Chapter 17: Anactoria

It didn't make sense. Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. Minutes ago, they had been at Hogwarts, safe, planning to learn new things and play with Loony afterwards.

Ashley, Finnlay—none of them had expected the class of defence against the dark arts if this to be like that. Sure, they had expected something different this year due to how clearly different the teacher was, but they had expected to be taught, not to be launched into a situation where they were most likely going to be murdered horribly!

The previous teachers may have been weird, useless, dangerous or all the above but at least no harm had ever come from their wands toward their students

The ground was coming closer. No, it was they who were coming closer to it. They had been thrown by the teacher.

Ashley needed to do something. She needed to, or she would die!

Her heart was beating hard in her chest, so fast it felt as if it wanted to jump out of her. Things both sped up and slowed down as adrenaline fueled Ashley’s veins, as her body fought, as her brain tried to find a solution to survive.

“Ashley!”

“Ashley!”

“Get a grip!” the voice yelled again before something hit her in the face. It was cold and sharp yet brittle, too cold and uncomfortable, which was why it succeeded in grabbing her attention.

She turned toward where the voice and the spell had come from.

“Finnlay?!”

“We have to do something, or we're going to die!”

“As if I didn't know that,” she shouted back.

The pure-blood witch could see in the corner of her eyes the other students looking like fish trying to fly which showed how desperate they were.

“Maybe I wouldn’t have had to cast a spell on you if you didn’t look as if Death had already got you. Don’t know about you, but I'm not dying here, and that’s why I need your brain, Ash!”

“You have to think, Ash! You’re the most knowledgeable about spells between us!”

It was something the Muggle-born would never have admitted due to her pride if it were a normal situation, but it wasn’t.

Ashley came from a magical family, which meant that by principle, she was aware of things most muggles would only learn later or maybe never at Hogwarts.

There was also the fact that the trace concerned more muggle-borns or half-bloods living with a muggle parent than anyone else.

After all, the trace worked by detecting magic used in forbidden places, in places devoid of magic, non-magical nexuses.

Technically, the trace applied to every witch and wizard until their majority, but in reality, how could it be applied to a child in a magical household when their homes and the places they visited, like Diagon Alley, for example, were packed, suffused with magic?

It meant that while Finnlay hadn’t been able to practice truly with her wand, to practice and learn something other than theory in the summer, it hadn’t been the case for Ashley.

This was one of the many advantages she had to admit pure-blood and half-blood wizards had on Muggle-borns.

Finnlay was right, Ashley needed to think! Ashley was a Ravenclaw, a student deemed worthy of being a part of the brood of Rowena herself!

Ravenclaws were clever! Ravenclaws knew how to change the world with their intellect, how to solve things, puzzles, and problems!

This was nothing but another problem, one she knew she could find a solution for!

Ashley needed to think, and think the girl did.

Cruelty may come easily to the girl, more than most, it could be said, but it wouldn’t be an error to deny the fact that in the power of inflicting cruelty, of inflicting terrors, there was also a sliver of wonder, of madness, of genius.

What the little sister of the Morningstar did was to create a leap of faith because while she could be as cruel as her ancestors, while hatred burned in her heart due to the anger at those wanting to tarnish her piece of moonlight, saying that there was no fairness in her heart would be wrong!

Harsh, cruel, but unfair? No, it wasn’t unfair because each and every one of her students had the capability to survive.

Testing, challenging someone with danger when deep down they could raise the will to effortlessly bring it low could only be deemed fair.

This is why, as the students fell, as agonizing and cruel death came rushing—or maybe they went rushing toward it—some, like Ashley, stopped despairing, stopped trying to find a solution, a path. No, instead, they made their own, like they should.

Ashley’s hand closed around her wand before she could even command her body to do so, her soul singing with the necessary path to possible survival.

There was the levitation charm, a charm allowing one to levitate objects. Most only used it on small objects, objects not weighing much because one thing that was an unsaid but known fact was that it was dependent on your magical strength.

Some would never be able to raise with the charm more than a bed lamp, and others like Dumbledore, the headmaster, or even the Dark Lord were said to be able to uproot houses and small buildings with a flick of their wand.

