Chapter Six: Rebellion
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Hogwarts castle, Seventh year
"What in Merlin's name is going on?!?" Yannick asked as he entered in the Hufflepuff common room, his hair still dripping from the shower he had been in and strapping his wand sheath to his left arm. He headed towards a group of student that was coming his the common room, some of them looking very afraid. They were led by Hannah Abbot and Ernie McMillan.
"Hannah?" he asked, "What's happening?"
The Hufflepuff prefect from his year shot him a frantic look. "Slytherin students are creating havoc. Looks like Draco Malfoy is leading them," she said, "I did not see the main group myself but I have been told they are trying to take over the school."
"This is crazy!" Yannick replied, "Only Slytherins doing this?"
"Not sure, Yannick," Ernie said as he joined them, "No Hufflepuff at least but I heard that there might be a few Ravenclaws helping them."
"And they are apparently also targeting the ones they call 'blood traitors'," Hannah added, "We are trying to get all the students from our house in the safety of the common room."
Yannick shuddered. The 'blood traitors' as Slytherins called them, were the wizards born from Muggle parents or Wizard and Muggle parents. Lately they had been including in it the ones who openly helped Muggles, which was to say a lot of the students in Hogwarts. He looked at his wolf pendant quickly. It was not glowing, meaning that Alex was safe for the time being. Most probably already in the safety of her common room.
"I am going out to help round up any students I find," he said.
"I'm coming with you," Ernie replied.
Hannah was about to say the same thing when he stopped her. "I appreciate you wanting to help Hannah, but I will feel better if you, Susan and the rest of our year stay here to defend the common room and the dorms," he said.
"Alright," Hannah replied, "But you two be careful. I would not put it past them to be using unforgivables," she added with a dark tone.
"Thanks for the warning," Yannick said as he and Ernie went out into the corridor.
It was empty, but they could hear distant noises and several screams. They carefully went in direction of the main hall, looking for any Hufflepuff that would be missing. Sean and Justin had not been in the common room and that meant that they were outside as well. The sudden screams of pain of a boy got them to rush over to the hall and the sight that greeted them as they reached it sickened them.
Three Slytherins were hexing a Gryffindor third year, clearly enjoying the sick fun they were getting out of it. One of them cast a Crutacius at the boy but Yannick shielded him, causing the Slytherins to pause, wondering what had happened. Ernie used the advantage of surprise to stun one of them while Yannick disarmed and stunned the one that had cast the last curse. The third tried to hex Ernie but the latter protected himself and Yannick sent that last Slytherin crashing into the nearby wall, knocking him unconscious. They then rushed to the side of the Gryffindor who was trying to get back on his feet.
"Are you alright?" Yannick asked as he reached him.
The young boy nodded but did not speak. Yannick could see that he was crying and seemed in pain.
"Yannick?" someone said.
He turned to see Sean and Justin coming into the hall, followed by a group of young Hufflepuffs, mostly in the first, second and third years. Two sixth years came behind the group, making sure everyone was safe.
"Man! I am glad to see you guys," Yannick said as he stood up to greet them.
"Anyone following you?" Ernie asked them.
"Not if they can un-stun themselves," one of the sixth years said, darting her eyes in different direction to catch any movement.
"Do we know of anyone else missing?" Yannick asked.
Before anyone could answer, some running was heard from one of the staircase leading to the first floor. A group of fourth years was seen coming down as fast as they could, Zacharias Smith and another Hufflepuff from the year below his running with them.
"They are right behind us!" the girl shouted as she came down the stairs.
Zacharias stopped in the middle of the staircase and turned towards the first floor.
"Get them to safety. I'll hold them," he said, putting his wand in guard position.
Before Yannick and the rest could tell him to turn and run, that they were there to cover him and the rest of his group, a figure appeared on the landing, slashing its wand in the his direction. The curse's green energy shot towards Zacharias, its skull shape breaking through the shield charm he had just invoked and passing through him. He did not scream and suddenly let go of his wand, his lifeless body tumbling down the rest of the stairs.
"Nooo! Zacharias!" the girl screamed, as she saw him fall down towards her.
Yannick looked at who had cast the curse and saw that it was a seventh year Slytherin that he knew a bit too well, Blaise Zabini. The tall black youngster was looking at Zacharias' body, an evil smile across his face.
"You bloody murderer!!" he heard Sean bellow next to him.
"More targets over here guys!" Zabini said in the corridor behind him.
" Russe tuulo' moriloomir!!!" (1) Yannick screamed, darting his wand towards the gloating Slytherin.
Energy crackled out of his wand and sped towards Zabini. The Slytherin had only time to retreat hastily in the corridor before the lightning struck the top of the entrance, toppling stones. More hexes hit around the same spot, causing more stone to fall and effectively blocking the way. Many Hufflepuffs had their wands drawn and looked furious.
