DURMSTRANG DEPARTURE [DURMSTRANG STUDENTS ONLY]

[Admin Sora]

MAY 18th 2024

@viola
@maria
@brandon
@adonia

The anchor was raised and the sails were dropped, the departure of the Durmstrang students and their glorious ship finally here. It was early morning, and the students were finishing their last goodbyes. They would be returning to their own school to complete their end of year exams, and then participate in their own school's graduation before being set loose on the world. Some would return to the country they'd called home the majority of their seventh year, some would not. But the tournament had accomplished it's mission of uniting the magical youth of Europe.

The ship set sail, and soon the large castle of Hogwarts disappeared from sight. It would take a few hours to make the trek home, and all was well. The ship was somewhere in the North Sea when the first sign of trouble hit. One of the store room doors was magically sealed shut. No matter what was done. A permanent sticking charm had sealed the door to itself. At last a blasting charm was able to tear the door from it's hinges.... And the ship exploded.

It was chaos. The entire front end of the ship had been blown apart, while the back was collapsing in on itself and sinking at the same time. The ship had been sabotaged...

How many students had been killed? How many survived?
(Yes, that did just happen. All the played students will be sent a PM with THREE options to decide what happened to their student. A randomized injury, death, or no injury and going to help another student survive.

All the students can post their one shots of their choice HERE!

Please note, if you don't choose death, the students will be rescued and sent to St. Mungos (since the UK's ministry was the fastest to put together a rescue team.)

[Deleted]

Maria had been trying very, very hard to avoid Viola. Since the break up Maria found it painful to even be in the same room as them for to long. Because when she was it reminded her of how she'd ended things, and how she'd hurt Viola... and how badly she wanted to run back to them and beg them to take her back. To forget what she'd said and go on like before. But she couldn't. Refused to. She needed to stay away, because love never ended well. Not for her and not for those she did love. They always left her, worse then before she'd come into their lives.

The trip back to Durmstrang was almost somber. She stayed below deck and far from her ex partner, trying to avoid even eye contact with them. But when there was a loud explosion and crashing... how she wished she hadn't. How she'd wished she'd run to Viola before everything just went to hell. Screaming, chaos. And then something hit Maria in the chest eith ebough momentum to throw her against a wall, gasping as the breath was knocked out of her and her vision turned black and starry.

She wasn't sure what had hit her, her vision still not clear as she crumpled onto the wooden planks of the ship. There was a... warm wetness as she lay there, and somehow she knew it wasn't the ocean water. Letting out a groan as her vision cleared a little (still blurry but she could see color again) she could finally get a look at what happened. The ship... It was on fire. Planks were lose, sticking out in every direction, a student's body was only feet from her... And there was blood. Lots of blood. Letting out a shuddering breath she stopped mid inhale, her chest burning painfully. If she had to guess.... She'd broken a few ribs at least.... she must be bleeding as well but that was harder to pinpoint where. It was a lot of blood though, her head swimming a little. Pushing past the pain she rolled onto her stomach and started to slowly pull herself onto her hands and knees. Letting out another shuddering and painful breath. Her chest wasn't the only thing hat hurt though. Her wrist was burning, as if it was on fire. The wrist that always wore the bracelet Elias had given her. That would burn when he was in trouble. Well, no duh he was in trouble. But, after those brief moments of red hot burning.... the bracelet went ice cold. Almost as if.... extinguished.

Maria had almost made it to her feet when she heard foot steps. Was someone coming to help? See what had happened? But when she saw who it was.... It wasn't a student. An unknown man, coming down the hall and ignoring the body of the other student....

She must have lost more blood then she'd thought because everything went black before she could figure out who he was....

(Maria survived. Lisa really wanted Elaine to kidnap her, soooo, might as well indulge her. To the media though Maria is listed among the dead.)

