Remus Lupin found himself in the middle of the ongoing war in the main courtyard of the castle, he had just finished at least five enemies single handed and was observing with a rough breathing how three giants approached them by the viaduct, about to be intercepted by suits of armour wielding swords and battleaxes. They were being clearly overwhelmed by wizards and death eaters, or so it seemed to him as he casted stunning spells towards Yaxley who attempted to ambush Kingsley Shacklebolt from behind a stone pillar.
The clash between armours and giants was loud enough and made Kingsley cast an explosion in the middle of the courtyard intended to cover their retreat, Remus ran behind Arthur Weasley and casted a shield charm to a killing curse coming from a roof.
'Fortify inside!' ordered the man as sending a blasting spell towards the aggressor.
'Don't dally, Remus!' exclaimed Arthur before retreating with Kingsley and the combatants inside the castle.
'Two minutes, maximum.' he smirked before sending another blasting spell towards the Death Eater, who shielded himself inside a stone pillar, in matter of seconds he could see it was Antonin Dolohov.
There was no exchange of words, Dolohov jumped forward in fury and sent beams after beams of bright lights against Lupin, who blocked them all with a powerful shield before jumping to the side and shooting stunning and disarming spells Dolohov easily avoided by running under the covered hall, which Lupin aimed towards the roof on top of the Death Eater and blasted it apart, right at that moment he saw the chance to retreat before the giants finished breaching the barricade of armours but just as he prepared to run inside the castle he saw a black blurry figure running past him from the viaduct at a high speed, his legs turned bright blue for a fraction of seconds as he jumped five meters in the air and remained suspended in it, rising with both arms a dark metallic object aiming at the giants in the viaduct, just seconds later it let out a strong sound followed by a big explosion that finished the three giants and the remaining suits of armour. The figure landed smoothly on the floor and Remus saw the metallic object more clearly for a fraction of seconds before he strapped it on his back to draw his wand, it was then when his face was more clear for Lupin: Long blonde hair tied to the back of his head, yielding slowly to black as his emerald green eyes slowly turned icy blue.
James Alynore smiled at him, a daring smirk. 'You have become slower, Professor Lupin.'
'In my defense, you haven't showed up for sparring with me for months.' Lupin said as raising his eyebrows.
Their meeting got interrupted by progressive jets of red and green lights between the windows of the castle and the coming Death Eaters from the viaduct, backed up by giants.
'Where's Dora?' asked the Enforcer with his wand held ready.
'Safe, with Teddy.' yet he sounded frustrated. 'but, knowing her…'
'Let's see these people off and then we'll make sure she's there.' Anders patted his shoulder. 'Vladimir! Let's give them a boost!'
Karkaroff jumped off the rooftop at their side, brandishing a whip of fire coming out from his wand, chanting unknown words and unleashing the burning fire from the whip to roam around the surroundings in a fast speed, like fireballs flying straight towards running death eaters and hopelessly being evaded or blocked by a shield charm by the exception of a couple more others who caught on fire and started running in desperation, screaming loudly.
'Attack!' yelled Kingsley Shacklebolt with a strong group of students at his back.
Anders saw the wave of jinxes flying from the castle and forcing the death eaters to get into cover and materialised his blade in his free hand.
'Protego!' he blocked a jinx from Dolohov who got out the boulder. 'Blimey, you still alive!'
With his mind focused on the giants, he got pushed into a duel against Dolohov and completely forgot he had a blade in his other hand. He blocked another jinx with a groan and sent a full body-bind in his direction that he ended up dodging.
'What a bother!' groaned Anders as blasting jinxes in his direction.
'He's mine, keep going,' He felt Remus' hand in his shoulder and both attacked Dolohov, forcing him to get into cover once more.
'All yours.' Anders smiled and tucked his wand inside his jacket. 'Unshackle my limbs from this limited state. Unfetter!'
His body felt an embrace and a powerful push forward, he channeled his mana towards the strength of his arms and gripped the blade with both hands, running around two giants that were now smashing new suits of armour who rushed into the battle from the castle. He slid past between the legs of the first one and rushed onto the second one, intercepting the slashing he was about to do onto a group of armours at his feet. The blade met the gigantic knife he was carrying in a loud steel clash and the giant staggered from the powerful block, Anders then ran to his feet and before he could even take another swing at the magus, he had already sliced through the tendon of both feet and knocked him down for the armours to stab his head repeatedly.
