Wilby's POV
Long story short. I dodged the Curse and nearly escaped without any permanent injuries.
Dawn pointed her wand at the ground, and used one of Drew's favourite spells, "Deprimo." She blasted a hole in the floor, giving me a clear view of the dungeons below.
Dawn had smartly separated us, since I was better at close combat.
She yelled the Killing Curse again the same second I shouted, "Drew!"
Dawn's wand flicked upward a half inch, and the spell missed my head. But she didn't turn around or look behind her, "Nice try dimwad, but I'm more like Drew than you might think. For one thing, I'm not fooled easily."
"Yes you are," I found that I became braver when I imagined Dawn as Drew, because the only time I've ever been afraid of Drew was more than eight years ago, back when Logan and Drew had just started their rivalry.
I non-verbally put up a Shield Charm. "Have you been hearing that woman's voice when night falls? I have, and Drew's have. You must have too, and you're actually listening to her."
"Shut up!" she snapped, looking uneasily at the chandelier above, like she was worried the candles would go out. "Isabell and I would have done this anyway."
"Ahh," I nodded, "I see."
She made like she was going to throttle me, "Why aren't you afraid?"
"Oh no, Dawn's gonna kill me," I said half-heartedly, even rolling my eyes the way Drew does.
Dawn made a strangled noise in her throat, "Well you still haven't figured out how I gave you Love Potion! Later, you're going to be poisoned all over again!"
Oh yeah, I thought. The idea of falling in love with Dawn or Isabell again filled me with dread.
Dawn put on her smug face, "Ha! Incarcerous!"
As Conjured ropes flew towards me, I shouted, "Locomotor!"
The ropes flew right back at her, but she sliced her wand upwards, and the ropes unraveled to strings at her feet.
She kicked the strings into the hole, "Why do you even like my sister?"
I gripped my wand even harder ready in case this was a distraction, "How did you know that?"
Dawn made this face at me that told me I wouldn't do well in elementary school. "I really hope you are this stupid."
I responded with a mental Vorsoflantis.
Dawn knocked the jinx aside, and I dodged another hex.
"Reducto!" I pointed at the piles of rubble around the hole, and they crumbled to dark grey ashes. I used another spell to blow it into her eyes, then brought my wand to the ceiling above her. "Diffindo."
I had just carve a half-circle in the ceiling when I realized Dawn had recovered from the dust. I temporarily abandoned my plan, "Inferno!"
Blasts of fire erupted from my wand, singing the walls and the ground.
Dawn made a watery sphere, and the flames failed to penetrate it. The duel continued, with hexes and spells and counterjinxes galore.
I did the Severing Charm again on the ceiling, planning to carve a circle, which will fall onto Dawn. She realized what I was doing, but there wasn't any time for her to jump aside, and there weren't any spells short enough to be said in time.
But she surprised me, "NOX."
And the entire room plunged to blackness. The candles had gone out.
I faltered. I wasn't sure where the circle I was carving ended. I again deserted my plan, "Lumos."
Dawn was inches in front of me.
I yelped and jumped backwards. With a bang, my wand flew out of my hand, and I was suddenly lying on the cold hard ground, my back and head aching.
Dawn muttered something, and I found that I couldn't move my arms or legs, they were glued to the ground. I realized it was the same spell she used to stick Logan's hand to the wall to prevent him from escaping death.
Dawn bent over me, smirking, "Hold still. This will hurt less if you do."
-------> Nico's POV <------
Thankfully, Piper's charmspeak gave me the energy I normally didn't have at two in the freaking morning.
I shadow traveled to the Library corridor and found myself face-to-face with Dawn Getaway, who did the normal thing when people saw me in the morning. She screamed and jumped backwards.
She stared at me in shock and confusion, "What? How did you—"
I ignored her and pushed her onto the ground for the others to find. I could sense Wilby's life now, he wasn't dead, but dying fast.
I ran down the hallway, turned, and found the place in ruins. The marble floor had a gigantic hole in the middle, and I could see the dungeons underneath. Chunks of wall had been blasted off, and scorch marks like spray paint covered the walls and floor.
