Striking back part two
Ron recoiled from the force of his spell going off as the heat from the flames pushed back into the hallway he was standing in.
"Great Merlin Fury, did you mean to do that?"
Ron started for a moment and then looked at Val.
"Yeah pretty much."
The few moments they had stood talking in hushed tones had allowed the smell of burned clothing and flesh to reach them. Ron blanched for a moment then managed to keep his face straight.
"What the bloody hell happened in here?" Talon gasped from where he stood leaning against a doorway.
"Fury went barmy and blew everything to shite." Val laughed.
As they stood there they noticed that some of the Death Eaters were moving, well maybe moving was to strong a word really it was more like twitching. Talon ran to the front door and opened it.
"We need to get some healers in here fast; we have some prisoners in bad shape."
Ron heard movement from out front and I guessed that the teams out there had recovered from the spell damage they took, well at least he hope they had. Several Order members moved through the front door and started to try and heal the fallen Death Eaters well enough so they could be taken to the French Ministry's offices.
"Saints preserve us." A thick Irish accent broke the silence. "Who caused this nightmare?"
Val just inclined her head towards Fury.
"Well of course he did, if ye name a lad Fury then ye had best expect him to do some damage."
The three of them chuckled for a moment "I'd help with the healing but I'm utter shite with that kind of spell." Ron said softly.
Talon nodded before replying "You're not the only one, I haven't ever been any good at healing spells. As soon as they can move the prisoners we need to get out of here before they get reinforcements."
The Order members who had started the healing were just starting to gather the prisoners up and they had informed Talon that none of the Death Eaters had in fact died and they all were probably going to survive. Talon told them to get a move on and turned back to Ron and Val to say something when they heard one of the man at arms team watching the backdoor scream "We've got Trolls on the way."
Talon cursed under his breath and headed for the back door with Ron and Val hot on hiss heels. They got to the back door as the man at arms team reached it as well. About two hundred feet away moving through the edges of the forest were at least six and maybe more fully grown Trolls. Ron took a second look at them and realized they were armed with large swords instead of clubs and were wearing what seemed to be some sort of armor.
"Who in the ruddy hell has heard of intelligent Trolls?" he snarled
Talon looked at him "Well today you learn something, not all Trolls are stupid club wielding monsters that are easy to trick. We will have to take them down fast and they are very resistant to stunning spells."
Both Ron and Val nodded silently.
"One more thing" Talon added "If one of those swords hit you, you probably won't live long enough to be healed."
Val looked nervous at that last statement but Ron laughed "Well you sure know how to keep up morale Talon."
Talon stared at him for a second and then laughed at Ron "Val was right, you are absolutely barmy."
"Well if you really believe that then I would hate to disappoint you." With that Ron moved out of the back door and kicked into a run moving at a right angle away from where the Trolls were slowly making their way towards the farm house. To her credit it only took Val a second to recover before she headed out behind him.
"Ok smart arse I take it you have a plan?" she snarled.
Ron laughed at her as he ran "Well sort of, it's more like I want to get them in a crossfire and keep them away from the house until they get the prisoners out."
From behind them they could already hear Talon shouting curses at the lead troll.
"Listen Val, we may not be able to stun them but I bet if both of us hit them with a full body bind at the same time they won't be able to resist."
"Whatever you say Fury, just remember I have a party to go to tonight and if I show up dead my fiancée will be pretty unhappy." Val smirked.
Ron settled behind a group of trees for a moment "You know Val you're just as barmy as I am. Alright on three we hit the Troll that's right in front of us got it?"
"Just say the word."
"One…two…three…Petrificus Totalus…….SHITE run"
The two spells had slammed into the Troll but seemed to have no effect at all. Thirty seconds later the Troll's sword slammed into the ground where Val had been moments before.
Ron could hear Talon cast spells from over by the farm house but he couldn't tell if they were having any effect. Taking a chance he dove to his right and rolled on his back. "Tarantallegra" he shouted at the Troll that had been bearing down on them. To his relief the spell seem to affect the Troll and it went into a frenzied dance which almost immediately caused him to fall to the ground. When Ron stood up he could see that three of the Trolls had almost lumbered their way to within striking distance of the farmhouse. There was also one Troll lying face down on the ground and another still trying to get his legs to stop dancing.
"Val if we don't come up with something soon Talon is going to be in a lot of trouble."
Val looked concerned but Ron could tell she was having a bit of trouble staying calm.
"I'm going to try a spell I've never cast before Val but I think it should work."
"Don't do anything stupid Fury."
"If you have any better ideas I'm ready to listen."
