Triggered! {Briar}

[ash]

Ash hid in the broom closet on the first floor and waited. He didn't know who was going to be the next person to walk past here, but whoever it was would be in for one heck of a surprise!

Ash had found a new spell and he just couldn't wait to test it out. It involved setting triggers and things. Like... a person would be walking and cross one trigger, and something would flash as if something had moved, just in line with their peripheral vision, and the next trigger would only be a step or so away and it would be like something had moved on the other side of them. The idea of it was to disorientate the person as they looked around trying to figure out what had moved. By time they walked through the third trigger, they'd have convinced them selves that there was nothing there and have just been turning forward again. The third trigger would set of a 'ghoul' figure to appear out of no where and shout in the person's face loudly.

It was all trick of the mind out course, and there was never actually anything visible until the third trip, but Ash couldn't wait to see it in action. He was pretty sure that it would be hilarious to watch regardless of who triggered it. So long as it was someone coming down the corridor towards him so that he could see out of the small gap he'd left open between the broom closet door and the frame.

Ah! And here, it seemed, came his victim...

[briar]

BRIAR MICHAELS

we know
what we are,
but not
what we may be.

[/right][/size][/blockquote]

For once, Briar was just minding her own business. She wasn’t doing homework. She wasn’t playing Quidditch. She wasn’t exploring, or hanging out with friends. She wasn’t sleeping, or tripping up stairs—just casually walking along the halls as she made her way to the dormitory. The girl was actually quite tired, Transfiguration had been rather tedious and then practice for Quiddich had just ended. No, scratch that—she wasn’t just tired, she was exhausted--and just really wanted to go to bed.

Psh. Like that was going to happen.

FLASH. Briar stopped dead, turning her head slightly to the side and shooting a glance over towards the sudden flash of light that had jumped into her vision. There was nothing there, as far as Briar could see, where the flash of light had come from. It was just a stone wall, as far as Um— Briar shot a glance down the hallway, and back to where she thought the origin of light was.

She was tempted. Very. Very. Tempted.

Briar was also tired. Very. Very. Tired.

Later. She could always come back later. Briar shook her head and forced herself to move forward. Sleep. Need sleep. Going to pass out if I don’t get sleep. Each step felt like stepping on nails. Briar hated, hated leaving something so interesting alone—but chances were it was nothing anyways and—

FLASH.

Briar veered around without missing a beat. Okay. The strange flashing in the wall was just asking for it. She was a little less tired now and a bit more perked up. Surely, surely—if the light was repeating then maybe it was something. Briar let her wand slip out of her uniform and into her fingers, setting her jaw and giving the wall an annoyed glance.

“Aperio,” she said.

Nothing.

“Dissendium.”

Silence.

“Specialis Revelio.”

Nothing.

“Erani—what the, what the h. am I doing?” Briar turned on herself, mentally upsiding her head for giving in. Sleep. Sleep was important. The girl turned away, clenching her fist and walking firmly down the hall. She had morning practice anyways, and it was late—DO NOT GIVE INTO TEMPTATION.

FLASH—“ARE YOU—I DON’T EVEN—” Briar raged, turning sharp on her heel. Almost instantly, she whirled back around, eyes flashing. No. She was going to bed—OMYGODBLOODYHE—

Briar blinked rapidly, taking half a step back. Where in the blood he—where had that come from?!

“STUPEFY!” Briar shouted, wand sliding out of her uniform sleeve and into a wide-gesture of her hand. The spell rickoshayed off the still completely frozen ghoul, and Briar jumped back—blinking wildly as the spell soared past her. Huh. She didn’t quite expect that—

BOOM. The bright burst of light that held the spell bounced off the walls again. “Oh, shoot!” Briar cried, not expecting that either.

She supposed this meant she was not going to get to go to bed anytime soon.

[ash]

Ash almost instantly recognized the face that was heading in his direction. Briar was butter for adventure, and he knew that she wouldn't be able to resist her curiosity when she set of the triggers he'd lay down. This would be brilliant! Ash couldn't have thought of anyone better to set off his newly laid trap.

