a/n: this chapter is for QuietLion because she's had a tough week. Thanks for all the great reviews and i'm so sorry that there's been such a wait between updtaes. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 10
Stephanie couldn't have said what flavour ice cream she was eating, she couldn't have even said how many bowls she'd been through, she just kept eating what the house elves put before her. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Daphne trapped in a shimmering blob of shield magic constantly replaying the last moments of her attack. Just when things were over, when the blood had finally stopped and Daphne lay still, there was a flicker and the process rewound and started all over again.
She didn't even want to think about how many times Daphne had died and come back to life.
No matter how many times she saw it she still wanted to throw up. She couldn't imagine how Ron had managed to visit her every night for the last five weeks without completely falling apart. Although, looking at him across the table, Stephanie wasn't so sure he hadn't fallen apart. He was a shell of his old self, he fought, attended classes, trained for Quidditch but he didn't engage, not really. About the only time Ron seemed to be functioning on a level remotely like he used to was when he and Stephanie were immersed in their work or when Astoria was begging him to train her so she could fight like her big sister.
They were sitting in silence, both lost in their own horrific thoughts when there was an explosion overhead and McGonagall's magically modified voice boomed through the castle. Both of them shot their eyes upward as though they could see through the ceiling to the floor above. For a moment the kitchen was still, nobody moved as the castle shook above them. And then Ron was catapulting out of the kitchen with a feral look on his face that Stephanie really hoped was about finally getting to see his plan in action and not because he was about to unleash something terrible on some innocent people.
With a shout of thanks over her shoulder, Stephanie took off after him, catching up two corridors away where the first group of Ravenclaw students were trying to evacuate passed several battling Death Eaters. Like Ron, Stephanie dove head first into the fight; tossing up a shield charm in front of a seventh year and smacking back a spell intended to incapacitate a fourth year. Sparing a glance at Ron, Stephanie was glad to see that he looked quite happy with this turn of events.
She ducked beneath the reaching arm of a Death Eater and shot a spell directly into his stomach. The fake Death Eater made a very unattractive squelching yelp before crumpling to the floor and clutching his stomach.
She felt only slightly bad about it. Some part of her felt it was only fair that this drill work both ways. Some of the people who had been drafted for the role of Death Eater hadn't been in any real fighting; it would be good for them to get a taste of what it means to really fight. And between the two of them, she and Ron certainly gave them some experience. Stephanie held back only her deadlier spells and she could tell from the pained cries echoing from Ron's attackers that he was doing the same.
Once the flow of students from Ravenclaw had disappeared, they brought the fight to a swift end, knocking the five Death Eaters still standing unconscious with a sweeping sleep spell before tying them up and taking off down the corridor and toward the Entrance Hall. The ceiling above them shook violently and dust rained down on them.
'What the hell was that?' Stephanie coughed, as far as she knew nobody was supposed to be wielding spells with the power to shake the castle.
'The twins,' Ron coughed in response. 'They got together with Peeves this afternoon and rigged up a few pranks.'
Stephanie didn't appreciate the way Ron hesitated over that last word like he hadn't asked and was perhaps regretting not getting a better and more detailed description of what his brothers had planned.
They didn't find any more Death Eaters until they reached the Entrance Hall and then Steph couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle. It was chaos. Bodies everywhere, random bits of armour, what looked to be a shoe was hanging from the corner of a crooked painting. Smoke was rising from the charred remains of a bench and the front doors were nothing but splinters.
A group of Ron's best trained fighters were battling it out with a group of Death Eaters amidst the mess. The mix of fifth, sixth and seventh years had been specifically chosen to defend the entrance hall and given the fact that eight out of the ten were still standing Stephanie felt pretty secure in their choice of fighters. Just as they stepped up to the edge of the scene, eyes darting back and forth for a way into the fight that wouldn't get someone hurt, a spell that had missed its target shot over head and shattered the chandelier above them. Glass exploded over the scene, candles and hot wax dripping down on those fighting. A large shard of glass imbedded in Stephanie's right arm and she swore at the sudden and sharp pain, before wrenching it free. She tied it off with a bandage Ron had her, retrieved form who knew where.
