Minjae stood in the middle of the wooden bridge, his stomach leaning against the railing while holding his alder wand in his right hand and pointed it below him at the ravine.

He remembered that he had stood in the same place two years ago when he had tried to non-verbally lift a rock up from below but no matter how many times he had tried, he could not do it.

Now that he was older and more experienced with non-verbal spells , the Hufflepuff took pleasure in simply bouncing a rock up in to the air and then send it back down hard enough he could hear it crumble down below.

Was he letting out his frustration? perhaps. At least he was doing it on a rock and not a human. LIKE SOME DID.

Unless rocks had feelings in the magical world?....They hadn't right?!

The wooden bridge had always scared Irithel a little bit. It looked unsafe, as if it were blown up multiple times (probably in some wizarding war that they had to memorise in History of Magic) and put back together carelessly after each explosion. But she could not avoid it if she wanted to get to the grounds from the castle, so she ran AT FULL SPEED whenever she had to cross the bridge. Not the most logical solution, but it helped to overcome her fear!

That was exactly what she was doing one fine day, sprinting across the bridge on her way to the grounds, when the sight of someone leaning over the railing made her stop in her tracks. "Holy Hippogriffs! WHAT are you doing?" she yelped as she pulled him back to the middle of the narrow bridge and turned him around to check if he was alive. He was. Good! "You were THIS close to falling into the ravine, did you know? I just saved your life."

Rocks probably did not have feelings….

Minjae looked below at the ravine and sighed deeply. He wished he was at home. Oblivious to the danger they were in at the moment, especially his kind . He thought of his muggle parents and wondered if they already knew what was happening. He hated that he had no way of communicating with them even if it was just to see their writing in a letter .

Feeling frustrated yet again , the seventh year pointed his wand below him at the rocks when the sound of running footsteps caught his attention. Before he could turn to see, he felt himself getting pulled away from the railing and to the middle of the bridge as his fear rose up. His eyes were wide with a mix of emotions before he slowly realized that she was not one of the Neo or those Hood figures but just one of the young Ravenclaws.
.
”Don’t do tha--…” he snapped before he took a deep breath to calm himself ”I’m sorry, i thought you were…them” he sighed , he did that a lot lately.

Falling into the ravine? THIS close? saved his life? ”What in Merlin’s Beard are you talking about?” he asked as he pocketed his wand.

Irithel struggled to understand emotions - both her own and others' - but she thought she could somewhat interpret the mix of emotions in Minjae's eyes. There was fear. Fear was everywhere in the school these days, with the Neo-Alliance taking over. Nobody had ever looked at her with fear in their eyes before, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. In any case, it wasn't her he was truly afraid of, it was just her aggressive life-saving tactic that apparently caused some misunderstanding. "I'm not them," she agreed and let go of him.

"It's true, you were leaning over the railing like you were about to tumble down into the deep scary ravine, like this," she copied his previous action, except it wasn't really copying because she was totally exaggerating. Then she gulped, because the view below was indeed quite scary. Her face paled and she returned to the middle of the bridge quickly. "What were you looking at, anyway?"

Wand back inside of his robe pocket ( he had been wearing his school uniform everyday because he feared that he would look too *muggle like* if he was wearing his normal clothes), he shook his head. "I know." he said as the girl let go of him. "Sorry again, i didn't see you and i jumped to conclusions" he was relieved he hadn't accidentally fired a spell at her.

Minjae watched as the girl demonstrated his actions earlier and he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Stop exaggerating, i didn't do that" he said as he too walked back to his previous spot and leaned over the railing again to look down. Good thing he hadn't dropped his wand....

What had he been looking at? "A good place to push that tyrant off" he said humorless before turning to look at the Ravenclaw. Curious how she immediately walked back to the middle of the bridge...and why was she so pale? Hadn't she terrified him earlier? "No, i was practicing my non-verbal spells by levitating rocks and crushing them down below." he smiled a little. "I want to get stronger, you see my family are muggles soooo...." He had to become better in order to protect them.

" You're not comfortable up here are you? " he suddenly asked.

