The potion on Cassandra's wound fizzled, the bleeding seemed to slow then. The student had guessed correctly! The potion had been intended for smaller field wounds than the one Cassandra now had. Yet, it would still do her good. She did not awaken yet from consciousness.

Moirah screeched and ducked her head, following the group back toward the castle. She saw Dan counter a spell and... Did Dan just kill[/i] someone? Was the groundskeeper already dead? Her mind was full of curse why were they being attacked? Was this some cruel joke by the administration in order to teach them their lesson? They should not have been punished for getting into a fight, they should be punished for not winning... Upperclass Slytherin were nothing compared to whoever was striking at them now! Who knew how rough her education would be so quickly...

Richard

“I'm going to fuck you up!” Richard was shouting as he emerged from the smoke, already waving his wand. He didn't point it at the masked figure, though, but swung it in an arc in front of him, in the general direction of the canopy above.
A path of leaves were transfiguring into shining steel, their new weight dragging them down and breaking them from their branches. They didn't fall directly at Darius, but around and behind him, cutting off his escape as Richard fired a bright stunning spell at him.

Thankfully for Darius, he had plenty of time to prepare for this attack - the boy before him hadn’t tried to hide his approach in the slightest.
Deflecting the spell with ease, Darius was now stood, mask on and facing the furious newcomer. He tutted lightly, waving his wand at Caelum to let the roots ease off - she slumped to the floor, unconscious.
“Now, now. Language! There are children present.” Darius said smoothly, allowing his native european accent to come through fully. Although it didn’t sound like this in his day to day life, he didn’t particularly want this one remembering what his voice sounded like. Especially with the plan that Romanov had instigated.
Wasting no more time on idle chatter, Darius moved swiftly, whipping his wand in a fast motion and sending stunning spells back towards Richard - then directing his wand at the steel branches.
Bombarda Maxima! He hissed, the spell barreling through the branches, scorching the trees in the process.

Richard did almost a pirouette to dodge around the stunners, but Darius had brought his attention to the child on the ground and as his right side faced her, he flicked his wand. The ground swallowed her up, and something like a rabbit burrow in old cartoons appeared in the ground as she was pulled away from the action in a subterranean air bubble.
But Richard’s divided attention halted his dodge and as his charm spirited Caelum away, one of the stunners exploded against his shoulder mid-turn.
He collapsed to his knees, eyes closed as his head fell. He thought he had managed to remain conscious, but when he looked up, the masked man was gone and there was no sign of his accomplices. Judging by the spreading fire, he might have been out for as long as two minutes.

He needed to cut his losses and retrieve the rescued student, but as he turned to go back to where he'd set up defenses, he was faced with fire. He waved his wand, and just as he'd transfigured the hydrogen to start the fire, he transfigured the air into carbon dioxide to suffocate it. It dwindled and died in seconds, and he approached the makeshift battlements through the ashes and smoke.

Caelum was tucked neatly in a bubble of earth, under the roots of a tree, and another quick spell dislodged her, dirty but apparently unharmed. He picked her up and walked past the clearing, seeking the group at large.

"Look!" Moirah gasped and pointed. "There they are!" She saw Richard carrying the unconscious Caelum.

She was covered in dirt, she was unconscious, but she was breathing and in one piece... She even began to stir then. Everything hurt so she only looked around briefly, relieved to see familiar faces.

The students headed toward the castle, but they did not appear to be perused. The noise and lights behind them faded, Charlie came last. He was the last one fighting it seemed, his opponent eventually running away from him.

