Always Clean Up Your Own Mess

Robert saw Thaor aim his wand at himself, and in that instant, he saw every chance of recovery vanish before his eyes. He panicked, and at the same time, he lost every spark of hope. He made a wild dive towards Thaor, hoping to stop him.

"No!" Michael shouted, hoping beyond hope to stop it before Thaor fired. At the last moment, he had to shift his focus and had to purposely knock Robert out of the way to avoid any chance of Thaor's spell bleeding over and killing Robert as well.

Both men found themselves laying on the ground, wands cast asunder. They looked and saw the limp form of Thaor on the ground. Neither of them had seen the ball of light that had wrapped around Robert because they had been too busy trying to stop Thaor.

Robert frantically reached for Thaor, hoping to find a pulse, some life. He had dared to touch him, believing Thaor was the only hope he had of being anywhere close to normal again.

"Tell me," Michael said quietly to him. Robert sat frozen. Thaor was gone, and so far as Robert knew, all hopes of escaping the curse that bound him were completely gone. It seemed like the final injustice.

Michael was no sort of energy worker. He had been able to touch Robert with no ill effects. He touched Robert's shoulder.

"We'll find another way," Michael said. "We're not giving up. But we couldn't let him do any more damage. You know that."

Robert massaged his forehead, overwhelmed. He looked up seeing the castle on fire. The Hogsmeade village on fire. The school gates destroyed. The tomb of heroic Albus Dumbledore desecrated. If the measure of a man truly in his behavior, what the devil was all this for?

"Maybe," Michael said slowly. "just maybe, he had a moment of clarity. What if...and just consider...what if he told us the truth? What if something really did happen in the Department of Mysteries?"

After the last of the students were through and he knew they were safe, for now. Thaor apparated to where he knew his father would be, Dumbledore's tomb. Just a second after he appeared, a blinding white light went from his father's limp body, and engulfed Robert.

Whats happened? Jr asked, What was that light? he followed up, looking from Michael, to the second Michael. Then he looked at his father. So many emotions ran through him, the man he once believed to be dead, was now, truly dead. He wanted to cry, he wanted to be sad, but all he felt was anger. He wanted that man to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban for what he's done.

The students are in the Great Hall, I was able to get them out of the tower. Can you please tell me whats going on? He was my father, I have the right to know. Why hasn't Robert shown up yet? So many questions were running through his mind.

"I'm sorry," Michael said quietly to Thaor Jr. He reached over to Robert and drew the polyjuice bottle out of Robert's pocket and handed the potion to him as a silent reminder it would soon wear off.

"Light? What light?" Michael asked. "I'm sorry, but I didn't see a light. Maybe he did something a bit sideways with his avada kedavra."

"There is no easy way to say this," Michael said. "Your father was heavily into dark arts.  He was either very ill or cursed or both. Your father was the man who attempted to assassinate Robert. I was there. I saw it. The reason Robert hasn't been seen is because of the damage from the assassination attempt. He's not far, but he doesn't feel he can expose others to who your father's curse has made him become. He has to find the countercurse."

Robert took a swig of the polyjuice and put the bottle back in his pocket. He stood up and took Kate's pensieve and was going to hurl it into the Black Lake.

"Ah!" Michael reacted quickly, reaching up and snatching the pensieve. "Don't you dare. We need that last thread." He handed him a rock instead. "Here. Throw that. And not at me."

"We knew your father, and we thought we knew him better than anyone around him," Michael said. "We didn't approve of his dark arts practice, and he knew it. But he was trustworthy--until just a couple years ago. It didn't make any other sense except that he had been cursed. We never found out who cursed him or why. He never gave us enough information to be able to help him.  It wasn't that we didn't want to.

Michael hesitated before he added the rest of his thoughts. Robert was upset enough. "But without your father alive, I don't know if we'll ever find the countercurse to free Robert. And without it, there isn't anyone who can overturn this damned marriage law or any other of the bizarreness in our ministry right now."

