There were little glimpses. Abra. Charlie. There was Charlie. In the air. What they needed was broomsticks for all of them really, Bel managed that one stray thought amongst the flashes of fire, the stench and sight and sensation of inferi literally squeezing the life out of her- but thankfully, thankfully the bat was exactly the weapon she needed...

The crunch of breaking the inferi's arm was satisfying and disgusting at the same time, though the last arm still gripping her was still choking Bel right up until someone diffindoed it. Bel gasped for air and wrenched the disgusting bone away and tossed it as far as she could, took a deep breath, and still making choking noises, swung the bat again in a wide arc.

"Charlie! Charlie get more brooms!" That would help. If they could get OUT of here, out and then maybe fight from the air.


Then a living hand was reaching for her, and a voice, and her name, and Bel grabbed Julie's outstretched hand tightly, still swinging the bat to keep back any inferi from them. That way Julie could keep shooting spells. That way....

.... Grimsbane!

Abra was going for Derf, Bel registered this out of the corner of her vision, but the professor needed help. Whether Julie would be tugged along or not, Bel threw herself back in the fray, swinging the bat as wildly as she could. Part of her knew that the professor was their best chance at getting through this. So they needed her. She swung again, hard as she could, at the inferi facing Grimsbane down.

Jinx after jinx, Charlie kept his barrage of spells and knocked out as much Inferis as he could to give them an opening to run. He'd been focused on his task when a couple of Inferis tried to get hold of him. With a good amount of Chaser training under his belt, he, of course, managed to steer clear away from them...and then some. Charlie saw a very small opening to attack when the foul creatures showed their annoyance. As they bared their rotting teeth, the Hufflepuff's eyes went ablaze with pure anger and retaliated back with a powerful fire spell. "INCENDIO!"

The next thing that caught his attention was a number of Inferis who got hold of Derf. No...not his chocolate frog buddy! Perplexed by what he saw, Charlie barely registered what the Slytherin girl told him, but was quick to device a plan right then and there. He had thought of using the bucket with him, but for it to be useful against an Inferi, he would need a bunch of spells to make it a proper weapon. The next thing Charlie knew, he was already on the move and levitated a couple of boulders nearby. Making sure that their fellow Quidditch player, Abraham was well out of the way, Charlie swung his wand arm as forcefully as he could and willed the boulders to ram against the Inferi pile that was on Derf. "DEPULSO!"

Charlie would've watched the Inferis go down like pinballs, but when Bel called out to him, the Hufflepuff nodded and flew towards the direction of the Quidditch Pitch with sheer determination. The undead creatures were just too many for them. Flying out of the scene was their best chance to be able to regroup with the rest of the school.

Merlin. All of this trouble just for a tub of broomstick polish.

There were jinxes and spells flying, as more students seemed to be coming from the other direction and did Bel just ...? Skylar stared wide-eyed, impressed with the Hufflepuff Captain and Seeker's swing, because clearly she'd make a fair beater should she ever decide to give someone else a chance at the snitch.

And the inferi seemed to not be slowing down in the slightest. But ooh, broom. Why of course! Before she had the moment to summon her broom though she found herself rolling out of the way of the line of fire between the spells and inferi, unfazed by the bruises and grass stains. "Professor ..." she called weakly, as one of the creatures was grabbing at her. Oh no. Oh no. It felt as though her stomach contents were going to empty onto the ground, moreso than portkey travel.

"Lumos Maximus," she said, with such fury, casting at the inferi that had its hold on the transfiguration professor, because casting a fire charm seemed FAR too risky and she hoped the light would be enough

Rylee's fight or flight instincts kicked in real fast. Should they try to make a run for it or fight? What were the odds of out running Inferi that were very quickly closing in on them. Whether they stood their ground and fought or turned and fled how far would a second year and first year get by themselves?

With trembling hands and frightened blue eyes she cast a quick glance at Quinn. "We need to get away... I can hear shouting from down the pathway, we need to get to whoever's there..." She was unable to make out who the voices were but from all the screaming happening there had to be several people over there. Strength in numbers... and they didn't have the numbers on their side right now. It was just a matter of how. How were they going to get away.

