.......

o.o

Was it wrong that all Skylar was thinking about at that moment when she was the oldest and supposed to be defending the school that she just wanted to hug Noah. Noah and Hayley and parents. And her ickle siblings who were first years and thankfully not visible. She wanted to be brave, but instead the she-snake just stared horrified for a moment, as majority of the dark creatures moved out onto the grounds. How was she supposed to be an auror if she she couldn't even handle this?

Sending a non-verbal incendio tria out at the ones who escaped towards the pathways, she swallowed and made a quick decision. Which was to head after them, perhaps stupidly too.

It had barely been a few seconds that he'd had his head turned to check on the younger students, on Gaston's retreating back, but apparently it had been enough for the first inferi to catch up to his position. He looked back to find a bony hand on his wrist, cold and damp, and a rotting stench filled his nostrils. Another soon joined, tugging him towards the lake. "Why you rotten... Incendio!" he bellowed, though those gaunt fingers were remarkably strong, certainly more sturdy than they looked, and ensured he had little flex in his wrist to cast properly, not alone control his aim.

He dug his heels into the sandy shore, using his weight to resist with everything he had. He had no intention of swimming in the lake at this late hour, and especially not with reanimated corpses. Flames flew by him, singeing the hairs on the back of his arms on route to their target. It was small price to pay though, and he was grateful to those (Jessa, Emmalyn, Kaysha) trying to save him from taking an unfortunate dip. Hopefully some of those spells would hit and allow him to retreat before other inferi took their place.

Unable to aim at his immediate assailants himself, he instead turned his attention to the inferi behind them. If nothing else, maybe he could buy his colleagues and students some time and space. A steady stream of fire erupted from his wand, even as he felt the hem of his robes starting to get wet. "We need more fire power!" So please say Alec had brought his wand.

Flynn sent his classic Kowalski smirk over in Ronan's direction when he heard that snarky comment. "Someone had to come make sure the Head Boy was doing his job at successfully protecting the school." ..... which he was obviously failing at because the Inferi were still coming. Just as he was about to reach for his wand, he heard the comment coming from his best friend's mouth, and he couldn't help it; he HAD to roll his eyes. "I'm not always dumb, Diggbutt." Okay, maybe he was a little dumb, seeing as his wand could of easily fell out of the pockets of his pajama bottoms; however, thankfully, men's pajama bottoms had deep pockets.

He pulled his wand out and pointed it at one of the nearby Inferi and said, "Ignisio Funem." He watched as the flaming rope came out of his wand and headed in the direction of one of the corpse. "Appreciate the update, Cam-" His response to Jessa was cut short when he saw Professor Noble get attacked by the Inferi, but THEN he noticed Skylar running off towards the pathways, following some that had dispersed.

.....

Noble?

Or Skylar?

.....

He took off towards the pathways now after his friend.

Ewww. Like, maybe she was supposed to be scared by now, since one of those scabby gross hands was grasping at her robes, but Chloe was just mad. Still. And mad at them for touching Noble and the other professors. And mad at them for not being alligators.

"NO. Get back in that lake, you're dead! Be dead like a well mannered corpse!" Chloe jabbed at the closest one, the one touching her robes, and when her wand touched it, she ignited the inferi on fire.

"Jessa, please value the living over the dead for a minute. I understand scientific inquiry, but you can only do so much if you're dead yourself." She lit another one on fire, this one touched her boots, which was NOT copacetic.

The Slytherin's reply brought a laugh from the Head Boy. And not a sarcastic one either, but a genuine one that really seemed out of place considering the horror going on around them. But the next second, the laugh was wiped from his face as he saw that some of the Inferi already grabbed ahold of Jessa, Professor Noble, and Emmalyn. Making a snap decision, he took aim at the Inferius that had a hold on Emmalyn, warning her with a "Watch out!" before casting a nonverbal 'Ignisio funem!' in that direction.

