The Task:
Voldemort has broken through Hogwarts' defenses and is storming the castle, his army of Death Eaters alongside him. Students are evacuating, while others run through the halls preparing the school's defense. The teachers have spread out, organizing the evacuation and lecturing those who choose to stay.
Two armies are about to face each other in the greatest magical battle of the twentieth century. Both sides will face staggering losses, they know. Yet still they fight.
Wand in hand, you await your orders.
Each competitor will be RPing an original character and will lead that character through the battle of Hogwarts. Everyone has been split into 5 groups of 3. Your group must decide whether you will be a team of Death Eaters or a team of students, but you cannot be a mixed group. Together, you must lead your characters through the battle. Anything goes as long as it's canon.
Group 5 – Playing Students:
Sapphire Smoke
Marluxia
Popprincess889
Rules:
1. There are no post length maximums or minimums.
2. Each competitor should post at least twice. There is no maximum number of posts.
3. Stick to canon. You may feel free to make up spells, etc. but all the details and rules in the book must be followed here.
4. Original characters only, please. And if you group interacts with any canon characters, make sure everything fits with the books (for example: your characters cannot kill Bellatrix, since Molly Weasley ends up doing that).
5. You have one week to complete your RP.
( Sapphire Smoke)
Katherine's heart was pounding heavily in her chest as she was forcefully shoved into the evacuation line. Her fingers desperately sought out the skin on the back of her wrist, pinching it in an attempt to calm herself and keep grounded in this reality, rather than her slew of irrational obsessions. Hands... everyone's hands were everywhere; pushing her, shoving her aside and desperately trying to get out the castle before it caved in around them. The stench of dirt and fear came off of them in waves; assaulting her senses and making her feel sick. Katherine tried to ignore it; after all, the threat of imminent death seemed to pale in comparison to her fear of germs and general uncleanliness from her fellow peers. Still, it wasn't easy. Her breathing was beginning to shallow and the feeling of panic rising in her chest was due to much more than the army of Death Eaters waiting for them outside of the castle.
Professor McGonagall requested that the evacuation process be done 'in an orderly fashion,' but this chaos was anything but. Everyone was frightened, something that intensified once He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named bellowed orders to surrender the boy. His words echoed through the castle, reaching every corner and invading every shadow; a harsh reminder that there truly was nowhere to hide anymore. And yet they ran – all of them ran with the foolish hope that a head start might save them. It was a hope that Katherine herself held onto, despite her logical assessment of the situation and its pessimistic ending.
But despite every inch of her screaming to get out, to run as far away as possible and never look back, Katherine stayed rooted to the spot. As other students rushed past her in waves of desperation, her eyes searched the crowd for any sign of her older sister amongst them. Katarina was of age, but surely she wouldn't be foolish enough to stay behind and fight? This wasn't their fight, this wasn't their war. This had nothing to do with them at all and yet the longer she stood there, the heavier her stomach got with the horrifying realization that her sister would not be among the students evacuating.
Then hands gripped Katherine's arm and she screamed in horror, pushing the offending person off of her. Her hands frantically rubbed at her skin, trying to scrape the infected epidermis off of her body before contagion could spread through her bloodstream. "We need to go! Katherine!" cried the girl who nearly caused Katherine heart failure from just a mere touch. Katherine was sure it was another fourth year, possibly even one of her friends, but she could barely recognize the castle around her – let alone the people inside it – as she began to feel lightheaded.
This was too much; all of it was just too much for her to handle. She felt like she was going to cry; Katherine was already high-strung as it was, liable to have a panic attack if things weren't always justso,and this chaos was making her feel entirely too overwhelmed. There were too many people around her; too much fear radiating off of them, making the air thick and barely breathable. And Katherine needed to breathe, she needed to think... and so she broke away from the crowd and ran as fast as her legs would carry her.
Everyone seemed too involved in their own terror to notice her absence, or maybe no one felt the need to risk their own necks by going after her. Regardless of how she managed to get away, soon she found herself collapsed on the ground behind a stone gargoyle in the left wing. Her breathing was coming out wheezed; making her chest feel tighter and her lungs heavier. Katherine closed her eyes tightly and her fingernails dug into her skin, trying to focus on the pain rather than the onslaught of panic that seemed to be consuming her whole. She needed to get past it though; she knew she needed to get past it if she was ever going to find her sister. She wouldn't leave Hogwarts without her.
