>>42483643
>>Stay at school

>>42483643
>>Stay at school

You decide to stay at school. You wont be completely alone, some of the mirror club kids are staying, and Professor Morse said she had something planned for the dueling club students over the break. Although you're not sure you want to know what ex-military police do for fun over the holidays when stuck at a boarding school.

You're going to have some free time you could spend studying, what should you focus on?

>Study [subject]
>Study [specific spell, or information]

>>42483982
>>Study [specific spell, or information]
Wards or counters to very bad spells, like the killing curse.

>>42484041
>>42483982
this

>>42483982
>Study [specific spell, or information]
Study Protego Horribilis.
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Protego_horribilis

>>42484041
This might be what you're looking for:
http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Shield_Charm
There's the basic one, Protego, and the more powerful and area-effect versions, such as Protego Horribilis.

You try to look for some wards you could use if you ever run into the killing curse again. Unfortunately, the first book you crack on the subject of wards offers you an answer you were not hoping for; “In any practical situation, the casting of a ward of any kind against any of the unforgivable curses is inadvisable at best and disastrous at worst. The unforgivables are in fact so good at breaking through wards that the ward cracking curse (Avada Impervia) is based on the spell motions and incantations for the killing curse.”

Looks like you'll need something else to study.

>>42484281
Way too high above your skill level.

>>42484330
Disarming spells. can't cast without a wand.

>>42484330
some kind of tracking spell.

>>42484330
Expelliarmus, the Disarming Charm.
It's also really useful while we're in the Dueling Club.

You decide to spend some time studying the Disarming Spell. With all the free time you have to just sit around you wrap it up inside a week, getting your last bit of practicing in at dueling club.

As dueling club wraps up that day, Professor Morse hands each of you a letter.

“I'm giving you all letters. Don't open them, they'll open themselves sometime later. You'll find instructions inside when they do, read them carefully. Winners will get 20 points for their house each. Good luck.”

It takes a moment for everyone to realize that they're dismissed. As you're heading back up to the castle, Sam catches up with you.

“So what do you think are in these?”

>I don't know
>Hopefully confetti and free house points, but I doubt it
>Other

>>42484768
>>I don't know
>Hopefully confetti and free house points, but I doubt it
>Probably a challenge for us to duel and overcome.

>>42484768
>Other
"Probably we have to duel whoever's named inside until there's just one left."

>>42484768
>>Hopefully confetti and free house points, but I doubt it

“Hopefully confetti and free house points but I doubt it. I don't know, but probably just a series of duels or something.”

“Yeah I was thinking something like that. Hopefully we don't end up against each other.”

“You have no idea how much I share that sentiment.”

Sam gives you a snarky look and runs off.

The rest of the evening is calm, and the letter never opens. You go to sleep that night expecting whatever it is to start in the morning.

Oh, how you were mistaken.

You fall asleep and feel yourself awoken almost at once, a sound like a bomb reverberates through your room waking up you and Robbie, the only of your roommates to stay for the holidays. The clock says its 2 AM which you have trouble believing since you still feel just as tired as when you fell asleep.

Looking around for the source of the noise you see it on your bedside table. The letter has cracked itself open and is smoldering, casting embers onto the wooden surface.

More coming

You pick it up gingerly and start reading.

'The game starts now.

Hufflepuff and Slytherin versus Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Curfew has been lifted for tonight only. You must be out of your rooms in the next 10 minutes, at that point a horn will sound throughout the castle indicating that you are free to move about.

Hufflepuff and Slytherin are in a disadvantageous position, having fewer players and the low ground. In order to win Ravenclaw and Gryffindor must capture and hold the Hufflepuff and Slytherin dormitory entryways by dawn.

Hufflepuff and Slytherin need only defend these areas to win.

Good luck.'

You look up from the paper and jump out of bed, you throw on trousers and a shirt and stomp down the stairs into a sea of dueling club members vacating the dormitories in various states of dress.

Once in the hall one of the older boys starts giving orders.

“As soon as the horn sounds, start toward the dungeons as a group, if we give the Slytherins time to get entrenched it's over.”

