Disclaimer: I don't own -Man or Harry Potter.
Chapter 29 – Jasdevi
The flowers suddenly erupted into one massive fireball and Krum put up a defensive shield against the heat as they withered away to nothing, the flame then disappearing as well.
"Hee!" He turned his head to see a strange blonde creature – it looked like a human, and possibly male, but he couldn't be certain – sitting on top of the hedge. Behind it was a black-haired male whose entire pose oozed insolence. Both held what looked like muggle guns in their hands, lazily pointing them at each other's heads.
"Pay up, apprentice!" the black-haired one called, as a black hand gently guided Krum back, away from them.
"Also not part of the task," Allen's voice muttered from behind him.
"Hee!" the blond one giggled again as Krum stumbled back a bit, not sure what to make of the duo. Muggle contraptions didn't work in Hogwarts, he'd been told, so why was Allen so concerned about the guns now pointed at them?
"Viktor, you will need to run," the white-haired boy murmured under his breath, going unheard by the strange duo only because the blond one's giggling was so loud. "They can and will kill you."
"Kill!" the blond one giggled. Viktor's response was to adjust his grip on his wand and step forwards.
"I am from Durmstrung," he reminded his companion. "Ve are taught to fight." Allen sighed, clearly frustrated.
"Yes, I know," he said, pushing his way in front of the older boy, to Viktor's annoyance. Allen barely reached his shoulder and he was using himself as a shield? "But you haven't been taught to deal with Dark Matter. The magic you use has no effect on a Noah."
"Magic smazhic," the black haired one scoffed, his pose shifting slightly, although the gun stayed aimed steadily at his head. "Feast your eyes on this! Red bomb!" Both opponents squeezed the trigger on their guns and Krum instinctively cast a shielding spell. A hand grabbed his arm and pulled him backwards and behind something white as a fireball impacted against his shield, which held but only barely. The spreading flames caught the hedges and burst into flames, engulfing the two odd youths, and Viktor allowed himself to relax slightly. They were gone, but it looked like they were going to have to take a different route now.
"Now we run," Allen said, apparently not relaxing at all. Viktor looked at him, wondering why he was still so on edge, and did a double take. The small white haired boy he'd spent the last year with suddenly looked very different. The white thing he'd been pulled behind appeared to be some sort of cape, the pristine white managing to reflect the flickering of flames. There was a mask on Allen's shoulder, too. It looked like the sort of thing that might be worn to a high-status event hosted by purebloods with too much time on their hands. Not the sort of thing Viktor would ever have associated with the down to earth Allen Walker, who gave off the impression that he cared little for social hierarchy and the like. "Now," Allen repeated, breaking his concentration as he grabbed his arm again and ran, dragging him along behind him. Considering the difference in their size, Viktor was surprised at the ease he could drag him with. His attention was then taken by the hand grasping his arm. No, he couldn't really call it a hand, could he? Claw, perhaps.
Human transfiguration? That would be his normal assumption, he mused as he ran alongside Allen, blasting objects out of their way on command. But it hadn't escaped his notice that it was Allen's left hand, which didn't look normal anyway.
"You-" he began, wanting to ask about the strange, almost ethereal appearance of his bodyguard, but he was interrupted by a long string of swearing from behind them. He'd heard a lot of similar language when Quidditch training wasn't going well, but that never put a shiver down his spine the way this did. That voice was-
"Blue bomb!"
Allen swore and dived to the side, right into a more sentient part of the hedge, which swallowed him up. His arm still in the vice-like grip of Allen's… claw… Viktor found himself also immersed in the foliage, which seemed determined to eat them. Or something. He wasn't quite sure what those vines were doing but he didn't like it. He sent a Lumos at the source of the squirming just as it all froze, ice coating previously vibrant life in a sudden chill more instantaneous than he had ever seen before.
"Fucking flames," the voice of the black-haired one cursed. Through what was now a frozen gap in the hedge, Viktor could see him patting down embers still on his singed outfit. The blond appeared to be bemoaning his hair, or something. He didn't get a chance to observe more before Allen yanked his arm again, dragging him through the rest of the hedge and out onto a different path. Well, what was once a path. It was totally incinerated.
"Did they get here first?" Viktor managed to ask as Allen kept running. He was starting to run out of breath, although in their current situation he wasn't going to bring it up. A sportsman he might be, but Quidditch didn't involve anywhere near as much running. Allen shook his head.
"I… don't think so," he admitted. "This isn't back where we started, is it?" He actually stopped for a moment to look around, seeming bewildered.
"No." Viktor knew that much. Seemingly reassured, Allen resumed running as yelling and swearing erupted from behind them again. "Fighting those two at close quarters is stupid," he added as Viktor sent him an incredulous look. Too much running. "If they catch us in their Purple Bomb we're done for. Lavi's the only one I know that can break that. Photographic memory and all that."
That did not sound reassuring.
"Could ve find Lavi?" he asked. "If this is not part of the task then ve could team up, yes?" Allen's face stayed grim.
