Chapter 7:
Brittany
Brittany watched as Scott, Kayla, and Chris ran as one through the courtyard and to the Transfiguration path. She paid for her moment of distraction, suddenly her legs were pulled out from under her and she fell backwards on the ground, her wand flying out of her hand. Looking at her legs she saw a spider advancing on her; its fangs dripping with venom. She crawled backwards her hands searching desperately for her wand, suddenly in a blinding flash of light the spider flew sideways into the wall with a crunching noise. She turned her head and saw Travis holding his hand out for her, she grasped it and he pulled her to her feet.
"Here," he said, holding out her wand. She grabbed it and out of the corner of her eye saw her brother Matt dueling Fenir Grayback, who was slowly backing Matt back into the castle.
"Matt!" she screamed, as she pushed past the fighters on either side of her desperate to get to her brother leaving Travis behind her.
Ducking her head against the spells flying in the air she saw her brother disappear into the castle. She ran towards the doors to the Entrance Hall and saw Matt dueling Grayback in the Great Hall. In horror she saw Grayback launch himself at Matt knocking him to the ground; she saw him bare his teeth and lower his face to Matt's neck.
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" she screamed, with a bang and a burst of light from her wand Grayback flew off Matt and across the Hall and slammed into one of the benches.
Grayback slowly got to his feet and took off on all fours back to the fray outside. She ran towards Matt, who was struggling to his feet.
"Are you okay, Matty?" she said to him.
"Yeah, thanks." he said before rolling up his sleeves and taking back off outside to join the battle once more. She stared at his retreating back until a jet of light soared narrowly by her head.
She turned and saw Antonin Dolohov standing on top of one of the benches firing spells at everything he could. She shot a stunning spell at him, it soared over his shoulder and hit one of the giant hourglasses shattering it and causing rubies to scatter across the floor. He turned and faced her shooting a Killing Curse at her.
"Protego!" Brittany screamed, deflecting the spell with a flick of her wand. "Impedimenta!" with a second flick of her wand.
Dolohov blocked it and started firing spells at her as fast as he could, she blocked and dodged them and shot her own spells at him just as fast. The floor and wall next to them cracked as missed spells and curses hit them, Brittany flicked her wand at the glass on the floor around them from the hourglass. It flew into the air and formed a glass shield which flew at Dolohov and hit him in the stomach sending him flying through the air. He hit a wall at the end of the Hall, and slowly stumbled to his feet, but fell back down again as Britt levitated a piece of broken wall to hit him over the head.
Turning she ran back out into the Entrance Hall. Just as she reached the doors to the courtyard a giant came running into the Hall. Its little eyes found her and slowly started to advance, she backed away towards the Marble Staircase with a plan. Her foot found the stairs behind her and she started to climb backwards the giant following slowly raising its club as it did so. She back further up the stairs watching the giant's face and it's feet, one of its feet stepped onto the landing to the staircase and started to climb with her; the staircase under her groaned with the sudden amount of weight. She reached the top of the stairs as the giant reached the middle. She raised her wand and pointed it at the steps just in front of the giant.
"Bombardar!" she cried, the stairs exploded and the giant roared trying to back away. The stairs under it gave way and it fell down to the floor below with an almighty crash.
Brittany looked around with no way to get back down to the courtyard with the stairs gone she ran across the landing and into the nearest corridor she could see. She walked along the first floor quietly, her footsteps muffled on the frayed carpet. As she reached the corner of the corridor she pressed her back against the wall and turned her head towards the corner. She could hear voices. The castle shook and she strained her ears trying to make out what was being said.
"I'm sick of all this fighting! Why can't we just kill the boy and get it done and over with? This is a waste of my time." one of the men growled.
"You heard the Dark Lord. He wants Potter alive; he is to be killed by none but his hands. We can just wait it out here." the other one snapped in a lower voice.
"Easy for you to say. These ratty little kids thinking they can really defeat us. It's very irritating."
"They will be dealt with after. All in good time."
Brittany snuck a glance and peered around the corner long enough to take in the scene. The two Death Eaters were standing in the middle of the corridor a body of a student sprawled on the floor at their feet. Above them she saw a chandelier and she saw her chance. Pointing her wand carefully at it with the Death Eater's backs to her, she whispered "Diffindo!"
With a crack the chandelier came crashing down, one of the Death Eaters dived to the side while his partner was crushed under the light. The Death Eater whipped around and shot a spell at her, she pulled behind the corner just in time as the spell flew past and hit the wall. Holding her wand out in front of her, she dived into the corridor and behind a glass cabinet, and shot a stunning spell at the Death Eater. He blocked it and shot a Killing Curse at her which missed by inches and shattered the window behind her.
"Reducto!" she cried, pointing her wand at the glass cabinet next to the Death Eater. The glass shattered and flew into his face, dropping his wand he scratched at his face trying to get the glass out of his eyes. "Stupefy!" Her stunning spell hit him in the face and he fell backwards without moving.
She ran towards the wreckage the Death Eater had been crushed under and pulled the body of the student they had murdered out from under it. She realized, with a sickening jolt that it was Ashley Sprague. She stared into Ashley's face before gently closing her eyelids and dragging the body behind a suit of armor. Once sure it wouldn't be discovered she set down the corridor and opened the door at the other end.
The corridor was deserted; she sprinted as quietly as she could before pausing and hearing voices again. She recognized Scott's voice along with another very familiar voice.
"Well, well, well, it seems you three are in a bit of a predicament." she heard David's voice leer.
