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Sav MacMillian always enjoyed the Hogsmeade winter festival. It was a fun time and there was almost always someone worth chatting up that could be found looking longingly at the couples on the skating rink, or, in need of hot chocolate, and he was always more than happy to oblige. This year was no different. While he had opted out of going home and instead, decided to spend the holidays with his best friend and his family, Sav was still just as eager to get out of the house. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy spending time with the Weasley clan, he did. But he was restless...just as he always was. The young Gryffindor was walking along the lane, the festival bursting with patrons, when a force shook the village. Sav looked up into the sky as a large shadow descended upon them. Dragons were circling and some were already diving down, landing on roof tops wreaking havoc unto the poor people. Quickly, he pulled out his wand and looked around, trying to get an eye of the situation.

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Bethany hadn't been to the village since she moved back to England until today and wow, what a day to come back. The dragons were wreaking all sorts of havoc on the little village and while Beth was fascinated, she was immensely horrified at the idea of being burnt to a crisp. Or even just burnt at all, she was rather proud of her looks and didn't want those ruined by being mutilated in any way. At least not for no reason.

The dragons arrived and she stopped in her tracks, whipping out her wand. The closest person was a boy, and she turned toward him. "You should get inside!" he looked like he was just a kid, after all.

@sav

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Sav was a little thrown off by the arrival of the smaller girl and by her comment to him. She was suggesting that a man of nearly twice her size go and hide inside. Tall, broad, muscly, Sav fought the urge to give a scoff and insist that maybe she should be the one to get inside. Though, he did understand that dragons wouldn’t be fought off by his physical strength. He was fairly skilled in defensive magic, it was one of the classes he bothered to pay attention to, mostly because of his allegiance to Phoenix Rising and because of his planned allegiances in the future. Sav had known for a while, when the random events had first started, that he was going to have to fight eventually, might as well start now. “Thanks for the concern, but I think I’ll be more useful out here.” he replied, but he didn’t turn to look at her while he spoke, besides the first glance over when she spoke to him, he had kept his eyes on the situation starting to develop around them.

He watched as a dragon landed on the roof of a shop a little down the road and a younger girl was nearly caught in the flames. A man came to her aid, his best friend, Hugo. Oh, that was where he got off too. Sav moved a bit closer and began to shout spells at the dragon, colors flew briefly from the end of his wand, enough to cause the dragon to let up on the fire breath and turn his attention to Sav while his friend got the girl to safety. “Are you going to do something or just stand around?” Sav called to the girl, still standing nearby him.

@bethany

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He said he'd be more useful there, and she shook her head, her eyes averting back to the dragon on the roof ahead of them. Bethany ran forward, wand at the ready, but didn't cast any spells yet. Assessing the situation. The boy called back, asking if she was going to do something or just try to stand around. "Don't try to be a hero, kid," Bethany snarked back, finally casting a blast of icicles toward the dragons eyes. It turned it's head, but some of the ice shards made it to it's ear. It screeched in pain and whipped it's head back toward her, she narrowed her eyes at it. "Alright, go ahead and be one," she told the boy, casting another round of ice at the beast.

@sav

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He scoffed when he told him not to try to be a hero. “I’m not trying to be anything.” Sav replied, not really caring whether or not he was speaking loud enough for her to hear. Or for anyone to hear. Convincing the world that he was good enough wasn’t the first thing on his mind right now. Innocent and scared people were all around him, not to mention his best friend, who was doing everything in his power to save a literal princess of their country from a dragon attack. Sav was focused on doing what came naturally to him: being impulsive and using his strength, magical and physical, to solve situations.

She cast an ice blast charm at the dragon and an icicle pierced its eye. The dragon was now fully paying attention to the two of them and Hugo was able to escort Princess Lusie away from the situation. That was a relief. Sav continued to point his wand at the beast, but instead of shouting little charms at it to distract it, he searched through his mind for some more offensive ones. “Defodio” He shouted, causing a chunk of the dragons stomach to be gouged out. The beast was distracted for a brief moment by the pain and Sav took advantage of that time to cast a shield charm.

@bethany

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He said he wasn't trying to be anything and she just rolled her eyes. Teenagers were such a joke, especially wizard teenagers. She had dealt with her fair share of muggle punks, sure, but the magic somehow made teen boys so much more annoying. But, there he was casting a 'defodio' spell. In reality, Bethany wasn't that great with magic, but she wouldn't let some kid overtake her in a fight against a dragon. That would just be embarrassing. Still, that spell of his did a number on the beast and she was... impressed.

Bethany whipped her wand back toward it, "bombarda," but she was aiming at the building next to the dragon. The wall exploded and large chunks flew toward the dragon, but it easily swatted them aside even while in pain. She cursed under her breath. "Well, we may as well work in sync. Any ideas?" she questioned with a nod toward the boy.

@sav

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Sav watched as she cast a charm also, which caused the building next to the dragon to crumble and throw it’s debris onto the dragon. A good idea, he thought, so long as no one was inside the building, which, thankfully, no one seemed to be. The dragon brushed off the stone and wood from it’s back and roared out at them, though seemed to be too weak to breath fire again at the moment. She seemed to finally be taking the Gryffindor more seriously and asked if they should work together. Sav nodded and took a brief second to think. “Incarcerous?” he suggested. Maybe with enough power behind it, they could tie the dragon up and render it unable to move. At least that would put it out of commission while others dealt with the rest of them. “If we both do it and aim for different ends, maybe it’ll be enough to bind it immobile.” he explained.

