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Outside Of Happy Haven
Author: Furnella Hodfuffer
Date: 12-06-08 08:47
We'd arrived near Happy Haven in the wee hours of the morning. Drake had driven something I'm told looks like a Muggle automobile called a Land Rover into the thick woods surrounding the school age childen's prison. Not wanting to risk the vehicle being heard and having someone investigating to see if some Muggles weren't responding to the charms around the compound, we'd gotten out and levitated the transfigured RV to within a few feet of one section of the wall around Happy Haven.
Shivering against the biting wind and below freezing temperatures, I waited for the signal. Having to walk in the bitter cold while helping move the RV and then standing around waiting for the signal is almost enough to make me wonder if I'd won the draw to be here or lost it.
Lars, Phlagmelina, AJ, and I had decided not to tell the rest of the family what's going on. It's bad enough Phin is heavily involved. Virgil and Vivien are involved, giving the Green twins a home for the time being, but they are safely in America. Of my three siblings and I who are involved, we felt that at least one of us should be at the restaurant since it's normal for at least one of us to be there on a daily basis. Then we realized it's a Hogsmeade weekend. That means at least two of us needed to be seen at the restaurant.
That meant a decision had to be made on who got to be part of the rescue.
We drew broom straws.
I won.
I think.
I mentally berate myself for having such a thought. My nephew Wiggy and niece Hydrangea are being forcibly held in horrible conditions within those walls.
Of course I won.
Stamping my feet as quietly as I can against the pervasive cold, I grip my wand, ready to start my part of the diversion as soon as the signal to go is given.
Waiting
Author: Phinfilius
Date: 12-06-08 09:24
Phin wipes his bleary eyes with the back of one glove. He's not slept much this week, the anticipation of today being that great. When all the planning had begun, all Phin could think about was getting Emerald out of the hell hole called Happy Haven School For Nons. The day after one of Coco's visits to the Wynbourne's that a planning meeting was held and Gawain Wynbourne placed a hand on Phin's shoulder and said in a grave voice, "I've got a bit of bad news," all the air had gone out of Phin's lungs. He steeled himself for the dreaded words to be said. Emerald Green is dead.
Coco didn't know what exactly had happened. Emerald had been called into the warden's office - only the sick minds behind Happy Haven deemed Alecto Carrow the Headmistress. After that, no one knows the specifics. Olive Green was told later by Carrow herself that Emerald was dead at Carrow's hands. Olive had attacked Carrow but rather than kill Olive outright, the woman has been subjecting Olive to extra work and time in solitary.
Woody Green, just a couple of feet away from Phin, seems to know what Phin is thinking about. He moves a little closer, fiercely whispering, "We'll avenge our girl."
Phin nods at Emerald's uncle, thinking along the same lines. If Phin gets to Carrow, he'll do everything he can to kill he though he suspects others have similar plans. Maybe straws should have been drawn for it like what his Mum, Uncle Lars, and Aunt Phlagmelina had done to decide which of the three would take part this morning.
Phin stands tense, waiting for the signal, knowing it's only been a short time, but impatient for it anyway.
Almost There
Author: Johanna Steele
Date: 12-06-08 11:02
It was today. A mix of emotions took of Johanna's body and mind: excitement, fear, happiness…
She was excited about the idea of leaving Happy Haven. She would have the chance of revenge herself and all the others. She would be free.
But she had also fear… fear of dying… fear of losing Felicia or Gus… even fear for all the students who were going to risk their lives, like her, today to reach happiness.
Johanna was going to see her family again. Maybe not today, but she would see them!
She looked outside to the big walls that surrounded Happy Haven. Soon she would transpose those halls. She whispered to Felicia who was near her:
“How much time do you think we have to wait?”
She shrugged her shoulders but answered:
“It can’t be much longer!”
Going In Through The Gates
Author: Kody
Date: 12-06-08 14:37
Drake grips the steering wheel of the unassuming Land Rover on the outside, magically enhanced recreational vehicle on the inside. He notices an ache in his hands and looks down to see that he's grasping the wheel so tightly he's affecting the circulation in his fingers. Loosening his hold, Drake quickly flexes the fingers of one hand, then the other.
