"That?" Wormtail asked, craning his neck to stare up at the gigantic, jagged stone wall. "We have to climb that?"
Nagini glanced over at Greyback. "I'll beat you to the top!"
"Nagini, I think the point of this isn't a race between the two fastest," Severus said dryly.
"I know that," Nagini said. She'd already jumped onto the rocks and was trying to pull herself up. "And?"
"Get down," Katie said impatiently. "The point of this, as Severus said, is to get the entire team up and over the wall and down onto the other side before the opposing team does."
"And who's that?" Rodolphus asked. "A load of Muggles?"
"Much to the contrary, as a matter of fact," Katie said, glancing down at her watch. "They'll be here any minute now. A group of nine wizards, they are led by a man with a long white beard, and call themselves the Order of the Phoenix."
"Who?" Nagini accidentally let go and came tumbling to the ground.
"You're kidding!" Voldemort almost yelled.
"Me, or Katie?" Nagini brushed herself off. "Because I'm pretty sure she…"
"Both of you!" said Voldemort. "Why would Dumbledore need his stupid Order of the Dead Turkey to do this Muggle thing?"
"Same reason we have to," someone in Greyback's direction muttered.
"The Order of the Phoenix is our mortal enemy! How could you not know…"
"I'm a snake, remember, Bellatrix?" Nagini said.
"And here they come!" Katie said. Dumbledore was leading the group out to the field.
"Hello, Tom!" he called, waving merrily. "Splendid day, isn't it?"
"Don't call the Dark Lord Tom!" Bellatrix shrieked. If she had a wand on her, she definitely would have drawn it.
"Relax, Bella," Voldemort hissed.
"Severus, who are.." Nagini was cut off as Dumbledore began to introduce the Order.
"Tom, have you met Tonks?" Dumbledore asked. "And I daresay many of you are acquainted with Alastor Moody. This here is Mundungus Fletcher, and Arthur and Molly Weasley. I believe you also know Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black."
"We know him, all right," several Death Eaters growled simultaneously.
"Blood traitors!"
"You - you bloody turncoat! Traitor! I'll..."
"Bellatrix…" Nagini was about to hiss something very insulting when she realized that the last shout was very definitely masculine. She and several other Death Eaters, Bellatrix included, turned to see Greyback glaring murderously at Remus.
"Problem, Fenrir?" Severus asked mildly, his voice icy.
"He's in my pack! He's in my pack and he's an Order ally…" Greyback broke into a rant similar to one of Bellatrix's.
"It's okay," Rabastan whispered to his brother. "This has nothing to do with the war… he won't remember once we get out…"
"Azkaban's done something to you," Rodolphus whispered back, just as Rabastan exclaimed softly, "We're in a book!"
"Remus Lupin is a spy," Voldemort mused softly. "You knew this, I assume, Severus? When did you plan on telling us?"
"I was not aware Lupin was a spy, my Lord," Severus replied, putting up his Occlumency shields.
"But you knew he was an Order member?" Greyback snarled. "Knew he was a werewolf? Put two and two together…"
"Certainly I knew," Severus said coldly. "I also know that Alastor Moody was an Auror, and Arthur Weasley was a blood traitor."
"If you're suggesting it's obvious Lupin was a spy…"
"I believe I told the Dark Lord about Lupin's lycanthropy," Severus said, glancing at Voldemort to confirm; Voldemort looked toward Nagini. "It's unnecessary to tell him every one of my suspicions, especially when the Dark Lord is fully capable of coming to them on his own."
"If you want facts read off to you whenever they're needed, give them to Bellatrix," Nagini hissed in reply to Voldemort's murmured question of, "Did he?" But Nagini wasn't so sure that Severus had mentioned it; he had a tendency to 'forget' little facts like that. But she was letting it slide for now, especially with Sirius Black's shout of "Nice to see you over there, Snivelly!" ringing in the background.
"Well?" Katie said coldly. "Aren't you going to introduce your own members?"
