Daisy looked down at her badly injured leg and her face turned white. She tried to place some weight on her left leg but that wasn't happening. Tears ran down her face because she knew this injury was going to have a lasting effect. When Professor Marchand appeared by her side, Daisy whispered, "I-I'm sorry, sir." She looked at the students who had gathered treasure and gave her charms teacher and look that said, "Focus on the treasure."

If those Inferi thought they had defeated Daisy then they were in for a rude awakening.

Once again Kalen slid to a halt, his shoes doing him no favors as he skidded right into the middle of the chaos, the rest of the treasure still levitating in front of him!

Kalen couldn’t stop himself and he slipped, coins, tapestries and all straight into the midst of the Inferi horde! The spell was instantly gone as coins and fabric rained down on the undead creatures, and he found himself in the midst of cold bodies and strong hands and sharp teeth. He could barely feel his flesh rip or the heat of a fire spell he was too busy trying to scramble up out of their midst.

He barely got a look around at the disaster happening around him, he could vaguely smell smoke, but his ears were ringing and his vision seemed blurred due to something dripping into his eyes.

Merlin! He kept fighting, trying to get the Inferi off him and to a safe spot, but it seemed that spot did not exist at the moment.

Was it just him or had the chaos stopped momentarily when they had showed up with part of the treasure? No, it was definitely not just him thinking that because every inferi seemed to turn and look at him, Maddie and Trinetta.

He thought it was over. That the inferi would take the stupid treasure and leave them all alone. But he was wrong as he heard the spine shivering voice of the inferi telling them to get the rest.

Dorian let out a terrified yell as he threw the treasure in his arms on the ground and when he felt a hand grab his shirt he nearly fainted with shock. Luckily, it was not one of the inferi but Maddie who was dragging him along. "O-ok" he managed to croak out and as he ran after her he dropped the coins from his pocket on to the ground.

Gaston kept up his barrage of fire spells as the Inferi closed in on him. He shuddered at the sensation of cold, dead hands on him, and soon his jacket was in tatters as they tore apart the pockets in search of their treasure. He tried to wrench their hands off him, but they were too strong. "Incendio! Incendio tria!" he sent a fresh round of spells at the creatures grabbing him, taking careful aim so as not to set himself on fire in the process. Then he caught another one ripping into his trouser pocket. "Oh, no you don't!" He aimed another fire spell right into its eyes.

His face and hands were bleeding from the Inferi clawing at him, but he kept fighting. It was only when he heard Daisy's voice that he allowed himself to take his eyes off the monsters. Relief washed over him as he heard her voice; at least he knew she was still alive... but the moment of joy was quickly overtaken by sadness as he saw the tears on her face. "No, I'm sorry..." he choked out, biting his lip hard to stop himself from crying with her. He should've been hurt instead of her. He should've done more to keep her safe...

In his moment of crushing guilt, Gaston didn't notice the Inferius approaching from his blind side until it shoved him hard. He barely managed to twist his body so as not to fall on top of Daisy as he went down. The crunch of breaking bone rang in his ears as he landed hard on his side, though he didn't know if the sound came from him or one of the Inferi. Somehow, miraculously, he hadn't dropped his wand in the fall. He aimed another Incendio tria to buy himself time to get back to his feet. He rose unsteadily, biting back a scream as he put weight on his leg. He knew he had to stand. If he stayed down, he and everyone around him would surely die.

Then everything just... stopped, and Gaston knew Maddie, Dorian, and Nettie were back with the treasure. It was only through the break in the fighting that he noticed the portraits on fire and aimed a quick nonverbal Extinguishing charm in that direction. He nodded in reply to Maddie's question. "Yes, just set the treasure down and get as far out of their way as you can," he said. Then he heard Dorian and added, "No, don't throw-" he began, but Nettie had already done just that. His eyes darted toward the Inferi, fearing an angry reaction.

Wait, why weren't the Inferi leaving? They had their treasure! Then he heard one of them speak, but before he could give much thought to it, the fighting started again. Everything was happening so fast...Junia and Nathan were down; then he saw Kalen slip and treasure went flying. Oh, good Godric Gryffindor! What next? A few of the coins raining down beaned him on the head, but that was the least of his worries right now. He glanced at one of the fallen coins, and suddenly the Inferius's words made sense. "The coins..." he mumbled, recalling the coins that were found n odd places around the school grounds. "They want the coins we found on the grounds! Everyone, help me summon them!"

