The Greywitch Trials | Harry Potter AU

Battle

Morrigan Twelvetrees was the tallest woman Eloise had ever stood next to. As she stood shoulder to shoulder with the willowy black woman, she felt like a child pretending to cast spells with a sick next to a much more qualified witch. They'd found the Point Break relatively easily, which hadn't surprised Twelvetrees all that much. According to the older witch, many of the ancient wizarding residences were built far before the magic to control placements had been mastered, let alone theorized. 

"It's been too long," Twelvetrees noted, sliding her hood back and twitching her head back and forth like a snake, the silver rings that wove through her long braids glinting in the sliver of moonlight. "They should have been in position for - "

A deafening boom like lightning striking the sea and scattering across the waves crackled through the air. Eloise was thrown backwards from the force of the magic disintegrating before her eyes. Her back cracked painfully against the hard earth as she stared at the glittering dome of fractured light that stood still for a moment before the sparks began to carry on the summer breeze, the magic nothing more than burning embers on the air. 

The soot coated her like a second skin, black ash smudging on her fingertips. 

"Up!" Twelvetrees scrambled to her feet from where she'd also been thrust to the ground from the blast. She raised her wand and summoned the leftover mess of runes and enchantments.

When Eloise took her sport at Twelvetrees' side, the witch flicked her wand and sent half of the jumble to Eloise for her to decode. She made quick work of what appeared to be a damaged Aragon's Ring of Protection and a few Disillusionment Charms. 

At the same moment Eloise stepped back, Twelvetrees did as well. The air rippled around them with expelled magic as the true nature of the castle revealed itself. It was the same from a cursory glance, but as Eloise squinted, she saw the bodies that hung limply from the walls on chains, the blood that painted the cobblestones, the figures that moved unnaturally atop the ramparts; bodies rippling and snapping. She had no doubts that many of the Dark Creatures that had sworn allegiance to Voldemort roved up there, waiting to taste flesh. Red Caps, Giants, and Vampires were the least of Eloise's fears when she knew full well Dementors and Lethifolds could be within the walls. 

A screaming stream of yellow-white sparks drew their attention as it climbed higher and higher into the pitch dark night sky across the grounds due North. It stole the breath from Eloise's lungs and the attention of all eyes on the wall. As the sparks died high in the air, an answering roar rattled her bones. 

It had begun. 

Twelvetrees extended a hand, full lips turned down in a grim frown. "Come. We'll take the wall."

Take the wall? As if the two of them were enough of a force to fell the sentries that stood guard. It had always been the plan, but it felt different; real. Could the two of them take out the sentries even if Voldemort's forces were focused on the breached gates? Only time would tell. 

Doing her best to keep the terror off of her face, Eloise accepted the witch's hand and prayed she hadn't felt Eloise's fingers tremble.

It felt as if the very essence of herself melded with Twelvetrees as the two of them melded together in a streak of grey mist that thumped them onto the solid cobblestones of the wall in a mere blink of an eye. Eloise threw herself to the stones as Twelvetrees soundlessly whirled in a circle and silenced the two stout creatures that had been running in the direction of the now thunderous noise that sounded at the North gate. 

Eloise accepted the hand that appeared a mere inch from her nose, swallowing the embarrassment at her own inaction. As she followed Twelvetrees along the wall, pressed against the cool stone and creeping forward mere inches at a time, she vowed to do better, to protect as well as attack. Their goal wasn't to take prisoners, but to squash Voldemort's regime.