Dance of the Fairies, Flight of the Phoenix
Chapter 24:- Battle on the Mountainside
It didn't take long before Umbridge couldn't take the staring anymore. Despite the fact that the werewolf had no attacked her no less than three times in the course of a single day she had forced herself to continue through the day as normally as possible. But now every shadow made her jump, every unexpected movement made her squeak like a mouse in a trap.
And more than once when she found out that it was just another student she'd rail angrily at the poor individual for about five minutes straight about how it was unbecoming to stalk through the halls like a vampire, deducted points from their house and then sent them scampering away. Not even the Slytherins were spared from this fate. And it was not long before everyone in the building stopped talking when they saw her coming and pressed themselves against the walls to give her plenty of room to walk past them.
Though Umbridge did not know it, she was experiencing the same kind of thing that Harry Potter had experienced in his second year at the school, when everyone had learned that he was able to speak Parseltongue. Everywhere she turned there were whispers, people trying to avoid getting within ten feet of her - several of them even turning around and hurrying away when they saw her coming. And the staring… it never stopped… eyes riveted on her, watching her from every angle as if she had some kind of contagious disease and that she might deliberately try and grab them to pass it on to them.
It was ridiculous! She'd been stressing since she'd got here the importance of not telling lies, and yet nobody believed this undeniable truth that she was telling everyone! They should be treating Potter like this for spreading lies about the return of the Dark Lord, not her for telling the truth about her attacker!
And when she snapped, it was to an unfortunate pair of first years from Hufflepuff, who received the brunt of her frustration when she rounded on them for no reason at all and screamed down at them. "Oh, I bet you think I'm a liar too, don't you? I've never told a lie in my life! I bet you two have told countless lies in the course of yours! People should be branding you the fibbers, not I!"
The Hufflepuffs cringed and looked like they wanted to melt into the floor, and the squeaky voice of Professor Flitwick suddenly interrupted the dead silence that followed as the tiny wizard hurried over to comfort the two pupils even though they were not from his house.
"Professor Umbridge, I really must protest. These students have done nothing wrong. Why do you shout at them?"
Umbridge seethed and looked around at the hallway. Every eye in it was locked on her and it made her want to scream and stamp her foot in a full temper tantrum the like of which she had not had in years. Huffing and puffing like a bellow, she turned and stormed away, making for her office on the third floor with all haste. A place where she could be free of all the bloody staring.
"They think I'm mad, do they?" she hissed to herself as slammed the door shut behind her. "Think I'm rambling? Well, we'll see how much they laugh when there's a full team of Aurors here sweeping the castle for that werewolf…"
She paused suddenly even as she was reaching for the Floo Powder, intent on calling Minister Fudge and demanding the Ministry step in to secure the castle personally. What if… what if the Minister himself didn't believe her? Umbridge knew what she'd seen was true - she was sure of it. It had been too real to be anything but the real deal. But even she had to admit it sounded strange when she thought about it. Werewolves were indeed not supposed to be transformed until the night of the full moon. By all accounts everything they knew about those half-breeds stated this. And yet Umbridge had seen otherwise.
But she still had no evidence to back it up.
She sat down and mulled in her chair. She couldn't tell Fudge about the werewolf - if he didn't believe her then she risked losing all of the political power that she'd ruthlessly attained for herself over the years. He might think she was not fit to be his Undersecretary. What to do? What to do? Perhaps she could fabricate another excuse for a search of the school to get Fudge to overrule Dumbledore's authority…
"Nyaa…"
"EEEEEK!" Umbridge leapt up from her chair so fast that she almost fell backwards straight into the fireplace, pawing at her wand in a desperate attempt to aim it, but when she saw the same white cat that had been in her office yesterday, sitting in the corner and washing its paw delicately, she slumped down in relief.
"Good lord, you certainly frightened me, small one," she muttered as she hurried over to it, leaning down to scoop the cat up in her arms and carry it over to the desk. "But at least you will not judge me like all those… fools out there."
'Oh I am judging you very much,' Charla thought to herself as she lay on the desk, feeling that same chill of disgust reverberating up her spine as she allowed this woman to pet her. 'You just can't know it yet.'
"Ugh, this is a nightmare," Umbridge muttered as she picked up the blood-red quill that she kept in her drawer and twirled it between her fingers slightly, as if itching to inflict someone with the torturous device. "Everything I am working to build here, turning this school into a better place, threatened to be totally undone by this lunacy. That werewolf is destroying my reputation!"
'Not that you had a very good reputation to begin with,' Charla fought the urge to roll her eyes as she continued licking her paw, as if she didn't give a damn what Umbridge was actually saying. But the main reason she was here was to see if the woman tried to report the events of the day to the Ministry as she had this morning. Seeing as it didn't look like that would be the case she wanted to get out of there as quickly as she could.
"Perhaps… I should take matters into my own hands," Umbridge murmured to herself, drumming the fingers of one hand onto the desk, even as the other raked their way through Charla's fur, which was very much standing on end. "After all… it wouldn't be the first time I've acted without Cornelius' approval."