Thaor felt Deja Vu, he had had this conversation once before, in Robert's office. I don't mean to insult your intelligence Michael, but that was no dark magic, that was white magic, in it's purist form. When he hit the ground, a bright white light erupted from his body, and engulfed Robert. Thaor said, a look of shock on his face.

As Michael explained what happened to Robert, Jr put 2 and 2 together and looked at the second Michael who had just drank something. Robert, I'm assuming you're drinking polyjuice potion, and I can respect that. Just know you can trust me, and I want to help. He said, before looking into the pensive.

Thaor Sr was sitting in his office in the ministry doing some paperwork, he had just sent an owl off when an inter-departmental memo landed on his desk.

Deputy Minister, I require your assistance in the Department of Mysteries, please come as soon as possible.

~J

They can never get things right. Thaor said to himself as he put out his cigarette and headed to the lifts. He went into the Department of Mysteries, Hello? he said, something didn't seem right about all of this he thought to himself. He heard something from behind him, turned, there was a flash of blue light, and then the scene disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

Thaor Jr looked puzzled from Michael, to who he assumed was Robert. What does this mean, what happened that day? He asked, knowing neither of them probably knew the answer to that question.


~~~~

Thaor Sr opened his eyes, he was laying in his body. How am I laying in my body.. he thought to himself. Then it hit him, he was a ghost. He felt so much hatred for himself for what he had done, cursed or not, that he couldn't allow himself to simply die.

He was sure the others were not aware he was there, they were watching his memory. He sat up just as they finished, and flew through Robert and towards the castle, once there, he went into the Slytherin Common room and sat, or floated rather, in one of the chairs.

"If you say there was a light, then I believe you," Michael said. "Whether his last spell was dark magic or not, I won't debate. We knew he would have brief moments of clarity, but they were few and far between. It is certainly possible that he became level headed. I was a bit preoccupied trying to make sure he didn't take anyone with him."

Robert wasn't surprised someone had figured out that there could certainly not be five Tremains. But so far, the fact that someone knew it was him had turned out to be fairly harmless.

Michael tugged gently on Robert's sleeve. "Look," he said, motioning to the memory thread. "Focus in for a minute here."

At the moment, Robert had been preoccupied enough with the thought of eternal torture that he hadn't been thinking about Thaor's memory thread, and one rock didn't feel like enough to hurl. He was trying hard not to be impatient, but his own curse was making it almost impossible. He tried to watch the brief thread as it played out.

"I'll tell you what it means," Michael said. "It means that someone deliberately cursed him. Your father did have an enemy or three, but whether they were after him or using him, there's not enough there to tell. Nor is there enough to know if it really was someone from the Ministry or just someone who was waiting for him in the Department of Mysteries...."

As Michael was talking, Robert felt some sort of icy, almost damp energy rush at him....No, not at him, through him. It was morbid. Creepy. Chilled him, made him feel like he had been violated. Like someone had borrowed his skin for an instant.

He whirled around, looking in all directions, startled, disgusted. He threw the rock in his hand, hoping to hit something, picked up a second quickly and hurled it too.

"Whoa!" Michael dodged the second rock and held up his hand in front of Robert. "Hold it. What? What's the matter?" Robert was looking around and saw nothing. Nothing at all. "Did you see something?" Michael asked. Robert was looking and saw nothing. "Then, what the devil are you throwing rocks at?" Having nothing else sensible to blame it on, Robert pointed sarcastically at Michael. Michael sighed, annoyed. "Cut it out, would you?"

'The prefects.' Amelia replied, shrugging Carter's question off. She knew she should be with them but right now being the forefront of the battle was her priority. 'Prot-' Although Amelia didn't finish her incantation. The sight of Thaorson zooming towards Gryffindor tower caught her attention.

BOOM!

'No!' Hallie screeched waving her over her head accio firebolt within a flash a broomstick had rocketed from the castle and placed itself in Hallie's grasp. There was a sudden rage within her. This man, this vile, lunatic man had gone one step to far. Those children were innocent, but besides that her brother Toby would be in Gryffindor Tower.