"Incendo!" Rylee cast again over and over at any Inferi that came anywhere near herself and Quinn. The smell was enough to make her sick as if the fear itself wasn't enough. Thin bony fingers were to close for her liking and she backed right up into Quinn grabbing the girls hand. "The moment you can, run. Keep casting Incendo at them and run. We need help..." There was a plan now. Run. Cast incendo and run. Completely un-Rylee like but even she was smart enough to know when to run.

The Gryffindor wasted no time in running down the pathway the first chance she got, her hand still holding tightly onto Quinn's bringing the younger girl with her. Every chance she got to cast a spell (incendo or flipendo) in hopes of slowing the inferi down she did.

What was that?!

Rylee's eyes widened in fear, her head pounding in her ears as she came to a very sudden stop. There right up ahead was a crowd of inferi attacking her friends! It didn't matter if she was close enough to see who was who. All she knew was she had to do something! But...what?

Between the whacking and fire spells flying about, the Inferi's numbers are gradually dwindling. Arms, legs, and other body parts litter the pathways, some of them still moving, but there are still more than enough of the creatures left to take on the humans. Some pile on top of one boy (Derf), growling menacingly. A decayed hand reaches up to grab the boy's neck, squeezing tighter and tighter until... something collides with it. The boy diving at the creatures (Abra) crahses into them. One Inferius snarls at him as it goes down, and its leg detaches right in the boy's hand. A couple others are blasted back by his spell, but they don't stay down for long. Bones crackle as they get back to their feet, this time turning to the other boy (Abra) instead.

Still, a few of the creatures remain on top of the boy (Derf). As one of them pins his arms, a strange rumbling sound is heard. A couple of boulders come barreling toward the Inferi, knocking a few of them down with a CRUNCH! But the boulders aren't stopping. They pick up speed, rolling closer and closer to the boy himself (Derf). Better think fast, human!

The adult human isn't faring much better. The legless Inferius continues its stranglehold on her until... WHACK! The girl's (Bel) bat crunches against bone. The creature's head flies off and lands on the ground, its white cloudy eyes still darting. The hands loosen grip and fall at her feet along with the rest of its torso. More Inferi quickly move in to take its place. One creature is held in place as a spell hits its feet, but it isn't deterred. It flings itself at the woman, leaving its frozen legs behind. Another is blinded by the girl's (Skylar) light spell and staggers back with an angry cry, clawing wildly in front of itself. Surely it will make contact with human flesh...

A total rush of adrenaline was what was keeping Abra going, from the situation in general and Derf's specific predicament. He wasn't even freaking out from handling literal dead bodies, pulling them away from Derf and trying to unpin him from the ground, or from the fact that he was literally facing off with dark magic. Survival instinct had taken over and didn't really allow for too much thought aside from trying to get out of there alive, even though the fact that these felt like dying moments had already settled somewhere in his soul.

Then it all happened in the space of a few seconds.

All of a sudden, the tables had turned, and instead of rescuing Derf, Abra found himself face to face with the same Inferi that he had been blasting away. All the breath seemed to go out of him as he stared into their blank eyes, before raising his wand and his beaters bat ready to try and take some down.

Except... it wasn't a beaters bat. Abra felt that dangling down his arm, hanging by the strap around his wrist; he'd dropped it while trying to rescue his friend. It wasn't until he looked that he fully registered that he was, in fact, holding a leg. An Inferius leg. A dead leg.

The moment he stood staring at the leg in his hand lasted about half a second too long. There was a blinding flash of light, and then a blinding flash of pain, as he was caught across his shoulder and back by a flailing, clawing Inferius hand. "Aghhhh!"

He was in pain, he was blinking light spots out of his eyes, and he was now facing off with more dead things that he could barely see, let alone fight. In desperation, Abra swung the leg in their general direction - sending more pain shooting through his shoulder - not wanting to send off a fire spell lest he accidentally aim it at friend, rather than foe.

Everything around him was in a haze, moving in slow motion, and it was almost like having an out of body experience. Feeling devastatingly naked and helpless, all the spells being shouted and fired off left and right were nothing more than background noise to his baited breathing and hammering heart. His stomach churned and it was as though his insides had liquefied. A seemingly far off growl barely reached his ears and he stood as still as he had when struck by Petrificus Totalus. Mere seconds dragged on like an eternity...and the growl only grew louder...