Drake's shoulder's are also beginning to feel the strain of the tension and he keeps reminding himself to breathe. He fixes his gaze on the front of the Land Rover, the front of which has been heavily reinforced. Drake has an urge to go ahead and turn the engine over then sit gunning it but resists. The signal is coming any moment now.
All the staff comes and goes via Floo so for the longest time Coco and the other students had thought there was an apparating restricting over Happy Haven. After getting the first of the wands handed out to others, Coco had decided to see for herself if there was such a spell in place. Coco and about or so others had completed the apparition lessons at Hogwarts. Coco and a few others, working in their dorm rooms, found to their surprise that apparating in Happy Haven is possible.
Drake takes a deep breath then forces himself into a steady, even, calm breathing pattern. The RV was disguised as a Land Rover so that if it were spotted by any of the Happy Haven guards, they'd not think it was capable of carrying away a prison camp full of students. When the signal comes, Drake is ramming the Happy Haven gates, driving right into the compound.
At the same time, those in place around the outer walls will do one of two things. Some will apparate in and go on the offensive from the inside. Some will fire on the guards visible from the outside and then will apparate into the enclosure.
When the RV stops moving, the few inside still, including Drake, will get out as quickly as possible - something they'd practiced extensively the day before and some this morning while waiting for time to move into position.
Ginny Weasley, who'd jumped at the chance to help with the prison break when she'd learned of it through her Resistance connection, peers over Drake's shoulder, looking up and out. "There!"
The signal flares brightly in the sky. Drake has the RV cranked and rolling in record time, yelling at those behind him, "HOLD ON!"
There's a hard, bone jarring jolt as the RV connects with the gates. Drake never slows though, leaving the bent, twisted iron behind, one side partially hanging from a resiliant hinge. The layout and scale of Happy Haven is just as Coco had told them and shown with a series of drawings.
Drake slams on the brakes, already hearing someone in the back yelling, "GO! GO!"
Leaving the engine running, Drake hurls the driver's side door open, hits the ground running, wand out and at the ready.
The Signal Is Given
Author: Coco Nutt
Date: 12-06-08 15:58
In the girls' dorm, the girls crowd around the windows, watching for the sign. Coco's at one of the windows nearest the door, hand tightly gripping the wand Jared sent with her what feels like years ago but in reality has been less than two months. She well imagines that the boys are eagerly watching for the signal as well.
Beside Coco twelve year old Polly Potts asks sotto voice, "Won't the guards be able to identify people helping us?"
Coco shakes her head, never looking away from the window. "They'll all have masks of some sort on or some other method of disguise."
From another window comes, "I see something!"
A bright red light, like a giant sparkle, illuminates the sky over Happy Haven. From around the dorm, the sound of windows being thrown open fills the room, followed by the noises made as girls scramble out any available opening as fast as they can. Younger students are grouped with older ones. Coco, for one, is bloody damn glad that Kissy Isuki gave them practical experience with fighting on obstacle courses and with dueling. Even the youngest ones who'd had her class know at least some useful spells.
Once outside, Coco makes sure her little group clears the window and door then huddling together, she has them start making their way to where the escape vehicle is braking to a screeching halt.
"Stop where you are!"
Coco whirls to see Shop teacher Bastion Peakes standing there, face mottled with anger. Coco hadn't expected to see any of the professors up and about this early on a Saturday morning. She points her wand at him and Peakes is so shocked to see what's in her hand, he makes no effort of his own to get his own wand raised.
"Petrificus totalus!"
Peakes instantly stiffens. Coco sends her small group on towards the vehicle, from which several people have emerged, their own wands at the ready. The kids go running towards them, a woman wearing a grinning heart shaped mask rushing to meet them then guiding them to what Coco knows is the magical RV used by Hogwarts.
Coco goes over to Peakes, pushing him over, not really caring if the fall of his board-like body gives him any pain. She does take the wand from his hand. Staying where she is, both wands pointed and ready, Coco looks all around for signs of others who might try and stop them as groups similar to hers make their way to where RV sits.
She notices that some of the students hesitate at getting into the vehicle but with only a little urging from the woman in the heart shaped mask and someone wearing dog face they start climbing in through what Coco takes to be the door into the living quarters of the disguised RV.
