blocked a spell that the same death eater had sent at him. "stupefy" he said nervously sending the red jet of light at the death eater knocking him out on contact. clearly happy the spell worked he looked to see what Jess was up to wondering if there was anything to do to help.

Claudia had taken a Thestral from the Minister's daughter, knowing the beasts were nigh on impossible to track and that it would become useful if, indeed, Grindelwald did pop up later.

She touched down where Caelani was retreating from the last of the Acromantula she'd unleashed onto the school grounds.

"Really, Calli," she reprimanded the Death Eater as she inched forward between the Thestral's shoulder blades to allow her companion room to mount behind her.

Caelani wondered why nobody had ever invented a "levitating oneself" charm, and not for the first time as she awkwardly scrambled up behind Claudia.

"It's for their own good," she answered when she was finally settled. "It'll teach them not to go in there. Remember what happened to that girl when we were in sixth year? She was half digested by the time they rescued her."

The thestral took off at once, carrying both women over the forest and away from the battle.

Jack didn't turn her gaze from Elldir. "Is he with is, Jess? Is this elitist, sadistic man on our side?" She demanded. She used to find Elldir's attitude sort of entertaining, but she drew the line when he had terrorized Ariel and herself for simply being friends, when he had duelled her, when he had forced her to cut lies into her own hand, her own flesh.

At his words, she turned her head. "That's not something I can do, Jess. I can call off PA but then you're stuck with a bunch of Dark Followers that none of you want to attack! Get Frank Longbottom to order the kids around, I can't!" She was not being a bad leader, or obstinate, just being wise. A few may listen to her, but she was more useful dispatching Dark Followers rather than herding ickles.

"Jack," MIchael said, "On my life--I swear to you. Elldir is with us. I'll explain it when its more convenient." He looked up at the two women mounted on the thestral who were flying away. "Damnit! We've been betrayed. Keep alert, Jack. Make sure you can trust who is on those thestrals when they come. If they're not aurors or friends of Robert or Khaat Lupin, kill them--instanly. Don't give them a second chance."

"Thaor! Watch the thestrals!" Michael said. "One of Robert's aurors appears to be a turncoat who just aligned herself with Caelani. We need to take them out if they come back."

At that moment, as he was speaking about shooting the riders off the thestrals, another came into view. It took him a second, but he realized who it was.

"Don't shoot that one. That's Brian. He's on our side. Robert would not like it if we offed his son-in-law." Well, Brian was almost his son in law. Close enough, anyway.

He watched Brian land behind him and dismount. Brian came up on the opposite side of Jack.

"'Bout time, Junior," Michael said.

"Sorry, Mikey. Wanted to make sure Khaat was okay and didnt' need some extra support."

"You have a traitor in your aurors, Junior."

"Who?" Brian asked, even though he wasn't an auror anymore.

"A blond woman. Brought in a thestral, picked up Caelani and left."

"Wandsworth. She was new when I left. I knew of her, but only met her once. That's alright. If she comes back, we'll just take her out."

"Ozzy coming?"

"Yep," was Brian's only reply.

It was a battle he will never forget, James was looking around as he saw Jess. "Jess you are not alone."He said as he gave a grin. He got next to Jess as he looked how the Death Eaters and the Order members were fighting. He saw the spiders. "It is time for my secret weapon."He said as he gave a small grin. He then started to open up the boxes he has been poofing around all the time as he then opened them.

There the animals flew out, getting ready to attack the dark students and the Dark Wizards. He then gave a soft grin. "Let the special beast appear."He said as he then opened the box with the Manticore mother as she got out of it. She unleashed a growl that shiffered the spiders as she unleashed a run to a Death Eater that tried to attack James. She then stabbed him with her tail as the Death Eater disappeared before he would get wounded more.

"Jess the ministry is coming, I have been planning this all."He said giving a grin. "The animals are with us, except the spiders."He said as he then looked at the way of Frank. He was helping a kid, as he went fast to him.

"Frank, we need to safe the kids as much as we can. We don't want them to get hurt."He said. He then duck a spell as he shot a Expelliarmus spell back to it. "Can you fix that up with me?"He asked looking at him, knowing something was going to happen sooner or later.

Louis didn´t know what happened.

Louis ran up to Jack, Louis somehow had gotten knocked out and awaoke and then looked at Jack. He heard her say something.

"That's not something I can do, Jess. I can call off PA but then you're stuck with a bunch of Dark Followers that none of you want to attack! Get Frank Longbottom to order the kids around, I cant."

What cant you do?

Louis shook his head. "Jack, what the hell happened, what´s going on, I got knocked out and thats what happened." Louis explained looking around.

Amelia her heart racing as she wrapped her limbs around Simon and held her wand arm aloft, maintaining the dome-like shield around them through a mixture of defiance and sheer terror. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she was aware of a shooting pain in her left arm, but for the moment, Amelia couldn’t spare the conscious thought to deal with that. She was much more distracted with the enormous arachnids that were attempting to shatter her shield with their very large, very sharp pincers.

The orb Amelia’s spell had created shone pearly white, and each time one of the acromantula attempted to break the shield, jolts of what looked like lightning spread across the surface. They could see the human flesh beneath the surface – namely, Amelia and Simon – and they wanted it. And Amelia wanted nothing more than to be far, far away from here. Simon was coughing beneath her, struggling to turn around and see who it was that had thrown him to the ground and was now holding him there.

“Simon, it’s me, Amelia, now stop squirming” the Ravenclaw girl hissed, wincing at the effort of maintaining the shield. There were four of them now, the acromantula, all taking turns trying to shatter the barrier. One of them was standing directly above Amelia and Simon, attempting to crush the obstacle with its weight, and if Amelia didn’t think quickly, it was going to succeed.

We need to get out… we need a way out… maybe Simon could… no he’s useless, especially now. Think, Amelia, think…

You know what I think, Amelia’s subconscious interrupted as the largest acromantula sent a particularly strong blow to the left side of their enclosure, I think you should have told Doyle to shove it when he proposed you become a defender of Hogwarts.

It’s a little late for that now, Amelia countered, trying to push these what-might-have-beens aside. They weren’t helping anything right now.

A moment later, Amelia saw someone appear about twenty meters away. She couldn’t make out who it was, but that wasn’t what gave her the idea. That person just apparated… Amelia realized, deducing quickly that the protective wards that usually prevented such things must have been destroyed in the battle.

“Can you stand?” Amelia asked Simon, shifting her weight so she was right next to him, but not on top of him. Amelia had never tried apparating while laying down, and she wasn’t keen to try it if she didn’t have to. She would need to cease the protective spell in order to apparate, so as soon as she made the attempt, the acromantula would break through. If she and Simon didn’t disappear as planned, there wouldn’t be much left of them if anyone ever came looking.