Charla stopped licking her paw, her eyes widening slightly. Oh? Was that so? What juicy bit of blackmail might this woman be about to give her? It was amazing what people said when they were talking to an animal. After all, they didn't think an animal would be able to tell anyone their secrets.
"After all… I did arrange for those two Dementors to attack the Potter boy during the summer. I came so close to having him removed from the school… and if I can do that then perhaps I can have them brought here to search for this werewolf."
Charla had to fight hard to stop herself from jumping up and scratching this woman's hand then and there. Her paw trembled slightly and she forced herself to remain calm by continuing to lick it. She'd heard the story of what had almost happened a few months ago when Harry had been forced to defend himself from the Dementor attack and almost got kicked out the school by the biased Ministry for doing nothing wrong. Nobody had been able to figure out why the Dementors had gone after Harry but most of them heavily suspected that Voldemort himself had ordered them to do it.
But no… it was this woman! She was behind it!
"Hmm, but it's not quite the same, is it?" Umbridge sighed. "After all, nobody could have linked me to the events of Little Whinging and there were almost no witnesses. It wouldn't be the same here. Hmm… I need to think this through carefully. What is there that I could do to get to the bottom of this without giving myself away? Maybe hire in a couple of loyal Aurors to search the place with Invisibility Cloaks? But which Aurors would I use?"
Charla had heard enough. As Umbridge continued to rattle into a long list of ways she could try and resolve the werewolf matter alone, each one as unlikely to work as the last, Charla slipped off the desk and padded over to the open window. She looked back briefly at the woman she now considered to be pure evil, making sure that she was too absorbed in her thoughts to notice as she extended her wings and her illusion switched to that of an owl. She soared soundlessly through the open window and up towards the Gryffindor Tower once more.
She wondered what in the world Harry was going to make of this when he found out.
"HEEEELLPPP MEEE!" Lucy screamed, tears streaming down her face from the wind blasting into her eyes as she clung to the top of the rampaging Doscadon. The Doscadon itself had very little idea where it was going, struggling to see through the curse that had impacted it straight in its eyes, but it was running up the slope and towards the ski-lift. And there were still one or two people sitting on the lift halted lift, too high up to jump down safely even without all the mayhem going on down below.
"COME BACK AND FIGHT ME LIKE!" Natsu roared, too focused on barrelling up the mountain after the fleeing creature to notice the familiar smells crowding into his nostrils.
"It's heading straight for one of the poles holding the lift up!" Remus shouted from where he was sitting on his broom, holding his wand out and pointing it at the creature and wracking his brain for a spell that might be able to slow it down.
"What do we do?" Levy cried.
Suddenly a loud shot rang through the air and Lucy yelped as sparks flew off from the Doscadon's skin right next to her leg.
"A gunshot?" Levy gasped. "Where…?"
Snape and Remus looked up at the helicopter whirring its way overhead. Both of the rangers, at the sight of the terrifying monster thundering its way towards the innocents screaming on the ski-lift, had grabbed rifles and were shooting madly at the beast, trying to bring it down. Their bullets pinged harmlessly off the beast's armour, but several of struck it dangerously close to were Lucy was clinging on for dear life.
"Remus," Snape glanced across at his fellow wizard. "We must bring that helicopter to the ground before those foolish Muggles cause any more damage than they already have."
"They shot Lisanna," Remus nodded. "We can't let them shoot another Fairy Tail Mage."
"I'll stop them from doing that," Levy gritted her teeth and swung around on Snape's broom, flicking her fingers up into the air and crying, "Solid Script… LIGHT!" and throwing her arms wide. A blazing word appeared in the sky level with the helicopter, but the glare was so intense that the letters were indistinguishable from one another, making it look more like a miniature sun. The two rangers reared backwards and yelled as their eyes were bombarded with an overload of light and the pilot veered off sideways as well, the helicopter spinning slightly as he struggled to keep it under control.
But Remus and Snape zinged forwards invisibly on their brooms, wands outstretched and both crying at the same time, "Wingardium Leviosa!" Suddenly the helicopter stopped in mid-air, shocking the pilot as he jerked madly at the controls trying to get it to move, fearing it would drop out of the sky. But it didn't. Instead, it was slowly lowered towards the ground despite the fact the rotors were still going.
But all the while the Doscadon drew nearer and nearer to impacting hard with the ski lift!
"Happy… get Natsu…" Lisanna groaned slightly from where she has hanging in the Exceed's grip, groggy from the effects of the tranquilliser in her system.
"Huh? But I can't carry two people. I'd have to put you down with all the wolves around," Happy protested.
"I'll be okay," Lisanna insisted. "Get Natsu. Help Lucy. Go…"
Happy gritted his teeth, but nodded. "Aye!" he cried, swooping down and depositing Lisanna in the snow before streaking forwards towards the running Dragon Slayer. The blue cat briefly looked back over his shoulder to see that Lisanna had managed to force herself back into the form of a Clipper and despite the fact she was still noticeably sluggish in her movements she was spreading her wings and clacking her beak, daring any wolves to come in too close to her. Hoping she'd be okay, Happy turned around and swept in towards his partner.
"NAAATSSSUUUUUUUU!" he yelled as he whooshed down to seize the Dragon Slayers by the shoulders and hoist him into the air!