Unfortunately, Ashley wasn’t a monster, an exception like those two. Even if she knew her magic hadn’t stopped growing, that she would continue to grow stronger as she aged, it didn't mean that she would be able to levitate her body, let alone Finnlay and herself while they were falling.

Maybe if it wouldn’t most likely become a tug of war against gravity, she would have tried and maybe it would worked but using levitation to stop a fall was different than simply levitating things.

More than that, there were other factors to take into account. She could still try only to fail, which would result in her body crashing against the ground at full force. And with a fall she estimated as more than a kilometre, the best scenario would still be death, but bodily injuries such as massive internal injuries to organs due to the rapid deceleration and force, multiple fractures to bones, including her skull, spine, and limbs, rupture of blood vessels leading to massive haemorrhaging, and of course, immediate death due to the inability of the body to withstand such forces.

That would be the best scenario. There was also the scenario where what remained of her didn't even look human.

Learning healing spells in case due to Loony made her both appreciate and despise the complexities of the human body.

The second possibility would be to try to use the levitation charm to slow themselves down. Sure, she couldn’t lift herself and Finnlay, but what if instead, she didn't try to?

That also led to possible problems because she didn't know if the deceleration would be slow or rapid.

It was most likely for them to survive if it was slow and if they were able to make it work before being too close to the ground.

Hitting the ground two seconds slower wouldn’t be what saved them.

On the other hand, if the deceleration was too rapid, happened too fast, it would be akin to killing themselves instead of letting the impact against the ground do it.

After all, it could possibly lead to whiplash due to the possibility of their neck snapping forward. There was also a possibility of concussion, internal, spinal and brain injury. Even if they were able to survive that, with how hostile the city had become because of the monster above, it would be nothing but a signed death sentence.

Think, Ashley needed to think! This place wouldn’t be the one where she died. She couldn’t accept it! She wouldn’t accept it!

Ashley wouldn’t allow death to take her until she decided so, until her greed was satiated, until she wished so!

Ashley would not die until she was respected, until her name would be murmured in the same breath as the 28 sacred noble families.

She wouldn’t die, and if death thought that would be enough, she’d show it its great mistake!

“Finnlay! Prepare yourself!” she shouted as she directed her magic at the end of her wand, as she begged—no, commanded—it to accomplish a miracle!

She knew that it was technically possible to transfigure anything into anything as long as you knew and were able to visualize what you wanted to create.

This was why transfiguration was harder compared to charms where you just needed the right incantation and the right wand work.

There was no point in trying to stop their fall. There were too many risks, too many chances of something going wrong.

Thus, she had to change optics. If she couldn’t stop, what she could do was to change the thing she would crash against, to change it into what would not break her.

She spun her wrist, drawing an invisible circle with her wand, trying to lift, to move the approaching ground.

There was already mud and mini rivers due to the actions of the monster above, the one she refused to consider as a witch.

She could see the ground and the mini rivers moving, what remained of the broken and destroyed asphalt shifting, rising, changing to her will, and it was hard.

It was as if a knife was pressed against her stomach and was slowly but surely cutting and penetrating into her flesh little by little.

Her grip on the transfigured construct began to falter. Was that her limit? Was that all she amounted to?

As if!

She pushed, disregarding the pain, because pain was nothing but proof she was still alive. She pushed, disregarding the agony, because it meant she hadn’t lost yet!

“Do you think this is where I will die? Not even in your dreams, world! Finnlay! At my signal, use the freezing charm!”

The other girl didn't try to question her, agreeing instantaneously.

“Understood!”

And with a last push, with a sound akin to the roar of a lion, the Earth obeyed her command, rising like an inverse waterfall.

The pain was now blinding, launching through her veins what seemed like endless touches of agony.

“Finnlay, it's your turn.”

She didn't know if she had whispered or shouted it as she allowed her eyes to close. A nap wouldn’t be a bad thing. The touch of cold brought a last smile to her face before everything became dark.

*scene*

The tip of Finnlay's wand lit up blue before everything in her vision froze, the stream of mud, earth, water and Asphalt rushing at them becoming still, becoming a ramp.

Even then, the crash against it didn't feel pleasant. Normally what should have happened was that the frozen construct would have broken, hurting them in the process and not helping at all.

It was a fortunate thing that magic didn't rely on logic but only will and power. It honestly felt like a trampoline, well at least if one had stood for decades in the seventh glacial layer of hell.

