Continued from here

Micah's spell worked-- Juni watched with a strange mixture of hope, fear, and pride as the wall fell to pieces before them. The room before them was well-lit. It made her that much more aware of how much blood she and the others had been covered in. The thought made her gag. Papers and broken glass scattered the floor, among the debris. Her dark eyes focused on the lone man in the room. She could hear footsteps-- people running, what-- to his aid? To investigate? What if they, too, were in on this?

She knew Mr. Carstairs. He worked with her dad, and was some sort of hot-shot auror boss. Of course. That was how he got away with abducting six children and murdering one of them. Why would the dead end so conveniently be there? There wasn't a door, that didn't mean there hadn't been a door once. Knees shaking, Juni tightened the grip on her wand, pointing it at Solomon.

Fueled by rage as much as by panic, she cast a hex at him. "Ustulo!"[1] She exclaimed, a shrill quality to her voice. Her aim had not been as true as she wanted, but it hit him in the arm. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU TWISTED DICKSTAIN?!" She shrieked, voice echoing off the corridor behind her.

Juni looked at her fellow students frantically, silently asking them what they should do. She felt the panic rising in her again. She knew, she knew that if they messed up, they might not come out of this alive.

1.

Ustulo

Solomon Carstairs was reading Witch Weekly as he took tea in his office, as it was the only publication in which the inadequacies of the DMLE did not make the front page and he could - for at least a brief half hour of his life - forget the overwhelming pressure being heaped upon him to find the missing students. They were all mostly human and every one needed a break every so often.

Being dinnertime, many of them were on break.

The wizard poured a dram of whiskey into his tea cup and took a sip, flipping pages from a sordid article about what went on in the backrooms of popular theatres to peruse the latest socialite ratings.

And then the wall came down.

"Christ almighty!" Solomon reached for his wand in a panic, hot tea dropping to his lap as he struggled to process the sudden appearance of youths in his office. A hastily cast burn hex was flung at him and he stood to avoid it, the sharp and burning sensation catching him just on arm - burning off most of his sleeve with it. He swore.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU TWISTED DICKSTAIN?!"

The DMLE Head stared, mouth agape, at who he now quickly recognised as Juni Zamperia. And Micah Gallagher. Kemp. Jeun. Piselli. He did wonder if this was a dream.

"I beg your pardon." Solomon said without thinking and then lowered his wand, looking rather put out. The door to his office swung inwards - no doubt the commotion had been heard by those on level two outside[1]. The children were covered in blood but otherwise seemed rather spirited.

Five. Only five, a thought came to him but he ignored it. "Miss Zamperia, what is the meaning of this? And where the devil have you come from?"

1.	Any of you Level Two lot, c'mon now!

Continued from HERE.

Adon, with JJ at his side, moved cat-like towards Carstair's office, instantly halting at the threshold at what he saw. He felt a chill down his arms.

Five bloodied children. Juni Zamperia.  Zia Piselli.  Micah Gallagher.  Indica Kemp.  Ji-hyun Jeun.  All of Level Two had their names, faces, and hometowns memorized by now.  And here they were, wands raised, some of them.  Zamperia's at Carstairs.  Carstairs seemed... surprised. But not nearly alarmed enough for a man with an angry teenager's wand trained on him, inches from his face. 

"Hey, hey, hey," Adon's tone was hushed but urgent, palms immediately outward, wand looped beneath his thumb.  "O-K. H'okay."  He took a slight step forward, hands still up in surrender.  He had no idea what JJ was doing, just behind him.  The kid had been a hitwizard, right? They were made for this. "Juni." Reassure her. His words were light, crisp.  "It's alright, okay, Juni? It's not his fault.  We're going to need to know what happened, alright?"

Moloch, so much blood.  It was not al-fucking-right.

Eyes still on the children, Adon tilted his head ever so slightly towards the door, bellowing in his best lieutenant's voice, "WE NEED A MEDIC, HERE!" Fuck. Healer. They'd know.

Along with the other Aurors in the office, Grace had not been immune the catastrophe that was unfolding on Level 2. She was less in a rush to attend to it, however, as she had seen JJ and Adon move in. She didn't want to overcrowd the scene and cause more chaos as that could be more problematic.

Still, when she heard the call for a medic, her healing instincts surged. Grace withdrew her wand, one she had always been told was exceptional for healing purposes, and now quickly moved in behind where her fellow aurors had entered Minister Carstairs' office.

Even the best healer's mind never got used to seeing so much blood, she thought, eyes wide and scanning the room to size up the situation. Would even one medic or healer be enough for this?

Those words she did not verbalize but instead she tried steel herself and give the air that she was confident and that she was going to have the air of expertise. Looking from the bloodied students to Adon and JJ to the Minister, she asked,  "How many are hurt and who needs the most urgent care?"

