(1939-10-20) A Not-So-Merry Chase
Details for A Not-So-Merry Chase
Summary: Headmaster Flint sends his Magijugend on a mission to hide some mysterious boxes and the Resistance tries their best to prevent their success.
Date: (1939-10-20)
Location: Hogwarts Castle
Plot: Headmaster From Hell
Related:
Characters
AbraxasBrockJosieColtonLucretiaOberonGabrielMadelineFinley

Within the Headmaster's Office, Flint, the Headmaster from Hell is putting a few more locking spells on a small trunk that has seven different locks danging along it's seam. "Malfoy." He drolls out in an annoyed and rather flustered (for Flint) voice. "Take this box." He presses the box into Abraxas' hands. He then takes a variety of other boxes and passes them out to the other Magijugend that he called to task. "Take these boxes to the location that's on the note." Each trunk has a folded note on top of it. "Do memorize where it's supposed to go as the notes will incinerate once they have left the room." The note on Abraxas' trunk is a Dungeon Number that is deep deep in the twisted dank halls of the Hogwarts Dungeon. "Those filthy mud-bloods will most likely try to stop or harass you, do not let them. Don't let them stall you either. Vigilance and speed my friends. Whatever you do, make sure the locations of these boxes are not found. It is imperative. Are we understood? Good, go all at once and scatter. Yes some of you are decoys. Who I will not say, so go. Do not fail me."

Viridian has sent word to the Resistance students by way of the Protean Charmed "bulletins" posted in the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw rooms, informing them that: "It is time. Find and delay any and all Magijugend until help arrives." This bulletin has caused Colton Higgins to loiter outside of the Headmaster's Office playing gobstones on the sill of a nook with his brother, Finley, his two favorite little Lioness', Josie and Madeline, and Gabriel. Doing a pretty good job of watching the entrance of the Headmaster's office without looking too much like they are. When the Magijugend start to pile / flood / sweep out of the Headmaster's office, well wouldn't you know it, it's right then that Colton's gob stone bag accidentally dumps out and the round stones that do an assortment of disgusting things roll about and scatter on the floor making the perfect bunch of caltrops! "Aww Shite…look at that. What a mess!" Colton says in a not terribly convincing apologetic tone.

Abraxas comes running out of Flint's office with the pack, and steps on an everlasting gobstopper. His foot slides, and he skids almost into the opposite wall, a yelp of pain as he wrenches something. If looks were unforgivable curses, green light would be finding Colton right now. "Go. Get those boxes to the Owlry!" he says, to the other Magijugend.

Josie stands up quickly as Colton's gobstones spread out, "Oh, let me get those," and she dives right in among the pack of Magijugend, ducking down and moving this way and that, 'clumsily' ending up in front of this Magijugend and bumping into that one. Nobody has likely ever seen her be so clumsy before. And not actually managing to collect more than one or two of the gobstones.

While Colton and Finley had been playing gobstones Gabriel and Madeline had been playing catch with Gabriel's cricket ball. As the Magidunderheads exit the Headmaster's office Gabriel's most recent throw goes awry and instead of landing in Madeline's hands it instead lands under the feet of some of the Magijugend. "Oh dear! I am /SO/ sorry about that!" Clearly, he's not.

One of the Magijugend in the group supposedly heading for the Owlry trips over the cricket ball and lands on the ground with a sickening SMACK. That will take a moment to recover from.

Lucretia looks at the small case in Abraxas' hands and she frowns thoughtfully. The fourth year shakes her head and moves at a brisk walk for the door. She's not running. Not dignified, and she's wearing a skirt. Since she's towards the back of the pack, she sees several people sliding, wincing as they fall. Nevertheless, all her care doesn't spare her, and she trips forward, arms flailing as she tries to maintain balance and not trip further over Josie. Her eyes find the Resistance as she comes to rest by Abraxas. "So. It's going to be like that is it?" she asks pertly. "Right." Out comes her wand and she swishes, flicks… "Fumos!" Smoke pours out of her wand, creating a shield against between the Resistance, and Oberon/Abraxas/Herself. "Run!" she instructs her compatriots.

Madeline's emotions have been a roller coaster these last few weeks - anyone with much contact with the girl has seen that. Hoping has grown painful - but this was it. This is what might change everything, and she'll be damned if she isn't going to try her best! She's glad when Gabriel recommends a game of catch - as she was having a hard time looking interested in the unfamiliar wizarding game. As the Magijugend arrive with their boxes, she looks towards them - Flint wouldn't be trying to hide these if they didn't condemn him. Right?

"Oh, Josie, you missed one!" Madeline agrees - moving forward as if to help her friend, and 'accidentally' knocking down a canteen full of water. With smoke starting to fill the air - this is going to turn into a real mess soon. Before the mess can obscure her view she hastily pulls out her wand and points it at one of the boxes. "Alarte Ascendare!"

