Chapter 55: Trouble
Ariadne barely had time to react to the sudden appearance of Clarke, and beside him, Clarice, Yaxley, and a sixth-year Slytherin she didn't recognize, before Sirius yelled, "DUCK!"
Ariadne saw a beam of bright white light flash just over her head. While still bending over, she cast a Stunning Spell straight at Clarice. Behind her, James and Remus were already engaging Clarke and the unknown Slytherin. Sirius was battling Yaxley.
"Slashing Hexes!" called Sirius in between the blasts and yells. Of course, Ariadne recognized the white flashes immediately. They had just been practicing them.
She dodged yet another hex, then performed a levitation spell on herself to swoop up to the ceiling and get out of Clarice's reach for a moment. Regaining her breath, she noticed Sirius's jinxes repelling off of Clarke, having absolutely no effect whatsoever. Clarke, Clarice and Yaxley had shown up with their shields already activated, prepared for a duel.
Ariadne released the levitation spell, dropping back down to the floor, and as she fell she aimed a Stunning Spell at Clarice's head, above the perimeter of her shield. But Clarice and been watching her, and deftly directed the shield above her, blocking the spell.
While Ariadne had no doubt that she, Sirius, James and Remus were better duelists, their opponents were more prepared, and the Marauders had been caught off-guard. Sirius fenced back-and-forth with Yaxley, trading and dodging curses in an intricate dance. However, with the shield shimmering in front of him, none of Sirius's spells could get through, harmlessly dissolving in the shield. Ariadne, fully occupied with Clarice, just barely had the capacity to notice that she and her gang were only casting the blazing white beams of Slashing Hexes. They were aiming to harm.
There was a yell behind them. Ariadne turned for only the split second that this distraction afforded her to see James clutching his arm. It was covered in blood.
Remus had jumped in front of James to protect him and continue fighting off Clarke and the Slytherin boy, who were relentless. Ariadne thought desperately that they couldn't leave him alone and outnumbered.
Instead of sending another spell to harmlessly bounce off Clarice's shield, Ariadne aimed her wand at the stone ceiling above Clarice's head. With a crack and a rumble, several chunks of stone fell from the ceiling, hitting Clarice in the shoulder. She shrieked and her wand was knocked out of her hand.
Ariadne had already turned and fled to Remus's side, ducking another Slashing Hex, and engaged the Slytherin so that he could focus on Clarke. But dodging spells they couldn't block while casting curses that would never reach their opponents was a strategy with no endgame.
Sirius had clearly arrived at the same conclusion as Ariadne. Without turning away from his duel with Yaxley, he said in a voice that carried calmly across the room, "Ariadne, I'm going to use the countercurse."
"Sirius, no!"
"Get ready to duck!" he called back.
Ariadne watched as if in slow motion as Yaxley's next Slashing Hex aimed itself at Sirius's heart. Sirius moved his wand up to block it, and with a precise movement, flicked it away.
Ariadne didn't wait to watch the beam multiply and scatter around the room, as she knew it would. She flattened herself to the floor, dragging Remus down with her. Remus had grabbed James's sleeve and pulled him down too.
There was a BOOM and a deep rumbling noise. Ariadne risked an upward glance and saw a cloud of dust and a pile of stone rubble. The wall of the classroom had exploded from the force of the rebounding hex.
Ariadne got up, knowing that the effects of the rebounding countercurse would be over already, for better or for worse. "Sirius!" she called desperately, struggling to see through the dust.
"I'm all right, Ariadne," she heard his voice say from nearby. She finally perceived his tall figure straightening up and brushing dust from his robes. "I'm not sure I can say the same for Yaxley over here, though," he said, nodding at a motionless body on the ground.
James groaned. Ariadne and Sirius rushed over to where Lupin was gingerly examining his arm. The forearm bore a deep gash that was rapidly leaking blood.
Ariadne quickly performed a spell to clot the bleeding, but James needed to go to the hospital wing immediately, and she told him as much. Remus was hoisting him up and conjuring a stretcher to take him there, when several more people arrived at the catastrophic scene, no doubt summoned by the tremendous sound of the classroom wall exploding.
The teachers.
…
"Please explain to me what extenuating circumstances could possibly dissuade your Heads of Houses from immediately ordering your suspension from the school."
Professor McGonagall's lips were clenched so tightly in anger that she was barely able to get out these words. Sirius, Remus, Ariadne and Clarice faced her across the large mahogany desk in her office. James, Clarke, Yaxley, and the Slytherin they didn't know were in the hospital wing.
Sirius and Ariadne glanced at each other tensely, deciding between them who should speak. But before they had the opportunity, McGonagall went on.
"Three students severely injured in the hospital wing? A classroom virtually destroyed? The use of highly dangerous and forbidden curses, outside of class?"
Sirius opened his mouth but Ariadne got there first. "Professor, we were simply defending ourselves. Clarice, Florian and Mervon attacked us without warning or provocation."
To Ariadne's fury, Clarice cut in, in a sycophantic and innocent tone meant to undercut her. "Professor, that isn't true at all. We were practicing the same spells we had just been doing in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, when these Gryffindors"—her emphasis on the world was subtle but calculated, "suddenly turned on us."
