A/N: Again in my AU, though this is actually at the end of the fifth book anyway so you never know. My guess is that the North American schools go longer into the summer than Hogwarts due to the fact that they kinda run on a university schedule—having almost a month off for winter break, so this might be a couple weeks after Hogwarts has gotten out, but Dragontongues is approaching final exams (oh, and during Harry's 5th year, so just about when Voldie makes his reappearance). Ah well, let me know what you think. Oh! And most strange objects mentioned are Nathan and Jasene's inventions.
"Say it!" Jasene Porter said, a grin on her tired face. "C'mon, say it!"
"Oh alright, fine!" Fred Weasley groaned as he finished buttoning his shirt. "This invention of your's is near brilliant."
"Near brilliant?" Jasene echoed, raising an eyebrow at the glass surface of the hand mirror. "You're just ticked because I thought of it first."
Fred made a face, but a smirk crept to his lips. "Well you wouldn't have thought of it if I didn't tell you about Sirius's."
"Oh please!" Jasene said, rolling her eyes. "If nothing else fairy tales had more inspiration."
At that Fred burst out laughing, which resulted in balled-up socks being thrown at his head.
"Stuff it, you moron!" someone shouted from out of view. "S'too early for this."
Jasene held in a giggle, glancing around her happily empty livingroom where she was laying across the couch on her stomach. That was one thing she liked about Dragontongues better than Hogwarts, even though the twins had run away from their school at least two months ago. At Hogwarts the students lived in dorm rooms for all seven years. At Dragontongues, once they got to their sixth year they stayed in small apartments attached to the campus, making the school resemble something of a muggle college. Currently her three roommates were sound asleep in either of the two bedrooms. Each of the Weasley twins, though, had issues sleeping if there wasn't someone else in the room anyway.
"Hello, George!" she called into the mirror.
A freckled face that was nearly identical to Fred's craned over the top of the image, grinning though there were small bags under his eyes. "Morning, Jase!" Fred's twin greeted her with a cheerful salute. "Shoulda known you were the one makin him act like an idiot."
George let out a yelp at Fred's retaliation (a loud wack on his head). Jasene barely held in her laughter as the twins battled it out for dominance of the mirror. But even laughter couldn't keep the yawn from escaping her, just in time for the twins to see.
"Lookit her, Fred!" George cried out, with a final shove. "You're ruining her ability to sleep as much as mine!"
"Oh shut up, ya nosey git!" Fred said, shoving him back. It wasn't until she heard George leave the room that Fred turned back to the mirror. "Maybe you should get some sleep," he said, a sheepish blush on his cheeks. "I mean, you have exams in the morning, don't you?"
Another yawn escaped her, but Jasene smiled. "Yeah, but I like the sound of your voice too much."
Fred's face broke into a broad grin. "Yeah, I know," he said in a lower register that made her giggle. "But I'm thinking we should save the wee hours for when you're here on Friday."
Jasene's heart fluttered as she smiled back. "But that's three days away!"
"Two days, Love," he corrected with a chuckle as he pulled a golden tie to hang under the collar of his grey shirt.
"Still too long," she said, resting her chin on her arm as they smiled at each other.
Then she heard it—and felt it. Something had just broken, in a big way.
"Jase?" Fred asked, looking concerned as she pushed herself up to look out the window. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know," she answered slowly, seeing little but the moonlit grounds. "It sounds like—."
The earth shook and Jasene let out a swear. Instantly the bedroom doors were flung open.
"Ot ne ell us nat?" was Melissa Stonewood's incoherent demand as she stumbled into the room.
"Jasene? Melissa?" Bonnie's panicked voice called from further down the hall.
"Is everyone ok?" Kitari asked, her jet black hair a mess.
"Jase, what's going on?" Fred's voice asked.
"Weasley?" Melissa asked, blinking down at the small frame.
Jasene, though, let out a scream and ducked with barely enough time to dodge a bright flash of light that exploded on the kitchen cabinets.
Any tiredness that had been in the four girls vanished. Their screams filled the room mingled with Fred's demands to know what was going on. Slowly other shouts came from surrounding apartments and more spells wreaked havoc through the apartment windows.
