Hogwarts '06/7

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Dinas watched from a box at the Hogwarts end as the team rose into the air. This is it, he thought. He stared around the stadium at all the vibrant colours. What a waste of decorations it will be...

A thunderclap echoed around the stadium, followed by a gasp. The players in the air paused, bewildered. The tournament officials frowned, and rechecked their many clipboards.

All of these signs, however, were unnecessary. Every last wizard or witch in the stands, in the air, or in a box, knew that this interruption was very much unscheduled.

[Scarlet Lioness]

The thunderclap gave Misty a big fright, and almost cuases Lily to fall off her broom, but she steadied herself.

Everyone looked around, none of the players kept to the game, all had stopped in their tracks. Misty stopped moving also.

She wondered what was going on.

[GodrictheGriffon]

Lily looked around herself wildly. What the H*ll is going on!?, she thought to herself as she floated before the first set of goal posts.
All play had stopped. She could hear a two of the rival chasers shouting to eachother in Italian but she didn't understand any word of it.

[Q.Araignee]

As fevered muttering broke out from the spectators, and the players looked anxiously toward either their teachers or the tournament officials, Rowena felt a sudden flash of fear. At a loss of what to do, she looked around from the pitch sidelines for Professor Dinas- and had to do a double take at the peculiar look on his face.

Is that...is he smiling?! she thought incredulously. But this thought was followed swiftly by one which made her pale and start to shake a little. She leaned against the wall to try and stifle the involuntary movements.

He can't have anything to do with...whatever it is that's going on.
Can he?

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Down in the centre of the stadium was a small group of figures. They were dressed in blue and gold robes, and were shooting spells at a furious pace into the stands. Most were curses, and some were of a terrifying green colour. Just as it had been transfixed by awe moments earlier, the crowd began screaming and rushing out of the stadium. One of the Italian players was hit by a curse, fell from his broom, and hit the ground with a bone-cracking thud.

The attackers spread out to all corners of the stadium. It seemed that there were about thirty of them. All security staff at the stadium was quickly overcome, and the mysterious group spread out further, with more violent curses being sent out in all directions. The Quidditch players fled on their brooms, and powerful spells were sent their way.

Out of the corner of his eye, Dinas saw the terror unfolding to plan. He saw one of the Hogwarts players stunned from their brooms and fall to the ground, the others oblivious to it taking place. Another of the Italian players lost control of their broom in shock, and drove themselves into the ground.

As the surviving spectators, players and organisers headed toward the campsite or apparated to call for help and escape, they were chased by the mob of sorcerers. Those that couldn't escape were finally surrounded, ringed around by their attackers, who were ruthless and powerful. The Hogwarts group stared around at each other, and the scattered bodies lying on the ground. At least one of the team was dead, but who was it?

And as the head attacker approached the central group with his wand held high, he spoke in a gruff voice as though giving an order to one person, instead of the whole group.

"Now be careful, you," he said. "Don't get carri-!" A loud blast echoed around the forest, and he was knocked back several metres and flung hard into a tree, where he fell unconscious. When the crowd turned around to face their bold defender, they found that it was the middle-aged professor that had organised the tournament from scratch in his office at Hogwarts.

It was Terrin Dinas. "Now, who are you people?" he shouted to the hooded warriors that wore blue and gold. "And what is the meaning of this?" Robed figures started to appear all around the forest, and it was apparent that these were rather belated reinforcements from the Ministry of Magic. After all, no one had expected anything to go very wrong at what was intended to be a tournament of unity, so it was very much a surprise when the Ministry was notified.

Dinas was told to step aside by Aurors from the Ministry, but he refused. "This is my tournament!" he shouted. "Look what they've done! Who are you people?" he demanded again.

The apparent second-in-command of the group walked foward and faced the head Auror, and ordered his comrades to raise their wands.

"We are the Muggle-Born Liberation Society!" he shouted. "We seek to free ourselves from those who have done nothing but persecute us for centuries! From the scum that has continually sat by and done nothing to prevent our extermination!"

"Now, see here," began the head Auror, "I don't know what you've-"

"Enough! MLS will not listen to your false words and promises any more. It will not be so long before a pure-blood wizard gains power and murders even more of our innocents."

"Just as you have today?" The Auror began.

