So... none of you took the news of an upcoming death very well... I actually got a death threat from a Hufflepuff... well, at least the daily death threats I get from Bagilia have prepared me for this moment XD
I can't reply to everyone, BUT I wanted to give a shoutout to AL3110 for going through and reviewing majority of the chapters just to get me more reviews (seriously, the things you guys do for me baffles me. Thank you!) and a very special shoutout to Sarah... also a favor to ask from Sarah. You are just so awesome... so awesome that ShadowsOnTheMoon and I had a formal discussion on how awesome you are, and we have come to an agreement that you need to get an account. Now. Like, you have no choice. It takes two seconds! Get an account, let me know what it is, and then PM me so we can just talk every day because you are fantastic and hilarious and yeah.
ANYWAY, this chapter right here (another one that I had written ahead of time and saved on a google doc because I just wanted this scene to HAPPEN) should calm your nerves a little bit... at least I think it should. A lot goes down, but it doesn't end on a very suspenseful note... well I mean, not as suspenseful as LAST chapter... ugh, just ignore my rambling and read the story.
Aria's eyes shot open as she took in her surroundings. Normally, she'd be a lot slower in doing this; she'd wait for her eyes to adjust, let her mind slowly get up to speed, wait for the sleep to leave her body.
But there was an urgency to this situation that she sensed immediately: for one, she couldn't even see around her. Everything was a murky dark blue, something she wasn't used to, and she could just barely make out the shapes of people around her. And for another, within seconds she realized that she couldn't even breathe.
Panicking, Aria felt around her for her wand, but felt resistance as she did so. Once she felt searing pain spread from her forearm all the way through the rest of her body, and realized it was because salt water was seeping into her system through a deep cut near her wrist, she figured it out.
She was underwater.
All of this had happened in the span of around 5 seconds, but Aria still knew that she was running out of time before she ran out of air completely; she could only hold her breath for so long. Scrambling for her wand, which was in her right boot, she pulled it out and whispered, forming bubbles in the water as she did so, "Lumos!"
As everything before her was illuminated, the sight was enough to take her breath away completely.
She was in a car, something she wasn't used to being in during the school year. Not only that, but the car didn't just contain her. It was filled to the brim with water, trapping her, and trapping her friends; Ezra, Toby, Paige, Emily, Caleb, and Hanna were all in the car as well.
Where was Spencer?
She didn't want to even contemplate where her other friend could be. For now, it looked like she was the only one awake, and she needed to find a way to get everyone else out before...
She didn't even want to think about what would happen if she didn't get them out in time.
Managing to wriggle her way out of Ezra's arms, Aria swam over to the door. But no matter how hard she tugged at the handle, it wouldn't open.
Immediately, she moved on to the window. She noticed that it was open a crack; a crack just big enough for a tiny, tiny girl to squeeze through? Maybe. Everyone else? She wasn't so sure. But if she could squeeze through the crack, maybe she could open the door from the outside, making it easier for her to get to everyone else out.
Ignoring the feeling that her lungs would burst at any given moment, Aria lunged into the window, heaving her small body through the space as efficiently as possible, and several seconds later she made it through. Without thinking, she pushed her way to the top, bursting through the surface and gasping for air, taking in as much as possible as she nearly became lightheaded with the sudden surge of oxygen in her brain.
After she had taken in a sufficient amount, she took in a large breath and dove back in, kicking her feet so that she got down to the car as quickly as possible. First, she went for the closed door, tugging on the handle outside of it as hard as she could, just as before, but it still wouldn't budge.
Realizing there was only one more thing she could do, Aria pulled out her wand again. There was a spell, she knew there was, but the windows were made of glass. She could hurt her friends if she wasn't careful.
There's not enough time, a voice inside her head said frantically. Do it NOW.
Complying, Aria held her wand out firmly.
"Reducto!" she said through the wall of saltwater before her, and immediately the car door shattered to pieces.
Toby weakly opened his eyes, everything slowly coming back to him. The car. The water. His friends.
Where were his friends?
He remembered that before the car started plummeting downward, he had protectively reached for Emily, wrapping his arms around her. But, as evidenced by his empty arms, she was gone now.
The impact of the car hitting the water had knocked him temporarily unconscious, but he was up now, and he didn't have much time. Holding his breath, Toby squinted into the abyss, trying to make out the scene around him. His eyesight was blurred from his lack of oxygen, but he could still make out the car, a person with black hair, presumably Ezra, next to him, and someone in the driver's seat. He remembered Caleb had been driving, so it must've been him.
When Toby looked to his right, he noticed the car door had been busted. By who? He had no idea. As quickly as possibly, he grabbed Ezra, just because he was closest to him, and pulled him through the door. Since they were underwater, Ezra didn't weigh that much, but once Toby paddled his way up to the surface with Ezra on his shoulders, and finally made it to the top, gasping and sputtering, he found it hard to hold him up.