Coco jumps when a bolt of light from a wand hurdles by her shoulder. She ducks low to the ground and starts a zig zag course, aiming for where the shot seems to have come.
Vengeance Is Mine (Olive)
Author: Emerald Green
Date: 12-07-08 10:06
Olive had been pressed against one of the windows that looks out on the building where Alecto Carrow has her living quarters. Why the bitch would want to live full-time at Happy Haven is beyond Olive. The best she can figure is that Carrow loves living amongst the misery and squalor of others.
If any of the other girls could have seen Olive's face, they might have been frightened of the wild eyed, almost feral, appearance. She knows she's got such a hungry gleam for Alecto's blood in her eyes that it's probably a good thing that with her face turned fully to look out the window, those around her can't see the hungry, verging on maniacal, eagerness to go on the attack.
Olive's ready for this. She's been practicing the two words of a particular spell, making sure she's got the pronunciation and cadence right. Olive certainly has the determination and desire but the spell sounds so close to the word she knows all too well as someone who has spent of her life in the Muggle world. She's got to keep her focus and not let herself say Abracadabra instead.
The early morning light is broken by a brilliant flash of sparkly red.
With the signal, the girls and the boys flood out of their respective dorms with the goal of reaching the escape car. All but Olive that is, or as far as she knows anyway.
Olive makes a mad dash for a ground floor window. She doesn't remember bringing her wand up but it's pointed and ready. Olive blasts the windwo, sending glass and wood showering inward. With a might leap, Olive hurls herself through the window, tucking her body into a tight ball in the hopes of protecting herself from any glass shards and splintered wood sticking out. She impacts the floor, hitting some of the glass and wood there, her momentum rolling her smack into the opposite wall.
With adrenaline coursing through her body, Olive doesn't immediately feel the effects of the impact against the wall or floo nor any of the glass slivers or wood splinters she picked up. Olive is instantly on her feet, fingers reassuringly tighetening their grasp on her wand.
Olive sprints across the room to a narrow entry hall where there is a staircase leading up to the floor where Carrow's bedroom is located. Olive takes the stairs two at a time, nearly hitting the wall at the landing where the staircase turns. She's nearly to the top when Carrow appears at the head of the stairs wearing a robe over a nightgown and looking disheveled from sleep.
Carrow's body jerks with surprise at the sight of someone fast moving up the stairs at her. She doesn't have time to react before Olive's thrown herself at the woman, head butting hard into Carrow's stomach. Carrow tumbles backward with Olive on top of her.
Alecto Carrow flails her arms, one hand going for one of the robe pockets, both of which Olive is sitting on, and the other clawing at Olive's neck. Olive coldly jabs her own wand against what she thinks is called the jugular vein.
"Let go of my throat," Olive orders.
"You think I'm frightened of a nothing like you?" Carrow sneers, not moving her hand from Olive's neck. "I'll have your neck broken before you can immobilize me."
Olive smiles down at Carrow. A sweet smile. A slightly insane smile. Just the sort of smile Carrow's been known to give others. For half a second Carrow's eyes flicker with something. Doubt, fear, something else? Olive isn't certain.
Not that she cares.
Still smiling Olive calmly says, "Imperio."
Carrow's face registers her surprise. It's not a spell she would have ever thought someone as young as Olive and a dirty little Non to boot would use.
Olive again states, "Let go of my throat."
Carrow's hand shakes with her effort to defy the spell. Sweat beads on her brow and upper lip. With grunt of great effort Carrow suddenly goes slack, the hand that had been at Olive's throat now splayed at her side on the floor.
Olive gets up, keeping her wand pointed. "Give me your wand."
Carrow's entire body shows the strain of fighting the Imperius Curse. The seconds drag by, one of Carrow's hands slowly going to the pocket where the wand is. Her body bows with the tension of fighting the spell. Her body again goes slack when she hands the wand to Olive biting out, "Bloody, wretched, worthless clot."
"Stand up."
Carrow glares but this time doesn't bother attempting to fight the command, probably because Carrow knows it's to her advantage not to be laid out on the floor.
"This won't be as satisfying as choking you with my own hands but it will have to do," Olive tells her.