Ron took Val's silence as an indication that she did in fact not have any better ideas. Taking one last moment he steadied himself and pointed his wand at the Troll about to swing at Talon. His voice sounded scraped and raw as he shouted 'Phasmatis Torqueo".
As soon as the word left his mouth the Troll he had targeted grabbed his head in his hands and let out a very loud deep scream. This continued for about a minute and only ended when that Troll fell to the ground with blood spraying from a gash along the side of his head. The other Troll's had stopped to stare at the fallen Troll and then looked at each other as if unsure of what to do.
"Fury what in the hell did you do to that Troll."
"It's a spell called 'Spirit Rack', basically it attacks the targets psyche, the more intelligent the target the better."
"So it wouldn't work on you at all since you're an idiot? Is that some kind of Dark spell?"
"Bloody hell Val, do you think I would use the Dark Arts? I found that spell in a book at my school."
"Sorry it just scared the hell out of me." She pointed at where the Troll's were running back to the forest "Seems like it scared them as well."
Ron just nodded still a bit put off by the Dark Arts question.
As soon as they reached Talon he told them that the last of the prisoners and just been taken out and they were heading back to the chapter house. With a quick nodded they activated their portkey and he felt the quick jerk behind his navel that always accompanied portkey travel. Then they were standing back in the chapter house and talon was telling them to head to the meeting room for debriefing. As they walked down the passageways to the room Ron's stomach started to growl.
"Blimey Fury how can you be hungry? Those Troll's scared the shite out of me and I may never forget what you did to those Death Eaters and you're thinking about food?"
Ron just shrugged. "I know today was a bit much but you'll get used to it and we won't do anybody any good by going hungry now will we?"
Val just shook her head and laughed "Merlin help whatever girl is barmy enough to fall in love with you're insane arse."
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The Debriefing had gone well and Ron had been happy to see that Talon was just fine after a quick trip to the healers ward. Val had been unable not to tell everyone at the chapter house about the fight at the farmhouse and now the other squires had started referring to him as Firestorm Fury. For someone who had been hoping just to blend in at the start this was not that welcome. In fact for the couple of hours that he had been at the chapter house the teasing of the other squires had gotten pretty bad. It stopped however when one of the senior knights reminded them that perhaps it was unwise to take the micky out of someone who had just blasted a bunch of Death Eaters to rubbish.
Ron would have loved to spend the night here in the chapter house but he still had a study session that night and if Hermione found out he was off of the school ground she might fly apart at the seams. As the steam of the shower slowly heated the room and he stepped under the hot stream of water Ron thought about all of the actions that had led up to his being here.
I know I'm doing something that makes a difference but I miss doing it with my friends.
He stayed deep in thought for a while and ended up taking the longest shower he had ever taken but he felt a great deal better. He was weighing his chances of luring Hermione out of the library tomorrow for a short walk in the snow and perhaps even a Gryffindor snowball battle when Ron heard the door to his room at the chapter house swing open.
"Fury you in there?"
"Yeah Val I'm in the shower, you need something?"
"I just wanted to tell you I got both of our stipends and I'm leaving yours on your bed."
"Thanks Val, have a good rest of the weekend and I'll see you in training next week."
"You too Fury, I was shocked earlier but I wanted to tell you I'm proud to be your partner. You really know how to show a girl a really wild time."
Ron laughed from inside the shower "You have no idea Val, lately I can't even go shopping without Death Eaters showing up."
Val just nodded for a moment and with a smile said "Yeah I saw the picture in the Daily Prophet."
Ron laughed and then he caught the reality of what she had said "So then you know ……"
"Yeah I know your real name and who your best mate is. Don't worry Fury you can trust me."
Ron paused for a moment and thought about it and then decided he did really trust her. "Well since you already know, when we're alone its ok if you call me Ron.
"Fury if you don't mind can I ask you a question?"
"Sure go ahead if you don't mind having a conversation with a bloke in the shower."
"What's it like being the best mate of Harry Potter?"
"Truthfully it's great and scary and insane and wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
"I figured as much, well take care and try not to be so barmy. I'll see you in a few days."
"You take care too, if I were you I wouldn't mention that you spent the day with an incredibly attractive bloke to your fiancée." he teased.
"Oh I don't know, I think he would like Talon." she shot right back.
Ron laughed as she walked out of his room.
Ron stayed in the shower for a few more moments and then got out and slowly dried off. Then with the towel wrapped around his waste he walked out into his room where he was surprised to find Talon sitting on his bed.