McGonagall turned her gaze from Ariadne to Clarice, looking at each of them in turn. Ariadne knew her reputation with McGonagall had to count for something. McGonagall trusted her.
"A baseless and unprovoked attack from either group seems illogical and unlikely," she replied. "But, if what Miss O'Neil has shared with me is true—" her eyes paused on Clarice—"then this incident is in fact a sequel in a series of violent duels between you. An attempt to 'get back' at the other after the previous clash."
"Professor, Clarke, Yaxley and the others left the classroom after class and came back later to ambush us," interjected Sirius hurriedly. "In both cases they attacked first, and we've completely left them alone, but they won't return the favor." Ariadne saw the deadly glance Sirius cast at Clarice, implying that the Marauders may no longer be extending that courtesy, but she hoped he wasn't stupid enough to do anything until things were sorted with the teachers.
"So you confess that there was another duel that happened earlier in the term? One which, according to Miss O'Neil, took place in the Forbidden Forest at midnight?" said McGonagall, nostrils flaring.
"Professor, Sirius is right, Clarice and Florian attacked us that night too, and she can't prove otherwise—" burst in Ariadne. McGonagall turned to her with, if possible, an even more deadly serious expression.
"Regardless of which party was the aggressor, Miss Morrigan, are you denying that the group assembled here, with the addition of Mr. Potter and Mr. Clarke, were out-of-bounds, in the Forbidden Forest, long after any permissible hour for students to be out of bed?"
Ariadne opened her mouth to answer, but faltered. It was one thing to lie about a Quidditch victory party to McGonagall that early fall evening, which now seemed so long ago, but another to deny this very serious charge while they faced her in her office with one of their friends in the hospital wing.
Professor McGonagall's hands were now gripping the edge of her desk very tightly, a telltale sign of her fury. "This goes beyond who attacked who and which group is at fault. I need all of you to understand how very seriously you have endangered yourselves and your fellow students. Wandering off the grounds in the middle of the night is reckless enough, but dueling with these highly restricted curses could have maimed or even killed any of you. Mr. Potter, for example, has now been injured twice. Why, after the first duel, you failed to report the true cause of his injury, is beyond any reason I can imagine." She paused to glare at each of them for a moment. "There is no excuse for not reporting this behavior immediately."
Ariadne looked over a Sirius, wondering if this was the time to disclose what they knew to the professors. But Sirius apparently continued to doubt their ability to thwart Yaxley's organized crimes, and couldn't take this patronizing talk anymore. "So what, Professor? So you can dock some points from Ravenclaw and assign detentions? This is bigger than some petty student feud. That won't stop these attacks!"
McGonagall turned her severe gaze upon him. "That is precisely what I am going to do, Mr. Black. 50 points will be taken from each house involved in this matter—that leaves only Hufflepuff untouched—you will all receive a detention, and I will be writing to your families. And, since you are so concerned about the Hogwarts' staff's ability to enforce security in the castle, you can all expect us to keep a much closer eye on you from now on," she said, directing her statement towards Sirius more than anyone else. "I believe that should suffice to prevent further violence against students."
There was nothing Ariadne could say to effectively convey to McGonagall how wrong she was. Still fuming, McGonagall waved her hand to dismiss them, but followed the gesture by saying, "Miss Morrigan, if I could have a word, please."
With a bubbling feeling of guilt and dread in her stomach, Ariadne sat back down. She faced McGonagall silently for a moment.
"Miss Morrigan, out of everyone involved in this ghastly display of violence, I am most shocked and dismayed by your participation," she began.
Ariadne said nothing, but fought the urge to look down at her lap.
"As one of the students charged with maintaining order and peace in the castle, I struggle to understand why you did not immediately report any unsafe behavior or rule violations by Miss O'Neil, Mr. Clarke, and Mr. Yaxley. Furthermore, having known you personally for some time to be a model student and prefect, I am…confounded, to be truthful, by how flagrantly you have now flouted all sorts of rules about being out of bounds, entering the forest, and engaging in fights. This behavior is not consistent with the model student and witch I knew you to be," she continued, folding her hands rigidly in her lap.
"If I bear some responsibility in allowing Mr. Black to…influence you by partnering you for Transfiguration work, then that was a mistake on my part. But as nearly a fully-grown witch, you bear full responsibility for your actions and decisions. And I have found these very disappointing, indeed. I am sure you understand, then, that such egregious rule-breaking is not compatible with the status of prefect, which is a privilege and a responsibility." She held out her hand.
It took Ariadne a moment to understand what was happening. Numbly, she unpinned her prefect badge from her robes and handed it over. Still, she had nothing to say to McGonagall. She doubted she could have formed any coherent words at this point, anyway.
She looked up at McGonagall for some sign that she had been dismissed. Was there the tiniest hint of pity in her eyes, or was Ariadne wishfully imagining it? McGonagall closed her hands around the prefect badge. "You may go, Miss Morrigan. I will communicate the details of your detentions later this week."
Still feeling as numb as if she had been petrified, Ariadne turned and left the office.