"Oh," it took Voldemort a moment to latch on to what she was saying. "Yes, of course. Dumby, you know Bellatrix, Severus, Greyback, Lucius… that's Wormtail, over there is Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange. And this is Nagini."
"Greetings, Nagini," Dumbledore said politely, drowning out a few quiet murmurs amongst the Order. "I don't believe we've met?"
"Hm?" Nagini glanced up. She'd managed to shut Greyback up with the promise of "You get to tear him to shreds if I get to eat him." "Yeah...are you a man or a woman? It's hard to tell with all the hair..." she asked the last bit in Parseltongue as something suddenly came to mind. Since they were already on the topic of Severus' disloyalty, hadn't he been learning Parseltongue a lot faster than he should be?
"I am, in fact, a man," Dumbledore said, still smiling. Several Order members exchanged worried looks. It was unusual enough that he insisted they went to this Muggle team building camp...
"Now that we've been introduced, let me explain the rules," Katie said determinedly, before the Death Eaters could start up again, "The point is to get your entire team across the wall and onto the mat on the other side before the other team does. There's one pile of materials over there…"
"So we're going to have to fight over it?" Greyback asked excitedly, never taking his eyes off Remus.
"Um… yes, you will," Katie said. Why exactly did I decide that, again?
"This was supposed to be a non-violent exercise!" Molly exclaimed. "I won't have anyone exposed to danger…"
"Then you can just avoid the bloodbath, can't you?" Greyback snarled; he wasn't the only one to yell taunts. "What the hell did you expect?"
"Actually, I think Molly here has a point," Dumbledore said. "The point of this exercise is not to maul each other, but to learn to work together. In addition, giving one team less supplies than the other is unfair and would cause much resentment."
"'Cause we don't have that already," someone muttered.
"Any suggestions?" Rodolphus hissed.
"As a matter of fact…" Dumbledore waved his wand; a pile of ropes and other things identical to the first popped out of midair.
"The rules state no wands are allowed," Nagini said; several other Death Eaters backed her up.
"All right," Dumbledore said. He waved his hand; the wand disappeared. Katie raised her eyebrows but didn't comment.
"Okay, then, you've each got your own supplies…"
"No fair, you wouldn't allow it when I wanted to modify the rules!" Voldemort protested.
"That's because your 'modification' was not allowing anyone but you and Bellatrix to break bones and draw blood…"
"Wait," said Greyback. "Does that mean we're all allowed to…"
"No! No, it doesn't," Katie said sharply. "No physical contact between teams; doing so will result in disqualification. You have five minutes before everyone must be climbing the wall. There is no touching the ground after everyone is on the walls. Everyone understand?" There were murmurs of assent from the Order; the Death Eaters muttered darkly, but Voldemort nodded.
"And… begin!" Katie cried. She leaned against the wall, directly between the Order and the Death Eaters as both teams ran for their supplies.
The Death Eaters, even Greyback and Bellatrix, managed to ignore the Order for the moment as they all grabbed at the supplies. There were three coils of rope that looked to be about one hundred feet long, five cold water bottles, and a sack containing helmets for all of them.
"Oh, joy," someone muttered. Nagini grabbed one of the ropes and slung her arm through the loop. She handed another to Greyback and, after a moments hesitation, gave the third to Bellatrix.
"Everyone go up as fast as you can," Nagini instructed. "We'll race to the top - whoever gets there first can let the ropes down and pull others up. Okay?"
"So you give the ropes to those who you think are most likely to get there first," Severus said, "Why Bellatrix? To distract her from murdering her dear cousins Sir…"
"Shut up, Snape," Bellatrix snarled.
"You're not helping with this whole work together thing," Voldemort said.
"Look!" Rodolphus pointed. "The Order's already on the wall!" No one waited for orders; they all ran to the wall and began climbing as fast as they could.
Greyback was fully distracted from Remus as he raced Nagini up the wall - and surprisingly, she held steady and put up a more than decent competition. Bellatrix, albit weakened from Azkaban as well as being a pureblood who didn't usually spend her time climbing rock walls, fell behind, but made sure to keep in third - Severus, Rabastan and Rodolphus were right behind her. Wormtail was trying to make good use of his silver hand - the only problem was that he had no muscles anywhere else.