"Today is nothing," the wizard spat. "Nothing." He raised his wand and shot a killing curse at the Auror, who ducked out of the way. The Auror hoped that it did not hit someone in the crowd behind him. All at once, the tournament invaders fired twenty-nine unforgivable curses at the crowd, most of but not all of which were blocked by the Ministerial defenders.

A gigantic battle ensued, with the upper-hand switching between the MLS and the Aurors many times. But eventually the attackers were overcome as more reinforcements were sent by the Ministry, and some of the crowd joined in the battle.

When the fight was over, Dinas wandered over to the fallen leader of the MLS, and called to the crowd and the Aurors.

"Now, let us see who leads these people," he said. With a disgusted look on his face, he lifted up the unconscious man's hood.

It was Bruno Archibald, Minister for Magic. The crowd stared, stunned with shock. But as the crowd was transfixed by the image of the Minister's face in the blue and gold robes, Dinas leant down next to the body and casually pulled his wand out.

Looking to see if his actions were going unnoticed, it didn't appear that anyone was paying any attention to him. He stretched out his wand behind the unconscious Minister, so that it was out of view.

Hidden, he slowly curled the wand around in his fingers until it faced Archibald's back.

Looking innocently upward, as if staring at the clear blue sky, Terrin Dinas whispered two terrible words that were inaudible to all but him.

"Avada Kedavra."

The crowd stared on, noticing no difference.

[Scarlet Lioness]

Misty was relieved that she had come through the events of the night unscathed. But who had it been that had fallen from their broom?

She looked around her.

It was none of the Gryffindors, they were right next to her.

Who was it? She wondered.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

As much as the crowd wanted the horrible events to be over, they were not. But they were all in shock, and not much more happened for around half an hour, so most of the teams and spectators left the Tournament then. All that remained were a small chunk of the Hogwarts contingent, including the team, Ministry workers, and delegates from some of the schools.

[Q.Araignee]

Chaos and carnage, that was what the tournament had descended into. Right now, Rowena was sat on the cold grass of the campsite- vaguely aware that Misty and Lily were close by. She was trembling uncontrollably, and crying silently. Because she'd been down on the pitch, she had been quickly hit with a Cruciatus Curse. It seemed to last a lifetime, but when it finally disappated she had done the only thing she could- go looking for Dinas and hope he would help. Next thing she knew, she was here.

But she'd recognised who had cursed her, and didn't relish telling the Ministry that their Minister was more than willing to attack a First-Year- with any luck, she wouldn't have to and no one would ever find out.

[GodrictheGriffon]

The first game had been an interesting one to the least. It was likely that no one would be forgetting the mess of bodies and blood that now littered the once sparkling, emerald green field for awhile.
Lily, Misty, and Rowena stood with the rest of the team. Wondering what to do next and staring down at a crumpled form in Hogwarts' robes.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

The team was huddled around a bloodied and battered form. It was Sharpe. There was nothing anyone could do or say. Within a few minutes his parents had been notified, and his body was whisked away.

The Aurors got a surprise when they found that Minister Archibald was dead; but they eventually reached the conclusion that the blast from Dinas must have flung him into the tree hard enough to kill him.

When the other perpetrators were unmasked, an inquiry was immediately launched by the Ministry, as it was discovered that only very few of the attackers were actually muggle-born. Also, the MLS were denying all involvement with the slaughter. Although the public did not fully believe the group, as they had been responsible for some small fanatical crimes over the previous few years, there was still strong enough belief among the people of Britain that all the secrets of the incident had not been revealed, and so the commission of inquiry was set up.

Fortunately for Misty, Rowena and Lily, they would be following the story from the safety of St Mungo's Hospital. Every day for the next week, they would read the developments in the morning edition of the Prophet.

None of the members of the Hogwarts Quidditch team returned to fully finish their final few weeks at the school. NEWT and OWL students were given special consideration by the Ministry, and were allowed to take their respective tests over the holidays.

After a while, the state of national mourning ended. The incident faded from the front page, and although a few new minor details were revealed over the following few months, it seemed that the whole truth would never come to light.

They were wrong.

But by the time the public knew the truth, it would be too late. As Minister for Magic, Terrin Dinas intended to make some changes.

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[This scenario has ended, thank you to all those members that participated - PITA, RPG Moderator]