Ronan may seem fearless to most, but in this moment, he was very scared. It seemed very likely that at least one of the castle's inhabitants was going to die tonight. Hopefully, it wouldn't be anyone he cared about, but one never knew. And with that revelation, he started thinking of all the things that he'd never gotten to do, or say. People he wished he'd gotten along with better. Not to say he quit casting the flame rope spell, or anything. Nope, he was still doing that.

It was funny what fear did to one's brain, was all.

"Be careful, you two!" he yelled after Skylar and Flynn.

Tristan couldn't believe the suddenness of the Horror film being played out before him. It went from a nice peaceful day to the Zombie apocalypse in about 2.5 seconds. As soon as the first Inferius stepped onto land, the creatures professor took to action. With every flick of his wand a spurt of flames rushed out towards the Inferi. Despite his calm demeanor, Tristan was living his own personal nightmare but these, unfortunately, were not Boggarts.

Soon he noticed that Ignatius was being pulled towards the lake as well as fighting off the creatures. That was definitely not good. Though Kaysha, Emmalyn, and Jessa sent some massive flames after the creatures. He hoped that would be enough to get them to leave his colleague alone.

A few students had been grabbed by an Inferius, but their peers had come to their aid. He whipped around when he heard Emmalyn scream, and just as Ronan sent fire towards the Inferius, he too sent a massive current of flame, making sure not to injure either student.

He soon noticed Chloe struggling with an Inferius that had a grip on her. He was just about to send flames when she jabbed the corpse and set it a blaze. "Nice one, Chloe!" He called out, hoping to not distract her too much.

He had noticed that some of the Inferi were setting off in different directions, but there were so many of the corpses here, he couldn't go after them. There was just too much going on here. He didn't think anything he was doing was making a difference, but he had to protect his students at the very least.

The loud commotion and the bright lights from the shore of the Great Lake told old Bartholomew that something was happening. Not just some old regular situation but something rather menacing. Bartholomew splashed and swam with great speed towards the source. “Inferi.’’ The brilliant mind of the Squid quickly made sense of the events unfolding before his eyes. Without even a moments hesitation Bartholomew jumped into the fray.

WHOOSH!

WHOOSH!!!!

WHOOSH!!

The mighty sound of Bart's many tentacles plowing against the wind with the hopes of plowing into the bodies of the inferi.

The Inferi hanging onto the adult (Noble) were blasted by numerous fire spells from the other humans. One burst into flames before their very eyes, looking like a large bonfire of fire and bones. The other fell to the ground in the struggle. There was a moment of pause... a moment of bliss... before the Inferi latched onto the adult's ankle.

Fire raged on. War raged on.

Some more Inferi were forced to sink back into the depths of the water from the force of the spells. Fire blazed the surroundings, with one missing the dead corpses and setting a nearby bush on fire. It lit up the sudden whoosh of a tentacle.... a tentacle that slapped two Inferi back and into the lake.

But the numbers didn't feel like they were dwindling down.... no, this was just the beginning...

The Inferi were starting to grow restless.... and it showed. In their frustration, some gnashed at the small humans, displaying those sharp, rotting teeth. Even more latched onto the small humans, holding on tight. They were going to be taken into the lake if they had to...

It was never going to stop. There appeared to be an endless stream of Inferi coming from the depths of the great lake, and the fire was hardly slowing them down. Emmalyn was fighting to keep from being dragged towards the water. She was not going to let them take her, or anyone around her. At least not without giving every ounce of herself fighting. “Incendio!” She screamed as she pointed her wand at the Inferi that had its hands around her. “Diffindo!” She tried to cut off the arms of the Inferi, but it seemed the arms only wrapped around tighter.

Without having a good angle of attack on the Inferi that was wrapped around her, she once again screamed “Professor Stewart! HELP!” Even in her current state of capture, she was able to fire off a few spells towards the oncoming Inferi “Incendio! Ignisio funem”

Everything else going on around her was a giant blur. There could have been the entire school out there fighting, or just her and the few around her. The sounds of spells being cast and fires blazing filled her ears, making it hard to hear if she was being given any directions. She was really starting to regret every going to the lake that night.