"If the incineration back there wasn't Jasdevi, then-" he broke off as to the side a gigantic pillar of flame erupted. It looked almost draconic and Viktor remembered the first task with a grimace. "Then Lavi's fighting another one," Allen finished. "And if there's one there and these two here, there are probably two more with Harry and Fleur. We're on our own."
"Then why are we running?" Viktor demanded. "Running will not stop them." Allen muttered something that sounded very much like Master and not been caught yet under his breath.
"I want to get out of the maze," he admitted, ducking as a duetted shout sent… something their way. Viktor tried to dodge the other way, but Allen's grip on his hand stopped him and he had to change his evasion at the last second. The sizzling thing made short work of the edge of his robes, and he severed the infected area almost immediately, realising that it was continuing to eat at the fabric. He didn't want that near his skin.
"Are ve going to get there before one of their attacks hits us?" Viktor demanded. He, too, understood the urge to get into a more open area. It was easier to dodge when you weren't hemmed in by hedges.
"Probably not," Allen admitted, although he kept running. "But here is not good. Their bombs are big."
"Too bad!" A shadow passed over their heads and Allen immediately dug his heels in, skidding to a stop. Viktor stumbled but somehow stayed on his feet. "Hide and seek's gone on long enough, apprentice. Pay up!"
"Hee!"
Viktor wasn't sure he wanted to know how the duo had suddenly caught them up. Allen hadn't been expecting it, and now they were both off balance and on the defensive. The guns raised, pointed directly at their heads again, as the two entwined their arms together, standing back to back.
"Junior's not here to get you out this time. Purple bomb!"
Nothing happened. At least, Viktor didn't think anything had happened, until he looked at Allen. Some foreign substance was stuck across his eyes like an ineffectual blindfold and he raised a hand to his own face to feel the same thing across his own eyes. The duo had disappeared.
"Hee!" the voice echoed from by his left ear and he swung around, wand at the ready, to be faced with a hedge.
"You can't see us," a disembodied voice taunted. "But we can see you! Red bomb!" Viktor's instincts, honed from years of dodging Bludgers, threw him to the side as a searing heat passed his face. A curse from behind him suggested that Allen hadn't been so lucky, but a glance at his bodyguard showed him to be almost entirely unharmed, the white cape surrounding him like a visible protego totalum. Perhaps that was what it was: a cape enchanted with defensive spells.
"So what's the exit this time?" Allen muttered. "Last time it was the key…" Viktor decided it was best for his sanity to ignore his companion's thinking out loud for the time being. He kept getting caught up in analysing it, and now was not a good time to be analysing. Allen had said that they were done for if they were caught in a Purple bomb, but aside from their sight being messed with, Viktor couldn't see the issue. The duo's attacks were big and flashy, he'd noticed, so their aura was as noticeable to him as a Bludger whistling through the air behind him. He rolled as a blast of freezing air whistled past his ear, and his duelling instincts, drilled in by years of training at Durmstrang, led him to cast a hex back in the direction the freezing charm had come from.
There was a yelp. It sounded like the blond one, and Viktor noticed a slight haze suddenly occur in his vision, as though some glasses had slipped. He prodded at the thing over his eye and it shifted. He couldn't get it to peel off, but it was a start. These strange opponents were not invincible. Allen might have mentioned something about Dark Matter, but magic still hurt them. He sent another hex towards the stream of curses, which seemed to have a more panicked edge to them than before, and there was another yelp.
White ribbons streaked past him, and wrapped around nothing. He risked a glance back to see that they were extending from the cape around Allen, who was walking towards the looped ribbons. More frantic curses, and something that sounded like "white bomb", led to the ribbons rippling slightly, but they didn't let go.
"Crown Clown isn't that weak," Allen grumbled, readying his clawed hand – was he about to disembowel their still-invisible opponents – as he got closer. The cloak had wrapped around him entirely, with the mask seated on his face. A good defence when you couldn't see the attacks. "Edge End!"
There was a dual shriek – Viktor wasn't sure which one, or if it was both – as Allen's hand lunged forwards. Apparently that was a yes to the disembowelling, or so he thought until the stuff over his eyes slipped off, leaving the two visible once again. They didn't look disembowelled, although they were certainly in some pain and that was definitely blood dripping from Allen's claw.
"Bitch!" the black haired one spat, pulling the other closer with one hand, while a slightly unsteady other hand readied his gun. It was pointed at the other's head, and the blond's pistol was mirroring the action. "You'll pay for that!" It looked more to Viktor that they were about to perform a double suicide, but Allen had jumped back, his right hand coming to hold his left wrist in a peculiar stance.
Two triggers were pulled, still pointed at their ally's heads. One wrist was pulled.
Two heads appeared to be blown off. One arm disintegrated.
Viktor watched in horror as the two bodies fell together before appearing to merge in a mesmerising whirlpool, and as Allen's left arm disappeared entirely, leaving a huge sword in his right hand.