>Follow orders
>Other

>>42485395
>Follow orders

>>42485395
>Other
"Does anyone know of a way to get around behind them, a backdoor? They'll expect something like an attack from the front."
Come on, we're Ravenclaws, not Gryffindors!
We use our heads, not jump blindly forward and hope that our courage is enough to win against chokepoints and home field advantages.

>>42485554
>>42485395
this

>>42485395
>>42485554
this

“Wait, does anyone know of a back way so we can get the drop on them? If we attack from the front they'll be ready for us.”

“What about you?” One of the other kids says. “You've spent a lot of time poking around in the dungeons.”

“I mean... Wait,” You do actually remember a possible way, through the labyrinth of turns to get to the lair that Jenny was trapped in last year. “Yeah, I do know a way. Through one of the weird turning corridors.”

“Okay, take us then, but do it quickly.”

You nod just as the horn sounds and the whole of the Ravenclaw dueling team starts tearing through the halls down to the dungeons. You settle to the middle of the pack, yelling directions up to the boy at the front who turns to follow every word.

You make it into the dungeons and through the corridors, and come out behind the Slytherin dormitory corridor.

>Full attack
>Sneak attack
>Other

>>42485882
>Sneak attack

>>42485882
>>Sneak attack

>>42485882
>Other
Sneak forward, scout and confirm the Slytherin students are there. Catch them in a pincer when the Gryffindors inevitably charge the front like they always do.

>>42485882
>>Sneak attack

Roll 2d10 please

Rolled 5, 10 = 15 (2d10)

>>42486088
Man, I hope they're not waiting for us in ambush.

Rolled 3, 2 = 5 (2d10)

>>42486088

Rolled 7, 1 = 8 (2d10)

>>42486088

so what happens now?

10 and a 1

Rolled 1, 1 + 18 = 20 (2d1 + 18)

>>42486088

>>42486133
the hell?

>>42486129
I use the first roll and average the two results, it creates a better curve for the numbers in this game, so you actually got 7.5 and passed the roll which was a perception check.

>>42486165
cool.

The group drops low and spreads out, one by one filing into the corridor behind the Slytherins.

You realize right away that you've made the right choices.

The Slytherins were either supplied with, or somehow got hundreds of sandbags which line the corridor and the main entrance to their dormitories providing cover. Oddly enough you see them arranged in a way that provides no cover near the dormitory entrance, looking more like a breakwall for water.

You keep that in mind as you move forward.

You're not sure what tipped them off, but you see one of the Slytherins spin around and point. The fight erupts almost immidiately, but instead of being caught in the open, you're now using their emplacements on their back line against them.

You cast a few disarming spells over the sandbags, and even land one, but the boy just shimmies over and collects his wand from where it fell. There isn't enough pressure coming out for your contributions to mean much.

All of a sudden you hear a noise like a waterfall.

>Duck against the breakwall
>Yell
>Other

>>42486272
>>Yell
"Get into cover!"
>Duck against the breakwall

>>42486272
>>42486337
this

>>42486272
>Duck against the breakwall
>Yell
"Get to cover!"
Looks like the Gryffindors are all...washed out.

You yell for everyone to get into cover and try to dash for the breakwall, but that split second of yelling puts you a little behind, and as the water rushes forward from the mouths of every serpent statue in the corridor (about 50 of them) you're pulled away and back down the corridor. You struggle for air, bouncing along the floor as the water drags you. Eventually you go slack.

You awake to a jolt of energy running through your body.

You open your eyes and see some of the older kids going around enervating people.

“Good job Shane. That call saved us.”

“Uh, thanks.” You say shaking your head and looking toward the older student. “Did we win?”

“Not yet that we know, the Gryffindors never showed, they're probably still fighting the 'puffs up on the ground floor. We were about to head out.”

You pick yourself up, and help check on a few people.

Leaving behind a small defense force the rest of the Ravenclaws start up for the ground floor.

You come out outside the Great Hall near the Hufflepuff commonroom, but oddly enough you hear fighting coming from the other direction.

>Check on the fight
>Proceed toward the commonroom.
>Other

>>42486717
>>Proceed toward the commonroom.
>Other
send in a scout to see whats going on the other side.