At first, Kay thought purely that Emmalyn was shouting because of the horror she was feeling upon seeing Ignatius being attacked by the Inferi. But as she chanced a sideways glance at the girl, she saw that there was one attacking Lyn. Kay’s heart sped up, if that were even possible. A quick look towards Noble told her that he was going to be able to fight since a few of the Inferi had been stopped by their attacks.

Was that also the Giant Squid joining the fight? And those were definitely Inferius getting away from them and towards the Castle.

Emmalyn’s scream drove everything else from her mind.

“INCEDNDIO!’’ Kaysha bellowed at the Inferi attacking the Puff. “INCENDIO! INCENDIO!”

NOT HER HUFFLEPUFF!

Not any of the kiddos!

“Ignisio funem!’’

Noble staggered backwards as the flames hit their targets and his arms were released, barely shielding his face in time as one caught ablaze. Eyebrows scarcely intact, he'd made it only a few feet when a hand now caught onto his ankle instead. Already off-balance, he toppled over into the shallow water, grumbling loudly. Didn't the bloody things know he'd had a long of classes and hadn't even managed to get more than a spoonful of soup for dinner?!

Apparently not.

He was going to need a lot of dessert after this. Dark chocolate, at least.

Growling, Noble kicked his foot to fling the inferi away, sending a non-verbal "Incendio!" at it for good measure. And then an amused smile crossed his lips as he heard a certain Chloe Kettleburn, and he scuffled to his feet with renewed vigour despite his soggy, dripping robes. "You tell 'em, Chloe!"

Now where was he? Oh yes. "Incendio tria!"

Technically, her housemate wasn't wrong. This was a situation that required her to value the living over the dead--hence her now (reluctant as she was) casting and scorching away at the closest opportunity she had ever had the fortune of running into.

It was heartbreaking, the way they destroyed these corpses, each another loss, but that was nothing compared to the growing feeling of being overwhelmed that rose within her. There were too many.....surely everyone else had come to the same conclusion. Yes, they were making a dent but for every two or three they dropped, another 5 seemed to spring from the lake.

Jessa was relieved to know her spell had worked on the inferi by Noble but how much good did it really do when he was being grabbed AGAIN?? When they were all being grabbed again?

"What's the plan, beyond this?" She asked, casting yet another non-verbal incendio tria in the direction of her latest capture. Even with the squid....the numbers were still against them. "We can't keep this up indefinitely. If there's way more where these came from, we'll be overwhelmed before we know it."

Not wanting to state the obvious but in the midst of all the congrats and the accomplishments, no one else seemed willing to say it.

They were buying others at the castle time but then what? Falling back, they'd be pursued by the growing army. Defending while retreating would be as difficult as remaining here like sitting ducks. Jessa looked first to the Professors, then to her schoolmates. Smeone had thought up something, yeah?

Tell 'em? Chloe was delighted by the encouragement from the professors, especially Noble's urging her on. Not that sassing the dark creatures seemed to be helping, but it made her feel strong. This was why heroines in books always quipped with one liners, right?

She paused in driving away the inferi with her flames to offer a cheeky grin at the professors. She intended it just to be a moment between fire spells, but that one moment of distraction was enough for a scabby white hand to latch around the wrist of her wand hand. No! Bad touching! No thank you!

"Um... I need a bit of help over here?" Chloe pulled back, but the inferi was very strong. Brute strength would win out over sixteen-old-girl strength, especially when she couldn't point her wand at it. Did it feel pain? Could she try defensive maneuvers? Didn't hurt to try, so Chloe dropped and rushed the inferi, planting her shoulder against its solar plexus.

Well, at least Jessa was coming to her senses now. And just in time too, as the horde was now getting real handsy. Handsy enough that now not only was Ronan angry (at whoever was controlling these monsters), sacred (since the things seemed determined to drag them into the lake), worried (about everyone plus the fact that the last time had seen his mother in person might actually be the last time) but also now uncomfortable (the Inferi really needed to watch where they were reaching, just saying). Casting a silent 'Incendio Tria' at the nearest Inferi's hand, he moved back a little. "I think we need to find out whoever is controlling the things and defeat them. I think that's the only way to get this nightmare to end." And yes, he did realize how much of an impossible task that was going to be, but it was the most solid idea he could come up with in the moment. "So who do we know of that might have a grudge against Hogwarts?" And yes, he was still firing nonverbal 'Incendio Tria's and 'Ingisio funem's, including one at the Inferius now latched onto Chloe.