With a growl of annoyance she launched into the fight, expertly stepping between a fifth year and her opponent. The fifth year sagged as the fight moved away from her but Stephanie didn't have time to reprimand her for slacking off because as she ducked under one of her attacker's spells another Death Eater caught the fifth year in the side with a stunner.
To her left, Ron was battling with two Death Eaters, mouth spread in a feral smile as he tore into them with some truly spectacular – if nasty – spell work. A spell from behind took out Stephanie's Death Eater and when he crumpled to the floor, Stephanie was treated to a smug smile from a seventh year. She rolled her eyes at him, unimpressed and darted left to intercept one of Ron's attackers.
Another explosion from above had the castle shaking and showering those in the Entrance hall in dust and debris. Blinking her eyes clear, Stephanie didn't see the spell coming her way until it was too late. The sickly yellow light slammed into her and knocked her back several feet. She collided with the doors to the Great Hall, forcing them open under her weight before sliding to a rest just inside on the stone floor.
For a moment she just laid there, every bone in her body screaming in protest. A few gentle movements showed her she hadn't done too much damage, she'd dislocated her shoulder when she'd hit the doors and she was pretty sure the spots she was seeing were a good sign she had some sort of head injury. With achingly slow movements that allowed plenty of time for someone to come and finish her off, Stephanie reached up to feel her head. Her hand came away slick with blood from a very tender spot on the back of her head. Dizziness made the room around her spin and for a moment everything went black.
The next time she managed to open her eyes someone was standing over her, she reached for her wand before she recognised the person leaning over her. The sound of fighting continued out in the Entrance Hall but if she was blacking out she wouldn't be rejoining the chaos any time soon.
'Hospital wing, I think,' Filch rasped, pressing her back to the floor with a surprisingly gentle nudge. He motioned to someone behind her and then the familiar big eyes of a house elf were peering down at her. 'Take her to Madam Pomfrey.'
Stephanie lost focus for a moment and when she could again make sense of how to work her eyelids she was in the hospital wing being looked over by Madam Pomfrey. She managed a heavily pained "ow" before she blacked out.
By a rather unlucky series of events when the drill at Hogwarts went down Emmy was in the middle of the world's most awkward student teacher interview. Honestly, all she'd wanted was a late night snack to help her get through the torturous amount of study journals she'd been putting off checking over. She'd made it down just two floors when she literally bumped into the new DADA professor who looked to be taking a mid night stroll.
Once she'd finished apologising for nearly breaking his nose – and gotten over the fact that he was wearing a blue tartan dressing gown - she got around to asking him what in the name of Merlin he thought he was doing wandering around the castle in the middle of the night. It didn't at all occur to her that as the student in this duo she was the one that should have been on the receiving end of this question, not asking it. At least it didn't until his face hardened and she got a brief look at the kind of fighter he could be before the softened teacher took over.
'I'm allowed to be walking, you on the other hand, Miss...'
'James, Emmy James,' she supplied helpfully, not a hint of remorse for being found out and about after curfew.
'You should be in bed.'
Briefly, Emmy thought about just turning around and going back up to the ADADA office, the one they used for the other students, but where was the fun in that? Instead, she made a sweeping gesture with her arm indicating the way to the kitchen. 'Care to join me for a late night snack?'
Not quite sure what to make of the invitation when he'd been trying to tell her off, it was a moment before he replied. 'Alright.' His resignation made her smile, eventually she figured Professor Vaughn would understand that the ADADA and the other professors ran the school, Dumbledore was just their figurehead.
They walked in silence for a few metres before Vaughn broke it with a question. Emmy kept her satisfied smile to herself.
'How did the ADADA get started?' he asked. 'You're not just another club, are you?'
'How so?' amused, she glanced across at him as she led him behind a tapestry and down a rickety set of stairs that would cut their journey time in half.
'I've taught in quite a few schools and I've never come across a Defence Against the Dark Arts study group that trains other students and offers tutoring and gives homework.'
Emmy actually laughed at that. 'We don't give homework, that's left over from when Ally was teaching.'
As they walked she told him all about Ally's teaching style, how she'd left the bookwork and catch up to them asking only to see the written evidence of their practice. She had just gotten to explaining how they had been learning to fight physically in classes when there was a loud boom and the floor shook. Emmy stayed his reaching hand before he could get a good grip on his wand.
'You're about to see how well she trained us all.'
