Lost//On a staircase

[Kianthra Lestrange]

As the spell hit Kia she began to dance closer and closer to the flight of stairs leading to the lower levels. As she teetered on the edge, she performed the counter-curse with a swish of the yew wand. It's as if she wants me to send her to the hospital wing. Honestly, this girl is crazy. "You don't like being laughed at, do you?" she whispered with another sinister smile. At least she's given up on non-verbals. Wise move that, considering I am widely acknowledged to be the most accomplished at non-verbals in the school, as well as another certain spell, hopefully I won't have to resort to that, but if needs must...

So many options...I could break into your mind, reduce you to nothing, or perhaps, take control of you. Now that would be fun, yes maybe, but no, there's too many people around. Best to make it an unfortunate accident, or better yet, that she herself causes her own fall. She smiled once more to the Weasley girl, who looked positively terrified.

[Victoire Weasley]

"You could say that" Victoire responded, feeling very weak, and very small. She had countered all of her most uncommon spells, things nobody would even think off, and yet, Kianthra had countered them all, with barely anymore effort than it took to raise an eyebrow.
She huffed in concentration, and waved the wand, again, emmiting what seemed like a cry for help, but really was a single phrase in Wizard's Latin, "Locomotor Mortis" or one of the most common spells used in times like this. A curse that would hopefully lock Kianthra's legs, and give Victoire the chance to flee.
If only those other students were a bit closer.

[Kianthra Lestrange]

Kia stumbled slightly as her legs were locked together. Ok I've had enough. Legilimens. A sudden rush of Victoire's memories filled her mind, now the ball was truely in her court. "I'm inside your head, I know your desires, your dreams, your flaws and most interestingly, your fears. Your mind is like a book Weasley. Petrificus Totalus. With another flick of her wrist, she freed her legs. She was now stood perilously close to the flight of stairs, but of course the Weasley girl was too preoccupied to notice.

[Victoire Weasley]

She could have pushed the devil-ess over the edge. She would have done it...maybe, but she didn't have the choice, now.
Victoire opened her mouth to scream, but no noise came out as her mind was flooded with horrific images and memories. She tried to close her eyes, but that was no help as the memories kept coming and coming. First it was the giant spider that had crept into her room, and freaked her out when she woke up and it was on her stomach.
Second, it was a young Vikki, only about eight years old, when she had fallen into the ocean by her home, and almost drowned. Her mind rebelled as another memory presented itself.
It is a nice day. There is a cool breeze, and the trees seem to wave. Uncle Bill stands beside her, his hand on her shoulder as they look up at the mighty dragon before them. He had obtained permission to train it, possibly for work with the ministry, though they knew how unlikely that was.
"Look at her, Vik! Have you seen anything like it?" He seems excited about his work, and Victoire did her best to look just as happy.
"She is beautiful..." She murmurs, quietly, not as interested as she should be. She was worrying about the muggle boy who had asked her to a ball in town, and wasn't paying attention to the huge beast before her.
So, even in the memory, she doesn't see exactly what happens.
A roar pierces her hearing, and the air suddenly smells of burning wood. Bill shouts, and tackles Victoire to the ground, as a feeling of heat washes over them. The breath is knocked out of her, and she tries to inhale, getting nothing but smoke. She coughs, and Bill pulls himself off of her, and tries to calms the flaming dragon.
victoire tries to breath again, and more of the dark smog fills her lungs. It's not long before she blacks out.
"Get...out...of...my HEAD!" She begins trying to remember the lessons she had gotten form her father, on how to counter a Legilimens, but too bad she'd never paid attention. Nothing came to mind as she fought to keep another memory from terrifying her. This is why she was scared of Kianthra.

