All in the Family

Chapter 194: The Battle of Hogwarts

The rush of air was no guiding force as his purchase slide beneath his palms, it felt rough but moved with him as he scrambled in place, slipping beneath his hand like a live serpent, scales peeling off beneath his hands and boots as he struggled to stop moving and get his wand pointed in any clear direction- WHAM. His back hit solid stone, the shingles of the roof kept trickling past him out of sight, the slope of the building Frank landed on at the highest peak of the tallest tower loomed in chaos as he shook and gasped for breath back.

"Alice!" No response. "Lily! Anyone!" Bright flashing lights kept him half blind, by the time they dimmed and he tried to adjust to the darkness another erupted from an exploding window. Tightening his grip on his wand, he eased himself just enough to see he'd landed against a gargoyle, which was cursing him out and flapping its stone wings, but the bottom half didn't exist, this one was instead lodged right into the school, so it couldn't depart like its kin must have, their empty pedestals had his mind paralyzed the others were already falling to their deaths.

It was too loud, he couldn't hear any screams. The better option was they'd all just landed somewhere safer...right?

"Thanks," he muttered, patting the mindless statue that gnashed its teeth at him as he tried to work out in his head where to start, but there were too many options, way to many variables.

Something dove down, at first dismissible as any number of birds or creatures who would be startled from their home on a night like this, but then the accompanying scream had him leaning dangerously onto his mobile perch to see his girlfriend, clutching the stone chest of one of these things brethren like a hatchling clinging to its mother as it raced off to who knew where.

"Alice! Shit," he cursed, before aiming his wand carefully right below him. The blasting hex had the two of them hurtling towards the ground in a confusing tangle of limbs as it kept trying to claw its way awkwardly into steering without a back end and Frank calmly cleared his mind to cast his next spell. Its back end lit like a bottle rocket set ablaze, it was no broom and nobody would ever recommend trying to stay afloat, but he balanced like her life depended on it until he was right below her.

The wings were an inefficient mess in his way as the magic kept them along, he couldn't position himself right beneath her without a stone wing beaming him or her. Her grip was already loosening, they were traveling right over Hogsmeade with the mountains looming dangerously in the distance and there was no telling when they'd hit rock or barrier.

She needed no further support though as she let go, and grabbed a slashing claw, her own ride departing without her as the two now straddled this monstrosity even more unbalanced. "Hang on," he shouted without a single plan as he gave the gargoyle one last tap and one last spell, "repario!"

It froze in mid flight, there was a sad little "rar?" and then they were zooming backwards in a blur of motion that was truly starting to feel as if it would never end.

The stone protector was not happy to be lodged back into the school, but Alice and Frank sank onto its back hugging each other and drunkenly laughing what they should name him.

Frank nodded along very seriously when she suggested Frank Jr. while summoning the book. It took ages to come soaring up, and there was a plant clinging to the inside pages...troublingly like a snap of Devil's Snare had tried to come along for the ride.

"We'll put it to a vote when we find the others," Alice finally sat back with one last shaky breath and brushed her hair out of her face.

"Look at this madhouse Alice," Frank protested as he glanced over the edge himself. The fires were roaring right out of windows, the grassy lawn seemed like a mind of its own, their school was literally falling down around them as powerful magic warred against itself. "We'll help them more by getting us out of here."