"GOHHH!" Natsu gasped as his feet left the ground. "Happy? HAPPY!" he turned to look over his shoulder with a wide grin, only to see a vague outline of where Happy was thanks to the fact the cat was still cloaked in a Disillusionment Charm. "…Happy…? Why are you invisible?"
"I'll explain later! Right now we've got to stop that Doscadon!" Happy replied, flaring his wings and powering his Aera to swoop along low to the ground. "Before it harms any of those people!"
Natsu bared his teeth in a great smirk, raising a fist and letting it burst into flame. "Got it! Let's go, partner!"
"Aye sir!" Happy grinned too. "Max Speed!" he exploded forwards as fast as he could go rapidly overtaking the Doscadon and shoot beneath the ski lift, swooping round in a wide arc before jetting in towards the oncoming creature like cannonball, Natsu's lips shaking in the wind from the sheer speed he was moving at.
"RELEASE!" Natsu yelled.
"AYE!" Happy agreed and flung Natsu forwards, veering off to the side as Natsu ignited his entire body in flames, fire bursting out beneath his sandals and thrusting himself in a blazing rush, pulsing out behind him like the tail of a comet as he aimed right for the Doscadon's chin.
"KARYUU NO… KENKAKU!" a bellow ripped from his mouth as he arced right behind a couple sitting on the ski lift and hugging themselves as they prepared with the end, and collided with the onrushing animal headfirst just beneath its wide open jaws moments before it ploughed into the pole holding the ski lift up.
"HHHHRRAAAAWWWWRRRRRRRRRRR!" The Doscadon flailed its arms as the impact knocked it sideways, sending it spinning as it struggled for balance and sending a screaming Lucy flying right off its back at last, the Celestial Spirit Mage losing her grip and getting flung straight into the air. But help was at hand as Happy swung in to grab her by the back of her coat.
"Are you okay, Lucy?" he asked.
"H… Happy?" she gasped even as the Doscadon slammed down onto its side and skidded down the slope, Natsu landing smoothly next to the pole that had narrowly avoided being snapped in two. "Is that you? Why… why are you invisible?"
"Just a minute," Happy said as he swept Lucy back down towards his partner. "Natsu! Follow me! I'll take you to the others."
"Others?" Natsu frowned. "Who else…" he stopped and sniffed the air for a moment and sure enough he could smell them. "Levy… and Lisanna! They're both here!?"
"Aye!" Happy cheered. "This way!" and he carried Lucy off up the slope, Natsu running along behind them as the Doscadon came to a stop some distance down the slope, stunned and groaning but still very much alive. They left behind them an ski-lift full of passengers with jaws hanging loose, unable to to believe what they had just seen.
Once the helicopter had been brought down, Snape and Remus dove in low on their brooms to make sure it wouldn't take off again. Remus lashed out an Incendio charm that blasted the controls in front of the pilot and rendered the chopper useless, while Snape used a Disarming Charm to send the guns of the two Rangers flying out of their hands.
He then pointed his wand square at both of them and said, "Imperio!"
"Severus!" Remus gasped as the eyes of the two rangers glazed over. "What are you doing?"
Snape didn't answer. Instead, he just said in a calm, persuasive tone, "Give me the antidote to the tranquilliser you fired into the girl."
The rangers simply turned around and did as bid, one of them lifting up a box and opening it while the other produced a jar of fluid and a hypodermic needle from inside. Snape took them from his hands and passed them to Levy, before releasing the curse and leaving the two men blinking in confusion. Snape then rapidly Stunned and Obliviated all three of the men in the chopper so they wouldn't remember a thing.
"There. We have what we need," he noted.
"Quick thinking," Remus grimaced. "Though did you have to use an Unforgivable Curse to do it? You'd get in serious trouble if the Ministry learned you pulled that one even for a moment."
"Then perhaps this should be something kept between us," Snape said dryly.
"…Right… we'd better seal the doors of this thing shut to make sure the wolves don't get them while they're unconscious," Remus noted, flicking his wand so the doors slid shut and casting a locking charm on them, before he turned to veer off back towards Lisanna, Snape close behind him.
"Thank you, Snape," Levy smiled earnestly.
"I don't need gratitude. I am simply doing what I must for the Order," Snape said shortly, words which made Levy wrinkle her nose slightly, but made her smile a little knowingly. Maybe this guy wasn't as unfeeling as he seemed to want people to think. Another trait he shared with Gajeel.
And they arrived back just in time too. A couple of wolves were closing in on Lisanna as she beat her wings and clacked her beak, unable to muster the energy even to fly. Her Take-Over was shimmering, meaning she was about to lose control any second and return to normal. Remus and Snape both fired Stunning Spells to repel the wolves and landed next to Lisanna at pretty much the same moment as Lisanna reverted back to human form and collapsed into the snow.
"Lisanna! Hang in there!" Levy vaulted off the broom and hurried over to her, Lupin and Snape right behind her, the two Wizards lowering their Disillusionment Charms as they did. Lisanna lay gasping for breath, her eyelids drooping, as Snape knelt down beside her to examine the antidote in his hands and Remus lifted Levy's own Disillusionment Charm two seconds before Happy arrived and deposited Lucy on the ground.