It wasn’t a comfortable thing, the sensation of her body following the path devised by Ashley but uncomfort trumped death and she was very glad that she was still alive.

The fact she could also hear sounds akin to fruits being violently opened accompanied by the smell of blood and so many other disgusting things that honestly gave her nausea and only made her want to puke made sure that she wouldn’t not be grateful for still being alive.

Her body finally slid off the ice construct on a piece of Alsphat that had luckily not yet been destroyed.

She ignored the sensation of her skin being grazed. She would worry about that later. She would allow herself to worry about little things after getting out of this city with Ashley.

From where she was lying, she had to admit that the scene above her looked like a painting truly given life and not like wizards did.

It's as if they had been transported in one of those movies her dad liked to watch where a hero would fight against supernatural foes and triumph in the end except that this time, there were no heroes to save the day.

The movies never succeeded in depicting how loud could it be or how awful everything smelled. She tried to ignore the screams, screams that she was partly familiar with that were begging, shouting at her to do anything before they began distant or died off.

Finnlay turned her head to look in the direction of her friend.

“I had been right, you were lost in your head probably thinking about stupid stuff.”

Ashley was after all one of the smartest if not the smartest person Finnlay had ever met, smarter than herself not that she would ever admit to the girl.

The muggle-born girl pushed herself into a sitting position with the help of her palms “We have to go now Ashley. You can rest later,” she said at the laying form of the pure-blood witch.

The back of the girl was facing her which made it hard to see what the other girl was doing or thinking. She could also see that the back of her friend was different, very different like one of those Greek statues with defined muscles. She tried to fight the blush she could feel creeping on her cheeks. She didn't even know why.

She must have been more rattled by the fall than she thought. Yeah, it must be that plus it was not a bad thing to appreciate the body of your friends. It just meant you supported the efforts they put into it and Ashley clearly had.

What was she thinking?! Escape the city, escape the city. Focus Finnlay, focus.

“Ashley,” she tried again.

“it is not time to laze around. Come on!”

It was only luck that something wrong hadn’t yet happened to them. They were in the open, the elements themselves seemed as if they wanted nothing but to swallow them whole and she could still remember the little monsters the defenders of this city had been fighting.

Ashley probably had realized it before her yet The words did nothing. They didn't bolster the other Ravenclaw. The girl didn't show any reaction and that is what rang the alarm bell in Finnlay’s brain.

“Ash?” the Ravenclaw asked, fear breaking through her fake bravado.

“I really hope it is a bad joke or something like that that you're playing,” she whispered even if she knew it was most likely not the case as she moved to the side of the other Ravenclaw.

She grabbed Ashley’s arm to angle herself and have a better look and Finnlay honestly wished that she didn't.

Ashely looked as if she had been stuck in the Arctic for god knew how long. Her lips were blue, almost veering toward black, her skin paler which was a feat in itself when the other Ravenclaw girl could probably compete with a vampire when it came to to skin tone and her veins all apparent. Ashley looked as if she was dying.

Ashley looked as if she was dead.

“Ash? Stop, don’t do this to me, not now,” Finnlay begged as she began to think, thinking about every possible way that could possibly help.

“The minor healing charm,” she muttered furiously almost half mad.

“it could help, right? The episkey should be able to help even if it was made for relatively minor injuries.”

It had to help because it was the only healing spell Finnlay knew, one she did only because she had observed Ashley cast it so many times on Loony.

“Episkey,” she whispered as she pointed her wand at her friend. Nothing seemed to change so Finnlay did it again and again and again and again no matter how exhausting it became, no matter how many times it felt as if it was her breath being taken away until while Ashley didn't look like she usually did, she looked less as if she would do at any moment and more in the hours that would follow.

“We have to leave or there is no chance of us surviving.”

Us, such a damning thing. Finnlay wondered if Ashley, if she herself knew how much she had been changed by the pure-blood witch.

The other girl was unconscious and it seemed as if it would be the case for long. Trying to survive with her in that state would be more than difficult.

Finnlay was a Ravenclaw and thus logic was her domain. The logical, rational thing to do would be to leave Ashley behind, to flee by herself, to escape and not let herself be dragged by literal dead weight.