One tentacle collided with two Inferi with a loud

SLAP!!

This did nothing to slow old Bart down when the two fell. Bart recognised that much much more Inferi were clamoring their way out of the Lake. It was disturbing to see that a few were off in the distance for the Castle while some were attacking the humans right here.

Bart continued to fight. All of his strong tentacles were at work.

The whooshing sounds were even louder as Bart fought with all his might.

Text Cut: This is a catchup part but I feel like it miiiight be unimportant now but I'll keep it anyways

Before he could fully grasp what it was that Jessa was saying, someone else was talking to him and so, he turned his head to glance over at Miss Kettleburn. This place was upsetting? The fact that he couldn't argue with that sentence probably said a lot about the goings on of the school. Really. "Right in one, Miss Kettleburn," he said, trying to maintain his grip on the fire!lasso, "Nice spellwork, by the way." As in, keep it up, and not just because they were in desperate times.

Surprisingly, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, Hirsch agreed with Ignatius on this count. As Jessa started talking about not destroying all the Inferi and the way they'll help them in the long run, he couldn't help but think that this was.... too much to take in. Everything about this was a little too much right now. And while he did understand her love for undead creatures - or tried to - he felt as though this wasn't the time.

Sigh.

A few very deep breaths were taken, mostly because it getting more and more difficult to keep up the cool and calm composure he usually had. "Look, Jessa, I get it but this isn't the time. Chloe's right: right here right now, these Inferi are out to kill you and I don't know about you but that's not something worth risking." Their lives were more important than dark creatures, at the end of the day. Did she understand tha-?

..........

Well.

In his moment of talking, things seemed to have gone from bad to worse. All of a sudden, there were Inferi nearly upon them and, even worse, some had managed to get a hold of the students and even Ignatius. Green eyes widened and he could feel his breath catching in his throat. The man half wanted to throw a solid right hook at it but, well, this probably wasn't the time.

Before he could do so much as raise his wand, someone else's voice reached his ears and so, he directed his wand towards the one near Chloe, instead. He had to admit, though: as much as the fifth year was asking for help, she had a lot of strength in her to be able to shove the Inferi in the way that she did. He could almost feel the pain in his own stomach, as though he was the one who'd been shoved in his solar plexus. He almost wanted to congratulate her on it but, once again, this wasn't the time.

Instead, he moved his wand in the familiar whip-like motion at the Inferi that was so intent on taking her to the lake. The fire!lasso combined itself with the one Ronan had cast and he hoped that together, it might cause another one to burst into flames. With the end of the lasso still stretching to the tip of his wand, he gave his wand a flick towards the lake. If there wasn't going to be an Inferi bonfire, at least they might go back and never come back again.

Watch out, Bartholomew.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Jessa was right. They were going to start getting tired from all of this. There was already sweat dripping down the man's forehead from the heat of the flames but he was also a man who strongly believed in defending yourself to the best of your abilities. To be smart about a situation but to also go down fighting if you had to.

There was a slight pause in which the Defence Professor sent a blast of flames towards the face of the nearest Inferi who'd dared to lunge at him. Whether it blasted his head off or not, he didn't know but he did manage to hear the words of Ronan. "Defeating the one controlling them isn't a bad idea." There's be a proud smile on his face if the situation wasn't so.... well. "All things considering, it's difficult to say exactly who might have so much of a grudge against the school that they'd want to send an army of Inferi." Which, as he thought about it, sounded very messed up. Who'd want to willingly attack a bunch of students? "Besides, what if they're under.... the lake...."

His voice trailed off as a small frown started forming on his lips and he turned to look at the nearest set of students. "You didn't notice anything weird in the lake during the exploration, did you?" Apart from creatures of the dead, that is.