"Coward ran off." Charlie scowled, his wand was ready and he gaurded the rear of the retreat back to Hogwarts.

~~~

Once they reached the castle it did not take long to communicate that something terribly wrong had happened during this detention.

Every teacher was awakened, and assigned to either patrol the hallways and grounds or to search the woods.

Most students were already in their dorms, but, all stragglers and night owls were directed back to their dorms.

All the detained students were whisked to the medical ward to be attended to be white smocked witches and wizards. They were made to stay in the ward overnight and were not admitted back to their houses and regular rooms.

Caelum took the opposite strategy. She did not sleep, but lay with her eyes closed, trying to rest, trying to block everything out of her mind... Moirah was making that particularly difficult...

Moirah, who was unhurt, was quite fidgety. She couldn't stick to her bed, she paced around the small room of the medical wing they had all be boarded up in. She tapped her feet, muttered every so often, and was generally annoying to anyone trying to mellow out after their harrowing experience.

Dan was relieved that everyone was safe, and attempted to look around for Dani and Roze. He didn't find them, as when the teacher came back everyone was rushed into the hospital wing. Dan wasn't very injured, just scratches and bruises, but he was still sent to the hospital wing.

He had a hard time falling asleep last night. He was still having flashbacks of what had happened. He could have killed someone. He might have, and what was worse, everyone was there to see. He thought of the horrifying moment when the roots had him, and when he saw the teacher fall to the floor. It didn't help that the Slytherin girl was tapping her toes together, and there was an echoing through the the ward. Cal strained his eyes to stay closed, and he eventually fell into a deep sleep, but not a good one.

There were flashes of light, and the screams of students, and the horrible words echoing through his dreams. You have to mean it.

Nolan let out a sigh in frustration. Like most of the other students caught up in tonight's mess, he couldn't get to sleep. Unlike them, however, he didn't bother to try. And unlike Moirah, he wasn't making anyone suffer from it.

The aftermath of the attack had been a whirlwind of students and teachers, and worried voices trying to keep calm. HE was lucky enough to be one of the uninjured ones, only having breathed in a bit of smoke. But he had imagined through all that he'd get a chance at least to talk to his brothers. Unfortunately the teachers thought it best that no one be allowed to see them. He had to admit the last thing he wanted to hear was a bunch of questions from the other students.

So he found himself seated at a small desk in the corner of the room, staring up at the ceiling and composing the letter to his parents he'd have to write in the morning. He didn't have a means of writing it so at this point his process was mental rambling that he drew phrases form to include in his letter once he wrote it.

"Sorry I didn't write after what happened on the train. I thought I'd just write one letter and include my boring first day"

"I didn't really blow up a door on someone"

"My wand still hasn't done anything"

"I made a new friend"

"I guess I can't say Roy didn't warn me about how easy it was to get in trouble"

"I haven't gotten a chance to study yet, but our teacher wants us to curse her teaching position"

"Did I mention I'm in Slytherin"

"I don't know why my first day was a mess"

"I really am having a good time here, if you just ignore the attacks"

"I didn't do anything to help her"

"Moirah! Please. Sit. Still."

The whisper was louder than he had meant it to be, but no one really reacted. Except for Moirah of course, who Nolan had been content to ignore until her wanderings brought her closer to his table. The girl reacted with momentary stunned silence. To Nolan's displeasure he found the silence just as bad as the sounds of the Slytherin girl's fidgeting. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair, and got up from his chair before she could speak. He grabbed the wand that had set on the small desk and trudged to the other side of the room. He glanced at Caelum's bed as he passed but quickly looked away.

He plopped down on the bed he had been assigned to. Lying back, he closed his eyes and tried to imagine the last Quidditch match he'd heard on the wireless. It often helped him get his mind off of things to turn his attention to something like a game of Quidditch or football. There was too much activity for the thoughts to put him to sleep, but he had already given up on falling asleep.

Just as dawn began to banish the night sky Caelum woke from a nightmare. She was sore and sweating. Yet, she recognized after opening her eyes that she was in the castle of Hogwarts, and not in the forbidden forest being taken away by a tree... or in the presence of the masked man...

She winced and tried to sit up. She began to look around for a familiar face. There were rows of bed, most filled with students, from her vantage they were anonymous lumps under the sheets.

"Hello? Is anyone else here? Or awake? Nolan?" She frowned, if he or any of the others were here that meant they had been hurt too.

Moirah had finally fallen asleep, but not on a bed, she was perched awkwardly under the window ledge and snored softly.