Cassandra
"I-is there a-anything I can do?" The groundskeeper heard a student hovering over her. She felt pain, but it seemed far away, the whole situation seemed unreal to her. Which, medically speaking was a bad sign, but in the moment allowed her to think somewhat clearly.
“We need to get back to the castle…” She coughed. “Look in my pouch there might be some potions… If i remember right… There’s one that should help it um… um… the one that… um...” Then she lost consciousness.
If Daniel looked there would be three potions. They were each labeled with hand drawn stick-style letters. One red and marked with an ‘S’, one silver and marked with what looked an ‘R’, and one blue marked with an ‘M’.
~~~
Moirah
Moirah had crawled quietly through the underbrush and back toward the main group. She could hear what was happening behind her between Charlie and Lawrence… The thorn bushes scratched her face and picked apart the seams of her robe, but, she didn’t say a word and slithered back to the group.
Somehow Dani had cast a shield of some sort. Moirah was too frightened to be impressed at the moment. Maybe later she would admire the Ravenclaw mute.
Roze and Nolan were both trying to ‘rally the troops’. Roze was feisty and told them to ‘get angry’, but, as a Slytherin Moirah was partial to Nolan’s plans… He was asking questions and trying to gather a proper plan together. Moriah was drawn to his leadership like a moth to the flame. She didn’t start to get up from her crawl until she was nearly at his ankles. “I-I think I saw most of what happened but. I-I haven't seen Caelum. I-I’m pretty sure we are surrounded, only the groundskeeper lady seems to be hurt… Weasley is up ahead fighting someone but the rest haven't come out from behind the trees… Just these weird vines…”
~~~
Richard
The soft earth under the student's’ feet transfigured, turning to solid stone that the roots could not rise up from. Those that were already grasping were trapped in the stone, unable to catch the students as they fled. At the same moment, wooden partitions sprouted from the trees, in solid wooden planks, forming a wall around the group.
Richard, the source of these magical changes, waved his wand at the ground beneath his own feet, and a stone pillar started to form under him, lifting him up head and shoulders over the wooden partition. He waved his arm like a windmill in the direction of the incoming curses, but nothing seemed to happen until he muttered “Incendio.” Then the Hydrogen he had transfigured ignited in a great plume that rushed to engulf the attackers.
That was when he heard a student crying his name, her voice suddenly moving through the forest, away from the group. His Lumos shed enough light that he could barely make out a form being dragged through the underbrush. He muttered another spell, “Luxicon,” and three floating images of himself appeared, and started to “walk” around in the arm, occasionally pointing their wands and shooting harmless sparks into the trees.
The real Richard, meanwhile, leapt from his pillar to the other side of the barrier, shot a very real stunning curse in the general direction of the assailants, and sprinted toward where he’d seen the student being dragged.
~~~
Caelum
Caelum was shocked, but the spell still muted her and she was unable to cry out. Her wide dark eyes took everything in, the darkness, the vines, the jeweled wand the smooth cold face. His voice was strangely soothing, yet, she knew he was lying. And when the pain came, she opened her mouth to scream. The spell kept her quiet. Which only made it seem to hurt more…
She was wrapped up and blinded by deep purple light. Then the tendrils of the spell gathered and writhed around her limbs like long snakes, then bit her like leeches, then began to burrow and crawl under her skin. She see her arms, and see her flesh rise in little ridges as the worms-of-the-spell crawled underneath, inching by inch. She could feel them doing the same in her legs, and neck… They were crawling toward her heart.
The man was looking down at Caelum, his face still but his eyes flickered with some emotion.
Then, he heard something. Someone approaching, not an ally, and he slipped a mask over his face…. Richard drew near.
~~
Charlie
Charlie Weasley saw a figure come toward him in the forest, he thought the man had strange features at first, but, then realized that the man was wearing a mask.
“Cowards! Show your face!” He was about to cast a disarmament spell when he heard Richard’s spells. The ground underneath him shook, and a wall began to rise up between him and the enemy.
Charlie scowled, his long legs lept over the rising partition, and he rolled in the dirt to catch himself. He sprang quickly to his feet, he had begun the spell during his jumped, and once he was on his feet light streamed from the wand toward his masked opponent.
Their duel began...