"Toby!" a voice shouted, and Toby whipped around. Over by the shore, a soaking wet Aria was laying out a body that he presumed to be Emily out. But upon seeing Toby and Ezra, she dashed into the water until she reached them. "I'll take him."
"Aria, I doubt you're strong enough to - "
"I'll take him," she said insistently, but her eyes held such a pleading gaze that he had to hand Ezra over. Once Toby handed Ezra into Aria's arms, she started dragging him to shore. But as she did, she looked over to Toby.
"I'm glad you're awake," she said. "The others are still down there."
"There's no way we're gonna get them out in time."
"We can with a spell!" she said determinedly, laying Ezra's cold, lifeless body out on the damp ground. Aria looked down at him helplessly, wanting to do whatever she could to revive him, but she and Toby had limited time to save the others. It was time to get cracking.
She pried her eyes away from the love of her life and stocked over to Toby. "We need to do this together; neither one of us is strong enough to levitate this car on our own."
"A Levitation Charm?" Toby asked, not bothering to hide his surprise. If a simple spell from his first year was what it was going to take to save them, then he would regret his every statement he had made in the past that he was going to drop out of Hogwarts and become a wizard carpenter.
Aria nodded her head. "Do you remember it?"
Snapping out of his thoughts, Toby whipped out his wand from his robe sleeve. "Yeah. Let's do this."
"On three," Aria commanded. "One..."
"Two..." Toby continued, until they both ended with...
"THREE! Wingardium Leviosa!"
Within seconds, the surface of the water erupted, and emerging out of it was the car in question. It kept going upward until it was promptly suspended in the air, hovering above the water until both Toby and Aria directed it to shore with their wands. As soon as they set it down, the doors suddenly burst open, and a sea of water flooded out of the doors, Caleb and Paige spilling out on both sides as they coughed up the water that was filling up their lungs just a second ago.
"Man," Paige wheezed. "That... was... intense."
Caleb leaned against the car, still coughing and gasping for air as he did so, and opened the car door again. This time, however, he came out with someone in his arms.
Hanna.
"She's not waking up," he whispered, looking down at the apple of his eye. She looked so frail, so fragile, as if one single touch to her skin would cause her to break into pieces. With shaking legs, he walked over to where Ezra and Emily were, setting her down next to them.
Paige joined him, looking over at Emily, the apple of her eye, before looking back up in desperation. "Anyone know a spell?"
"I might," Aria said, stepping forward, trying to ignore the salt that was slowly soaking into her fresh wounds, eating at all of the damaged blood cells and causing the mildest touch to be excruciating.
She wasn't going to let it bring her down, though. She had lost a lot of time when Melissa had carved that eight letter word into her arm, but she wasn't going to let some hurt feelings get in the way of her friends' lives.
She was muggleborn, it was true. But she was also a wizard, and a damn good one at that. And it was time for her to use her powers to save her friends.
With a shaking hand, she held up her wand. "Anapneo!"
Almost at once, as though all of the water that had been swimming through the group's pipes had evaporated completely, Ezra, Emily, and Hanna sat up, clearing their throats and surveying their surroundings. Hanna rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Where.. where am I?"
Everyone breathed collective sighs of relief, and Aria, Caleb, and Paige knelt down to greet their respective spouses as they all reassured each other that they were safe.
For now at least.
Feeling left out, since he truly didn't know how his own girlfriend was doing, Toby started to walk a little bit away from the group. He didn't see it as a problem, and neither did the others; after all, who knew how long they'd be staying here? The point was to evacuate the school. They weren't given a time limit or anything.
As Toby started walking along the sand, letting his now bare feet sink into the clay-like material, leaving a trail of footprints behind him, he noticed something along his trail. Over by the water, looking as though it had been washed up by the crashing waves, was a small, everyday object.
The doll. The one Noel had given them earlier.
"What in the..." Toby started to say to himself as he walked over to it. Once he reached the doll, he picked it up in his hands, rolling it around in his palms as he surveyed it carefully. Why had Noel given him a doll? What did he need it for?
Suddenly, as if on cue, Toby felt himself suddenly lurch backward, and then the world was spinning. He closed his eyes, feeling sick all of a sudden, as what felt almost like a hook pulled on the back of his navel, directing him toward his location. As the world continued to spin and Toby tried his hardest to keep himself from throwing up, the answer became clear.
The doll was a Portkey, and he had a pretty good idea of where it might be taking him.
So, some of you thought that the doll was a voodoo doll... I found that quite amusing. But no, it was a Portkey. Any ideas where it might be taking him? ;) And can we just talk about little Aria Montgomery coming to SAVE THE DAY?! Like, "Call me a mudblood? Fine, let me just LIFT A FUCKING CAR OUT OF THE WATER AND SAVE ALL OF MY FRIENDS FROM DROWNING! Bye, bitch." #AriaOut #ThatsSoAria
Next chapter, the action continues. Unfortunately, one person will not make it out of the action alive... are you all ready? Better be. REVIEW!
