Choosing Darkness

Another sphere divebombed her and she dodged again, this time seeing two robed figures. There was a call overhead. \"Dementors!\" Harry swooped down with his wand in his hand. His teeth were clamped together in fear as he prepared to face the robed figures. His head turned suddenly when there was a movement at his side; Arista stood by him wandless and weaponless. \"You should move back, Professor.\"

To the student\'s suprise, she did move, but only to press her back against his. \"I\'ll watch your back. There are more. Two of your friends flew for the castle. The others are in the air, trying to keep the balls away.\"

\"Bludgers,\" Harry corrected automatically. \"~Expecto Patronum!~\" A silver stag erupted from the tip of Harry\'s wand and charged the dementors and ran right through them. The dementors never moved. \"What?\"

\"Dopplegangers,\" Arista supplied. \"Fakes.\" He could feel her shoulders move behind him. She had something in her hands. Arista nodded her head to the captain of the team. \"Angelina, get by Harry.\" The girl darted for the young man. \"Pretty life-like for dementors, if you ask me.\"

\"You\'re a smart one, aren\'t you?\" quieried a deep and smooth voice.

Harry turned at the vaguely familiar voice and gasped. \"Death Eaters! On the grounds!\"

\"As smart as they come,\" Arista bantered back, swinging the short bludger club in her hand.

\"Not too smart if you\'re without your wand.\"

\"Lucky for you...you might last longer.\" Arista\'s eyes darted around for another weapon. There was nothing she could grab hold of. The only thing she had was the element of suprise. She decided to use her wild card and charged the six black clad figures with white masks, swinging her club with precision. \"RUN!\"

Arista connected with one\'s jaw and another\'s stomach before they could regain their focus. The students she left behind her stayed, trying to hex the remaining Death Eaters. She hoped that they knew enough to keep themselves out of harm\'s way while she tried to detain them. Had it been a fair, non-magical fight, Arista would only barely break out a sweat. But she knew enough about these Death Eaters that fair was not in their vocabulary.

\"~CRUCIO!~\"

Red streaks raced to her as she moved in front of Harry and Angelina. Both students cringed when four blasts connected and surrounded Arista in a great electric ball. Three flashes later, and the ball reached Arista\'s form. Arista doubled over in agony, the grip on her club loosening until the wood hit the ground. Four Cruatius Curse spells and she took them head on. Harry could only stare in disbelief as he aimed his wand at the next Death Eater. Still standing and ready to fight, Arista barrelled the one he was targetting and they both tumbled to the ground. Grabbing his wand from his hand, Arista leaped up and headed for the second one. Stunned, they seemed to allow Arista this chance to dis-arm them. It wasn\'t normal for their prey to physically attack them, in fact, those hit with Cruatius Curses were usually rendered immobile by indescribable pain.

Arista was far from impervious to it. All her nerve endings were on overload and moving through the air, much less connecting with her targets, was painful. In a matter of seconds, two of the remaining four Death Eaters were on the ground. She staggered to one knee as she glared at the last two. \"Got a problem?\" The words were a little muffled as she spoke around her clenched teeth.

\"You should be dead,\" replied one of the stunned Death Eaters.

\"So sorry,\" it was pure agony to swallow, \"to dis-appoint you.\"

The second figure chuckled a little and raised his wand to her. \"No matter. Avada-\"

\"EXPELLIARMUS!\" The deep adult voice over-rode the students\' as Snape ran in like some great dark bird, throwing the Death Eater a good 50 feet away from them and sending his wand to Snape\'s hand. His eyes caught Arista\'s as she dropped to her hands and knees and bowed her head. The sudden thought that he was prepared to reveal his double life for this girl stunned him. This girl! Arista was on all fours, panting slightly with gritted teeth. She had bitten her lip and blood dripped onto the grass. The students she was protecting were shaken, but unharmed. He could find no logical reason as to why he would betray the misson for her, but he noted the defiant spark in her fiery, pain filled eyes and was unable to do anything else as the last Death Eater withdrew a large sickle and charged for Arista. He knew too late that the Death Eater would reach her before he could fire off another spell.

The Death Eater\'s chest exploded in blood. A vicious and soul wrenching scream erupted not from the wounded man, but from the creature who flung the body away. Graced in total black glory was the legendary black unicorn, as fierce as it was beautiful. The animal was wild fury as he trampled the enemy, his horn flashing ebony with crimson coating its length.

Snape took the distraction and closed the distance between himself and the students. \"Fly back to the castle. Don\'t look back. NOW!\" He waited only until Harry and Angelina darted away with brooms until he went to Arista. She shivered and moaned as the Curse finished its work on her. She was all too aware of someone kneeling on the grass beside her, and she groaned when she heard the grass scream. Snape spoke quietly to negate the Curse, noting how she flinched when he spoke. \"We must leave before it kills us, too.\" He reached out to touch her arm, and Arista cried out.

