Chapter 21-Escape
Jamie let out an inner cry. Vannozza was captured by these…who were these people? They said something about a metamorphus, a viviblix, and a narcoblix, but what was all of that? Jamie had never heard any of those words. The one thing she did know was that Vannozza was in imminent danger. She could never take on three people with just Roscoe at her side. They were fully grown and greater in number. She and Roscoe would have to find a way out and get help.
She tapped Roscoe on the shoulder and motioned for him to look through the door's crack. Moving in his squat, Roscoe peeped through door and squeezed his eyes to slits. He couldn't see her face! Jamie was stuck at an impasse. If she used the board stowed safely in her burlap bag, she would have to eat Arcturus Abney's lips, but, if she didn't, something terrible would surely happen to Vannozza. She tapped Roscoe's shoulder and he turned to her. She started making exaggerated movements with her thumbs toward the exit, mouthing Vannozza, Francis's sister, and danger the entire time. Roscoe just shook his head. He couldn't see what she was doing. It was dark and the cracks in the door didn't provide enough light.
Jamie sighed and took out her board, reluctantly writing the message. This was an emergency, right? It definitely wouldn't count towards the bet. Jamie wrote. Vannozza is tied down to a chair in the room. We need to leave and get help. Jamie lit her wand, so he could see and Roscoe seemed to understand, nodding with wide eyes. He motioned for them to leave as Jamie put her board away, but not before a voice called out from the room.
"RASALAS!" Algieba called. "Look! A white light! WHO'S THERE?!"
Jamie and Roscoe booked it down the passage as fast as they could, but the three wizards clearly had the upper hand. Not far down the passage, Jamie heard Rasalas shout an inaudible spell to Jamie and she felt a leathery length of fabric entwine her ankles. Her face planted into the ground and Roscoe locked his fingers around her wrists in an attempt to retrieve her. One of her wrists was let free and Roscoe shouted into the black air. "INCIDERE!" Nothing happened. The leather tightened around her ankles as the steps echoed further toward them. "INCIDERE!" Suddenly, she was free. He'd hit the leather, but, though there was no longer anything tugging at her, she was still bound at the ankles. Taking out her own wand, she thought the same spell and the side of her shoe spit open, leaving a gash down the side of her foot, but it didn't matter. The spell had also cut the leather straps. She could at least run now.
Red light flashed all around them and a stitch worked its way into Jamie's side. She'd never had to run so much! She could hear Roscoe's heavy breaths in front of her. He had longer legs and could probably outdistance her any day. He was staying behind for her. So maybe he wasn't so selfish after all.
Jamie constantly felt herself ducking from stunning spells and throwing her own over her shoulder to send out flashes of blue. It was a small passage, but she and Roscoe were only eleven while their pursuers were fully grown. Roscoe shouted a disarming spell and she heard a shout of fury. Jamie found herself blocking spells for the two constantly until one of Roscoe's stunning spells seemed to have hit the second pursuer as they heard him topple to the ground. Adhafera must've stayed behind to watch over Vannozza. Jamie grabbed Roscoe's arm and dragged him to the ground, encouraging him to be silent despite how severely their breaths protested, sounding loud and uneven.
A ways down the tunnel, the echo of Algieba's voice could be heard. "Rasalas?! Argh! WHERE ARE YOU, YOU TWO-FACED, GOOD FOR NOTHING, PIECE OF GOBLIN DUNG!"
"Did you hear that?" Roscoe asked. "She thinks there's only one of us because she only heard one voice. One of us should go get help while the other fights her off." Jamie thought this was absolutely insane. A first year against a fully grown wizard? How thick can you get? They needed to stay together. "You go." Was Roscoe brave or just stupid? She decided the latter. Fighting off a wizard you have no chance of surviving against while the other pointlessly tries to tackle a killer tree just made no sense. They needed a plan, not a deflation of an eleven-year-old's ego.
Jamie took a risk and slapped him straight across the face, hoping it would convey a clear enough message of what she thought about this plan. "What was that for?" For being so stuck on your pride, you can't see an escape route if it slapped you in the face. Let's go. She grabbed him by the hand and they charged down the passage. If those people wanted them, they would have to get them in the passage. Tackling them on Hogwarts grounds was too dangerous if they didn't want to be discovered. How would they get past the tree, though?
"GET BACK HERE!" Algieba screeched through the darkness. Both parties had had a rest, but the children now had the advantage. They were ahead and outnumbered the witch. The only question was how would they get past the Whomping Willow? Jamie didn't have much time to sort this question out before tripping on a set of dirt stairs.
"Here are my robes!" Roscoe said, sliding them back over his head. "Let's go." They crawled out of the hole in the base of the tree and stalked the trunk. "Er…freezing charm?" Something told Jamie that if the Whomping Willow were affected by freezing charms, the school would've known about the passage long ago. Jamie lighted her wand in time to see a branch come charging in her direction. Pushing Roscoe one way, Jamie fell the other, missing the club-like bough by centimeters. "LUMOS MAXIMA!" Roscoe shouted and the space between them and Hogwarts was suddenly cloaked in a veil of pure, white light.
"Brilliant, Roscoe!" Francis shouted from the field. "We were beginning to think that the two of you'd perished once we realized where you were! Didn't even think to pull out a spell that would make our presence known to all the teachers in the school and get us detentions for the next month for being up at this hour."
"Oh…" Roscoe trailed off, suddenly realizing what he'd just done.
The tree currently looked still, but it could attack at any moment. It was, most definitely, faster than them. Still, how else would they cross? Jamie crouched one leg against the tree and waited for a branch to sway downward. Rapidly, she pushed off the trunk, running toward the low branch and darting to the opposite side once it decided to strike, so she had a clear view of the party of boys from where she was and the nearest bough was quickly heading away from her. Jamie sprinted to the finish and landed in Tyler's arms while the rest of the boys cheered. She felt sticks of metal brush the side of her head until something rested on her ears and nose. Her glasses!
"Thank you for including me," Roscoe said sarcastically. "If I die in this, Jamie, I will personally haunt every girl you try to date until you are marked as cursed and then—"
"Get on with it!" Rush shouted impatiently. We're burning darkness here!"
Roscoe followed Jamie's tactics up until darting to the side of a low bough when a wild-eyed figure came up from the tunnel and tackled Roscoe to the ground, narrowly avoiding a club of wood that had aimed itself directly toward Roscoe. The boys jumped at Algieba's attack. She was bearing down upon Roscoe, holding a finely shaped wand to his throat.
In the light of the spell, Jamie could now see her wild eyes, smoldering in the night. Her black, lace dress was torn at the waist and her lengthy, grey hair covered most of her back. Algieba was an old woman, wrinkled and worn, yet strikingly pretty. She couldn't see a man her age rejecting her aside from her lethal personality.
Jamie tried to call out to warn her about the branch that was swinging closely towards them, but her voice wouldn't budge. It stuck in the back of her throat like peanut butter. Algieba was swiftly knocked off of her sitting position atop Roscoe and the boy did a backwards cartwheel, rolling the rest of the way towards the boys as Algieba screamed with fury. "Knox," Roscoe said and the lights went out.
"ALGIEBA!" Adhafera's voice called. "WINGRDIUM LIVIOSA!" Suddenly, there was scuffling and frantic whispers. The boys were hardly there to hear it, though. They avoided several teachers, sprinting back to their common room, and locked the door behind them as they entered their dorms.