The Inferi holding onto the big human (Noble) was forced to let go. It rolled out of the way and into the water with a small SPLASH! The fire charm missed the Inferi entirely and hit a nearly large plant... a plant that started to fall over and onto the human.

The shove from one of the humans (Chloe) caused the Inferi to topple backwards and onto one of its companions that was clinging to another human (Emmalyn).... and then onto one of the Squid's tentacles. They latched on, clinging to it... and using it to get back to the humans, if they had to.

Meanwhile, all that talking attracted one of the creatures. A particularly small corpse lunged at a human (Ronan) and clung to his back. It started wrestling.... and writhing.... as if it was trying to take him into the lake....

A tentacle flew out, making a few of the Inferi collapse onto the ground in a heap. There was a moment of writhing.... a moment of peace... before one reached out and grabbed the ankle of a nearby human.

The Inferi weren't stopping. As more and more caught ablaze, their attack worsened. Their grip tightened, their pull worsened and their intent grew...

The humans weren't safe...

The sight of Mr. Henry slapping some of the Inferi even more senseless than they already were would've been hilarious if the situation wasn't so dire. Likewise, Ronan would've beamed with pride at Professor Hirsch's agreement with him. As it was though, he was running through an admittedly small list of names in his head. A list where most of the names were ultimately dismissed for various reasons.

"Um...I don't know, I wasn't on that......" he trailed off as one of the Inferi decided that it wanted a piggyback ride. From him. Great, the most human contact he'd had in months and it was a damned corpse. And seriously, even though this particular Inferius was small, it was strong. And it was trying to wrestle with him. In fact, it had him wrestled to the ground before he could get his wand up and aimed back at it.

This going to hurt....

He cast a nonverbal 'Incendio' at the Inferius and screamed in pain as the back of his shirt caught fire, hopefully taking the Inferius with it.

"AGHHHGHHGHGGHGGG......."

Thank goodness Chloe wasn't out here alone. It mattered that the Head Boy and Professor Hirsch had distracted the inferi and that Mr. Bartholomew had knocked it back into the lake. Perhaps it wasn't gone for good, but it was no longer trying to drag her into the water.

"Professor, maybe we need to try for higher ground? Create some sort of barrier? We're not exactly impenetrable here." Chloe swatted an inferi away with the flaming tip of her wand, almost like swatting at a mosquito. A mosquito that wanted to murder her, though. "Are the animals in the barns safe? We can't lock them into the castle, can we?"

She was fighting to free herself from the grips of the Inferi, not willing to give up and be taken into the lake. Suddenly another Inferi was knocked into the one gripping her and they both fell into the lake. She was finally free! To help make sure they stayed back, she commanded “Incendio!” to create another bit of fire to keep them away.

Just after she finished her spell, she noticed the attack on the head boy and his back set on fire. “Aguamenti!” She screamed, sending a jet of water towards Ronan. “ Aguamenti!” She hoped the fire would soon be out and he was okay. Thankfully he was still standing. “Keep fighting! They are still coming. Where are they all coming from? How are their numbers so large?” She didn’t really expect anyone to answer, but her fear over them continuing to be outnumbered was building.

Emmalyn looked desperately towards the professors, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do. So many Inferi had made it past them and more were creeping out of the Great lake. Were they supposed to stay there and keep trying to hold them off, or bolt for the castle and offer more reinforcement?

Until she was given new directions, she was going to keep making fire and trying to push the creatures back into the lake. “Incendio! Incendio Funum!”

Today was not Ignatius Noble's day.

He'd barely got clear of the inferi that had latched onto his ankle, when his own fire spell came back and betrayed him. He saw the plant flicker into flame, but not quick enough to move out of its path as it fell downwards and trapped his shoulder underneath. He grimaced as flames licked at his robes and the fabric began to smoulder, several curse words he wouldn't usually use around students slipping from his mouth at the heat now biting into his skin. He bit back an anguished cry as he cast a non-verbal diffindo on the fiery bush to free himself, quickly following it with an aguamenti across his burning shoulder.