"It's okay, Minnie." Oops, did she say that out loud? Irithel gave everyone nicknames in her head (including family, friends, not friends, professors, even the hooded guys in lessons), but she usually asked for permission before actually calling them by the nicknames. "Short for Minjae," she explained.

She merely shrugged at his retort. Okay, she might have exaggerated a little bit. Guess he wasn't thanking her for not saving his life then.

His reply surprised her slightly, because he did not seem like the type who likes to push people off a bridge. This just showed the extent to which recent events changed students' personalities - oh, he was joking. "I think he would use Arresto Momentum and save himself if you pushed him off. It could work if you took his wand as well, but he would still leave behind his followers who would get very angry," she commented, still following her train of thought about his first response. Bullying rocks non-verbally was not as interesting. It seemed that he had a good reason to hurt the rocks though, and she nodded slowly when she understood what he meant. "That's nice. I want to get stronger too, though I come from a pure-blood family."

Pushing her glasses up her nose, she shook her head feverishly. "I don't know what you're saying. This bridge is like my second home," she said and sat down cross-legged in the middle of the bridge to prove that she wasn't afraid.

Minnie….

Minjae did not look very pleased with the nickname. It sounded too cute for him. ”Just Minjae, please” He said. ”I’m not really fond of nicknames” Though this one was a bit better than his “Rich Boy” nickname that Claudine had called him.

That one just sounded insulting.

He would definitely use Arresto Momentum to save himself and Minjae scowled as he thought about it. ”Yeah, and when would we ever have a chance to disarm him?” He said bitterly. ”Never. Let's be realistic, we are just a bunch of teenagers and i believe that the only reason why we haven’t been killed yet is because they don’t want to spill magical blood. That’s why they resort to torture ” he said as he leaned his back against the railing. ”We need Aurors, we need Headmaster Trent back” he frowned. ”If he isn’t dead already….”

So she came from a pureblooded family. Minjae crossed his arms over each other now and nodded his head when she mentioned that she wanted to get stronger as well. ”You should. They obviously hate muggleborns like me more but i don’t think they will let a pureblood off the hook when they defy them” he said.

Basically no one was safe. They had no means of communicating with the outside world as well. Everything was really against them...

”Maybe we should just—“ 'join them'. Even in his mind , the words shocked him and he quickly cleared his throat.

He watched the girl as she sat down in the middle of the wooden bridge , obvious that she was not comfortable at all but Minjae just shrugged because who was he to tell her what she should or shouldn’t do. ”Okay then” he said as he too slid down on to the wooden planks and crossed his legs as well. ”Let’s talk about something more lighter” he laughed though the laughter did not reach his eyes like usual. ”Where are you from? Do you like video games? ” did she know what video games were?

She thought the nickname "Minnie" fit him very well! Having cute nicknames made you more approachable, in her opinion. She would continue to call him Minnie in her head. "Alright. Just Minjae, then. I'm Irithel." And she did not have a nickname either.

For once, she kept her mouth shut and just listened as the older student spoke about how impossible it would be to overthrow the Neo-Alliance. She almost died in the forest fire less than a year ago, and surviving the incident made her appreciate life even more. She did not want to be murdered at such a young age by a bunch of dumb, evil baboons who think witches and wizards with Muggle parents are filth. She did not want to be tortured either, but that meant she had to follow their orders and pretend that she hates Muggles. "I ... sometimes feel glad to be pure-blood. Then I hate myself for having such a feeling when Muggle-born students like you are treated cruelly," she admitted sadly.

Maybe we should just - what? Ride on the back of a Thestral and fly to Antarctica? That was the wild idea she was imagining when he stopped mid-sentence and cleared his throat. She raised her eyebrows, but did not enquire further.

A lighter conversation would be a good distraction from the scary view below and everything else going on. "I'm English and Swedish but I spent my whole life here in Scotland. I like the concept of video games, but I find them too difficult to play." Which was totally insulting because she was clever in magical subjects! She would figure it out when she's a bit older, assuming that the alliance does not eradicate Muggle technology from the world. "What about you? Where are you from and d'you like video games? Is it true that you are super rich?"