When the wall literally came crumbling down, Indi didn’t really know how to process the sudden light.  Nor could she process who was in front of her:  she wasn’t familiar with where they were, it was just all lights and people and one of their friends was dead.  Indi’s mind immediately jumped to the fact that these people must have killed her and they could kill them too. 

Her shaking hands held her wand outstretched, even though she had failed at blowing down the wall, she could help protect the rest of them.   

Without thinking – or listening – anyone in their immediate vicinity was the victim of the only hex she could think of.  Her wand trained on a young man, she couldn’t know he was an auror[1] and she fired the stinging hex at him. 

“Stay away!” she cried, still shaking and trying to figure out what was going on and where they were.  "Stay the fuck away!"

1.	Fired at JJ

Zia was stunned by a lot of things, a lot of things right in a row. First the scene, and then the implications, and how brave everyone was being. Everyone else. She’d stopped taking Defense Against the Dark Arts because she was too scared of Professor Ignan, and this was at least ten times scarier than that. The others were moving forward, working on getting out of here.

She found herself following them with shaky steps. Every so often she had to blink her eyes hard to stop everything from going technicolor. As she did this things became clearer, despite the smoke and tears. In a few more blinks they were finally out of that room with the smell of blood coagulating.

It was a lot to take in, even before they were in a room crowded with people.  They were yelling, wands were out, and those people were unbloodied. Everyone was angry and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears rather than anything that was being said. Zia didn’t know any of these people or who to trust, but her friends’ faces made her feel obligated to pose with her wand ready, like she even knew any dueling spells.

Brave as she was trying to act, she just wasn’t. There had always been someone to defend her when danger was afoot. Her big eyes kept blinking, darting from person to person, tears pouring out. Zia bit her lip to keep from letting out a sob or scream that was bubbling up in her chest. That wouldn’t be very brave at all.

The room was stuffy, so stuffy. Zia swallowed the rusty taste in her mouth and tried to focus, but the room was starting to tilt, and the edges of her vision were getting dark...



[Zia passed out; feel free to move her around!]

JJ paid no mind to Adon being weird and paranoid-- and like a hungry, hungry hippo he approached the scene with his dinner in one hand, and his wand in the other. His dark eyes widened at the sight of students covered in blood, and took a panicked bite of his sandwich. Suddenly, his chewing felt too loud. He swallowed, tried to get into a good position to assess the situation when he saw-- one of the girls looked a bit wobbly.

Okay, they all looked a bit wobbly, as if they were running on no food or no sleep. Or both.

When it was clear that Zia was about to pass out, he tossed his sandwich to the side and attempted to catch her. It was then that  the stinging charm hit the side of his face. JJ let out a stunned yelp, clutching his cheek. His face swelled, the skin stretching, aching, and worst of all-- itching. There were five teenagers in the room, covered in blood-- and one of them had crumpled to the floor. It was likely from blood loss, judging by the state of their clothes. Great. Perfect. Just what they needed.

He held out his wand-- and with it, sent a signal to St. Mungos for a mediwitch to arrive on the scene.[1] He hoped for a quick response.

1.	According to our wiki the wand is waved similar to a way one would when hailing the knight bus.

Having been in the dark for so long was not without its price; like his friends and fellow kidnappees, Micah, too, found himself unable to process much of anything beyond their group. Light only blinded—the new voices only blurry silhouettes. The sudden influx of sound – a sharp contrast to the oppressive silence of the cells – was like having a plaster ripped off or a pair of earbuds yanked out, jarring and painful.

All there was… was anger. Confusion, panic – chaos – but mostly, burning hot and bright in the thick of it all—anger, still sharp with grief, catching like wildfire.

And to that, Micah was more sensitive than most. All he saw was a sinister shape[1] holding up its wand, the still form of Zia not too far away.

He didn’t think.

“Infligo!” The hex lashed out, quick as a whip. At the other end of his wand was a vicious, rippling snarl.

1.	JJ, with Kelly’s permission

There was the glimpse in the periphery of flying lunch meats and crisps--scattering like confetti.  JJ whimpered, poor bastard--shot red sparks.  He was with it enough to have the presence of mind to notify Mungo's. Good.

They'd talk about fucking snack time later.  Once he was sure the Auror was alright.  Once the teens were safe.  And Carstairs, for that matter. Once they'd photographed the teens and their injuries as evidence.  Once the parents were notified.  And once they'd... alright, fine.  They would not be talking about response protocol for some time yet.

That was when the second hex jetted from yet another kid, Gallagher.  That was the third spell flung by the rather assertive, wanded victims.

