When they reached the great hall, their eyes met a horrible scene. Almost all the students who studied in the Ilvermorny school of magic were standing there looking terrified. The first years and some of the bigger students were crying as well. Aria and Draco made their way through the crowd and saw the source of all the chaos.
Morana was standing in the centre, her long evil fingers playing with her wand, which god knows had killed how many people. Her fingers and her wand fitted well together as if they were made for each other, which they certainly were. Draco moved his eyes to look at her face and his eyes met with evil ones. She seemed to be looking at him already. Behind her were her servants. But two of them especially caught his eyes. Ronald Douglas, who Draco remembered had made a comment on Aria, was holding an unconscious Oliver by his collar, his other hand pointing his wand at Oliver's neck. The other one who was called the crazy woman by Draco was holding an unconscious Marissa, doing the same.
Aria let out a strangled scream. She made a movement to run towards her friends but was stopped by Morana.
She chuckled. "Nice to meet you after so long, dear." Aria gave her a death glare and if looks could kill, this would have been Morana's last day. The way she said 'dear' made Draco shiver, he wondered where Aria got all her courage from.
"I don't think I can say the same," she said quietly. Morana tutted pitifully circling her way around Aria but Draco's eyes were glued to her wand. He was scared she would take it out and fire.
"Why dear?" Asked Morana. "Forgot our last meeting?"
Many of the students gasped in the background as they saw Morana and Aria talking calmly or at least that's what they saw but they didn't know how flames of hatred were shooting out from both of them.
"From what I assume," Aria said, her tone matching Morana's. "It's you who died and so I think you should be the one to forget your memory, not me.
Morana glared at Aria. Draco gave her a warning look but Aria just refused to look his way, instead, her eyes were busy returning the hard look Morana gave her.
"HOW DARE YO-" interrupted the voice of the crazy woman who was holding Marissa but Morana cut her off.
"peace, Pandora. Let me and our dear little rose talk?" said Morana. Pandora, who Draco assumed was the crazy woman's name, shut her mouth.
"Leave my friends," said Aria through her gritted teeth.
"Well...let's see...no" Morana smiled evilly. "There two idiots decided to fire spells at me in a stupid belief that they will protect you but how very wrong they were."
Aria scoffed. "That's bravery, you stupid evil oaf, something you will never have" Morana's nostril's frilled with anger, but before they both could kill each other, Draco interrupted.
"M-My lady?" he stuttered. He felt uncomfortable saying that in front of the whole school as it was very revealing and was literally shouting, 'hey!! I am Morana's servant!'
"Ah!!" said Morana turning towards him. "Pleasure to meet you too"
She especially emphasized 'too' and Draco didn't need to open a textbook to know that Morana was taunting him for not being attentive in his task. But Draco was too terrified to answer back. Draco could literally see the dark magic radiating off her.
"w-where are the teachers my lady?" he asked, finally pulling up his courage.
"Oh," Morana laughed as this was the best joke in the world. "They? They are all sleeping."
sleeping?
"What d-do you mean, my lady?"
She huffed as if the joke was no more interesting. "Our dear Gladstone passed them a sleeping draught and now they are so deep in sleep...they are almost dead."
A shiver went down Draco's spine. His eyes went wide and locked with the blue ones who were filled with anger and nothing else.
pretty good at hiding her feelings, Draco thought.
"I DON'T CARE!!" Aria roared. "GIVE ME MY FRIENDS BACK!"
Morana looked amused but unbothered. All of Morana's servants laughed. Draco's eyes search for his parents and found them in the back, not laughing but completely serious. Aria, Morana and Draco were standing in the centre, All the Ilvermorny students on one side, terrified and all of Morana's servants on the other, laughing. Morana chuckled darkly.
"And why do you think I will obey you?" she spat. "You are the one in my way to greatness. YOU are the reason I died!! You are the one that 'delayed' my success but not now. You will die a slow and painful death and I will rule the world with my magic!!!"
Aria gritted her teeth but Draco suspected that it wasn't anger. Her face was twisted in agony and she was digging her nails into her palms so as to control her screams. He wondered what was bothering her...But then she spoke calmly as if there was nothing wrong with her.