Anders had time to warp as the first giant he had ran through before was now fully aware of what was happening, it had turned as brandishing furiously a long heavy chain that came from a collar in his neck, he jumped and evaded every swift attack and found difficult to knock it down, he had to try something different.
'Carpe Retractum!' he ran for it, the effects of the Unfettered had worn off and he was now on a nearby rooftop, gripping the giant's collar with a purple bright rope coming out from his wand. His muscles reinforced, he pulled from the rope with both hands and knocked it face down onto the floor where several lances pierced its head.
There were now three giants left coming from the viaduct, he noticed as some jinxes from the floor came in his direction, crashing at his sides as he noticed how Karkaroff was dueling against three death eaters at the same time near the viaduct, he couldn't see Lupin and Dolohov but he saw Shacklebolt and Weasley dealing themselves with a large group who wanted to enter the castle, with remorse he saw students on the ground, hopefully unconscious…
'Depulso!' aiming carefully, he knocked off the wooden club from the first giant's hand, it looked around stupidly, ignoring how Anders charged in full of zeal with his flaming sword and jumped with a magic impulse, impaling the blade in its neck and slicing with difficulty as they both fell. 'Flipendo Tria!' he yelled in desperation as pulling out his wand against the roaring giants.
His vision got blurred with blood as soon they both hit the floor, Anders felt a sting travelling from his feet to his head and saw a small tornado flying from his wand towards the giants, barely knocking them back, he cursed loudly and failed to retrieve his blade when the enemies made everything around him tremble with their running steps. He warped behind them, landing in the middle of the viaduct and almost falling off to the abyss at the damaged sides. He saw the blade in the distance, impaled on the corpse behind two giants armed with a scythe and a polestone. He took a deep breath, waiting for them to realise of his actual position as they stopped dead and were now looking around for him, yet not turning.
The sword had numerous spells to avoid being summoned and it was relatively new for him to dematerialise it with just his mind. He thought fast and he felt struck by lightning when they saw him, something crazy crossed his mind, but… They had started running and everything got quiet, awfully quiet…
'Let me pass.' Anders's left arm lit itself on intense blue fire and he held his ground, smirking at the giants who were even closer now. He was letting them approach on purpose. 'Release.' his voice echoed within the silence, breaking something in the reality.
A sickening sound was heard in a sudden, he felt a ripping from his shoulder area and something large forming, coming out from his flesh… Like a third and fourth arm rising like wings. It was a known and expected feeling for him: He would absorb the prana from the environment with every breath and this would rapidly mix with his own mana to painfully grow from his shoulders two massive wings that worked like weapons, it was called "Singularity" and had three seals of intensity or effect, yet the only one he knew to this day was the first one, presumably the lesser one. The Singularity would affect his physique, strengthening it and making it more resilient and heighten his mobility. The wings were bright blue like the flames of his arm and flexible like the flow of water, but firm and sturdy.
Basically the Singularity would materialise his mana energy into two liquid muscles solid as teeth, he could voluntarily control them, hardening them or softening them at will, the Singularity would spread as bright feathers, highly enhancing his speed and allowing him to fly for short periods of time, yet the major downside of this was obvious. Every movement would consume more of his mana and distort the existence around him.
The blue wings formed a shield in front of him and covered his body from the smashing of the giant in front of him, then pushed forward and produced a snap, making it fall. The second giant observed this abnormality with fear and attempted to retreat, but the Singularity had crystallized and immediately shot at least a dozen of crystal-like projectiles in its direction, all of them piercing its back and knocking it down on the floor, bleeding profusely. Anders walked forward, the Singularity returning to the water-like state like majestic feathered wings coming from his shoulder, as passing by the first giant he knocked down, the left wing shaped itself like a sharpened blade and slashed in the giant's direction as it was on its fours trying to get up, chopping the head off in a clean slash.
Anders could feel the stare of wizards and death eaters alike who were near to observe this and even so one of the death eaters tried to send a killing curse on his direction, bouncing off his right wing just as he retrieved his blade from the giant's neck. He then warped right above a group of now terrified death eaters and the Singularity, both shaped like sharp blades, pierced two of them as his blade slashed one and the last one got incinerated by the blue fire coming from his arm. Anders then crumbled on his knees, the Singularity fading quickly from his back, leaving two open slicing wounds in his shoulder where the wings came out from. He hasn't got a time to rest in days and now he was practically overdoing himself after chasing Karkaroff in Manhattan and using his Singularity back then.