"Sorry to intrude Fury but I wanted to commend you for your actions today. Very few squires have ever performed as well under fire as you did."
"Well I couldn't have done it with out Val she saved my hide twice today."
Talon nodded "You two make a good team. I was really impressed by your control of that fire spell."
Ron frowned "What do you mean?"
"Well you did a great deal of damage but didn't do so much damage to any one death eater that they died. It takes a great deal of control to do that."
Ron decided not to mention that he hadn't been trying not to kill any of them and had just let the spell fly as soon as he could. He tried to think of what he could honestly say and just decided to shrug.
"Since you and Val did so well today I'm going to take the two of you along on a much bigger mission we have in the preliminary planning stages. You think you two can handle it?"
"I reckon I do but the important thing is do you think we can?"
Talon chuckled "Well you two have already saved my sorry hide once so I guess you two can handle it."
By the time Ron got back to Hogwarts he thought he was going to starve to death. The fact that he had to run through the castle in order to make it in time to eat dinner didn't seem to help his rapidly flagging energy levels. He flopped down in a seat beside Harry and started to pile his plate with just about anything he could get his hands on. Then he started to shovel food into his mouth as fast as he could as he hunched over his plate.
"Ronald Weasley you are not some sort of savage, now sit up and use proper table manners for once in your life."
The rest of the table laughed at Ron's face as he sat straight up as soon as he heard Hermione's voice. He swallowed hard "Sorry 'Mione I was just really hungry."
Hermione's face softened a bit "Still that's no reason to act like an animal at the dinner table."
"I know" Ron made a concerted effort to eat more slowly and to maintain good posture while eating but in truth he thought it was a bit silly.
The conversation at the table soon turned to the next week's classes and to the upcoming Valentine's party. All of the students were looking forward to the next Friday's Defense Against the Dark Arts classes as Professor Leonidas had promised them a bit of a change from their normal dueling.
"Maybe we are going to be dueling different people?" Neville guessed.
"That might be nice, and then Ron might win one for a change." Harry smirked.
"Go on Potter keep taking the micky, your times coming" Ron laughed.
"Well it certainly is taking a long enough time to get here." Harry shot right back.
"Are you all getting dressed up for the Valentine's party?" Lavender asked directing the discussion away from the previous topic.
"I'm doing what ever Hermione wants me to do. I'm not buggering this up like that bloody Yule ball."
Everyone laughed at Ron and then laughed again when Neville laughed so hard at the memory of Ron and Hermione's fight that he had pumpkin juice come out of his nose. Hermione on the other hand seemed so please by what Ron had said that she didn't even remark on Ron's questionable language. The nest few minutes were spent as everyone tried to pick their favorite thing about that monumental row of their fourth year. The winner seemed to be that Ron had thought that Hermione missed the point of the argument at the end. This led to any number of how can Ron be that thick jokes.
"Laugh at me all you want git's, I got the girl in the end." he said rather smugly.
"Oh Ron I meant to tell you, I have tonight free after all so I can help you with your Transfiguration homework." Hermione said while looking in her lessons planner.
"Er..thats ok 'Mione, when you said you were busy I found somebody to help me. In fact I should be seeing about that soon."
Hermione looked up curiously "Who is helping you?"
Ron had to swallow a large mouthful of food to answer "Daphne Greengrass."
"YOU'RE studying with a Slytherin?" Neville asked shocked.
"Which one is she?" Hermione asked trying to picture the girl in question.
"She's the little blonde with the magnificent arse." Seamus spoke up without thinking.
Harry snorted into his cup but managed not to spill any pumpkin juice.
"Too right mate, she does have a dead sexy arse but she's always seemed a little scary too." Neville said blushing a bit.
"Neville Longbottom, you have a very sweet girl friend so I had better not hear you talking about other girl's bottoms again." Ginny snarled "As for you Mr. Potter I had better not see you check out the afore mentioned bottom either."
Harry tried his best to look indignant "You mean you're not the only girl here at Hogwarts?"
All of the other guys snorted at that last statement but it seemed to pacify Ginny so Harry thought the other guys could just bugger off.
"So Weasley are you ready to get started?"
Ron turned around to see Daphne standing behind him "Yeah I'm ready if you are.. He took one last drink of pumpkin juice and set his glass back down.
"Ok guys I'll see you later. Hopefully I'll get back before you go to bed 'Mione."
"Don't worry I have a feeling I'll still be up whenever you get back."
A/N: With a little luck I will post another Chapter on Christmas day for all of you loyal and wonderful reviewers. Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Merry Yule and season's greeting to all.
Remember Mistletoe is the for a reason.