...and by the time the 16-year-old's eyes refocused, the mangled and twisted face constructed from pale putrid flesh and jagged teeth was one top of him. No...not one face...but several faces. And then his world was suddenly spinning, falling backwards, and he didn't even have the lung capacity in the moment to scream. And then the air was knocked out of him completely as his back hit the ground with a heavy thud and the back of his head bounced off a rock. Then a crushing weight was on him and a searing pain in his chest followed by the flow of something hot and sticky oozing down his front and soaking his shirt.

Letting out a sudden gasp as his lungs burned, desperate for air, his blurry vision was drawn back into focus as he saw multiple inferi descending upon him...pinning him to the ground, tearing at his clothes and flesh.

He wanted his mum. He wanted his dad. Why wasn't his dad here? Why wasn't anyone here to save them? Where was the Ministry? Where was hope?

....and then there was his voice. His Gryffindor's voice cutting through the chilling snarls and cracking of ancient joints. "A---b---bey..." grits out as he stretches his fingers as if seeking the other boy out. But then there is a flash of that very Gryffindor hurtling himself at the inferi, protecting him and seeing that not only gave an ache of pride...but rejuvenated the fight within Derf. He would linger on the beauty that had been this role reversal later - because he WOULD, because they were getting out of this alive. All of them. TOGETHER.

Somehow holding on to his wand during the whole thing, perhaps his subconscious need to hold on to SOMETHING driving that home, he gave a loud grunt and then then felt inferi hands around his throat and his wrists - more searing white pain. And to top it all off, there were BOULDERS heading his way. It was desperate times and while his moral compass with such transfiguration spells was still pointing towards it being WRONG, he had reasoned enough with himself in light of OWL studies to forgive himself for inanimate objects into a creature. It hadn't been a creature to begin with and it still wasn't an ACTUAL free range creature after the spell took hold.

So it was with a straight down...diagonal up-left...and straight right that Derf's wand shot off a series of blue spells towards the boulders, transfiguring them into large burly Bullmastiffs with one goal in mind: protect the living and tear apart the undead.

The hand around his neck, tightening and bruising, it was becoming more and more difficult to breath...and his vision was darkening.

Only a few of the once vast horde of Inferi attacking the humans remain. Their fallen comrades scatter the pathways, leaving only charred carcasses and piles of body parts (some of which still moving) behind. What they lack in numbers, they make up for in anger. The holdouts continue their attack with renewed fury.

The creatures take advantage of one boy's (Abra) moment of distraction to claw him across the back, but the injury is only a taste of what they can do. The disembodied leg hits one of the corpses in the abdomen. The force is enough to rip the creature in half, and it crashes into its comrades, causing them all to fall in a tangle of detached limbs and bones.

Another group is about to finish off the other boy (Derf) as the boulders hurtle ever closer to them. The boy's spell hits, but the transfigutation is incomplete, resulting in a pair of deformed rock-dogs as ghastly as the Inferi themselves. The doglike creatures snarl as they ram the Inferi, knocking them aside. The corpses blink in confusion and struggle back to their feet, but before they can launch another attack...

Every pair of white, lifeless eyes, including those of the detached skulls on the ground, turn toward the castle, as if some invisible presence is calling them. Then, just as suddenly as they appeared, the Inferi slink away, finally admitting defeat.

Death stared out of the Inferius's eyes; the extra pressure that it was applying to her throat in order to stay off the ground in its legless state caused more blood to flow from the points where its nails were digging in. Celestia was still struggling against the creature, albeit not as strongly as she would like, when one of the students (Bel) knocked its head clean off. Celestia gave a little start in shock and relief as the creature crashed to the ground at last. Before she could move or even think about raising her wand, more Inferi had surged in front of her -- again blocking out all sight of what was going on in the clearing. A surge of frustration boiled in Celestia's stomach, along with the icy claws of renewed fear.

Her fears were not unfounded, as she was still surrounded by Inferi on all sides. Pain had become as familiar as breathing to her tonight; Celestia even began to vaguely think that she must have built up some sort of tolerance for the myriad gashes that littered her arms, neck, and back by now.

She was very, very wrong. Another Inferius torso came flying at her, and Celestia couldn't stop a scream from escaping her lips as the creature dug into her shoulders in order to keep itself upright. She didn't know or care what had happened to its legs. Her wand arm was shaking and her wand itself was not pointed anywhere useful at the moment. Useless. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Inferius that had been blinded by Skylar's spell began to claw wildly in front of itself; she was the only thing in front of it. Not all of its slashes connected with her flesh, but her left arm soon became a shredded mess and warm, sticky blood flowed freely.