"Get your wands," Jasene commanded, keeping low as a sickly green ball of light burst mere inches above her head. She flinched and grab the mirror containing Fred. "Something's wrong."
The others nodded and managed their way back to the bedrooms without anyone's typical snappy come-back.
"Jasene! Talk to me!" Fred's voice called out anxiously. "Are you alright?"
She looked down at the mirror once she'd made it to the room she and Melissa shared. His face seemed paler and his tie was still hanging from his neck untied.
"I'm fine," she said, knowing her eyes were betraying her uncertainty.
"What happened?"
"I don't know," Jasene said, forcing her senses to come back. She quickly deposited the mirror on her pillow so she could change into whatever she grabbed—the white baby doll shirt and black capris she'd changed out of barely four hours ago.
"Security's shot," Melissa reported, distractedly pulling on a pair of blue jeans. On her desk she had an open communication garphunkle projecting a hologram of Jasene's twin brother. Nathan's expression was grim and he continually looked to the side.
"Apparently someone's tripped the system," his echoy voice reported. "Don't know who yet, but—."
Nathan dodged something the girls couldn't see.
"Nathan, who is it?" Jasene demanded, pulling on her silver designed robe on. "Who's attacking?"
"Who else?" he responded. "Death Eaters."
Melissa and Jasene exchanged shocked glances before staring at Nathan.
Then the hologram shorted.
"Nathan?" Melissa called, her voice sounding dry.
"Nathan!" Jasene shouted, eyes widening in terror.
"Jase!" Fred's voice shouted. "What's happening? What'd he say?"
"Death Eaters," Jasene said quickly and reached for the mirror. "I'm sorry, I have to go!"
"What? No—."
"I'm sorry, Fred," Jasene repeated, then cast a spell to end the mirror's call. She stared at her simple reflection for a moment, still knowing exactly how Fred's face had looked before she'd cut him off, then turned to Melissa and tied back her golden hair.
"We have to find him," she said simply.
Melissa nodded in agreement. She might have broken up with Nathan, but the two had remained friendly enough to show that the dark girl still cared about him.
...
Getting out of the apartments wasn't easy. Other upperclassmen hadn't been as ready to dive into battle and were still running in pandemonium. A good number, though, were only steps behind Jasene and her roommates as they ran toward the stairs, through all forms of debris.
"Jasene!" a familiar voice shouted as they joined those in the stairwell.
A firm hand gripped her arm reassuringly and Jasene managed a small smile at her brother's best friend. "Tony—where's Nathan?"
The taller boy shook his head, a grim expression on his handsome face. "I was the only one in our apartment," he said, pulling Jase out of the way as the next landing's door swung open and more students joined them. "Davis is still home for his Grandma's funeral. Mark's missing entirely."
"Missing?" Melissa repeated on the steps behind them as they continued to run.
She and Jasene exchanged a glance. Neither of them were that fond of Mark recently, ever since Tony and Jasene had ended their possibilities of a relationship (a situation involving Fred Weasley, actually) Mark had taken every opportunity to harass her.
"Nathan must be out there already," Jasene said, taking a second to close her eyes.
Without missing a beat, her friends kept her upright as they sped down the last set of stairs. It was a strange practice to most, but Jasene had a connection with her twin—one that bordered telepathy. If there was a way to find him, she would.
But all she could sense was darkness.
C'mon, you idiot, her thoughts screamed to him. Help me find you!
Slowly, as though seeing through his eyes, the early morning sky came into focus... along with a corner of the school's main building.
"South... south east corner," Jasene gasped, her eyes snapping open. "He's down."
Tony's face darkened with concern. "Let's go."
Melissa and Jasene nodded quickly, darting across the apartment building's lobby to its large security doors.
"Tony!" a nasally voice shouted after them, making them briefly stop to look up. Rachel Ramone was at the top of the last set of stairs, glaring down at them. "What's going on?" she screeched. "And why are you with her?"
