Everyone sat panting for a minute.
"Thank you once again, Madame Pomfrey, for saving my life." Shepherd told her. "Meet Brian and Sean. Sean is the one who was doing an impression of Rambo and Brian is the one here with the twisted ankle who I was carrying. Is there anything you can do for him?"
"I can fix him in seconds, but it'll have to wait, I need to sort out the others first." she said breezily, getting back to work. Sean gathered up everybody's weapons and began consolidating the clips and reloading. Shepherd lit a fag. Madame Pomfrey fed some potion to the witch, whose eyes opened. Madame Pomfrey reassured the girl in undertones, and slowly explained what had happened, why she was here, and who the others were. She then walked over to the cactus-man and fed him liberal amounts of a different potion (which appeared to be the one made out of Shepherd's assault rifle and sidearm). The witch sat up in her bed, looking around. Shepherd's and her eyes locked. She looked him over peculiarly. He must have been the first Muggle soldier she'd ever seen. She got out of the bed and walked to a sink, where she washed her blood-caked hair. When she threw back her hair after she'd washed everything out, Shepherd realised two things: firstly, she was pretty, and secondly, he was staring. He averted his eyes quickly. Even if this was the time or the place to chase after young girls, he didn't think he was her type. So he watched Sean clean the weapons instead.
"Take your shoe and sock off and put your leg up on the table." commanded Madame Pomfrey, appearing suddenly with her wand out. "And put out that ghastly thing." she snapped at Shepherd. Both Brian and Shepherd obliged. She prodded Brian in the ankle with her wand and a look of concentration passed over her face. She sighed. "It's done. You should be able to walk now."
"Hey, not bad!" Brian exclaimed, exercising his foot. He stood up, walked in a circle, then put his sock and shoe back on. "Thanks, lady."
"My name is Madame Pomfrey." she informed him icily.
"Right. Hey, if I make it out alive, I'll buy you anything you want."
"Now, men, we need to get out of here." Shepherd told his two charges. "Any idea how we can go about that?"
"It just so happens that I have some rappelling equipment in my bergen." Sean smiled. "Even with only one set we should easily be able to descend to ground level out the window."
"Sounds good." Shepherd approved. "What's our armoury like?"
"Not good." Sean admitted, smile faltering. "Four Desert Eagle pistols with three and a half seven-round clips between them, one Remington shotgun with twenty shells, one M16/M203 combo with four thirty-round clips and three more 203 bombs. Precious little. The only really armed person is the one with the AR."
"Then until we properly load up we take avoidance tactics and only fire in self-defence." Shepherd decided. "Brian, you take the shotgun and the D Eagle with the half-clip, Sean, you take the other three D Eagles, and I get the AR. Brian rappels down first, then me, then Sean. Set it up."
Brian distributed the weapons while Sean anchored down the rappelling equipment. Sean gave a brief lesson on rappelling, saying what body part goes where in the harness etc. Then Brian and Shepherd opened up two of the windows. The view out of the windows was very similar to what Shepherd saw before, when climbing on the outside of the building to avoid the suits of armour, except that from here he couldn't see the lake and most of the outdoor conflict had finished by now. He couldn't see any fighting going on outside, nor any patrolling beasts or wizards. This outlined to him that no one, not the evil wizards, the good wizards, the beasts nor the soldiers, cared about what was outside the castle, they only cared about what was inside it.
Shepherd suddenly realised something. The first time he got to the bottom of the stairs, he shot a bear-thingy and immediately afterwards had to deal with a troll. Neither of the two kinds of creatures struck Shepherd to be the chummy type nor the ruthlessly intelligent type, yet they must have been working together, or else they'd have attacked each other long before he descended to their floor, and one of them he wouldn't have had to deal with. What could possibly cause monsters like those to act civilised to each other?
"Scan the skies, too." Sean reminded them. "There could be other harpies."
"Or worse, some of those psycho undead Pegasi." Shepherd added. Everyone stared at him. "It was flying horse skeletons that took down my ride on the way here."
"Oh!" exclaimed the girl. Everyone looked at her. "Flying horse skeletons in the Forbidden Forest - Hagrid told us what those are, they're Thestrals. You can only see them if you've seen death."
"Death is our job, honey." Brian boomed. "Of course we've seen it."