Ash crouched down low so that he wouldn't be seen, and he covered his mouth with his hands so that when the triggers went off, he'd be able to stop himself from laughing. Or... at least attempt to.

Briar froze in her tracks and turned to look back in the direction she'd come from. Trigger 1... success. Ash grinned. This was a good start- at least he knew they'd worked. What a disappointment it would be if the triggers wouldn't work... Ash didn't like failure - not when it came to lessons and not when it came to pranks or dares.

He kept watching. Briar started walking again, only managing a few more steps before she passed the second trigger and spun again, her eyes searching the stone walls around her. Ash just grinned and fought back his laugh. From where he was, he had a clear view of everything that the younger girl was doing.

Various revealing charms were cast in the direction stone wall but to no avail. Ash shook with silent laughter. Triggers tripped... confusion level, maximum... and now for the big finale.

The ghoul appeared in a flash of neon light and hovered just inches behind Briar's head, nicely lined up so that when she turned... Yup. So she did that.

It took all he had not to burst into laughter at the moment she turned and the ghoul screamed out at her. The quickly following stupify was the last thing it took to send Ash over the edge. He could still hear everything that was going on outside, but he wasn't able to see from the tears that streamed down his face. This spell had been a brilliant success!

There was a loud bang and a flash from outside and rather than crouching on the floor, Ash found himself flat out on his back clutching at his sides. Oh god! This was great! He didn't even try to hide his laughter now.

There was another flash and bang as something hit the door of the broom closet that he was it but all Ash could do was lie there laughing.

[briar]

BRIAR MICHAELS

we know
what we are,
but not
what we may be.

[/right][/size][/blockquote]

Briar ducked with a yelp, falling back into the wall and ducking her head. The spell was bouncing across the walls, off of armored suits, nearly hitting her several times. Briar preferred not to be hit by a stupefy today, thank you very much!—and so she stayed in her little spot between a wooden table and a stone pedestal holding a vase against the wall. The spell hit the broom closet on the other side of the hallway and bounced right back—coming as close to the point of shattering the vase just by her head.

Ow. Briar thought irritated as the shards burst over her head, clenching her teeth. Her eyes flickered over to the still motionless ghoul—now quite obviously some sort of fake, or allusion, or—

Briar’s ears pricked, and she could just make out muffled laughter coming from the direction of the broom closet adjacent to her.

—or prank.

“Protego!” Briar shouted, flicking her wand as the spell made a roundabout turn back towards her for a second. The spell was weak—it was rather difficult one—and faded needlessly as the spell bounced off the wall a foot above her head. The laughter from the closet was more prominent now, and with an irritated narrowing of the eyes—Briar flung out her arm and with an annoyed ‘reducto!’ blasted the closet door off its hinges.

“God freaking—” Briar muttered, ducking again as the spell bounced off the floor near her, squeaking and drawing her feet closer into her; shooting the prankster inside a glance and groaning as she recognized him “—IT WOULD BE YOU.” Squeak, duck. “I’LL KILL YOU LATER—now turn this thing off!” She wasn’t really angry—the girl could probably collapse with nervous laughter after the whole thing—but was more irritated at the fact that she was about to be hit with her own spell.

[ash]

Ash was curled on the floor laughing and wheezing and generally gasping for breath. He'd managed some pretty hilarious pranks over his years, but this was something else entirely. There wasn't just a bit of a shout and a squeal as the ghoul was triggered like he'd expected, there was all sorts of madness and mayhem still going on outside of the door.

There were bangs, bump, clatters, smashes... All sorts of sounds that meant mayhem, and it was brilliant! Ash wondered what it would be like if he looked out of the door but he couldn't even breathe for laughing, never mind get up and leave the safety of the cupboard. Though, he wasn't overly pleased with the soggy mop right next to his head...

