Magic At Nevermore

Another room-shaking rumble followed by more screams caused Caspian and Thing to flinch.

“Hey, hey you hand thing!”

Thing spun around to face him.

“Look you  have  to let me go. Listen to what’s going on out there! Wait, Can you even listen I don -” Caspian cursed under his breath. He was actually having a conversation with a bloody hand. And here he thought he left the magic shenanigans back at Hogwarts.

The dismembered limb started tapping frantically.

“I don’t - I don’t know what you’re trying to do…what is that? Are you trying to talk to me? I.don't.understand.tapping!”

Thing promptly stopped, flipping him off.

“Oh ok!  The feeling’s mutual ya git.” Caspian sneered before taking in a patient breath. “Alright, Do you know charades?”

Thing nodded his fingers enthusiastically before signing.

“Ok 1 word, 2 syllables…W…E…D…N….E-…Wednesday?” Caspian slouched back in his seat exasperatedly. “What? So are you trying to tell me that she’s your-your caretaker? Fucking hell good for you I guess, you have an unfeeling psychopath for an owner. ”

Thing stopped and shot him what Caspian could only guess was a glare. He pointed at Caspian, then the door, then started signing Wednesday.

“Hold on…You want me to go out there and find her?” Caspian gawked. The hand nodded. “The same Wednesday who put me in this mess? Are you menta-”

Another rumble, this time he swore he heard a roar. Caspian eyes widened when he realized the severed hand heard it too.

“You know...I think I rather like staying here I've decided.”

Thing clenched up before scampering to the nearest object on the table, flicking it onto the floor. The metal tool clattered in front of Caspian who eyed in warily.

He didn’t know what it was used for, but it didn’t very look pleasant. Thing proceeded to toss more objects onto the floor, each one causing Caspian’s stomach to churn further and further.

“Aww fuck me! I get it I get it!” Caspian gagged, looking away from a particularly suggestive looking one.

“Ok,” Caspian felt the gears in his head begin to turn. “So let's say she doesn’t get back? hm? What then? I'm wiling to bet half of those things need two hands to operate.” Caspian shot him his cockiest look, but on the inside, he was cowering like a mooncalf. He didn’t know how cruel the hand was compared to Wednesday, but he was sure it was plenty capable of finding creative ways around the issue.

Thing seized up in annoyance, promptly pivoting around to scamper towards the stairs.

Caspian felt relieved at the hand’s departure, finally able to catch his breath. But it was short lived, as a slow rising panic began to creep from the corners of his mind. If the hand was successful in his quest, Wednesday would just come back and resume her business with him. Caspian would like to think the girl would stop after he told her the truth, but he rather not wait to test his theory. On the other hand, if Wednesday and her pet somehow couldn’t  return, who knows how long it'd be until he was found.

“Ok wait!” Caspian cried out. “I…I give you my word I’ll get you, Addams.”

Thing, ‘looked’ at Caspian for a good moment, then another more clearer roar vibrated through the walls.

Thing sprung to life, scurrying over.

As he was untying his knots, Caspian felt sweat drip down his face. He began muttering each and every spell he remembered from Defence against the Dark Arts and whatever spells her picked up from mucking about in the Forbidden Forrest. He’s encountered many beasts before, from dark mongrels to thornback hatchlings. So much so, he’s actually garnered quite a reputation for dealing with them. He even started a small side gig where he would act as sort of a jazzed-up exterminator of sorts.

But whatever made that sound wasn’t any beast Caspian knew of. It wasn’t as groan-y as a troll, or as feral as a werewolf. It was something entirely foreign to him.

Once Thing freed his hands, Caspian quickly tore away at the rest of his bindings. He almost tripped as he staggered towards the table. Caspian reached for his wand but paused, unable to help himself from eyeing the various tools Wednesday no doubt intended to use on him. The girl was seriously not to be trifled with. She may be 5’2, but she walks around with a small militia's worth of torture devices straight from Satan’s bedside drawer.

Caspian yelped when he felt the hand hop on his shoulder, flicking him in his head incessantly.

“Ow stop it alright! OW-I know I know! Unfortunately, I’m a man of my word.” Caspian grumbled, snatching up his wand.

Looks like he has to make sure his almost-torturer was alive. No matter, he’ll have no problems stunning the girl if she tries anything again. Bollocks keeping his magic hidden.

He flew up the stairs, squeezing his way past the grinding door.

Caspian popped out and rushed towards…the quad? He half-heartedly realized if he did scream loud enough, he was sure someone would’ve heard him.