Jasene turned to Tony with an expression she'd begun to use frequently when Rachel was around, plainly saying "Seriously? You went to that after me?"
This time, instead of a sheepish shrug as a response, Tony's eyes left Jasene's to go to Rachel with a glare to match the shorter girl. "Grow up, Rachel," he said firmly. "You and I are over. I told you that yesterday."
Rachel's jaw dropped, several students who'd been listening looked around in confused surprise. Jasene and Melissa's jaws dropped. Tony, though, merely turned back to the door, pushing it open and shoving his two friends through before he followed them into the night.
Jasene would have made a comment, but the scene outside stopped all words in their tracks. Hundreds of wizards and witches who work masks with strange black robes where waging a spectacular attack against the students, faculty, and staff of Dragontongues School for Witches and Wizards.
"Watch it!" Tony shouted, shoving her down into a crouch, saving both her and Melissa from a stray spell. Without missing a beat, he turned and fired his own curse at the attacker, sending the man twitching to the ground.
"So there was a reason we had defense exercises," Melissa breathed.
"Guess so," Jasene said, pulling her friend to duck behind a building.
"Looks like Tony's occupied," Melissa said, nodding back to their friend who'd taken up a duel with a Death Eater who'd taken a liking to firing upon those trying to get out of the apartment building.
"He's top of our class, he can handle it," Jasene said, fighting the instincts that told her to stop and help him. "I need to get to Nathan."
Melissa nodded, turning her gaze further up the hill where the school's main building loomed atop a slight hill.
...
Nathan blinked at the sky, trying not to breath deeply. Whatever spell he'd been hit with, obviously Nathan wasn't supposed to be alive. But he was and, for one of the few times in his life, he was actually happy that he could change his body to metal. With any luck it would keep him from losing too much blood before Jasene could find him.
He'd felt her contact him, her voice screamed in his head as he felt her getting closer. But there was no way to respond. All his efforts were focused on keeping his torso the stiff metal and the rest of him normal. Somehow he figured the day would be worse if the Death Eaters found out he was a carrier of the Gems of Merlin.
It wasn't easy, and the sky was starting to swim in and out of focus. Was one of the trees looming closer?
Nathan blinked and a wave of panic hit him. Trees didn't wear skull shaped masks.
Standing over him, his wand raised high, was one of the Death Eaters that had lead the attack. "You live?" the Death Eater said, sounding confused. "Not for long."
The Death Eater started to move his arms, but his face lit up for a brief moment before a blazing spell hit him square in the chest. The spell's force knocked him a clean five feet away, where he remained motionless on the ground.
Nathan attempted to twist enough to see his savior, but a hand gently turned his face upward again. He stared and tears of relief pooled into the corners of his eyes.
Jasene's own tears had already worked themselves loose and were trickling in steady streams down her face, looking strangely like diamonds against her skin as a gold glow pulsated from her. She leaned over to give him a brief kiss on the cheek before moving her hand to his chest.
Instantly he felt the warm sensation that came along with the effects of the gem she carried. Without much of any knowledge, Jasene had been the school's top healer since she was twelve.
As her hand moved, Nathan let go of his metallic form, finally able to breath easy again. The dizziness left his head and he looked at his twin sister with a renewed fondness only to frown in concern as he saw the strain this healing put on her. He pushed himself up on his elbows as he felt the tissue repair itself.
"Nathan, don't sit-."
"I'm good," he assured her. "Save your strength. We'll need you."
Jasene hesitated, but nodded and the glow around her reduced to a faint outline. Then he saw it. She looked like she'd been through hell. The sleeves of her personally designed robes were torn and cuts covered her arms and legs. A deep gash was still bleeding below her cheekbone.
He grabbed hold of her wrist and moved into a little alcove by the door, his eyes going wide in surprise as they did. Her hand had an uncountable amount of small but deep cuts on it.
"I'm good," she echoed his response as his questioning eyes met her's. "They've got new spells. Alot of them cut, a few of them burn."
"Where's everyone?" Nathan asked, trying to keep a focus.
