Beginning of the end?

Grabbing her hand, Selwyn dragged Lucy around the edge of the fight, intent on the willow. Amazingly, it hadn't been hit by anything yet, so it wasn't very angry. All that was about to change.

"Incendio!"

Selwyn's first spell hit the top branches of the tree and immediately the willow reacted by thrashing wildly. Lucy's spell hit further down and immediately began licking upwards.

Now anyone who got too close would be either hit by the tree or set alight or both. If they were lucky, the fire might even spread to the forest.

''I guess it has come to this'', Doyle said to his colleagues. ''Bill, you take the grounds and see what is going on there. James, you take the Great Hall. I shall check upon other places'', he said. The three of them grabbed their wands and went out of Doyle's office. ''Remember, the students come first'', he added.

The three of them split up as Doyle headed for the Halls, Wilson for the Great Hall and McCoy for the Grounds. This had to be settled wit minimum casualties. The three of them were ready, they were ready to do everything to save the pupils. They did not care about the fractions and their bickering, the school needed protection. Drawing their wands, the three of them went to their positions, ready to intervene.

(An introductory post... Just, interact with the three of them where and when needed)

Alexis was slowly letting her werewolf side take over. She had always been careful as to not let it take over too much. She had never wanted to be near anyone, so she wouldn't hurt them. But now she actually liked it, she wanted to keep going. She wanted to hurt someone, do some kind of damage. She hadn't even paid attention to what happened to Nester. This had been her opportunity to prove herself and now someone was trying to ruin it.

As she was pulled off the girl she had been attacking, she let out a low growl. She was getting annoyed and angry. She whirled around quickly and snapped the girl who had pulled her away from her target. With her teeth bare she let howled and ran at the girl. She swiped at her as well and growled as she diid so.

Jack had pulled away just in time, because the wolf snapped at a spot of air where her forearm had taken residence just a moment prior. Jack pushed herself backwards, pointing her wand at Cecilia and sending a banishing spell at her, trying to push her away from the werewolf. Jack was not as worried about Dark Followers as she was of hostile werewolves.

She wondered desperately where Ariel was. She felt her hand stumble into her pocket, feeling the coin and desperately twisting it to try and continue to alert the Order. The werewolf advanced and swiped at her, something she dodged. "Levicorpus! She wished she had her pranking supplies- some itchy powder would definitely help with these werewolves. "Stupefy!"

Banishing Spell- Cecilia, intended to push her away from Alexis
Levicorpus- Lexi, intended to lift her in the air by the ankle
Stupefy- Lexi, intended to stun her

Alexis continued to walked toward the girl, not paying attention to the other girl she had attacked before. She was just about ready to jump onto the girl when, she shot a spell at her. Lex felt something grab her ankle, she yelped and before she knew it, she was being hauled into the air. The first spell had make contact with her, but the second spelled missed her just by a bit, after she was pulled up into the air.

Alexis squirmed and stuggled to get out of the spell, but it seemed useless. She couldn't break free from it. She let out another low growl and continued to move to get free. She wasn't about to just give up so easily, not without a fight. She might be able to kill without a reason, but she was stubborn enough to not go down without fighting.

Jack was glad to see that her spell had worked, because the werewolf was subdued now. She pushed a few people that were running around out of the radius that the werewolf could reach and she shot a few more stunning spells at the wolf, hoping to at least knock her out and be able to move on and help others in the duel.

She turned and began walking away, glancing around and biting her lip. More of the werewolves were spreading out, and she could not think of what to do to stop them. She needed Ari, even the pup could help them right now. She saw a Dark Follower approaching and she downed him with a tripping curse. She plunged her hand back into her pocket, communicating to the Order via the coin that now was the time to intervene.

When Amelia was reading, the rest of the world could cease to exist and she likely wouldn’t notice as long as her chair wasn’t overturned. The library was where Amelia preferred to do her reading, buried in the back of the History of Magic section – a.k.a. the most deserted section – but even then she had been known to be disturbed, which is why she had cast a dampening spell all around her to silence any unwanted noises.

What she hadn’t planned on was that this spell would also dampen the noises of a very important battle going on just outside the castle doors. It wasn’t until Amelia’s subconscious detected an odd flickering of light out of her peripheral vision that Amelia looked up from her book and saw a bright orange light coming from the grounds. Immediately curious, Amelia stood up and went to the windows, and stood gaping at the Whomping Willow.

The tree was intimidating in and of itself. It was downright horrific when it was on fire.

Without giving herself time to think, Amelia grabbed her wand out of her bag and left everything else where it was, her feet and mind flying as she ran down the steps and out the entrance doors, which were already ajar. Once outside, however, Amelia realized there was a lot more to deal with than just the Whomping Willow. A lot more.

There was chaos everywhere, and within a few seconds Amelia had deduced that the war they all knew was coming had arrived. She didn’t see any adults anywhere – not that she could be certain there were none around – but she saw many, many of her classmates locked in unchecked duels with one another. And werewolves. More werewolves than she could have imagined would be near Hogwarts. Spells were flying freely, and Amelia ducked to the left of the doors to give herself time to plan… something.