'Alynore! You okay?' Karkaroff and Kingsley approached, both looking certainly more energetic.
'Yes… I just need a snack, the kitchens…' he panted, groaning as he helped himself with the blade to get back on his feet.
'If you're heading into the castle, tell McGonagall the giants of this side are done for.' Kingsley patted him in the shoulder and smiled. 'You look famished, the kitchens should be deserted by now, head there first before anything else.'
'Aye, sir.' Anders smiled back at him and turned to Karkaroff. 'Stay with them, if they move, so do you.'
Karkaroff nodded with a smirk and just as Anders turned to see how the battle was going around him, a chocolate bar hit his chest; Lupin was smiling at him from afar, Dolohov was on the ground behind him. Anders chuckled and everything seemed to be looking up as some death eaters were retreating and flying off the courtyard, but then...
'You're mine, mutt.' Dolohov's voice was thick with blood and clearer than anything else.
'Lupin…' Anders gasped. 'BEHIND YOU'
'AVADA KEDAVRA'
Someone screamed. Loudly, loaded with pain and hatred. Lupin's smile slowly vanished and his head turned slightly to the left, towards someone else… His body crumbled in a strange slow motion and everything around Anders seemed to have slowed down as well; his arm moved by itself, dematerialising his sword and pulling out his wand but it was too late, the strong beam of green light that came from his wand towards Dolohov had crashed against the wall as he ran away into the castle.
Then he saw her… The one who screamed as if someone had ripped off a limb from her body.
And Anders felt as if his entire body had been washed with really cold water.
Nymphadora Tonks was furiously dueling with a gleeful Bellatrix Lestrange and only one thought was crossing through Anders' mind when he saw this, this thought however, was linked with what happened next, he was still feeling numb when he saw it and now he had barely noticed that his own body had fallen to his knees.
It happened too fast, almost like it was completely planned so Remus wouldn't go alone. This time he had no energy to react, Kingsley grabbing his arm was surely an overreaction.
His gun fell to the floor just as the first friend he ever had, the first girl he ever loved, crumbled to the floor with her open arms, as if embracing her husband who was waiting for her right behind Bellatrix.
What were you doing here…? The last and only question he had for her.
Darkness, all around, the only thing that could be seen. The infinite void. The unbearable heat was felt rising from his lungs across his entire body, the adrenaline rush and the fear converged into one blazing hatred when his memories played one after the other in the middle of the nothingness. He felt desperate and sad beyond measure until a heartbeat calmed it. A soothing, familiar voice from very far, yet the presence was so close. Everything was alright, even if it kept feeling like the world was ending that same night, everything was going to be okay… He just knew it, the soft embrace, the warmth of her presence was more than enough right now, he just listened to her heartbeat, his panic was slowly fading away.
Right in that moment, Anders woke up.
'Well, I was starting to think you weren't waking up tonight.' that voice, she was nowhere near to sound like her but still he was so grateful.
Everything came back to him in a hurtful sting through his chest. His eyes found the first thing his nose caught and he attacked the roasted chicken breasts with rice in a dire need. It was only while he was eating that he noticed he was in Hogwarts' kitchens, which were completely deserted with the exception of Ginny Weasley who was sitting in front of him, tending a nasty wound in her own shoulder as smiling gently at him.
He quickly looked at his clock with a piece of chicken in his mouth.
'Three in the morning…' he stared at the clock a few seconds. 'What… How…'
'You fainted, Firenze brought you here, I cooked what I can cook best in a time like this, Kingsley said you were weakened.'
He swallowed and had a hollow feeling in his stomach, recalling all what had happened at the Main Courtyard. Tonks…
'You been in here for at least twenty minutes, the Death Eaters have breached inside…' Ginny kept talking even though he had stopped listening. 'Now that you woke up I can… Hey!'
Anders had lifted himself off the table and was checking that he had his equipment untouched, he then removed his ragged trench coat and pulled out his wand from his pocket.
'Where's Potter?' he looked inside the inner pockets of the coat and started rummaging inside. 'Have you seen him?'
'I did but if I knew where he is I'm pretty confident that I'd be with him by now.'