[Deleted]

(faded)

Viola was not in a good mood. They hadn't been in a good mood for a while now. Ever since Maria had broken up with them, the world had seemed... fractured. Viola prided themself on their independence, but Maria had made them believe that there were people worth fighting for, and now that they had learned how to fight, learned how to feel, they were left alone, with all the dangerous and emotional pieces of them left exposed to the open air, ready to be rubbed raw by the world. Viola stood on the deck of the ship as they departed Hogwarts, mostly because they knew Maria was below deck and any attempt they made to try to talk to their ex-girlfriend just seemed to make things worse. Viola was half-tempted to give the crowd of Hogwarts students the finger as they departed, but they rather fancied the idea of not spending their last weeks at school in detention. Instead, they just stared at the water, glad of the fact that they didn't experience seasickness and could watch the frothing of the waves without feeling ill. Viola was wearing a cloak wrapped tight around their shoulders - even though it was May, the breeze off the water made things uncomfortably chilly. Most of the students seemed to have foregone the chill, waiting below the deck instead, but Viola had already been over the reasons they couldn't descend.

Viola wasn't ashamed to admit that they were brooding, but they were certainly not the first teenager to do so, and they wouldn't be the last. They were just normal, and wasn't that what everyone else had wanted them to be? Honestly, Viola still didn't give a damn what anyone else thought, but the idea of being what people wanted suddenly wasn't as cringe-inducing, because Viola was certain that there was at least one person whose opinion they cared about, and that meant that they could probably learn to care about what other people thought, too. 

It was funny, how quickly the world changed. One moment, Viola was staring at the churning darkness of the water while ruminating about their interpersonal skills, and the next, they were soaring through the air with the limpness of a rag doll, thrown asunder by an explosion that they hadn't seen or heard coming. Flying through the air wasn't all that scary - Viola hadn't even really processed what was happening to them until they were already arcing back down towards the water. There wasn't anything that they could do to stop their descent, not when their brain was so far behind their body, so when Viola hit the water, it was with a large splash. Their entrance was more of a belly flop than a dive, and it sent tingles all over their body. The worst part of it wasn't the lancing pain, though - it was that immediately after entering the water, their head slammed into a plank that had once been a part of the ship.

Pain, confusion, curiosity. The three vied for dominance in Viola's mind, but eventually, the pain won. The plank had torn their forehead open, and blood was dripping into their eyes, and - wait. Viola had pulled their head above the water after the belly flop, but it wasn't above the water line anymore. They had only realized that when they had gone to take a gulp of air and instead got a gulp of water. Panic flared in Viola - why were they sinking? What was happening? Blood continued to pour from their wound, causing the already murky water to become even more cloudy, and their mind began to fog as the lack of oxygen began to eat at them. Darkness darted in and out of their vision like minnows, and Viola couldn't seem to hold onto any thought long enough to do anything. Their arms and legs began churning the water, but it was a survival mechanism more than actual swimming, and they weren't getting anywhere. 

Bubbles began to drift from Viola's lips as they screamed, trying to find someone, anyone who could help. It felt like someone was tightening a noose around their neck, and the darkness was becoming more like a fog than minnows. They couldn't lose consciousness, Viola knew - the minute that happened, they were as good as dead, as good as drowned. Viola clutched at their neck, trying to loosen the noose, and that was when they remembered. Their cloak. It was thick and made of fur, and no doubt was sucking up water like a sponge. That was what was pulling them downwards, and making it so hard to swim - so hard to breathe. Their fingers scrambled with the ties, until finally, finally, the knot that had secured the cloak around their shoulders was undone. The cloak drifted away into the water, and Viola was left with precious little air, and precious little time.

Go towards the light. There was a flickering orange light in one direction, and that was what Viola swam towards, their movements weak and weary. Turn back. A voice in their brain whispered. Hellfire, hellfire, hellfire. Viola didn't even care if they were swimming towards hell. They didn't believe in an afterlife, really, so swimming towards hell and heaven were practically the same thing. One last kick, one last lurch of the arms, and...

Viola's head broke the surface, and they scrabbled for something, anything to hold onto as they coughed and coughed and coughed, their lungs heaving as their stomach emptied itself. Eventually they grabbed onto a plank, stained dark with water and blood (please, Merlin, let that be their own blood and not somebody else's), and just held on. They weren't strong enough to survive being submerged again, so if they let go, it really would be letting go of their life. Viola blinked hard, trying to clear their vision, but it was still blurry, and everything still looked slightly dark. Was that ash, or hypoxia distorting what they saw? Viola couldn't tell. They couldn't see anything, really, and Viola only hoped that they were not the only survivor.

