"Alpha One to Red Leader, come in," said Alpha One, tiptoeing down the hallway.
"Shut up, Matt!" growled Red Leader, looking quite annoyed. "We don't need to make this any more confusing than it will be once the spells start flying. Everyone refers to each other by their names, understood?"
"Actually, Red Leader," muttered Lioneye, bashfully, "I'd really rather Andraffons and the Slythies didn't hear my name."
"A good point," said Badger, nodding. "The less they can pin on us, the better."
Red Leader sighed in exasperation. "I'm not afraid of them, and you all shouldn't be either. Hiding your names isn't just confusing, it's cowardly."
"Or smart," murmured Angel, her small fingers clutching her wand.
"I just wish we'd all been able to pick our own," said Badger, smiling ruefully. "I mean, sure, Matt gets to be Alpha One, and Avadeus gets to be Red Leader, but no, you lot have to force me to be Badger..."
"You join up late, you forfeit your name-choosing abilities," explained Nomad.
"Yeah," said Alpha One. "You can't be Gold Leader if you're the last 'Puff to join up. That makes no sense."
"Sure it does," argued Badger. "I'm the best guy you got."
"Such bravado," an amused Angel pointed out. "Let's see if you can put your wand where your mouth is."
Badger bit back a comment about how his ribs tended to get in the way and fell silent, mentally reviewing the spells he knew.
"Let the record show that Angel is a unique asset to the team," said Nomad, "for having the ability to shut Rap- er, Badger's mouth whenever she feels it necessary."
Badger glared at Nomad.
"Let's talk tactics," Lioneye interjected. "We burst in there... then what?"
"Sling your best spells as fast as you can," said Red Leader. "We have to use the surprise to take out as many of them as possible, because there's two houses worth of people, plus a teacher."
"Aim for him," said Alpha One. "He'll put a stop to this if we give him time to think."
"That's all well and good," said Nomad, "but I'm afraid some of us barely know any actual spells."
"Point," said Lioneye. "None of us know any offensive magic."
Everyone looked expectantly at Red Leader, who was suddenly very silent.
"Are you serious?" Nomad almost shrieked. "Nobody thought about this very real problem?"
"I assumed everyone else knew them," said Lioneye. "I guess I was planning to be cannon fodder while everyone else did the damage."
"Alright," said Alpha One. "We don't have time to teach you all a decent library of spells. If you can, remember this one. Steleus."
Lioneye burst into a series of violent sneezes, which slowly subsided.
"Just cast that on anyone who looks like they're trying to attack us," continued Alpha One. "Remember, the incantation is steleus."
Those who had not yet learned offensive spells committed the spell to memory.
"Now," said Alpha One as the group approached the Charms classroom and began pulling on their masks (red for Gryffindor, yellow for Hufflepuff), "are we ready?"
"Ready," said Red Leader.
"Ready," whispered everyone in unison.
"Right!" said Alpha One, and yelled "Flipendo!"
XxXxXxX
Kratos had been struggling to stay awake, he admitted it. Flame-freezing charms, while useful, did not make the most exciting topic of conversation, especially when most of the lesson was about their historical context. Kratos had decided to clock out, and hope his sleeping brain absorbed the information more readily than his awake brain did.
Then a voice shouted "Flipendo!" and the Charms door flew open and suddenly, things were a lot more interesting.
As Andraffons looked up in surprise, another voice barked out "Accio chair!" and Andraffons's chair came soaring towards the doorway, with Andraffons still in it.
"Nice one, Badger!" called the first voice as a third quickly shouted "Wingardium Leviosa!"
A spluttering Andraffons, reaching for his wand. was clipped on the chin by his rising chair, which quickly fell back down on top of him, knocking the professor out cold.
Students looked at each other in confusion, but Crosis and Torir, already apparently aware of what was going on, had both drawn their wands and were firing various hexes at the door. Cries of "Somnium!" and "Steleus!" could be heard as the masked Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs poured into the room.
Kratos realized then that the entire classroom was under attack, and raised his wand, trying to remember some kind of spell that could be useful. But alas, he had barely learned anything yet. "Um... verdemillious!"
A shower of green sparks erupted from Kratos's wand and struck a Gryffindor's arm. She cried out in pain, but then waved her wand and said "Somnium," and then Kratos knew no more.