'Trying to impress me?' Anders smirked as he pulled out a parchment and tossed the coat aside. ''cus I'm not buying it.'
'I'm not.' she spat with a slight pink flush on her cheeks. 'He's in the Room of Requirement if you must know, or at least he was by last time I checked.'
'Why?' he looked at her in disbelief, then opened up his piece of parchment. 'Nevermind, it sounds like a plan even if it makes no sense. Sýna.'
The parchment was of the size of a letter and as soon he said those words while tapping it with his wand, small inked spot started coming out of nowhere, drawing what looked like columns and stairs weirdly shaped colliding between them, above all of them, small symbols and letters from an unknown language were formed in vertical lines, very clear and neat for anyone to read.
'What are you-' Ginny had started asking when Anders lifted his hand for her to keep silence.
'Sixth floor, Hall of Hexes, hidden door R.Q.' he said to the parchment in a low voice and all the shapes and symbols drawn in it disappeared all of a sudden.
As if someone started drawing in the parchment at full speed, a detailed map of the sixth floor corridor was shown, placing black dots with labels under them, yet their names weren't easy to distinguish as they were written in the same strange language.
'A small manufacturing issue… Everything is in gaelic or elvish or… Klingon.' he said while trying to distinguish the spots moving here and there across the corridor.
'Kling… what?' Ginny looked puzzled. 'If it's in elvish maybe we can get one of the house elves to help?'
'I already tried, but there are more elven races as far they told me and each of them have their own language and dialect, for them it was like reading ancient chinese… Plus we don't really have the time…' for a wild moment he had lost himself in an urge of discuss this much deeper until he realised of what he was doing. 'Harry Potter, last time seen in the corridor.' he said to the map in a low voice.
The wandering dots disappeared and were replaced by four running dots with the same strange labels under them that came from the east wing, two more dots darted past them. The dot in front of the rest was blinking slowly and Anders understood that was the one he was looking for, he tapped on the map with his wand again and more words were scribbled in the top corner of the map, this time it showed a small textured Astrolabe clearly detailed.
'Thirty minutes ago.' he said while looking at his watch.
'Then the fourth dot is me, the other two are Ron and Hermione.' said Ginny, visibly amazed when the three dots disappeared as they crossed the wall and one dot stayed outside. 'What… Kind of map is this?'
'Not exactly a map but some sort of logbook… It started like a map but then…' Anders once more interrupted himself, clearing his throat. 'I call it System of Reckoning… Hylja.' he said this last while tapping the map with the map and its content completely disappeared.
The magus folded the parchment and tucked it inside his pockets, once more he reassured that his gun was still in its hilt and his equipment was still complete, he then flicked the wand towards his back and projected a black coat with the Ravenclaw's crest embroidered on the chest.
'Thank you for the meal, Ginny.' he said quickly, starting to walk towards the exit door. 'I believe it's best that you stay here while I-...'
'Oh sure, I was here just to cook you a nice meal so you can recover your energies, eh?' she growled as chasing him. 'You're not leaving me behind.'
'Oh but I am…' He uttered while resuming his walk towards the exit. 'I'll send someone to pick you up and keep you safe.'
'Bollocks.' the redhead kept following him. 'I escorted Firenze from the Courtyard after running there from the sixth floor, he said you have a mission and I want to help.'
'I… Firenze?' he stopped and looked at her bewildered. '... I do, but it's something I must do alone, I'm sorry…'
'I'm not a child, Anders!' Ginny stomped on the floor and walked ahead of him, standing at the door. 'I'm capable of defending myself and defend YOU if necessary! I offer my bloody help because I know what I'm capable of!'
Anders stood there in awe, staring at her breathing furiously and could not help but smirk. He had clearly forgotten how much Ginevra Weasley had grown, she even almost reached his height, her clothes were ragged and with traces of blood, he noticed at the same time that even though she looked exhausted, her bright brown eyes were filled with a fire he never saw in her.
'Firenze also left me here because it was safer than outside… I stayed to fight, not to hide.' she kept ranting, her voice resounding on the walls and making Anders giggle at her. 'What is so funny?!'
'I rather not say or you'll bite my head off.' he answered, smiling broadly. 'It will be dangerous, I want you to promise me that you will obey my orders.'
