All's Fair
The Show
"Ladies and gentlemen," Pansy's voice boomed in the stadium. "This afternoon, before the third annual United Charities Quidditch match, we present something special. Our friends at the Whales Dragon Reserve have brought us a singular treat." Pansy pointed her wand at the space above the VIP box she stood in. A fifty foot tall twenty foot wide version of the poster that had been everywhere for the last two months appeared hanging there in the air. It featured a full length picture of Lavender, smiling, her hand stroking the head of a horntail. Across the top was printed, "United Wizarding Charities Third Annual Charity Match Special Presentation", and across the bottom, "Featuring Lavender Brown and Dante".
"My friend, Lavender Brown," Pansy continued, and there was a huge roar from the audience. "Thank you, my friend, Lavender, has consented to introduce us to one of her friends.
"As I'm sure you have all read Lavender is a remarkable person. She fought bravely, heroically, during the Battle of Hogwarts, and now her courage is even more apparent. You see, up until a few months ago, Lavender was forced to hide herself. She couldn't find a situation because of her affliction, and the only thing that saved her from a life of poverty were the awards she received for her bravery. Then Lavender made a trip to the Wales Dragon Reserve. It was love at first sight." Pansy laughed. "Lavender was offered and accepted the position of Dragonologist. It seems, as you will see, that the dragons and Lavender have a special connection. Her work at the WDR has resulted in some astonishing advances in the science of dragon keeping." Pansy smiled. "I dare say she knows more about them than anyone on earth."
As ten men in groundskeepers uniforms emerged from the pitch entrance Pansy continued. "The workers you see on the pitch are erecting shields between the pitch and the stands for safety." While Pansy spoke a team of people activated shields that shimmered into existence between poles spaced evenly around the pitch. "These are to protect Dante from you, not the other way round. No one will be able to cast a spell or Apparate onto the pitch."
While Pansy was warming up the crowd, Lavender was undergoing a makeover in the women's locker room. The two locks of hair that framed her face had been braided and join behind her head to hold the rest of her hair in place. Her hair could fly free behind her but was stylishly kept from falling in her face. Parvati had applied a small amount of powder and blush to her cheeks, and Pansy had supplied a lipstick the color of ripe cherries. Her jacket was of dark brown leather that was polished until it glowed. Emblazoned on the back was an illustration of Asgre, rearing, with her wings outstretched. Her shirt was a simple button down stolen from Seamus that morning, and her trousers, made of the supplest black leather she had ever felt, had been supplied by Hermione. Her boots were short healed, black leather, calf length, and they too shone.
"Don't you look fuckable!" Katie Bell said from the entrance to the showers.
"Sex sells, Bell," Parvati said over her shoulder while she finished Lavender's hair.
"Yes, while I appreciate the compliment, Katie, I hope they pay some attention to what I have to say," Lavender said, smiling at her in the mirror.
"The men will be enthralled, that's for sure. The women, well they're going to be trying to figure out how you make that simple outfit look so fucking good, but pay attention? Well, the kids will," Katie said. "And that's the whole point of today, isn't it?"
"I hope so."
Katie snorted. "Your fan club is already out there, Lavender. They sold as many tickets to this as they did the match tonight. There has to be five thousand kids out there, you know. Most of the wizarding population of Europe is in the stands, and every wizarding child in the British Isles is."
Lavender looked in the mirror at her friend. "Thanks, that helps, really," she said dryly.
Katie smiled. "Just doing my part," She laughed. "Seriously, Lavender, knock 'em dead. You look beautiful, and whatever you do with Dante will be terrific."
"And on that, it's show time," Parvati said, and helped Lavender up from her chair. "You're going to do great, Lav."
Lavender smiled at her friends. "Thanks, he and I ran through the show a few times this week. It should be fun and informative for them."
Parvati nodded. "Time to mount up."
"And so without further ado," Pansy said, and Lavender started Dante into the dive. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Lavender Brown and Dante!"