XxXxXxX
"Rictusempra!" yelled Avadeus, pointing his wand at Torir. Torir dodged neatly out of the way, and sent a leg-locker curse back. Avadeus ducked behind a desk, breathing hard.
He was suddenly aware that attempting to take on two Slytherin purebloods by himself with very little training had been a terrible idea. Someone he thought had been Rapache had luckily been there to distract Crosis, or he'd probably be out of the fight already. As it was, Torir was proving to be a difficult opponent.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Avadeus heard, and, peeking out from behind the desk, saw a student that had gotten too close to Torir fall, arms and legs frozen like a soldier standing at attention. That was the fourth student Torir had taken out of the fight, Avadeus noted with some worry. The Slytherins were going to win via attrition if this kept up. He had to end this now.
"Battuo!" shouted a Ravenclaw, and his desk thumped as if something had struck it. Luckily, weak spells like the ones they had learned so far couldn't get through a good wooden barrier...
But what if the barrier wasn't wood? What if you changed it? He could change the desk with a switching spell. Or, even better...
What if I changed the floor?
Avadeus grinned, a grin which soon turned into a grimace of concentration as he imposed his will onto the floor beneath Torir's feet through the switching spell. The floor resisted his influence, and he realized that this was about five steps beyond matchsticks into needles. He continued to concentrate as he ducked his head up, then down again as Torir sent some sort of orange spell at him. Gotta keep him in the same area...
Then, release. Avadeus felt the magic flood through his wand and into the floor. Torir let out a yelp of pain as the floor reshaped itself into spikes beneath his feet. The distraction was all Avadeus needed to straighten up and yell a hurried "Somnium!" and then that was it, the duel was over.
Avadeus walked towards Torir's sleeping body. The spikes melted away, unsustainable at Avadeus's current level of skill. He bent, picked up Torir's wand, spat on him, then jumped onto the desk, firing hexes from both wands.
XxXxXxX
Rapache had been more than happy to take over the duel with Crosis for Avadeus. Avadeus seemed competent, but two Slytherins had seemed beyond his abilities. Rapache, on the other hand, was sure he could handle this snot-nosed kid.
"Slenshien!" shouted Crosis. Rap dodged to the side, feeling the spell against his robes as he did. That had been a new one.
In fact, looking around at the battle, it was apparent that the Slytherins were far more well versed in offensive spells than the others. Hogwarts staff had not had time to teach spells that would be useful in a duel.
Well, they had, but you had to be creative. None of this point-and-shoot nonsense.
Over half of the students they had brought were having a difficult time of it. They had had no time to commit the sneezing hex to memory and were having little success in casting it. Many were taking the muggle route and wrestling with their opponents.
"Slenshien!" shouted Crosis again, and this time, the howling wind slashed through Rap's shoulder. Rap promised himself, as he stumbled back in pain, that he would learn at least one straight-up offensive spell on his own time.
"Erm... Somnium!" Rap tried, but he had never truly learned the spell. Crosis easily shrugged it off and responded with "Blitzsphare!"
A fist-sized ball of lightning shot towards Rap, who quickly yelled "Accio chair!"
The chair came soaring towards Rap, intercepting the lightning in midair. As it began to break apart from the force of Crosis's spell, Rap quickly followed up his impromptu defense with "Propulso!"
The pieces of breaking chair zoomed towards Crosis at nigh-undodgable speeds. One of the legs got him across the head and knocked him out cold. Rap let out a small sigh of relief.
"In a few minutes, I'm going to think of something really cool I could have said", said Rapache woefully, to nobody in particular. "But for now, I'm drawing a blank. Propulso!"
Another chair swept across the room and neatly into a running Ravenclaw's path. He ran straight into it and sprawled onto the ground, moaning faintly.
And the battle continued.
((New spells used: Somnium: I actually got this one from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. A basic sleeping spell.
Blitzsphare: An offensive spell that fires a ball of lightning at the opponent. Power grows with the caster.
Propulso: Yet another spell that shoves its target forcibly away from the caster. Kind of like a weaker, less controllable banishing charm, but also not.
The rest of the spells are, believe it or not, canon in one way or another.))