"You are right. I am the reason you died and I will happily take the honour again. You are nothing in front of me. Your soul exists in me and if you try to hurt me anywhere else, you will die." Aria hissed. "But I guess, the slow and painful death should be your part as you have already experienced it, didn't you?"
Morana's face filled with anger but Aria continued to circle her way around Morana just like she had done.
"What does it feel like, Morana? Painful?" she tutted pitifully. "I feel pity towards you. I wish I could do something but what can a 16-year old do? Nothing. And I am afraid, this 16-year old will keep giving you a slow...and painful death every time you invade my TERRITORY!! I will continue to keep my hatred towards you as long as you even look at my family!!"
Morana chuckled. "You think I don't know where your soul exists? What was Draco here was then?"
"Draco," Aria said quickly as if she wasn't expecting this. "What has he got to do with anything?"
Morana tutted which irritated Draco. Were we playing a tut-tut game?
"Oh, dear! He was there all the time plotting against you, isn't it?" she asked Draco.
He didn't reply but put his head down.
"He doesn't even have the guts to do anything, Morana," said Aria, receiving another round of gasps from the students and angry growls from Morana's servants. "He can't even...what...tie his shoelaces properly?"
Draco gave her an annoyed look which was returned with an apologetic one. He looked around and saw the once beautiful ceiling gone to be replaced by the outer sky.
God, they had crashed in Ilvermorny through the ceiling
weird
"How did you enter?" Asked Aria aggressively. "What about the protective enchantments?"
"Which idea do you get when I say that Gladstone helped me with 'everything'?" replied Morana sarcastically as if she was talking to a small child. This angered Draco. He didn't know why were he and Aria talking with this idiot when they should have already started a war.
He looked at Aria and noticed that she wasn't completely into talks. She was griping her wand so tight that her knuckles had gone white, but Draco saw something else too. She also had a small...black stick? no, a needle? no...hairpin. That's it. hairpin, but he wondered why she would do that...
He shook his head, frustrated. He didn't like talks, trickery and strategies at all, they needed patience which Draco didn't have in him one bit. He didn't have anything to do and so he yelled.
"ENOUGH!" all the eyes turned towards him, including Morana chilly gaze and Aria's angry ones.
"ENOUGH OF TALKI-"
"That's right. Enough of talking. Time for some action?" came a new voice. Draco turned and saw freaking Nico and Theo Ellison standing bravely with...all...and I mean ALL the teachers in the school, including the healers to the headmaster. He and Aria shared a confused look.
Morana's expression was priceless. To say that she looked shocked would be an understatement. She widened her eyes and screamed in rage.
"WH-
"HOW-
"HOW DARE Y-
She never got the chance to complete her sentences. The moment the teachers arrived all hell broke loose. Some of the teachers grabbed the younger students to lead them to some safer place. Some older students didn't even bother to do anything other than joining the war without any hesitation. The first spell was fired by Aria which Morana blocked easily, but Aria didn't stop. She kept on firing not giving a chance for Morana to do anything other than defend herself. Draco got in a fight with Douglas in a second, guess they hated each other more than anything. One time and many things were there on his mind like
Where is unconscious Marissa and Oliver?
Where are his parents cause they aren't visible anywhere.
How the heck is Aria going to hold off Morana alone?
How did the teachers wake?
What suddenly happened to Nico and Theo? Draco actually didn't think of them more than little pranksters, but well, they might be something more than that and now they were fighters.
"YOU FILTHY TRAIT-
"DEARMO!!" Draco yelled, which was actually a disarming spell but it was with such force that it knocked him out.
By the time Douglas recovered, he quickly searched for Aria and found her fighting and yelling like a demon. She yelled spells and cursed like this was the end of the world. He scanned his eyes to look for other people as well and saw Pandora, the crazy woman duelling with the headmaster. They both were screaming like crazy.
Guess they both were good, super good.
"WHAT'S WRONG?" He taunted Douglas who was struggling to stand on his feet. He growled angrily and raised his wand to shoot a spell when there was a loud clang heard...like metal against metal. All the green, red, purple, black, and weird coloured flashes stopped. Everyone stopped shooting spells, including Morana's servants.