Jasene looked out to the battle raging across the school yard. "I lost them in there," she said, the sound of tears creeping into her voice. "Melissa was covering us a few seconds ago, though. But now I don't know where she is..."
Nathan stiffened. "C'mon," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "They're gonna need us out there."
Her large blue eyes looked at him pained.
"You, Me, Tony, and Melissa—we're the top of our team," Nathan assured her, making his cocky smirk come to his face. "We've had to face ourselves and Amanda Stark in T2. With all teams together, we can take these bastards no problem."
Jasene gave a small laugh and she used a small corner of her shirt that wasn't covered in dirt or blood to wipe her eyes. "Alright," she said, smiling. "Let's kick it."
Nathan's laugh sounded out of place, but with his sister by his side and hearing her use a phrase their younger sister often used—he was ready to take on any Death Eater, if not You-know-Who himself.
"Hey!" Tabby's voice reached them seconds before she appeared, looking just as battered as Jasene but some how entirely ecstatic. "Get out here, you're missing all the fun!"
The twins shared a grin that mirrored their younger sister's, though Jasene's was far more watery, and nodded before Nathan took the lead and fired a wordless spell at the nearest Death Eater, effectively saving a seventh year who'd had her back turned. When she saw them, the seventh year let out a cheer and plunged into the fray.
The Porters weren't far behind her, taking on duels with a determined execution as they went. Tabby, whether it was due to her love of battle or the Gem of Merlin she possessed (which granted her unlimited telepathic abilities as well as an almost metamorphic condition), was slicing through nearly triple the amount of Death Eaters as anyone else.
Jasene's attention, though she was fighting with accuracy and using her gem in way she'd swore not to, was on finding her friends. Each time a student passed by her she'd take a mental tally whether she knew them or not. By 4:30 AM, she'd found her roommates and half of her classmates—most were fighting valiantly, some were helping injured students find a place to hide, others were keeping those fourteen and under out of the way. Some were wounded.
A few were dead.
She took every chance she could get to help the upperclassmen healing students and professors as they dealt with those being brought off the field, but somehow a Death Eater would attack, interrupting the process and pulling her into a duel.
"Oh my god," she gasped the muggle phrase, stepping away from the Death Eater she'd defeated as she pocketed his wand. Not far away a scene that took only a few seconds before her eyes froze her with shock. A woman with wildly unkempt hair had removed her mask, cackling madly as she fired upon a group of overwhelmed fifth years.
Jasene forced herself across the field, aiding her classmates when she could, but not taking her eyes off of the strange woman. She hadn't been the only one to see the problem, though. Before Jasene could get there, Tony and Tristan had come forward their spells protecting the younger students and knocking the witch flat on her back.
"Tony, get 'em out of here!" Tristan shouted, taking out one of the conquered wands he'd collected along with his wand as the witch started to rise again.
Tony hesitated, then he nodded and Jasene watched him run the students back toward the school's main building. A spell knocked Jasene sideways, leaving a deep gash on her forearm. She turned to see her attacker be blown backward by a green spell.
Looking up, she was surprised to see Scott Bendole already crouching to check on her. "Status?"
"Cuts. Nothing broken. You?" she asked.
"Sprained wrist," he reported, firing off a spell with his left hand. "Can you help me out?"
Jasene nodded and quickly pressed glowing fingers to his right wrist. Scott let her work for a moment then flexed his hand before switching his wand to its proper place.
"Thanks," he said and helped her up. "Have you seen Brian?"
"No," Jasene admitted. "But I'll place money that he's with Tabby."
Scott managed a smile, his trouble-causing younger brother did have a strange love for Tabitha Porter. Jasene forced Scott to move, making a curse narrowly miss his head which hit a Death Eater further away instead.
"Thanks again," he breathed, then gave her another flash of a smile before he ducked further into the fray.
Jasene quickly turned, trying to find Tristan again, but the cackling witch was nowhere to be seen though her laugh echoed across the field. She worked her way to the edge of the battle, happily noting that there weren't even half as many Death Eaters as before—clearly they weren't prepared to face students who'd been schooled on defensive battle.