"What?" Carrow barks then understanding dawns. Her eyes narrow, contemplating whether Olive has what it takes to use the killing curse. With the calm way Olive is regarding her, Carrow begins to think that perhaps Olive does have what it takes.
For the first time real fear shows on Carrow's face.
Seeing it makes Olive smile again.
Her wand has never wavered from pointing at Carrow. Olive continues holding it steadily, never wavering. With a deep sense of justice about to be served for what this montrous bitch did to her sister, Olive says, "Avada..."
At the same time a strong arm comes around Olive's waist, jerking her up. The person's other arm knocks grasps the wrist of her wand arm and redirects where Olive's pointing it.
Helping the Younger Students
Author: Fritz Schnackenpfefferhausen
Date: 12-07-08 12:01
"Quickly now!" Fritz urges some of the younger boys he personally feels responsible for since, being so much younger and inexperienced at dueling and Defense Against the Dark Arts, they could probably benefit from the assistance of an older student. Not that Fritz feels like an expert. Never in his life has he experienced something quite so serious and real. All his previous endeavors at dueling had been in a controlled environment––a classroom at Hogwarts.
He's scared that something will go wrong, that one of the students he's trying to shield will nevertheless get cut down or that he himself will get injured or worse, killed. Fritz is also worried for Coco. He loves her and has for so many years. He doesn't know what he might do without her in his life.
Fritz has to remind himself that Coco is a very capable witch and that she is probably handling things just as well, if not better than Fritz is. He tries not to let his worry of her distract him from the task at hand. The group of boys he leads from the dormitory building duck low, although there is truly no place to hide. Each has his own wand, but some of their hands tremble.
"Go, go, go!" Fritz presses, when the Land Rover comes into sight. The boys break out into a run, arms swinging, tattered clothes flapping in the wind.
Fritz, meanwhile, keeps his senses alert and spots movement out of the periphery of his eye. He whirls in its direction, wand at the ready, and before the newcomer can utter a single word, Fritz shouts, "Stupefy!"
Professor Urquhart gets the red bolt of light square in the chest before she doubles over onto the frozen ground. Fritz, looking around, trots over to her and scoops up the wand she dropped during the fall. He tucks it into his pocket and then hurries back to the dormitory to help anyone else who hadn't yet made it out yet.
Frustrated (AJ)
Author: Furnella Hodfuffer
Date: 12-07-08 12:18
The third apparating lesson hasn't been going on long but AJ was chafing to leave even before it began. He'd much rather have been part of the Happy Haven rescue operation but he couldn't think of a valid reason to skip out on his Hogwarts duties this morning.
If AJ had claimed a meeting with his publisher or agent or anyone else in his literary circle, Yaxley or Snider would have informed him he knew of the schedule well in advance and to change whatever conflict he had.
If AJ claimed illness, you can bet that Yaxley would come check on him just to make sure it wasn't a case of AJ slacking off.
AJ balls one hand into a fist and cups it with his other hand, wishing like hell he could hit something. Or Yaxley. Yaxley would do nicely, the arrogent prick. AJ only thought he was frustrated last night, chaperoning the Hearts & Roses Ball. That's nothing compared to what he's feeling now.
He's done so little to help. So little as to be nothing. AJ helped make sure that the RV keys, which had been in Saffon's possession, got to Drake Bennett.
Big fecking deal.
AJ's jaw clenches tightly as words he used to find a slight annoyance at hearing so often now grate like fingernails on a blackboard. Why do are so many adults even needed? It's not like there are so very many students to administer to after each apparition attempt.
If only there was some constructive way AJ could help. Really help. Not just pass off some a set of keys. There are so many friends and family among the missing. The majority of them have to be at places like Happy Haven or that one where the Green twins were, Camp Lollipop.
Camp Lollipop.
The tension runs out of AJ's shoulders, back, and arms. The fisted hand uncurls. A slight smile tugs at the corners of AJ's lips.
Of course.
Why didn't anyone think of this before now?
AJ can't wait for the third apparition lesson to end. Not so he can rush off to see if the rescue is still going on at Happy Haven, which he hopes is definately long over by that time. AJ's impatient for the lesson to end so he can make a quick trip to America.
First though, he'll have to see if he can get hold of a Pensieve.