Wilby was lying spread-eagled on the ground. I came forward, and I'm not even exaggerating when I say this. His face was white like the floor. And dark blood bubbled from his mouth to the floor.
"Oh gods," I mumbled. I used the shadows in his throat to push out the blood so that he stopped choking.
"Hey!" Dawn raced over. "What are you—"
I flicked my hand and she slammed against the wall. I willed the shadows to collect and hold her there.
I turned back to Wilby and touched his shoulder, and we shadow traveled to the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey was sleeping in her office, so I woke her up. She jumped up and immediately got to work on Wilby. The first thing she did was kick me out.
I sighed.
When I got back to the Library corridor, everyone was already there. Dawn was whimpering and trying to free herself.
Thalia noticed me first, "How's Wilby?"
"I think he's gonna be fine," I said, "he's not dead. Not sure what's wrong with him. He's bleeding from the mouth pretty bad."
Annabeth glared at Dawn, "Care to explain?"
Dawn looked ready to cry, "Explain what?"
"Start from the beginning," Annabeth said. Then she made her face level with Dawn's, "And I am really, really good at telling when someone lies."
Dawn looked at the ground, unwilling to meet our accusing eyes, "Look, I'm the victim okay? You want to know the real reason why I left the boundaries during capture the flag? Drew sent my cat to lead me out of the Shield Spell. She did it to deliberately put me in danger."
Annabeth nodded slowly, pondering this.
"Wait now," Leo protested, "you believe her?"
"Partly. And I bet you used Wilby to return the favor, didn't you?" Annabeth's voice was tinged with anger, "You made him use Drew's pride against her to make her stand near the Forest. Dawn, they could have died out there!"
"No I didn't! He did it willingly. He was mad at her for telling everyone his daddy's a Death Eater."
"Liar," Piper glared, "Wilby was influenced in some way. I can sense emotions, I know that Wilby would never put Drew in danger that way."
Annabeth nodded, agreeing with Piper, "Dawn, just stop trying. You don't have your sister's skill at deception. And even her lies I can see through. You drove fear into everybody's mind. If this had been going on for another week or so, Hogwarts would have closed!"
When Dawn didn't reply, Percy asked the question everybody wanted answered, "Why are you doing this? What you're doing is bad, you know."
Dawn sighed and gave us a pained look, "My blasted sister got all the attention. Teachers always remembered her and not me, even though I'm a much better student. And-"
Annabeth sighed, interrupting Dawn's rant, "So this is another jealousy thing. Seriously, jealousy is the one thing that can turn best friends against each other. Now tell us the story from the beginning."
Dawn mumbled most of it, but we still heard enough. Feel free to read the next two paragraphs twice.
In the summer, Isabell and Dawn made plans to make themselves infamous, but us demigods weren't meant to be in the picture. So Dawn tried to cause chaos between us by putting Violence Potion in candies, which Thalia ate at Hogsmeade. At the same time, Isabell poisoned a bottle of Butterbeer, and suggested that Madam Rosmerta give it to Hermione Granger. The Potion Thalia ate had a milder effect on a demigod, and Thalia could control herself to some degree, so that plan failed. Then after Hogsmeade, Dawn kidnapped Logan and Apparated into an abandoned warehouse. Later Dawn and Drew then had an argument at Hogwarts, Drew saying that Dawn didn't have the guts to kill someone herself. Dawn then proved her wrong by murdering Lavender Brown in front of Conrad Malowski.
Last week in Divination Isabell put Wilby Love Potion in his ink. He wrote the note to Sylvia, and was meant to help murder her, but Duncan hung him on the chandelier. Wilby wiped Isabell's memory so she couldn't reveal Dawn. Dawn threatened to kill Wilby if Drew didn't keep quiet, but Drew knew the consequences of agreeing, and ignored her. So instead, Dawn told her if Drew told anyone who was the killer, Dawn would tell everyone who killed Logan. And that time Drew listened.
Leo sighed, "That's really selfish of her."
Piper smiled wanly, "Sometimes being the opposite of selfish isn't a good thing either."