"Oh gosh, Lisanna! What happened?" Lucy cried as she hurried over to kneel in the snow and seize the youngest Strauss sibling's hand in her own, squeezing it gently. "What's wrong with her?"
"She's got drugged," Levy replied, forgetting the joy of their reunion in the moment as she watched Snape draw some of the antidote into the needle. "It's okay, its nothing dangerous… right?"
"I doubt it, but I'm not sure," Lupin shrugged, rapping Happy's head with his wand to lift the final Disillusionment Charm. "Severus?"
"I know some things about Muggle medicines, and all tranquillisers can be dangerous. It depends on the dosage and I don't know how much was administered to her. But I'm surprised she took so long to collapse."
"Well, we mages are sturdier than normal people," Levy pointed out.
"Well then hopefully that means she'll be back on her feet quickly," Snape noted as he finished drawing out the antidote.
And that was the point where Natsu arrived, skidding to a halt so fast he kicked up a bunch of snow. "Lisanna!" he called, dropping to his knees next to her. "Oi, Lisanna! Wake up! Are you okay?"
"…Nnn… Natsu…" Lisanna's eyes opened blearily and despite her drowsiness she managed to smile at him. "Thank… goodness…"
"It's going to be alright," Natsu gritted his teeth, but then blanched when he saw Snape lowering the needle towards Lisanna's arm. "OI! BASTARD!" he yelled, seizing Snape by the front of his robes and yanking him forewords until they were eye to eye. "What the hell do you think you're doing, huh?" he growled, rearing his fist back and setting it ablaze.
"Natsu! Don't!" Lucy yelped, seizing Natsu by his arm and preventing him from punching Snape's lights out. "He's helping! That stuff's the antidote to the thing… poisoning Lisanna." She wasn't entirely sure if that was the right word but it worked. Natsu blinked and his aggressive stance slackened.
"It is?" he blinked. "How is sticking a needle in someone's arm helpful?"
"Never mind that now, it just is! So let him do it!" Lucy protested. Natsu hurriedly let go of Snape's robes and the potions master, grunted as he dusted himself off and grimaced at the confused Dragon Slayer.
"Yes, thank you for that," he said dryly. "I'll be sure to remember to keep needles away from you in future. But for now," he stuck the needle into Lisanna's arm and pumped the antidote into her body. But, as he did, there was a terrific roar from down the slope that drew everyone's eye. The Doscadon was getting back to its feet - an unsightly bruise on its chin from where Natsu had slammed into it, but other than that looking little worse for wear.
"Ah, damn it!" Natsu growled as he got to his feet and flung his scarf over his shoulder. "Right, this time I'll make sure it stays down."
But before he could move, Lisanna's hand slipped out of Lucy's suddenly and grabbed Natsu by his own. The Dragon Slayer started and looked down to see the Take-Over mage with a little more clarity in her eyes staring up at him earnestly.
"Don't…" she murmured. "It's not an enemy. It's just a lost animal."
"True, but we can't just leave it to do its own thing," Lupin said as he watched the Doscadon shaking itself and swinging its gargantuan head around in confusion. And the wolves were still prowling the area too, several of them stalking in closer to the group themselves as if weighing the risk about whether they should attack or not.
But Remus did notice a distinct lack of one other thing - people. The halted ski-lift was now totally empty even though it had been filled with stranded passengers only a few minutes ago, and there were almost no skiers or snowboarders still left out on the slopes. Remus' eyes focused on one of the few that remained, but his eyes widened when a figure appeared next to him with a crack, seized his shoulder and then they both disappeared with another crack.
"Oh no," he murmured. "They're here. The Ministry is here."
"What?" Levy looked up sharply. "How can you tell?"
"Standard Muggle containment procedure," Remus wrinkled his nose. "Tonks told me about it. When Aurors are about to start a battle in an area with Muggles they try and collect all the Muggles they can together into one place and lock them in to keep them out of harm's way and also make it easier to modify their memories later."
"They're grouping them all in the visitor centre," Snape agreed as he stood up.
"Those gits from before that attacked me and Lucy, huh?" Natsu growled. "Alright then, fine. They want a fight? They've found one!"
"Natsu, wait. It's not that simple," Happy replied quickly. "The Ministry people aren't bad guys!"
"They're not?" Natsu blinked. "Then why were they attacking us back there?"
"Because they think… we're the bad guys…" Lisanna grunted as she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, lowering her hand to clutch at her throbbing head.
"What!?" Natsu blinked. "Where the hell did they arrive at that idea!?"
"They did say something about Fairy Tail mages having caused a lot of damage…" Lucy rubbed her forehead. "Sounds very much like the reasons why our Magic Council aren't our biggest fans. Guess that holds true in this world too."
"Wait, who told you we were in a different world?" Lupin frowned.
"That doesn't matter now," Levy flung her arm out to the side. "The point is, we got off on the wrong foot with these guys and now they want to imprison us."
"We've found the people we were looking for," Snape noted, nodding to Natsu and Lucy. "We should leave now while we have the chance."
"We can't," Lisanna said through gritted teeth as she slowly tried to push herself to her feet. "We can't go until we've gotten the wolves and the Doscadon back to where they belong!"