However, he stopped in his tracks when he found what was causing all the commotion. Wednesday was staring down a gangly-looking beast, placing herself between it and his friends.

This can’t be good.

Without hesitation he sprung to action, clutching his wand tightly. He felt a surge of magic explodes from his fingertips extending to his wand.

“Confingo!”

A concentrated fire blast shot out, making direct contact with the beast to send it staggering,

His friends whipped their heads to him. For a moment everyone just stared at each other, Bianca and Ajax had their mouths hung open, Enid outright gawked like a grindilow and Xavier, well, he couldn’t quite read his face. And of course, how could he forget Wednesday’s startled brown eyes. The hand promptly jumped off his shoulder to scamper towards the girl.

“Um?” Caspian looked at them exasperatedly.“Run!”

Xavier shook his head. “C’mon, guys go go go!” He grabbed everyone and scrambled towards the exit.

The groans of the monster brought Caspian's attention back. He threw every jinx and hex he could think of, but they just bounced off of its skin. The beast turned slowly, its bulging eyes staring right through him.

Caspian swallowed hard, grounding his feet.

He threw a jinx but it suddenly leaped across the quad. Caspian twisted his body to find it towering over the group, blocking their exit.

“Accio!” A yellow haze surrounded his friends and with all his might, he pulled them back behind him.

“Is this Tyrees’ Hyde I’ve been hearing so much about? - Depulso!” Caspian forced it back.

Wednesday got up, her voice a little alarmed. “It’s  Tyler’s  Hyde. I don’t know how he got here - Look out!”

“Protego!”

Caspian drew his shimmering shield charm, the thrown lunch table bouncing off with ease. He muttered a quick  ‘Wingadium Leviso’  and sent the table hurling back at the Hyde. His eyes darted around the quad.

“Ok see the closest exit?” He nudged his head to the side, wand and eyes never leaving Tyler’s recovering form.

“The blocked one?” Ajax yelped incredulously.

“It won’t be for long, I’ll distract him and you guys run… GO!”

He broke off in the opposite direction as them. “Hey! Um, Tyler!” Caspian yelled, waving his arms.

The Hyde merely glanced his way but averted his attention to the fleeing group.

Caspian inhaled sharply.

“Bombarda!” His wand cackled to life, sending a white blast that blew the doors off its hinges. Ajax managed to duck through to safety, followed swiftly by Bianca. Xavier was almost next but Enid’s blood-curdling scream froze everyone.  “Wednesday!”

It was like time stopped for Caspian, the beast making a manic charge for the girl. He vaguely remembered throwing a panicked ‘Diffindo’ but only one of the magical blades actually made contact. It wasn’t nearly enough.

The Hyde had Wednesday in his clutches.

Caspian’s eyes darted down to a frozen Enid.

“Enid run!” He yelled, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Caspian pursed his lips. “Expalliarmus!” The disarming spell squarely hit Tyler’s hand, the monster dropping the girl. Caspian promptly sent Wednesday sliding away from the beast, cringing when she hit the opposite wall rather roughly.

The Hyde finally turned his full attention to Caspian. It was shaking uncontrollably as he let out another bellowing roar.

Then it charged him.

“Arresto momentum!”

It absorbed the stasis spell like it was nothing.

“Glacius!”

It broke free of the ice hold in milliseconds.

Caspian felt his back hit a wall, his wand extended but no spells coming out.

By the time he could muster up the words, he felt Tyler’s bone-crushing claws squeeze his entire body. His feet left the ground, head scrapping against the jagged stone as he was dragged up the wall.

He bored down at the Hyde’s fuming face as it twitched its unhinged jaw open.

“In...cendio!” he managed to strangle out, a ring of fire emanating from where his wand was pinned. He and the beast both cried in pain, the fire licking at Caspian's leg as he fell to the floor.

Caspian only had a few seconds to gather himself before being dragged across the dirt, pinned under the Hyde. He felt paralyzed as he stared into its eyes, his frothing and decaying breath misting over his face caused him to gag.

It finally dawned on Caspian that this could possibly be the last thing he’ll ever see. He didn't get to finish his bucket list. He wasn't even close. He wouldn't be able witness the Abaxan migration in Norway, or pet baby Kelpies in the Galapagos Islands. He never became the next Felix Scamander, a globe-trotting tomb-raiding wizard. He always bragged to his friends he would. It was either that or Auror. Caspian will never get to know what he would’ve chosen. He never met a nice woman who understood him and who's he'd cherish for as long as he lived. He would never get the chance to bicker with her when the inevitable topic of children would arise. Caspian was never fond of kids, but what would he have named his child? If it were a boy Henry sounded nice. If it were a girl, he always thought Swan sounded pretty. Caspian began to panic. What if he changed his heart about it? What if he did want a Henry and Swan in his life or a nice witch to simply accompany him on his escapades. He wasn’t going to have the chance to choose because he was about to be bloody ripped apart in the middle of muggle Vermont America.