Irithel. So that was what her name was. Of course the Hufflepuff had known her from classes but he had never bothered to actually know her name. It seemed that the second year had known his though, which made him feel slightly guilty for not knowing hers. "Nice to meet you" he answered with a nod of his head. And no, he didn't have a nickname for her yet. Now that he thought about it, the only person at hogwarts he had given a nickname was Ashley. So he wasn't against nicknames, he was against nicknames for himself.

"Please don't ever feel bad about that" he said as he looked at the girl in all seriousness. "I personally will never resent you for feeling glad to be from a pureblooded family because i would have felt the same way if i were in your shoes. Just like i didn't have a choice to be from a muggle family, you didn't have a choice being born in a pureblooded one" So no, he could never resent her for feeling glad.

The thought of joining the Neo Alliance had haunted him before. In those sleepless nights in which he tossed and turned in his bed. If joining meant he could protect his family.... make a compromise with them to keep his family safe.... But then he thought about what would be expected of him and he immediately felt guilty for having such thoughts. Because why was his family more important than another innocent family? If he joined, he'd only be a monster. Not a savior.

Even though he was looking at the grey-ish sky behind Irithel , he still paid attention as she told him about herself. "I've been to Sweden twice" he said . "Family vacation" he added in case she didn't get that.

"I'm Korean. I moved to England when i turned eight or nine" he answered.He wasn't really in the mood to tell her the reason why they had moved. As for video games. Now THAT was something he could talk about all day.

"I love video games! Especially virtual reality ones! Its basically a helmet you wear and you're 'inside' a game yourself. Think about how some of the professors use magic to change the room for us to interact with. It's like that but with technology , fascinating right?" his face lit up the more he talked. "The Technology Lounge is my favorite room in all of hogwarts because it reminds me of home" he said. "We should play a game in there-----" he trailed off as he thought about how they had been forced to destroy it on the first day...

Great. Now he was sad again.

If he was super rich? the seventh year shrugged his shoulders . What an odd question to ask.... "I mean, money wise i am "super rich" yeah." he air quoted with his fingers "But you can be rich with love. Or rich with a skill as well" he added.

Irithel remembered a lot of people's names for no reason, so she was the weird one for already knowing Minjae even though they were not in the same year or house. He did not have to feel bad for not knowing her name. "Nice to meet you too," she replied with a nod.

Of course, she never really meant it when she said "nice to meet you" to someone she barely knew, but it was different this time. She was truly glad to have met this ANGEL after listening to what he said. Humans couldn't possibly be so empathetic and generous. If she were in his shoes, she would curse every pure-blood idiot she came across in the corridor for making her life miserable. In fact, she already lived most of her life hating people unfairly and shutting them out. She could work on becoming more like Minjae and make others feel better about themselves. "Thanks, wow ... I love you too," she blurted out. It wasn't the perfect speech she was hoping to say in return, but it was ... an abridged version.

The English-Swedish girl did not have much to say about Sweden, as she did not feel a strong connection with that bit of her heritage. Korea, huh? "I've never been there before, but I'd love to visit someday. I bet I can persuade my family to go on vacation to Korea." You know, if Headmaster Rosier even lets them go.

She didn't like how he was explaining video games to her as if she were a five-year-old. She knew how they worked and had even seen a picture of the thing Muggles put over their eyes! Irithel did not find it very fascinating, because first of all, you could be in a cool interactive environment, but how would you SEE it when you are practically blindfolded? Didn't the Muggles notice this simple error? But Minjae looked so happy talking about it and she had promised herself just a moment ago that she would be nicer, so she just nodded and tried to understand. "Yeah, haha ..." Oh wait, his favourite room in all of Hogwarts was Bombarda-ed. "It sucks that they took your hobby away. Like, a big chunk of your life just exploded. It would be nice to be in a virtual reality right now."

Now she could understand why those games were so popular.