"This will only hold them for a short time," Yannick told Sean and Ernie, "We need to get the rest to the safety of the common room."
"What about him?" Justin asked, pointing to the Gryffindor third year.
"We take him with us," Sean said.
"He cannot come into the common room!" one of the fifth year said, "It is against the rules."
"To Hades with the rules!" Yannick snapped, "You want him to suffer the same fate than Zacharias? He goes with us and that's final. Now move it!" he added, pointing in the direction of the common room.
The students started to move quickly in the direction he had pointed. He walked towards the sixth year girl who had been with Zacharias. She was sobbing lightly and looked in shock, stroking the boy's blond hair out of his now closed eyes. Justin and Sean followed him, the former passing him as they reached her and gently putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Heather, we need to get to the common room," Justin said softly.
"Why did he have to kill him?" she asked, "All he was trying to do was to protect the others."
"Yeah. And he'll pay for it, that I swear," Yannick said, darkly, "But right now it is more important that everyone reaches the safety of the common room."
Sean waved his wand and levitated Zacharias' body while Justin helped Heather on her feet and led her towards the common room. Yannick went to the main entrance and took a step out, looking carefully to make sure no Slytherins were there. Once he was sure of that he cupped his hands to his mouth and let out a long howl. He was answered less than a minute after by another howl, this time coming from the forbidden forest. Having done this he turned back to follow his housemates.
"A little reinforcement is on the way," he explained to Sean who was shooting him an interrogative look.
"We'll need it," Sean said grimly, as they followed their housemates towards the common room.
As they reached it they saw that Susan and Ernie were waiting for them, their wands drawn and ready for anything. Susan let out a faint cry when she saw Zacharias' body being levitated by Sean. She followed the Irishman through the panel that led to the common room. Yannick and Ernie were about to follow them when they heard the sound of people running coming from the entrance hall. They turned to see a group of Slytherins running towards them, their wands drawn. They were led by Zabini.
"Crucio!" "Stupefy" "Everte statum!" the Slytherin shouted, sending curses and hexes in their direction.
"Tinechor!" (2) "Protego!" Yannick and Ernie countered.
The Slytherin attack was blocked and Yannick pushed Ernie towards the entrance of their common room.
"Go! I'm right behind you," he said, "Just need to do one more spell," he added, gathering his strength for the powerful spell he was planning.
"Vara tel' Seldarine!" (3) he said, making a wide circular movement with his wand as the Slytherins sent new hexes in his direction.
A shimmering blue wall formed itself in front of the advancing Slytherins and prevented their second attack from reaching him. The Slytherins found that they could not pass the barrier and started to hit against it. Yannick smiled, mentally thanking Gran as he went through the entrance to the common room, closing the panel behind him. During his last stay over the summer and winter holidays, Gran had trained him in casting Elven spells and her influence had been a great help for him to master them. To be able to cast this Elven protection spell was a kind of victory for him as these spells were some of the toughest to cast.
As he entered the common room he looked at the faces of the ones that were there. Some of them looked grim, some were afraid, a good number were furious, and Yannick was part of them. Zacharias' death had created a shock amongst them.
"All the students below fifth year are to go in their dormitories and only open their doors or windows to the prefects or Professor Sprout," Hannah said with authority.
She was, along with Ernie, the prefect for the seventh year and was quite respected amongst the students. They did not object and started to move in the directions of the dormitories.
"Is there any secret passage to the dormitories?" Yannick asked.
"Not that we know of," Ernie said.
Sean was about to say something when voices were heard behind the panel.
"Bloody spell gave them time to close the panel," one voice said.
"Try the password we got."
"I did," the first voice replied, "Does not work."
"Stand aside," the voice of Zabini was heard saying.
Yannick looked at Sean. This was not good. They heard a muttered incantation and the panel shook, like if something was trying to ram it open. Yannick did not think twice and acted.
"Everyone take cover," he said, running to the panel and placing both hands on it.
He concentrated on the wooden panel, letting his treeshaping power flow through him. He was maybe not yet fully trained but he had to prevent the Slytherins from entering. He found the cracks that had been created by the previous spell and mended them. He then started to reinforce the wood on the side, blending it with the frame so it would be stronger. Another blow shook the panel and a crack appeared in the middle. This time Yannick had heard the reducto spell but had not been able to brace for it. He breathed deeply and forced the crack to mend.
"What the?" he heard a voice say, "The crack is reducing!"
"Not for long," Zabini said, "REDUCTO!"
This time he was ready for it and was able to contain the damage, but the crack became a bit bigger anyway. He was focusing in fixing the crack again when he hear a sudden howl from the corridor, causing Zabini to stop mid-spell.
"Look out!"
"It's Silverleaf's crazy beast!"