The crowd was looking at the entrance to the pitch and didn't notice the dragon until he dove past the highest tier of seats. Then they began to cheer. Dante pulled up and skimmed a few feet off the pitch, rose until he cleared the hoops, and then he circled the field twice. Lavender sat astride his shoulders waving to the people who were stomping and shouting in the stands. She blew a kiss to Seamus as she and Dante passed the VIP box.
"She is spectacular, Finnigan," Thomas Greymartin said from Pansy's side. "Truly an amazing person."
"Thanks, Thomas," Seamus said with a smile. "Was certainly a pleasure, us getting to know you better last night. Thanks for dinner, and tell your chef he got the lamb for Lavender just right."
"There's nothing I could do that would ever make us even, Seamus," Thomas said seriously as he turned and laid a hand on Seamus' shoulder. "I wouldn't be sitting here if it weren't for you."
Seamus chuckled. "Ah, no need for any o' that. All part o' the job."
They looked back at the pitch as Dante lightly touched down in the center ring. Lavender gracefully dismounted and hopped from Dante's leg to the turf. She wore a small shell on a chain along with the locket Seamus had given her for her birthday a month passed. The shell was coupled to the large public address horns that surrounded the stadium. She brushed her fingers over the shell and it activated.
"Hello everyone, my name is Lavender, and I am a Dragonologist with the Wales Dragon Reserve." The cheer was deafening. She dipped her head and said, "Thank you, thank you very much, and this is my friend, Dante." She raised her arm in Dante's direction, and an even louder cheer went up. "I call him my friend, because that is what he is. We at the Wales Dragon Reserve are part of a worldwide group called The Dragon Friends. We strive to better understand our friends among the Kind, and to bring that understanding to the broader wizarding community."
Seamus sat in the VIP box and heard her voice calm. As she proceeded through her speech the slight quaver disappeared and she relaxed. "Just like Thursday love," he said. When she spoke again he heard only her conviction in her delivery.
Lavender strode away from Dante toward one side of the pitch and continued. "Dante is a Hungarian Horntail, he weighs just shy of six tons, and at a mere five hundred and twelve he is the youngest of the Kind at the reserve. We don't know what the upper end of a dragon's life span is because we have never seen one die of age. The Kind physically mature very quickly but their emotional and intellectual maturation process is rather a lot longer. That is one reason we come into conflict. A dragon may look mature, but until they are several hundred years old they are still infants, multi ton, fire spitting infants."
The audience laughed.
"We refer to the dragons as The Kind for several reasons, but the principal one is that they are. The main reason that it is impossible to domesticate a dragon is that they are very smart, and very proud. We humans, for a long time, never saw the depth of the intelligence and kindness they are capable of because we feared and hunted them. Now we seek to change that relationship."
Lavender turned and strode back to where Dante stood. "I have a special connection to the Kind," Lavender continued. "They can show me things, request things of us through me, and I can do the same with them. Fifty two of the Kind call the reserve home, we love each of them, and they love us." She stroked Dante's cheek as she passed and continued toward the opposite side of the pitch. "We want to show you that the Kind are not to be feared," she smirked. "Unless, of course, you've given them a reason to be angry with you."
Another laugh ran through the crowd.
"Alright then," Lavender said as she turned and faced the dragon. "Dante, as I said, is a Horntail. Dante, my friend, would you please rear for these people?" The dragon stood on his hind legs, spread his front legs and wings, and raised his head high. The crowd gasped in wonder and awe at the beautiful patterns in his scales, and the tremendous strength he showed in such simple movements. "The Horntails, as do all of the Kind, have subtle and not so subtle differences between themselves and the others of the Kind. His coloring, the patterns in his scales, and the shape and size of his wings are but a few of the obvious distinguishing characteristics of the Hortails." Her friend settled to earth behind her and walked to her side. He lowered his face to her. "One subtle difference is that Horntails have six front whiskers instead of four. We have a supportable theory that this was an adaptation for deep cave dwelling."