Well duh, she was asking money-wise. Could he get any more Hufflepuff than this? Though what he said got her thinking. "You're also rich with kindness and video game skills! I'm rich with uhhh confidence. And baking and procrastinating skills." She could even procrastinate on baking, so she was basically a professional.

To be honest, Minjae wasn’t as simple-minded as some might think. If Irithel had been openly against Muggleborn or even muggles, he would have despised her but she had admitted earlier that she felt uncomfortable knowing she was a pureblood and that he was being discriminated against. This feeling she had meant to him that she cared. Maybe more than she even realized herself.

The ‘i love you too’ made him smile though and he shifted his body so that he could stretch his legs in front of him and wiggled them a bit. He was definitely a bit embarrassed by that statement. But also felt appreciated that was why he had smiled . Just a tiny bit.

”You should give a visit to Deoksugung Palace if you ever go” he said, nodding his head. ”There’s a statue there of King Sejong who invented the Korean alphabet. A MUGGLE did that, pretty neat huh?” he asked. ”Oh! And when you ‘re there you should definitely walk along the Stonewall Walkway as well” more feverishly nodding of his head.

He was so happy talking about his video games that he didn’t even notice that the Ravenclaw had seemed a bit offended on how he had explained how Virtual Reality worked. That happiness wasn’t long lived though because it always came back to that his favorite room had been destroyed. ”Not just my hobby! i brought some of my own games with me from home and those were destroyed as well! I lost money here!” Which wasn’t what truly bothered him of course because he had enough of that but it was the principle.

Rich with kindness… If only the Ravenclaw knew how much rage he had inside of him. He had exploded with anger two times now, once in front of Noah and another time in front of Professor Schmoe. He did not think of himself as a kind person. When she mentioned her procrastinating skills he chuckled though because he could relate. ”I think i still need to do a Transfiguration Homework from last year….” he said with a mellow expression on his face while staring in front of him ”Don’t tell anyone that” ever. ”I suck at baking though” he sighed. ” Our chef personally threw me out of the kitchen once when i almost set it on fire by accident… i just wanted to make a birthday cake. I have no idea what went wrong” another sigh. "What do you like to bake?" he asked curiously.

Just to be clear, Irithel did NOT have a crush on Minnie Yoon. She didn't do crushes. But she liked him, because he made her like herself and stopped her from being scared of this rickety bridge. That was definitely an improvement from her default attitude of "I hate all strangers and notice their weaknesses first".

Travel recommendations, excellent! "Wait, I'll write it down," she said and pulled out her notebook (titled MISC.) and self-inking quill. Nodding along, she eagerly noted down the following:

Quote:

Duck Sue Goom Palace, Korea - alphabet king's statue, stonewall walkway

"My brother Eryk, he loves culture and history. He would definitely want to learn about King Say-John. You know, I'm not surprised that a Muggle invented the whole alphabet. I heard that witches and wizards just pooped in their robes and vanished it all the time before Muggles invented plumbing." Irithel commented casually as she returned her writing equipment into her school bag. "Thanks for the recommendations." Thinking about good things outside the school cheered her up a lot.

So he was upset that he lost money? Perhaps he wasn't as rich as what some people said. "And all the owls and two-way mirrors that were taken. I guess a lot of people lost money from those," she added. Surprisingly, she did not lose anything worth money, because she did not have any method of communication or Muggle technology in the first place. She usually used the school owls! Pity they were gone ...

Irithel was pretty sure that not submitting homework at all did not count as procrastination - you had to DO it in the lunch break right before it's due - but still nodded as promise that she would not tell anyone. As for setting the kitchen on fire while baking, she could offer some insight. "Maybe it was accidental magic. I like to bake everything! Brownies, cakes, cookies, bread. I can make a birthday cake for you." Since the school's house elves would be too nice to throw him out if he burned their workplace down.

Wow. No one had ever taken the time to actually write down what he wanted to recommend. He waited as he watched her grab an notebook and self-inking quill and as he began to speak he also saw that the quill was moving. He had seen it many times before but sometimes magic still amazed him.