Katherine tried to block out everything and focus on the intake of her breath to steady it, but the noises around her were making her heart beat increase tenfold. She could feel it straining against her ribcage as it beat faster, heavier, and she prayed she wouldn't drop dead of a heart attack right there. All her life she had taken precautions to avoid stressful situations, as she knew she had a harder time than most handling them. But there were no precautions when it came to something of this magnitude. Nothing she could have done could have prepared her for something like this; this was life or death. This could very well be the end of all things.
Solitude seemed to help, as miniscule as that comfort was. After a while Katherine could no longer hear the frightening wheeze to her intake of breath and her heartbeat slowed to something much more manageable. The weight on her chest still seemed to crush her, but she fought through the feeling as she climbed to her feet, grasping the gargoyle's wing for balance. After taking a moment to steady herself, Katherine inhaled deeply and tried to find her courage.
Slipping from her place of hiding, Katherine tried to become invisible as she made her way up the stairs to the Ravenclaw tower. It seemed everyone was going to higher ground to have a better fighting advantage and it stood to reason that her sister would take to defending their tower, as it was home to them for nine months out of the year. She took the stairs two at a time, rushing past other students and a teacher, hoping they wouldn't take notice that a fourth year was still hanging around. Once she made it up the last step she didn't waste any time looking back to see if someone was coming after her, instead she made a beeline to the balcony.
Once her eyes landed on Katarina, a wave of relief passed over her and she finally felt like she could breathe again. Her hands gripped the threshold of the doorway and she desperately tried not to look down at the army below the castle as she called out her sister's name, hoping that somehow she'd be able to convince her to leave. This wasn't their cause to die for and Katherine would be damned if she allowed her sister to foolishly give up her life for something that clearly could not be saved.
( Popprincess889 )
To Katarina, Hogwarts had been a sanctuary. A place where one could escape from all the evils of the known world. Where else would they have chosen to hide the Sorcerer's Stone? Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end. But why a place like Hogwarts had to come to such a terrible end was lost to her. After all, all the school had ever done was nurture some of the world's most talented and intelligent wizards and witches. While some of those wizards and witches had turned out to be exceedingly evil, a majority didn't.
And of course, among those who thrived to stay good, was Katarina. She hadn't done anything terribly bad (so far). Shehadn't wished for the downfall of witches and wizards everywhere. In fact, since the day of Dumbledore's death, she had been hoping and wishing everyday that nothing terribly bad would occur.
It was a shame that all that hoping and wishing had gone to waste. For now, as she stood alongside all of the other students ready to face the Death Eaters, she felt a deep welling of sadness in her heart that this all couldn't have ended peacefully. Countless lives would – and have - been lost during the war, and for what? One man's greed? That, she concluded, was no reason to die.
But maybe that was the difference between herself and her family members. All of them had been Gryffindor, brave and courageous, always willing to charge into battle – save for her younger sister Katherine, the only other Ravenclaw in her family. While the others were busy making war plans on how to destroy the Death Eaters, she was hanging back, wishing that somehow it could all end without shedding a single drop of blood.
But the time for hopeless fantasies is over. Here she was, about to enter the climax of her life story, and she couldn't stop shaking from fright. At seventeen, you'd think that she'd be slightly braver, but no. She just couldn't help it.
She glanced around, studying the other faces that she had gotten to know so well these past few years, all willing to rush into battle to defend the place where they had grown from incompetent, clueless wizards and witches to the confident, brave people who were willing to die for their school. She admired their courage and their determination, their drive and their willpower. She channeled her inner Gryffindor, forcing her spine to straighten and her chin to rise. As the students dispersed towards the Death Eaters, she followed, desperately searching about for a clueless student or a foe-less Death Eater.
"Stupefy!" She shrieked at a passing Death Eater, violently shaking from fright. She felt completely lost in a sea of people, her sense of direction melting away. Deciding that the probability of seeing more Death Eaters would probably be greater when she was higher up, she raced to Ravenclaw Tower as quickly as she could. Familiar faces surrounded her, their supportive glances and hopeful eyes giving Katarina the strength she needed to go on with her head held high.
