Fire at Hog's Head Inn [Site Event]

[Cassandra Lockwood]

[Reserved for Ethan Forrester]

Cassandra had been meeting an old friend from back home at the Hog’s Head Inn in Hogsmeade. The friend had happened to be passing through on an errand, and it was the first time Cassandra had been back to Hogsmeade since her own school days at Hogwarts. Since she couldn’t apparate out of the castle with all the extra security, she pulled on her cloak and made sure to thoroughly put out the fire in the fireplace of her chambers before setting out to walk to the village. She had done some scrything that morning but all she could see was smoke and fire, which she found odd as she didn’t often encounter references to fire in her own personal readings. Still, one couldn’t be too careful - hence her thoroughness in choking out the flames.

All thoughts of fire were soon out of her mind as her visit over tea with her friend came to an end. Her friend needed to leave to catch the Hogwarts Express, and so Cassandra hugged her and said, “Hope to see you again soon. I need to use the loo before I head back, so you go on ahead.”

As Cassandra headed to the back of the cramped Inn to the public restrooms, she thought she heard a commotion from outside but dismissed it as she went into the small, dark woman’s room and shut the heavy door behind her. She was just finishing washing her hands and checking her lipstick in the dingy mirror when she heard shrieks coming from the dining room along with loud, whooshing noises. Startled, she reached inside her cloak for her wand as she simultaneously grabbed for the door handle and yanked it open to see what was going on.

As soon as it opened a crack, though, she was met with smoke and a burst of heat to her cheeks. The yelling from outside grew louder. Instinctively, she forced the door closed again and stood clutching her wand as she breathed heavily in fright and thought. She needed to get out of here in case the ceiling collapsed. She would be fine; she had her wand. Mustering her courage, she readied her wand and pulled the door open about a foot. She stood back and pointed confidently at the flames, shouting “Aqua Eructo!” A powerful blast of water shot forth from her wand right into the flames.

Cassandra started to advance forward out of the bathroom with her wand held like a fire hose in front of her, but just then the small window on the other side of the room exploded in a roar of flames which sent glass spraying everywhere. She was knocked forcibly to her feet, cutting off the spell and sending her wand clattering out of her reach. Her first thought was that the Inn must surely be under attack. No ordinary fire would behave like this. But she needed to get her wand…

Getting up off the floor, she shuffled across the glass and reached for her wand only to jump back with a scream as a crash sounded from above and a burning beam landed in front of her, blocking her path to her wand. It was also blocking her path to the door. “Help!” she cried desperately, coughing and moving to crouch as low beneath the smoke as she could.

[Ethan Forrester]

Ethan had been out for his daily jog in his animagus form, hoping to capitalize on the fact that most of the students would be sleeping as it was Saturday morning. While it wasn't necessary for him to be so reclusive, he preferred to draw as little attention to himself as possible--some students might freak out at spotting a large wolf on the grounds and fire hexes at him.

Besides helping to keep him fit, his morning ritual also maintained his familiarity with his wolf form so that he could slip into it at a moment's notice. It also afforded an opportunity to explore some geographic features or disused structures on the grounds or in the nearby Forbidden Forest.

Today he'd made his way into the forest and was having a closer look at the remains of an ancient druidic ritual site, which had been constructed there for the same reason that Hogwarts was where it was--the proximity to the confluence of two magical ley-lines. Here, there was a rather large granite slab, mostly smooth though cracked in places and covered in moss, surrounded by seven runestones. The remains of a modest stone altar were off to the side, apparently not used for every ritual that had been performed here.

As he was scratching some of the moss away to reveal a rune carved beneath it, the acrid smell of burning overwhelmed his senses and commanded his immediate attention. Looking up, he turned in place to figure out which direction it was coming from. Somewhere between the runic circle and Hogsmeade.

He darted off toward the village, as fast as his swift legs could manage--weaving among the trees, leaping over fallen logs and other obstacles.

Soon he was within sight of the blaze, but he took a path around it. If it had spread to the village, getting there was his priority.

Very quickly, he discovered this was indeed the case, as he reached the crest of a hill overlooking the village. It looked like the Three Broomsticks had already taken damage. Some wizards were trying to douse the flames, but...there was a bigger problem. One wizard, relatively isolated from the others, was cowering from a fucking dragon. A hebridean black, if he wasn't mistaken. While native to Scotland, how the hell was there a dragon on the loose in Hogsmeade? Its presence would easily account for the blaze, but it posed more questions than it answered.

Ethan dashed down the hill and transformed back into his human self at the base of it. Knowing that most spells would be ineffectual against it, he instead focused on trapping it. Drawing his wand, he transfigured the earth around it into pillars of stone that curved inward at the top, forming a giant cage. The chief problem with a transfigured cage was that it would only exist temporarily, but it was certainly a good start...

Apparently sensing Ethan was the cause of its captivity, the dragon turned within its confines and focused its attention on him for a moment.

And then it transformed.

Suddenly there was not a dragon, but two children in Hogwarts robes. One, a little girl, was laying prone on the ground and unmoving, her face having turned blue, with a bubble of some sort surrounding her head. The other was an older boy, standing, and he walked between the stone pillars and approached him, pointing directly at Ethan.

"Why didn't you make sure we knew how to cancel the bubble-head charm?! We were only practicing, but then my sister ran out of fresh air and I couldn't remove it and she suffocated! My sister is DEAD! This is your fault!", the boy screamed at him.