"Accio!" He aimed his wand through the hole in the door., then pointed it toward the upper floors of the castle, in case anyone had kept any coins in the common rooms or handed them in to a professor. "Accio! Accio!"

Back at in the entrance hall again, Dorian didn't even hesitate this time and dropped the treasure he had been holding on the ground. He might also have thrown some coins at the inferi despite Professor Marchand' warning not to do it. He was literally on adrenaline right now and he could not think straight.

He ran a hand through his hair yet again as inferi did not stop even with them giving the treasure back and he wondered why. Until the Charms Professor got the idea and he gasped. The coins on the grounds! OF COURSE!

Dorian held his wand up as well. He knew he was bad at the summoning charm but Professor Marchand had given him the advice once to visualize it happening when casting the spell. And so, the Ravenclaw stared in front of him, his eyes wide with concentration and shouted "Accio, Accio, Accio!" as he visualized the coins he had found at the entrance gate to come flying towards him.

Speaking of, did that mean that that adorable niffler would get his treasure stolen away from him again? Poor thing, Dorian made a mental note to go back to the gates and bring him something shiny if the creature was still there.

Oh right, focus! "Accio!" he was fairly sure that it hadn't worked for him but it was the thought that counted right?

Daisy had managed to sit herself up and aim her wand towards the hole in the door, pointing it at a rather odd angle but that was due to her injuries and being surrounded by Inferi and chaos. Concentrating with all the effort she could muster, Daisy thought about the coins and shouted, "Accio! Accio coins! Accio!"

Her left arm felt like it was growing heavier by the second. Warm, sticky blood gushed from the wound as she stumbled away from the inferi she had burned, stumbling towards Marchand and- "TAYO! TAYO YOU'RE HERE," Sylvie YELLED, relieved and then very very very not relieved. "TAYO BE CAREFUL!" she screamed again as the inferi didn't relent, continuing to shoot fire spells left and right, forgetting all the other spells she'd ever learned in her life. Fire killed them? Fire it would be.

Then the other students came back and it was as if time came to a standstill. She wiped sweat away from her brow, fingers white around the wand she clutched like a lifeline, wary of every single movement in the entrance hall. Her left shoulder sagged even more, her torn shirt sticking to the wounds causing unbearable pain. It was all Sylvie could do hold back tears, but she had to stay strong just a few minutes more, since they'd probably be leaving now. They got what they wanted, right? this treasure thing?

Wait. No no no. No, they GOT what they WANTED, the stupid TREASURE was HERE. Taking another step backwards as the inferi jumped to action again, Sylvie tripped over something, a piece of burning wood, and down she went, trying to block her fall with her bad shoulder. Her cry of pain was barely heard over the terrible noise in the hall. She struggled to get up, not fast enough as one of the creatures made its way over, reaching for her clothes. "I haven't got any treasure, get AWAY from me!" she shrieked, crawling backwards, trying to kick the thing square in the face.

But why were the rest of them not shooting fire spells anymore?? Surely some could summon more treasure and some could KILL THE INFERI. Please kill the inferi. Another one was heading her way, going for her ankles and she could barely wriggle away, mangled shoulder absolutely useless. She shrieked in fear, and pain, as the two corpses advanced on her. SOMEONE PLEASE KILL THE INFERI. PLEASE. For SYLVIE LYRA NORCOTT.

In the couple of seconds it had taken Gaston to send out a few summoning charms (and for Daisy and Dorian to help him), the Inferi were on the move again. A piercing shriek caused his dark head to whip around, and his heart dropped as he saw the monsters reaching for Sylvie. No, this was not happening! He wasn't about to let them put one more rotten hand on his students. His first instinct was to run to her and physically pry the disgusting things off her, but that wasn't possible. Even if he were strong enough, there was no way he'd reach her in time. It was taking everything he had just to stand, let alone run!

His left arm trembled as he aimed his wand. It was hard enough for him to cast a fire spell at all, but casting one that close to a student... he didn't thunk he could do it. What if he misfired? If he burned her, he'd never forgive himself! Instead he opted for a fire lasso; that would give him better control over the fire. "Ignisio Funem!" With a whiplike wave of his wand, he flicked the fire rope toward the Inferi nearest Sylvie.

Oh, Merlin, there were too many of them! Too many Inferi, too many injured people... He couldn't protect them all! Unless... an idea occurred to him. "Everyone, get behind me! Help the injured along!" Once everyone in the group was safely behind him, he was going to cast a ring of fire around them all in a last ditch attempt to save them from further injury.