Watching from behind the open door, Amelia could see there were lines that had been drawn. She had heard through the rumor mill at school about two factions – The Dark Followers sand Potter’s Army – which were roughly equivalent to the junior divisions of the Death Eaters and Order respectively. Amelia hadn’t known who belonged to what, and had never considered joining either of them because they were, by nature, unauthorized groups and Amelia rarely if ever did anything outside the bounds of proper conduct. So in watching the battle, Amelia could tell there were forces at work, but she had no way of knowing which side she ought to be defending.

You told Doyle you would defend the school, Amelia’s subconscious reminded her as she gripped her wand tighter, knowing she had to do something. She couldn’t just hide out behind a door.

Students are part of the school… Amelia thought, her eyes darting from conflict to conflict. Preserve life. You don’t need to be on a side to know you ought to be doing that.

Okay, that’s what to do. Now for how to do it. Amelia took a few seconds to think clearly before settling on a plan of action, which began with the Ravenclaw girl raising her wand above her head and tapping herself to cast the disillusionment charm. After a the cold sensation of an egg being cracked over her head, Amelia looked down to see that her body had successfully matched the castle wall she was standing in front of. She was effectively invisible.

Feeling more convinced not that she had a plan, Amelia took a few more seconds to work up her conviction before stepping out from behind the door and running full out around the outskirts of the battle. Since no one could see her, she didn’t want to be accidentally hit by a stray spell before she could be of any use.

As far as she could tell, the greatest threat to student life were the werewolves encircling the battle, so Amelia would start there. That was logical.

Except that werewolves were scary as hell and Amelia was running straight at them. That part was not so rational.

With her sight adjusting to the darkness, Amelia saw a crème colored wolf standing out starkly against the black night. She was forcing a retreating student back into the heat of battle, and Amelia forced herself to raise her wand without hesitation, though she knew that by casting this first spell, she was making a move she couldn’t take back.

”Petrificus totalus!” Amelia thought, putting all of her focus into that one spell as she aimed it directly at the crème colored wolf. There was no point in giving away her position by yelling, and she hadn’t practiced all those non-verbal spells for nothing. She just hoped she had good enough aim from this distance to actually hit her mark.

((OOC: Note, Amelia is aiming at Naomi.

Spells used:
Disillusionment charm: turns whatever it is cast on into a chameleon-like entity which can blend into the background.
Petrificus Totalus: Turns the entire body of the victim rigid.))

Naomi was loping at a gentle pace, knowing that the best way to keep herself safe was to keep moving because she was obviously one of the main targets, if not the main. She though she was in the clear when she felt a spell go right between her ears. She slowed anxiously, but could not detect the source of the spell.. She sniffed the air. Someone was definitely there.

There's someone invisible! she barked the warning to her wolves. Use your noses. It's getting dangerously chaotic. She thrived on chaos but she had no plans of being caught tonight. She still needed to get to Felix. Colby seemed to be sensing this danger because he barked to Carlyn and the two came to Naomi's side, intent on shielding her. They moved as a unit throughout the battle, snapping and snarling, tying with the kids.

Shit! Amelia thought as she saw the beam of her spell pass directly overhead of the cream colored wolf she had been aiming for. She had taken a risk, staying so far back, but had also avoided the risk of being too close. As the wolf was flanked by two of its brethren and started to move further into the heat of the battle, Amelia had to decide which risk was worth more to her.

Damn you Doyle and your moral-compass-inducing promises… Amelia thought as she arrived at her decision. A year ago, Amelia likely would have just holed up somewhere to protect herself, but now she had made a promise to defend the school against attack. And Amelia valued integrity too much to go back on that promise, even in the face of quite obvious danger.

Not that she wasn’t scared, because spells flying close enough to your head to scorch hair and werewolves that travel in threes is not exactly a walk in the park. But still, Amelia ducked closer to the ground and pursued the wolf pack that contained the cream wolf she had originally been going for. There must be something special about that wolf that it should be given the protected position in the center, but Amelia would have to take care of the others before she could gain access to the more dangerous one.

”Depulso!” Amelia thought, this time aiming for the bulkier wolf that was on her side of the cream-colored wolf. She was closer now, and hoped her aim would be truer. She probably couldn’t keep up this invisibility act forever.

((Depulso: banishing charm; Sends an object away from the caster; the target object is said to have been Banished.))

The three of them were hunched, their legs bent so they could be closer to the ground, less detected. They had terrorized, now they had to survive. It seemed fine, when suddenly, there was a whistling of air and Carlyn was tumbling sideways away from her, barking out a cry as one of his ankles painfully twisted and drug against the ground.

Colby immediately wheeled around and said Someone invisible is after you, Naomi! He sniffed the air and his ears pricked diagonally. Colby was the eldest werewolf, and he had the keenest sense of smell. Over there. A girl after you-

Suddenly, a brown body hurled itself over Naomi, darting past Colby, howling his head off. I'll get her! Hoover yelled viciously. Naomi had always found his obsessive over-protectiveness of her rather tedious, but here was the benefits of it. He slowed and sniffed the air, wheeling his way towards the attacker, barking and snapping.