"But you specifically have to see people die, not just anything." she added.
"Please, I've killed two people this afternoon alone, not to mention Iraq." Shepherd laughed.
"Don't tell me those two butchered guys in masks in the hallway were your handiwork, corporal!" Brian exclaimed.
"Yeah." he said smugly. "I didn't have a gun, so used a sword I stole. That stuff should be in basic training."
"Masks?" Madame Pomfrey asked suddenly. "What kind of masks?"
"Silver masks, and black cloaks with hoods." Shepherd answered.
Though the girl was completely nonplussed, Madame Pomfrey squeaked in fright and sank into a chair. "No... I don't believe it... but it's the only explanation..."
"What's the matter?" Shepherd asked, startled.
"My dear..." she swallowed. "Silver masks and black cloaks are the trademark of the most evil kind of wizards ever to walk the earth, the Death Eaters. They were followers of Lord Voldemort, the most terrible of all - "
"Yeah, yeah, story time is over, ya senile cow." Sean said loudly. "Come on, Brian. Put on the harness."
"You don't understand!" she cried. "Lord Voldemort cannot be killed! The only person who came close to doing so is in this school at the moment, he managed to rebound the killing curse Voldemort sent at him while still in infancy! He has faced Voldemort three times since, and each time barely escaped with his life! If his followers are responsible for these atrocities, he may well have returned and be here right now, in which case we should all be running as fast as we can!"
"No!" the seventeen-year-old shouted. "If we run, then the demons in the Forbidden Forest will kill us! We are in the safest place we can get to!"
"While this is all fascinating," Shepherd interrupted sarcastically, "it doesn't change what my men and I have to do. So hook up, Brian. Don't let the fairy tales scare you." Brian finished doing up the fittings, grabbed his shotgun off the table, gave Sean a thumbs-up, and climbed out the window. He went out of sight.
"Ummm, corporal?" Sean said nervously. "Something just occurred to me. He's rappelling in front of windows. What if some of those masked freaks on another floor sees the rope, reaches out the window and cuts it?"
Shepherd paused. "We'll just have to risk it, soldier. The other option is opening the infirmary door and battling it out with all those troglodytes. Even assuming 'one shot one kill' I think they'd kick our asses."
Eventually Brian reached the ground five stories below, detached himself and signalled (by shaking the rope) they could pull it up. Shepherd lost no time in doing this. He glanced outside once more for flying enemies, saw none, and attached himself to the harness. He picked up his weapon and climbed out of the window.
Rappelling down the castle wall was boring but nerve-wracking. After what Sean had said Shepherd was prepared to try and grab one of the two- inch window ledges at any time if his rope was cut. Finally after passing what seemed like a dozen windows, each of which he was forced to pass with his gun aimed through the window in case a combatant was staring back, he finally reached the bottom. He unclipped himself from the harness, left the harness attached to the rope and shook the rope vigorously. Then he turned around and faced Brian. The grounds immediately around Hogwarts sloped gently downwards, away towards the various features around Hogwarts: a lake, the Forbidden Forest, and two roads leading out of sight, all in perfect view from here because of the concave slope. Shepherd knew he'd be out in the open once at the bottom, but didn't think he'd be this open. He could practically feel the innumerable enemy laser sights burning his skin. Except that, of course, none of the enemies would use laser sights. The time he had waiting for Sean was spent trying to look like the uniform grey stone behind him, to not attract attention.
At long last the three of them stood at the bottom. Sean shook the rope and the seventeen-year-old began pulling it back up. "I told them to keep it." he explained. "Now they have an escape route if the trogs break through the door."
This sparked off a memory for Shepherd. In his youth he did quite a lot of ranting, and he remembered once saying that in all cases soldiers changed or abridged their opponents' names to something disparaging to keep in a tough state of mind. And here was proof of that. Sean had only been aware of the existence of troglodytes for ten minutes and already he referred to them as 'trogs'.
"There's nobody outside, so we're going back inside the castle." Shepherd ordered. "Not the main entrance. Let's see if we can find a side entrance."
"Or we can climb in through this window, sir." Brian suggested. Shepherd looked. It was an open window leading into an empty room with the door shut. Having good luck made a nice change.
"Good plan, soldier." Shepherd said. "You first."