"She is so comfortable around them," Pansy said. "It's just amazing." In the VIP box Seamus, Pansy, Thomas Greymartin, Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Minister Shacklebolt, Madam Tonks, and fifty other dignitaries from all over Europe looked on as Lavender and Dante showed them and the fifteen thousand others in the audience the incredible bond that she and the dragons had. Dante sat on his haunches, Lavender stood in his right forepaw, and he lifted her to his face. Lavender showed them the spikes around the back of his skull that Dante could deploy in a danger situation, she showed them his fangs, five feet long and needle tipped, and she pointed out the beautiful variegated patterns in his scales.
Dante lowered Lavender to the turf, and she continued. "Now let's talk about fire, shall we?"
There was a loud "yes" from the crowd.
"The first thing you should know is that dragons don't like to spit. It's uncomfortable, like a particularly powerful and drawn out sneeze would be for us, and other than what we call the morning snort, where they clear the passages on waking, they only do it if they feel angry or threatened." She chuckled. "Dante will not be spitting for you today, but I will explain how it works." She turned back to the dragon. "Dante, can you open for me?' the dragon once more opened his mouth wide for her. Lavender drew her wand and pointed out a tube under Dante's tongue. "This conduit leads to a set of glands that hold a mixture of sulfur, a natural light oil they produce, and an oxygen rich liquid that we call accelerant." She pointed to two small orifices near his nasal passages. These produce an initial jet of hydrochloric acid that ignites the flame. Thank you, Dante," she said and the dragon closed his mouth and nuzzled her. "Yes, Dante, I love you too." She kissed his snout and the crowd laughed.
Lavender continued. "Dante can spit four to eight times before he exhausts the contents of his fire glands. After that he has to wait two hours before he can spit again. Most of the Kind have similar glands and similar abilities. The exceptions are the Fireballs. They form a lump of oil and accelerant in their mouths and then spit it as a projectile instead of a stream." She looked around the stadium. "I have never witnessed a Fireball spit as we don't have one at the reserve, but I'm told they can do it over twenty times before they are exhausted."
A murmur of wonder sounded from the stands.
"Yes, I'm travelling to the Tibetan reserve in the next month and perhaps next year, if Pansy will have us back?"-Lavender gazed up at the VIP box as the crowd roared-"I'll be able to report on that."
Pansy laughed in her chair. "As if I'd turn her down," she said to Seamus.
As the cheers from the audience subsided Lavender brought up an area Seamus suggested. "So we get asked rather a lot 'why are the dragons so interested in gold?' It wasn't until recently that we found the answer." She pulled her wand and summoned a piece of dragon eggshell from a table near the pitch entrance. "This is a shard of Ridgeback eggshell, and it's very heavy. The reason is the large amount of gold present in the shell. Extrahere Aurum!" she intoned. The shell hovering in front of her dissolved to powder, a large lump of gold formed in the center of the cloud, and then the rest of the shell fell to the turf as sand. "This is the amount of gold present in just that shard. We have found that the females of the Kind consume gold as a necessary component of their eggshells. It helps conduct heat into the developing embryo. Males of the kind will horde gold as an enticement for the females, and these facts explain one of the sources of our conflicts with them."
"Fascinating," Hermione said from Ron's side. "How did they learn this?" she inquired of Seamus.
"Lavender asked," he said. "Asgre showed her."
Back on the pitch Lavender changed topics. "Now let's talk about flight." Lavender turned to Dante and he lowered his right side. She nimbly scampered up his leg and sat astride his shoulders. "Alright, Dante, let's show them what you've got," Lavender said, and Dante took two giant jumps forward and bounded into the air. With powerful beats of his wings he and Lavender soared around the pitch. "In the tight confines of the stadium you can't really see how graceful he is, so we'll be using the open sky. Don't be alarmed at anything you are about to see, I'm perfectly safe," Lavender told the crowd after their second circuit, and then she and Dante spiraled up out of the pitch into the sky above western England. Lavender looked over her shoulder at the pitch and stadium surrounding it, receding, getting smaller. She and Dante turned back towards the ground at two miles up, and she leapt from his back.
