Shite, shite, shite!
Covering the pair of them with a shield — cast big and wide enough it couldn't be easily shot around, his wrist twinging and half his arm tingling from the power necessary — so they could guide Krum and the pair of veela to the fort had seemed the obvious thing to do. Cedric didn't have the power to hold a shield this large for this long under the constant barrage of curses and conjured shite, not to mention the bloody fire all around (they'd managed to avoid any direct hits so far, Harry was really hoping his shield would stand up to it when their luck finally ran out), and it left his wand available, tossing hexes off behind them. Not that they could actually see anyone through the flickering white-gold flames and the smoke rising from the burning forest, but a lucky shot would be nice.
Harry, somehow, had forgotten about Krum. Which, he wasn't certain how he'd managed that, that was bloody stupid.
He didn't really need to aim the shield, so he was facing forward, Cedric navigating mostly by following him, so he saw the air in front of them shiver with magic, something sprouting out of nothing and quickly expanding. In a blink, there was a large net hanging in the air, some metres wide, threads of steel glittering in the sunlight. Right ahead of them.
"Wall, break, now!" he called even as he rolled and yanked back hard, taking an almost ninety-degree turn to the right, missing the net by a couple feet.
It was only when veela fire started burning in at him again that he noticed he and Cedric had gone in opposite directions.
Shite!
Harry banked a bit to the right, looping around back toward the left in a long curve that should hopefully bring him toward Fort Hogwarts — they'd only been a few seconds away when Krum had thrown up the net, the clearing was right...there — his shield thrown up again, holding up okay against the heavy weight of the veela fire that appeared suddenly between him and them, the air crackling noisily enough he couldn't even hear the wind in his ears. Until he staggered, side-slipping a little, as his shield shivered with an audible crack, he dropped it before it collapsed entirely, the fire surging through, Harry tossed his own fire spell, the interfering magics slowing it down and breaking it up a little. He glanced back — just a solid wall of white-gold flame mixing with his blue-orange, huge and bright and scary as hell — slipped up and to the left, out of the way of the densest part of it, another shield charm cast to catch the worst, and he continued on the long turn toward—
A veela appeared ahead of him in another burst of light and heat, a hard flap of his (Harry thought) wings filling the air ahead of him with fire. Shoving more power into his shield, enough his wand arm stung and burned in protest, it suddenly shifted into a bubble surrounding him — he couldn't hold this for long, his wrist aching and his whole body tingling, too warm and too cold all at once — he cut at an angle to the right, zipping through the flames, flickering white and gold entirely blotting out his surroundings, he couldn't see a damn thing.
He surfaced after a couple seconds, the fire parting, dropping the shield he whirled around, firing off bludgeoning and stunning hexes at the fire-walking veela, only a few metres away. The one that'd been following him threw off more fire to intercept the hexes, with an odd wiggle to the feel of the magic Harry recognised after seeing it a few times as a weird fire magic dispel thing. She(?) didn't catch all of them, though — the fire-walking veela let out a sudden coughing screech, broadcasting a hard jolt of pain.
The veela mind magic stuff worming through into his head a little, Harry couldn't help a sympathetic wince. And not for the first time, he noticed the mind magic stuff from other veela didn't feel quite the same as Gabbie, he didn't know what was up with that. Because her father was a lilin, maybe? (Her biological father, he meant, Mister Delacour was human, obviously.) Her magic just in general didn't feel quite the same...
Letting the random thought fall away, Harry angled himself toward Fort Hogwarts, the dome visible rising from the ground ahead, and zipped off again. The veela followed him — one of them slightly awkwardly, stubborn pain still ringing out — matching the speed of his broom after a moment of effort, filling the air around them with warm tingling magic — Harry still thought being able to fly like that was so cool, he was very jealous — again tossing a steady stream of fire at him, he blocked it all with another shield. He intentionally gave it a bit more of a curve, deflecting the fire all around him — hopefully hiding the ground below, they shouldn't be able to make out much...
There it was! As Harry crossed over the wards — low, the dome only a couple feet below him — he tipped his broom up a little bit, then spun around. His momentum still carrying him up and backward, he dropped his shield, Cedric zipped by beneath him — that timing had worked out pretty good actually — and started throwing hexes at their pursuers, Cedric looping around to do the same.
At the same moment, a tight barrage of curses rose from below.
One of the veela tucked in their wings and rolled, slipping out of the path of a hex from Harry, and also the curses from below, an instant later blinked out in a pulse of fire just in case. Krum had conjured a sizeable disk of a goldish-bronzeish metal below him, catching all the curses aimed at him — though one did almost get through, the disk cracking into three pieces — deflecting a hex from Cedric with dismissive ease. (In mid-air, the aim and timing needed for that was ridiculous.) The pieces of the disc fell toward the fort, but someone caught them with a banishing, Krum had to jink out of the way of one of them as they were tossed back into the air and away.