He tried not to chuckle at how she butchered SeJong’s name because it wasn’t the point. The point here was that she actually took the time to write stuff down. ”Is your brother older than you?” he asked. "Do you have more siblings?" he was always curious about other people's families. "They did?” he raised an eyebrow as Irithel began to oh so casually to explain what wizards did with their….waste… before plumbing was invented ”That’s uhm…i- i don’t know what to say to that” he laughed. It was the first genuine laugh since they had started talking.

Even people with money felt the loss of losing money. It was a different thing when his family donated or when they went on a luxurious vacation . That money was spend on something. It was used. He hadn’t even played some of the games yet before they were destroyed, it had served no purpose. ”I heard about the owls”He frowned ”I have an owl as well, his name is Brownie , i hope he’s okay … If they hurt the owls i’m going to —!!” His eyes widened and his gaze went from neutral to angry again. He took a deep breath to calm himself because he didn’t want to lose his temper now. Not in front of Irithel.

”Our common room was completely trashed when we got back from the feast on the first day. Did that happen to yours as well?” he asked as he remembered back. He had also lost a two-way mirror. If he still had it he could have contacted his father and asked for help. ”They really did their best so that we couldn’t communicate with the outside world. We’re basically trapped here” And what happened after the school year was over? Were they allowed to leave or was everyone who didn’t join their stupid cult getting killed? The thought made his stomach turn. ”Someone out there must have noticed something right?”

”Could have been accidental magic” he repeated and nodded his head. ”I was trying to bake a cake for my mother’s birthday” before he had nearly burned the place down. Speaking of birthday cakes, Minjae looked as if he was about to CRY. ”That is so nice of you! I like chocolate cake and my birthday is February 16th just FIY” he grinned like a little child.

That notebook could get buried under a pile of other misc journals, but Irithel would remember to fish it out and read Minjae's recommendation if her family decided to plan a visit to Korea in the future. "Yep, he's around your age. I have three older brothers, Eron's already graduated and Eryk and Alfie are currently in Ravenclaw. What about you? Any siblings?" she asked, something she had been curious about when he spoke about the family vacations to Sweden.

"Poor Brownie. I'm sure he's okay. He's probably just locked in a cage and fed really cheap owl food," she said sympathetically. Then, she frowned as if anger seeped into her after leaving Minjae. If what she said were true, humans were in a much better situation than the owls. At least they still had good meals everyday. "No, he's not okay! If they really mistreat the owls, I'm going to make them eat slugs for the rest of their lives," she clenched her fists, suddenly enraged.

The first night back to school was memorable for way too many reasons. "Yes, we had a common room slumber party," wait, that sounded too happy - "because no one wanted to sleep in the dorms after they were ransacked," she explained. Like the Hufflepuff, Irithel was also thinking ahead to the end of term, simply because she envied the seventh years. She thought they would surely be allowed to graduate, as long as they submitted all their homework on time. The alliance would have new 11-year-olds to indoctrinate, so oldies like Minjae would have to leave the dorms for them, right? "Yeah, I bet. Didn't something similar happen a few years ago? I couldn't communicate with my brothers at Hogwarts because of the ... the storm! I was terribly worried back then, but they returned home safely in the summer like nothing happened." They could hope for a miracle like that again.

Oh wow, THAT was a baking experience she never had - her own mother left the family before she learned how to bake. And he looked like he got something in his eyes wait, was he about to cry?? Please don't, she could get so awkward around crying people. "Noted," she smiled, though she did not pull out her notebook again. Birthdays and cake preferences were easy enough to remember.