The beast drew its claws high, but then, it was tackled off him by an inky mass.

Caspian whipped his head to find Xavier, hand sprawled out on a canvas on the floor. His piercing olive eyes were busy tracking a black figure soaring through the sky.

It was a huge raven, one of his paintings. Caspian briefly realized that it must’ve been the secret project he was working on.

The sketched bird dived down and clawed at the prone monster, pecking at its eyes

Caspian felt himself being dragged up by a distressed Enid and a harried Wednesday.

“Caspi- oh my god your leg!” The werewolf girl clapped a hand to her mouth in a feeble attempt to suppress a sequel.

"You guys gotta go now!” he urged them to the exit, but as he said that, the heaving beast suddenly blocked their view. Caspian groaned “Ok new plan, get behind cover.”

They dashed to the nearest wall but Caspian stayed facing the monster. He was running purely on adrenaline at the moment, the injury to his leg feeling like a mere sting. He threw more hexes that did nothing as he rolled out of the beast trampling path. He tried conjuring up a strong enough ‘Bombarda’ but the mere thought of it blurred his vision. He quickly realized his spells took twice as much energy and focus to cast.

“Caspian!”

He blinked, suddenly seeing a boulder hurl his way.

“Reducto!” He mustered enough energy to reduce the rock to dust. But to his utter horror, the beast lunged at him through the dust cloud, cutting through his barely-there shield charm. He got sent flying backward, skidding onto the stone floor.

He fully expected to feel his innard pulled out right about now, but instead, he heard ringing and muffled shouting. The Hyde’s attention was off him somehow. Caspian’s eyes fell on Xavier’s nervous face. He was pelting Tyler with more tiny shards of inky black. The boy shouted something, Caspian followed his eye line across the quad. He watched blankly as Wednesday shot arrow after arrow into the monsters back. He couldn't help but feel slightly impressed by how accurate the girl was, the arrows landing nary an inch apart. But those thoughts quickly got squashed by the overwhelming reality of the situation.

They couldn’t last much longer like this.

Caspian lolled his head around trying to find anything that could help. Anything at all. His gaze landed on a nearby corner filled with water jugs and bottles of various sizes.

His eyes lit up.

“Caspian!” He felt Enid’s hands cup his cheek, her worried eyes scanning over his face. “Are you al-”

“Sinclair you see those water canteens?”

“I think so - Yeah yeah I do.”

“I need you to empty them out into a barrel or something.”

“What-”

“Just do it!” He hissed, pushing himself off the floor.

Enid glanced at him, then back at the water, and back at him again before nodding. She squeezed his shoulder once before bolting away.

Caspian limped towards the sluggish beast, watching as Xavier was quickly running out of drawings to throw at him. Caspian let out a dry chuckle as the beaver he absentmindedly doodled in science class was suddenly hurling through the air. Wednesday herself was onto her last arrow, but you could’ve never known by the sheer determination in her eyes.

He let in a shaky breath, willing his wand up. “Petrificus Totalus!” The beast went staggering back, it's limbs locking.

“Alright, I think I have a plan!”

“You  think  or you do?”

“I  have  a plan Thorpe now get your ass down here.” Xavier and Wednesday dashed across the grounds.

Xavier took a moment to catch his breath. “Ok, shoot.”

“I’m gonna blast it and you guys run.”

“I don’t think repeating the same move constitutes as a new plan.” Wednesday eyed him miffed. If she was perturbed as to his sudden presence she didn’t show it. But through her cool and somehow still put-together demeanor, he could see her brain firing. No doubt weighing the best course of action.

“She’s got a point dude.”

Caspian took in a deep breath. “This time I’ll make sure that tosser Tyler doesn’t get in the way. Xavier, keep making sketches but don’t use them until I say so. Wednesday and I will cover you. We just need to keep him distracted a little while longer.”

“Astounding plan if I wasn’t completely out of ammunition.”

Caspian gave Wednesday a look. “Accio!” He promptly transfigured a couple of sticks into a bundle of arrows much to the bewilderment of the two.

“There Addams, plenty of ammunition.” He tossed them her way.

He almost wanted to chuckle at her wide doe eyes staring at him. “How did yo-”

Tyler roared to life, drool dripping from his jagged canines.