The world swam before Celestia's eyes in various shades of red. The thought that she was going to die -- could already be dying -- flashed through the thirty-one year old's mind and for a moment she could only see an image of her parents, smiling and waving at her from their front porch as she prepared to depart for Hogwarts after Christmas. The professor couldn't have told you how much time passed between these injuries being inflicted and the moment when the Inferi suddenly released her and began to shamble back along the pathways. Her world was comprised of several types of pain that she hadn't known had existed before tonight and a despair that seemed to go bone-deep. However, her vision was no longer red as the second legless corpse had fallen away from her and crawled off with its fellows. Slowly, other colors reentered the world as some of the pain and pressure from the Inferi's various grips lessened by some degree. She was still covered in gashes that oozed blood all over her body, her left arm was mangled, and bone could be seen poking out of her left shoulder -- but she could mostly see the world around her, though it looked strangely fuzzy. She couldn't remember why that was good.

After some indeterminable amount of time, Celestia seemed to realize dimly that she was not being held or scraped by claws anymore. The professor forced herself to lift her feet and stumble forward -- only to immediately trip over some body part strewn on the pathways in front of her. Luckily, she didn't fall on any corpse parts. Her mind was on some sort of confused auto-pilot. She made a short, sweeping motion with her wand and the parts scattered in front of her simply Vanished as though they had never been. Her wand arm had several gashes that oozed yet more blood from where the Inferi had taken hold of it -- but compared to the agony that was her left arm, that pain was nothing. Vanishing was as natural as breathing to Celestia; it always had been. Still, darkness lingered at the corners of her eyes and threatened to encroach on the world.

She. Had. To. Stay. Conscious.

She couldn't remember WHY she needed to be conscious so badly, so she simply crawled forward on the ground as best she could, leaving a slimy trail of blood that leaked onto the grass behind her. The professor didn't stop until she had come up next to one of her students (Derf), lying prone on the ground. Her eyes were full of black spots and her vision went in and out of focus, which only added to her confusion. Her left hand reached out -- of its own volition, it seemed to Celestia -- towards the boy's wrist. Check for a pulse, a voice in the back of her head whispered. Yes. She'd do that. She could feel beating under the boy's skin.

But there were still two monsters standing near to the boy and she stared at them in incomprehension for several minutes. That far-off voice in the back of her head slowly jumped in to help her again; she had seen this mistake many, many times in class. And the thoughts echoing from the back of her head in the form of a voice reminded her that she knew what to do. Agony spiked down her wand arm as she forced the wand into the proper motions -- and completed the transformation that Derf had begun. Two burly Bullmastiffs stood where the rock-creatures had been seconds before. She had this feeling that they needed the dogs' help, though she couldn't have said for what.

A few seconds was all Abra needed for his vision to clear and re-adjust again, but those few seconds might have meant the difference between life and death. He didn't really have a choice in the matter, however, especially not as, after swinging the leg, he overbalanced and had to take a moment to stagger to the side so as not to go down to the ground. That, he thought reasonably, would only end badly.

But the leg had connected with something. Abra had felt it meet a body, heard the smash and clatter of what must have been a whole bunch of Inferi going down, and a second later his vision cleared and he saw the aftermath of the swing for himself. There was no time to celebrate, however, because there were more to fight.

Or....... not? Abra was staring wildly around, his eyes falling again on the Inferi around Derf. He was ready for a second go at trying to help his friend, when suddenly... it was over? The Inferi just... slunk away, back from where they'd come. To do what, he didn't know. He couldn't be sure that it was all actually over, that nothing else would be coming, but this, right here and right now, had finished.

As though suddenly realising he was holding it, Abra dropped the leg. He stared around at the carnage of the scene, the students still standing, a bloodied Professor Grimsbane, and Derf, still on the ground. Derf, not getting up. As it began to dawn on him that the immediate danger had passed, the rush of adrenaline also started to fade, and Abra started to actually process exactly what had happened, exactly what was still happening. Pain flared across his back and shoulder, and though he felt something dripping down the back of his shirt, he didn't reach back to try and assess the wound. He stood there in shock, covered in scratches and bruises and his one significant injury, and started to shake, turning at once into a complete trembling wreck, unable to do anything but stand and stare.