Oberon is never one to linger at the back of the pack. Not the son of Arcadius Lestrange! Side by side with Abraxas, he pours out of the stairway to the Headmaster's Office with the other Magijugend. Expecting trouble, he notices the rolling gobstones and halts in place, letting them roll past him safely. His eyes narrow at Colton, and he draws his wand to his hand.

Colton grimaces ever so in not apologetic at all way towards Abraxas, "Oi, mate, here, let me take that for ya. We'll get yee to Spleen and she'll have you right as reign in no time." Get it, reign!? Colton kills himself. So much that he's chuckling as he reaches to relieve the injured Abraxas of his box.

Abraxas starts to move away as Colton approaches him, and pulls his wand. He's not going to wrestle for the box, and as he starts to move away, he decides that some self-defense is in order, "Flipendo!" he calls out, making a shoving motion with his wand in the opposite direction.

And in the spirit of self-defense, as soon as Abraxas and Lucretia pulls out wands Gabriel does too. And aiming it at Abraxas he calls out "Expelliarmus!" sending out a jet of red light racing towards the Slytherin boy's wand hand!

"DEFLECTO!" Lucretia's voice snaps out like a whip as she aims her spell to knock Gabriel's disarming charm awry. Guess who's got your back, Abe? Lucretia takes off running after the Malfoy.

Josie goes from pretending to be clumsy to actual attack as they start to run, reaching for the leg of one of the Magijugend. Unfortunately, he ends up being much bigger than her, and instead of the Magijugend being knocked over, it's Josie being pulled to a prone position. She scrambles for her wand with one hand while pushing herself back up with the other.

Colton's eye go wide and there's a moment of 'what did I ever do to you!?' expression before he goes wide mouthed as he's flung back and knocked against a wall. Dazed and confused he coughs in the summoned smoke.

Seeing Colton knocked out of the fight, Oberon scans through the smokescreen for a new target. He can roughly make out the silhouette of someone casting, so he lashes his wand toward whomever it is, shouting, "Incarcerous!" But the light was playing tricks with the shadows, and the conjured ropes go flying well over Gabriel's head.

Gabriel growls a little bit under his breath as Lucretia manages to deflect his attempt to disarm Abraxas. Switching gears he tries to slow down the whole group. Calling out "Immobilus!" He sends a bolt of blue light to hit Abraxas, leaving a trail of mist behind it as it travels.

The freezing jinx lands at Abraxas's feet before he can manage to get out 'Deflecto!', but he shows some mental toughness and with a shake he manages to free himself from the spell's hold, and takes feet down the corridor, getting further away from the donnybrook swirling outside the Headmaster's office.

The box launches up and Madeline lets out a shout of triumph as it falls back onto the kid. Before she can snatch it up, though, one of the other Magijugend has grabbed it. "Remordeo!" the girl exclaims, as the smoke rolls in to block her view of the other student - sending her spell wide.

Finley's known for being a rather physical bloke. He runs into things. His head is rather infamously hard, built up by years of training such as running off cliffs and into walls. So it can't be surprising when the young Higgins takes a running charge after Abraxas, with every discernible attempt at tackling the Malfoy heir to the ground.

"Ohhhhhh -no- you don't…" Lulu steps up, quick and hard. With a toss of her shoulder, she slings her book bag off and slams it into Finley's chest. She yanks it back and swings it HARD into his back, knocking the boy down before she takes off running down the hall, leaving her book bag behind her.

Josie is on her feet again, and runs up the hall after the Magijugend, slowing only a moment to fire off another spell at her dancing target, "Impedimenta!" Again, her spell hits, slowing her dancing target down. Josie grins and starts to run harder again while he struggles to speed up.

Lucretia puts on a burst of speed for a moment and then whips around. It's one of those rare, beautiful moments when the stars align and everything comes out just perfect. "IMMOBILUS!" She flicks her wand and a jet of magic races through the air. Maybe she did a little -too- good of a job. She feels the effects herself for a moment before she's turning to run again. "RUN," she shouts forward to encourage Abraxas.

Oberon lifts his wand to aim at Madeline, but then there is Lucretia's voice and a sudden flash…and suddenly he can't move. His lip twitches, and he growls, "Lucretia, you twit!"

Running after the fleeing box now - Madeline gets a strange sensation she can't place. For a moment, her limbs don't seem to want to cooperate - but it passes and she continues her pursuit. Gesturing with her wand, she aims it at Lucretia and calls, "Scourgify!" Was she spitting out bubbles? HA!

Gabriel is in the process of pulling a baseball out of his pocket, having flipped his wand to his off hand. As the ball pops out the pocket its usually kept in Gabriel hears Abraxas yell out his spell and sees the blue bolt of light coming at him. His eyes open wide but instead of trying to avoid the spell he braces for it, managing to windmill his arms desperately enough to keep himself upright as he flies back through the air. As soon as he lands, he throws the ball in his hand at Abraxas with his usual accuracy but lacking in enough speed and force to knock the box out of Abraxas' hands. And the attempt costs him as his focus makes him fail to notice the mystical ropes flying through the air at him from the side, firmly imprisoning him in their coils. As his spell connect with the young Ravenclaw boy, Max smiles in a satisfied way and starts running after his fellow Magijugend.

