"ODAIR YOU ARE!" Sirius had shouted it the moment that Jasper Odair came through the floo in the library at Fallengunder. Only Sirius Black could be engaged in mortal, one-on-one combat with a Death Eater and still have the mental faculty to shout such a ridiculous thing, Jasper thought, shaking his head as he was followed by Florean Fortescue and Minerva McGonagall.
Jasper jumped into the fight, taking on a Death Eater that was coming up behind Sirius, aiding the one Sirius was battling to the front. Next thing, Jasper and Sirius were back-to-back, shooting spells in the offensive while covering one another.
"It's fucking amazing to be fighting with you, Odair," Sirius called over his shoulder, snapping a good stinging curse toward the mask of his death eater. The curse rebounded off the bone of the mask and zipped over their shoulders, hitting Jasper's death eater in the shoulder with a yowl of pain.
Jasper replied, "You find it amusing, do you?" He smirked as he jabbed a punching curse.
Sirius let out a bellowing laugh, "You know, Odair, I don't know why I ever hated you."
"You hated me?" Jasper asked.
"Yes, well you were stealing Lily from my mate," Sirius answered.
"To be fair," Jasper said, pausing between words, slashing his wand, "James sort of stole her from me, really..." He was laughing even as he spoke the words.
"Nah," Sirius answered, "Lily and James were meant to be since day one of first year."
Suddenly Jasper fell, slammed into Sirius from the back, knocking them both down to the floor, and Sirius turned, jabbed his wand, and a pile of ducks exploded from the Death Eater on Jasper's side before Sirius turned back to his own and cast an excellent binding spell, sending his death eater to the floor as he pulled Jasper up to his feet. Jasper laughed as swarms of ducks started flapping about wildly in the library, their feathers fluttering about as though they'd walked in on a pillow fight at a little girl's slumber party. Ducks were flying out the window, quacking loudly, confusing Death Eaters...
"NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR DUCKS, MR. BLACK!" Minerva McGonagall shouted at him as she dodged a couple of them flying past her. One hit a death eater in the face with his great flapping wings, and McGonagall used the moment he was caught off guard by the waterfowl to strike him with a spell that had him doubled over, clutching himself between the legs. She sniffed and flicked her wrist, ropes binding the guy's arms quickly as he lay on the ground groaning.
Sirius's eyes were wide. "Did Minnie just --"
Florean's voice came from behind Sirius, "Oh yeah she did. Was a specialty of Min's back in the day..." he chuckled, sending the two bound Death Eaters into a pile in the corner of the room to be collected once the fighting was over. "Used it once on Flea... what a glorious day that was..." he giggled in a childish way, then bounded off calling, "Oi, Al! We've got to stop meeting like this!" as he joined Alastor Moody across the room, helping with the cluster of Death Eaters that were being mercilessly beat one-handedly (and one-leggedly for that matter) by Moody.
Sirius shook his head, grinning, "Well bloody hell. Flea? That's dad," he laughed. "Can't wait to bring THAT up and get the full scoop on-- Whoa, watch out!" He knocked Jasper to the side, narrowly missing a ball of fire that had come from an overshot spell across the room. His eyes followed it and he saw Dumbledore had cast it, but it had been sent awry by one of the Death Eaters who had cast a spell to send the fireball into the fray. The fireball sailed out one of the broken windows...
Dumbledore and James were at the center of the fray, back to back, a tight ring of death eaters pressed to them. And all of the scariest ones, too, the ones who were so frightening that they were easy to recognize, not bothering to wear their masks - Bellatrix and Rudolphus among them. Sirius patted Jasper on the back. "Careful with yourself mate, I'm off to help over there." And he ducked quickly away as Jasper dodged a stunner and returned it with a hex of his own...
Sirius waved his arms about, sending jellyleg jinxes every which way and soon he had several death eaters involuntarily flopping about as though dancing. Sirius grinned, "Oh you wanted to start a dance party, did you lot? Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, you're stayin' alive, stayin' alive... Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin' just stayin' alive, stayin' alive.. a-a-a-ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive... a-a-a-ah stayin' aliiiii-iiii-iii-iiiiive... Blast if I only had my record player with me! We could have a real party in here!" He grinned as the Death Eaters flobbed about helplessly, laughing loudly at them.