Dawn looked like she'd been slapped, "Are you talking about Conrad?"
Piper blinked slowly, like she was thinking, and didn't reply, "Let's go see Dumbledore, and make sure we don't meet anyone else who'll wipe Dawn's memory."
When Dawn finished telling Dumbledore what she'd done, he clasped his hands and thought for a moment.
"Am I going to be expelled?" Dawn asked meekly. "I mean, Drew nearly got expelled three times, but something prevented it."
Annabeth was scandalized, "Three times?"
Dumbledore nodded in wonder, "I always wondered how she managed to convince the Ministry officials otherwise. This year she was close to expulsion as well, but I stepped in."
"She gets away with everything," Dawn complained loudly. "In fifth year she held a kid out the third floor window by the ankle until he gave her the password to Gryffindor tower. Then she dropped him onto the balcony. How did she not get expelled that time?"
Dumbledore just shrugged, "Oh, they had their reasons. Fifth year was a hectic year for her. As for your question, Dawn, right now, the only departments in the Ministry of Magic that are somewhat functional are the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and the Department of Magical Transportation. So the expulsion of students is now entirely up to us."
Dawn's eyes widened, "No...No! You're not going to expel me! You can't! You let Drew go!"
But Dumbledore's expression was grave, "Drew has never done anything as horrid as you have. You and Isabell Kabrat will be expelled from Hogwarts, and since you are still a child, you will be on house arrest instead of going to Azkaban."
"Noooooooo!!" Dawn wailed. "I don't want to be expelled! This is the best school I've ever been to! Please, sir!"
"Rules are rules, Dawn, I can't change that."
Then Dawn's eyes suddenly filled with rage, like the feeling had bubbled up from deep inside, "But I didn't kill Logan."
Dumbledore stared hard at her.
"Drew did," Dawn blurted. "Ask Wilby. Drew hates Logan more than anything in the world."
A lightbulb appeared over Leo's head, "Drew's been much more moody ever since Hogsmeade. She snaps at everything now."
Piper nodded earnestly. "And Wilby told me that Drew wasn't always like that. Something must have happened."
"But this doesn't make any sense," Percy said. "How could she hate him but feel upset when he died?"
"Well, guilt obviously," Annabeth reasoned. "I mean, he's still a person."
Dumbledore nodded, "Killing changes everything. Even if it was a complete accident and not the person's fault." He looked like he knew it first hand. Then he waved us off and told us he'll deal with Dawn.
At 6AM, we woke Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Draco.
Draco joined us in the Gryffindor common room, rubbing his eyes. Immediately Ron shot out of his seat, "Slytherin in Gryffindor territory!!"
"Calm your pants Weasley," Draco grumbled, easing himself into an armchair.
"Hey—" Harry stood up too.
Piper put up her hands, accidentally hitting Harry in the face in the process, "Whoops! Sorry Harry. Guys, stop it. We're here to talk about something important."
Draco stretched his arms and yawned, making the rest of us yawn as well.
"Wake up!" Piper yelled.
I suddenly felt energized, as if I'd eaten ten Fizzing Whizzbees (not the owl).
"Why does he need to be here?" Harry grumbled, indicating Draco with a not-so-subtle jerk of his head.
"Just because," Annabeth said.
"Of course," Harry said immediately, like that was actually an answer. "I'll only listen to you though."
Annabeth pressed her lips together so she looked a bit like Minerva McGonagall.
Percy stepped in, shooting Harry a disapproving glance, "Anyway," he filled them in on what happened.
"I should have known," Hermione said guiltily. "I remember working with Dawn one time. She didn't like me very much, and her personality is just...so fake. She kept wanting to be the best."
We nodded absently.
Draco Malfoy sat up straight, "So what exactly happened to Wilby?"
Nico took a deep breath, "Dawn cut his tongue off."
"You're joking," Ron said. When we just stared at him he added, "But...Madam Pomfrey can fix him right?"
Thalia shrugged, "It's likely Dark Magic. So no."
Annabeth changed the subject, "And there's something else we need to tell you guys. Well, you two really." Annabeth looked at Ron and Harry. "About why we're here."