>>42486717
>Check on the fight
have the majority of our forces head towards to common room, but send a few stealthy people to check out the fight

>>42486717
>>42486759
this

>>42486717
>Other
Send scouts to the sound of fighting, have the rest proceed to the commonroom.

A few people get sent to check out the fight while the rest move toward the commonroom. You end up in the group headed toward the fight, given that you're not likely to notice a flood before anyone else twice in a row, and other than that your skills aren't much to write home about.

The sounds lead you out into the courtyard where the darkness and the falling snow make it very difficult to tell what's going on. After your eyes adjust you figure out what's going on. The Hufflepuffs must have moved offensively to catch the Gryffindors at the bottom of Gryffindor tower instead of at their own commonroom. They met in the courtyard, or else got routed here at some point while you were fighting the Slytherins.

The second seems less likely to be the case since the Hufflepuffs seem to be winning.

The Gryffindors look like they are just throwing themselves into the fray with no concern for tactics and are getting repeatedly rebuked by the Hufflepuffs. It doesn't look good for the Gryffindors.

>Join the fight
>Look for a better vantage point
>Go back and help take the commonroom
>Other

>>42487044
>Look for a better vantage point

>>42487044
>Join the fight
grab a few guys and hit the puffs rear

then have a few others take up vantage points and rain spells on them

>>42487044
>Look for a better vantage point
find some good cover then then join in

>>42487044
>Look for a better vantage point
Flank the Hufflepuffs, take them by surprise.

I've got nothing against the Hufflepuffs; they're good support. But it's 20 points on the line here, and we need to pull the Gryffindors' asses out of the fire.
They won't even thank us for it, I wager.

You step back and start looking for a better place to watch the fight from.

You find it on the second floor of the great hall's clocktower. Survaying the battle, you immidiately notice something odd that you didn't see from the ground. There are the two fronts of the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff teams, but then, over by the docks on the far side of the courtyard is what looks like a third group, one or maybe two people who are firing spells into both groups periodically.

>Go check it out (Roll 2d10)
>Go help the Gryffindors
>Stay where you are and provide covering fire
>Other

>>42487293
>Stay where you are and provide covering fire

Rolled 9, 2 = 11 (2d10)

>>42487293
>>Go check it out (Roll 2d10)
us and like two other people while the rest
>Go help the Gryffindors

Rolled 3, 5 = 8 (2d10)

>>42487293
>Go check it out (Roll 2d10)

You go to check out the other line, which requires you to move across the battlefield. You stick to the Hufflepuff side of the line, dodging and blocking most spells that come your way. As you get nearer to the other group you start seeing draglines in the snow, like someone has been dragging people off the battlefield.

You pick up your pace as you arrive at the spot where you saw the third line. But when you get there, all you see is a big empty patch in the snow, where it looks like someone shoveled it away, or melted it or something. Small drops of blood mar the snow all around, and a single set of footprints leads away, down the boathouse.

A spell hits you from behind and you go down. Nightmares invade your sleep. Nightmares of a king in a red crown, a little boy crying, and people being dragged through the snow to their deaths.

End of Part 6

>>42487650
So we got abducted by to be blood sacrificed?

>>42487650
Thanks for reading everybody.

Remember you can follow @Tiddlybum_HE for updates when the thread goes live.

Also if you like the quest, upvoting on the archive helps more people find it.

>>42487698
Nah, you just got hit by a Hufflepuff because you were an easy target standing still.

>>42487752
What'd we need to pass the roll?

>>42487752
I'm assuming the puffs are going to get creamed due to the pincer attack.

Another mystery for us to fix and I have a feeling that when we do a lot of people are going to be pissed. Making the situation between muggle born and pure blood a lot worse right?

>>42487752
two higher, the Hufflepuffs in some cases are 7th years and much better than you. You got a 5.5, a 7 was needed to dodge the spell.

>>42487798
Actually this is the continuation of another plot point that will be the focus of the remainder of the year culminating in the trip to the department of mysteries.

Assuming all goes according to plan.