It was at that precise moment that a silver fennec fox ran down the Pathways until it came to a stop near the group. Hirsch's voice boomed out for everyone to hear, "The Inferi have retreated back to the Lake with their treasure. We have news from Merchefianess Arethusa that they've returned to their caves and aren't moving. It looks like we're safe." Hopefully. "Make sure everyone gets to the Hospital Wing to get looked at or to get some Calming Draught or some kind of potion to help them sleep peacefully tonight." Merlin knows, they needed it. "Afterwards, please make your way to your common rooms. Well done on putting up a brave fight, everyone."

Once the message was over, the fox disappeared in a silvery whisp of smoke.

The hand around his throat was only tightening, crushing his windpipe, and Derf had used what precious air he had stored in his lungs to utter the incantation to turn the boulders into dogs, so his chest was burning from the outside and inside. Shirt stained with his own blood and oxygen all but depleted within, his vision remained focused just enough to see his transfiguration effort only half succeed - which he wasn't terribly surprised about that since he really hardly ever succeeded in fully transfiguring anything - but what made him wish that the inferi had just ripped his heart out of his chest earlier was seeing the intent of his spell.....completely fail. Rather than latching their ferocious jaws on undead limbs and tear them from the rotting torsos...all they did was hurtle themselves at the Dark creatures...

.....and then they merely stood right back up.

He had failed.

Again.

Failed to protect anyone.

He head was beginning to spin and ability to see darkening. His entire mouth felt numb and there were sharp jolts of electrifying pain shooting from both his wrists up to the tips of his fingers and elbow. Breathing becoming more and more shallow, his eyes closed and at that precise moment (finally some #goodluckDerf?) the inferius' hands around his neck steadied and even released, filling his lungs with sweet oxygen. Or as sweet as it could be considering the smell of death in the air. His waning vision just barely registered the ethereal silvery glow of the Vulpes zerda and voice of the Defense professor (yes, even in times of crisis he could still recall scientific names) nor could he feel his professor's hand on his wrist - which would very much reveal a pulse...and that his wrist was very much broken. Both of them had been at the hands of the inferi.

It was an odd sort of thing, falling asleep at a time like this. Blunt trauma to the back of the head from it hitting a rock when he had been tackled to the ground had caused a terrible throbbing to his head...but that was going away now. All of it was. Nothing hurt and everything was calm.

Peaceful.

Skylar hadn't been sure about casting the light spell, except that light would have been less harmful to her professor. The only thing she hadn't been expecting was when the creature was blinded and stumbled backward was for it to claw wildly at her Professor and all Skylar could do was stare dumbfounded.

Until the coin that was in her pocket was ripped from her pocket. The inferi scattering all back to the lake. It all just seemed to happen so quickly ... everything ... literally everything was a blur and Skylar hadn't noticed the trail of blood from Professor Grimsbane in her daze ... which the seventh year slipped right into a pile a stray bones, sending one flying (likely in the direction of Julie, oops?).

And she was just splayed out, feet in a piled of bones, bruised bum, confused and dazed, even as the voice of Hirsch broke through telling them to head to the Hospital Wing. Give her a minute, please.

Beating under the boy's wrist. Good. Celestia could tell that something was still so wrong with the wrist itself, so she dropped it quickly. She felt like events were taking place from a distance that kept stretching and stretching in length.

Hirsch's Patronus blinded the professor when it arrived, and she blinked several times to return her vision to the filmy state that it had been in before. Useless. Her strength had long fled her limbs, and she could only pick out two words of what the Patronus was saying: "hospital wing." Yes. Yes...the kids needed to go there. She didn't understand why this boy (Derf) was on the ground or why another boy and girl (Abra and Skylar) looked as hurt and/or confused as she felt. There were other kids around, she knew; she could see shapes of their bodies, but they weren't standing close enough to her for her to pick out any details.

Hospital wing. Yes. But this boy on the ground couldn't go like that. The professor waved her wand, biting back yet another scream, and conjured stretchers out of nowhere that hovered above the ground. They would stay in the world until she was awake again to make them go away.

Why wouldn't she be awake? Celestia tried to figure that out, but it only gave her a headache on top of everything else. Her wand arm fell limply to her side as she still sat beside the injured boy who looked as peaceful as though he were merely sleeping. The thing is, she had conjured 10 stretchers when she had only meant to conjure one. Why had she done that? Everything was so strange tonight.

