Chris ran to the bottom of the stair leading to the first floor. He looked as the stairs had been made slippery and unable to climb them. Oh what to do?

"finite!" he shouted. He then turned back to Jack and Torin. "Come on I fixed the stairs its quiet up there, they must be up higher."

Carter arrived on the first floor corridor just as Chris was fixing it up. "Do we... have a plan... or anything?" he asked. Hopefully more Professors would be coming soon... otherwise they'd just have to work with the help of his little second year self.

Torin was falling a bit behind, but now someone else had joined them. Hopefully Jack wouldn't take too long to follow.

"I don't have a plan." Crap, they needed a plan.

Jack couldn't breathe. He had a stitch in his side. He was going to PASS OUT.

"Just...keep moving..." he panted, leaning against the wall for support before moving on. Suddenly BOOM! He walked into something that was hard and solid but...invisible?

CRUD. They'd put a shield. Panting, he pulled out his wand and waved it a few times, having no energy in himself to say the incanation right now. "Someone help please! I can't do it myself," he said.Whoever had cast this TOTALLY knew what they were doing.

Chris hit the wall too! "A sheild too!"

He pointed his wand at it too and beagn to undo it nonverbally.

Darn shields. Torin scowled as he looked at the invisible wall blocking them. He helped Chris undo the thing.

Carter paced back and forth behind the older boys. "What if... one or two of us are constantly casting protego." he suggested. Would that be strong enough to combat the handful of possessed students?

"We can try it," Jack said to Carter. It...could work, right? Most of the charmed people were younger anyways--their spells couldn't be THAT strong.

Jack felt the pressure of the shield break and, with a giant sigh, he took a few steps forward when he noticed a young Ravenclaw girl nearby. Umm...was she good or bad? Jack wasn't sure.

He was NOT taking any chances.

He nonverbally cast a shield around him before sprinting off down the corridor and on to the stairs.

Chris watched as the sheild broke and they were through! he took a deep breath and then ran after Jack! "Wait up! We all need to bust through to them togehter with stunners"

Now that the barrier was gone, they were free to move on. Torin cast another shield on himself, and ran off after Jack and Chris.

Carter took a deep breath as the shield cleared. He then took off after Jack. He'd probably be more useful casting the shield charm on everyone. Especially seeing as he'd been knocked down do many times tonight already for not being quick enough in a duel. He wiped the edge of his mouth with his robes. Yup... that was blood. And with another shield charm on himself he was out of sight.

Professor Kazimeriz dashed up through the corridor, looking around. it seemed whatever the issue was, it was not here. He paused to send his qilin patronus to Professor Vindictus. Whatever was going on, Max would know-- and he would know where help was needed.

That done, he continued on to the next level. He was feeling well, but knew the potion he had taken would wear off soon and he would be paying for the use of his joints later.

Following the Professor, he had to admit he was surprised at how fast he moved. Perhaps it had something to do with the most recent potion consumption. No matter, a moving Professor was a good thing. He took a short pause when the Professor did before following after him to the next floor. It reminded him a little of the hide and seek game Alexa had played when they had run all the way up to the seventh level. The thought stung a little bit and he had to remind himself that the girl he had shared that moment with was still present; maybe burried really deep but still there.

Phyre, too, sprinted after Kazi. Violet had woken up - what a pity she didn't get to ram her into about ten walls on the way to the Hospital Wing - so she decided to do as Kazimeriz has told the rest of the remaining, able students to do: follow. And damn, he was fast!

... And blurry.

That probably wasn't a good sign that her Stupefy-into-the-stone-wall wound was still bleeding slightly, throbbing painfully, and marring her vision, but she'd suffer the consequences later, rather than now. This was fun, in a rather horrifying sort of way, and she enjoyed the right to brag of experience. And damn, she would earn the title of trooper if it killed her. Hopefully, it wouldn't. And then, that was what magic was for. She had full faith in the Hospital Wing and St. Mungo's. Or, something like that...

The corridor was really blurry... Like, really, really blurry, so Phyre kept on running... and running... and running... Not seeing as she passed Kazimeriz. Well, up, up , and away!

Lina ran up the stairs, looking about for fallen students. She could see places where others had bled, but so far no one who was still there. She made sure everything was clear before running for the next floor. Hopefully most of the floors would be like this.

"I'll be fine until we get down there." Carter said. "It's only a few more floors." And besides getting down wasn't the hard part. Getting back up would. "So how do you think Professor Lupa is doing?" he asked after another few minutes of silence.

"Fine, but once we get there you have to sit down and rest. I won't take no for an answer." Whoa, where did that come from? She suddenly felt like her mum telling her to do something she didn't want to do.

"Lupa, I don't know. Kazi is the one I am more worried about, he didn't look good at all when he was brought out of that bathroom." Actually there were several professors that looked pretty bad. Not to mention all the students.

Carter laughed. "Thanks mum." he joked. He winced a little bit. Laughing hurt. That wasn't a good sign. Maybe he fell harder than he thought he did. Oh well. Hopefully Marie didn't notice.

"Yeah. Professor Truebridge looked a mess too." he said. He still couldn't believe that what had happened in the past few hours had actually happened.

Marie couldn't help but laugh when he called her mum. "Haha, very funny." She noticed that he seemed to be in pain but was trying to hide it. She wasn't going to let it go though. "Come on, let's get downstairs, I think you need to rest more than you are telling me." Yeah, she noticed.

"I think Professor Lawson went into labor. I hope her and the baby are okay." It was bad that students and professors got hurt but it would be even worse if something happened to an unborn baby.