[Kianthra Lestrange]

"It's quite nice being able to read your thoughts. I never knew you feared me, that's just dropped you even lower down the scale." Kia jabbed out with her mind, hoping to inflict some pain on Victorie's memories and then added some of her own memories. Some recent memories of midnight battles, using crucio on Rosie and Teddy. She manipulated some of Victoire's own memories, seeking to increase the girl's fear. The flaming dragon hitting Bill so he flew into a tree, crumpling at the base, with a satisfying crunch. Kia knew the most effective ways of bringing someone to their knees, mind you, she had had the best teacher and it was in the genes. She paused waiting for a reaction from the girl, maybe use some reverse psychology, let the girl think she was managing to get Kia out of her head. It would set her off guard and then Kia would need to do nothing more. The girl would have dug her own grave, so to speak.

[Rosie Lupin]

Rosie'd been sitting in the Great Hall with Ted and Zane, finishing up her supper as the enchanted ceiling above them darkened to a faded, ebony black, dotted with the brightest of stars. There wasn't a cloud in the sky that night, but Rosie had hardly noticed. After all, she'd never looked at the sky upon entering the Great Hall. She'd always thought that was such a silly thing to do. The weather was a minor detail in her life these days. The only times it mattered were when Quidditch was on the schedule for a certain day of the week.

However, Zane and Teddy had been taking longer than she'd wanted. Professor Duros and Professor Avero had been rather difficult that week, and given her two extra essays to complete by the following Wednesday. Let's just say, she needed a lot of extra time to complete them. After a long, hard day of classes and asshole teachers, she simply wanted to lie in her bunk in the Gryffindor Tower and fall fast asleep.

But, just as she was climbing the nearly empty Grand Staircase, she heard voices up above. She recognized both of them. As there was hardly anyone on the staircase, every little noise could be heard from the bottom to the very, very top. And the voices were both quite familiar to Rosie. One sounded strained, scared. The other was menacing, terrifying. It sent chills down Rosie's back as she hurried up moving flight after flight. She raced her way to where she heard the voices, and the sight that greeted her was not in the least way surprising, but it horrified Rosie beyond her comprehension. Enraged, she took a step towards Kianthra, her bottle green eyes firing up. "Get your filthy self out of my cousin's mind, you bitch," she hissed, pulling her wand out of her sweatshirt pocket and holding it to the side of the Slytherin girl's neck.

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[Victoire Weasley]

Victoire let out a scream as her uncle hit the tree with a snap. This wasn't part of the memory, but it was still so real. She had to break free. Had...to...break...free. Tears were streaming as she saw how Kia had crucio'd Ted and Rose. This was going to kill her, if she didn't do something.
The controlling feeling disapeared from her mind as Victoire continued her internal struggle. Had Kianthra left? Or had something else distracted her? Her eyes had to work to rid themsleves of the fuzziness, but when they did, Vikki's mouth fell open, in shock and joy. Rosie was there.
Not that she'd ever tell her cousin this, but she was extremely, incredibly grateful she had showed up then and there. She also knew that she'd have to act quickly if she was going to be of any help.
Petrificus Totalus!"

[Kianthra Lestrange]

As Kia felt the wand pressed against her neck, her eyes flicked to the side to see who it belonged to. Rosie Weasley. Oh great another Weasel, one was bad enough but two. And it had to be the worst one of them all. Could this get any more dull? Yes of course, the wolf would magically appear to stand by the angry Weasel's side. So predictable, as I said before. Surely they know by now that they always follow the same pattern? Well I don't think I'll spoil their fun. Even if they performed a different spell, in a different format at every battle with us, they still wouldn't win. Pathetic delusional fools, I pity them in a kind of weird, you-don't-have-a-hope-in-hell's-chance-of-beating-us-way, but only because they never seem to get the message. Why do they even bother?

So back to the present situation. Kia was still shifting through Victoire's memories even though the Weasel looked as if she was about to curse Kia down the stairs. She decided to release the pressure on Victoire's mind, making it seem as if she had cleared out entirely. In fact, Kia left a small space in Victoire's mind, an opening if you will, just in case she needed to anticipate any surprise attacks. The brown eyes looked into the bottle green eyes, showing no emotion whatsoever. "I think you're mistaken Weasel, I'm not in your cousin's mind. I'm standing right here with your wand at my neck."