The world didn't make sense anymore, and Celestia could feel the smooth, comforting darkness of unconsciousness beckoning to her as blackness spread across her vision. There was some reason that she hadn't wanted that, but Celestia could hardly remember what that reason was now. She swayed on the ground slightly before falling onto her side to lie on the ground right next to the boy.

Darkness was indeed peaceful.

If anyone ever had of said to Bel that one day she'd smash an inferi's head open like a rotting pumpkin, then break its arm, and then knock another inferi's head clean off, she would have said they were full of it, and yet here she was, with her fingers going white-knuckled from the grip she had on the bat, the bat that was her lifeline, and apparently the lifeline of the professor too. Except more were coming. They just weren't stopping. There were so many. So many. She hadn't really known the meaning of the word horde until now.

It would have felt like a terrible nightmare if it wasn't for the stinging and aching of her throat from the choking she had escaped from only moments before, if it wasn't for the myriad extra slices and cuts that she had taken from the inferi who were attacking her and also the ones that were swarming the professor.

Swarming.

That was another word that she hadn't really truly known until this night.

And they kept going. But somehow... somehow it felt like they were making headway. Sometimes literally, given heads were actually being knocked away. Her arms ached from swinging the bat and hitting the inferi, but she didn't stop. She kept swinging. More and more. As much as she could.

There was a strange noise that Bel couldn't recognize, one that seemed to quietly punctuate each swing and smack of her bat, each roar of flame or shout of a spell from those who still had wands, it took her a moment to understand it was her. She was sobbing quietly even as she relentlessly continued to fight them off.

And then....

Then they were going.

The few that were left anyway. The body parts of the ones they had destroyed still littered the pathways, entirely gruesome and still stinking.

The sudden patronus wasn't comforting. Now that things were clearing, Bel could see immediately that Derfael and Professor Grimsbane were unconscious. Skylar looked like she had taken a knock to the head or something, and Abra was.... well Bel knew her friend had anxiety trouble at the best of times.

This was not the best of times.

Where was Charlie with those brooms? Bel choked back another sob, her throat on fire, and took a deep breath. Was this on her? They really DID need help. But getting all the way up to the hospital wing.... two unconscious so far, broken bones, scratches, and who knew what else? Grimsbane had sent a patronus, hadn't she? She didn't have her wand but she WAS good under pressure. And there were some younger kids there too, thank goodness they hadn't been caught in the crossfire like the rest of them. Or at least, not that Bel could see. Who knew though, who knew.

Grimsbane had conjured stretchers, but honestly Bel wasn't so sure that the rest of them were capable of getting them on there and getting them back to the school without help. Maybe if Charlie managed to find brooms. What if she'd sent him off and he'd gotten hurt and caught and he was all alone though?? She couldn't think about that. The best thing was to stabilize Derf and Grimsbane. She knew that. Everything she knew about first aid was somehow clicking into place all on its own.

"Rylee, run and get help!" If she could. Bel knelt down next to Derf and with as much care as possible, moved him into the recovery position. The last thing they needed was for the unconscious people to choke.

"Abra, help me-"sob "-with him? Julie, Skylar, c-can you move Professor Grimsbane into the rec-c-covery position too? Like this. So she doesn't ch-choke. Carefully." Bel herself was starting to shake. Just little tremors. Just little ones.

She was especially careful with Derf's wrists. They didn't look in good shape, though one seemed worse to her than the other. Suddenly she realised she had the bat, it might have had all sorts of inferi gore on it, but it was strong and straight and sturdy. It'd do for a quick triage situation to immobilize at least one of his broken limbs. Trying to get her breathing under control, Bel pulled her shoelaces out of her sneakers and used those to carefully make a splint, securing Derf's wrist so that it was supported and at the least wouldn't get worse before a healer could deal with it.

Hopefully that would be soon.

As for the other wrist, Bel had no choice but to go for a discarded piece of inferi arm bone, not seeing anything else in reach. Trying not to retch, she snapped off the hand and used the arm bone to.... well, to secure Derf's. Gross but effective.

Everything happened so quickly. Spells were being fired left and right and beaters bats were being swung around. Screams were echoing from every direction and there was blood... lots of it.