This place was always so problematic and chaotic, Eria wondered why she kept coming back...She knew her parents didn’t care, but why didn’t she care enough to escape this forsaken danger riddled venue? Maybe she secretly enjoyed chaos on her journey to trying to feel something. Once she knew that the zombie apocalypse had begun, she’d been searching for the few people that she could not quite escape caring about....ie Beth Greyson, Quinn, and Nathan....though the last one she was still in denial. Well....until she came down the staircase and saw him potentially becoming a resident evil snack pack. In blind anger, a fire whip shot from the lanky snakettes wand as she cracked it at the face of her....whatever he was....assailants. [B]”Hey. Get up, we can’t snog if you’re dead.”[\B] She said it dryly, hiding the fact that she was sincerely concerned about her housemates well being.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!


They were coming in. "Gunnar they are going to get us." She was sobbing by this point and seeing those ugly things made her more hysterical. Why hadn't they been stopped yet?

As they got closer she shrieked louder and ran toward Professor Marchand dragging Gunnar behind her, but as she was running to him she was scratched by one of those things.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Screaming she grabbed for the professor's robes as she continued to cry.

It seemed like the Entrance Hall had gotten a lot more...crowded in the last few minutes. Nettie was still nervously hiding by the staircase, and it didn't seem like the treasure had done anything to stop the situation. What else could they possibly want?!

The coins by the lake? What did that even mean? Nettie's brain started to feel foggy, the adrenaline wearing off now. People were summoning all around her, but she didn't think if she tried it would work because she wasn't sure she knew what to summon. Were they talking about the coins they'd JUST found before the Inferi attacked? Why didn't the Inferi just pick it up on their way up here?

So instead, she just nervously situated herself behind Marchard, wand held up in front of her - just in case.

With pockets enlarged all thanks to the spell she'd cast back in the Chamber, Maddie rushed back into the entrance hall. The battle was still in full force, and from the looks of it, more people were getting hurt. Maddie felt sore due to the fall she'd had in the Chamber, but she tried to ignore the pain until the treasure was returned to the Inferi. She tossed her new batch onto the floor at the Inferi's feet, and then she backed up to summon the coins Professor Kennedy had asked her to retrieve.

Wait a minute... How was she supposed to summon only the coins that belonged with the treasure? Nearly everybody in the castle had coins in their possession. What if she accidentally summoned all the knuts, sickles, and galleons out there? Hmm...on second thought, would that really be that bad?

She tried to push thoughts of all the other coins out of her mind, though, and focus only on the coins that the Inferi wanted. "Accio, coins!" she called out. Now, this should be interesting. On top of the attacking Inferi, people rushing about, a battle going on, and a group running back and forth with the treasure, coins were going to start catapulting their way into the hall.

Oh, and the thought still remained---who was controlling the Inferi? If you asked Maddie, they should start pointing fingers at the man who'd sent over the tapestries from that museum. She wouldn't put it past him to set this up in order to get the entire stash for himself.

Despite the fact that he had told some students to Accio coins, they hadn’t until someone else had said something, apparently no one listened to whatever came out of his mouth. Well, mostly everyone, thankfully Maddie had followed his instructions!

Eh, he would have been annoyed had he not been in the middle of the Inferi horde.

He hasn’t just slipped, he had casually wrecking balled right into the middle of the Inferi and was now currently fighting for his life! He knew he had a gash on his face as he could feel a sting and something dripping down onto his hand, and he felt a sting across his chest, but he was too busy trying to send fire charms to the Inferi he was fighting to try and get free.

No big deal.

He hoped Gaston had things well in hand, because right now he was surrounded by terrifying Inferi.

He was going to die. Even with all the older students and professors trying to hold off the walking undead with their spells, Gunnar was sure that this was going to be his demise. And he wouldn't be able to protect his little sister either.

He might have been able to cast a few Incendios himself, but it was also hard to make sure he wasn't lighting anyone alive on fire in the process. It was just too much chaos. And they just kept coming. Why was he still here?? He really needed to take Chloe and run to his common room. Or her common room, since it was far away from this whole nightmare.

His arm had been grabbed just before Chloe pulled him, and though her action helped to free him, his robes were ripped and arm was gashed in the process. He supposed it could have been worse, like half the people here.

"Chloe, come on!" He grabbed her arm as she started crying into Marchand's robes. "Let's get out of here!" He wasn't going to get any treasure that he hadn't taken in the first place, he couldn't yet cast a summoning charm, his fire spells obviously weren't working, and there really was no sense in standing around waiting to be torn apart.