[Deleted]

Adonia was excited to get back to school to finish up the last two weeks of school and graduate. Then she was planning on coming back to England. She liked it here, and the Shakespeare scene was to die for, so why not? She was just heading to Bulgaria to pick up her things and graduate, and then she would be on her way back.

After saying goodbye to everyone, Adonia headed down into the ship with the other students. She saw Brandon up ahead and her heart caught in her throat. She had started to think of him as a Hogwarts kid and not one of her own for a while there... since he was so comfortable with them.

Talking to him wouldn't do any harm, right? She cleared her throat and skipped over to him, linking her arm into his. "I guess you'll be coming back to England too, right?" she said, raising an eyebrow up at him. She could only hope. Not that it really mattered.

She turned so that they could start heading deeper into the ship and slowly released his arm, turning to walk backwards and taking both of his hands in hers instead. "Listen, there was something I wanted to-" Suddenly everything burst into noise and color, and then it was quiet. All of the air seemed to be sucked out of her lungs and she was thrown far from the ship, unsure if she still had a grip on his hands or not.

Then the pain came. She started to groan against it, unsure where it was coming from at first. Wait, was she under water? She struggled to swim but something was wrong. She couldn't use her right arm. Or her right leg. Hadn't Brandon been on her right side? She blinked away the tears and looked over, and there he was. Her left hand was still clasped in his. 

She started to swim as best she could basically only using her left leg. She was getting nowhere. She started to cry, but tried to stop because it was just making her drown faster. She sputtered for air and considered taking out her wand, but that meant she'd have to let go of him...

Her vision started to get splotchy. She had to make a quick decision. She grunted and released his hand, quickly pulling out her wand and casting a bubble charm on Brandon and then herself. Then she pushed forward to take his hand again, trying once more to swim toward the surface.

"Hold on, Brandon. We're gonna make it..." she tried to encourage, even though he couldn't hear her. Somehow, with the help of the waves, maybe, she made contact with land and rolled onto it, trying to pull Brandon up with her. She finally got the chance to look at the right side of her body and she screamed. It was a grotesque sight of blood, shrapnel and bone. 

She knew she should send sparks up for help but... the pain finally overcame her and everything went black.

[Deleted]

It was weird. Brandon knew that it wasn't a forever thing, that he'd see his friends from Hogwarts again soon enough. After all, school was almost over. Once he graduated and moved back to London, he'd see Rosie and Zander and all his friends. Still, he wasn't entirely sure if he was ready to leave Hogwarts. Either way, ready or not, he was leaving. 

He walked onto the ship, waving one last time at his friends before they set off. Then he felt someone link their arm with his and he smiled, turning to look at Adonia as she asked if he'd be coming back to England. "Of course! Sounds like you will be too, huh?" It wasn't really a question, since she just implied she'd be coming to London. "That'll be fun," he commented with a sly grin. 

Adonia started leading him deeper into the ship and Brandon followed her, listening curiously as she started saying there was something she wanted to- she stopped and he froze in the same moment. Something was terribly wrong. An explosion thundered close behind him and Brandon felt the impact slam into his upper back, throwing him forward against Adonia. He felt like glass that had just been hit by a rock. Only one spot cracked at first until, suddenly, the pain spread creating thousands of little spider web shapes in the glass until it was covering his entire body. The pain increased, as if the invisible cracks were widening and an agonizing shriek of pain tore through his throat, transcending the continuing sounds of the explosion. 

He felt the impact as his body hit the water and the pain somehow increased and then ... disappeared entirely. The corners of his vision went black and Brandon knew he was about to pass out. Maybe that was why he couldn't feel anything anymore? The last thing he saw was Adonia, staring at him. What? He wasn't alone? He couldn't help but feel some type of relief at that knowledge. He could see her trying to swim with him, but they weren't moving. Brandon tried to help, but his body must be in shock because he couldn't move a muscle. Then she let him go and Brandon's eyes widened in stunned surprise moments before he slipped into unconsciousness as the darkness took over.