Once she made it to the balcony, she breathed a quick sigh of relief, which quickly turned to horror. Bodies littered the ground beneath her, flashes of light bouncing back and forth between wizards and witches. She could hear screams, loud and agonizing, rising up from the grounds that, only a year ago, had been a place to relax and have fun.
In a brief moment of peace, she remembered a time, two years ago, when she had stood on this exact spot with her then-boyfriend. Remembering that time was like remembering her fourth birthday – the memories hazy and forgotten about, buried deep in the back of her mind. She couldn't quite figure out why that specific memory came to her now, when there were obviously much more important things to worry about, but she figured there must have been some reason for –
"Katarina!"
A familiar voice jarred her from her thoughts. She froze, terrified. No! She couldn't have come here; she shouldn'thave come here. Squeezing her eyes up tight, she desperately wished that she was hallucinating, that she hadn't just heard that voice.
"Katherine!" She shrieked, shoving her sister to the floor as a spell struck the place she had been standing a moment before. What could she have been doing here? It was too dangerous for someone so young! She was supposed to be in the evacuation group! Why wasn't she in the evacuation group?
"I know you don't like to be touched – just..." She dragged her sister into the Common Room, the usually lively room now desolate and silent. "What are you doing here?"
( Marluxia )
It was difficult to think in the midst of all the commotion, and Debra was starting to regret making the decision to follow the older students into the rest of the castle to duel. So many Death Eaters, countless masked faces kept coming in waves around the corners of the corridors and the pace of Debra's heart beat dangerously fast, so that her ears were pounding with all the blood being pumped vigorously throughout her body. Her initial adrenaline rush was wearing thin as she began to panic, something that was not made easier to handle when a flash of red light rushed just over her shoulder.
With a gasp, Debra twisted around and fired a stunning spell at the Death Eater that had shot and missed her by an inch, but the cloaked figure had already swept around another corner, out of reach, and suddenly Debra wasn't feeling particularly avid about chasing them down. She cursed under her breath, her wand hand shaking slightly as she began to doubt her dueling abilites and the reason why she was even there, in the halls and trying to defend the castle.
She was not a fighter - she was a bookish school girl who earned her excellent grades in any practical sect of education because the pressures of a classroom were nowhere near the same as the pressures of battling for one's life. And this, running through the halls, head jerking every which way in constant vigilance of one's surroundings, was not settling in Debra's realm of familiarity. She needed to get to a safer place, because she did not belong in the battle.
Debra ran like she never had before back to Ravenclaw Tower. Her lungs were stinging with every sharp breath of air hissed in and out, and it seemed silly that just earlier that day, she had been running this same route only with a lot less weight on her shoulders. She didn't feel safe, not even as she passed several floors and hallways that appeared completely empty. As she ran, she tried to think, to rationalize the situation the same way she would any class assignment, because that was something she was familiar with; finding solutions to problems, no matter how impossible they seemed.
It came to her clear as a bell, the sound of his voice in her mind. Give me Harry Potter...Give me Harry Potter and none shall be harmed.
Why hadn't anyone tried to do just that? It was simpler than resisting, than sending hundreds of students with families and friends into Hogwarts to fight and die for one individual. Harry was of age as well, and as far as she was concerned he could fight his own battle; why "the boy who lived" was even hiding in the first place was shocking in itself. It didn't make sense to her for him to play his game of hide and seek while his peers attempted to defend him and encourage his concealment. No...this was not her battle to fight for him.
Her decision may have been made in cold blood, but once she'd decided upon it, Debra stuck with it. She would find Harry Potter and take him to Voldemort, deliver the one person that all the Death Eaters were desperate to find and capture, and put a stop to all the madness around them. But she couldn't do it alone, and Debra knew of only one other person she could turn to for assistance.
Katarina had stayed behind in Ravenclaw Tower to fight, and as she burst through the common room entrance, the usual riddle-delivering door having been blown off its hinges, found her best friend alongside her little sister, Katherine.