There was a shout from the corridor and the next thing Ash knew, the door of the broom cupboard was exploding in a shower of splintered wood and chippings, and disintegrating into dust around him. Admittedly, Ash squealed like a girl and shot backwards across the floor, further into the closet. His back hit something and there was a loud clatter then something fell. A bucket landed perfectly over his head, soapy dregs dripping down his neck. Ash hastily pushed the stinking thing off and away from him.

There was shouting again from outside and Ash tuned in just in time to hear Briar shout that she'd kill him later, but to 'turn this thing off'. What thing she wanted turned off he didn't know. Ah... maybe the spell that was ping-pong-balling around and ricocheting off the walls. "It's your spell! You stop it." The spell in question flew into the cupboard and Ash ducked with another high pitch squeal. Something above him exploded and the spell vanished out of the doorway again. Some kind of liquid poured down all over Ash, soaking him where the dregs in the soapy bucket hadn't been able to.

"Damnit girl! You're dangerous." Who'd have though she's be able to cast a spell that would cause this much destruction? It rivaled even his ability, he thought. One simple spell, this much insanity? Kudos to her!

Ash did managed to note, however, that the illusion of the ghoul stayed motionless in the same place as where it'd appeared. Wasn't it supposed to have vanished by now?

[briar]

BRIAR MICHAELS

we know
what we are,
but not
what we may be.

[/right][/size][/blockquote]

Briar squeaked and drew her legs in even closer to her chest as the spell narrowly missed the tips of her boots—cutting it a little close there, eh, Briar? The spell was quickly gaining speed and power—the fourth-year could practically feel the air crackle with magic as it speed away from her into a suit of armor and bounced off onto the floor.

Ash was responding with shouting that this was her spell and that she should have to figure out how to turn it off.

“What?!” She griped, irritated. “It was your ghoul-thingie that made it backfire—how is this MY problem?”

Speaking of the ghoul—was a lot more holey looking now, Briar noted with a twinge of respect and worry—the stupefy had effectively been destroying it bit by bit. Wonderful. Hopefully it wouldn’t do that when it came into contact with human flesh. Yes, they would definitely have to settle this later.

Or she could settle this now.

“UGH. FINE. I’ll be the responsible one here!” Briar shouted back, eyes flashing dangerously with hints of roughish delight. She slowly slid up the wall, using the stone wall as a sort of a support as she pushed up with her legs keeping as close to the wall as possible. Lucky for her that she did, the spell soared back less than an inch from her eyes, catching a strand of her hair and making it fly up with its own new wind. Geez. The spell was caught in some sort of loop, zipping back and forth between the two adjacent walls in front to either of her sides. It was slowly inching its way away from her as it soared at the slightest of angles, picking up speed but slowly making an arm’s distance from herself—

Perfect.

Briar drew up her arm, wand in hand, and face set with that look like she was about to back-hand that spell into the next month. Not next week—month. Yeah. Think about that. Her eyes flew, trying to follow the gaining speed of the spell. Eventually, her eyes seemed to light—presumably finding the pattern—and the eyes immediately darkened as her arm swung out and whammed into the spell with all the force she could muster, simultaneously shouting, “Protego!”

As far as Briar knew, Stupefy dissolved on impact with a Protego charm. If it didn’t, well, then—hopefully it would sock Ash in the gut as he was straight across from her. Surely when it hit a person it would dissipate? Her charm connected with spell and there was the crack that one might hear when a baseball struck bat. Briar felt a jolt travel up her arm and she jumped back with a pained, ‘OW!—god, freaking da—”

And why did Briar cut herself off? Oh. Only because she just registered how the spell had bounced off her shield right before her eyes. Right before splitting in two, of course, and effectively doubling the problem.

“Oops.”

[ash]

"You're the one who decided to stupefy it!" Ash yelled back as he used the bottom of his shirt to try and wipe off some of the liquid that had just been exploded over him. He had no idea what had been in the bottle so he really didn't want to get it in his eyes if he could help it.

Briar shouted something about being the responsible one and Ash looked up. Briar had moved, and he didn't have a very clear view of her. As much as he wanted to stay out of the way and avoid the spell that was currently bouncing off the walls faster than the speed of light with a rather dangerous 'zinggg-bonk' type of sound, Ash's curiosity was by far stronger than his desire to stay safe. He crawled across the floor of the broom cupboard until he could peer around the door to watch what Briar was doing.

