At first, Wesley wasn't so sure her message had fully sunk in. As Miranda stood there, not fully looking at her, a foggy expression on her face, the Hufflepuff worried she had said too much. But she had thought if maybe she explained everything, the older girl would realize why Samuel Huxley wasn't such a great guy after all. However, the captain wasn't giving her any good signs; in fact, she seemed to be practically mimicking Tiberius's actions from earlier - right before he ran away.

Hand still tightly gripping Miranda's arm, Wesley refused to let go, and as the fifth year suddenly moved, Wesley prepared to move with her. But Miranda wasn't trying to run away - she was trying to tell the 13-year-old something important. Something Wesley couldn't promise, because it absolutely conflicted with what she had promised Jack. Before she could tell Miranda no, however, the attention shifted to that one younger girl, the Gryffindor. Wand in hand, Wesley pointed it at her, reverse spell on her tongue, but Miranda said it faster. Then Miranda said she was leaving - or she implied she was leaving, and Wesley could only nodd back, unintentionally trapping herself in another promise.

And then something exploded, and Wesley let go, and the fifth year was running off, and then she was falling, and then she was crying, and then

"NOOOO!" The 3rd year screamed, popping out of the hiding spot and chasing after Miranda.

Who had forgotten what Wesley had told her. Who, like Tiberius, was running away.

Stopping, just short of the stairway, the Hufflepuff turned around, lip bit, and circled back to where the Gryffindor was. Crouching besides the girl, she whispered, "It's going to be okay - you're going to be okay. But you need to stay here. You need to stay safe. I'll be back. I need to get somebody, but I'll be back." Reaching out an arm and patting her on the shoulder, Wesley did a quick once over, and, returning her eyes to the girl's own, said, "You were hit - but otherwise you're fine. Just stay here, and I'll be back, and then we can all go to the safe spot on the second floor together, okay?"

With a quick, wavering smile, the teenager stood. Stepping out once more, she could just barely spot the disappearing figure of...her Divination Professor?

Wand gripped in hand, Wesley muttered, "Protego," before following him up the stairs. To save Jake, like she had promised.

Torin smiled as the boy ran past him and up the stairs. Anything to help another student in need. But before he could go much farther, sudden;t he felt a weaight on him and he toppled forward.

That Slytherin boy was punching him and it hurt. A lot.

His head killing him, he tried to throw the boy off. And then he heard Brody calling out as well as Nancy. But there was not much that he could do to help when this guy wasn't stopping.

And then out of nowhere there were no more hits. He watched the Slytherin boy curiously, wincing as he set his jaw right. Yeah, Torin felt a little bad for that, but seeing as he probably had a black eye himself, he didn't feel too bad about it.

And then out of nowhere he ran off, soon to be joined by Miranda.

What the hell was going on here?

Through some kind of blurry vision where her tongue kept on hurting like mad Roxanna heard how the older of the two Hufflepuffs advised the younger to pretty much get out there and to safety. What the younger hufflepuff responded she had no way of knowing since she moments later passed out from all the pain.

Minutes later she woke up again feeling desoriented, hurting and scared. Seeing the back of the older hufflepuff disappearing off down the floor and towards the fifth floor Roxanna prayed that nothing bad would happen to her protector.

Scared and confused Roxanna watched as another wand was pointed at her. She opted to raise her hands and defend herself but realized that the younger hufflepuff albeit older than herself was reversing the horrible tongue spell enabling Roxxy to speak again.

As the hufflepuff girl crouched beside her Roxanna stammered out "Don't leave me. I'm scared. I don't want to get hit again. What if that evil Slytherin girl comes back? I'm scared." Looking up into the older girls eyes she pleaded for her to stay with her. How was Roxanna going to be safe if she was left alone in that spot.

Her pleading was to no avail though the hufflepuff left with the promise of taking her to a safe place on the second floor after. Drawing up her legs up to her chest the little blond made herself as small as possible hoping that someone good would find her. This was not how she had wanted things to end. The only Roxanna had wanted to do was to get to her common room.

Scared, upset and confused to why people attacked one another the little gryffie started to cry.

"Get off my hairr" it was going to need some serious work on her hair after this. Ack. She should not have let go of Nancy's hand, because it had resulted in the girl pulling her even more. She growled, pulling Nancy's hair. The needed a taste of her own medicine.
She smirked as she saw that her punch had indeed hurt, which made her feel happy, although she did feel a little guilty for now punching three people. Opps. She really did need to learn how to keep her hands to herself.