"Katarina! Katherine! I'm so glad to see you both here, in one piece!" Debra's words were rushed and choked on her heavy breathing, but she swallowed and stood straighter to deliver her request. "Katarina, we have to put an end to this, it is absolutely insane. Please, come with me. Together, we can find Harry Potter and we can hand him over to the Death Eaters, to Voldemort, and we will be able to leave to safety. I need your help, Katarina, I'm begging you. We don't stand a chance in this fight!"
( Sapphire Smoke )
The look on her sister's face cut deep to Katherine's core. A fleeting moment of guilt washed over her as she took notice of the sheer terror on Katarina's face; she should have known her sister wouldn't wish to see her amidst all this war and chaos. But she wouldn't have had to come at all if Katarina had just left like she was supposed to. Her sister was a Ravenclaw like herself; shouldn't she be looking at this logically? While the rest of their family were Gryffindors – even their own parents – that didn't mean that Katarina had to prove herself part of the Norwood line by staying and being "brave." Katherine saw no bravery in this situation, only foolishness and senseless death.
Though Katherine was at a point where she could breathe relatively normally again, that quickly ended once her sister pushed her to the ground. The concrete of the balcony scraped her elbow but she didn't even notice the pain as her brain caught up to the situation. She could have just died. Once again her breathing shallowed and her heart rate increased, making her sister's weight on top of her feel like a crushing boulder. "Off!" she screeched at her - the only word her brain could make sense of saying - as she tried to desperately push Katarina off of her. Her skin felt like it was crawling with new germs that were ready and waiting to infect her body and Katherine had to resist the urge to try to scrape them off with her fingernails. There were more important things in this moment to worry about; like the fact that she nearly got hit with a stray curse.
Peace of mind was not something Katherine was to have yet, however. Instead of avoiding more physical contact with her, Katarina grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet before practically dragging her into the Ravenclaw Common Room. She was apologizing, but Katherine barely heard her. Her ears were ringing with the sounds of destruction below, and coupled with her near-death experience and the fact that she had the insane urge to rip all of her skin from her body to just stay clean; mental clarity was not one of her strong suits at the moment.
"This is too much, this all too bloody much... everything... all of it..." Katherine mumbled to herself as she desperately tried to wipe the dirt from her skin in an attempt to calm her rapidly beating heart. She probably looked crazy; hell, she probably even sounded crazy, but she felt more overwhelmed than she ever had in her life. People were dying all around them and nothing anyone could do would stop it. She felt trapped, she felt lost; she felt like another number in the sea of the walking dead. Because that's what they were doing here, right? Just waiting to die. It wasn't a matter of 'if'; it was only a matter of 'when.'
They needed to leave. Now.
"We have to go," Katherine told her sister in a rush of breath. Desperation dripped from every syllable she spoke and she tried to ignore the feeling of germs and on setting disease so she could just, for one moment, focus on what's real; what's important. Katarina looked like she was about to argue, but Katherine wouldn't let her get a word out. "I am not going to stand here and watch you die!" she shrieked. "This isn't our war, Kat! If you stay you're going to get cut down just like everyone else foolish enough to fight for something that's already lost! This castle is going to fall; I know it, you know it, and what's worse everyone out there with some sort of twisted death wish knows it! I won't be left alone, do you hear me? So let's just forget about all this and go! Please!"
Katherine choked on her last words, emotion finally taking over as a few tears leak from her pleading eyes. She wished she could just take Katarina's shoulders and shake the stubbornness out of her, but the thought of touching another human being was as frightening to her as death. She hated being this way, more than anything else in the world. Everyone else could touch people, everyone else was normal. But even when it mattered, even when it was a matter of life and death, Katherine couldn't get past her own irrational fears to do what needed to be done. If she were normal, she would forcefully drag Katarina to safety. If she were normal, she would hold her sister as she cried for the death of her friends who stayed behind. But Katherine wasn't normal, she never would be, and the frustration of that made her choke back a sob and wish that Katarina would just listen to her for once because she had no way of making it happen on her own.