"Thank you once again, Madame Pomfrey, for saving my life." Shepherd told her. "Meet Brian and Sean. Sean is the one who was doing an impression of Rambo and Brian is the one here with the twisted ankle who I was carrying. Is there anything you can do for him?"
"I can fix him in seconds, but it'll have to wait, I need to sort out the others first." she said breezily, getting back to work. Sean gathered up everybody's weapons and began consolidating the clips and reloading. Shepherd lit a fag. Madame Pomfrey fed some potion to the witch, whose eyes opened. Madame Pomfrey reassured the girl in undertones, and slowly explained what had happened, why she was here, and who the others were. She then walked over to the cactus-man and fed him liberal amounts of a different potion (which appeared to be the one made out of Shepherd's assault rifle and sidearm). The witch sat up in her bed, looking around. Shepherd's and her eyes locked. She looked him over peculiarly. He must have been the first Muggle soldier she'd ever seen. She got out of the bed and walked to a sink, where she washed her blood-caked hair. When she threw back her hair after she'd washed everything out, Shepherd realised two things: firstly, she was pretty, and secondly, he was staring. He averted his eyes quickly. Even if this was the time or the place to chase after young girls, he didn't think he was her type. So he watched Sean clean the weapons instead.
"Take your shoe and sock off and put your leg up on the table." commanded Madame Pomfrey, appearing suddenly with her wand out. "And put out that ghastly thing." she snapped at Shepherd. Both Brian and Shepherd obliged. She prodded Brian in the ankle with her wand and a look of concentration passed over her face. She sighed. "It's done. You should be able to walk now."
"Hey, not bad!" Brian exclaimed, exercising his foot. He stood up, walked in a circle, then put his sock and shoe back on. "Thanks, lady."
"My name is Madame Pomfrey." she informed him icily.
"Right. Hey, if I make it out alive, I'll buy you anything you want."
"Now, men, we need to get out of here." Shepherd told his two charges. "Any idea how we can go about that?"
"It just so happens that I have some rappelling equipment in my bergen." Sean smiled. "Even with only one set we should easily be able to descend to ground level out the window."
"Sounds good." Shepherd approved. "What's our armoury like?"
"Not good." Sean admitted, smile faltering. "Four Desert Eagle pistols with three and a half seven-round clips between them, one Remington shotgun with twenty shells, one M16/M203 combo with four thirty-round clips and three more 203 bombs. Precious little. The only really armed person is the one with the AR."
"Then until we properly load up we take avoidance tactics and only fire in self-defence." Shepherd decided. "Brian, you take the shotgun and the D Eagle with the half-clip, Sean, you take the other three D Eagles, and I get the AR. Brian rappels down first, then me, then Sean. Set it up."
Brian distributed the weapons while Sean anchored down the rappelling equipment. Sean gave a brief lesson on rappelling, saying what body part goes where in the harness etc. Then Brian and Shepherd opened up two of the windows. The view out of the windows was very similar to what Shepherd saw before, when climbing on the outside of the building to avoid the suits of armour, except that from here he couldn't see the lake and most of the outdoor conflict had finished by now. He couldn't see any fighting going on outside, nor any patrolling beasts or wizards. This outlined to him that no one, not the evil wizards, the good wizards, the beasts nor the soldiers, cared about what was outside the castle, they only cared about what was inside it.
Shepherd suddenly realised something. The first time he got to the bottom of the stairs, he shot a bear-thingy and immediately afterwards had to deal with a troll. Neither of the two kinds of creatures struck Shepherd to be the chummy type nor the ruthlessly intelligent type, yet they must have been working together, or else they'd have attacked each other long before he descended to their floor, and one of them he wouldn't have had to deal with. What could possibly cause monsters like those to act civilised to each other?
"Scan the skies, too." Sean reminded them. "There could be other harpies."
"Or worse, some of those psycho undead Pegasi." Shepherd added. Everyone stared at him. "It was flying horse skeletons that took down my ride on the way here."
"Oh!" exclaimed the girl. Everyone looked at her. "Flying horse skeletons in the Forbidden Forest - Hagrid told us what those are, they're Thestrals. You can only see them if you've seen death."
"Death is our job, honey." Brian boomed. "Of course we've seen it."
