in this valley of dying stars

[Elliot Carmichael]

7.10

Elliot's right ear was still ringing, and had been ringing for some time. He was not sure if this was caused by the original collapse of the roof or if his Sight was trying to tell him something; regardless, he was very disoriented. 

He had not seen this coming, because of course he had not. He did not know if the future had turned on a knut, sending them into hell before a warning would be of any use, or if it was a symptom of his usual blind spots. He did not See when Ginny was involved. He almost never did. 

The eldest Carmichael siblings walked through the rubble alone. Elliot's wand was lit. It was silent as a graveyard - (they may as well have been in a graveyard), with the rubble mess and the sense of dread and death and silence) - but for the ringing in ear, and yet Elliot kept one hand wrapped around his wand. 

The collapse could not have come from nowhere. He was reminded starkly of the incident in the Ministry, but given the number of deaths there, had not yet mentioned it to Ginny.

The sound of something scurrying had Elliot turning around, wand still lit and out. Illuminated in the wreckage was - was - what the hell was that?

@'Odira Potter' @'Virginia Carmichael'

  

[Virginia Carmichael]

She was still shaken, her dress torn and dusty but mercifully otherwise unharmed. The girl inside it, too—for which Virginia knew she was lucky. She had heard screams, when the collapse had happened. She and Elliot could be in much worse shape.

Her steps were tentative and shaky as she moved close behind her brother, a hand extended to hover just behind him but not grab on fully. Ginny Carmichael was not a woman too proud to show weakness, but she did not want to impose upon Elliot, not in a situation this severe. She could be strong enough to stand on her own two feet without physical support from her brother, so long as they both stayed whole.

The dust coating her mouth, her throat, her lungs made speaking difficult, so Ginny saved her strength by keeping quiet. What could she say, anyway, that would help the situation? That wouldn’t escalate the trepidation both Carmichael siblings were presently feeling?

It was as if a ghost town, this labyrinthine city of debris, and the only other person Virginia had seen since the accident hadn’t even been a whole person, just a lifeless foot. The only sound was their own footsteps, crunching in the shattered stone as they walked, making the sound of something large scurrying about that much more startling. Elliot moved his wandtip to find the source of the noise, and Virginia’s eyes widened in shock and not a small amount of terror as she saw that it was a tiger with wings.

“Elliot,” his name was panicked on her tongue as it left her.

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   Cassius Lestrange

[Elliot Carmichael]

It was - 

It was -

It was a tiger. It started at Elliot's wandlight and snarled. The beast's fur was matted and under the bright light Elliot could see the shape of its ribs under its fur, and the dirt on its wings.   

Elliot reached out and grabbed onto Ginny's wrist. He could not lose her here, not when there was a winged fucking tiger staring them down. This sort of thing did not happen in Wales, where they presumably should have stayed today. 

"Back away," Elliot whispered, "We have to back away."

He took one very careful step back, free hand still locked on her arm, light still aimed at the beast. 

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   Virginia Carmichael

[Virginia Carmichael]

One hand imprisoned by her brother, the other fumbled for her wand. She would not be caught unarmed, not here—and Virginia Carmichael had not survived an altercation with a werewolf only to be killed by a tiger.

Dutifully, slowly, she did as instructed, her frantic heartbeat pounding in her chest, her ears, even her eyes, it seemed, as panic welled up within her, willing the brunette to do something careless. Virginia could not bend, not now.

“W-what do we do?” she asked her brother in a loud whisper, eyes not leaving the feral beast that now threatened them.

  

[Elliot Carmichael]

Was this what he'd been Seeing?

Elliot glanced at Ginny's hands, half expecting them to be covered in blood. Maybe it wasn't, then. Maybe he had just been going crazy.

"I think we may have to kill it," he said. His voice sounded strange to his own ears; but so did hers. He couldn't hear still.

He didn't really do offensive magic. Even before he lodged himself in Hogwarts as Divination professor, he had not been in an aggressive position of the Ministry. He was in the Improper Use of Magic. Violent murderbeasts were someone else's problem.

"Stupefy," Elliot attempted, although the spell shot past the rail-thin tiger. Damn.  

  

[Virginia Carmichael]

Kill it.

She had killed before, of course, but that had been an accident, and the maid hadn’t thought back. Elliot had been there, too, and George—and the guilt of it still weighed upon her like a train full of bricks. She could not feel guilty for killing something that was trying to kill her, not if it wasn’t human, but Virginia did not think herself any more physically capable of it.

Neither, apparently, was Elliot—the attempted stunning spell shot past the beast, accomplishing nothing except to rile it up.

“Again, Elliot!” she urged in a loud whisper.

  

[Elliot Carmichael]

Not only had he missed, but stupefy would not kill the beast. Given the size of the thing, it may not even stop it. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Elliot cast again: "Diffindo!"

The severing charm did what it was intended to do: it severed. A large wound appeared where the spell struck the tiger on the back. The tiger yowled as terrible red blood poured out and Elliot was dumbfounded, shocked more than anything that he had done this, not even sure if it would do the job.

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   Virginia Carmichael

[Virginia Carmichael]

An arc of crimson shot from the beast and the sound it let out would burn itself in Ginny’s mind as she hid her eyes in her brother’s shoulder. It did nothing for her ears, for her nose, for her mind’s eye, but it brought her the faintest bit of comfort.

@'Elliot Carmichael'

  

[Elliot Carmichael]

Elliot wrapped one protective arm around Ginny's shoulders. The beast shifted once, twice, but did not get up, and the motion of its chest slowed and stopped in the oncoming seconds.

He let go of Ginny and felt an instinctive wave of nausea at the copper smell of blood in the air. "I think I'm going to be sick," Elliot said.