But before Katarina could answer, they were interrupted by a girl running into the common room. Katherine looked up and was surprised to see that it was Debra, Katarina's best friend. Debra was a smart girl; in fact, one of the smartest Katherine had ever met. She assumed Debra had taken her leave the moment He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's voice echoed through the castle, like any smart person would. But instead she was still here and Katherine hoped she only stayed behind so as to help talk some sense into her sister. But what came out of Debra's mouth was far from sense; it was absolutely maddening.
"Have you all gone mental?" Katherine shrieked, not believing what she just heard. Capture Harry Potter? Not only was the boy nowhere to be found, but it was no secret that he was a skilled duelist. It sounded like a suicide mission to her and more insane than the notion of saying behind and fighting a losing battle. "We need to leave," Katherine stressed, "not stay behind and play hero; we aren't indestructible! God, did you all get a dose of stupid in your pumpkin juice this morning?"
( Popprincess889 )
Maybe it was the rush of being in a way that was making Katarina crazy. Or maybe it was the thought of finally being something more than a quiet bookworm. Either way, despite her sister having a point, she knew she wanted to stay. After seven years of studying magic and wizardry, she could finally have a chance to prove to herself – and her parents – that she wasn't just another Ravenclaw nerd.
"Katarina! Katherine!"
For the second time in about fifteen minutes, a sense of dread filled her heart. She probably should have been feeling relief, as her best friend Debra was safe. However, she had up until then believed that Debra had fled like everyone else. If she was here, then the possibility of her loved ones dying had just increased tenfold.
In this case though, Katarina thought Debra was going absolutely insane. She was acutely aware of Katherine saying something, but at the moment she could barely think. Why in the world would Debra even think of turning Harry Potter in? The boy had saved their lives countless times, putting his own life at risk to make sure that everyone else would be safe. And so what if that didn't work so well? She would bet anything that he was probably somewhere inside the castle, thinking of some ingenious plan to save them all.
"Forget leaving! I can't believe you would even consider turning Harry Potter in! After all he's done for us! We would alreadybe dead if it wasn't for him. And what do you reckon You-Know-Who's going to do after he gets Potter? Disappear from the face of the Earth, letting us all go back to our normal lives? I highly doubt it. We'll be living under his reign. He'll murder anybody, for any reason. And we'll have caused it! Same with you!" She whipped around to face her sister. She could feel her temper rising, all of her mental clarity evaporating in a split second. She had been reigning her fear and her anger in for so long, but now she was done.
"Maybe you're right. You-Know-Who will probably win. But what then? He's not going to let us go back to our normal lives! I was just a baby when Potter defeated You-Know-Who. I don't know what happened before that. But I've heard stories; and so have you. Our lives would be torturous. I know I don't want to live like that! Do you?"
She didn't wait for her sister's answer. Her head was swimming with thoughts of leaving, staying, and all those in between. Combing a hair through her thick brown hair, she fell back onto a dusty couch.
Turning Potter in was even more cowardly then leaving. Maybe they wouldn't win, but at least they had tried. And maybe if they did win, they could be proud of all that they did. What if the students lost because of the absence of one more wizard? What if the school went down in flames because there wasn't one more student to defend it? What then?
( Marluxia )
Debra had faith in her plan, perhaps foolishly so. Before the castle had fallen to chaos and destruction, it had simply been another night at Hogwarts, sleeping peacefully in her dorm. But this changed when the other girls had caused her to stir, lighting their wands and stomping across the floors and toward the stairs.
Following the others, Debra had been one of many Ravenclaw students to stand in terror and watch Luna Lovegood stand in the common room alone, the body of Alecto Carrow slumped onto the ground. There were gasps all around, and many hushed whispers.
Is she dead? Did Luna kill her? What happened, what's going on? Why would Luna do such a thing?
It was only when Amycus Carrow was thundering on the other side of the door, that Debra finally returned to her dorm, with an ever attentive ear searching for more voices, more sounds. It was a shock just as much as it had been to see Luna with her wand raised against a professor, to later hear what sounded like Professor McGonagall exclaim "Potter!"
In Debra's mind, if Harry Potter had been in Ravenclaw Tower earlier that night, it was likely he could not have gone very far considering after the fiasco, the instructions for battle and evacuation rapidly fell into place.