A sudden movement in Victoire's mind, indicated to Kia that she was about to cast a spell. A quick flick of the wrist sent the Petrificus Totalus spell into the opposite wall.

[Rosie Lupin]

Kianthra had forgotten one vital piece of information in her attempt to fool the cousins. It was a piece that she knew nothing of, and was more of a shred anyways, as it was so small and almost non-existent that it hardly seemed to matter. But then again, even the smallest difference in this situation made a huge impact.

Before her schooling years, when Rosie was simply a small, naive girl, her Uncle Harry had taught her something about the art of Occulemency, which was basically the opposite of Legilimens. She never truly excelled at Occulemency. However, as her mind grew in strength and stature, she'd begun to also posess the ability to perform mild feats of Legilimens. It was nothing that could wreak any bit of havoc, but it allowed her to creep, undetected, into people's minds and get a general idea of what they were thinking. This was, perhaps, what made her so good at reading people. Of course, it could also freak people out. Especially if you began answering questions that they asked to themselves.

"Why do we bother, Lestrange?" she asked, keeping her voice casual, but full of a sort of intense passion that she could only truly master when she was in a specific moment. "Because we believe in a free world, one where evil doesn't opress good and where those in power aren't so corrupt that they can't even begin to be reasonable." However, as her presence hovered, undetectable on the edge of Kianthra's mind, she realized that the Slytherin girl was still distracted. She narrowed her eyes angrily. "Perhaps you didn't hear my request, you idiot. So I'll say it again. Stop poking around in my cousin's memories. Did your mum never teach you about privacy?" With each word, her wand pressed harder against the girl's neck. Finally, she muttered, "Expelliarmus." This caused the distracted girl's wand to fly out of her hand. Rosie caught it masterfully, before chucking it over the edge of the stairs, listening to the noise it made as it plummeted level after level to the ground floor below.

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[Kianthra Lestrange]

So you're inside my mid are you Weasel? Ok, I'll hand it to you, you've actually broken the mold for once in your life. I think you'll find I'm perfectly reasonable, have you looked in the mirror recently. You're becoming a monster. Don't even try to deny it, you know it's true. Look at yourself Weasley, your wand at my neck, admit it, you're so tempted to follow Ted's example from the forest the other night. Go on, I can take it, I'm not afraid, unlike you. Your eyes give you away Weasley, you try so hard, yet the facade is crumbling around you.

She paused as the yew wand spun through the air and landed on the ground floor, several levels below them. Her reaction was the opposite to what the two Gryffindors might of expected. Instead of growing pale-faced and looking worried, she laughed. It wasn't nervous laughter either, but one of pure joy. As the wand pressed harder into her neck, Kia smiled and said, "Now you see how similar we really are..."

Kia looked between Victoire and Rosie still smiling, as if she knew something they did not. Your cousin, why is she in Gryffindor? She's not brave, she's frightened of everything, including you. Oh, but she never tells you that does she? She's a coward, a goodfornothing piece of trash that dirties the noble history of Hogwarts. I'm suprised she was even accepted... she obviously got the pity vote, like you did... like your whole family did. The biggest group of blood-traitors ever known.

[Lily Potter]

Lily wandered around on the staircases, really having no idea where she was going. She did seem to have a knack at finding her way back to the Common Room or any other place she wanted to go. Smiling, the Gryffindor heard voices, angry voices at that. She frowned, probably Slytherins picking on first years if she had to guess. She laughed under her breath. Lily had encountered Slytherins and their dirty ways many times on her adventures.
As she advanced toward the voices, it became clear that Rosie was there. Her eyebrow rose in a questioning manor. She hared another Gryffindor, she knew the voice but couldn't match it to the person, use a spell. 'This might not be good.' she thought. Right then, Kianthra's voice drifted toward her. She sped up, hopping to help out in the quarrel. She saw her cousin pointing her wand at the girl's throat. "Go Rose!' she thought as she came upon the three.
Lily looked at the three. "Erm, Vikki?" she asked, walking up to her friend. "What is going on?" she whispered. She looked at Kia with hatred as she waited for Vikki to respond.