"This is no time to get sentimental about a bunch of animals," Snape frowned at her.
"It's not sentiment!" Lisanna shook her head, almost falling over again.
"Lisanna, you need to rest," Lucy grabbed Lisanna's arm to steady her. Lisanna leant against her gratefully, she she turned to look at Lucy with a smile.
"I can't rest," she murmured. "Not until those animals are safe. Because they're not just animals. They are lives! Every one of them a living thing with its own path to follow. A path that they strayed from since they got lost in this world just like us. We're all in this together. They're from Earthland just like us, so we can't leave them behind. And I won't… I'll do something about the Doscadon."
"But Lisanna…" Lucy protested, before she felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around to look at Natsu, who had put it there.
"Let her do it," he said, his mouth curling into a smirk. "Lisanna's a Fairy Tail mage just like us, Lucy. We never give up no matter the odds thrown at us, no matter how much we get beaten down. And Lisanna won't either… right?" he offered a hand to Lisanna, who smiled and took it, allowing both Natsu and Lucy to help her back upright.
"Yeah… thank you. Both of you," she said.
"I may vomit," Snape muttered under his breath. And he was totally unprepared for when Levy smacked him upside the head.
"Don't ruin the moment!" she chided him.
"Did you… just…" Snape's eyes bulged, while Lupin laughed.
"They're not your students, Severus. Let it go. You and I will have to find a way to take care of the wolves. I'm sorry but we can't allow ourselves to be identified by the Ministry. Especially Severus here. If they see us working with you…"
"You don't have to explain. Just go quickly!" Levy nodded. "We'll stall the Ministry. And we'll do our best not to harm them… won't we Natsu?"
Natsu grimaced as Snape and Remus Disapparated. "I really hate holding back…"
"Not hurt them, huh?" Lucy grinned. "Alright then! I know just what to do."
"Happy… take me to the Doscadon!" Lisanna pushed herself away from Natsu and Lucy, swaying a little woozily but determined to see this through.
"Aye sir!" Happy cried, gripping Lisanna from behind and taking off straight upwards into the air.
"Alright then… Ministry bastards! Come and get us!" Natsu yelled as he, Lucy and Levy stood up next to one another as he blasted a spurt of fire out of his mouth that contorted in the air to take on the shape of a giant, flaming and rather rude hand gesture above them. And sure enough, a few moments later there were cracks from all around them as wizards and witches Apparated in all about them.
And right before them appeared a figure that Levy most certainly recognised. And evidently she was recognised too.
"Ah, Miss McGarden, isn't it?" Scrimgeour asked as he stepped forwards towards them. "And what might you be doing here? Come for the skiing, did you?"
Levy evaded the question and said, "You don't have to do this, Scrimgeour! Fairy Tail isn't the enemy of the Ministry. We're the good guys here, just like you are! Just because we got off on the wrong foot doesn't mean we can't sort this out without violence."
"For that to happen I'm afraid we'd have to take you into custody," Scrimgeour replied. "You haven't exactly given the best impressions of yourselves since you got here. Perhaps you are enemies, perhaps not. But you are still very dangerous, and I have just come from a town that was completely obliterated this morning. Work that one of you lot would very likely be capable of. Not a single person in that town survived."
"What!?" Levy and Lucy gasped at the same time.
Natsu growled. "If you bastards think anyone from Fairy Tail would do anything like that then you should all have your heads examined! There's no way we'd do that."
"And you can tell that to Minister Fudge when you're brought before him," Scrimgeour raised his wand, as did the others around him. "For now… we're taking you in."
The curses streamed forth from wands all at once, zipping in like a volley of arrows. Levy jumped forwards quickly and flung her arms out - the word GUARD appearing in mid-air in front of her and taking the brunt of the curses, but also pushing Levy backwards at the same time.
"Nnngh… remember… don't hurt them!" Levy shouted.
"Don't worry. I've got the perfect Spirit for this!" Lucy grinned as she hooked one gold key out of her pouch and raised it high into the air. "Open, Gate of the Ram! Aries!"
"I'm sorry!" wailed the pink-haired girl that appeared in a puff of fluff in front of her. "But I'll do my best! WOOL WALL!" Aries squealed as she spun about in a circle with arms outstretched. Pink wool sprouted out of thin air and expanded outwards rapidly, creating a huge wall of fluffy material that engulfed the first line of Ministry Aurors except for those that got out of the way in time, which included Scrimgeour. The Head of the Auror Office re-appeared several metres off to the right and whirled around to look at what had happened to his men.
"Aahh… it's so soft…"
"Really fluffy…"
"So relaxing…"
"What the heck!?" Scrimgeour cried, staring with wide-eyes at the Aurors floating in the woolly barrier, who all looked like they were enjoying a massage on a beach in Tahiti or something, eyes closed, faces glowing. "What the hell are you doing to me men?"
"I'm really sorry!" Aries cried, holding her hands before her face and cringing slightly at Scrimgeour's harsh yell. "But they were trying to hurt Lucy… I couldn't let them do that."