The battle field seemed to be shrinking down, leaving bodies and wounded around the perimeter. Staff and healing students were still rushing to save all those they could get to. Faculty and the best fighters were still taking the opponents by the throat.
"So much for Voldie being a threat," Tabby's voice chided in Jasene's mind, making her smile.
Her smile quickly vanished, though, as her eyes settled on a still form on the ground not too far away. Wavy dark hair was sprawled over the girl's arm.
Jasene ran to the form, turning the girl as she knelt next to her. Her stomach dropped.
"Juliet," she gasped, cupping the girl's face.
But her friend's eyes had no light in them and could give no response.
"No," Jasene's voice barely came out as a whisper as she felt her eyes start to moisten. Before any tears could come, though, she recognized who Juliet had died with. His chestnut hair fell across his determined gold eyes made him all the more handsome, but Tristan's skin was already pale and growing cold.
Jasene forced herself to her feet, covering her mouth as added insurance that she wouldn't be sick while she walked away. A high pitched cackle ringing in her ears. That witch. That insane witch had killed them.
A strange feeling of something stronger than anger filled her mind, but Jasene pushed the emotion down. She'd seen why Tristan had taken on that particular witch, now she needed to make sure Tony got them out of harm's way.
Darting up the low hill, Jasene could see a small group of students being held at bay by a witch with out of control hair. At the front of the group, Jasene could make out Tony standing defensively in front of the underclassmen as he dueled the witch from ten feet away.
Jasene fired off her own spells, the first few able to hit the witch in the back, knocking her down. But it didn't take long for the witch to get back to her feet with her insane cackle as she glared back at Jasene, who nearly tripped as she recognized the face from the newspaper at Fred's a few months ago. Bellatrix Lestrange.
Bellatrix, with obvious little care for human life, screeched an incoherent curse at the school wall, making the stone structure explode and begin to crumble. Jasene felt herself scream, though she couldn't hear over the sound of the wall. She saw Tony start a spell, but a large chunk of the wall fell into her view, immediately seeming to bury him and the younger students in the avalanche.
As the noise died away and the last of the wall's ruined stones stopped falling, the psychotic witch bounced with glee. Her high-pitched cackle filtering into Jasene's mind, once again stirring up that new emotion.
Wordlessly, as her vision started to blur with hatred, Jasene shot a disarming charm at the witch. It must have had more power than she'd though and part of her was surprised as she watched not only the older woman's wand go sailing through the air, but Bellatrix herself was flung at least twenty feet across the yard.
Jasene caught the wand and continued to walk steadily toward the woman, a black haze creeping into the corners of her vision. She could hear shouts. They barely cut through the fog, but she didn't care. The witch was unsteadily getting to her feet and the only thought in Jasene's mind was to stop her.
"You want to take me, little girl?" The witch asked, attempting to sound intimidating, but it was easy to see the look of uncertainty in her eyes.
"Are you ready to die, old crone?" Jasene asked, her own voice sounding foreign to her ears. Then without hesitation, she snapped the wand, ignoring the sting in her hand.
"Who are you?" Bellatrix demanded, attempting to regain her well known attitude.
Jasene didn't answer, the emotion was building too far for her to even attempt to control. Her vision was too focused to see the Death Eaters falling back or how Bellatrix herself was looking steadily more like she was falling ill. Her hearing was deadened by the sound of her own heart beating in her ears.
"Jasene!" Tabby's voice called, sounding like she was miles away.
"Jasene!" came Nathan's voice through a fog.
"It's ok," said Tony's, only just barely there. "Let her go."
"Jase!"
The last voice shocked her, sounding closer and louder and far more unexpected—Fred. She could hear him almost as though he were standing behind her.
His voice was enough. The dark shadow that was slowly creeping into her vision faded away along with the pent up emotion, leaving Jasene to feel shaky where she stood. The witch in front of her had fallen back to the ground, staring at her with wide terrified eyes.
She slowly turned to find her brother and sister and best friend, along with a few teachers, staring at her with a wariness she'd never wanted to see. Then her eyes trailed over to the fallen wall.