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[Rosie Lupin]

Rosie laughed, not a cold cruel laugh, but an honest, genuine one that suggested that she'd found something funny in what the Slytherin girl had said. "I'm not gonna hurt you Lestrange," she answered, removing her wand from the girl's neck, "In fact, if you'd like, you can go. As long as you stay the hell out of my cousin's mind and stop talking shit about my family. If you think I haven't heard enough of that crap from you and the rest of your Slytherin friends, then you're wrong. Believe me. Seven years have taught me well. We half-blooded traitors are so inferior to you pure blooded assholes." These last two sentences were said with an air of light sarcasm, as though Rosie were joking. Which, in part, she was, as she'd learned to grow a thick skin around her to shield her fragile insides from the harsh words of the Slytherins.

She was slightly confused when the Slytherin girl told her that they were similar. The fact that she'd removed her wand from the other girl's neck told her and the rest of the people in the area that they were the exact opposite. Kianthra Lestrange would have done much worse than she had, which was hardly much. All the Slytherin girl had to do now as grope around in the staircases for her wand. Or get a friend to Summon it for her. Neither would be too terribly difficult, nor were they as dreadfully awful as what Kianthra would have done to any enemy she had the pleasure of finding wandless. "Similar?" Rosie asked, smiling and tilting her head a little to the side, "Perhaps you're confusing your adjectives."

"And I believe you're mistaken," she answered, her wand tapping absent-mindedly against her leg, as though she was having a light-hearted conversation with a friend, "The Sorting Hat is never wrong. Saying so would put dirt on your House's founder's name. And I don't think anyone, especially you, would like to dirty the name of Salazar Slytherin, now would you?" She had to ignore the whole sting of thoughts dedicated to Victoire's cowardliness. The girl could hardly be blamed. She'd been caught unawares with no place to run and Kianthra Lestrange breathing down her neck. The only person in the world who Rosie believed wouldn't be scared was the Slytherin girl's brother, Zane. She was thinking exactly this as Lily Potter walked in. Rosie smiled at her, nodding her greeting.

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[Victoire Weasley]

Vikki held her breath and counted to ten. Kianthra would not get the best of her. When she was sure she wasn't going to tackle the Slytherein, she looked over to Lily, and nodded. "Long story. Kianthra cornered me, and then you and Rose showed up. I'll give you the details later."
Her pride was hurt. Yeah. It was true. She was a wimpy Gryffindor. She was going to have to grow up. She couldn't just let Rosie fight all of her battles for her. She was goign to have to stand up for herself. "Why don't you just leave, Kianthra? Even you aren't a match for three of us."
Two Gryffins and a cowardly lion Said her mind.

[Lily Potter]

Lily smiled up at Vikki. No, she really didn't know the girl, but she was pretty much nice to all nice people. She flipped her long red hair as she looked back at the Slytherin girl. She walked closer to her. Yes, Kianthra was a DE member. Yes, she was scary, but Lily had learned to mask her fear perfectly. She lifted her wand, preparing for an attack from the girl standing near Rosie. "Vikki is right. Just get your bitchy self out of here. You have no chance." she snapped, shooting a apologizing look at her cousin.

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[averybently]

Avery was walking on the bottom floor of the Grand Staircase. He was about to get on the first stair, when something fell from a great hight, right in front of him. He knelt down to examine the thing. He turned it in his hands trying to remember who it belonged to. He had seen it before... Kianthra Avery thought to himself. He grabbed the wand, and put it in the inside pocket of his robe.
He tilted his head back, and gazed up at all the moving stairs. He listened for voices. He heard four of them. He could identify all of them easily. Rosie, Kianthra, Lily, and Vikki. He started up the stairs searching for them.
Once Avery spotted all of the people he had heard standing on the fifth floor, he tried to get over there as fast as possible. He finally reached it, and said, "What is going on here?!"