Prompt #2 - 02.1 Best. Worst
The Battle for Hogwarts
Cassella ran down one of the staircases with her friend Jasmine. She cried out in surprise when the red beam of a spell narrowly missed her and collided with one of the stair railings, causing it to crumble to dust.
She turned, aiming her wand, "Stupefy!"
Her own spell glanced off of the wall behind the Death Eater. But then she saw another student nail him from behind and he crumpled. She continued racing down the stairs.
"Jasmine, wait!" she cried, but her friend kept going and disappeared around the corner. It was hard to hear with all of the shouts, screams, and the roars reverberating against the wall. Her heart was racing and she willed herself to move faster. When she nearly tripped over debris and fell the rest of the way down, she focused on her feet.
"Whatever happens, we'll make it through. Together," Cassella said to her friend, as they linked their hands.
Jasmine smiled, but it trembled with nerves as they watched You Know Who and his Death Eaters shoot the shield. The impact of the spells boomed like a never ending cascade of thunder. "I'll always have your back. We can't let You Know Who win."
"He won't," Cassella whispered defiantly, her expression grim but confident.
Jasmine was muggleborn, but that didn't stop her from being Top 5 in their year in Ravenclaw. Her smile was bright and her corkscrew curls fanned out everywhere. Edward had likened her to a mad scientist. Though Cassella didn't understand the reference, Jasmine had reveled at the descriptor and had then cackled like just such a mad woman.
Cassella careened around the corner, her eyes searching everywhere for her friend. She shrieked as a giant spider turned the corner and barreled toward her, snapping its fangs.
"Impedimenta! Conjunctis!" She was pleased to see its moves dramatically slowed and its eyes clouded. "Jasmine! Jasmine, where are you?!" Cassella called as she raced along the corridors and dodged spells, ducking here and there.
A movement caught her eye and she saw the black corkscrew curls dodge around another corner. Cassella sprinted after them, pausing only to cast more spells at Death Eaters who dared to get in her way. "Confundus! Rictusempra! Incarcerous! Impedimenta! Conjunctis!" Once he was tied up on the floor, she hurriedly stepped over him.
Cassella's breath caught in her throat as she saw Jasmine caught in a duel. Like the model student she was, she traded with the Death Eater evenly. But his spells were dangerous compared to hers: cutting spells, explosive ones. She countered with the same tame jinxes and curses that most of the rest of the students were using.
At one point, Jasmine staggered.
Cassella leveled her wand and screamed, "Protego!"
It landed just before the Death Eater's next spell. Cassella turned her wand to him and shouted, "Expelliarmus! Incarcerous!"
She left him struggling against the conjured cords that bound them and swooped in on Jasmine. "There you are!"
"Cas! You were right behind me and then you weren't! I didn't know where you'd gone," Jasmine said, her hands and voice were trembling. A splash of soot now adorned her cheek. Cuts marred her face and arms, splitting the fabric of her school robes.
"I'm here now," Cassella shouted back over exuberantly.
They were returning to the fight when Jasmine screamed and doubled over. Cas looked down at her, her mouth open to speak, but then her eyes widened and the noise that came out was a scream. Blood was gushing from the left sleeve of Jasmine's robes and her arm lay on the ground, still clenched in a fist.
Cassella turned to face the threat and raised her wand, but it split and shattered. She stared in horror at her wand before her eyes went back up to the Death Eater. She could only imagine his maniacal grin behind his mask as he raised his wand.
"Avada ke—"
"Silencio! Conjunctis! Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus," Edward roared from across the hall. His eyes blazed with fury. In the very next instant, the fury dropped from his face and he ran over to them."Cas, Jas, are you hurt?"
"Oh Edward, thank Merlin!" Dried blood stained the lower half of his face, but launched herself into his arms and gave him a quick hug. "I'm alright, but Jasmine…!
His eyes widened when he saw Jasmine weeping, holding the now blood-soaked sleeve of her robes and her arm now lying uselessly on the ground. "We need to get you to Madam Pomfrey!"
"We need to staunch the bleeding," Cas said breathlessly. "I would, but…" She held up the useless stick that had been her wand.
"Here." Edward held out the Death Eater's wand.
She glared at it but took it reluctantly. Already she felt naked without her wand. The moment she took it, her mood soured further.
It would have to do. Edward had turned to Jasmine and held up the ruined stump where her arm used to be. "Ferula," he said and conjured bandages wrapped themselves around the blinding stump. Jasmine cried out in pain at the pressure, but she nodded and gave him a watery smile. "I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey."
Cassella's stomach roiled at the arm lying in the rubble, but she pointed at it and said, "Preservare. Levicarpus." A sheen of white light went up the arm and then it started to float. "Muh-maybe Madam Pomfrey will be able to-to put it back."
"You have fought valiantly," You Know Who's vicious whisper floated around their ears. "Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one." Cassella shrank against Jasmine and they both whimpered. "I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured."
They listened still as You Know Who levied a challenge at Harry Potter. Cass couldn't believe her ears that the Dark Lord would think Harry Potter would be mad enough to venture out into the Dark Forest alone. They weren't fighting for Harry Potter either. She hadn't even seen him since he confronted Snape in the Great Hall. She was fighting to protect her friends and their way of life. And she would keep fighting, no matter how much it terrified her.
"Come," Edward said, once the voice had faded away. "Let's get you seen to."
He stayed on Jasmine's left side while Cassella took up her right and they gently guided her back towards the Great Hall. It was eerie how quickly silence had fallen once the Death Eaters had left. She saw people crawling out of rubble and stumbling in the same direction as if there was some unseen force pulling them.
She swallowed as she saw a seemingly endless line of stretchers going into the Great Hall. She looked down as she passed and saw Tiffany MacDougal. Boils adorned her now blue skin and her eyes stared at nothing. Cassella abruptly looked away and focused on the front of the line.
Professor McGonagall greeted them at the entrance, her face the very picture of worry. "Go on then and see Madam Pomfrey."
The school nurse and a few other students were bustling around the tables pushed back against the wall where they were tending to numerous people. Madam Pomfrey's face had fallen upon seeing Jasmine's stump. "This is not a job for me. You may have some luck at St. Mungo's, but we don't have a way out at present. Why don't you sit over here? What about you, dear?" She asked Cassella.
"I'm, uh, I'm fine," She said, but her voice was shaking.
"And you? That's quite a bit of blood," Madam Pomfrey said to Edward.
Edward fended her off. "Just an old nosebleed. I'll manage."
Madam Pomfrey clicked her tongue and gave him a small vial. "A blood replenishing potion for you then. I'll not be satisfied until you drink it." She watched him pointedly until he downed it and handed the vial back to her, which she took with a satisfied nod.
Cassella threw her arm around Jasmine and pulled her close. When Edward sat next to her, she pillowed her head on his shoulder. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder in return. Despite the heartache and the hardship, she reveled in the moment because she knew it wouldn't last.