Not a game. Not a game. Mordred's words rang inside Ethan's head as he emerged from the Great Hall and saw the scene before him. His skin crawled at the moving black mass. Gripping his wand tighter under his cover, he moved and mimicked the movement of the snake and started to throw stunning spells at the vulnerable arachnids closest to him.

He moved in further, slithering amongst his fellow 'snakes'', and was quick to cast another stunning spell at the giant spider that...was thrown at him? His spell had hit it squarely, sending it back to the hard wall with a dull thud. Ethan was quite surprised at the strength of his non-verbals. Was it because his spells were thickly laced with anger and spite for the creatures? Well, they did take Gregoire's life last term, so it was just right to get even. In fact, this...their stunning spells aren't really enough.

Ethan re-grouped with the rest of the Snake party, assessing the situation as he sandwiched himself in between the stunners. One lone spider caught his attention. It looked like it was bleeding profusely, slash, wetting its pants out of fear while...holding a turkey? Huh. Eccentricity seems to be innate in each and every single one of them, including the humans. "Professors? Friends? Countrymen? We have a situation." Ethan nudged the camouflaged body beside him HOPING it was a professor underneath, and pointed his wand at the cutespider that was glued on its spot.

It was working! The gruesome beasts were being thrown into panic, and one was even suggesting a full retreat! "Stupefy!" was her continual cry, aiming at random as arachnids scurried frenetically around the hall.

Then she heard someone behind her. It sounded like Ethan Mordaunt. "Spit it out, Mordaunt! What's the problem??" She wasn't taking her eyes off of the spiders in front of her until absolutely necessary.

Ethan blinked rapidly under his cover as he ducked once in a while as the others continued to stun the spiders. The gears inside his head turned, sending unwanted painful pounding up his forehead as he realized that the spider frozen on the spot isn't under the Daydream Charm. "Well professor. We got one lone spider over there, you know, average sized acromantula holding a turkey, secreting venom profusely on the floor...and it's not panicking like the rest of them. That one's not under the Daydream Charm I believe." So...that should be enough information to get Professor Tanner's attention, no? "Awaiting your next instruction, professor." Ethan's brows furrowed in concentration as he moved with the group, paying extra attention to that spider over there, while the others covered for him.

Man this was going PERFECTLY. You know all that stuff about not being trained for this? Yeah, forget training. Zander was basically a PROFESSIONAL without the help of any textbook advice, thank you very much mhm. He basically had all the spiders in a huge panic just about now. Nevermind that day dream charm or whatever. It was all Zander's work clearly. Ahem. And the rest of the crew of course. Couldn't have made it to the top without any of you lot. Ahem. Started from the bottom now we here pretending to be a basilisk and watching our plan actually work. New Hogwarts anthem. Forget that Hoggy Worty business. This was the real deal.

Zander was basically snapped out of his personal day dream (no charms involved thank merlin) when his named was called by a nearby Professor Tanner. Yes, ma'am. All ears. Did she need him to run out and fight them full on? Because he could do that. YEAH. Training or not. This was his calling. Or not. Yeah. Nevermind. Simultaneous spells work too.

"Sounds like a great plan, Professor!" As in yes he would listen for the count of three. Which also meant he was listening when Ethan (that was Ethan talking wasn't it? this snake skin made it hard to tell) started freaking out about some spider with a turkey l--whut? Uh. This was definitely not in the training. So how did they handle That one?

Also YES THAT IS RIGHT SPIDERS, YOU BETTER RETREAT!!! Ahem. He was cool.

As he continued to shot stunning spells towards the spiders and try to push them back, Hops moved from side to side as the head of a snake would. He had never been the drama type so he wasn't sure his acting skills were working.

"Stupefy"

They were retreating? This was working. These professors were brilliant. "Keep it going everyone, they seem to be leaving." He raised his wand just as he heard the commotion behind him. His eyes moved to the spider, "I think we should stun or kill any that seem to be still coming in. What do you think?"Without looking he asked the other adults, mostly the professor. He didn't care what it was doing they were all dangerous and the protection of the students was first priority.

Scrambling and climbing all over one another, the acromantulas' numbers were visibly less and enough so that the floor to the entrance hall could actually be seen. There was an uncomfortable sheen covering parts of it, no doubt due to some involuntary secretion.

Meanwhile Aletag continued to try and whack the flaming balls with his hairy legs. The turkey, that had quite literally been through war and back, was now missing one of its legs that had fallen off a few moments earlier and lay forgotten on the floor.

"SAVE YOUR SPINNERETS! MOVE OUT! RETREAT!"

Steady stream leaving the castle, the horde moved towards their home in the Forbidden Forest. Those that remaining fell into four categories: thought they were dead from the 'basilisks'' gaze, were actually dead, were in the middle of fleeing, or were Aletag.