'What -' but he was cut off by McGonagall's magically enhanced voice.
Emmy grinned wickedly and released his arm. 'This should be fun.' And she took off running toward the sound of the first explosion, not surprised when he ran after her.
One floor down and two corridors over the outside wall had been blasted inward, a nice hole affording a group of thirteen Death Eaters the opening they needed to get into the castle. As she sprinted toward the invading force, Emmy couldn't help admiring the realism Harry had sought to create. Vaulting over a chunk of masonry she tackled the last Death Eater just as she was climbing in through the hole. The unexpected physical attack worked in her favour and she managed to fire off a very powerful, ancient stunner as they fell. By the time they collided with the floor, the Death Eater was down and out.
Emmy leapt to her feet and jabbed her wand in the direction of two Death Eaters making for the stairs, immediately ropes wrapped around their legs, dragging them to a sudden stop. Their momentum carried both head first down the stairs and Emmy winced, barely containing the urge to apologize. Whoever was under those masks was not going to be happy with her when they woke.
Spinning, Emmy put any more apologetic thoughts to the back of her mind and engaged another Death Eater. This one put up a good fight and they traded spells back and forth for what felt like hours but couldn't have been more than three minutes. Something purple struck her in the shoulder and she spun away from her opponent. Her shoulder numb from the spell she flung up a shield charm to protect her back and fired four rapid spells at the back of a Death Eater battling with Vaughn.
In the blink of an eye she was back and facing off with her own attacker. The rest of the invading Death Eaters were nowhere in sight but she would worry about that later. She ducked under a spell and fired one back, not at the Death Eater but at the lantern behind him. Glass and bits of hot wax exploded outward, spilling all over the Death Eaters back and eliciting a cry of surprise and pain. Using the distraction to her advantage, Emmy blasted the Death Eater smack in the face with a sleep spell. Down the cloaked figure went and moment later he was snoring.
Somewhere deep in the castle something exploded and the floor beneath her gave an unhappy rumble. She wondered how long it had been since the Hogwarts castle had seen battle. She really hoped there was some good foundations and magic keeping the place standing.
And then she took off down the stairs, following after Vaughn as he chased yet another Death Eater, trying to escape further into the castle. She caught up with them in time to knock him out of the path of a spell that had come not from the Death Eater ahead but from a passageway behind an apparently solid wall that the new professor hadn't even known was there.
Rolling free, Emmy left Vaughn to continue after the first Death Eater while she pursued the new one back through the passageway. She caught up with him when they burst out of a tapestry at the top of the grand staircase leading down to the Entrance Hall. She narrowed her eyes and slapped a painful blasting hex at the Death Eaters back but the spell bounced harmlessly off a shield charm that had never been erected. Narrowing her eyes, Emmy studied the figure ahead of her. She'd recognise that walk and those shoulders anywhere.
Before she had a chance to use this information to her advantage, Death Eater Fred launched something that looked like a WWW joke product down the stairs. It was just plain unlucky that it fell into the path of a spell gone awry from the fight on the ground floor.
Emmy had a moment to take in the terrified wide eyes behind the Death Eater mask before Fred was tackling her to the ground covering her with his body and his head with his arms. The explosion that followed was so big that it was felt all through the castle, the windows exploded outward, fragments of marbled embedded in paintings along the walls and screams erupted from all directions. A warmth of fire washed over Emmy but she daren't move. Smoke filled the room and a white hot flash temporarily blinded everyone in the vicinity of the explosion.
When the dust eventually settled and the ringing in her ears had settled to a dull throbbing beat, Fred raised his head and offered her a sheepish smile. 'How dead do you think I am?'
'I could kill you.'
Turning her head, Emmy had to laugh. Looking down at them, covered in smoke and dust with his shirt burnt to ribbons, Draco Malfoy certainly looked mad enough to do some damage. His eyebrows were blackened and his eyes narrowed, still Emmy thought she should take a moment to admire Andromeda's hard work. 'Nice abs,' Emmy grinned, allowing the Slytherin to reach down and help them both up.
'You have some serious explaining to do,' Emmy agreed when she got a good look at the destruction.
'I agree,' Albus Dumbledore said with icy calm, appearing behind them with no warning.
The look on his face made it quite clear that death would be preferable.