“Care to save the interrogation for after we survive?” Caspian muttered dryly, reading his wand.

Wednesday planted herself beside him, drawing an arrow. “I’ll hold you to that.”

They hit Tyler with all they got, Wednesday aiming for his eyes and Caspian casting whatever his body could muster. Whenever the beast got too close or changed angles, he moved to place himself in front of Enid and Xavier, Wednesday following suit. With each spell he shot the more drained he got. He was weakening, faster than he normally did

He felt himself waning.

“It’s ready It’s ready I used a garbage can but it's ready!”

“Stupefy!- Sinclair come here! - Expelliarmus!”

Enid came rushing back, using a wooden board as a shield. “I’m sorry I couldn’t drag it all the way-”

“That’s ok you’ve done wonderfully. Xavier, I need you to cover for me.”

“Wait where are you going?” Enid shrieked before she too joined in pelting Tyler with whatever she could get her hands on.

“I’ll be right back I give you my word.”

Wednesday cocked her head at him. “If you leave us to die Caspian I’ll strangle you myself.” She said, voice tight before letting another arrow fly.

“Tough luck then Addams because I am not leaving you here.” He gazed into Enid’s scarred eyes, squeezing her shoulder. “I’m not…” He affirmed to her softly, cracking a half grin of assurance. “Xavier launch whatever you have when I say go.”

“I need more time I don’t think it’s enough-”

“Go!”

Caspian sprinted for the garbage can, leaping over broken tables and rocks. He had to clutch the rim to stop his momentum, nearly knocking the whole thing over. He rolled up his sleeves and steadied his shaking hand the best he could, keeping his eyes on the water. “Convertere sublimatum!”

It quickly morphed into a dark amber liquid that reeked of alcohol.

He may have excelled at turning water into wine, but he never could get the hand of turning water into brandy. It would always end up a little too strong for consumption by any living creature. But right now, Caspian was banking on it.

He blasted his way through the stone railing, dashing to rejoin Xavier, Wednesday, and Enid in their attack.

“Whatever your cooking up, it better be ready! I’m using my Spanish notes right now!” Xavier sent a  ‘mis nombres javier’  into the beast's leg before it disintegrated.

”Ok it's ready it's ready! When I say when, I want you guys to run like hell for the doors and  don’t  look back.”

Enid quickly turned to Caspian. “What about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you! - Stupefy!”

“Once we lay off the pressure there won't be enough time to make it that far.” Wednesday pointed out.

“I’ll give you the time you just have to trust me. - Confringo! - I don’t see you guys having another choice.”

“Evidently not” Wednesday hissed through gritted teeth.

Caspian glanced at the garbage can of water, then at the blocked door.

“You guys ready?” He took in a breath, closing his eyes. “3…2…1…RUN!”

Wednesday fired one last arrow before grabbing Enid’s hand, bounding for the door with Xavier and Caspian close behind.

The Hyde recovered quickly, swiping at his protruding arrows before making a mad dash for the group.

“Accio!” Caspian cried, summoning the barrel of brandy. It spilled its contents over the grass, sectioning off the incoming Hyde from them.

With every fiber of magic he had left, he drew his wand high, bringing it down.

“Incednio!”

Before the beast could cross the brandy line, a wall of pure blue fire erupted to the very tops of the quad. Caspian halted in his tracks.He couldn’t help but let a small triumphant smirk break across his face as he heard the beast howl in pain. The smile vanished as he promptly spun around and blasted the doors to let his friends escape.

But that seemed to be the breaking point for him.

After the spell left his body, it was like he was drained of all his energy and adrenaline. He staggered on his jelly-like legs, suddenly feeling very,  very  tired.

“Run!” He heard a muffled voice cry, but it was quickly drowned out by a loud roar.

Caspian turn around slowly, his droopy eyes turning mortified as the fire began to die down. The Hyde circled the other side patiently, stalking him.

But he was just so tired.

The beckoning call to sleep was a comforting one. Maybe if he just gave in to the darkness, he’ll wake up from this intrepid nightmare. This nightmare where he was lost in a world with no magic. This nightmare where he was currently fighting a rampaging monster. This nightmare where all his friends and family ceased to exist. It felt like a good deal to him, all he had to do was close his eyes and it’ll all be over. He’d simply wake up. It was a good deal. It was a smart deal.

But Caspian was never one to call himself smart.

He gritted his teeth, drawing his wand slowly up.

Clever maybe, but definitely not smart.

The Hyde lunged through the flames and Caspian’s world was quickly engulfed by a searing white light.