A break

((Continued from this topic here.))

The door to the Three Broomsticks swung open to reveal a man in a costume that many found to be absolutely delightful, followed closely by a group of students and an older woman who seemed to be mirroring his look.

For who would guess that the tears in their robes were not real, that the "fake blood" that covered the man in front's shirt was none other than his own, dripping from the exquisitely drawn gash across his face.

Or that the torn holes in his robes were not from a pair of scissors, but instead from a well planted stinging hex, or perhaps from a fragment of old furniture flying at the speed of a bullet.

All in all the group of wartorn heroes set the scene well in the Three Broomsticks. It'd been a quiet night for the pub, a little busier than usual but nothing special.

"One of your private saloons," Jess said, sliding a small pile of gold over the counter and continuing up the stairs, he'd been to the room before, it would serve their purposes well.

The room itself was set out nicely, it always was, drinks lined one wall, squashy chairs filled the room and a crackling fire filled the room with warmth.

"I think we should all just take a seat," he said after the last person entered, closing the door behind them with a quiet click.

What exactly had happened? Everything seemed so unreal to Hitame now. It was all so weird, she held onto Naomi's shaking hand tightly and pulled her little sister along. She just couldn't believe everything that happened to them, and she knew Naomi wouldn't be able to believe it either. Naomi had no idea what was going on and she would just think that it must have been some prank. Even though she had been kidnapped and used against her sister.

But it couldn't have just been a stupid trick someone played on them. It has to be something more. Hitame felt Naomi come closer to her and she tugged on her sister's arm a little to keep her going. She was already weak and Hitame was too, all the shaking the house did was still going on in Hitame's mind. At some points things were still shaking and she would lose her balance.

She owed Brain. She most definitely owed him for saving Naomi. Without Naomi, she would have nothing to live for, and who knows what she would do. Hitame pulled Naomi forward as they waked along with the group and she leaned in toward her sister. "You have to thank Brian, the boy who saved you." she told Naomi. Her sister nodded quickly. "I know..." she said softly. Naomi was always getting saved by someone, when would she be the one doing the saving?

As they entered the room, the warmth over took them both and they sighed simultaneously. They both sat down on a couch and stared around the room they were in. Hitame quickly looked down at the floor, while Naomi(like usual) looked around innocently at everyone.

The adrenaline had died out pretty quickly after the house had gone to shambles, and the group was left staring at a pile of rubble. Rubble that hid the man who had locked them in the house, and played mind games with them all, laughing at their terror. But Rhys was in some serious pain. The adrenaline had blocked out the pain from her arm, and now that she was aware, of her legs, because she had fallen so far and seemed to have twisted her ankle during one of the falls, but terror and adrenaline had kept the pain at bay.

The tattered group went to the Three Broomsticks, and went upstairs, once inside the room, Rhys collapsed into a chair and nursed her shoulder. Blood had stained her arm all the way down to her fingers, and pain was shooting down it, and she couldn't move it. Gingerly, Rhys took off her robes, and sat in a tank top and shorts that she had worn under her costume. She was pretty beat up, and had more bruises on her then she could believe. The flying debris had hit her pretty hard sometimes, and there were a few other gashes, but nothing like her arm. Rhys looked at the others and sighed. They were all heros in their own way that night, each had saved, and been saved from each other, heros and victims, all of them.

"Well that was a fun Halloween." she said lightly, trying to make a joke to lighten the situation.

Brian felt like.... well he felt pretty terrible. He could barely breath and his head was throbbing something awful. He had been doing fine right up until the end of the whole ordeal when the mysterious man had hit him with a spell. It was the first time anything like that had ever happened to Brian, and quite honestly, he hoped it never happened again.

He dragged his feet behind everyone else, remaining a few steps behind everyone. He was proud of what he had accomplished, but the adrenaline and bravery had worn off. Everything he had felt while he was in that building had went away, and every time he saw Hitame, the usual feeling of worthlessness took over. An hour ago he felt like he could have said anything he wanted to Hitame, now he was back to the original state and could say nothing.

He also had a newfound respect for everyone around him, especially Professor Potter. He had always enjoyed the professor, but he had never really wondered what he would be like in a duel. He had showcased his bravery to all of them that night and Brian admired him even more than he had before. It also made him want to consider a career change because Brian no longer felt like he had it in him to be an auror. This put him in an even worse mood and he sunk his head even lower.

He was the last one in, and he sat down very gently. He saw Hitame on the couch with Naomi with her head down, and Brian wanted to go over and console her. He hesitated for a moment, but then figured if he didn't everything would have been for nothing, and he made his way over and sat on the other side of her. He did not speak at first, getting the usual loss of words, but then it came to him. "It's all over now, Hitame." He said softly and with a smile, even though it hurt to smile. He raised his hand and gently put it on her back. "We are safe here, I promise."