She felt Nancy try to move her wand underneath her, and was glad that she had tackled her now. "Protego." She could not get hurt, not now when she was stopping Nancy from getting away. Oooh. But it seemed that Nancy was distracted, and Her stunner got her. Awesome. Smirking she got up, looking down at Nancy, but at least she didnt need to worry about her blocking the staircase again.

"MIRANDA" Brody yelled as the girl suddenly ran past, waking Nancy up, before running off towards the fifth corridor. She glanced back at Nancy, something seemed different about her. "Nancy?" She asked, looking down at the girl. She wasn't going to try pulling her hair again was she?

Still staring blankly up at Brody Nancy felt another emotion rise inside of her. And it was neither regret nor panic. It was hatred, pure loathing. And this feeling of extreme dislike was against one person and one person only: Samuel Huxley. It was his fault she had done all this...this...these horrible things. Shudder!

Then all of a sudden Miranda reappeared out of nowhere with a determined look plastered across her face. Finally. With a quick flick with her wand at her the Hufflepuff Captain rescued her, reversing the Stunner's effects. Her first reaction was to touch her jaw where Brody had punched her and which was throbbing like hell. OUCH!

The look of a mixture of anxiety, panic and hatred never left her eyes as the 17 year old got to her feet...and swayed slightly. Uh... Staring at the point Oliver, Torin, Miranda and this other little Hufflepuff girl had disappeared off to Nancy turned her head towards the sound of Brody's voice. Another shudder ran down her spine at the thought of wrestling the other girl just a few moments before.

"I...I'm sorry." She muttered, chewing on her lower lip, her blue eyes flickering repeatedly towards the stairs. This Samuel Huxley guy was going to regret having done this to her. To THEM.

Brody sort of felt guilty now. Now that she could see the guilt that Nancy was feeling. She sighed as she watched the girl wincing at she touched her jaw. That was her fault. She knelt down alongside Nancy, so that she could make sure that she was okay. she didn't want Nancy to feel hurt. But now the girl was apologizing, and she did feel bad for the girl. Someone had done this too her, and Brody could not understand how that would feel.

"It's okay Nancy..." It wasn't her fault, someone had been controlling her. "I'm sorry...for punching you." Because that had been bad, and her hand was really going to hurt later. "Are you okay?" She smiled softly at her. "Everyone else has gone up a floor."

Phew! At least Brody seemed to understand. Not that she herself understood it fully but at least Brody tried to understand why she had hit her...and everything. GUH! She had attacked an innocent firstie, hadn't she? Only where was the Gryffindor girl? Probably gone off to safety by now...hopefully.

If she hadn't been that anxious there would have been a sarcastic remark coming from her on how surprisingly well Brody had punched her. Again, however, this was not funny...this was serious. "'tis okay. I deserved it..." Or something. The way Brody seemed to be genuinely concerned made her feel even worse than before. She had ATTACKED the Hufflepuff.

Shrugging Nancy decided this was not the time to talk about how much her jaw hurt. No, now they had to go up a floor so they could be getting revenge on Mr.Barkeep helping the others. She had to make it up to them. "Yeah, sounds good...well, not good but yes, I think we should go up too."

And with that said she finally got to her feet fully before turning once again towards Brody. "Sorry 'bout your hair..." Like that mattered now, but still Nancy felt the need to apologize once again.

Oooh. Nancy wanted to go up. That was good, because Brody did too. She nodded, smiling at the girl. "My hairs fine." That was a white lie, but she didn't care. She glanced towards the stairs, she had no idea what was going on up there, but she had a feeling that it probably wasn't too nice. She had heard a few bangs.
She stood up, dusting herself off a little. She did not like being dusty. Glancing back down at Nancy she nodded, offering her hand out to help the girl out. "Let's go upstairs." She agreed, because it was a little uninteresting donw here now, but that might have been a good thing.

Torin had turned his attention back to Nancy as Brody was talking to her. This was weird, but the girl seemed to be suddenly back to normal like the others. He was glad, because Nancy was his friend and he didn't want to have to do anything to hurt her.

"Let's all go together." Seeing as he was on his way up to see if there were anymore blocks when Oliver jumped him.

Oliver had to push his way through the throng of students in the defence line up on the fifth floor to get to the stairs. Things were looking up. Kazi had arrived on the scene and the kids were all working together and not just trying to randomly blast the bad guy.