"Someone stun him!"
"Get him off me!!! Get him off me!!!"
Yannick smiled and mentally thanked his friend for the time he was buying him. He mended the crack in full and finished to meddle the panel with its frame. That should do the trick.
"Should we not help Altair?" Sean asked from behind the armchair he was taking cover with.
"Altair can shrug most spells off," Yannick said, "He should be able to scare them off," he added.
As he said this he felt a sudden pain in his chest, like if all the air was being chased from it. He fell on his knees, supporting himself with one hand while the other clutched his chest. A yelp of pain was heard from the corridor.
"Yannick? Are you alright?" Sean asked.
Altair had been hurt. Yannick was trying to get up when he felt a sudden emptiness filling him. No... it could not be. He and Altair were linked, able to tell ones feelings and experiencing them too. What he was feeling now was if the bond had been cut. He could not feel Altair anymore.
"No," he whispered, turning towards the entrance panel, eyes wide, "Nooooo, Altair!" he screamed.
Before he could move more the panel exploded open, the strength of the spells used sending him to hit the wall a few meter behind him. Still dazed he saw the Slytherins rushing inside the common room, cheering at their success.
They were met by the hexes of the few Huffelpuffs that had stayed to defend the common room. Two Slytherins went down, stunned and the other retaliated. Yannick looked around for his wand and saw that it was in the middle of the room, out of his reach. A Slytherin boy was suddenly standing in front of him, gloating.
"Poor little Frenchie lost his little pet?" he asked, "Well, I'll send you to meet him then," he added with a sneer.
Yannick let out a scream of fury and launched himself at the Slytherin, punching him in the belly as he reached him. The boy doubled up in pain and Yannick brought his elbow down on his neck, knocking him unconscious. He rolled on his right to escape a hex that had been aimed at him, grabbing a long piece of wood that was laying on the floor, a part from the broken panel. Rising from his roll he used it to dispatch a second Slytherin boy with two swift strokes. One to the back of the legs, to bring him down, and the second to the head. He was too infuriated to be careful not to hurt anymore. The boy screamed in pain but was soon laying on the floor, stunned by Susan Bones.
Yannick looked around and saw two more Slytherins ganging up on Ernie. He let out a scream and went towards them, causing one to turn to face the new threat. The second one was stunned by Ernie while the first was bringing his wand to bear on Yannick. Using his makeshift sword, Yannick swatted the hand away with a left handed stroke and concluded with a right hook to the boy's jaw that sent him to the floor, down for the count.
A scream of pain was heard at the entrance and Yannick saw Justin double up in pain under the power of a Cruciatus curse, his attacker being none other than Zabini. Justin was quickly shielded by a spell from Ernie and Yannick ran towards Zabini, knocking another Slytherin down with a strike from his piece of wood at the same time, but also breaking it in the process. Zabini did not have time to cast a spell and Yannick lunged at him, catching midsection and rolling out of the common room and into the corridor with him. The two of them fought and Zabini managed to kick him in the stomach, sending him rolling towards the entrance. Yannick started to rise, shaking off the daze from the hit but suddenly found himself facing the tip of Zabini's wand, the Slytherin towering over him with a victorious smile.
"Say your prayers, Silverleaf," he said.
Yannick was still too furious to think and looked at the power in the wand, using his treeshaping power to locate the core. Then, sending a surge of power through it he caused the core to explode, breaking the wand in half and leaving a stunned Zabini looking at his now worthless wand. Yannick used the surprise to grab the Slytherin's wand hand and giving it an expert twist, brought him to his knees, screaming in pain.
"You worthless piece of trash," Yannick said between his teeth, "Give me one reason why I should not break your neck right here."
"I'll give you one, Nick," Sean said from the entrance of the common room, "He's not worth it."
"He killed one of our fellow housemates, Sean," Yannick said furiously, "And also the one being that was as close as a brother to me."
"I know that mate and I am as furious as you are," Sean said, "But you are not like him, Nick. You are not a killer."
Yannick let these words sink in him. He looked down on Zabini who was still on his knees, trying to get out of Yannick's grip but failing miserably. Sean was right, although he wanted nothing more than to make Zabini pay, he knew that killing him would make him no better than him. And that was not right. With a swift move, he hit the Slytherin in the face with his knee, breaking his nose and sending him to the floor.
"All yours, Sean," he said, turning away.
He heard his friend cast a stunning spell as he headed towards Altair's limp form.
Hogwarts Castle – Present time – Great Hall
"Yannick? Are you with us, mate?"
Yannick became aware of Sean snapping his fingers in front of his face.
"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, Sean," he said, shaking his head.
"No problems," his friend replied.
"You seem to have gone deep in thoughts all of a sudden," Cynthia said, looking at him worriedly, "Are you alright?"