Hallie kicked off from the ground and raced to the tower whilst Amelia, casting extra shield charms, hurried to the castle. She would be need in The Great Hall. 

'You bastard.' Hallie spat under her breath as she came to a stop outside the tower, swerving as a flaming eagle soared in her direction. 

'GO!' Hallie cried, landing in the common room which was slowly being engulfed in flames. Students were screaming and dashing through the fat lady's pathway. 'Toby? TOBY?!' Hallie screamed a she attempted to fight the fiendfyre and forge a path through the flames for the students to escape. This really was one deadly mission. Still in Auror training and she was battling against some of the darkest of dark magic.

Amelia hurried into the great Hall. 'Ravenclaw's over here please!' She called across the hall, hoping for some sort of direction from her son-in-law who didn't seem to be in sight. They needed to evacuate the school, it was too dangerous and scary. Amelia herself had once been evacuated from Hogwarts through the room of requirement during the battle or Hogwarts... There was just one problem, that was leading towards the fiendfyre and if it spread it'd be a much worse outcome. 

With the help Of Thaorson the last of the Gryffindor's escaped the common room and hurried down to the great hall, or at least Hallie thought. Thankfully the fire was being contained to the tower but there was no saying it couldn't get through the portrait but... Hold on. Where was Toby? Had he managed to escape in the midst of the other Gryffindor's whilst Hallie and Thaor had thought to control the flaming beasts? Hallie glanced at the portrait of the fat lady, which had sealed behind her, she'd fled - no doubt to Violet's portrait but Toby could still be in there. If she blasted the portrait off then the fire would spread to other areas of the castle and Toby might have escaped. No. Hallie wasn't taking that chance, she'd lost him before she wasn't doing so again.

EXPULSO! Hallie yelled aiming her spell at the portrait hinges, forcing the empty portrait to explode from it's post in the wall. Instantly an wave of heat hit her face but it wasn't going to stop her, raising her wand Hallie began to battle her way through the remains of the fire, which had starte to get out of control again.

'TOBY?!' Hallie screamed as she hurried up the spiral staircase to the boys fifth floor dorm. 'TOB-Ahh!' Hallie lost her footing and slipped on the staircase and crashing out of the tower window before plummeting down from what was once her home.

(OOC: can someone save Hallie from dying in the fall, or if not she can grasp hold off some gargoyle or window ledge or something protruding from the castle)

Red.Carter's hair was red from the rage that filled him up.He wouldn't let Jamie loose anyone else and he knes she was friends with a few Gryffindors, but Hallie was already working on it. She flew to the tower then she was out of sight for a while until there was a sound. The sound of breaking glass as he looked up he saw his coleague falling from the tower and he ran exactly to where he calculated she would fall.He caught her. "Are you okay?"He asked her.

"Why did you go up there when the students were already evacuated?"He asked in a non-judging tone.

Everything had happened too fast, far too fast.

Katrina-Carlotta had heard a voice yell to her, a voice that couldn't be anyone's but Marcus Belby's. But Marcus hadn't been there, at least, not that she could see. Her puzzlement over Marcus clearly being in disguise has cost her a few precious seconds. Seconds that had allowed the madman to spew even more fiendfyre from his wand.

She'd been about to go after him when Tremaine had called out to her, asking for her help with the fire. Tactically, it made sense. Out of all of them she probably was the most experienced when it came to the darker magics. She also had a decent amount of power to back up that experience. Sprinting towards the school, she began to cast.

Katrina-Carlotta was aware of those around her casting strong shielding charms at the castle in an attempt to protect the students. It was working, but shields could only last so long against dark magic of this nature. Closing her eyes and gathering her power, a dark beam of light shot from her outstretched wand. A small section of the magical fire was under her control now, and with a flick of the magical instrument in her hand, it disappeared.