Down the stairs he ran to the dreaded fourth floor. Merlin, please let her still be here. He jogged along the corridor to where the fight had taken place earlier. There was no sign. “Hello?” He called. His voice sounded strained as it echoed around the empty corridor. “Gryffindor?” He walked further along, eyes scanning the place for a sign of the wee girl.

And there she was. Huddled up and looking pale and scared. Grimace - the guilt. He wandered over to her slowly not wanting to startle her, then knelt down in front of her knowing that his height could be intimidating to one so small. He didn't speak at first, just looked at her hoping she wouldn't be too frightened of him. Oliver, after all, had not been himself when he was here earlier. “It's alright.” He said gently. “We need to get you downstairs to where it's safe, ok?” He swallowed. This was terrible.

Roxanna sat in the shielded nisch all curled up. This day hadn't eactly gone as she had planned. Why did people cast spells at each other? Why had horrible people come to the school to wreck havoc? Nothing really made sense. From her secluded place the little blond heard all the commotion coming from up stairs, the spells ricochetting of the walls, cries and shouts.

Where she was at the moment Roxanna reasoned was safe only the hufflepuff who had said she would come back hadn't. Feeling scared out of her wits she didn't know what to do. If she left her safe hideout then she might meet someone bad and get cursed again.

Several minutes later Roxanna heard jogging footsteps coming towards her and a voice calling out. It couldn't be directed for her could it? Torn on how to act since it could after all be a bad guy she kept quiet. And the slytherin boy from earlier came towards where she was sitting acting totally normal.

Looking up at him Roxanna asked apprehensive "Are you back to normal now? You're not going to curse me?"

Sad face.

Oliver looked at the wee Gryffindor with a solemn expression. He nodded to her question trying his best not to grimace. Yeah.. he was back to normal. Or as normal as is was to possible be after you had hexed a load of innocent students, punched a girl and attempted to beat up her boyfriend. “No. I'm not going to curse you.” He reached out his hand for her to assist her to stand. “Me and my friends were under the Imperius Curse.” He explained to the girl. “We didn't mean to hurt anyone. I'm sorry if we scared you.”

“If you come with me I'll take you to safety.” He had got wind of the makeshift area for injured students outside the headmaster's office. It seemed like a safe haven to take the girl.

Roxanna gave up a sigh of relief when the boy announced that he wasn't going to curse her. Clambering to feet she smiled a little at him saying "I'm Roxanna or Roxxy. Firstie, Gryffindor. Who are you?" Referring to her savior as just Slytherin boy didn't seem all that appropriate. Not considering what had happened and all. Taking his hand thinking that he was better to hold on to than her wand she pockted it. "Um, what does imperiused mean? I guess it's not a good thing to be under?" Roxanna agreed straight away to the idea of getting away from the fourth floor. It was after all still a danger zone. Looking down the corridor she wondered where that safe place was located. Making her feet start to move forwards Roxanna figured that the older boy knew where they should go..

Rex came back for a look-see at the problems on the fourth floor corridor. Rex saw Professor Dumont. " Be careful" Rex told the professor." This scene is crazy" Rex said to Professor DuMont.

Oliver relaxed a little when he saw the relief in the young girl's face and body language. He was worried she was going to run away... panic and head up towards the fifth floor and into the danger zone. That would have been disasterous.

He stood up and smiled properly (though it was followed by a small wince thanks to his injured jaw) for the first time since before this ordeal began. Aww.. she was cute. “I'm Oliver.” He told her. “I'm a Slytherin. Fifth year. But this is my first year at Hogwarts too.”

He kept his hand in hers and started along the corridor leading towards the stairs leading downwards. He was glad she was filling the silence with questions because he didn't really know how to behave around younger kids. She was helping with the slight awkwardness he felt. He raised his eyebrows at her question and looked down at her. “Are you a muggleborn?” He asked her with interest. Either that or she had grown up in a sheltered environment. Well.. there was no point in lying to protect her.. she would find out sooner or later. “It's a bit like being a puppet.” He explained. “Like you're still you but someone else is pulling the strings. They take over your mind and control your actions.” He shook his head and chuckled lightly. No. It certainly wasn't a good thing to be under. But at least it didn't hurt.. unlike Crucio. “Some of the professors and students are working together up there to stop the man who did this to us.” He explained as they neared the stairs.

"I'll be fine." Carter said. "If I feel really tired I'll just nap on a bench somewhere." he said. That did sound nice. Maybe he'll sleep in the dungeons. It was nice and dark down there.

They had finally made it down to the fourth floor. They were moving a lot slower than Marie had thought they would. She continued to hold onto Carter as they made their way down to the next floor. "If you feel tired now we can stop." Yes, they could just rest right there on the stairs.