Between small glares directed at Katherine and Katarina, Debra felt temporarily lost for words. She was so certain that Katarina would stand by her side on this, but the option that she would be let down had never crossed her mind. It was a harsh blow to deal, a big pill to swallow, to think that she may have overestimated their friendship all these years, that perhaps, the level of devotion she felt for her friend was not shared.
"What Harry Potter has done for us? Kat, all he has done for us is lead the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who to our castle, to destroy it and to destroy us! Can you not see that? Once You-Know-Who has Potter, he will deal with him in his own way, but it should not be up to us to sacrifice ourselves for someone who just wants to run and hide until time is up. Maybe Harry will stop him before it can happen the other way around, who knows? But all I know is it's too late to evacuate, all main exits are swarmed with duels, we won't make it out alive at all!"
Debra's hands were balled into fists at her sides and she looked at her friend imploringly. "I came to you because I thought you would stick by me, because you are my friend. Kat, please..."
( Popprincess889 )
Katarina stared at her friend in disbelief. It was as if all those years of friendship had suddenly disappeared – along with her friend's sanity. She had expected that Debra would feel the same amount of dedication towards Hogwarts, that same desire to stay and fight and defend the place where they had grown to be such good friends. Hogwarts was her home. And she wasn't just going to stand there and watch as it crumbled to pieces.
"All Harry's done? Were you not there at the Triwizard Tournament? Did you not hear about their excursion to the Ministry of Magic? He's been trying, all these years, to prevent this from happening. I can't believe you'd even think about turning him in. And how do you know if he's hiding? Maybe he's trying to save us right now. I'm not saying we should escape – I know we can't. But I'd rather die here then live under You-Know-Who's reign forever." She whirled around, towards the doorway. "We grew up here, Debra. Remember, as first years, when we barely knew each other? Now look at where we are. You're like a sister to me. If it wasn't for Hogwarts, we wouldn't be this close. We might not even know each other. Maybe you're willing to stand aside and let this school fall, but I'm not. I don't care what anybody says." And with that, she stormed off.
Running her hand along the smooth, stone wall, she reminisced in all the good memories that had been shared between her and Debra. They had laughed together, played together, and cried together. And through it all, they had stayed the best of friends. But now – now things were different. Maybe it was the thought of losing her home away from home that scared her, but somehow during that argument with Debra she hadn't been able to remember any of the fun times they had had. They had simply drifted away. Unfortunately for her, that drifting had made all the difference.
Maybe she should have apologized.
Turning around, she raced back to the Common Room. It was empty. Both Debra and Katherine had disappeared – probably to escape. Her thoughts carried her towards the Girls Dormitory, where she had fond memories of staying up late at night and talking with the other girls. A lone tear fell down her cheek, tracing its way down to her chin and dripping onto the shiny marble floor. She remembered, only a couple hours ago, awaking to the sound of shouting coming from the Common Room. Luna Lovegood had been found next to the unconscious body of Alecto Carrow. That was the moment when everything changed.
She heard footsteps behind her. Whipping around, she came face to face with an incredibly sharp-looking wand, its user hidden under a dark cloak. Surreptitiously, her left hand crept under her robes, searching desperately for her own wand.
"Expelliarmus." The Death Eater hissed - now proving to be a man - sending the wand flying out of Katarina's hand. She cursed under her breath. One. Two. Three.In a flash of motion, she dove after her wand, hand extended as far as it could. She grabbed it and fired a stunning spell at the Death Eater. He ducked, the spell bouncing off the wall behind him and hitting a chair.
"Confringo! Impedimenta! Incendio! Petrificus Totalus!" She fired spells left and right, trying, one last time, to somehow subdue the Death Eater. Whether it was by a nonverbal spell of his own, or some other foreign reason, every single spell seemed to miss. Deciding that her chances of hitting would be greater standing up, she quickly scrambled to her feet. The moment her feet hit solid ground though, the Death Eater cast a spell of his own.
"Sectumsempra." Pain exploded from her chest, her body feeling as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of her. She collapsed into a fit of coughs, the taste of blood filling her mouth. She watched in agony as the Death Eater coldly swept out of the room, trying to call out to him but ultimately failing.