"If you pull a bleedin' record player out of your pocket right now, Sirius, I swear I will hex you," Lily said, coming up beside him and waving her wand, bowling down all the Death Eaters who had been dancing, clearing a path for them to get through to the center, to James and Dumbledore.
Dumbledore had Rulolphus battling him, and James had Bellatrix, who shrieked and squealed, jumping about avoiding the spells flying at her. James's forehead was sheened with sweat and he jabbed and slashed and shouted spells as quick as he could, so fast that Sirius was quite impressed. Lily ran 'round his other side and added into so it was the pair of them against Bellatrix, whose psychotic laughter filled the room, even as her husband realized he was no match for Dumbledore and quickly disapparated with a loud crack.
The doors burst opened then and Kingsley, Arthur, Fabian, and Gideon broke in, wands at the ready. Bellatrix looked at the door in surprise - these were her prisoners that she'd worked so hard to procure! And in the pause of her shock, Lily struck her cheek with a spell that made it break into hives that ran amazingly fast down her neck and over her shoulders and collar bone. Bellatrix let out a scream, turning toward her, "You little bitch!" she shrieked and she sent a spell directly at Lily's chest, which threw Lily backwards and onto the flagstone floor.
James jumped between them, "Watch who you're calling a bitch, Bella!" he shouted.
Sirius twisted about and to join James, their elbows touching, and he said, "Oh those hives DO look painful, cousin... You know what I hate most about hives?"
Bellatrix was raising her wand, hissing with anger...
"The bees." Sirius jabbed his wand, "Apibus!"
There was a loud buzzing that started quiet, then got louder and Bellatrix froze, her eyes widening as the hives on her neck grew and she screamed, and there were bees flying out of great pus-filled holes in the hives, and her arms waved about her head as she turned away from Sirius and James.yhh6tttttt James laughed, high fived and then low fived Sirius and said, "Good one, Sirius." Then he turned hurriedly to check on Lily.
It was during this insanity that Edgar Bones walked into the library, looking around with a blank expression of confusion, and then a great laugh of amusement as Bellatrix went running by with a whole nest of bees humming after her. "Never been more Bee-autiful, Bella," he snickered as she went.
Sirius looked over at Edgar Bones. "Well damn, that was a good one," he said appreciatively. "I was comb-ing my brains for a good bee pun."
Edgar said, "Just don't use honey, as that might get a bit weird." He winked, and jumped off to helping Alastor Moody and Florean Fortescue.
Bellatrix's bees were buzzing around and starting to sting people at random - Sirius realized too late that the bees wouldn't make a distinction between Order, Resistance, and Death Eater, and he covered his eyes as Fabian shouted, a bee getting him in the back of the neck, and another stung Jasper Odair on the hand. But Bellatrix's frenzy was bringing her about the room, and the bees were so plentiful that most of the Death Eaters were disapparating now - the room filling with pops and cracks as the occupants disappared, Bellatrix included.
Soon, the only ones remaining in the room were the members of the Order and the Resistance and the few Death Eaters who had been stunned or tied up.
James had got Lily to her feet and was checking her over, worried, even though she'd said she was okay several times - the spell had simply been a shoving spell, and she laughed saying that Bellatrix had been like a child on a playground, bullying her. "Probably couldn't think of anything better with those hives all over her," James said, laughing, though he kept checking to be sure nothing was broken on Lily.
Sirius looked around, his smile melting as he realized that in the frenzy of the fight he had not seen hide nor hair of his fiance, whom he had followed to Fallengunder in the first place. "Where's my Remus?"
Several people answered at once - praises for his fight against Voldemort, Lily saying how incredible Remus had been, and Dorcas Meadows, who was finally down from the ceiling, declaring she'd never seen anything so impressive in her entire life... but Sirius only heard Edgar Bones's response, "The hospital wing at Hogwarts. Frank Longbottom was taking him in to Pomfrey -- he's alright, though!" Edgar added at the look on Sirius's face, but Sirius - being Sirius - didn't hear that bit and went off in a frenzy.