 "HEY!" Adon barked, throwing up his shielding charm without restraint.  The wave of power surged through the air.  An inkwell tipped over atop Carstair's desk.  Gallagher's hex--whatever it had been--dissipated with a metallic ting. "That's enough!"  His tone was rigid, authoritative.  Adon found himself making more use from his lieutenant's voice than he had in the space of three years.  He eyed the group sternly, like a group of unruly cadets.  "We're trying to help. We need to get you medical attention. Get you to your families. And to a safe place."  Funny, he'd thought that would have been Level 2.   He did not blame the children for their apparently founded skepticism towards all things Ministry. If they were in the Ministry, bursting into Level Two, they'd been held here.  They had every right to be suspicious of even the crimson robes.  "But only when you lower. your. wands." 

Adon dearly did not want to separate them from their wands--likely their sole source of security, helpless as they clearly felt.  The fact that the children even had their wands was 1,000 shades of perplexing. Likely they'd managed to regain them in some sort of scuffle.  They were dazed; they might not get a clear account for some time of what happened, exactly. 

In case the children did not know what lowering their wands looked like, Adon slowly aimed his towards the ground, but kept his left hand extended, should he need to throw up a wandless ward.  "Sir," he directed to Carstairs, waving him towards the visitor's side of his desk, away from the angry teen attempting to hold him at wand point.

"Grace," he stated in a low voice, nudging his chin in the direction of an unconscious Piselli. 

He had half a mind to sit back down and continue perusing Witch Weekly.

But of course Solomon's queries to Zamperia and the other children were lost in the panic, the flinging of hexes - several at the hasty 'intruders' , efficient and no doubt alarming red robed rescuers. It was a stand-off except the students did not realise that neither he nor his Aurors had any intention of harming them.

Solomon stayed as still and quiet as he could. An easy target but also a hapless, unthreatening one. He considered their circumstances quickly: the students might recognise him from the papers. They were clearly fresh out of the clutches of some terrible ordeal and unexpectedly (he assumed) found themselves in his office. Faced down by a Ministry that was supposed to protect them from such things.

Eleor was taking charge of the situation with enough firmness and grace to merit a commendation but their guests were vigilant. Scared witless, armed. Solomon was not armed. He dared not reach for his wand at this junction.

Ignoring Adon's suggestion, he took a very slow step in the direction of the group and held his hands up peacefully.

"Auror Eleor is quite right..." Solomon spoke in a civil, casual tone. Perhaps even too casual for their situation. "Please, lower your wands. You know who I am. We would never hurt you."

Unless, of course, someone from Level 2 was responsible for this. He hoped he would not have to eat his words at a later date.

Ji-Hyun stared at the people before them with blank horror, shrinking back behind the others. They might have surprised them, and there might be more of them, for now, but she felt shaky and her head was pounding from when she’d fallen in the rush to escape, and the others had been having problems with spells too.

“Zia!” Ji-Hyun had thought Zia was okay. Mostly okay. Kind of okay. As okay as the rest of them. But if she had – what if whatever had happened took a while to affect them, and Zia was the first to – no. No. Zia couldn’t be. They broke out. They were going to escape. They had to.

They were speaking, but Ji-Hyun’s ears were ringing, and she could see them inching closer. She moved forward, moving to stand between Zia and the nearest of the adults.

She said the first spell that came to mind, “Ducklifors!” There was a distortion of space, like the stretch of an elastic band before it snapped, and when it was righted, the man approaching them had been turned into a mallard.

Ji-Hyun stumbled, unexpectedly weak. Suddenly, standing up seemed almost impossible, and she gripped her wand tighter.

So much was happening in so little time. Someone tried to hex him again, though Adon was able to deflect it. Then, suddenly, Carstairs was suddenly a mallard with a cute little green head. Of all the spells that could've been used on the head of the DMLE, a duck transfiguration spell was used. JJ let out a strangled laugh, knowing full well that it was a laugh that Solomon would never forget.

Just like JJ would never let him forget that he had been turned into a duck by a teenager.

Quack jokes were going to be a part of Carstairs' life, until the day he died.

He hoped that perhaps the strange distraction would somehow... Lower the defenses of these kids who were clearly, very traumatized. JJ didn't want to raise his wand at them, he didn't want them to view the aurors as an enemy any more than they already did.

JJ tried to think of the most effective untransfiguration spell. "It's okay, J-bear... You got this." He muttered to himself while wondering why the hell Bertie wasn't here. Or Adrianna Xin. Both of them were animagi, and far better equipped for this job. JJ hoped that he wouldn't mess up so badly that a part of Carstairs would be permanently duck.