Everything was just chaos. Théo smiled at Sylvie still not in the mood to talk with what is going on. There were inferi coming at them and well this was not something he ever thought he would be doing. He was not even thinking about dying but he was still focusing on screaming fire spells at inferi and trying not to be caught when Sylvie yelled.

NO

"SYLVIE!"

Thank Merlin for Professor Marchand.

Théo ran over to Sylvie using every fire spell he knew.

"You ok Sylvie?"

Looks like they got the treasure but there was more. What was going on this was just chaos.

Absolute Chaos. They should really get out of here but well they were in no position to

A number of Inferi continued their search for the rest of the treasure. They didn't care what they destroyed to get what they were here for: fabric, stone, humans. They were not leaving without the gold. Their search continued with a more intensity than before. They were becoming desperate and ruthless, and it showed.

Coins, fabrics and the like joined the fray. The pieces rained down on everyone gathered there: humans and Inferi alike. The few Inferi that weren't fighting wasted no time in collecting up the pieces on the floor. Anyone who fought them were tossed aside... clawed at... blood splattering everywhere...

Anyone observant enough might have noticed a whooshing sound... a whooshing sound that was steadily growing louder... and louder... and louder...

A particularly loud WHOOSH! was heard before it happened. A large number of coins flew in from all directions: the castle stairs, the dungeons, the grounds. People were no longer in possession of them, the Inferi were. Every dead corpse stopped struggling with the humans and joined in the catch for the gold. Skeletal hands grabbed as many of the coins as they could, jumping, grabbing, doing as much as they could.

As suddenly as it had started, the chaos stopped. When all the treasure had been gathered up, every Inferi came to an immediate stop. The Inferius in lead turned its milky eyes towards the others, its army. There was a small jerk of its head before it turned on its heal and walked out of the hall. Arms laden with gold, every other Inferi followed out of the hall and out of the castle.

They had what they needed. The fight was over.

Dorian hadn't concentrated on a spell this much ever before. It had to work, it just had to, or they were all doomed. Because he was concentrating, he did not hear a wooshing sound until it was very close to the entrance hall and he looked up to see coins falling on the ground in front of him.

If you thought that a coin shower would be awesome, well it wasn't. It HURT! The Ravenclaw stepped away to the wall as the inferi began to snatch up the coins, wondering why they wanted it so badly that they'd try to kill for it.

And then they were.... It took a few seconds for him to understand that they weren't under attack anymore. They had won...won! "WE DID IT!" He shouted excitedly as adrenaline pumped back in to him and he threw his hands up in celebration. "We did it! We did it! We--"

His legs gave out and he fell on the ground as a dizzy feeling hit him. His adrenaline seemed to have taken its toll.

As soon as she cast the spell to summon the coins, she felt a sharp pain sweep across her face. Wincing, she looked up to find herself face-to-face with an Inferi. He'd somehow slashed his hands across her face and drawn a bit of blood. Did an Inferi even have fingernails? How did that even happen? Never mind that. Now she was ready to fight again.

"ARGGHHHHH!" she yelled out, angry that no matter how hard she tried, the Inferi kept coming back for more and more. She'd given them everything she could think to give them, and so had the others. WHAT DID THEY WANT?! What else was there to give?!

She was just about cast Incendio, when it pretty much started storming coins. Any other time, she'd be snatching up as many as she could, but she swatted them away from her and even tossed out one that fell into her pocket. The Inferi were like vultures as they scooped up the treasure, and then on command, they abruptly turned and left.

So...that was it? It was over?

A sudden overwhelming feeling of fatigue, pain, and victory swept over her, and she stumbled lazily to the side of the wall and let her back slide down it until she was seated on the floor. She laid there with her eyes closed and just cried.

Kalen was trying to fight the Inferi, not only with his spells, but with his fists as well, anything he could do, punch, kick, elbow, everything was going in to keeping himself alive and trying to get out of the horde.

However almost all at once, the Inferi stopped and then turned and without another word or glance or even a hiss, they left, leaving damage in their wake. Kalen was panting heavily as he looked around, students were crying and hurt and the walls were burning.

He was at a loss for what to do first, but he shot a few water spells at the burning portraits, ensuring that at least the rest of the pictures wouldn’t go up in flames. Once he was satisfied that the fire wouldn’t ignite again, he turned to eye the students. He wasn’t much good with injuries, his brother was a healer, not him.