Ginny smiled radiantly, reminding him clearly of the same smile she would give him each time he would allow her a mischief, that same heart warming smile she been giving him since she was six…
'I got three orders, though.' his smile vanished as he lifted one finger. 'Don't die.' he lifted two. 'If you're about to die, run and hide.' he lifted the third. 'If luck is on your side, take the chance and kill them all.'
Anders pushed the door open and Ginny marched right behind him, both with their wands ready.
Flames were roaring in the highest towers of the castle, shadows and dementors flying across the dark sky while the grounds violently shake with giants running to the battle. The defenders of Hogwarts were retreating even further and death eaters kept increasing their numbers, a blazing fire was just starting in the grounds, extending through the forest where giants were fighting against something that kept them from going into the grounds.
A strong noise pierced the heavens and two Apache helicopters soared the night sky, losing altitude as they approached the Hogwarts Grounds.
'Three, four, five giants in the forest.' said a disembodied female voice through the pilot's' radio.
'Aye, Stonebird One, got visual of the targets. Ten Seconds to collide.'
'Stonebird Two, got clear visual, ten seconds to collide.'
'Light them up.' said the leading voice. 'Watch your six after sweeping.'
'Roger, Blackhawk.' the two pilots said at the same time.
The helicopters shot their machine guns towards the giants as they passed at full speed, recovering their altitude and splitting up their joint formation to fly around the castle. Every single fighter in Hogwarts saw the massive birds passing like a fully black distorted shadow for the many spells around it for attempting to hide them from any sight, the sound of their engines were heavily silenced and everyone who could see them breaking the air were unsure of what exactly that was.
'Multiple hostiles on the radar.' said Stonebird One. 'Is sweeping still on the itinerary?'
'Negative, we could hurt our own.' Blackhawk sounded agitated. 'Ailyn, Wiley, you're up.'
Sergeant Wiley Ryan scooped his head outside the helicopter and looked down with a vicious smirk.
'Stonebird One, deploying at the Greenhouses.' he said while opening a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. 'We're low on fuel and we need a CDZ.'
Lieutenant Ailyn Alynore looked down on the flaming school, her pink eyes analysing every single centimeter and every single fighter on the ground, flickering at the jets of bright light flying everywhere.
'Stonebird Two, deploying at the Astronomy Tower.' she said with a gentle voice.
'Gryffindor… Tower…' grunted Blackhawk with effort in her voice. 'Need to rest… Over.'
Flying above the clouds at a very high speed, a majestic red tailed hawk was tucking its wings as breaking the air around it like a gigantic bullet, at the following second let out a loud shriek and dived at high speed towards the window of the Gryffindor Tower, she knew their common room was deserted and she needed to lie down so badly.
She reached her highest speed and within meters to reach the window she opened her wings to violently reduce her speed, then her figure changed, a red tailed hawk with feathers as black as a starless night was no longer diving towards the window but a young woman with long black hair and blazing blue eyes, she rose her wand and shouted something incomprehensible that caused an explosion and shattered the window and its frame. The hawk entered the common room in a dazzling speed roughly broken by her open wings and landed safely in the back of a chair need the chimney, then returned to her human shape.
She was dressed in warm black clothes with a winter cloak covering her frame; Michelle Blackhawk Ryan let herself fall onto a nearby sofa by the fire, her ears buzzing and her whole body aching with exhaustion, specially her arms, chest and back. She took long breathings, closing her watery eyes and forgetting for a split of second where she was until she noticed the Gryffindor decoration, realising that she was, probably and hopefully, the only Slytherin to be in their rival's common room.
Then the sound of the battle and the smell of smoke and burning reached her from the blasted window, feeling as if before breached in the way she did, there was nothing but peace and quiet in the circular, cozy common room.
'Stonebird One here, our boys have landed and we're black on fuel, returning to the COP.' the pilot's income message made her jump.
'Stonebird Two here, our boys have jumped into the Tower, we're returning to the COP.'
Wiley was backed by a team of six fighters, all equipped in black ops gears, carrying assault rifles and SMGs modified for an stealthy breaching. The Sergeant has gotten a hold of Neville Longbottom and a group of mixed students who were carrying pots of Venomous Tentacula, they all looked wary at the group of armed guys who fell from the sky by a rope.
'Longbottom, eh? I'm Ryan! Wiley Ryan from Hufflepuff!' he approached with his power fist down, smiling widely.