Greyback reached the top first; skilled though she was in various things, Nagini lacked practice in climbing stone walls. Nagini reached the top a few moments later as Greyback started to unwind his rope.
"Look at the Order!" he said, pointing. "They're barely halfway up!"
'Barely halfway' was a bit of an exaggeration - the Order wasn't doing that badly - but they seemed to have really taken the whole teamwork thing to heart. They were moving upward together as a group, constantly pulling each other up, almost dragging each other at times. Granted, Greyback was able to climb faster than any of them individually, but at least a third of them should be able to keep up with Bellatrix, if not Nagini.
Nagini balanced herself on the ledge, which was four feet across, much wider than was expected. She let down her rope as well, calling, "Voldemort, grab it!" As it turned out, the feared Dark Lord also had a little fear of heights - Voldemort was hardly ten feet off the ground.
"What if I let go?" he yelled up.
"Then you'll smash your skull on the ground and die," Nagini yelled back down, perfectly calm. "So don't let go."
Greyback muttered something sounding like, "Doesn't he know the Order can hear him?" But he didn't dare say so to Nagini. Strangely enough, he was actually amongst those who were most frightened of Nagini. She guessed it might have something to do with his wolf instincts - or could he smell the lingering scent of snake on her, as she could detect his lycanthropy?
Greyback, meanwhile, was attempting to heave Wormtail up. Wormtail was clutching the rope with his silver hand, and made only minimal attempts to continue climbing himself.
"God, Wormy, lose some weight!" he huffed. "Or at least try to climb…"
"Stop clinging to the rope like a baby!" Nagini shouted down, hauling Voldemort slowly higher as he clung to the rope with all four limbs.
"I am not!" Voldemort said, his voice even higher than usual. "It's safer this way!"
Bellatrix pulled herself up onto the ledge a few minutes later.
"I'll take the Dark Lord," she said to Nagini.
"I've got him, thanks," Nagini replied.
"Nagini, give me the rope," Bellatrix said, threatening yet a bit winded from the climb, as she pulled her own rope from her shoulder.
"Use yours and pull up Lucius," Nagini said. "Or bring your husband up first if you don't think you're strong enough…" Her tone said that she doubted Bellatrix could pull Lucius' weight.
"I'm not asking," Bellatrix snarled. "Hand it over."
"No," Nagini said simply. She glanced to her other side; Greyback was grinning. "And if you push me, I'll drop him. Give that rope of yours to Severus if you're not willing to use it."
Severus was just ahead of Rodolphus and Rabastan as he joined Greyback, Nagini and Bellatrix on the ledge. None of the Order had made it to the top yet, but they were more than three quarters of the way there by now.
"Nagini…."
"Bellatrix, you are intending that the Death Eaters win, are you not?" Severus asked coldly, taking the rope from her hands and letting it fall. "Lucius, grab on." Lucius and Severus had been deemed 'friends' due to the fact that they didn't especially want to injure one another; Lucius grabbed on.
Much to Bellatrix' disgust, Rodolphus and Rabastan clambered up a few minutes later; they went, respectively, to aid Greyback and Severus. Nagini managed to pull a sweaty and terrified Voldemort onto the ledge just as the entire Order neared the top.
"Hurry up!" Voldemort shrieked. Nagini and Bellatrix piled onto the ropes; Lucius let out a cry of pain below and was dragged up onto the ledge. His nose was bloody - bashed on the rocks - as well as his knuckles, knees and one leg which had been dragged across the rocks.
"You tore my pants!" he complained. "And this hurts…"
"You weren't going fast enough," Voldemort said apologetically. He had just started to notice his own various scratches - Nagini wasn't exactly careful - but for once, didn't moan about them. "Greyback, Rodolphus, Bellatrix - hurry up!"
Seconds later, Wormtail appeared on the ledge, far more bashed up than Lucius.
Only half the Order was up.
"We won!"
"Take that, Dumbledore!"
"YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Dumbledore, Remus and Kingsley on either side of him, were pulled up onto the ledge by the rest of the Order, behind the Death Eaters by less than sixty seconds.
"My Lord," Greyback turned to Voldemort, "Since we already won, could I please push…." He must have really wanted to - Greyback rarely used Voldemort's proper method of address, much less said 'please.'
"No, Fenrir, sorry," Voldemort said, still cheering. "Don't want to risk disqualification."
"Congratulations, Death Eaters!" Katie called from below. "Teams shake hands…"
For once, the Death Eaters didn't protest. Laughing and calling insults to the Order, they approached to shake hands. Greyback kept looking at Voldemort with puppy dog eyes between glaring at Remus; Rabastan and Rodolphus came in on either side of him and dragged him over to Tonks instead.
"Excellent work, Tom," Dumbledore said, cheerfully but genuinely, as he clasped hands with Voldemort.
"My name is Voldemort, but thank you, you old fart."
"Manners, Tom."
Dumbledore's remark distracted Bellatrix from finding some subtle way for Sirius to 'accidentally' fall off the wall, but she didn't have much of a chance to attack him before Katie called:
"You'll notice I've set up nets in case you should fall. Unfortunately, I can't magic any ladders up for you - you can climb back down, or you can jump."
"See, pushing him off the wall wouldn't have hurt…" Greyback tried to say.
"Not on that side, it wouldn't," Severus said, not bothering to sound too opposed to the idea.
"Let's jump," Greyback said; the Order was lining up to all leap off the wall, even Dumbledore. Greyback grabbed Nagini's wrist - she was the only one here he could trust to be fun - and threw both of them over the edge.
"Get off me!" Nagini kicked out before they were completely airborne, hitting Greyback... lower than she'd intended. The werewolf whimpered in pain, but Nagini's apology was lost to the wind as they fell.
They rolled out of the way and clambered off the net. Greyback's attention was immediately diverted - Remus had also just jumped.
"Keep going like that and you're going to end up more obsessive than Bellatrix," Nagini said softly as Severus fell onto the net.
Wormtail fell, screaming, after Severus, quickly followed by Lucius, his hair flying in the wind. Rodolphus and Rabastan came after, laughing at the two wizards' fear.
"Bastards," Lucius snarled. "You shouldn't have pushed…"
"It was only a laugh - you were going to jump anyway," Rodolphus said.
"No…"
"Not here," Severus hissed, trying to get in the way of the fight which was bound to happen.
"Why not?"
"Fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to raise the Order's already low respect for us."
"What're they waiting for?" Greyback asked, peering up - Bellatrix and Voldemort had not yet jumped. Nagini held her hands around her mouth and called, "Oi! Get on with it!" Her remark earned several sniggers from the Order, grouped not too far away; none of the Death Eaters dared to laugh, even if Voldemort would not hear.
"Shut your…" the rest of Bellatrix's words were lost in Voldemort's scream as she and the Dark Lord leapt off the ledge together.
"See, my Lord?" Bellatrix said, pulling Voldemort to his feet as they hit the net together. "It wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Took you long enough," Nagini hissed. Voldemort ignored her.
"Very well done, both of you," Katie said. "Excellent teamwork. I must say, it was very nearly a tie, but the Death Eaters pulled through - I'm awarding you a pizza party this afternoon."
The Order left towards one building; the Death Eaters took a detour to avoid coming in contact with them. Lucius, Wormtail and Voldemort left for the nurse's office to get fixed up; everyone else headed for the lunchroom.
"Ruthlessness seems to be the key, then," Severus hissed to Nagini. "If they were willing to bash up Dumbledore a little, we would have lost."
"Keep up or get dragged along," she agreed, "Mind you, we've probably got the most athletic people on our team to do the dragging."
"Yet we also have the least self-control," he said, "And athletic ability will count for nothing when we can't agree."
"Hey, it'll count. We can hurt each other more than they can."
"Huge 'pro' there, Nagini."
New chapter! Finally! Please don't murder me for taking so long! Review!