”It must be nice having family around” he said. Especially these days. Because if you had a good relationship with them you knew you could count on them but it also made the situation as of late more terrifying because knowing your family members were in danger as well was something he wished for no one. Minjae nodded his head. ”I have a brother, his name is name is Daniel and he’ll be starting at Hogwarts next year “ he frowned. ”But he’s a muggleborn like me though so if that git and his Alliance don’t get arrested this year i don’t know if he’ll be able to come here” he said as he moved his legs up so that he hugged his knees. ”It’s going to break him if he can’t study here. He was always jealous of me…”

Locked in a cage somewhere fed really cheap food ? Minjae raised his eyebrows at her words. If that was supposed to make him feel better than she had done a horrible job at it. He was glad she suddenly realized what she had said and he nod nod nod nodded his head feverishly. ”Don’t though… Professor Schmoe told me that those guys would kill someone in a heartbeat . Better stay out of their way…”

A slumber party was one day to eh…celebrated the start of the term. It definitely sounded too happy. Until she explained the reason for it and he finally understood . ”I made a habit of sleeping upright against the bed and with my wand at my side. In case those Hoods decided to enter our common rooms” Especially as a Muggleborn he could not be more careful enough.

The storm… he had almost forgotten about that. Which was fitting because didn’t it gave them short term memory loss? ”I got my brother’s letters afterwards and they were not pleasant” he said with a laugh. ”He actually found out he could do magic during that time so he was excited to tell me but when i didn’t reply he got frustrated and started sending me letters with “you suck” “worst big brother ever” his eyes twinkled because he had found it funny to read after everything had quiet down .

Was he getting a chocolate cake? HE WAS GETTING A CHOCOLATE CAKE! If he didn’t absolutely hate physical contact he would have hugged the Ravenclaw right now. Instead, he grinned . ”Thank you! When is your birthday?”

"Yeah, it's pretty nice. I can always talk to them and cuddle their cats," she replied. Irithel loved her brothers more than anyone, and talking to them made her feel better about things without fail. Being pure-blood, they just had to avoid openly defying the alliance and watch out for friends having a hard time. She agreed that it would be terrible for Minjae's little brother if he were not admitted into Hogwarts based on his heritage, but on the other hand ... "Good for him if he stays in the Muggle world and learns practical stuff like, I don't know, maths. If he does come next year, I'll take good care of him. Don't worry, Minjae," she nodded reassuringly.

She did not feel so confident anymore when he said that the guys would kill people in a heartbeat. And little Daniel had no idea that his brother could not even go to sleep comfortably. "They shouldn't be allowed to break into dorms in the middle of the night. We're still kids, we need proper sleep." She was actually fine, as she had been sleeping well after the slumber party, but couldn't speak for anyone else.

That was not funny. Did he not know how annoying and frightening it was to lose contact with one's siblings? He was lucky his family did not know how to send Howlers. "We're totally getting more hate mail from our brothers this term," she groaned and shook her head. Though it was kinda cool that she was on the receiving end of "why aren't you writing to me??" letters this time.

Irithel absolutely hated physical contact too, so this was good. "November 21st! I'm turning thirteen." So weird!!

It was so good to be out of doors, Merlin's beard! Yoyo felt a million times better even with one of the hooded figures following after her- not even the knowledge that she would have to go back to that ugly little room could damper the spaniard's spirits as she watched the lake from the very middle of the bridge. The wind was high and howled through the air, a violent, hungry song that resonated sharply in her chest. Freedom. If they ever got out of here, Yoyo would never take it for granted ever ever ever ever ever again. She would hold that feeling in her fists and never let go.

Wrapping her cloak tighter around her tiny frame, Yoyo leaned against a banister and took in a deep, fortifying breath. With the Gods as her witness they'd make it out of here. Maybe it was false hope as Cece had said, maybe it stupidity, but Yolanda Luna wouldn't be able to survive if she didn't think a time was coming where this would all just be a prickly memory.

Phoebe was enjoying her brief freedom, even if it wasn't quite the right season for wandering the grounds. She was so sick of staring at the four walls of their cell, and while it pleased her to have so many of her favorite people always within reach, she was also getting a little tired of the complete lack of privacy.

She threw herself onto the bridge and pressed an arm around Yoyo. Friend. Bestest best friend. "If you jump, I'll jump. Maybe we can swim all the way to the ocean and get picked up by a fisherman and get mistaken for mermaids and tour the world as beautiful mysteries." She wanted her mom and dad so bad she could feel it in her bones.

Newly radicalized Neo-Alliance leader Anastasia Truebridge popped up on the grounds of the school clad in an all-black outfit she picked up from somewhere in France, her 11" cherry claw wand with a nundu core flashing in her hand.