She had heard of that spell only once before – and only that it was a specialty of Severus Snape's. He must have taught the other Death Eaters – that dirty little traitor! After all Dumbledore had done for him! If she had had any energy left, she would have raced down to find him as quickly as she could, ignoring the throbbing pain in her chest.
Earlier, due to the Gryffindor blood that flowed through her veins, and the Gryffindor body that she knew so well laying on the cold, blood-stained floor, she had realized that, no matter what, she would die for this school. It was funny how things seemed to just play themselves out, even if the person had gone to great lengths to avoid their fate. Katarina herself had not, but all of her loved ones had. She finally understood why they had tried so hard to get her to leave before it was too late. Oh, she was just as foolish as the rest of her family. All willing to die for a noble cause.
But here she was, halfway between life and death, and the only emotion she felt was regret. Regret that she hadn't been able to make amends with Debra. Regret that she was leaving her sister all alone. Maybe she would be a hero to them. Maybe even to everyone. Maybe she would be remembered as someone who had tried so hard to hold back the Death Eaters, to stop their oncoming attack. Or maybe she would be just another casualty among the many that were lost that night, to be remembered only by her family and friends. But Katherine and Debra would keep her memory alive – she was sure of it. They were the two constants in her life, the two she knew she could always count on, even in a situation like this one. She felt no sadness towards herself, no tribulation that her life had to end this quickly. Only for them.
And with that last thought, her vision blurred and faded to black.
( Marluxia )
It was a game of cat and mouse like she had never played before, the way Debra had pooled all the stealth in her body to evade any of the Death Eaters after her fight with Katarina. Of course she was the mouse, and she wished she really could be that small so she could hide more efficiently. Every footfall seemed to echo and send shivers down her spine, forcing her to whip around in panic and expect to see a cloaked figure pointing a wand directly at her.
After Katarina had walked out on her, Katherine disappeared on her own, and Debra had stayed in stunned silence in the quiet, dark common room, feeling alone and vulnerable. Perhaps if she had reacted sooner, she could have found Katarina to apologize. The way her friend, her closest friend who had been there since the beginning of their adventure in magical education, had looked at her...it was something Debra would never forget, not until she found her and apologized.
But in running out into the fifth floor corridors, Katarina was nowhere to be found, and it was with a heaviness in her heart that Debra pushed it all aside in hopes she would find Katarina after the nightmare was over and be able to make amends then. And so it began; hiding behind tapestries, behind suits of armor and stone gargoyles, staying as far away from sounds of spell casting and walls crumbling as she could manage.
It was the coward's way out, indeed, but more than anything Debra wanted to live to see another day, live to see her mother and father again, and if that meant staying in one place, hiding and evading any confrontation, then she would do it. Dueling was not in her blood and neither were any brilliant flares of bravery and courage.
You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery.
The voice seemed to wash away every other sound; suddenly there were no more screams, no more spells firing. It was the most uneasy silence Debra had ever heard.
Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured.
The absence of Lord Voldemort's voice left a pressure of deafness on Debra's ears. She was shaking with both gratitude and still, ever present terror. He was calling off attacks for an hour, one glorious hour. She had to find Katarina now.
She didn't run this time. Every limb of her body was tired and the exhaustion sunk deep into her bones. She wrung her hands as she walked back to Ravenclaw Tower, where she hoped that Katarina had returned to continue fighting. At the foot of the stairs, however, Debra found a trail of blood that made her stop in her tracks. There was no particular reason why she should feel compelled to follow the trail, but she did, and once again she was running, the more blood she saw trailing along the ground the more her own blood turned to ice.
It led her to the Great Hall, where there were bodies everywhere, some lifeless and some heaving the most labored breaths. The body she was looking for was closest to the door.
The pain in Debra's knees as her legs gave out and hit the floor was dull in comparison to the tumultuous wave of sorrow and regret that was threatening to suffocate her as she stared at Katarina's blank eyes and the gashes in her chest. Debra was vaguely aware of the comforting hand on her shoulder, and did not shake it away.
"Katarina..." she sobbed, her tears falling fast and free, "I-I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."
OUR TEAM WON THIS ROUND FOR THE BEST OVER-ALL RP :D