"Men! Snap out of it!" Scrimgeour yelled, waving his wand as a chunk of the wool disappeared into thin air and the Aurors that had been in it fell to the ground with loud yelps. But Aries quickly yelled, "WOOL BOMB!" and flung a ball of fluffy stuff that expanded outwards in an explosion of softness the engulfed the Aurors again, and threw another right at Scrimgeour himself. He dodged to the side and flung a Stunning Spell at Aries, only for Lucy's whip to arc in and block the attack.
"Great work, Aries! Keep it up!" Lucy grinned at her timid Spirit.
"Thanks, Lucy… I'm sorry," Aries smiled as she swept her arm out to generate another blob of wool at some more Aurors, who were forced to Disapparate aside. In the blink of an eye over half of Scrimgeour's fighting force had been subdued by the Spirit's attack - completely losing the will to fight amongst the bizarre projectile.
Scrimgeour grimaced and tried to rally the other half. "Press in, men! Bring them down!"
"Bring it on, chumps! I dare you!" Natsu roared as he whirled himself around and flung himself at thin air, taking out the two Aurors that Apparated into the space a split second before he collided with them, slamming them down into the ground.
"Natsu, don't hurt them too much!" Lucy insisted as her whip lashed out wide, catching several more Stunning Spells and those she missed being blocked by another of Levy's GUARD shields.
"Tch… kinda limits my options here!" Natsu growled as fire burst into life in his palms and he began to throw them like snowballs, his arms windmilling as he fired shot after shot to slam into the oncoming spells and negate them. He spat a few more blasts out of his mouth to the same effect.
The four of them whirled around each other, madly defending whatever they could, keeping their backs to Aries' wool wall to limit the directions the Aurors could come from. But the Aurors were getting into gear now and remembering their training, and a veritable storm of curses were coming in at the Fairy Tail mages even with half their members incapacitated. They had no idea what most of them even did but they were not prepared to find out.
"GAAHH! I hate this!" Natsu snarled as he ducked underneath a blasting hex that found its way through their defences, grabbed Levy and pulling her down to the ground so she wouldn't get hit too.
"Nngh… we've got to hold out," Levy encouraged him. "But there's so many… wait… I have an idea!" She shot back up to her feet and yelled, "SOLID SCRIPT… RUMBLE!"
As the word appeared in the air over their heads, Levy yelled, "COVER YOUR EARS!" Lucy and Aries were quick to obey the yell, but Natsu blinked and cried, "Huh? What f…"
BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
"GAAHHHH!" Natsu yelled and he was not the only one. All the remaining Aurors had received the full impact of the noise blasting its way out of the letters, like a stereo that had been turned up beyond maximum that was playing the sound of constant nuclear explosions. Levy gave Natsu an apologetic look as he fell to his knees with his hands over his ears, but she couldn't help but grin as all the Aurors staggered about too, trying to recover their hearing.
She'd have to thank that dog guy from Grimoire Heart for giving her this idea. It had granted them a temporary reprieve.
The Doscadon was spinning about, less panicked than before but still struggling to see and still extremely angry. It was clearly searching for something to smash with its head and quickly found something - barrelling forwards and lowering its head to crash right another of the pillars holding the ski-lift up. Thankfully the Aurors had removed all of the Muggles from the lift by this point, so when the pillar was both snapped in half and uprooted from the ground like a weed at the same time, and the chairs of the lift went tumbling down to the ground, nobody was injured.
But the Doscadon was not satisfied and continued to stomp around, demanding more, roaring for another opponent to come out and face it.
"Happy… we need to get in close…" Lisanna gritted her teeth as the blue Exceed carried her overhead. "If my Take-Over… is going to work then we need… nngh…" she groaned and rubbed her eyes.
"Are you okay, Lisanna?" Happy asked quickly.
"I'm fine…" Lisanna muttered. Snape had only been able to guess at the amount of tranquilliser that had been entered into her system and therefore could only guess at the amount of antidote that would be needed to revitalise her. Using too much antidote could have been just as dangerous as too much tranquilliser, but it looked as though his guess at the amount needed was a little low - Lisanna was still quite groggy and tired.
But of course she couldn't let that stop her. No way in hell.
"We need to stop it before it does too much more damage! Take me in closer. Let me look it in the eye!"
"Aye sir!" Happy cried, zipping forwards until Lisanna was in front of the beast, which managed to spot her through its clouded vision and turned to look at her.
"Okay… concentrate… concentrate…" Lisanna muttered as she held her arms out and gazed into the Doscadon's vein-filled eye. "Just… calm down… we don't want to hurt you… we want you to go home…"
She exerted her power, focusing her Take-Over on the massive animal, trying to placate its ire and soothe its rage. She gritted her teeth, struggling to overcome the pounding in her head and keep her will extended over the Doscadon instead.
Slowly, the Doscadon's arms lowered and Lisanna wondered if she might be getting somewhere. But her head panged at her particularly sharply and she flinched, losing her focus. The Doscadon roared instantly and swung its head like a giant hammer, forcing Happy to fling himself backwards to carry Lisanna out of the way, the slipstream of the great blow sending them spinning before Happy was able to right himself again.
"Guh… Lisanna…" he started.