She was watching the spell bounce back and forth, wand extended. He couldn't help but wonder what her plan was to get rid of it. Whatever it was, he just hoped it worked. He'd never seen a spell act quite like this one was. Usually if he'd seen something like this the spell got weaker when it missed its target and eventually petered out into nothing, and just faded away. But this one seemed to have a mind of its own and was only getting stronger the more it bounced around. Only Briar...

"Protego!"

Ash closed his eyes against the sudden bright flash of light caused by the two spells connecting, and winced at the loud crack from them too. There was something about that which just didn't sound right...

It was only at Briar's "Oops" that Ash dared to open his eyes again. It was just in time too because a streak of red light was hurtling in his direction. Ash gave another shrill shriek before launching himself out of the way, hitting the floor hard and sliding across it. Behind him, there was a loud clattering sound as the spell connected with a wooden bucket and shattered it into a dozen bits of flying wood.

"Oh, heck- Eeeee!" He rolled to one side as another streak of red aimed itself straight down in line with his head. From the destruction they were causing when coming into contact with objects, Ash wasn't about to test them out on his face any time soon. And since when were there two of them?

He pushed to his knees and scrambled quickly over the ground towards Briar, stumbling to his feet as he neared her. Now, Ash wasn't a coward, but he wasn't really the type to throw himself into the front line of fire either, which was probably why he dived behind the fourth year and watched the flying spells from over the top of her head. "Okay...."

Well, this wasn't going very well. So far there was a ghoul full of holes, a disintegrated door, a smashed bucket, an exploded container of liquid, a shattered vase, dented suits of armor, dark burn marks across the walls... and... and now a broken candle holder splashing melted wax all over the floor, and still, the spells were just growing stronger. For a while the two spells seemed to have caught themselves between two walls again and were just zinging backwards and forwards between them. "Great... now what?" He looked down at Briar. "Only you could have done this, you know that?" He gave a nervous laugh as he looked back to the spells. He'd seen a few close calls already that he didn't want to take his eye off them even for a minute.

Before Ash could say anything else there was another extremely loud exploding sound and a blinding light as the two spells collided together... two became four and each one shot off in its own direction. "Oh, bloody hell!"

He ducked down and pulled his wand from the waistband of his pants. One of the jets of red was heading their way. Automatic reaction? "Protego!" He gave a yell as the force of it knocked him onto his back and pins and needles shot up his arm... five. Oh heck! A protean charm was an automatic reaction, but, of course, it only made things worse just like it had before.

"Erm, erm, erm..." Ash grimaced and scooted backwards across the floor. "What the hell... what the - Agumenti!"

A jet of water shot of out his wand as two more red spells aimed in his direction. Water and stupefy connected and there was a crackling noise - any one who knew anything about muggle life would have compared the sound to electricity at that moment. The spells flew back out of the water and rather than just being flying balls of red light, they were now flying balls of crackling red light - think flying bonfire night sparkler...

"This... isn't good. Not good. Not good..." What the heck were they supposed to do now?

[briar]

BRIAR MICHAELS

we know
what we are,
but not
what we may be.

[/right][/size][/blockquote]

“It was a natural act of defense!” Briar retorted… defensively. “What would you do if a ghoul popped up suddenly in front of your face after you just spent the last five minutes being suspicious of some sort of flashing lights?” Well, probably not attack on sight—but this was Briar we’re talking about.

Then she had acted on the spell with a Protego and it had backfired horribly. Horribly, as in multiplied itself. Backfiring as in, it was literally firing back into her face. Briar’s eyes widened and she dropped, ducking with her knees slamming into the stone ground.

