The-First-Loss? (I) [Chapter 194]

~~Near Black Lake, Hogwarts~~ (A few minutes ago)

A sparkling green portal appeared at the edge of the lake and Jacklyn along with Himera and a few others walked out of the portal before the portal closed behind them. The Durmstrang ship was anchored at some distance and unfortunately for them, the ship wasn’t docked to the shore.

“How the hell are we going to get aboard?” Someone hissed from behind.

“You are a Wizard, aren’t you?” Himera turned around and sneered at the man. The man gave her an apologetic look while rubbing the back of his head.

“Well, that takes care of one problem, but everyone is home” One Wizard pointed out. They could see lights through all the windows, so it was obvious that nobody was asleep. “It is the same for the Frenchies too” The same man grunted as he pointed at the Beauxbatons’ carriage. They could see light through all the windows, worse, a group of students were having a bonfire just outside the carriage.

Himera grimaced at the sight… At least, none of them seemed to have noticed their arrival. “I think we should call off this mission. There is no way we can kidnap Karkaroff without alerting anyone and we might get overrun before we can escape” Himera quickly revealed her opinion.

“No!” Jacklyn immediately denied Himera’s suggestion while frantically shaking her head. “We can carry out the mission if we are careful” Jacklyn insisted. She didn’t want to give up as this was the second time Harry decided to trust her with a mission. If she gave up then there was a chance that he may not trust her with another task like this. That was completely unacceptable to her.

Himera was torn between what to do… While she wanted to convince Jacklyn to give up on the mission, she could also understand what Jacklyn was going through. A small part of her wanted to inform Harry about their situation behind Jacklyn’s back, but she didn’t want to betray Jacklyn like that. After some consideration, she decided to see what the others wanted to say.

After all, Jacklyn might be leading the team, but the others were obviously more experienced than her in tasks like these…

“What do you guys think?” Himera asked as she turned toward the rest of the group.

Even though Jacklyn wasn’t happy with the development, she decided to see what the others were thinking. “I think it can be done… We obviously need to be careful, so no loud stunts” One of the men said with a thoughtful look on his face before giving Jacklyn a pointed look when he finished. The others also seemed to agree with him.

Jacklyn wanted to defend herself by saying that she wasn’t that bad, but she stopped when she saw the others nod their heads in agreement. So, she simply crossed her arms under her breasts and started to pout… “Alright! Fine! I will hold myself back” Jacklyn huffed looking miffed, but the look on her face kind of ruined the atmosphere she was trying to create.

“Okay then, let’s move” Himera declared before she started to Transfigure the surface water into a wooden ramp. It didn’t take the group long to arrive near the ship and after arriving, Himera signaled the only other woman in the group other than herself and Jacklyn to move. The woman walked up to the ship and started to run her Wand over the ship’s hull.

“All clear” The woman declared after half a minute. There were a lot of Wards woven into the ship’s hull, but she didn’t find any alert Wards or anything like that.

After getting the signal from her, Jacklyn signaled everyone to start climbing. With Magic, climbing on a ship was an easy task… Even though there were a couple of students on the deck, they didn’t waste any time to drop them. After inspecting the deck for any alert Wards, then finally stepped on the deck. Though there were some alert Wards at the door.

“How long will it take you to deactivate them?” Jacklyn asked impatiently.

“Give me a minute” The woman answered as she continued to work at the door, but only a few seconds later, someone opened the door from the other side and the woman disabling the alert Wards fell on her ass when the door smacked her in the face.

“Are you…” The person who tried to open the door went to ask, but it didn’t take her long to realize what was going on, but before she could scream or anything, Jacklyn knocked her out, but unfortunately for Jacklyn and the others, the girl wasn’t alone. “We are under attack!!” Someone screamed at the top of their lungs before Jacklyn or the others could knock them out.

Jacklyn and Himera quickly knocked out the other students behind the door, but it was already too late… The damage was already done… “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! We need to leave now!” Himera hissed urgently, but Jacklyn still wasn’t ready to give up.

“No! We continue!” Jacklyn declared before she strode inside the ship fearlessly. The students could be seen pouring out, but all of them were easily knocked out by Jacklyn. She may not be as strong as Gellert or Katerina, but she was strong enough to handle a bunch of seventh years… Himera stared at Jacklyn’s back before she turned toward the others who were getting ready to follow Jacklyn into the anthill.

Himera scowled at the sight… ‘Fuck it!’ She exclaimed in her mind and rushed behind Jacklyn. She needed to make sure Jacklyn walked out alive and well or Harry might… Himera quickly shook her head to clear her mind. No, she wasn’t going to think like that. Himera knew that Harry probably would hurt them, but Harry might kill the whole Durmstarng delegation for hurting Jacklyn, completely ignoring his own actions.

Harry was insane enough to do that… She wasn’t a saint or anything, but just like Harry, she didn’t want any of the students to die… After all, they were simply protecting their territory…

“Shhh!” Himera was broken out of her musings when Jacklyn hissed in pain. A Cutting Charm seemed to have nicked her other arm.

“Are you alright?” Himera asked, only to get a nod from Jacklyn. “Okay. Let me take the lead. I can tank almost anything” Himera suggested and after getting a reluctant nod from Jacklyn, Himera took the lead. She had to admit, Durmstrang students were quite good, as good as the students from her former school, but Durmstrang students seemed to prefer Dark Spells over anything else.

They were ambushed by the students quite a few times, but none of the Curses went past Himera as she tanked everything they threw at her… Though internally, she decided to ask for some bonus after the mission was complete. After everything, she deserved pampering and Tipsy Pixie was always welcome to pamper her… Maybe she could get a group of Veela to pamper her this time.

“I think this is it” Jacklyn declared as they arrived in a well-fortified hall. “You guys have disarmed everyone I knocked out, right?” Jacklyn asked. Even though she was having a lot of fun, she was well aware of the fact that they could be ambushed from the back. She wanted to avoid such a situation at any cost… Himera internally praised the girl for not getting lost in ecstasy.

Jacklyn enjoyed fights more than a healthy person should and that fact wasn’t unknown to the members of the Lost Garden… The girl was clearly ecstatic right now, the look on her face was a dead giveaway…

“Yeah, I got all of them right here” One of the men said as he revealed his rob’s inner pocket which was completely stacked with Wands.

“Good! My guess, Karkaroff is hunkered down behind that door and they are probably ready to ambush us. We blast the fortifications away and then we move in” Jacklyn quickly explained the plan and the others had to admit, it wasn’t a bad plan… Thanks to Himera, all of them were in tip-top shape and only Jacklyn sported a small gash in her other arm, but that wasn’t a big deal.

“This is the Department of Magical Law and Enforcements. You have been surrounded. Surrender or you will be subdued with lethal means!” They heard a loud announcement from the outside. It was surprising that the DMLE acted this quickly, but they chose to ignore it for the time being.

“Okay… 1… 2… 3!” At the count of three, all of them cast Exploding Curses at the fortifications, and the fortifications were blasted into smithereens. “Fantastic! Let’s go!” Jacklyn exclaimed as the door behind the fortifications was also blasted away. Once again, Himera decided to take the lead and as soon as she entered the room, something hit her and her vision started to turn around.

‘Motherfucker!’ Himera cursed inside her mind when she saw her own headless body spurting blood… ‘Is this how I die?’ Himera asked herself before she saw another of their members bite the dust when a Killing Curse struck him on the chest and then Jacklyn screamed in rage and blasted someone into the wall… The person was smeared over the wall.

A person being turned into a meat crayon was the last sight Himera saw before her vision started to become really blurry, but the sight did manage to bring a smile to her face before she finally closed her eyes…