"What's that noise?" asked Pandora, who had also stopped duelling the professor
Seems like the noise is very important to interrupt them.
"We can't know what it is without seeing it, can we?" scowled Draco. He ran towards the noise which had come from the Grounds of Ilvermorny. He ran outside the castle and spotted...
Morana and Aria fighting...with a sword.
Aria had dropped her wand on the ground and was slashing and attacking as if she had been doing it for years. Morana wasn't less herself. She too was fighting professionally as if she had a lot of experience in it. They both looked like old enemies fighting for their world, which they actually were. Aria screamed a battle cry and attacked which again come in contact with Morana's sword and clanked loudly. Draco took a closer look at Aria's sword. It, for some strange reason, looked familiar. It had a metallic black hilt with a red ruby in the middle. The silver outline of the hilt was shining in the pink-navy blue sky. The sword was shining blue light like it was some godly weapon, illuminating Aria's face showing the cuts on her forehead and cheek. Blood was dripping from her lips as well but she wasn't paying attention to it one bit. She continued to slash, duck and attack back fiercely. Morana's sword too looked like it was made to oppose Aria's. It was a red one. It didn't have any ruby hilt but it looked powerful, but the only difference was that it wasn't shining but splashing...blood.
Wherever Morana slashed her sword, blood was dripping. She too had some nasty cuts, one on her arm which was bleeding...what? green colour? and one on her cheek, which too was dripping with green blood.
"My lady?" yelled Pandora, making Draco jump realizing that she was standing just beside him. "Can we join you?"
Pandora's words seemed to distract Morana a little bit as she turned her head to look at Pandora for a second. Aria took a chance and slashed at Morana's shoulder and green blood blasted out of the cut.
"AHHHAAHHHH" screamed Morana out of pain and dropped to her knees. Aria stood there panting for a second.
"Aria!!" yelled Draco. Aria turned her eyes to look at her and relief washed over them. She looked happy and relieved to see him. Draco ran towards her, not caring about anyone.
Aria looked like she didn't want him to do anything but hugged him back when he wrapped his arms around her.
"What happened?" he whispered, holding her arms and examining her cuts. She patted his arm and whispered back, "nothing. I am relieved-t-to see that you are...safe."
"of course I am safe, but wh-" Aria cut him off.
"Go" she panted. "go and tak-
Again, Aria was cut off by professor Fontaine. He was walking towards them and he looked alarmed.
"Both of you must go," he said almost ordering. "Go somewhere safe. Take the students with you if you must. Ilvermorny school is in danger. It is no longer safe now that she has managed to enter it despite the enchantments. "
"WHAT NONSE-" Aria was cut off
"NO," he said firmly. "Go, the teachers will take care of here. You both don't know the ancient evil history behind Morana."
"bu-
"I said GO!!" he shouted, looking behind to see Morana's servants running to her aid, who was still screaming with pain.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!" yelled Pandora's voice from behind. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY MISTRESS??"
The other servants joined in too. Pandora and the others raised their wands to attack when Morana interrupted.
"WAIT," she said, her pain still noticeable. "PANDORA! HERE"
Pandora lowered her ear and Morana whispered something.
"What is going on?" whispered Aria. The Ilvermorny students ran towards us, standing behind their wand ready to attack.
After what seemed like two seconds of whispering, Pandora raised her wand, not to attack but she held it like some god was going to come and change its form.
"MUTATIO" she screamed and her wand shrunk to nothing to be replaced by a fully grown powerful sword.
Aria and Draco exchanged shocked looks.
Pandora grinned, "Shocked? oh dear, this is nothing!! EVERYONE!!"
Hearing 'everyone', all of the servants raised their wands the way pandora had done and yelled, "MUTATIO!!" Their wands changed to swords. All of them mirrored pandora's expression; They grinned evilly.
"WANNA MATCH?" Pandora yelled.
All the students, which were mostly from Wampus, Horned Serpents and Pukwudgie looked at each other worriedly. Seems like the cunning folks of Thunderbird had decided to save their neck and escape.
The teachers too looked worried.
"Remember what I said and help us. This is the only way you can," said Professor Fontaine, before taking out his wand and transforming it into a sword. The teachers followed his lead and joined in with the war.