“Shootshootshootshootshootshoot…” she muttered, eyes wide as fell backwards into the wall and curled her knees to her chest. That had not gone as quite well as she thought it would. The girl heard a crash and her head snapped up just in time to see Ash scurrying furiously over to her and up onto his feet. Briar scooted over slightly to the left, making room—because God knows she was not going to leave her spot on the wall until she could THINK for a minute. She did just that until she heard as comment that she was the only one who could’ve done this.
Glancing up at him, Briar went from worried to mildly scared (it had just occurred to her how much damaged this one spell could really do if it got too far out of hand) to amused all in the fraction of a second. “You’re probably right,” she said, grin breaking across her face. “And here I was thinking that I was just going to get to go to bed.”

And Briar had just about .234 seconds to glance over back at the catapulting spells to try and think a way out of this again before the two spells collided and created a light flash so enormous that Briar was blinking blindness out of her eyes for a second. By the time the whiteness had ebbed away, Briar blinking rapidly as she spotted one of the spells rocketing towards them. Briar grimaced, ducking her head and shielding it with her hands. She didn’t know what she could do—throwing a spell at it would only make it worse, she would only be being an idiot if she tried to block it again—

“PROTEGO!”

Shoot. Briar thought, at the BANG and the muffled thump that followed, hands still weaved together over her head. Slowly, she let go and peeked her head upwards, reviewing the carnage for a moment before shooting Ash (who was now on the floor) an exasperated glance. Though she supposed adding another one to the fray was better than getting speared through the stomach.

“AQUAMENTE!” Apparently caused fiery spells, and in some sort of hopeful desperate guess, Briar peered up over her knees for a moment, before flicking her wand and casting a sharp “STUPEFY!” at an approaching spell, affectively making it explode (making her wince and thank God she wasn’t any closer) and multiply yet again.

Well, at least they hadn’t been noticed by the teachers or other students yet—that could potentially cause a disaster—

It was then that Briar noticed the explosion she had caused blew a hole in the wall adjacent to them and added a new window to the History of Magic classroom. The students inside stared openly at her and the chaos outside with wide eyes, seemingly frozen like statues—which made Briar laugh even though absolutely NOTHING about this was funny anymore. Well, they did look rather humorous, dumbfounded like that, totally not expecting—

—why were they screaming and running around like panicked pigeons?

Oh. Probably because two of the six spells had just found their way inside the classroom.

Hm.

OH GOD.

Briar leapt to her feet, eyes wide—ducking momentarily as another spell soared over her head before disappearing down the hallway and hitting a suit of armor just right to allow it to bounce off down the corner of the hallway (where screams promptly began). The classroom was in complete and utter panic, students screaming and ducking and casting spells that were only making the problem worse—

“NO!” Briar shouted, waving her arms and trying to get their attention (to no avail). “NO, WAIT—don’t fight them! Don’t fight them!”
Protegos were cast, other spells mutated the stupefies until you couldn’t tell it was a stupefy in the first place—and before long, over two dozen of the things were flying around like possessed bats. It was only a matter of time before they HIT someone—

Briar froze as a student was nailed in the chest by one of the spells. She held her breath, watching as the student went flying. To her complete and utter relief, there was no spray of blood, or flash of green from the unforgivable spell—it looked, it just looked like they had been simply ‘stupefied’ (unconscious, that is). That was easy to fix then, right? The spell had dissipated on impact too, so maybe this wasn’t as bad as it looked—

—and then another student was hit by one of the fiery stupefies and screamed as a small flame ruptured on her cloaked shoulder.

Crap. Briar thought.

Okay, so maybe this was going to be a lot more worse than she thought it was going to be. Briar dropped back to the floor again, now seeing it was pretty much pointless to warn them. The damage had already been done—spells flying every which way, out of windows, down the halls—and if they hadn’t figured it out by now, they would soon enough.
This was chaos at its maximum. “The one day I actually didn’t want trouble,” Briar muttered, hugging her knees to her chest and glancing over at Ash. Hopefully he would have some sort of idea on what to do, because she had absolutely no clue—she squeaked and ducked as another spell bounced off the suit of armor to her left—

--wait.

Bounced?

LIGHTBULB.

