Getting out and getting in

"Specialis Revelio."

Angelique's spell immediately lit up a network of protective spells crisscrossing the school gates. Many of them glowed yellow in the dark, indicating their weakness and Angelique was glad Professor Doyle preferred to put his faith in her peers rather than his fellow professors. Otherwise, she might never have a chance to get through.

"Finite Incantatum," she tried.

The yellow threads of spells flicked out at the girl's words, leaving only the stronger, red wards behind. These were no doubt the original defences of the school, and even Caelani would have trouble getting through them.

She stepped out of the shadows to get a closer look, not bothering when the girl flinched at her sudden arrival. It was fortunate that Death Eaters hadn't existed when the school was built. Most of these older wards were concealing charms, or otherwise created to keep muggles from discovering Hogwarts.

Just to be sure, though...

The gates had barely swung back before a rope snaked from Calli's wand to catch Angelique around the arm. If she made it through the wards alive, the gates were obviously safe to cross.

Angelique was pleased when her spell extinguished most of the warding charms on the gates, but was less pleased to see a death eater immediately slip from the shadows to investigate her spellwork as well.

Any expression of fear would doubtless be taken for weakness, though, so Angelique stood fast and waited for the Death Eater to break through the rest of the school's defences. What she was not expecting was for the woman to open the gates and incarcerate her.

Instinctively Angelique tugged back on the rope that had bound her, but apparently, the death eater was ready for this, and used her own reaction to pull her off balance and through the gates.

She screamed as she fell, sure she was about to die, either from the school's wards or from the death eater killing her once she was finished with her. It was what Angelique would have done, after all...

"Wait! Don't! I'm on your side!"

It felt like she was on everybody's side tonight.

"Calm down Caelani," Sandra said, striding out of the darkness to stand near her fellow ex-Dark Lady. "I remember this one. She's slytherin, and more importantly, she joined the Jr. Death Eater League." She grinned. "Or whatever you guys are calling yourself now." She turned back to Caelani. "No need to drag her screaming to a very painful death."

She reached out and tapped the wards lightly with her wand, tendrils of light and smoke drifting from where her wand made contact with the ancient defenses. "I can get rid of some of the older stuff," she said, making a few quick gestures. "But some of these newer wards I'm not prepared for. They might be easier from the inside," she said, looking pointedly at Angelique.

“Hmmm… from the inside?” Vito muttered, as though he was truly pondering over the idea as he stepped into view on the opposite side of Hogwarts’ gates. It’d been quite a long time since Vito had taken the initiative to visit the school, and though he was not a nostalgic creature, he could not help but grin to himself as he gracefully leaned against the thick metal that had once been Hogwarts' main form of protection.

It was clear that Vito was pleased with himself and his accomplishment – though it hadn’t taken him much more effort than a stroll through town would have. Finding Hogwarts, on the otherhand, would most certainly have been a challenge - had Vito decided not to tag along with the Death Eaters for the evening’s events.

Vito glanced in the general direction of the student who stood to his left, “I forgot that you were relying on these snot-nose children, Bittel, darling - though I see that you have managed to find at least one diamond in the ruff.”

Caelani snorted.

"I know who she is," she replied. "That doesn't stop her being useful to us."

She tugged again on the rope, forcing Angelique to stumble forward through the wards.

"There, just as I thought. Concealing charms, all of them."

The rope around Angelique's wrist vanished with a wave of the wand and Calli let the Slytherin escape towards the town.

"Better to be safe than sorry, though. Coming?"