"Oh, I was going slow because I thought you wanted to." Carter said. "If you can move faster we can." he said. Truth was, he was kind of enjoying this. His mind was blank. Which was much better than it had been recently. And he was really enjoying Marie's company. Probably much more than he should be.

"No, slow is good." Sure she could move faster but the slower they went the more time she had to be with him. She knew that whatever it was she was feeling was wrong. Evan was the one she should want there with her right now not Carter. She couldn't help it though, she wanted Carter with her. He was the one that had went through everything with her the past few months, not Evan. Evan had been the one to make the decission to leave school and her behind. She hadn't even heard from him in a couple of months. 'Stupid Lawson, stupid football training,' she thought. She held onto Carrter a little tighter and continued making her way to the dungeon.

Carter continued walking with her. It was too bad Evan wasn't here. He was missing out. It was strange. Carter decided to leave that life and be at Hogwarts. And Evan had decided to leave this magical life and play football. It was a bit funny.

"So are you still feeling alright?" he asked. They had bee quiet for awhile. He just wanted to make sure she was fine.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she said. She was more alright physically than she was mentally but she wasn't going to tell him that. "How are you feeling? You took a bigger hit on the head than I did." She reached up and felt the knot on her head. It was sore but she would live. Where did all these stairs come from? SHe didn't remember this many stairs between floors before.

Kapoor was still there. The chaos and snafu of it all escalated and dipped off-ways through the castle. He had been a bit buried. Not just by the rubble of those blasting charms, but also a layer of bright yellow from what had apparently been a flower charm. He sat there slumped, almost lying down, and looking more asleep than anything covered in white, grey and yellow and looking rather like a bit of modern art too anti-bourgeois to be understood.

Gabriella had gotten word from one of the students that Kapoor was possibly still on the fourth floor corridor, lying so injured that he was unable to move. She'd hurried away from the headmaster's seating area and up to the fourth floor just as quickly as she could.

She searched the fourth floor, every inch of it she thought, but the librarian was nowhere to be seen. Hmm, it's possible he was healed and has since headed somewhere else in the castle... She was just about to head back down the stairs when she saw a lump of yellow, lying still as could be, a few yards away. Curious, she turned around to see what the object was, only to discover it was Kapoor a moment later!

"Oh my!" she called out, running to his side and kneeling to get a closer look. Pollen---that's what he was covered in! She wiped a bit of it away and revealed a nasty head injury. She cleaned away the blood and dabbed a bit of ointment on the wound. She then wrapped a part of his head in a bandage to help the wound heal and to keep it safe from being exposed to additional harm. She thought it best to do that first then rennervate him.

She aimed her wand towards him and with a flick, she said, "Rennervate!" She grew still and quiet while she waited to see if he'd respond to the spell as she hoped he would.

Slowly Kapoor began to stir, until he was finally awakened from being stupefied. When he opened his eyes, there was Healer Ashford.

"Oh, hi, Healer Ashford!" He croaked a bit in a tired but relieved sounding voice. "Great Merlin! Where are the students?!" he stood up with alarm remembering the school being in great chaos and a few of them in trouble or some such thing. He shook of a slight dizziness and observed the corridor. It looked like a war had been there. He looked at Healer Ashford wondering if she had made this mess, but realizing instead in her composure, that the worst of it must've been over.

"I tell you, I'm getting too old for this job. If I had known it was going to be this much action I would've stayed and finished my Auror training as a young man." He jested lightly. "I should check on the students in the library. Thank you, Healer. I feel as though I was out for a very long time." With that he started to make his way to head back to the library to check on any students or property that might've been harmed during the battle.

A few moments later, Gabriella was still kneeling and waiting for Kapoor to exhibit any signs he would be alright. She was just beginning to get really worried when the man began to slightly stir. She jumped back a little when the man croaked out a greeting to her. "Oh! You...well, scared me," she said with a relieved laugh.

She pushed herself up off the ground, a little afraid the man would overdo it, since he'd just been passed out. "Not to worry---not to worry at all. The students have been taken care of. We set up a triage near the headmaster's office, where I've been healing everything from slight scratches to terrible wounds," she explained. She'd tell the man that a few people had to be sent to St. Mungo's, but she didn't want to worry him too much right now.

She laughed softly at his slight joke about Auror training then followed him out the fourth floor corridor. "If you need me, I'll be back in the headmaster's seating area," she said, waving to him as she headed off in a different direction.