"I'm okay," Lisanna grunted, clutching her head as the Doscadon wheeled around to slam its shoulder into another of the pillars, fracturing it into three pieces and sending them all flying. "Thanks, Happy."
"Now what do we do?"
"I try again. There's no way that I'll do anything else! I…" Lisanna suddenly faltered when the Doscadon spun around and motored off down the mountainside, swinging its head from side to side and bellowing wildly. And… it was heading right towards the visitor centre!
"Oh no!" Lisanna's eyes widened, staring down at all the non-magical people pressed up against the windows, crowded together and locked inside thanks to the Ministry in an effort to protect them. But it was now stopping them from escaping and if that Doscadon reached the centre it would flatten it in a mere three steps of its giant feet! "Happy! Move quickly!"
"Do I get in front of it again?" Happy cried as he took off after the Doscadon, catching up with it quickly. But Lisanna gritted her teeth. Even if she was feeling completely healthy, there wouldn't be enough time to break through the creature's anger and take control of its soul.
…There was only one option.
It was an option that Lisanna had sworn never to do to an innocent animal, but the situation now demanded it. 'It's okay…' she thought to herself. 'I'll be able to free it later… but for now… I have to save those people!"
"Drop me on its back!"
"HUH!? But Lisanna…"
"Happy, do it! Hurry!"
Happy hesitated but only for a moment. The conviction in Lisanna's voice was enough to spur him on and with a cry of, "AYE SIR!" he flapped his way downwards and dropped Lisanna just above the Doscadon. Lisanna grabbed hold of its scales and clung on, placing her palms as flat against its skin as she could and gritting her teeth as she forced back her headache and summoned her magic.
"Sorry Doscadon! But this is for you too!" And magic circles appeared beneath her palms, flashing brightly as Lisanna's body glowed with power, and she bellowed with strain as she poured all the strength she could muster into her Take-Over. The pounding in her head tried to force her attention away, but she refused to let it, pouring her entire will into her magic reserves and bringing them welling up to the surface. The glow spread from the human to the Doscadon, encasing its whole body in light and pulling it to a halt, bellowing and shaking in confusion while Lisanna glowed so brightly that for a moment Happy had to shield his eyes.
And then the light died down and the screaming and roaring stopped. Happy looked again and gasped when he saw no sign of Lisanna. He rapidly flew around the Doscadon, searching for her but she was nowhere to be seen.
Or… was she?
Happy turned to look round at the Doscadon incredulously. "Lisanna… is that you?"
"…Yes…" the Doscadon's mouth suddenly spoke with Lisanna's voice. "Sorry… it took me a moment to push down the Doscadon's panic there… though I feel a lot better now. I guess the tranquilliser that was in me is nothing to a body like this."
"You used your Take-Over to possess its body!?" Happy gasped. "That's not like you at all, Lisanna…"
"I know its not, but I had little alternative. It's okay though. This magic is reversible - I'll be able to separate myself from him when the time comes. Still, I've never liked the idea of doing it this way. It feels way to invasive."
"I think you made the right call though," Happy assured her. "You did it, Lisanna! You saved all those people!"
"Yeah… I guess I did," Lisanna somehow managed to smile with the Doscadon's great toothy maw.
"Though I do hope you go back to normal soon. That form really doesn't suit you at all…" Happy covered his mouth with his paws. "It's far less pretty."
"You didn't have to say that, you know!"
After they'd left the Fairy Tail mages behind, Remus and Snape had remounted their brooms and soared over the slopes, keeping so low to the ground that their toes were almost brushing the snow, and veering around rocks and slopes as they zinged to and fro, occasionally crossing paths but never colliding.
And why were they doing this?
So that the wolves could chase them.
Remus swung himself low over the heads of a couple of the wolves. One of them leapt up at him, snapping at him as he passed and narrowly missing the twigs at the end of his broom, but as Remus swung away the wolves snarled and raced off after him, meeting up with three more that were already doing the same. Remus smiled slightly as he crossed paths with Snape, who had four wolves of his own on his tail.
"Keep it up!" Remus yelled as he past. "We've got to round them all up into one big group."
"Yes, I know the plan," Snape called back to him as the two wolf groups converged with each other and made a snap decision to chase after Lupin - who was deliberately flying slower than he could so they could keep up. They were fast, but a wolf's real strength lay in its endurance - they could just run and run for hours at a time, and Lupin was careful to let them think they had a chance at catching him, snapping at the back of his broom, gaining on him before pulling away again, while Snape swung over another group of wolves to draw them in and join the pack.
It took a little time but eventually all thirty of the wolves were gathered together, including the few that had previously been Stunned.
Or… almost all of them.
Remus slewed to a halt in front of the pack, which spread out slightly and stalked in closer to him. His eyes flicked back and forth across their number, searching for one wolf in particular… where was the alpha?
He wasn't there…
Snape went swooping low over the top of a slope meant for skiing over. And with a sudden eruption of snow, the Alpha Wolf appeared, bounding up that slope and leaping into the air, powerful muscles in his hind legs sending it arcing through the air right at Snape. The black-haired man yelled and veered wildly to one side, but the wolf still caught him with one shoulder and paw, batting him hard and driving him down into the snow, rolling several feet before he was able to dig his feet in and stop himself.