A silvery monarch shot out of his wand, and headed straight towards the Healers wing, that was about all he could do about it right now.

He took a breath, he was still running on adrenaline and fear and his legs were a bit shaky as he stood there surveying what could be done. He barely even noticed the blood dripping off his face, or his arm, or his chest. Or the fact that his shirt was in tatters. He was too focused on what he could do.

He doubted many of the kids would want him to comfort them, and so he took a look at Gaston and then reached into his pocket and took out the black book he had been keeping for the man and flipped it back towards him. “Looks like we made it.” He said in a rough voice and his eyes turned towards the door.

But did everyone make it? Kalen finally gave into the urge he had had all night long and he bolted out the door, intending to find his best friend and see if he was all right.

Nathan tirelessly cast all sorts of fire spells at the incoming horde. His arms and legs were bleeding from the scratches inflicted by the inferis. He even tried to punch one but they were too strong and he went toppling back on the staircase again. The next thing he knew... he was surrounded!

Thankfully, they were fully distracted to get every last drop of coins scattered on the floor around him. He turned around when Eria came to his aid."Eria!" he grinned. Amidst all the fighting, she still could make him laugh. "Yeah, I'm up...I'm up...thanks Eria,"he smirked.

Huh? Suddenly everything came to a standstill. The inferis were retreating back with the treasure. "It's over....they retreating! It's over! We're alive!" he shouted in triumph.

Just then, a translucent meerkat came running into the hall and stopped in front of its owner's Head of House. It spoke in the voice of the Head Boy, "Professor Marchand, we have a problem out here in the greenhouses. Flynn's in shock, I think we're about to loose him. Could you send the Healer, please?" The dire message delivered, the meerkat faded away.

Daisy could hear the voice of the Head Boy, Ronan. Had there been any deaths? Daisy silently begged that those who had been badly hurt were going to pull through as tears ran down her face and her body shook from the whole ordeal.

Gaston glanced around the hall, his uninjured eye taking in the chaos happening all around him. Théo had gone for Sylvie, and Eria was helping Nathan... well, sort of. He blinked as he overheard her words, immediately wishing he hadn't. Merlin, he adored all of his students, but some of the Slytherins... he would never understand them! He nervously waited for the others to get behind him, but so far only Nettie had - and the Inferi were still attacking. Hurry up, he silently willed the others. Quick, while there's still time...

He kept aiming fire spells at the corpses drawing near until a scream made his heart jump. Ignoring the pain that shot through the broken bone in his leg, he wheeled around on the spot and saw Chloe scratched and crying. His eyes narrowed to little more than two blue slits as his rage boiled over. Nothing hurt his students, especially the little ones, and lived to tell the tale! "DON'T TOUCH HER!"His wand momentarily forgotten, he hauled off and punched the thing that attacked her, hoping to dislodge its disgusting skull or at least shatter some bone. But he wasn't done! He jabbed his wand right into the corpse's eye and shouted, 'INCENDIO TRIA!"

Gaston felt something grab on to him on his blind side, and for a fleeting second, he thought it was another Inferius. Then he turned and saw Chloe, and his heart shattered. All he could do was wrap his free arm around her and let her cry into him. He didn't blame her; he was sure he'd be a weeping mess by now himself if there weren't so many people looking to him for strength. His eyes widened as Gunnar mentioned leaving. No, they couldn't! The Inferi would probably give chase, and he couldn't be there to protect them if that happened!

Before he could beg them to stay, Gaston saw Kalen in the middle of the Inferi. The color drained from his face; it was only a matter of time before they overpowered him. Well, he was not going to let that happen! He brandished his wand and cast a Firestorm charm, aiming fireball after fireball at the walking corpses. He was so busy sending fire spells that he didn't notice the whooshing sound until coins started flying past him. Then all was quiet.

Was it over? Were the Inferi really gone? He still half-expected them to come back at any moment, even as he watched the last one's retreating back. It was only then that he got a good look at the scene unfolding around him...Nathan shouting, Dorian on the ground, Daisy and Maddie crying. He wanted to scoop them all up into a hug and tell them everything would be alright, but they were scattered too far for him to comfort all at once... that and he was afraid he'd sob if he even tried to speak. He nodded at Kalen's words, tucking his little black book into his only unripped pocket. It was true they had survived, all of them, but the scars from the fight, physical and emotional, may never go away.