Propelled by some unknown force, Jasene found herself running to the ruins where some of her healing classmates were already unearthing some students. She instantly joined them, moving the stones with more speed and ease than she would have thought possible, had she been thinking clearly at all.
To her relief, all the underclassmen seemed to have been relatively protected. Nothing further than a serious injury among the lot of them, but that was the end of her relief. The worst of the injuries was the boy she'd seen closest to Tony.
No, her thoughts cried. No, please no.
"Tony!" she cried out. "Tony, please!"
It felt like time slowed to a crawl as the group of them dug further into the fallen wall. And they found him.
"Oh my god," Melissa gasped softly as Jasene stared in horror and Nathan turned his gaze away.
"No," Jasene breathed, her hand glowed as she reached down to touch his cheek gently.
Her touch did very little, but he was breathing.
"Get Mrs. Dongeal!" Jasene shouted to the nearest of her classmates. The girl's eyes went wide and she nodded, running into the school's main building.
"Jasene," Nathan said slowly, looking at his sister with pained pity.
"We can save him," Jasene snapped and started pulling rocks away again, tears stinging as they broke free. "I can save him."
A gentle touch stopped her and she looked up to meet Tony's heavy-lidded gaze. Somehow, he was smiling.
"Hey," he rasped.
"Hey," she echoed. "Hold on, we're getting help."
"Don't worry about it," he said, attempting a chuckle, which turned into a moan.
"Shut up, we're getting you help," Jasene reaffirmed, cursing her own abilities and wondering why that familiar glow from the gem of Merlin she carried hadn't appeared yet.
"Could you tell—."
"No! Don't—."
"Jasene," Tony said softly, all traces of a smile gone. "Tell Fred thanks."
"Fred?" Jasene repeated, her mind pulling up the image of Fred's worried face which made her heart ache and sorely wish that it was three in the morning again.
"He's a good guy," Tony said, his breathing more labored.
"Tony—."
"Thanks, Jase," he said, his grip on her hand weaker than she'd ever felt in six years of friendship. "Thanks... for everything..."
"No," Jasene said as panic built inside her again. "No! Tony, no! Mrs.—Mrs. Dongeal—it'll be alright! Tony!"
But his hand went limp and fell away to rest on the sharp rocks still beneath him and the playful spark that was always in his eyes suddenly snuffed out.
"No," she cried again, trying to force the gem to heal him, not caring that using it again could have dire consequences. But no glow came and the eerie light of morning filled the five am sky. "Tony," she sobbed into her clenched fists as understanding settled in. "I'm sorry."
"Jase."
Her heart jumped as it always did when she heard the voice, but she couldn't move. All she wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry, but a blur of slate grey and red knelt in front of her and a set of strong arms pulled her close. She resisted for a moment or two, her sobs getting louder as she struggled to get free, but in the end he won and Jasene pulled him close, holding onto him as though he was her only lifeline.
...
Fred Weasley let her cry, combing his fingers through her messy hair and whispering that it would be okay. He glanced up. George wasn't far away, helping support her twin and her best friend.
The battle was over, though Fred couldn't tell who won. He and George had left immediately from their shop, leaving it closed for the day, making it to the closest TAS portal barely twenty minutes after Jasene had disconnected their conversation. They'd come onto the school's grounds already sending off spells to help. Fred had even crashed, literally, into Tony at one point.
It had been by no means an easy duel, but everything seemed to explode when Jasene took on Bellatrix Lestrange. Somehow the act of destroying a section of the school had spurred the Dragontongues community into a frenzy. None of them held back after that point. And by the time Fred had turned to see Jasene pulsating a black aura, the Death Eaters (how very few were left) were making a hasty retreat.
He wasn't sure where Bellatrix was now, but he knew she'd gotten away. He didn't care now. All he cared about was the girl he held in his arms and when she slumped against him, finally too exhausted and injured to protest, he carried her away from the pile of rubble and further up the hill toward the coming sunrise.
A/N (erm, part 2): I'm going with Bellatrix had taken someone else's wand along with her's so-no, Jase didn't actually break Bellatrix's all-important wand it was a stand-in.