Back in the VIP box Seamus laughed. All through the box and the stands people were shouting and screaming, pointing at the sky with panicked expressions, and wide eyed in shock. One pair of wide eyes belonged to Hermione, and Seamus shook his head when she looked at him. "Just watch," He told her and winked at the other guests in the box. Dante banked and swooped around Lavender as she soared, arms outstretched, her long blonde hair streaming out behind her. At two thousand feet above the ground Dante dove and met her. Lavender tucked, landed perfectly astride his shoulders, and the crowd lost their minds.
"Want to see that again?" Lavender asked after she and Dante pulled out of the dive and circled the pitch. There was unanimous consent. Their second and even more spectacular dive ended with them landing on the pitch, both breathing heavily. "That's a bit harder than it looks," Lavender said breathlessly, and the crowd chuckled and cheered. She and Dante walked to one side of the pitch next to the stands. The shield shimmered a few feet away, and on the other side people gathered to get a closer look at the amazing pair. They began a slow walk around the pitch so that everyone would get a chance, and Lavender thanked them for coming and for paying attention.
"The Dragon Friends would also ask you to help us save the Kind. We don't need money, we need you to not buy dragon products that don't come from us," she told them sincerely. "We supply most of the dragon dung sold in Great Britton, Ireland, and Wales of course, and that funds us nicely, but we ask you not to eat our friends, not to kill them for wands, or for their blood, or for their skins. The jacket you see me wearing today is of a treated piece of Dante's skin he shed three months ago, Ollivander's has consented to use shed whiskers, we collect blood painlessly every few weeks to supply that demand, and please, now that you have met Dante, how could you possibly think to eat one of the Kind?" She wiped a tear from her face. "Will you do this for us?"
They roared their response.
"Thank you," she said, and waved to the crowd. "Thank you so very much… "
Arouk?
"Dante?" He had stopped, and he was standing stock still, staring at a small girl wrapped in a robe and scarf on the other side of the shield. "Dante?" she asked again. "What is it, my friend?"
Arouk.
He was frozen in place, holding the gaze of the girl. Lavender placed her hand on Dante's cheek and closed her eyes. You are so beautiful, so very beautiful. Lavender heard the girl say in her mind.
With a stunned expression Lavender opened her eyes, and Dante turned and met them. Arouk!
Lavender nodded and smiled broadly, and then she turned to the crowd. "Well, it seems the show is not quite over." She looked directly at the young girl on the other side of the shield. "What is your name, young lady?"
The girl said something, but it was so soft Lavender didn't hear it. "Come now, your are Arouk, speak loudly." Lavender said firmly.
"Katlyn Maclellen," the girl said in her Scottish brogue.
"Are your parents here?"
The girl nodded.
"May I please have one of the security attendants escort Katlyn and her parents to the pitch entrance?" Lavender asked at the VIP box.
Pansy turned to her assistant just behind her. "Make it happen, NOW!" He Disaparated. A few moments later a man in a red suit with the pitch security logo on his breast appeared next to Katlyn. Her mother and father had just joined their daughter from their seats. Lavender and Dante watched as they were led away to the secure player's entrance.
Lavender looked up at the people in the stands as they murmured in curiosity. "The Kind have a name for me and women like me. We are called Arouk, the ones who know," she said while she and Dante walked toward the shield at the pitch entrance. "We are very rare, one in every few hundred years, but it seems in this generation there are two of us. There are many factors that go into being an Arouk, but one should be obvious to the Ravenclaws out there."
"Werewolf," she heard a man say quietly.