The other veela, the one Harry had tagged with a bludgeoning hex, reacted too slow, taking the blue-white band of a cutting curse across the shoulder. He(?) let out a screech of pain, the echo of the feeling distractingly scratching at Harry's head, rolling and flailing from the impact, before he(?) could do anything falling too far, smashing back-first into one of the defensive walls at speed.
Ouch, that probably hurt. Harry didn't know, the veela passed out before Harry picked up anything, the veela healer appearing to evacuate him(?) an instant later.
While Harry watched the veela crash, Krum had moved to the side, with a swish and a jab of his wand filling the air with more twisting wires, the tangled mass zooming through the air at Harry, then turning to toss a few much smaller bronze discs at Cedric. Harry instinctively threw a banishing at the wires...which pushed back the middle, the edges swinging around, now whipping through the air toward him fast enough he could hear the whistling...in every direction. Crap!
He threw out a wide-angled dispel, but the metal just glimmered blue, charmed to resist it somehow. Double-crap!
The instant before the wires sliced in at him, Harry got off an anti-impact shield, the conjured stuff not bouncing off so much as wrapping around, the sphere surrounding him lined with gleaming metal. Harry dropped the shield — the wires were mostly harmless so long as they weren't zipping through the air stupid fast — lifted a loop of it over his head, shrugging it off—
He jinked up to the right, slipping out of the way of several conjured darts stabbing through where he'd been a second ago. (Those looked sharp! Was Krum trying to kill him?!) He tried to bank down and around, hopefully opening up some distance, but his broom dragged oddly into the turn. Glancing over his shoulder, shite, those wires from before were caught on the bristles, he lifted one foot off the braces to kick them off—
Something hard and heavy slammed into his left shoulder, his breath forced out in a harsh cough, shoving him down to the side, an elbow and a knee catching around his broom handle, hanging in the air. For a second, dazed, he thought he'd just been hit by a bludger, but no, he wasn't playing quidditch, Krum was tossing conjured stuff at him, from over — his shoulder screamed at the weight on it as he swung under his broom, something in the joint grinding — there! greenish fire flying out of his wand, an intense thin stream spreading out into a cloud.
No idea if he'd hit Krum with that, but at least he'd broken line of sight. Making the broom dip a bit with a thought, Harry pulled himself back on, wincing at the hot, throbbing pain in his shoulder — that was going to be a pain to fly with...
Ha, pain. Harry could almost see Blaise's I just made a terrible pun aren't I so amusing smirk...
Right, focus, Harry. He jerked into motion, grasping around for Cedric's mind, they shouldn't get too far away from each other — especially since it was two on two now, they could help each other out maybe — but he hadn't spotted him yet before Krum came swooping out from around the fire Harry had cast, more bronze discs already floating in the air around him.
Shite! Harry spun, ducking out of the way of the first one Krum sent zipping out his way, the wind whistling as it passed, and the next was already coming in, Harry grit his teeth and dove. The second disc whizzed over his head, crashing into the trees nearby, an inverted loop and he was coming back around, his wand up and a stunning charm flying out — but Krum simply caught it on the third disc then flung it down at Harry, nearly clipped him in the leg, barely slid out of the way. And then another cloud of darts filled the air in front of him, he bit out a curse, jinked out to the side—
His heart jumped into his throat — the ward line was right there!
He kicked his broom around, hitting himself hard enough in the chest it'd probably be a bruise later, pulling up and turning on a dime — and there was a net already conjured there, god dammit! Harry slashed out with his wand, a thin line of blue-white fire — he hadn't really been thinking about it that hard, but that was definitely calōre vindicāns, liked that stuff — the elemental magic burning the conjuration away the instant before he flew through the gap, a few steel wires scratching at his hair and his shoulder.
He winced, the back of his wand hand pressing against his cheek. Yep, he was bleeding, that had been a close fucking call.
Throwing more fire and cutting curses in the general direction he felt Krum was, Harry darted forward, stealing as much speed from his broom as he could with one hand, opening distance from the wardline. His feet skimmed over the trees even as more conjured metal shite started raining down on him, he dodged another bludger-sized ball, another disc skimming so close to his shoulder it rustled his hair, he pulled up in time for another volley of darts to fly past, crashing into the trees with a clatter and a cracking, Harry turned to fire off a stunning charm, could feel Krum's mind, his aim was perfect—
Krum conjured some more steel wire with a jab of his wand, a swirl spinning it around into a tangled mess, deflected Harry's stunner with a casual flourish — how?! they were flying! — another three discs appearing out of nothing around him even as he sent the wire winging off at Harry.
Shite! Harry darted out of the way, raising his wand to take another shot but he had to cut it off to dodge again, popping over one disc, pulling his broom vertical to avoid the second, dropping like a rock back under the trees before the third could reach him.
...So, now he was stuck in a forest, with a world-famous seeker trying to hunt him down...who also happened to be able to conjure whatever he could imagine to throw at him.
He was so screwed.
Even as more fast-falling metal crashed through the branches, Harry tore off, his breath tight and hot in his throat, trying not to whimper with panic.
Shite, shite, shite, shite, shite!