"What...?", Ethan murmured. It was like he was in a dream, or more precisely, a nightmare. The children seemed very real to him, though he couldn't identify them. He was filled with panic. He had failed as a teacher and ruined the lives of these children. But nothing made sense! Dragons didn't normally transform into children. Had it been a hallucination? Unless...

"Riddikulus!", Ethan incanted, hoping beyond hope that he was right.

He watched as the children coalesced into something resembling ex-Minister Fudge, whose green bowler hat rapidly expanded until it covered all but his feet.

"Thank Merlin," Ethan uttered. "It was only a boggart," he told the wizard who'd been cowering from the dragon. "So it wasn't dragon-fire, but the boggart still likely caused the fire..."

He needed something to contain the boggart before it antagonized anyone else. Spotting a busted wooden crate, he summoned it, then transfigured it into a more solid box, banished the boggart into it, and closed the lid. "Watch over this box for a few minutes, will you?", he said as he helped the wizard back to his feet.

Then he carefully proceeded into the Three Broomsticks, or what was left of it. The wizards in the street had largely succeeded in controlling the flames, but he knew there might be people trapped inside, who had been unable to safely apparate out because of the distraction of the fire. As he stepped inside, he raised his wand and created a blast of fresh air to blow much of the smoke out. Massive ceiling joists had collapsed in places. Several people were crouched beneath tables, using them for shelter. He heard a woman's voice coming from the washroom, and made his way in that direction.

He opened the door, only to find more ceiling joists blocking his path. "Help is here," he called into the washroom, "But it'll take me a minute to find a safe way through all this."

[Cassandra Lockwood]

Between her coughs and gasps for breaths, she could hear something large moving about outside. Indeed, she could *feel* the earth rumbling beneath her feet, but her main concern was getting out of her entrapment here. She searched wildly about for another exit, dimly aware that the noise outside had reached a crescendo only to fade to relative silence. The flames outside the small window had receded, and Cassandra was readying herself to try to hoist herself out through there despite it being framed in broken glass fragments when she heard the door rattle open and a voice call out.

“Oh, thank the gods!” she cried out with giddy relief when she realized someone had come to hlep, and then proceeded to cough as more smoke filled her lungs. “Yes, I’m in here! Please hurry!” She listened as the voice, which sounded familiar to her, explained that it would take a moment to clear a path. Thankfully the open window was allowing much of the smoke to escape and the fire that still smoldered on the felled ceiling beams was starting to die away. Cassandra crouched back down to get below the smoke and stood back to let her savior move the beams. She desperately wanted to help, but without her wand she was pretty much useless. The wood would be too hot from the fire to handle with bare hands.

[Ethan Forrester]

Ethan took a moment to survey the collapsed joists. Some of them appeared safe to move, while others were apparently all that was keeping the ceiling from crashing down. Given the extensive damage, the 'reparo' charm wasn't going to be much help here. Wanting to err on the side of caution, he first applied a cooling charm to the smouldering joists, then experimentally pressed against each of them to figure out which ones could be shifted.

He decided transfiguration would be the best way to make a safe passage. One by one, he transfigured the joists (including some of the rubble) that were blocking his path into vertical pillars, which not only supported what remained of the ceiling, but also made them easier to navigate around without having to climb or crawl. The ceiling creaked as it was propped up a bit from the new pillars.

Finally he was able to see the witch who had been trapped, and crouched down beside her, only then realizing it was Prof. Lockwood. "Are you able to stand and walk? I transfigured some debris to clear the path and prop up the ceiling, but I don't know how long it will hold. Let's get you out of here."

[Cassandra Lockwood]

Cassandra watched as the rubble was slowly transfigured into pillars which helped temporarily stabilize the ceiling. After a few moments, the person’s face was revealed and she recognized Professor Forrester’s dark facial hair and wolf-like eyes. “Thank you, thank you!” she cried in relief, and as the last joist was cleared away, her dropped wand was revealed laying on the floor beneath it. She reached forward and grabbed it up eagerly, only to stare at it in dismay upon realization that the impact of the beam falling on it had cracked it down the length, revealing splintered wood and some of the white unicorn hair at the core. She doubted she would be able to use it in this state, but Professor Forrester’s questions about whether she was alright and could walk brought her back to the present.

“Yes,” she said, a little dazed, “Yes, I can walk just fine. Let’s go.” She got up off the ground, stashing the damaged wand in her robes, and started to follow the other down the narrow hall back to the restaurant. “What in Merlin’s beard happened out there?” she asked. She was slightly hesitant to go out there without knowing what was going on, but then again the fire was out and she didn’t hear anymore yelling or sounds of commotion. Now that her adrenaline was subsiding, she could feel her shoulder aching from when she was knocked to the floor and her hands, arms, and face had some cuts from the broken glass that had rained down on her. She was well enough to get to safety, though. She could tend to her injuries when she got back to the castle.

[Ethan Forrester]

Ethan walked slowly and carefully as he escorted Cassandra out of the washroom area, through the dining area, and finally back out the street. "There was a boggart that had taken the form of a dragon, but I'm uncertain as to whether there's anything more to it or not. I trapped it in that crate over there." He gestured toward it, where it was still being watched by the wizard he'd asked. "I was exploring the forest earlier when I smelled smoke and saw a fire encroaching on the village, then I came straight here."

A crowd of people had assembled in the street. Some were working to extinguish the lingering flames, others were inspecting the damage to the Three Broomsticks.