"I am okay," he reassured her, "It is just that some bad memories suddenly resurfaced when I caught a glance of the scumbag and his friends over there," he said, nodding towards the entrance of the hall.
"I can't believe he had the guts to show himself," Sean said.
"Who is it?" Alwena asked.
"Draco Malfoy," Yannick said, "Led a rebellion against the authority of the school, tried to kill a teacher in the process but was stopped by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and the rest of the DA."
"Right after this incident he and the ones who helped him were thrown out and banned from Hogwarts, not to mention one that was sent for life in Azkaban." Sean added.
"And I think that I will join the group that is welcoming him warmly right now," Yannick said, taking his wand out from its sheath.
But before he could move towards the entrance, Malfoy was thrown in the air, head facing downwards and hung there. The former Slytherin's eyes were looking frantically around, apparently trying to find out who had cast the hex.
"I remember having told you once that it wouldn't hurt you to be polite, Malfoy," a voice was heard saying ahead of him.
Yannick could not make out who it was but he clearly saw the people part to let someone with long brown hair pass.
"I wonder who this is," Sean said, "But he clearly is respected by many."
"And he clearly does not like people who are not polite," Cynthia said, smiling lightly.
"I said, SHUT UP!" they heard the man roar to another tall blond Slytherin that apparently was arguing with him, "Unless you want to join him."
"This man has got to be a Gryffindor," Yannick said, "Any idea who it can be Alwena?"
"I have no clue," she answered.
"Whoever he is, he is not afraid of the big ones," Sean said, looking impressed, "This is Devin Stiller he just shouted at."
Malfoy was suddenly thrown three feet higher in the air, back down again and then back up, the movements occurring briskly at the ticks of seconds. Malfoy suddenly looked as pale as a ghost.
"NOW!" they hear the man shout.
Malfoy mumbled something that the man made him repeat, before to let him drop roughly on the floor. There seemed to be more talking ongoing, with the man talking roughly with Devin Stiller once more and clearly telling him to leave. Stiller seemed defiant but somehow, something the man did made him falter and leave the hall, Malfoy trailing behind him. The tension that had been on that part of the hall relaxed as soon as they were gone.
"I do not know about you, but I am dying to see who this was," Sean said, "Coming, Nick?"
"You go ahead," Yannick replied, "I am going to take a walk outside. I need some fresh air."
"And I am going to see Alex," Cynthia said.
"So no one to accompany me?" Sean said on a false weeping tone, "What am I going to do?"
"I'll come with you," Alwena said, tugging his sleeve.
"Milady, you are my saviour," Sean said brightly, "Lead the way and I shall follow,"
"Don't get any funny ideas, Sean," Cynthia warned on a playful tone.
"Me? Never, Love," Sean answered, kissing her before to follow Alwena in the crowd of guests.
Yannick and Cynthia looked at them disappear in the crowd.
"Sean will never change, will he?" Yannick asked, chuckling.
"I definitely hope not," Cynthia said, "This is the reason I like him so much. He can be infuriating and stubborn sometimes, but he will always find a way to make you laugh and forgive him."
"Pure truth," Yannick agreed.
"Well, I am off to find Alex," Cynthia said, "You want to come with?"
"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Yannick asked.
"Come on, Nick," Cynthia said, "She can't stay angry at you forever."
"I would hardly describe a few hours as forever, Cynthia," Yannick said, "I think it is best if I leave her be for now."
"Your loss," Cynthia said, kissing him on the cheek, "See you later," she added, before to walk away.
Yannick stood there for a while, not really paying attention to anything and just thinking of how he was going to arrange not being in Alex's way at Cynthia and Sean's house. Before he could give it more thoughts however, he felt something rubbing around his legs and looked down. A ginger and white cat was rubbing its back around his legs, and Yannick knew that cat only too well.
"Cassandre!" he exclaimed as he bent to pick the cat up, "What are you doing here girl?" he asked as he held the cat in his arm.
Cassandre meowed and rubbed her hear on his chest, purring.
"Yeah, I'm glad to see you too," Yannick said, "So you managed to escape from where Wena told you to stay huh?"
His cousin's cat had a reputation to be able to get any place she wanted. Yannick had lost count of the times he had found her on his bed in the morning, while he had been certain he had closed the door to his room the night before. Cassandre only purred louder. Yannick chuckled.
"Come on, let's go outside," he said, "then I will bring you back to the Gryffindor common room. If I can find it," he added, before to head towards the grounds.
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(1)Russe tuulo' moriloomir Lightning. A bit long to pronounce but quite powerful and painful for the target.
(2)Tinechor Elven shielding spell. More powerful than the protego spell.
(3)Vara tel' Seldarine Protection. Creates a strong barrier that block all but the strongest off spells.
Next: Chapter Seven: End of training