@bethany

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He suggested the spell, Incarcerous, and she pursed her lips in thought, then nodded. "I think that could work. Let's do it," she settled her feet into the cobblestone, her heels pressing hard against it in case something tried to throw her back. "I'll take the right, right at the shoulder," they may have needed more than two people for this... but it was worth a try, right? Not that she really cared if the dragons did that much anyway... they were just a distraction, after all, and pretty soon she'd have to head off to Azkaban. But, for now... she nodded to him, then looked back at the dragon, "ready? One... two... Three, Incarcerous!"

@sav

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The woman agreed that it could work and decided to go along with Sav’s plan. She wasn’t entirely sure that it would work, but, if nothing else, it might buy them a little bit of time while they got more people to help or waited for proper professionals to arrive on the scene. Sav allowed her to count down after they moved to their respective sides of the dragon, which, at least, wasn’t currently pay attention to them, making it a little easier to plan out. “Incarcerous!” he called along with her. Ropes shout out of both of their wands, hitting the target and binding it. However, the dragon was a lot larger than the ropes they shot and while they were each able to successfully bind parts of its body, it was still apply mobile and attempted to turn it’s head to them after falling on the ground and roaring.

@bethany

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The planned sort of worked, but it wasn't that effective. The dragon turned toward them and the breath from it's roar was like a strong wind - she felt it push her back slightly and she instinctively reached over to grab his arm to steady herself, her eyes squinted.

It stopped the roar, taking another breath and, while it's mouth was open, she turned to Sav, "move!" she dived it one side right before the flames came out.

@sav

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Sav so too busy watching the dragon that he hadn’t noticed her reach out to grab him when the dragon unleashed it’s breath onto them, pushing them back. Sav, as a rather large man, didn’t have as much trouble as the woman did keeping his footing on the ground, but he didn’t mind her using him, he was trying to keep everyone safe after all. He had turned his head to her just as her eyes widened on the Dragon and she shouted at him before diving to the side. He quickly looked back at the dragon, seeing the flames shoot from It’s mouth before he leapt to the side as well, throwing himself down onto his back. "You okay?" he called to her. The flames continued for a moment until another force seemed to act on the dragon from it's other side and it's head turned to the newcomers. 

@bethany

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Once the coast was clear enough he asked if she was okay. "I'm fine, fine! Just get back into gear," she answered harshly. Moving to her hands and knees, she attempted to push off the ground to come to her feet but her ankle wouldn't support her. She cried out, stumbling until she was back on the ground. She breathed in sharply through her teeth and looked down. Nothing looked wrong with her from the outside, which meant she must have torn something. She cursed, "forget me, just get out of here," she said harshly. She had a feeling this kid wouldn't abandon her, but she could pretend she was confident. She still was new-ish to magic so she definitely didn't know enough about healing an injury, even a minor one.

@sav

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Sav had to admit, the temptation to just leave was there, but it wasn’t a temptation he would ever act on. He was a Gryffindor for a reason and reckless to the point of stupidity. When he saw her try to get up but fall back down to the ground instantly, he knew that no matter what she said, he couldn't leave her there. Sav didn’t know much about healing magic either, it was exactly his forte. He was a physical guy and relied on the hospital wing for potions when he got too reckless or overly excited on the Quidditch pitch. He had no idea how to help her other than to get her out of there. Crossing where the flames used to be, where the embers still flickered slightly in the rubble, he made it to her and knelt by her side. “No I’ll at least carry you a safe spot where you can apparate away if you can.” he suggested. He just assumed that every adult could apparate. If she couldn’t, he wasn’t sure that she would tell him anyway. But at least he could get her away from the center of the action. He wrapped an arm around her back and began to move the other one under her legs, wondering if she would even let him help her like this.

@bethany

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He moved to kneel by her side, after some inner debate no doubt, and said he'd carry her to a safe spot. He moved to wrap an arm around her and she let him get his other under her knees. "Okay, okay. Fine. But once I'm set aside then just get back to safety," she muttered. Not that she cared so much about a kids safety, but it really wasn't in a teenagers place to deal with this. Plus, what if he got in the way of her position in this distraction? Well, she was useless now unless she could get her ankle healed and get back to Azkaban... but she didn't see that happening anytime soon.

Once they were out of the line of fire she took in another sharp breath as she tried to move her ankle. She cursed, clenching her fists. She didn't do well with pain, even if she had plenty of it in her life.

@sav

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Bethany agreed to let him get her to safety on the condition that he get to safety after that. Sav nodded but he didn’t have any intention to actually do so. Sav wasn’t afraid of getting hurt. It was more important to him to help others and get other people to safety than to help himself. Even this stranger whom he had never seen before, he was willing to out of his way to help. But it seemed like the ministry was here and things were slowly becoming more and more under control. It was about time. Sav picked her up, carrying her bridal style out of the middle of the village and over to one of the shops where healers were crouched down next to other people. He set her down and then offered her a nod before heading back out across the lane to search for Hugo and the princess, or anyone else who needed helping.

BETHANY COZETTE HONG

The End