"Yes, we are werewolves." She stopped around fifty feet from the entrance to the pitch. "Dante, would you wait here for a few moments?" she asked her friend. He nuzzled her and sat. Lavender continued to the entrance where Katlyn and her parents stood. "Lower the shield," Lavender told the security agent. It shimmered and disappeared. "Do you mind if just Katlyn comes onto the pitch with me?" Lavender asked Katlyn's father and then mother. They nervously nodded, eyes wide. Lavender smiled at them. "Your daughter is very special, and she will be safer here than anywhere on earth." She squatted down on her haunches and held out her hand. "Come with me, young Arouk. This is your future if you want it."
Katlyn calmly approached Lavender, took her hand, and as the shield shimmered back into place they walked to Dante. Lavender stopped twenty feet from the dragon. "Why do you wear the scarf?" Lavender asked as she faced Katlyn.
"Scars," the girl said quietly, and looked down at her feet.
Lavender nodded. "Take it off," she said firmly. "You are Arouk, you are special, and you have nothing to be ashamed of or fear." Lavender knelt, and as she unwrapped the scarf from Katlyn's face she continued, "I have recently learned we must not hide what we are." Four long claw marks, puffy and pink, ran down her left cheek and neck. Her hair, vibrant red and nearly as curly as Hermione's, fell and obscured most of the scars. "There, you are strong and powerful, Katlyn. Never forget," she said, and motioned Katlyn forward. "Go on." The girl slowly walked to Dante. The Horntail laid his head on the field and closed his eyes. Katlyn stepped up to him, laid her right hand on his snout, and gasped.
"This is our gift," Lavender said quietly to the hushed crowd. "An Arouk can feel them, everything, memories, emotions, desires, and they feel us." She looked at Katlyn. The girl was standing eyes closed and enraptured, and Dante began to purr. "What is Dante showing you, Katlyn?"
"The valley, the Kind," the girl said reverently. "It's so beautiful. He says I am for the White Father."
Lavender smiled, taking in Katlyn's vibrant red hair and her obvious courage. "Yes, yes you certainly are. He will be very happy." Katlyn smiled wide, and then she, Lavender, and Dante twitched. He opened his eyes, stood, looked up at the sky above the pitch, and growled. "Dante would you protect Katlyn please," Lavender said quickly, and she took a few steps away from them. The dragon curled around the girl until she was only visible as a face framed in red hair between his legs. Lavender drew her wand and pointed it into the sky. "Finite Incantatem!" she said loudly, and swept the opening above the shields. A man on a broom appeared in the center of the pitch, thirty feet in the air.
Dante growled again.
"Well, you may get to see Dante spit today after all," Lavender muttered angrily, and the crowd laughed. She looked at the man on the broom, and before he could react his shield was down and she had cast Sonorus on him. "Alright, Mr. Sad Arse, can you read?" she asked him sarcastically.
He looked puzzled. "What?" he replied.
In the VIP box Seamus laughed. "Forgot how much I love watching this," he said.
"Watching what," Pansy asked.
"Lavender in a fight." He sniggered. "She talks, you see, a lot."
Pansy turned to her assistant who had returned from his earlier mission. "Security, on the pitch, yesterday." He nodded once and was gone again.
On the pitch Lavender smirked. "Do. You. Speak. English?" she asked slowly and precisely.
"Yes," the bemused man replied.
"Well then, dimbo, can you read?" she asked again.
"Yes," he replied again, a bit testily.
"You've read about me then?" she asked in a light voice.
"I didn't come here for and interrogation," he said haughtily
"And yet you're getting one anyway, knob head," she said and the audience chuckled. "Answer the question you gormless twit."
"I wouldn't be here if I hadn't." he said, obviously starting to get angry.
Annoy your opponent. "Hmm, so what makes you think you're going to live through this?" she asked in a conversational tone, and the crowd laughed openly.
"We're good at what we do," he said with a smirk.
We? Lavender thought, and she flicked her wand over her shoulder, a hemispherical shield bubble formed over Dante and Katlyn, a moment later one formed around her. It was so fast that members of the crowd gasped, and the man on the broom eyes widened.