Droplets of sweat running down her face, Katrina-Carlotta resisted the urge to sigh. Progress had been made, but very little of it. This was going to take a while.

Thaor. Damnit. That bastard had taken more from their lives than anyone had had a right to take. His list of crimes was nearly endless. Most recently, he had killed countless people in the fire in Diagon Alley months ago. He had kidnapped Khaat, and he was the would-be assassin who had nearly killed his former best friend, Robert Lupin.

Robert's absence from the Ministry had allowed someone to wreak havoc in their world and take away some of the most fundamental rights of every man and woman in he wizarding world. Everyone who knew the law knew that Robert was the one man who could void the law and restore the people's rights to choose. And Brian knew that without the countercurse, Robert could do precious little.

Brian could not see what was going on at Dumbledore's grave, but if Thaor were to die, Brian would not grieve. He would be relieved. If Robert died in the standoff, all was lost.

The telltale symptoms of the polyjuice wearing off sharply reminded Brian that he had gotten too busy and had forgotten to take a second dose. It was too late now. He transformed back to his own identity and was now standing in Michael's too-large clothes. Crap. He glanced over at Marcus who was transforming back as well. Robert was not going to be at all happy. Well, perhaps all was not yet lost for him to not totally reveal himself. Not that those there might not guess who the last remaining Michael-clone was.

"Can we be done with this stupid spell now, please?" Brian said, annoyed with the fiendfyre now. Brian saw the spell attempt one more time to take form of a basilisk. He saw something odd in the heart of the beast. It was something that looked like a gem of fire. He frowned. Was that the heart of this particular spell? He was too far away to get a clean shot at it.

"There!" Brian pointed. He looked at those around him. The only one who had any reasonable chance at firing a shot at it was the brunette. What was her name again? Even if she tried, the shot was immensely difficult. She would surely need the skills of a sharpshooter with her wand, and Brian did not know her skills. He looked at her. "You! Do you see it? Can you get it?" He looked at Marcus.

Marcus knew Brian's thinking. The fiendfyre beast was already turning about to refocus its efforts on Du Hunt. If she were to have the chance to take the shot, someone would have to cover her and buy her a bit of time to line up the shot clearly. She would not get a second chance.

"I'll cover you," Marcus looked at her to see if she wanted to even attempt such insanity. He could use himself as bait to draw its attention if she were willing to try.

Ever maternal, Kate was concerned for the lives of the students in the castle. She wanted to know that Robert was yet alive, but she didn't want to know that Thaor had perhaps killed him.

Her mind flashed to an agonizing discussion she had had with her mute husband not long after Thaor had left him struggling for life. In his suffering, and in the realization that he was now completely isolated from everyone he loved, he had considered giving up. Kate had met his despondency with fury. As strong as he was, she had always been stronger.

"You do this," she had told him angrily, "and I'll just follow you!" He had looked at her with equal rage. She hadn't given him a moment to try to "speak" to her with gestures or sign language. "No!" she had interrupted. "I won't do this. I didn't marry you conditionally. You're better than this. I would gladly share an eternity in hell with you. But I will not spend one day, ever, without you."

Now, she was hoping that Thaor had not killed him. Forcing herself to not think about that another moment, she used the castle's fire damage to give her access to get inside.

She saw and smelled the thick smoke that flooded the inside of the castle, but she heard no voices. It appeared that perhaps the staff had managed to evacuate successfully.

"Hello!" she called. "Is anyone here?" She needed to be sure that everyone had gotten out and that no one was trapped. She walked through the foyer, the heels of her boots echoing on the stone floor, and crunching the broken glass under her feet.

She shivered. Dark energy. She didn't usually feel that here. And she had never gotten that feeling from dark wizards who were still alive. No--this was different. There was something off here from the way it had usually been. This was something cold, something from beyond the veil. It was triggering her seer's abilities somehow.

"I know you're here!" Kate addressed the dark energy now. "Show yourself!"