[ash]

Protego only made things worse… his agumenti only succeeded in creating what were essentially flying fire balls… he was beginning to panic a bit and he had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do now. He didn't want to get hit by any one of the spells that were flying around but they only seemed to be getting stronger and faster and more dangerous… and harder to avoid.

Ash let out a shriek again as the wall of the History of Magic Classroom exploded inwards. There were a load of stunned looked from the students inside before they finally noticed just what was happening. Some of the stupefies flew inside and they all began to panic. Briar was jumping and yelling at them not to fight them but none of the students listened. Outside of the classroom, where Ash was, four of the stupefies were still zinging off the walls and heading straight towards where Ash was. He stumbled to his feet and moved backwards quickly, unsure where to even look. Four spells were bouncing their way towards them and none of the spells they'd tried seemed to help.

They got closer and Ash freaked, raising his wand and shouting the first things that came to mind. "Confringo! Confundo! Diffindo!" So… casting a spell that's supposed to make things burst into flames probably wasn't very smart. Much alike the agumenti spell, the red spells burst into flame and multiplied, and there was an immense wave of heat given off by them every time they collided and multiplied. Similarly, a confusing spell only made them more unpredictable. They didn't even need to connect with a wall anymore before they would change direction with no notice, and some of them even starting spinning with a high pitched whistle. The diffindo? Yeah… that only made them quadruple…

Ash was in a complete panic. There were as many different spells flying around outside in the corridor as there now were in the classroom. Ones from outside flew in and those from in flew out, and the growing confusion only worsened. Ash wanted to turn and run - get around the corner and hope that it would provide some protection from this madness, but at the same time, it didn't feel right to leave Briar out here to face this on her own, so he stayed where he was, frozen in fear and without a single clue of what to do…

Something flashed in the corner of his eye and before he had a chance to react or move it had connected with the side of his head, sending him flying in the direction of the nearest wall. His hands drew up in time to protect his head from the impact but he could still he spots dancing in his eyes. He lay there stunned, his wand rolling away from him. Everything just looked a pretty blur of red… and screaming… so much screaming…

((It's bad D: I'm sorry. I have 2 toddlers running around shouting right now and falling of things and generally causing hell. Ability to concentrate = very low.))

[briar]

BRIAR MICHAELS

we know
what we are,
but not
what we may be.

[/right][/size][/blockquote]

Briar’s mind moved at a whirlwind pace. If the spells bounced off the armor, then, potentially, if you could use the enchanted metal of the armor to make a shield, or actually wear the armor itself—then you could be potentially be safe from the spells and figure out a way to stop them.

WHAM. An intensely fast spell bounced off the surface of the armor at a speed almost too fast for Briar’s eye to catch—her head whipping to and from the armor at a second too slow. There was a large dent in the stomach of the armor now.

Potentially, Briar reminded herself.

Well, then—let’s see. Briar ducked her head down and stuck out her wand. She seemed to have found a good hiding spot under some sort of wooden table (whose flowerpots had long sense been smashed to oblivion. A Levioso charm to make the suit levitate so I can see it better, in front of me—minor variations of the spell to make its arms stretch outwards—and then, no, can’t use Diffindo—it’d only make scratches—then Relashio to make the iron hot so it can be cut—

The armor began to glow white from the heat. Spells flew into the armor left and right, leaving dents and marks.

Then an Intrafieriex to flip it inside out, and then… Diffindo… Reducto… Frigidus…
The table a few inches above Briar’s head exploded into flames. She jolted in surprise, scrambling out from under the table as the heat from the flames washed over her face. Falling down, she scooted away from the table as quick as she could without getting hit by the flying spells. It was like a warzone or something—dear god, hopefully the worst casualty of the day would be that wall of the History of Magic Classroom—wait.

Where was Ash?

Scooting around the suit of armor, which had collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut the second she had lost concentration, Briar felt her back hit the wall—and she just had a second to glance around and find him before some spell came flying out of nowhere and knocked him upside the head. He went sprawling, hitting a wall nearly square on, and making Briar’s heart leap up to her throat. He didn’t move.