Lavender looked at the crowd to her right. "Thought you said you read about me?" she deadpanned at them. The audience genuinely laughed.
"I can see why you love her so much," Pansy said to Seamus.
"That's my girl," he said with a wide smile.
Back on the pitch Lavender had succeeded, the man on the broom was angry. "We're ready for you, werewolf," he spat.
The audience gasped.
Lavender turned deliberately to him. "You really are an idiot," she muttered in a low angry tone of realization, and then, "The next time you say that word, say it with the respect it deserves," she said in a slow snarl.
"Aye, he's gone and done it now, poor fucker," Seamus said, and leaned forward.
The man laughed for a little less than a second before Lavender's first curse took his shield out, the second took him off his broom. Her third caught him in the chest in midair and hurled him across the pitch. Lavender rolled to her side to avoid several jets of red that appeared from nowhere above her and slammed into her shield and then the turf. From her position on her back everything was in front of her. She swept the sky above the pitch again with Finite, and twelve men on brooms appeared as the disillusion charm around them failed. In their shock at being revealed they let their guard down for a fraction of a second. That was all the time she needed. Lavender downed two with stunners before they regrouped. She rolled again and sprang to her feet as more curses rained down at her. At a dead run toward one group Lavender took three out of the air.
"Four, five, six. Half down." Lavender counted off, and stopped facing the remainder of the men.
Two swooped down at her. She levitated one of the unconscious men into their path and unseated them.
"Seven, eight. Pathetic." Lavender said, and the audience cheered.
Two of the remaining four pulled back to regroup while one went to aid his fallen fellows. He went to the man who had been talking with Lavender first and revived him while the others harried her with curses from a safe distance.
"Who's your best man?" Lavender asked casually from behind her shield.
The leader looked to his left at one of the men Lavender had yet to stun. "Cobblestone, here."
"Cease fire and send him down," she told him. "We'll have ourselves a little duel so you can see how futile this really is."
"She's pretty confident, Shay," Harry said. "You certain?"
Seamus chuckled. "You weren't there seventh year to see this. Lav was defense instructor, and she's just as good as you and Lupin were at it, maybe better. She even invented a thing we call the 'spell barrage'. You memorize three or four spells in a row and if your wand hand is fast enough to follow your nonverbal, well, watch."
Cobblestone landed on the pitch after a short conversation with the men's leader. "I've been playing nice so far, Cobblestone," Lavender told him. "Because I only know one way to play serious. Are we still playing nice or do the gloves come off?"
"I won't try to kill you, if that's what you're asking," Cobblestone replied.
Lavender nodded. "Alright, good," she said and bowed, then settled into her en guard position. "Are you ready?" she asked.
"Yeah."
Lavender recognized Ernie Macmillan's boisterous laugh.
"No, you're not!" Lavender huffed. The three spells that followed happened so quickly that Cobblestone was on his back, wandless, in less than a second. Lavender caught his wand in her hand and examined it. "Willow, unicorn hair, lovely." She levitated it back to him as he got to his feet.
In the VIP booth Seamus laughed at Harry, Ron, and The Minister's gapes. "That, my friends, was a spell barrage."
"Horrible. Really quite bad," Lavender said in her instructors tone as Cobblestone caught is wand. "Take up your wand." She settled into her en guard. "Again."
Back on the pitch Cobblestone looked at Lavender in fear and wonder. "Wha.. I?"
Lavender held up her hand to silence him. "Peaks, you out there?"
"Yes, Master Brown," Jimmy Peaks voice rang in the stadium.
Lavender smirked. They had taken to calling her "Master Brown" while she led the classes in wand and spell work in the room of requirement. The name had come from Professor McGonagall. She had called Lavender "Wandmaster Brown" when she had demonstrated her skills in a transfiguration lesson during the war year. The term had been shortened, and it was then standard form to address her as such in lessons.
"What'd he do wrong?"