The wolf descended on him and Snape had no time to reach for his wand. Instead he brought up the broom, holding it in two hands like a crossbar as the wolf sprang on top of him, sinking its teeth deep into the wood and biting down so powerfully that it almost snapped the broom in half. "Gyyahh!" Snape cried out, shoving his arms up to try and push the wolf away, its claws tearing at his robes as he chomped down again, splintering the broom until it was a mere hairs breadth from cracking completely.
But Remus was already swooping over on his own broom. Another wolf jumped at him and he quickly felled it with a Stunning Jinx before levelling his wand at the alpha and crying, "DEPULSO!" at the top of his lungs. The wolf yelped as it was flung sideways as if smashed by a giant, invisible fist tumbling through the snow but quickly swinging itself back onto its feet, its yellow eyes locking on Lupin as he reached Snape and pulled him to his feet.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"None the worse for wear," Snape replied curtly. "But I rather think I've had enough of wolves for one day."
"Me too," Remus said. "But your broom's too damaged to fly. Quick, we'll have to share mine."
Before Snape could make some sarcastic comment though about sharing a broom with Lupin, the alpha stepped forwards, teeth still bared but no longer snarling. Remus hesitated, allowing his gaze to lock onto that of the wolf, the two of them staring at each other right in the eye. The other wolves were converging, circling around to try and cut off an escape route, but the alpha… didn't seem quite as aggressive than before. It was sniffing the air, swinging his head back and forth slowly as if trying to detect where a certain smell was coming from.
But what could it be smelling?
Remus eyes widened. Was it smelling him?
This was the first time that Remus had come so close to a wolf of any kind outside of his own skin. Other werewolves he'd met while untransformed did not count in that regard - this was a fully fledged wild animal. And this wolf… he could only really guess what was going through its mind right now but it seemed… puzzled? Curious?
"Remus… what are you doing?" Severus asked, but Remus motioned him to be quiet as he stepped forwards, away from his broom and continued to make eye contact with the wolf. He unconsciously raised himself taller, and suddenly bared his teeth. The alpha bared his in response and the hair on his back stood on end, tensing to spring. But he did not spring. He just stood there, glaring.
Remus didn't dare blink. Ever since the day he'd been bitten he had wanted rid of the curse of the werewolf. There were many times where he'd wished he couldn't remember what he'd done while transformed, but now he was trying to dredge it up. Trying to pull out all the emotions he felt while transformed, trying to remember the way he moved, the way he sounded as he snarled, all the while refusing to look away from the wolf's eyes. Remus snarled at it, the sound rupturing up from the deepest portion of his throat, his fingers curled like claws and raising himself onto his toes so he could stalk forwards.
And the alpha wolf slowly lowered its head, shrinking close to the ground until suddenly, it broke eye contact. It rolled onto its back, baring its neck to Remus submissively, and at the same time all the other wolves backed away slightly, their ears falling flat against their heads.
"Well…" Snape murmured. "Admittedly… this is unexpected…"
"Very much so," Remus replied, without looking away from the wolf at his feet. "But… if I'm not mistaken… I just became the new alpha…"
"Well I hope it was worth it, because you looked absolutely ridiculous just now," Snape said dryly.
The chaos across the mountain at least seemed to be receding somewhat…
…but the wolves, the Doscadon and the Ministry were not the only players involved.
Up close to the very top of the mountain and watching the madness below from afar were the two Death Eaters that Snape had encountered earlier that day - Crabbe and Goyle Senior. From where they were standing they couldn't really make out the details of what was going on, but they did know one thing.
Down that slope were a bunch of Aurors, several Fairy Tail members and a bunch of filthy Muggles.
And that was more than enough for them to decide to take action.
"You think the Dark Lord will reward us for this when he finds out what we did?" Mr. Goyle asked, grinning across at Mr. Crabbe.
"Oh, absolutely," Mr. Crabbe laughed, rubbing his fingers together in anticipation. "I can already see it now. Dunno what he'll give to us, but I reckon he'll name us his most valuable supporters when he hears how we took out so many of his enemies in one go."
"This will be something to tell the boys, won't it?" Goyle cackled as he squared up next to Crabbe on a large rocky outcropping by the mountaintop. "Shall we do it?"
"I think we shall," Crabbe grinned, and they raised their wands at the same time, pointing them at the mountainside and saying as one:-
"Bombarda Maximo!"
The sound of the twin explosions echoed down the mountain bringing a momentary halt to the fighting, as even those partially deafened by Levy's Solid Script heard the blasts since the Aurors had destroyed her Rumble word a couple of minutes ago. Eyes swung around to face the top of the mountain as more explosions rang out, and huge blasts of snow erupted up from the impacts, cascading like waterfalls down around the impact zone.
But the force of the explosions shook a great deal more snow loose, and as more fell down from above it displaced the snow even more. The snow began to slide, piling against itself as the loose snow began to roll down the mountain, picking up more snow as it went along and further weakening the snow's grip on the rocks.
And in no time flat it all seemed to come pouring down at once in a solid deluge.
"Oh gods…" Levy breathed, her eyes as round as plates. "It's an avalanche!"