Once he thought of a spell, he pointed at Carstairs with a flash of blue light, he hoped that it turned him back into human form. With that done, he knelt down next to Zia and checked her vitals. A steady pulse. Still, he hated waiting for the healers to get here and do their damn jobs. 

Everybody was as on edge as she was. Other aurors showed up quickly-- and they looked just as confused as she was. Perhaps, perhaps not all of the aurors were involved in this. Certainly not Auror Eleor. She knew him-- she had bothered him over the holiday when she was waiting for her dad to get off of work. He didn't seem like the type who would kidnap a bunch of teenagers and steal their blood. He was nice, funny. Trustworthy. If anybody was going to get them out of here, it was him.

Juni lowered her wand, though she didn't release it.

She was torn between yelling at him that this was not a safe place. They had been in the ministry the entire time. The ministry itself wasn't safe. The safest place was, probably, Hogwarts. Safer than here at least. She wanted to go home. But home wasn't home anymore. Home was a place where her mother told annoying stories and sang to herself. Home was where she stayed up late with her mum, talking about nothing and everything. Home was full of warmth, love, and obnoxious nagging. There was no way to that home anymore.

Juni didn't care that she was covered in blood. She stumbled over to Adon and gave him a loose, weak hug. "I want my dad." She felt like a little kid, "I don't want to be here." This, she said with urgency.

In the chaos, Berkeley had been able to slink in behind JJ and Grace, which considering her size wasn't all that surprising. She stood still, just near the background, not drawing attention but watching everything with a keen eye. Taking it all in. These were the kids they were looking for, or at least half of them. They were covered in blood, frightened, weakened and on the defensive. Something that didn't seem to be boding well for those that were trying to help as two jinx' were flung at Basir and Carstairs was turned into a Mallard.

Eleor was taking charge and at least one of the students seemed willing to accept his help, giving Basir an opening to check on the one that had fainted. The next few moments would be crucial, before the healers arrived. Hopefully they'd allow Eddy to get in, put her mediwitch training to use. Berkeley decided it was time to seize the moment. After all the five foot nothing porcelain Auror was far less intimidating than her colleagues.

She slipped out from behind the others, her hands raised, palms out, a sign of surrender, of a lack of danger, "Hey," She spoke softly hoping she didn't receive a knee-jerk hex and get turned into a fowl as well, "My name's Berkeley. I'm an Auror." She briefly looked around, "We're all Aurors. I promise we want to help you." She looked to Kemp first, "Indi, you know my sister Briar she's your Dormmate, yeah?" She looked to the older Hufflepuffs, "Ji-Hyun, Micah, you knew my cousin Bridget. I'm not going to hurt you." She hoped connecting with familiarity would help calm them. Her ice blue eyes travelled to the hole they had come from and the oppressive darkness that laid behind it. What was even back there? Did anyone on Level Two know it was back there?

"Grace here," She motioned to Eddy, "She's been doing some Healer training and she wants to make sure you're okay." She thought about the young trainee's age, it hadn't been that long ago that she had been at Hogwarts with them, "Do you remember her?" She felt like she was talking to children much younger than them but they were in shock and a gentle probing approach may just be the thing needed to get through to them.

However there was one more thing she couldn't leave hanging, a question that needed asking, "Now I understand that you're scared, I can't even imagine what you've been through but I have to ask," She took a deep breath, steeling herself for the fresh wave a panic she might be inciting, "Where are the others?"

Micah had been all too ready to fight some more. Later, when he would have time to process, he would be horrified by his own reactions – at how easy it had been to give in to the fear and anger, to lash out, how well he had taken to it when even competitive sports made him queasy – but now was not later; now was something that burned hot and sickly, like an infection. It muddled thought, twisted tone and words into something hostile, made him want to reach out and dig in and wrench–

It was terrifying.

But a new voice registered, and—he paused. Blindly he sought out the source, squinting through the red haze as he swayed on his feet. Bridget didn’t elicit the kind of recognition it might have been hoping for, but as Micah tried to puzzle it out another voice cut in, this one recognizable but different from before.  I want my dad.  Slowly, steadily, the anger began to bleed out, leaving room for exhaustion and misery to set in.

He was cold, he realized. Cold, his palms clammy. His shirt clung to his back. Breathing hurt.

Blurred shadows gave way to color and definition, until he could just about make out a face, pale and thin and… asking about the others. Micah dropped his gaze, swallowing thickly against the sudden wave of grief.

“We-” Unbidden, memory flashed back to the dark, claustrophobic cell and its bloody floors—Siana’s body cool to the touch, unresponsive. His face crumpled. “She’s still down there,” he said, voice breaking on the last word. He tried desperately not to cry. “It was just us.” He looked from Berkeley to the other Aurors, eyes wide and beseeching.