'Wiley? What on earth are you wearing? Who are this people?' Neville looked at him completely surprised, almost forgetting that he was carrying a dangerous plant in his hands.
'Right now what you need to know is that we are backup and we will follow you wherever you need us, mate.' Wiley winked at him. 'Reynolds, Grant. Grab a couple of Venomous Tentacula and follow these guys wherever the party is being held.'
'Yes, Sarge.'
'Grimm, Kent. Eyes open, be our flanks.'
'Yes, Sarge.'
'Francis, on me.' he made a signal and everyone started moving. 'Blackhawk, here Wolfpack. Greenhouse is clear, we're on the move.'
Up in the flaming Astronomy Tower, Ailyn had extinguished the raging fire by amplifying the stream of water from her canteen. Her six men were equipped like Wiley's with the exception of herself who dressed in a pure white light dress with black combat boots and long white gloves covering her hands. She brandished an ebony steel blade in a perfect contrast with her white clothing and long silver clothing, she only waved her hand for her men to take positions and get moving down the marbled stairs heavily affected by the fire.
'Blackhawk, here Drakengard, Astronomy Tower is clear, we're on the move.' she quickly lead the march and walked out to the corridor. 'Find my brother.' she ordered her men as they quickly took cover at the sight of approaching death eaters.
'Tangos ahead!' announced one of her soldiers, yet she didn't move from where she was standing.
'Who are you.' snarled one of the masked men, there were at least six of them and all were pointing their wands at the woman.
'Good evening, gentlemen.' Ailyn bowed gently, a tiny smile forming in her delicate features. 'I am Ailyn Annúngilnith Alynore, White Magistrate of the Mage's Association and I have come to disembowel you all.'
Silence was absolute after she said these last words, none of the death eaters dared to make a move.
'Perhaps you have seen my brother? He's a bit taller than me, has long blonde hair, although he loves changing it to black during night operations. Wields a big blade with many accessories and tricks, perhaps compensating for something.' she asked with abnormal calm, yet she got no answer. 'Please, whoever tells me if he's been spotted won't die in the next ten minutes .'
A shaking hand rose from the back of the group and a young male voice spoke with very notable fear.
'He… Terminated a whole tribe of giants by h-himself in the M-Main Courtyard…' said the terrified death eater at the White Magistrate. 'H-he fainted and was taken inside by a centaur.'
'Oh? Funny change of events. Thanks for the information!' she sliced the air in front of her and there was a general commotion when effectively, a sickening splattering sound echoed across the corridor and one of the death eaters fell on his fours, his entrails laying on the floor.
His partners panicked and attempted to run. The blood started spreading on the floor and restricted the moves of the runners and only one of them got time enough to fly away before the blood thickened and started moving on its own like some kind of slimy creature that forced them to fall onto the floor, then it formed and shaped four spears that impaled the four death eaters through their crotches, then their chest and finally their heads, coating them with the vital liquid before solidifying itself and turning their bodies into grotesque statues of a deep crimson crystal. Only one standing was the young death eater who's life was spared, staring at the gruesome spectacle before his eyes and trembling with horror.
'I promised that I would let you live for the next ten minutes, don't waste it.' Said the woman as walking past the crystallized corpses, followed by her men. 'Let's go, boys. I intend to find my brother before this castle collapses entirely.'
Michelle walked out the Gryffindor's common room in a fast pace, going down the stairs and loading up her Taurus Raging Judge with silver bullets as she watched the mayhem happening all around her. There were screams on the bottom levels and jets of light impacting everywhere, knocking down portraits from the wall; she jumped six steps and entered the corridor of the seventh floor, led by nothing but intuition and a horrible tug in her chest… She had passed by Hagrid's hut and saw no trace of him inside the flaming ruins, she already knew he was hiding on the hills but she was so sure he had returned to fight for Hogwarts… The forest was blazing but the animals were safe deep inside it, or at least most of them, she knew the Centaurs wouldn't stay idle, much less after the Pegasi had brought the main piece for their prophecy to become reality: Anders Alynore.