"This way," she ordered, leading the charge across the wooden bridge and toward the school.

How long had it been now? It was near impossible to tell time. The chaos of spellings coming his way and coming from him. The constant need to duck for cover send up shield charms and the narrow misses. He really hoped his luck was not running out. His lucky items and his old lucky pet beetle were doing their work for him so far, The vial that held the drunken felix felicis around his neck had shattered. beads of sweat mixed with the dirt all over Oakey Gunter as he reached the Wooden Bridge. He quickly removed the antlers from his head as traversing this rickety narrow old thing would be too difficult with those up there.

He started his run over the bridge, but stopped half way when suddenly the appearance of some more Neo-Alliance goons were on the very bridge he was now on with with them. This positioning was awful. His wand trained forward and now pointing directly at a body with some rather fiery red hair atop it. No...no way. Headmistress Bunbury...Truebridge... Why was she so clad in dark robes? What was with all those followers beside her?! "Stop!" He shouted trying to avert their attention his way and away from the castle they were rushing toward. "Stupefy! Stupefy!" Gunter sent two Stunning Spells their way. Trying to hit those following behind the Former Headmistress.

They were headed for the castle same as him, but now he was playing defense. The battle was all around them. Off in the distance there looked like bright flames coming from the direction of the Stone Bridge. What was Truebridge doing?! Why was she with the Neo-Alliance!?

There were more of them.

A lot more.

The rickety bridge soon thundered with the stomps of another massive throng of followers, creaking and groaning under the weight of them. Wands drawn, some jeering and shouting, others already throwing out stunning spells and cruciatus curses toward anyone that might stand in their way. The group pressed on—following the former headmistress toward the courtyard. They were here to fight. They were here to win. And they were ready to do whatever it took.

"OAKEY WATCH OUT!"

Minerva McCarthy was not far behind one of her life long friends. She had come last minute after some serious choices with littles at home, but with Chloe watching them she joined beside her husband and the rest of the order to fight and get her son home safely and now in the middle of a war Minerva couldn't believe how many were there and who was coming at her. She blinked, but took a stand.

"PROTEGO MAXIMA" she yelled quickly to help Oakey the best she could when she saw the wands being aimed, but she had to protect herself as well so she took to sending stunning spells there way and a few tripping jinxes to try to give them some time.

After managing to get through the battle at the entrance, Kevin Hirase sped up his run after noticing a massive group of Alliance followers marching their way over the wooden bridge and in the direction of the school. He was fast, he knew that ,but would he be fast enough to get to the castle before them?

The answer was a definite no.

Without wasting any second, the Law Enforcement employee waved his wand to put up a shield in front of himself at the same time when he heard a woman's voice shouting a name from somewhere on the bridge. He entered the back of the wooden bridge, his wand at the ready as he ran behind the large group casting several spells of stupefy and incarcerous at their backs.

VESNA PETROVA: NEO-ALLIANCE ALIGNED

The air smelled like... death. Faintly. Vesna Petrova was there to make it even more so. Her loyalty to the Neo-Alliance had been strong for most of her adult life and, well, she really couldn't resist a good fight. And this one seemed promising.

Vesna stalked behind the redhead. She smelled delicious. But behind them the 30 year-old Bulgarian woman with a permanent sneer on her face heard a voice shout "stop", followed by a few puny stunning spells. Vesna stopped and turned, raising her wand and blocking them silently. And then she laughed.

"HA!" The woman cut through the crowd of her dearest friends (ok, she only liked like three of them) and hopped onto the railing of the bridge, her free hand holding onto a wooden pillar. It was a good angle and she could kill those goons while the rest of the Alliance went on.

"You think that's enough?!" She shouted towards the tiny crowd of losers, silently blocking another spell with a wordless shield spell. "I spent six years in Azkaban and you want to STUN ME?? HA!" Vesna laughed again and shot a few jinxes toward the crowd just to catch them off guard. Immediately after she shot a killing curse towards the woman.

"Avada Kedavra!"