Briar jumped up, sprinting through the war zone. Okay. Okay. If he was
alive, Briar would swear never again to leave her room side for classes and food. Never. She would be a good little forth-year and stay out of trouble… forever. Now, the girl really had expected to somehow magically run across the hallway/classroom without getting hit—somehow manage to weave through the now two-dozen spells that were flying through the hallways.

She was sorely mistaken.

Not even half-way there, something collided with her back—luckily not a spell, but some sort of large piece of wall that had been blasted away from the wall by an explosive force of a spell. It hurt. A lot. But it didn’t puncture her skin, or give her a concussion, or break any bones—just sent her sprawling to the floor, sliding the last few feet nearly into the wall she was trying to get to. Okay. Okay. She could work with this.

She gasped for a second; trying to get her breath—as the rock had effectively emptied her lungs spread a fire-like pain across the point the rock had hit her. Trying to shrug it off, Briar rolled her head to the side, shaking it in the slightest for clarity. She reached out and poked Ash’s side with the tip of her wand, still somehow managing to keep a grin on her face.

“The armor,” Briar said, voice slightly breathless “—the suits of armor. They reflect… the freaking spells.”

[ash]

Everything was a blur and hazy and oh so confusing. What had happened? Where was he? What was going on? Oh... the spells... He was still in the hall with Briar, wasn't he? Wasn't he..? Speaking of Briar, where was she?

Something passed in a blur in front of him but he couldn't make it out. He just closed his eyes tightly, hoping that what ever it was it wouldn't attack him like that stupid spell... Damn it... he just hoped he wasn't hit by another spell... His head was reeling from it and he was struggling to stay focused and aware. Was there something running down the side of his face?

Something jabbed in his side but it just made Ash curl up with a groan. "No.." He murmured, groggily. "No'movin'." His hands pulled up to cover his face and try and block out the harsh light.

Briar's voice spoke up but Ash hardly heard the words. He could still hear the screaming though, and he wanted to scream back. Couldn't they just shut up!? Didn't they know how much his head was protesting their shrill volume right now?

"Nu'for long. Gettin' stronger." Ash could just say mumble the words though he had no idea if they were legible to Briar or not. Right now though, all he cared about was the pain in his head. Was that blood on his face?

[briar]

BRIAR MICHAELS

we know
what we are,
but not
what we may be.

[/right][/size][/blockquote]

Ash barely moved when she poked him and mumbled something about not moving. That was very worrying. For a second, Briar forgot about the chaos and drew herself onto her knees, to crawl slightly more over to where Ash had fallen. She poked him again with her wand, breath catching when she saw the blood pouring down his face. Crapcrapcrap. “Wake up!” She hissed, not wanting to wake him because she knew how bad it felt right now first hand and wanting to wake him up at the same time because, “You can’t sleep, not with a concussion! That’s how comas are caused.”

She hesitated, ducking as another spell slammed into the wall over her head and caused the whole thing to shake, bits of dust and gravel flying every which way. “Plus, if you don’t move—you’re going to get hit—we’re going to get hit—and you’ll feel even worse. C’mon…”

Right. She probably shouldn’t have predicted them getting hit, because Briar’s predictions were pretty spot on most of the time. Only when they amounted to harm to her—like that time she predicted that she was going to get hit in the head with the quaffle during one of her Quidditch practices. Spot on. Or that time when she predicted that when she tried Confringo for the first time it would send her flying. Which it did. So… no predictions then.

Of course, the damage was already done. Briar’s eyes widened as she saw a spell rounding the corner. It was going to be THAT one, if any. It was just too deadly looking not to be the one. “Shoot,” Briar hissed. This called for drastic action that didn’t involve anything sensible like rolling out of the way. Besides, she couldn’t just leave Ash there… so Briar prayed. She prayed very, very, hard that the armor on the suit was cool and wasn’t going to burn her skin. Because burns hurt. A lot.