If she went by what Firenze and the prophecy told her a couple of years ago, Anders was to be the one who slays Lord Voldemort and this was the main reason why his sister Ailyn had insisted on taking her Drakenguard to search for him and aid him, knowing how reckless Anders could be at times, she was certain that he would be making his way towards their bastion by that exact time. Even though Michelle didn't believe much in prophecies, she knew he had the potential to bring Voldemort down and her main reason to be there was to aid her home in any way she could even though she no longer had the aerial support she had counted with from the start.
'Impedimenta!' She roared at a Death Eater in the passageway. Feeling numb and completely upset at herself, she sent a powerful gust of wind that sent the frozen body off the nearest window.
She continued down the hallway, following the shouting and the continuous exchange of jinxes, echoing all across the seventh floor, one of those voices, however…
'Here! He ran this way!' Michelle flinched from the window and turned to the intersection that lead straight into the Hall of Hexes.
She aimed both her gun and her wand towards the corner and saw an agitated Percy Weasley with his brother Fred and Caydern right behind them, all of them looking extremely filled with adrenaline and exhausted at the same time.
'Chell!' Caydern smiled widely and ran to hug her. 'You took your sweet time.'
'Bad weather, mostly.' she growled at the hug and returned it in relief. 'Have you seen Professor McGonagall?'
'I'm not sure, we just blasted open a secret passage from the fourth floor.' Percy panted. 'she might be still there, the whole castle is a riot.'
'Surely, I never thought I'd ever see the castle like this.' Michelle turned to the window and sighed. 'There's one good thing, though. It can't be a better night to take a stroll around here.' She added with a smile.
'Best one in a while if you ask me.' Fred smiled widely and clapped his hands. 'We better make the most of it!'
'Have you seen Ginny, though?' Percy asked quickly. 'She was supposed to be here.'
'Sorry, I haven't… I just got here.' Michelle looked back at the redheaded brothers. 'I'll send her here if I see her.'
'I'll go with you.' Said Caydern in a decisive tone. 'I got to find Anders and we should all regroup.'
'His sister is already looking for him and I got Wiley sweeping… Somewhere.'
'Anders' sister, eh? Maybe I should tag along with you two as well.' Fred added with a smirk on his face. 'You'll be fine, Perce! This hallway is practically deserted!'
'You won't leave me here.' Percy grunted at Fred. 'We must stay put and make sure she's okay.'
'We'll get moving.' Caydern patted Michelle's shoulder.
'Don't worry, Freddie. I'll arrange you a small date with Ailyn when all this is over.' Michelle winked at the twin. 'We'll see you both on the flip side!'
Their exchange got violently interrupted by a strong shake and a strong noise coming from the far side of the seventh floor corridor, Caydern and Michelle departed in a fast pace, fending off the fire blasts from the death eaters entering from the not-so-secret passageway. Caydern pushed Michelle behind her and pressed the tip of the wand against her own throat and let out a tremendous shout towards the tunnel, sending an unrelenting wave of chaotic magic that disintegrated their coming enemies, soon as the path was clear, she lowered her wand and Michelle pushed her forward.
While the seventh floor was practically in peace when compared with the rest of the castle, the fourth floor corridor was in complete mayhem, they dodged killing curses that went off course as they closed the passageway and Michelle sent a gust of wind at a hooded figure on his knees, mauling the neck of a Hufflepuff student. He received the impact of it and got pushed away from the bleeding corpse of the student, hitting harshly his head against the wall and falling unconscious on the floor, Caydern shot jinxes at the far extreme of the hallway that led towards the Study Area of the Library, a couple of Death Eaters returned the fire and dragged down a massive bookshelf to protect themselves from Michelle's firearm.
The Blackhawk aimed firmly with her Taurus but quickly ducked and hurried behind the corner as jets of red light rocketed real fast above her head. Students and Aurors ran past them and started firing spells to help the Enforcers, Caydern extended her nails into sharp metal claws and ran at fast speed to intercept the Death Eaters, clawing at the chest of one and viciously ripping his skin as a well aimed hex knocked out the other one behind her. Michelle and the rest of the combatants hurried inside the library and clashed with more Death Eaters inside, books flying off the shelves by jets of light impacting and wildly flying everywhere after one or other evaded or blocked it. Three students teamed against Derek Macnair while Fenrir Greyback commanded a group of at least six werewolves half transformed with a strong reek of blood upon themselves.
'GREYBACK!' Michelle roared with a blazing fury, squeezing the trigger of her revolver after lifting it in the werewolf's direction, to which he lifted a magical shield to absorb the bullets before roaring at her with the same burning hatred.