Ashley if she was at her place would have probably not hesitated. She was the quintessential Ravenclaw, smart, rational, witty and charismatic.

The Ravenclaw girl sighed before moving her wand to her robe “Am I truly doing that?”

One last look at Ashley crumbled any shred of hesitation.

“Diffendo,” she whispered not using the complete wand movement, not allowing it to be released at once.

No, what she needed was something constant. She may not be as smart as Ashley when it came to magic but she was still a Ravenclaw.

Magic depended on more things than pronunciation and wand work. There was also will, imagination.

Thus, even though she would have liked to have tested it before now, not on her and preferably on Loony, sometimes needs trumped wants.

Hey, at least, the worst thing that could happen would be severing herself by accident.

“You know,” she spoke the words flowing out of her by themselves.

“You probably don’t remember it but even before Loony, we had talked once. You had helped me with the levitation charm without me asking you anything after you've seen me struggling.”

It had been one of the first times in her life where someone she wasn’t directly related to didn’t help because they wanted something in return.

A line began to be cut, the lit-up tip of her wand acting like a very sharp knife. She began slowly but surely to drag it through the fabric.

“Professor Flitwick put us together for that project because I had asked him to.”

She never said it to the other girl. She hadn’t wanted to look pathetic. She hadn’t wanted her chances of having a friend, a true one disappear.

In the wizarding world, Finnlay was no one. In the wizarding world, Finnlay wasn’t Finnlay Lloyds Beresford, daughter of noble blood and of the family owning one of the biggest British banks in the world.

This is why she had fallen in love with magic, with this entire hidden world. This is why she had begged her parents to allow her to join Hogwarts when they had wanted to do everything but that.

She could remember how they had talked about trying to find tutors, that even amongst wizards and witches, there would be certainty in finding someone to homeschool her. After all, money could open most if not all doors.

Fortunately, it wasn’t what happened and she had been proven right.

“Honestly, I don’t really care about Loony. I just acted as if I did because I was scared of what would happen if I showed you that.”

Finnlay would be losing the greatest common point between Ashley and her. It was a cruel thing but Loony had been able to create some kind of intimate secret between them.

The Muggle-born witch feared that all of this would disappear, would be gone and she really didn't think she would be able to bear it.

Finnlay was a liar, always had been and probably would always be because if it had been friendship animating her, she wouldn’t have cared as much.

Finally, a piece of fabric separated itself from the whole of her robes. She grabbed it before it would be swept away by the wind.

“I am going to move you, okay?” she asked even if she knew the other girl wouldn’t answer.

It was harder than she thought it would be but after many scares where she thought she would drop the other girl, she was able to strap her at her back, using the piece of fabric to fasten the girl.

She could see the head of the other girl lying on her shoulder. Even in such a bad state, she still looked good. She wondered for an instant if that was something similar to that the prince had seen with sleeping beauty.

What was she thinking? What was she thinking?!

She wasn’t and that was clear. Now wasn’t the time to feel those weird disgusting urges toward her friend, especially toward her unconscious-only friend.

At least, Ashley hadn’t seen it. If she could, she would make sure she would never know.

She took a deep breath, inhaling before exhaling “Get your head together Finn,” she whispered to herself before directing her wand at the piece of fabric.

The piece of clothing began to change colors and texture, becoming heavier, more restricting. She could definitely feel it now unlike before.

They had learnt in first year how to turn matches into needles. That was kinda what she replicated.

She made things easier by using a piece of fabric of her clothes instead of trying to apparate something or finding more difficulty in transfiguring something else.

“There is no chance of you and I being separated, of me dropping you like that.”

The only way would be for her to literally be bisected. They would either live or die together.

She finally stood, the rain falling with what seemed to be the weight of the world but she didn't falter.

She could see The weather becoming even worse as if it was already impossibly awful, the familiars Coming toward her, moving more like shadows taken form than anything else.

It is said a cornered animal is at its most dangerous, that it is at that moment that even predators should fear their prey.

It was even more the case when failure meant losing not only yourself but everything. Was it a surprise that the only reaction of Finnlay Lloyds Beresford when the world tried to shut her up was to fight back.

“We're getting out of here together Ash, I promise,” she whispered before her wand lit up with magic.