“ACCIO ARMOR!” The girl shouted, with a sharp gesture at the puppet-with-its-strings-cut armor, praying that her final enchantment would work. It was an untested spell, so it was very likely that this would just barrel straight into her and do absolutely nothing—plus burn her if it hadn’t cooled enough. Just great. Greeaaaat. We all know how this was going to end—

--or maybe not. Briar thought as the armor formed around her, not quite finished sealing over itself in the back by the time Briar registered what was happening and threw her shielded hands out in front—catching the spell and watching as her hands slammed into her chest from the force, making her stagger backwards. The suit finished sealing, thankfully not blistering hot—a little too big still, but her Reducto spell had made it small enough so that her eyes weren’t looking out of the chest-plate like they normally would have. Briar struggled with the spell, closing it over it with her hands—it felt so weighted and hard to do, like something was pushing back as she tried to clasp her hands shut.

There was a bang! as she managed to do so, and Briar staggered back, hands falling down to not unleash the spell, or reveal smoked hands (though the fingers looked a bit singed), but to reveal nothing. The spell had collapsed in on itself when the two repelling objects had forced it to a stand-still.

[ash]

Ash had very little awareness of what was going on around him. He could still hear the screams from students inside the History of Magic Classroom, the end loud crashes and bangs were getting more and more frequent too.

All Ash knew, was that his head was spinning something rotten, and he really, really didn't want to move. Briar was saying something about waking up and comas and stuff but a loud crash from somewhere close to him stole his attention almost as soon as she said it.

Something seemed to fall and land on him - pieces of the wall? If these spells weren't stopped soon then they looked like they could bring the whole castle to the ground. Hopefully Binn's wasn't as zoned out as usual and he'd actually go and tell someone what was happening. Probably not though. Changed were he was probably still standing at the front of the class conducting the lesson like nothing was happening.

Ash groaned again. Briar was right. If there spells were about to take down the walls or something Ash didn't really want to be on the floor underneath them when they fell... Which meant he needed to move... Which he really didn't want to do right now.

He swiped a hand wearily over his face and eyes and felt a warm dampness there. His eyes opened to narrow slits, the harshness of the right and the brightness of everything moving so fast around him was painful. He wanted dark right now, dark didn't hurt. But, he at least got his eyes open long enough to see his hand and the blood that had soaked it already. Had he hit his head that hard?

Okay Ash... time to move. It felt as if his head was made of a ton of lead and it was as if it weighed three times the rest of his body weight or something. Pushing his knees underneath him had been easy, trying to actually get his head off the floor was another matter. What the hell was going on? Why did it feel this way? At least the hospital wing was just around the corner, right?

Behind him, Briar shouted to accio something but Ash's attention was on trying to get up. He held his head in his hands and he could feel tears stinging his eyes as the pain threatened to overwhelm him. Each movement made him feel woozy and light headed, and it was like having ball bearings in a dish, racing across his skull as he move his head wrong. He'd had a fair few head bumps before but he'd never felt anything like this.

Sounds were becoming muffled and blurred, almost as much as his eyesight was, and he couldn't see a thing. Was he about to pass out? No... he didn't feel quite that dizzy, and there wasn't that shrill ringing in his ears, but why was sound so muffled?

Blood... was there blood in his ears? Ash used the hand that wasn't covered in blood already to touch at his ear. Something sticky, definitely, but it didn't feel the same as blood. He swiped the back of his hand over his eyes to clear the tears away before looking close. It was like a strange, yellowy liquid coating his fingers. So... not blood going in his ears muffling sound, but fluid coming out of them. Briar had been right - concussion, and quite a bad one it seemed... Nothing wrong with a nice brain shaking to end the day, right? If only that was the end of it...

Those spells, they were still here somewhere, weren't they? It seemed Ash wasn't having much luck with actually getting out of here so he flopped back and leaned against the wall, breathing deeply. There had to be a way...

Where was Briar?

Something moved - a coat of armor from the looks of things but... "Briar?" What the hell was going on? Damnit he needed to find his wand before he could do anything. Or even better, they needed a teacher to walk around the corner right about now...