Death To McLaggen

Who said Death Eaters were dumb? With a twist of her combat booted feet, Lucrezia Montag was suddenly the most important person on the Dark Side.

Since the Astronomy tower was inconveniently surrounded by the Order's people, she was left with the next best thing; the Hogwarts owlery. It was a damn good thing she was used to dealing with situations that were, as Lucrezia liked to say "gross but necessary."

But although Lucrezia usually planned for every eventuality, she hadn't planned for this. A little girl and her boyfriend hiding all the way up here, away from the battle. Right in her way.

"How adorable!" she cooed. "Not many people get to die for love, you know."

Amelia spun around with her wand raised in front of her at the popping sound of apparition. The spiders could not have followed her here, but she was probably not the only one to have thought of the owlery. Judging from the amount of noise coming from downstairs, the castle was being infiltrated quickly and the battle was being carried in with the people.

The first thing Amelia realized as she turned around was that she had to look up to see the face of the woman she was looking at. Amelia didn’t have to look up at most women – she was unusually tall herself – but this woman had a few inches on her. Amelia quickly scanned the woman’s short dark hair and smooth dark skin, flipping through her mental roster and coming up blank. Amelia didn’t know who was friend and who was foe in this battle – she didn’t really have a side declared, so it was that much harder to tell.

She didn’t have to wait long to find out, though. The woman didn’t seem to care to identify who it was she was facing, because she didn’t ask before declaring that she was planning to kill. The woman’s comment also revealed to Amelia that her disillusionment spell had finally worn off, leaving her fully visible except in rough patches on her calves where the magic was still wearing away.

Damn… that really would have been useful in such cramped quarters… Amelia thought, her mind trying to work its way around the terror that was threatening to creep up into her thoughts. She was facing what she knew to be a very dangerous woman – death threats in the first ten seconds were never a good sign – and Simon may as well have been stunned at this point for how useful he was being. Amelia needed more time, but without any knowledge of this woman or her plan of attack, the Ravenclaw girl didn’t know how to proceed.

“I would think that is one of the more common things to die for, actually,” Amelia said as her subconscious tried to buy her mind time by removing the filter between her mind and her mouth, giving this crazed woman a glimpse into the thought process that belonged to Amelia Lyons.

“Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Tristan and Isolde, Paolo and Francesca,” Amelia rattled off, ticking each one off on her fingers. It seemed that her subconscious was taking over for her, because Amelia’s rational mind never could have produced such coherent speech under the present circumstances. Hell, she couldn’t even create cohesive dinner conversation when she and Simon had been out that once – giving a likely Death Eater a lesson in tragic love stories definitely wasn’t something Amelia would do normally.

“Shame. Such a dramatic entrance, and then you blow it in the very first sentence,” Amelia’s subconscious provided, Amelia herself trying not to looked visibly stunned by the words coming out of her own mouth. Since when did her subconscious start running the show?

What am I doing? What the hell am I doing?

It’s not like you had any better ideas…. her subconscious defended, this time inside her own head.

Yeah, well this one is only a good idea until it gets us killed, Amelia retorted, gripping her wand tighter as she prepared for the worst.

((so sorry to keep you waiting))

Lucrezia frowned. She wasn't a fan of mouthy young women. It reminded her of Coronation Street and that show was godawful. Although, she hadn't had to watch it since she'd persuaded her flatmate to stop dating muggles, thank Merlin.

"Incarcerous," was her response, for if there was one thing Lucrezia hated more than a mouthy chit it was letting the mouthy chit think she was right.

"You know, I never understood what was so important about claiming this school, but your sheer ignorance has just enlightened me. All of those couples, even the ones based on real people, are fictional."

She leant around the girl to see the boy on the floor behind her.

"Do you think your boyfriend would wake up if I cursed him?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

((No worries. I knew you were struggling with your teeth and whatnot. I knew you’d get to it eventually.))

“Protago totalum!” Amelia shouted, raising her wand instinctively as a net of heavily coiled ropes flew at her from the tip of the taller woman’s wand. Her shield rose up just in time to block the negative effects of the spell, but as soon as the ropes had fallen to the ground, Amelia’s shield faltered. She was nervous, and maintaining the shielding spell earlier among the acromantula had taken a lot out of her.

Well, I think we’ve established that your idea wasn’t any better than my lack of ideas, Amelia thought scathingly, carrying on a conversation with her subconscious despite the circumstances.

Well until you come up with a better one...

“Art imitates life, they had to have gotten their ideas from somewhere,” Amelia’s subconscious responded cheekily, making Amelia want to cast a tongue-locking jinx on herself just to prevent any further damage her words would cause. It seemed that under the present circumstances, her usual attention to filtering her word wasn’t allotted – she needed everything she had to make sure the woman standing across the owlery from her didn’t kill her, or Simon’s crumpled form behind her.

“Not much of a challenge in cursing someone who is already unconscious, is there?” Amelia countered as the woman took interest in Simon, trying to bring the woman’s attention away from the blond boy, who was going to be completely helpless if curses started flying his way.

You do realize that bringing her attention away from Simon means putting it on yourself, right?

Shit.