Hopefully the healer was well-stocked up on burn paste. He'd definitely be needing some.

There was no further time to consider his injuries though, adrenaline driving him and not letting the shock take hold. It seemed to be a never-ending swarm of the undead, and they were at risk of being over-run. And that couldn't be allowed. He had a duty to the students. To Abigail.

"A barricade maybe," he replied to Chloe with gritted teeth. "A solid wall of fire." The animals he couldn't say much about though, given he was apparently having a hard enough time keeping himself in one piece.

If there's trouble, call on Peevsie, he'll make double! One of his favorite chants EVER had inspired old Peevsie to be all Noble and help save the entire school.

Never Fear, Peeves was here!

Here clutching a couple of Blast-Ended Skrewts in his bulging arms as he soared over the grounds towards the lake. He passed over Inferi in the pathways without giving them much thought as all his attention was on the lake and the largest group of students gathered there.

Peevesie was going to help, oh yes. As soon as he was directly over the large group of people and walking dead, Peeves dropped the largest Blast-Ended Skrewt into the crowd at random. He cackled madly as he watched it spiral closer and closer to the group, but he didn't bother to stay in one place and watch where it landed! Whether it hit students, teachers, or Inferi didn't matter to him. This was going to be hilarious!

Dropping the largest Blast-Ended Skrewt in his arms meant that he could handle the smaller one better and move it around easily. Peeves shifted the creature in his arms so that its fiery butt was facing out. He paused a moment to savor the chaos from his special delivery before he flew right at the group with the skrewt butt-out to help burn the nearest Inferi. The student nearest to that Inferius had better move out of the way or she might get burned too (Chloe).

"AAARGHHH! CHAAAARGE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The Inferius were relentless. That much was clear. Bartholomew was feeling the burn in his tentacles from the workout he was having. Bartholomew was nto one to give up and because of this he kept pumelling at the Inferius. Bart was very relieved when Peeves joined in the fray,

In an attempt to reach the humans and save them Bartholomew moved closer to the Lake's shore, it was appalling to see the Inferius attacking the younger humans. The tentacle nearest to a Hufflepuff (Emmalyn) shot forward to tackle the dead latched onto her.

After blasting water towards the flaming Ronan, she had to quickly return to fighting for her own life. The Inferi were grabbing and lunging at her, one with its arms around her again. Her spells weren’t as strong as the others and it took more constant effort to keep up with the attacks. Suddenly, she was free of her attacker. Her head turned just in time to see Mr. Henry wack his tentacles and take out the Inferi that was grabbing her.

She tried to give him a quick, thankful smile, but there wasn’t time for more. The next round of attacks was coming fast. “Incendio!” She commanded, trying to get as much fire between her and the oncoming flood. “Incendio funem!” The numbers coming from the lake were not diminishing. The thought of how many had made it past them and towards the castle was terrifying.

In her extreme focus on what was in front of her, she didn’t notice the giant blast-ended skrewt being dropped into the group. Nor did she notice Peeves using a smaller blast-ended skrewt as a sort of flame thrower, pushing Inferi back and away from the students.

Inferi ... fire ... chaos. Regina couldn't keep up with everything that was happening anymore. She had even missed Jessa's plea to not set the living corpses on fire (if she had, there was no knowing how the headmistress would have reacted). All she could focus on was shooting fire at the Inferi that lunged at her and protecting those that were nearest to her.

She wanted them gone. But she, in all honesty, didn't know how to get rid of them. She didn't know who, if anyone, was responsible for sending them. There were too many unanswered questions, too many loose ties. Maybe the answer just was overloaded, considering she was trying to play a part in keeping them alive.

But she had never been happier to see the giant squid and, even, Peeves. Even though there were so many corpses around them, they were helping a heap.

The quick conversation that Chloe and Ignatius had was overheard by her as she set a pair of Inferi on fire. Seek higher ground? A wall of fire? "Yes, let's follow through with that. We will be better as one unified force."

And that was when she heard a loud THUD come from up the hill. What the hell was going on up there?!