Gaston couldn't help but feel a slight pang of jealousy as Kalen disappeared. he wanted to go after him, to search for survivors, but most of all, he wanted to go home to his family, where he wouldn't have to pretend to be strong anymore. But he couldn't leave these kids, at least not until the healer had checked them out. Then he had to make sure all his Lions were accounted for, but above all else, he had to stand guard until he was 100% sure the Inferi weren't coming back. Suddenly. the appearance of a silvery meerkat jerked him out of his thoughts. Gaston was relieved to know Ronan had survived, but at the same time devastated to learn that Flynn probably would not. Pushing his sadness aside, he sent a silver platypus patronus to inform Penelope as requested. He looked around helplessly. There were so many injured - Flynn, Daisy, Sylvie, Junia, Chloe, Kalen, and probably others he didn't know about - and only one school healer. They were going to need help. With a wave of his wand, another platypus appeared and took off to inform St. Mungo's. He should probably inform Hawthorne as well, though at this point he had no idea if she was still alive. Deciding it was better safe than sorry, he sent out one final patronus.

With that finished, he limped closer to the door to keep watch. He aimed a nonverbal Lumos into the darkness outside, hoping it would light the night enough to see any survivors or Inferi that could still be outside.Finally, the pain from his injuries was starting to catch up with him, but even that was nothing compared to the emotional pain he felt. He suddenly had to grab hold of the splintered remnants of the door for support, and there he remained motionless, wand drawn, standing tall despite the tears involuntarily leaking from his eyes.

Fear wasn’t the proper word to describe Eria’s feelings when looking at the myriad of shambling corpses on the assault path. Fury was much more accurate, but that was only because she cared so much more deeply than she showed. ”Don’t take your eyes off an attacker.” The tall fifth year tutted at her partner in crime. There may have been a faint smile at him while she brandished her whip.

The coins rushing through the air, the subtle yet distinct whoosh, it was all something the strange snake could only describe as a pirate’s wet dream. Watching the frozen corpses scramble to gather ever last bit of shine into the darkness, she found it to be the eeriest calm one could imagine. She was one of the luckier ones this time, only having scratches up her jeans and legs was far from dire. She fared much better than her professors it seemed and some other students were in quite dire straights unfortunately.

The voice of one Nathan Hale coursed right through her as he shouted in triumph. Yup....he was fine. She sighed a little and looked over at him. ” Do you know any healing spells? I’ve got the feeling that the medical staff will have their hands full.”

Honestly, she content to patch Nathan up and change her pants, knowing the people she held closer were alright. However looking the professor over, the man had DEFINITELY seen better days. After bopping Nathan’s nose, she took a moment to walk over to the splintered, charred door that was shambling almost as decrepitly as the corpses had been. After accioing a chair in silence, she set it next to the professor. ”You know....after surviving all of this like a boss, I’d hate to see you get Tetanus from that door.”

Yeah, she saw the involuntary drops of saline dripping from focused lenses...but she wasn’t going to comment. She had the feeling they had a far different reasoning system and need to seem strong, but she got it. Gently, she set a hand upon an unwounded spot on his arm. ”I think, they’ll all turn out alright. You’re a good professor and did gallantly.” Maybe, you know, he was just angry at the zombies rolling up in his institution and wanted to go home and cry after a horrid day....but most of the professors here actually seemed to care more than most. Either way, hopefully he’d sit and get off that nasty door....

And just like that, it was over...

Angry tears spilled from her eyes as exhaustion overcame the injured seventh year and she slumped against the wall, having never made it safely behind the professor. Her head was throbbing steadily and when she lifted her scratched hand to the back of it, she found a sizable bump there. She was also aware that her hair was wet, surely sticky with blood, and the realization made her nauseous. If she was hurt like this, how badly were her friends hurt? Her family... Abraham...

Her eyes flicked to the door as people began moving around the entrance hall, checking their injuries, speaking to each other. She didn't care. She didn't need to speak to anyone to know that her cousin had not yet come walking back through that castle door and she had no idea if he was okay. If he'd even been able to fight. If fear had cost him something much greater than his pride. She was terrified to find out, too weak to leave the hall as every move made her dizzy. She was stuck.

News of Flynn only cemented the fact that others had suffered worse than they had and it made any strength Junia had left drain from her body. This was not the way she wanted her seventh year to end.

As she slid down the wall, she assessed her wounds, tending to the more treatable ones herself with the healing spells she'd been focusing on in her free time. Her head, that would need to be seen to, but right now the pain was a reminder she'd survived. She hoped others had been as lucky...

Gaze resting on the charred doorway again, she hoped against hope that the people she loved would be coming through it and back to her.