"But you specifically have to see people die, not just anything." she added.
"Please, I've killed two people this afternoon alone, not to mention Iraq." Shepherd laughed.
"Don't tell me those two butchered guys in masks in the hallway were your handiwork, corporal!" Brian exclaimed.
"Yeah." he said smugly. "I didn't have a gun, so used a sword I stole. That stuff should be in basic training."
"Masks?" Madame Pomfrey asked suddenly. "What kind of masks?"
"Silver masks, and black cloaks with hoods." Shepherd answered.
Though the girl was completely nonplussed, Madame Pomfrey squeaked in fright and sank into a chair. "No... I don't believe it... but it's the only explanation..."
"What's the matter?" Shepherd asked, startled.
"My dear..." she swallowed. "Silver masks and black cloaks are the trademark of the most evil kind of wizards ever to walk the earth, the Death Eaters. They were followers of Lord Voldemort, the most terrible of all - "
"Yeah, yeah, story time is over, ya senile cow." Sean said loudly. "Come on, Brian. Put on the harness."
"You don't understand!" she cried. "Lord Voldemort cannot be killed! The only person who came close to doing so is in this school at the moment, he managed to rebound the killing curse Voldemort sent at him while still in infancy! He has faced Voldemort three times since, and each time barely escaped with his life! If his followers are responsible for these atrocities, he may well have returned and be here right now, in which case we should all be running as fast as we can!"
"No!" the seventeen-year-old shouted. "If we run, then the demons in the Forbidden Forest will kill us! We are in the safest place we can get to!"
"While this is all fascinating," Shepherd interrupted sarcastically, "it doesn't change what my men and I have to do. So hook up, Brian. Don't let the fairy tales scare you." Brian finished doing up the fittings, grabbed his shotgun off the table, gave Sean a thumbs-up, and climbed out the window. He went out of sight.
"Ummm, corporal?" Sean said nervously. "Something just occurred to me. He's rappelling in front of windows. What if some of those masked freaks on another floor sees the rope, reaches out the window and cuts it?"
Shepherd paused. "We'll just have to risk it, soldier. The other option is opening the infirmary door and battling it out with all those troglodytes. Even assuming 'one shot one kill' I think they'd kick our asses."
Eventually Brian reached the ground five stories below, detached himself and signalled (by shaking the rope) they could pull it up. Shepherd lost no time in doing this. He glanced outside once more for flying enemies, saw none, and attached himself to the harness. He picked up his weapon and climbed out of the window.
Rappelling down the castle wall was boring but nerve-wracking. After what Sean had said Shepherd was prepared to try and grab one of the two- inch window ledges at any time if his rope was cut. Finally after passing what seemed like a dozen windows, each of which he was forced to pass with his gun aimed through the window in case a combatant was staring back, he finally reached the bottom. He unclipped himself from the harness, left the harness attached to the rope and shook the rope vigorously. Then he turned around and faced Brian. The grounds immediately around Hogwarts sloped gently downwards, away towards the various features around Hogwarts: a lake, the Forbidden Forest, and two roads leading out of sight, all in perfect view from here because of the concave slope. Shepherd knew he'd be out in the open once at the bottom, but didn't think he'd be this open. He could practically feel the innumerable enemy laser sights burning his skin. Except that, of course, none of the enemies would use laser sights. The time he had waiting for Sean was spent trying to look like the uniform grey stone behind him, to not attract attention.
At long last the three of them stood at the bottom. Sean shook the rope and the seventeen-year-old began pulling it back up. "I told them to keep it." he explained. "Now they have an escape route if the trogs break through the door."
This sparked off a memory for Shepherd. In his youth he did quite a lot of ranting, and he remembered once saying that in all cases soldiers changed or abridged their opponents' names to something disparaging to keep in a tough state of mind. And here was proof of that. Sean had only been aware of the existence of troglodytes for ten minutes and already he referred to them as 'trogs'.
"There's nobody outside, so we're going back inside the castle." Shepherd ordered. "Not the main entrance. Let's see if we can find a side entrance."
"Or we can climb in through this window, sir." Brian suggested. Shepherd looked. It was an open window leading into an empty room with the door shut. Having good luck made a nice change.
"Good plan, soldier." Shepherd said. "You first."