Abraxas turns around, and flashes his wand, "Flipendo!" sending an flash of light towards Gabriel and connecting with him to knock him back. As he's turning back around, a baseball *THUNKS!* against the box he's carrying and bounces up to hit him - wince-inducingly - in the elbow. He mutters something unkind as he continues to make his way down the stairs.

"Expeliarmus!" The red light jets out from Lucretia's wand, smacking forcibly into Madeline and spinning the wand back up the stairs towards one of the landings. The fourth year witch has a look of grim determination on her face, she spins and takes off after Abraxas again.

Josie grins she slows her target down, but then it all goes downhill in an instant. Harold Tripe, Lauren Max, and Brock Bletchly get together and shoot spells at her, forcing her to duck behind a railing for a moment. Long enough for them all to get away. With her target gone, she turns her attention on Abraxas, flicking her wand and shouting, "Impedimentia!" Unfortunately, getting the word wrong in the heat of the moment, nothing at all happens.

Lucretia whirls at Madeline, and the next thing she knows a bolt of red is flying right for her wand. "Ah!" Madeline cries helplessly as she stumbles back on the stairs and watches her wand go flying. She hastily turns to scramble after it. Don't go over the railing, don't go over the- "GOT IT!" she cries happily as she retrieves her dogwood wand.

Abraxas is fleeing like a bat out of hell, not even really paying attention to what's going on behind him, and hoping against hope that he can manage to pull away far enough to lose the people pursuing him. Sweat starts to break-out on his aristocratic brow, and he takes the steps two at a time.

Oberon bounds down the stairs two at a time, having finally shaken off the effects of the Freezing Charm. His voice echoes angrily in the entry hall. "Lucretia, if we lose that box I'm feeding you to the grindylows!"

Abraxas's black robes flap behind him as he runs down the stairs, hopping a banister and cutting through a crowd of students in the entry hall before disappearing out of view down the stairs to the Dungeons.

Josie is running as fast as she can, but she hasn't had to run like this since her days on the streets in Hoxton. So, she's fallen behind and as she dives into the dungeons she's met with a wall of smoke. She slows, coughing and trying to find her way forward through the labyrinth, but with little luck.

Stealth - Madeline doesn't have it - because after taking off like a rocket and thundering through the entry hall and into the maze, the girl spots Abraxas and immediately letting out a loud 'AH HA!' and telling him precisely where she is - and that she sees him. Smooth, Madeline. Smooth.

Lucretia runs. She runs as fast as she can. She's just behind Madeline, that quick little blighter, but she's -tired. She's been running a marathon today and dodging spells and casting spells and hitting people with book bags (books that will need to be recovered or replaced). As she keeps on chugging towards that maze she knows, oh, so very well, she pulls out her ebony wand one more time and mutters a spell at the entrance. Boom. There's enough smoke there to cause a real problem. She runs right into it though and follows sounds for a while. Eventually, she makes it back to the dorm. She steps inside, then out. She leans against the wall… waiting.

Oberon races down to the labyrinth, slowing as he enters the smokescreen. He hurries through the maze, navigating with familiar ease where others are easily lost. Soon enough his taunting voice is echoing through the corridors, "Nice try, mudbloods and blood traitors! Consider this another lesson in recognizing your betters!"

Indeed, Madeline catches a glimpse of platinum hair and black and green robes rounding a corner in the maze, but in the labyrinth's warren of switchbacks, dead-ends, and dangerous, redcap infested corridors Abraxas manages to get away into Slytherin home territory. Finally, free of the Junior Auror interloper for the moment (and who is she to soil the corridors of the Slytherin maze with her muddy feet?) he slides into the place directed by Flint and hides the prize away before slipping back out to spend some quality time leading Maddie on a merry chase through the maze, making sure that she sees enough of him - and signs of him - to be forced to clomp down all the dankest, darkest, smelliest passageways and through whatever sort of foul muck and Black Lake water pools in the low places. Eventually, exhausted and a bit dirty himself, he makes his way back to the Slytherin common room by the noisiest, most circuitous route possible.

Gabriel spends precious moments freeing himself from the magical bindings keeping him from running behind the Box-Bearer. With some help from Finley and Colton he finally manages to resume the chase, but try as they might the trio makes it to the entrance to the dungeons just in time to run into Lucretia's smoke screen, making it impossible to follow the Magijugend any further, "Arrrrrgh! Damn it! I hope some of the other teams have better luck than we did. After all, we really just need one of those boxes."

Well the resistance at least knows that what might be a very important box is somewhere in the dungeons. There's only one entrance and exit from there. Colton stays in the entry hall and keeps a vigilant watch over the archway into the dungeons, waiting for the help to arrive that Viridian promised.

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