Each second that passed felt like an eternity. The swarm of Inferi that stood between Quinn, herself and the others seemed never-ending. Her fear of hurting someone by shooting off spells was overpowered by the need to help them all. Rylee did her best in helping fend off the Inferi from where she stood on the path, willing them to go away. And just like that... it happened. As if a huge magnet dropped down upon them and pulled the living dead away.

Stunned by the suddenness in which it all seemed to just...end.. Rylee very hesitantly lowered her wand, her hand still shaking like a leaf in a mid-fall storm. Blue eyes slowly wandered over the damage that had been done, no doubt filling with tears. Professor Grimsbane, Derf, Abra, Skylar...

Someone shouting her name was enough to snap her into attention. Help, right. They needed help. That patronus telling them all to get to the hospital wing wasn't very helpful when a few of them here couldn't move if they wanted to. She would have to be the one to get them help.

Being only able to nod in response to Bel's shouting the young Gryffindor took off down the pathways towards the castle as quickly as she could, one hand still firmly gripping her wand just in case and the other holding onto Quinn's hand. She was taking her back to the castle with her.

She would be back with help!

The good news was that Abra was not hysterical. The bad news was that that part was likely to come later. The other bad news was that he was still shaking, still standing and staring, and was starting to feel a little bit like a spectator in these events rather than someone actually taking part in them. Maybe that had sort of been the case all along, he couldn't remember. He couldn't... quite... remember...

How long he'd been standing there like that, Abra wouldn't have been able to say. All he knew was that, at some point, Bel spoken to him. Huh? Abra blinked, looking down at her and at Derf, still feeling rather like he wasn't really there at all. Professor Grimsbane, he now saw, was also out of action; had he looked a little further afield, he might also have noticed Skylar was in something of a predicament as well. The fact that little Rylee had run off for help had totally escaped his attention at the moment it had happened, even though Bel had shouted to her. Perhaps, at any other time, in any other circumstances, the sight of Derf in his situation might have stirred up painful memories of the last time they had spoke, but Abra was struggling to think or even feel much of anything at all apart from some residual fear, and no small amount of nausea.

But Bel had sprung into action, tending to Derf and bringing Abra's attention to her. Help with him... help with Derf... right. Right...

Still shaking like a leaf, Abra dropped to his knees on the ground beside his two Hufflepuff friends, the sudden jolt sending a reminder of pain across his back. Absently, he reached back over his shoulder to feel for the damage, and when he brought his trembling hand away, it was bloodied. Filing this information away in his head, he wiped his hand off on his shirt, and looked at the unconscious Derf, then at Bel.

"What... d-do I...?" he said through chattering teeth, his voice hollow and not quite his own. He still held his wand in his left hand, but the beaters bat had disappeared in those last seconds of chaos.

Charlie Kane finally...finally made it back to the pathways. What he saw on the way back did things to his brain while carrying as many brooms from the Pitch as he could. From high above he saw the mess of dismembered Inferi parts, burning trees, bushes, and grass. In a span of minutes, their school...his school was turned upside down just like that...and he felt like...they weren't enough to put up a fight.

On board his broom was school brooms bunched up together and tied at the back of his own broom with his belt, school tie, and shoelaces...leaving him with no choice but to toss his shoes aside and leave the Pitch without it. A couple more brooms were tucked under one arm, while the other maneuvered the handle, directing it towards the direction of the pathways with haste.

As he neared the place, Charlie could feel his insides turn. Was he too late??? The Inferi was gone, but he could see two figures on the ground...and...Merlin...Nonononono. Charlie lurched forward, and landed unceremoniously on the ground with the other brooms, and was on all fours as he approached the group. He could feel the blood rise and fall quickly from his head down to his toes...and felt like passing out too, out of panic and shock. Charlie balled his cold hands and willed his insides to calm the fwooper down. He had to think...he had to help everyone. It was the very least he could do because so far, the word 'failure' was plastered on his forehead.

"I...I got the brooms, Captain..." Charlie could feel his chest tighten, and was fighting back trauma. He knew he had to think straight. For his friends. Charlie took a deep breath (which was a bad idea considering the stench), coughed his lungs out, wiped away the tears that formed in his eyes and did slow breathing instead. He kneeled barefoot beside Grimsbane and covered his face. "This is insane..."