'Michelle… NO!' Caydern screamed at her partner just as she shook her wand hand and pulled out a silver steel blade from her left gauntlet, she jumped forward and ran straight to Greyback, who seemed to have discarded his wand as well and was running to Michelle with his sharp claws ready to strike.
Fenrir struck first, his claws slashing the air where seconds ago was Michelle's head, then evaded her blade that went straight to his chest, she jumped on her hands with a spinning kick with her left feet, reaching to barely scratch his face with a hidden blade within her boot. He groaned and kicked her in the ribs as she got on her feet, slamming her against a bookshelf and hitting her head with at least a dozen of books that fell on her, four shots were fired from her gun with an angry groan escaping from her lips like a wounded creature, she jumped back in her feet and swiftly replaced the gun in her right hand with a sharp combat knife coated in a strange, opaque liquid.
Fenrir this time focused in avoiding her blades at all cost, slashing in her direction but failing to match her fast movements, she was practically dancing all around him trying to penetrate his skin with any of her three blades but he was quick to see her coming and was always ready to evade her or block her with his massive frame. And the war kept going around them; Caydern had reverted the werewolf state from four of them and had knocked them out with strong stunning spells, the rest retreated and escaped through windows or dropped their wands in rendition, even Greyback ended up flying away through the nearest window in the corner where Michelle had pushed him to. The combatants celebrated and Caydern looked at Michelle with a radiant smile she didn't answer.
'Chell?' She asked warily. 'Are you alright?'
The black haired girl had blood slipping down her forehead, her breathing was out of her own control and her whole body was trembling, her emerald eyes were locked on Macnair, who was kneeling with his hands up and his eyes fixed on the floor, it was in that precise moment when everything came back to her like wildfire, Iktomi's frail body lying in her hands after attacking Macnair who was ready to ambush them… It was not too long ago, or maybe it was? She couldn't remember any longer… She had screamed, that she could remember clearly. She screamed loud enough to make her vocal cords to suffer for weeks, she screamed loud enough to make everyone in that field to turn towards them, she couldn't remember when exactly Macnair had killed a member of her small, shattered family, but she could recall very clearly every single inch of pain and suffering that man had caused to her… And now… She had even forgotten everything about Fenrir Greyback, she had forgotten Hogwarts, Caydern, everything around her, everything that was her. Only Iktomi, who accompanied her for the most important years of her life, only Macnair covered in blood, only Iktomi in her trembling hands, cut in half…
'Chell… wait…' Caydern saw it coming and approached Michelle, who was already walking slowly without noticing.
'Leave me.' Blackhawk looked at her with bright, yellow eyes, blazing with something she couldn't describe but made her flinch. 'Incarcero.' She suddenly aimed at Macnair, making him fall to the side, completely retained by magic ropes that came from her wand.
Everyone still standing looked in horror how Michelle flung herself onto Macnair and smashed his head against the floor, then squeezed his neck and locked her eyes into his, completely motionless.
'Look at me… LOOK AT ME!' she smashed his head against the floor again, tears falling down her feline-looking eyes, filled with blind rage. 'Breathe. Keep fucking breathing. Breathe!' She smashed his head again, making his eyes to twitch, as if fainting. She then let go of his neck and aimed both open hands to his head. 'Water prana, lend me thy energy to heal him.' her words casted a blue light all across his body, healing superficial and inner wounds.
She gripped her knife even tighter, feeling her hand grow numb, she was going to make him feel every drop of pain he made her feel with Iktomi's death. She had to… Her knife sliced through his abdomen in a horizontal motion and forced him to sit as his intestines fell to his knees.
'Look at me…' She lifted his head, patting his cheek for his dark eyes to meet hers.
'please…' He begged in a weak, trembling voice. His eyes fading.
Michelle's lip trembled and the following made everyone turn away from them, Caydern looked in horror how her best friend pierced Macnair's chest with her bare hand and pulled out his heart from his body, holding it in front of his face for him to see… Then she dropped it in the floor and waved her wand in his neck's direction, mumbling something that shot a breeze towards him and cut off his head like it was an invisible blade. She then backed backed off a few centimeters from the beheaded body, dropping both her wand and knife, her emerald eyes staring at her bloodied hands in complete horror and shock.
She screamed…