Arden's eyes were almost glazed as she approached the Three Broomsticks. Where had her friends been? She had planned on meeting with them but, even after everything, they were nowhere to be seen. Arden had never felt so small than now, in the company of these older students who were hurt more than herself. She had never met any of them before but somehow she felt like the experience in the house had counted for something. In there, it hadn't mattered what house you were in, or your experience, you were just a kid that wanted to get out of that damned house.

Arden opened the door and entered into the Three Broomsticks with everyone else. What a sight we must look, she thought. She had only a couple cuts here and there, which were nothing compared to most of the others. They made their way to the room and Arden found a small and comfortable chair. She still felt isolated from the others because of her age, and the fact that they had all kind of stuck together. She didn't know why she had decided to go off on her own like she did. The voice that had come from the man standing beside her had been the scariest part. His hand touching her shoulder and then vanishing? No thanks.

She sat in her squashy chair, knowing how much more comfortable it would be if she wasn't still tense. Arden was always tense. She was paranoid, closed off and a bit judgmental, until she considered someone a friend. At this point, she didn't consider anyone in the room a friend. She wanted to go back to the castle, to go back to her bed. She wanted to wake up from this hellish Halloween nightmare, but knew she wouldn't. She shivered a little in her costume as she got used to the warmth and curled herself up on the chair. She jerked a little when she heard a girl speak, and gave her a momentarily annoyed look before looking back at her knees.

"I think," Jess said after a brief pause as he'd shuffled his way to a comfy chair near the fire, "that we ought to have some chocolate," he told them, looking at the table in the middle of room and noting, with approval, that there was already a slab of Honeyduke's Best Chocolate laying there almost as it if was waiting for them.

There was a feeling, he thought, hanging in the room, that maybe the events of the past hour or two needed to be left unspoken, that they should just ignore it. No one had made any moves to speak about it, and it was almost as if the room itself was having a silencing effect on them.

"What... what exactly happened?" He asked, staring at the students. It was obvious that they'd been through a lot before he'd arrived, but he'd not spent too much time in the pub after Walter had left him, so he was at a loss as to how so much had happened in so little a time.

Arden was getting quite used to the silence of the room when the professor spoke. Chocolate? She felt like she couldn't eat anything at the moment. Of course, it was a well known fact that chocolate is supposed to make you feel better, but Arden needed a few more minutes to desensitize herself from the events of the evening. As the professor asked what had happened, Arden looked up from her knees and towards the others. She didn't quite know what to say because she had been one of the last to enter the house, to her knowledge. Her heart beating a bit quicker than usual, Arden spoke up.

"Well... I was a little late getting to Hogsmeade... I was looking for my friends when I heard screaming coming from this house nearby. I should have left well enough alone, I know, but I didn't, and I actually didn't quite mean to go. I was just thinking to myself when all of a sudden I snapped out of it and I was at the front door..." Arden was shaking her head a little. This was true. She didn't quite remember walking to the house... Was that one of the tricks? Or was she losing it? "When I got inside it seemed way too dark for there to be anybody inside, but even as I stood in the entry way, someone fell from the ceiling and started going off about the doors and things. I don't know how, but she checked the door but it was locked, and we couldn't unbolt it! A voice came from nowhere and everywhere... telling us we had an hour to find an exit, or we would be trapped forever. The others ran off and I was alone again, and I went around the walls trying to find something when the voice's owner appeared beside me and put his hand on my shoulder and... that's the last thing I remember..."

Arden's voice trembled at the end of her statement. She must have sounded crazy! She took a few breaths and tried to relax her heart, which was beating so hard in her chest she was surprised no one else heard it. She looked back at her knees, waiting for someone to fill her in as well as the professor, as to what had happened before she arrived and after she lost consciousness.

Lana watched the others silently, watching their expressions and nibbling on a piece of taffy. Her candy was on the center table, available to all. She had nothing to add to their conversation. All she knew was that she had interfered in a duel between wizards and had survived perfectly fine. There were a bunch of kids, all of whom were younger than her, all of whom had suffered under the cruelty of a certain kind of monster. She had only arrived in time to prevent anyone from dying.

Now, she was sitting in a private room at the Three Broomsticks at the invite of a former professor she barely knew, along with some of her underclassmen, being offered, of all things, chocolate.
"Its been... a wild Halloween..." she murmured in response to Rhys' comment.

It had been long and tragic. But, it was the most excitement in Ginny's life since the Battle of Hogwarts. But still.... it had definitely been bad. They destroyed the Shrieking Shack in the battle, but at least they had indirectly killed Walter in the process. Ginny was going to meet up with the lot at the Three Broomsticks. She walked into the pub in a good mood and went to the saloon that all the rest were in. The soft, cushiony couch was just what Ginny needed to relax after the ferocious duel. The funny part was that it was Halloween. Terror. Only terror had occurred.

Ginny raised an eyebrow to Jess when he offered the group some chocolate. She needed sometime to think about what had just happened. She waved her hand to the chocolate like an annoying mosquito that wouldn't leave her alone. Ginny sighed. Maybe she shouldn't think about it and just let it go. What're we gonna do here?, she thought.