Throughout the encounter, he'd felt that maybe there were things he didn't understand happening around him. Despite that, he'd been able to cope. He was adaptable enough that being chased by a duo firing strange spells from muggle guns, of all things, was odd but workable. This… This was the first time Viktor had truly felt out of his depth. Both sides were monsters. His ally scared him as much as their opponents.
He staggered back in a daze as Allen charged forwards, wielding his arm-turned-sword with an ease that sickened Viktor, as he was opposed by a single tall figure, whose hair was flying around as though sentient.
The new creature, calling itself Jasdevi – wasn't that what Allen had been calling the duo since the beginning – laughed, and the two clashed in an explosion of power. Viktor called upon the most powerful shielding charms he could think of, although he got the feeling that if either wanted to, it would crumble in an instant. Tangles of hair clashed with the sword, locks shearing off but the main body appearing largely unfazed, and Viktor couldn't see how it would end. Would the hair, or another materialisation from nothing, catch Allen and decapitate him, or would Allen get through the hair to the main body and truncate that?
Logic told Viktor that he should be helping Allen. He knew severing charms. He knew freezing charms. He knew all sorts of magic that could immobilise the creature, if he just tried. Instinct froze him in place, telling him that he'd hit Allen if he tried. Or maybe he wouldn't try to miss Allen at all and end up taking out his own ally. Watching the fight, it was hard to think of the white being as his ally any more. This was a battle-hardened warrior – he'd met enough Death Eaters and Aurors alike to recognise those when he saw them – and he was only fifteen years old.
Frankly, Viktor felt sick.
At least Durmstrang kept their warriors in training in the safety of the school until they were of age. Were the other students like this? He tried to imagine the charming Lenalee, or the jokey Lavi, in such a battle frenzy. Kanda hid his warrior side less well. It scared him when he realised that he'd seen the same steel in all of them, behind their friendly faces.
Allen flew back past him, thrown by something, and Jasdevi turned their attention to him, walking forwards slowly. He was a cornered mouse, and they both knew it. Still, he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Now that Allen wasn't there – wasn't in the way, distracting him – he could let the warrior he had been trained into take over, as he sent the first curse their way. He didn't like curses, but this was clearly not a human. He could curse a monster with no remorse.
A door, elaborate and gothic, opened up behind the monster and swallowed it up suddenly, closing and disappearing just as the curse sailed through the empty space. Viktor frowned. He had been told apparation did not work inside Hogwarts' grounds.
"Road," Allen said, coming to stand beside him again. His sword had disappeared, and both arms were intact. As Viktor watched, the oddities all faded away, even the cloak, leaving a slightly battered Allen – the Allen he thought he knew – in its place. "What's she planning?" Grey eyes clouded over for a moment before they brightened again, checking over every inch of Viktor. "Are you hurt anywhere?" He shook his head, negative.
"I am fine," he said. His voice came out more stiffly than he'd wanted and he winced. He still wasn't sure what to make of Allen after that display.
"Sorry." Allen had caught the wince. "We hadn't prepared you for something like that. Our magic is nothing like yours, so I imagine it was a bit… startling." He'd had the tact not to say 'scary', and Viktor mentally thanked him for that, even if it was the case. "I'm still me. I'm still Allen, and I hope I'm still your friend." He held out his hand – his right, normal, hand – and after a few moments of consideration, Viktor took it. He had nothing to gain from alienating his bodyguard now, especially after he'd seen what he could do.
"Vhat now?" he asked, looking around at the carnage. "Is the Task-"
"The Task will be over," Allen said. "We need to get back to the stands and regroup. We didn't defeat Jasdevi – they're just regrouping, so we need to do the same. You remember Hogsmeade?" Viktor thought it would be strange if he didn't. "They control those creatures. If they're planning on attacking Hogwarts with them, we need to be back there, not isolated."
"The others?" Viktor wanted to know. He didn't want to leave his fellow Champions in the lurch.
"The fire we saw was Lavi," Allen said grimly. "And I saw Lenalee once or twice. The only one I don't know about is Kanda and Harry, but Kanda's one of the best. They'll be fine." Viktor studied him for a moment. He trusted his companions explicitly, and Viktor realised that he had to do the same.
"I haf questions," he told his bodyguard. "And I vant ansvers. But they vill haf to vait until ve regroup." Allen met his eyes for several moments, grey eyes searching for something.
Evidently he found whatever it was, because he smiled and nodded.
"Regroup, then answers. Let's go."
Replies to Guest reviews:
To all the Guests who were asking for updates (there were a lot of you so I'm grouping it into one): It's here at last, sorry for the wait!
ElyanWhite: Outside the box is fun! I hope this fight also met expectations, as it was much harder to write.
Mike: I feel like a lot of people, both real and fictional, share that trait as they get older!
That's all for now; it's well past the time I should be asleep but the writer's block finally left so I wasn't going to break it off now (if there are any glaring errors, they're probably because it's 2am).
Thanks for reading!
Tsari