"What, you mean besides not pissing himself and fleeing in terror?" Peaks asked, and the crowd roared.
Lavender giggled herself. "Yes, besides that," she said, and the audience quieted.
"Wand hand was not in proper en guard, weak hand was not in proper support position, and he wasn't even close to good posture," Jimmy peaks said promptly.
"Ten points to Gryffindor," Lavender muttered. "Very good, Jimmy." She turned to Cobblestone who was staring gob smacked at Lavender. "So, Cobblestone. Wand up, across your body in defense, go on."
He raised his wand nervously.
"Yes, like that," Lavender told him, erected a quick shield, and addressed the audience. "You see with his wand held loosely and low at his side as he did at first he had no chance to quickly defend. Now at least he can attempt a block." She paused and smirked. "Not that it's going to work," she finished in a murmur, and turned back to Cobblestone as the crowd chuckled. "Your weak hand, what do you normally do with it?"
"I… Um…"
Lavender looked that the leader. 'And this numpty is the most articulate among you too, eh?"
The crowd laughed again.
She addressed Cobblestone. "Your weak hand should be behind your wand hand for fine control, I know Flitwick covered this. Did you not pay attention?"
"I… well…"
Yes, yes." She straightened and dissolved her shield. "Again, En guard."
He dropped into a slight crouch and held his wand in defense position.
"Better, are you ready?" Lavender asked.
Cobblestone nodded nervously.
Lavender snorted and shook her head. "No, you're not."
He did actually manage to block the first spell but the second third and fourth had him on his back and his wand in Lavender's hand again. "It's very pretty, who did the carving?" Lavender asked as she sent his wand back to him again while the crowd sniggered. "Ah, never mind that. Robbins?"
"Yes, Master Brown?" Demelza Robbins voice called out.
"Flaws?"
"Well, he's still not running away," Demelza said, continuing Peaks' joke and the audience laughed again. After a moment Lavender held up her hand and Demelza continued. "Wand position is still low, and I think his grip is wrong but I can't see it from here. His weak hand fingering is odd at best, his posture is still wrong, but his biggest problem is that he's far too slow for you. He might have a chance against me…"
"No, Demi, he wouldn't," Lavender commented. She dissolved her shield and addressed Cobblestone. "Demi is quite correct, another ten to Gryffindor." She looked at Cobblestone and the men on the brooms. "And that's the end of lessons today, you have no chance, your time is running out, and you have exhausted my patience," she said in a clipped voice. Several people in audience murmured "Uh, oh" in trepidation for the men on the field.
"You should leave now," Terry Boot yelled out. "It'll be very bad for your health if you stay."
Lavender smiled. "Terry is not wrong. Mcgillicuddy."
Seamus was out of his chair in an instant. She had used their code word.
"Why in the hell isn't she an Auror, Finnigan?" The Minister asked as Seamus sprang to his feet.
"Doesn't want to be, sir. If you'll excuse me," Seamus said, and looked to his side. "Ron, Harry, you're with me. Let's go."
Back on the pitch Lavender made one last attempt. "There are children here, and I don't want to kill you in front of them," she told the men. "That doesn't mean I won't kill you. I will. It just means I'll be angry about it when I do, and as others have pointed out, that would be bad for you. You should leave as Terry told you to do."
"Get the bitch!" the leader yelled.
Lavender wheeled and dashed toward Dante, casting her constantly reinforced shield over herself like an umbrella. Curses battered her shield, but it didn't collapse. She was fifty feet from Dante when a violet shaft of light gouged a ten foot deep trench between her and the dragon. She pivoted, flicked her wand over her shoulder, and the shield around Dante disappeared. With a second flick she took a man off his broom. Her attackers drew back as two barely avoided incineration from a fount of dragon fire.
The crowd cheered.