The unicorn halted his massacre and trained his blazing eyes on Snape. He ~touched~ her. With another battle whinny, it reared up and charged. Snape\'s wand was in his hand and his mouth drew breath for the charm when a raspy voice stilled both combatants.

\"Hst. Friend.\"

The unicorn skidded to a halt and dropped his head to Arista. Snape did not move for fear of that long horn piercing one of them. It was then he heard the voice. \"Vashneela.\" It spoke! \"The Dragon-\"

\"I\'m fine,\" she coughed, forcing searing air in and out of her lungs. \"Fine.\"

\"Your circle has been broken. You are less than fine.\"

Arista cast a baleful gaze up at the dark creature. \"Protect them as you ...me.\" She tried to rise to her feet, but the grass was nothing but razor blades on the palms of her hands and her shins. She gave a soft cry when Snape took hold of her arm to steady her. The unicorn danced a little in place as if in confusion, dropping his head to threaten the man away, but it did not attack. Snape never took his eyes off the creature until it swerved, flashing in the fading sun as it disappeared from sight.

Snape\'s features hardened as he felt Arista cringe away from him. \"Can you walk?\"

He didn\'t know that even whispering was agony to her ears. \"Ung-\"

With a strength hidden by his wiry frame, Snape scooped Arista up and headed for the player\'s tunnel. \"Stay with me, Ari,\" he murmured fiercely as she swooned. \"What did you give me in the Leaky Cauldron? What was the tea?\"

\"MeadowSweet...FeverFew...Ginger...Witchhazel...Chamo-\" Arista fought to form the words, but they hurt her throat.

\"Mint. I remember some mint.\" Snape murmured into her hair, trying to determine if she was falling unconscious or going into shock. Damn that jasmine perfume. The words of the Black beast confused and worried him. \'Your circle has been broken. You are less than fine.\' She had said the same thing about him. For some reason, her magic worked differently than other wizards and witches, and he intended to find out why.

Arista instinctively wrapped her painful arms around his neck, hissing softly as needles danced along her nerves. She heard him speak a few words and relief flooded to her senses. \"Thank you,\" she whispered almost soundlessly as she met blackness head on.


Snape was met halfway across the grounds by Dumbledore and Pomfrey. The expressions on their faces all seriousness as MacGonagall kept watch over the students who flooded the main gate. \"Severus!\"

\"Albus, she\'s been hit with Cruatius.\" The Potions Master shook his head as the Mediwitch brought out her wand. \"No magic. She\'s in severe pain from corporeal things, I think much more magic than the numbing charm I have on her will send her over the edge.\"

Pomfrey nodded as she glanced over the unconscious woman. \"She needs to go to the hospital wing, immediately.\"

\"You\'ll need to cordon off the pitch, Dumbedore. There are bodies. Death Eaters attacked them.\" ~Not to mention one really pissed off unicorn.~

\"Death eaters are on the grounds?\" MacGonagall covered her mouth with her hand as she caught the tail end of the conversation. She turned to the horrified student body. \"Everyone to your common rooms, immediately!\"

Snape was granted a nearly obstacle-less path to the infirmary while Dumbledore and Pomfrey followed. \"Arista had given me a tea, or potion while I was at the Leaky Cauldron. It helped immensly with my recovery.\" He repeated the ingrediants and what he guessed were amounts of each herb. His memory could not fail him now. Usually, he could recite a recipe flawlessly from a single taste alone, but this one that Arista had made was complicated, and he knew little of the consequences should he be incorrect. He was certain he was missing a key ingrediant, one she didn\'t mention.

Arista was placed on a tall metal bed in the hospital wing and the curtains swished closed as Pomfery turned to the students who tagged along. \"Harry and Angelina, up on the beds. Anyone else who had been injured by bludgers, you too. Everyone else must wait outside.\" She threw a pointed look at Hermione as Ron carefully crawled up onto the bed beside Harry. \"Visiting hours are not until later.\"

Dumbledore moved to Harry to ask questions about the attack as Snape rushed to the mediwitch\'s herbal supplies and began pulling herbs off the various shelves. He had to work quickly, and the distraction of the others present must not slow his purpose. As he was preparing the concoction, Pomfery was examining her most critical case, Arista.

\"Oh my,\" she whispered as her wand passed over the woman\'s sleeping form. \"This is very bad indeed.\"

Snape popped his head through the curtain. \"What\'s wrong?\"

\"Her magical matrix has been distrupted,\" Poppy explained as Snape snapped the curtain shut behind him. \"Probably because of the massive quantities of the curse.\"

\"That\'s to be expected.\"

\"Yes, I know. But I think it\'s lethal for her. If the matrix is not repaired soon, she will die.\"