Okay, this was great. Tiara was still firing off Stunners whenever she could, and now she and Adair had a plan in case they needed more firepower. But..

..The arachnids were fleeing now! She had no idea what instructions Maddox, Hops, or any of the other adults would give, but she was just too stunned at how well their plan was working to think of anything constructive other than simply getting out of the way. "Everyone back up out of their way!" she said to those in the snakeskin.

The last of the hairy beasts were finally gone except for.. Yes, she had heard Mordaunt say something about another one with a turkey (Aletag). Looking straight at it, she proclaimed in triumph, "Stupefy!"

Then, turning her head to survey the scene cautiously, she determined that nothing else was attacking. "Right then. I say we check and make sure they're either all dead or Stunned then head back into the Great Hall." Without pausing to see if anyone was following her suggestion, she shed the snakeskin from her shoulders and began to prod the creatures with her feet, occasionally casting another Stunning Spell when needed.

...... THAT WAS IT????

Retreat. RETREAT. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. Retreat. R E T R E A T.

How many other ways could it be typed out!?!? Did it really matter though? Because they were RETREATING. Meaning one thing and one thing only, "IT WORKED!!!!!" Oh wait.

"I mean, uh, Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss? ... Oops.

Um. They could stop being a snake, right? He took the go ahead from Tanner as a yes, and shed the skin off himself in the same manner. Not resting another beat, the Gryffindor walked over to begin checking. Following Tanner's lead, yup-dee-doo.

So uh, they were all dead right? Because Great Hall sounded great. All this spider fighting really worked up an appetite.... The elves were still working, right? Because Zander was hoping for sandwiches.

He had been contemplating whether or not he'd let the last standing spider take off with its brothers and sisters. He wasn't doing any harm really, and it seems like he's only interested in chicken meat and not the human kind. Ethan backed away as soon as the Arithmancy professor fired at the spider, and couldn't help but feel sad. Also, remind him not to mess with Professor Tanner? Woman's pretty feisty.

Following her next order, Ethan got out of his snakeskin cover and checked out the scene before him. They seriously blasted all those spiders? They were pretty good, yes.

It seems that their job isn't done yet. Ethan carefully approached one of the still twitching acromantula on the floor, and stunned it with the wand in his hand. "Sorry." Orders were orders, and he was being a good soldier. The Slytherin scoped the room once more, and stunned the nearest acromantula that showed signs of breathing and small movements.

And all the venom on the floor. Merlin. Cutty's eyes would pop out of his head when he sees it. "Professors? What should we do with the venom on the floor?" he asked as he kept on examining the 'dead' acromantulas nearest him. "Stupefy."

And wot?

"Well done, Zanderpoo. But...yeah, it's 'HIISSSSSSSS'...not 'Hiiiiiiiiiiiis'. It sounded like the basilisk have breathing problems." Ethan gave him a knowing nod, and a good pat pat on the shoulder. "Not going to blame you though. It takes practice...and lots of down time in the dungeons."

"Come on, let's finish inspecting that section over there and call it a day." Because just like his Lestrade, Sherlock Ethan was hungry and tired too.

"Stupefy."

And just like that, they showed those overgrown spiders who was boss. Saul shot a couple more stunning spells at the beasts just for good measure then pulled off the snakeskin covering his head and shoulders. He glanced over at the woman who seemed to be in charge and gave her a silent nod at her suggestion. It'd be in their best interest to make sure there was no further attack though the acromantulas seemed either pretty well mobilized or well on their way out of here.

"If you need any help disposing the bodies, ma'am," he began as he stunned another that the students hadn't yet gotten to, then nudged a few more with his foot. "We'd be happy to take care of that for you." Well, Saul probably shouldn't speak for his fellow shopkeeper, but now that imminent danger seemed to have passed, he felt that they could get that out of the way for them while the children got back in their dorms or something, then they could be on their way as well. It had been quite the eventful evening.

Huh? Zander was mid-poking a spider with his wand when Ethan came over and oh. Oh yeah. Merlin. Get your head in the game, Adair! "Oh uh, right... Hissssssss?" Was that better? Sorry he was having a hard time focusing when he knew his GIRLFRIEND was in the FORBIDDEN FORREST where he had seen a kid DIE last year.

"Oh, yeah... Alright," Because there was a sandwich calling his name. And also, he needed to make sure Sophie Brown was okay. He should've gone into the forrest with her. Merlin, Adair. GET IT TOGETHER. Oh yes, hi Sherlock he was helping. Swear.

After a few more pokes at nearby spiders, the Gryffindor turned to call out to his Arithmancy Professor. "Professor T, are we free to go to the Great Hall yet? Because I HAVE to see Sophie Brown!" Desperately. He was willing to beg if he had to, probably. He needed to make sure she was okay. THIS WAS AN URGENT CALL, PROFESSOR. Let the man FREEEEEEEEE.

Ahem.

He was calm.