"The hospital wing?" Sirius asked, and, just like that, he disapparated without another question.
Everyone was working at catching everyone else up, Moody collecting the incarcerated Death Eaters from where they'd been put, Gideon and Fabian helping to get the stunned tied, and they were disappearing, then reappearing, transporting the Death Eaters... Dorcas hurried to go and check on Elva and Bilius in the corridor, and Edgar Bones checked on Florean and McGonagall, who had just found out that Elphinstone Urquart was injured and was looking a bit worse for wear at the thought of what had been done to him. Florean was holding her up as she cried...
Dumbledore put a hand on James's shoulder, heavily. James looked up at him. "Sir?"
Dumbledore drew a deep breath, "When we're back to the castle, you and I need to have a very important conversation, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, and James felt his stomach roll at the thought that - after everything that had happened - he might very well be in a good deal of trouble...
Suddenly there was a great deal of loud sobbing in the corridor and Lily turned and rushed out to investigate. Bilius Weasely had been awakened and Arthur knelt beside him, hugging his brother to his chest as Bilius sobbed loudly, the body of Chriselda Blythe having just been exhumed from the dungeons of Fallengunder, and James stared on in horror as he came up behind Lily, her body being levitated directly past them. Whatever spell Voldemort had used had been a particularly terrible one, for Chriselda was in a terrible state, and Lily turned instinctively back to press her face into James's chest, covering her eyes. She was nearly unrecognizable...
"How could he?" Lily cried into James's chest. "How could he be so cruel?"
James shook his head, holding her close, and looking about, staring at all the people that were here, that had made it, and had stood up against Voldemort, trying to remind himself that there were good things left in the world and that a good number of those good things were here in that very room... and then he realized there were a few faces he had not yet seen.
"Where's Ned Veigler?" he asked.
Edgar Bones looked up from where he'd been kneeling near Arthur, talking lowly to Bilius Weasley. He stood, stepping over the brothers' legs and walked over to James and Lily as Alastor Moody and Gideon Prewett laid Chriselda's body down in a quiet corner, out of the way, until they'd managed at getting a proper casket for her...
"Mr. Potter," Edgar said, and his eyes were terribly sad as he spoke. He shook his head slightly, "I'm... I'm terribly sorry..."
"What for?" Lily asked, her voice rising with suspicion and worry.
Edgar drew a deep breath, then let it out, "Ned Veigler has been murdered by Voldemort," he said steadily.
Lily let out a deep gasp and James's hand tightened on her shoulder. He stared at Edgar Bones, wishing that it wasn't true, but he knew - he could feel it in his guts - that it was. He closed his eyes, listening and feeling as Lily sobbed into his chest, her body heaving. He opened them again. "Does Remus Lupin know?"
"Yes," Lily said without even looking up. She remembered the flashing anger in his eyes as he'd returned and fought Voldemort. He had known, that's what had fueled his attack, she just knew.
"There's... there's more bad news," Marlene Mackinnon said, hesitantly.
James turned to face her, eyes concerned.
"Wendy Brighton and Maryrose Jenkins were going up to the cave and they were joined by Alabaster Jackson and Jackson Maw and the lot of them were attacked by Death Eaters... Wendy told us.. and... and the Death Eaters, they took Maryrose, Jackson, and Alabastar..."
James felt like he'd been punched in the gut. "They - they took -- shit. SHIT. Shit. I --" He felt quite dizzy. A flash of a memory went through his mind - walking down the corridors of Hogwarts, side-by-side with Remus Lupin, talking about artefacts, talking about Maryrose.
Why would Maryrose's death be artefacting?
Something changed that ought not to have.
James shook his head, "No, no, no..." he muttered, and he hurriedly disapparated to the cave over Hogsmeade, planning to run the path, to find anything he could that might help him figure out where Maryrose - and the others - had been taken.
Marlene and Lily shared a look, and with a couple of simultaneous CRACKS, they went after him.