The dragon made to come to Lavender's aid but she stopped him. "Stay with Katlyn, please, Dante," she pleaded, not looking at the dragon. "I've got these arseholes," she said through gritted teeth, and then she smiled. "I don't think you brought enough men," Lavender taunted, and the audience laughed nervously. "Not if you're here for Dante."
"No, werewolf, we're here for you," the leader said pompously.
A murmur of anger went through the crowd, and Lavender showed him her battle grin. "Is that so? Well, then you really didn't bring enough men," she growled. Lavender glanced at the pitch entrance. Seamus, Ron, and Harry were there reviving Katlyn's parents and the security agent. They had obviously been attacked and stunned, and Lavenders anger became an incandescent fire. She looked back the leader, and then to his men and nodded at them. "Okay, gloves are off you daft wankers. Let's dance."
She ran at them, zig-zagging across the pitch, and firing spells constantly. Her Bombarda shattered the shields of three, and they barely escaped the ensuing Incendio. The men fired back, but she was never where their curses landed. They flew in opposite directions trying to surround her, trying to confuse her, but she saw their unintentional pattern. A curse dug a hole next to her and she veered and fired a spell barrage. Two successive Reductos removed the man's shield, and he didn't have time to re-erect it before the Lithos in the spell barrage ended him. He smashed to fragments when he impacted the turf.
The crowd gasped in shock.
"Enough! Take her!" the leader shouted, and every one of the men on the brooms charged. They showered curses at her. Lavender angled her shield to reflect the curses back at them as best she could, while she dodged to her side. Another opening presented itself. Two successive Bombardas took out the shields protecting five of the men, and her Sectumsempra took the head off of one, the leg off another, and cut a third in half. The leader was dumfounded in shock, and he didn't even see the two Reductos that shattered his shield. He did however see the lightening curse that killed him and two of his followers.
By this point the crowd noise was deafening.
Lavender was already charging the remaining six. They split and flew in opposite directions around the pitch. She sent another barrage of spells at one. Bombarda took his shield, Reducto took his broom, Petrificus took his ability to move, and the Leviosa she used to smash him into one of his fellows took both their lives.
Everyone in the stands was on their feet cheering for her. Lavender didn't hear them though, her focus was on her opponents, and all she heard were bits of their panicked shouts as she cut through them, the scythe of death incarnate. They split again, flying as fast as they could around the pitch to try and avoid the constant stream of curses emanating from her wand. Then they got lucky. One of the remaining men, a stout built man, used the shields to ricochet a stunner off of and it tripped her. The two Stupefys from his companionsthat followed knocked her unconscious to the grass of the pitch. The audience screamed as two men immediately cast Incarserous on her and levitated her to one of their brooms. The man on the broom with Lavender flew straight out of the pitch and disappeared.
As Lavender was whisked from the stadium the shield at the pitch entrance dissolved, and Seamus, Ron, Harry, Katlyn's parents, and the security agents dashed onto the field.
"Withdraw!" the stocky man shouted, and the last of the men flew up and out of the stadium, as Dante roared and the three Aurors fired curses at their retreating backs.
Katlyn laid her hand on Dante's side, nodded, and said, "Go." Dante roared again, leapt into the air, and raced after Lavender and her captors as the crowd cheered him on.
"Where are they taking her?" Seamus bellowed at the one lone, live, legless man. He shuddered and died of shock in Seamus' grip.
"You are the Arouk's mate?" a young soft voice asked.
Seamus turned. Katlyn McClellan stood calmly on the pitch as her parents raced up to her.
"Kat," Her mother cried and embraced the girl.
"I'm fine, Mum, but we must go to the Kind." Katlyn told her mother.
"No, not after all this!" her father said.
"Dad," Katlyn said as she took his hand. "I must go; Dante has given me a message for the White Father. I have to go."
"We'll all go," Seamus said. "But we go now." He grabbed Katlyn's limp left hand, and her mother's right hand. Katlyn's father already had her right hand. "Meet us at the reserve," He told Ron and Harry, and then Seamus Apparated himself, Katlyn, and her family.