that won't save us | bianca

[james sirius potter]

I don't need a light

to see in the dark

May 15, 2026
Bianca Alia Rivera

James hoped that his Patronus had reached Brígh in time. Even with his information at the Ministry and through the Order, he hadn’t been able to send a message ahead of time. There had been some internal conflict over that personal decision. Did he give Phoenix Rising such a warning? Despite his insistence and that the students not be left out of Order business—even he had hesitated knowing full well that had he been in their shoes, he might have sought out to prevent the attack before it happened. But what were a handful of seventh years going to do against Elaine and her Purifiers?

He hated feeling such doubt—knowing full well that he would have angered if anyone had doubted him at seventeen. But he’d tried that at seventeen, and they’d failed. Never having the same luck that his own father had at even younger ages. It wasn’t like James to hold onto such doubt, but ever since that final year, it had never entirely left him, so he’d happily volunteered for this assignment even though he knew he’d be selected and also to be with the first squad that went to the Castle through the Village.

Did he have something to prove? Absolutely. But also he knew that he had friends and family in the Castle. Lily was there, and he swallowed hard and tried to focus, so his thoughts didn’t take a dark turn. A senior Hit Wizard was assembling them and readying them by going over the various entrances to the Castle, and James listened despite knowing the grounds from his own days as a student. But then, as he left to brief another squad, James closed and rubbed his eyes—he was tired. But he was forced to open them again as the Senior Hit Wizard suddenly shouted that it was time to go.

Suddenly noises of people apparating around him filled the air, but he furrowed his brow. This wasn’t the plan. Other Hit Wizards and Aurors would enter via the floo system—not the Village. But James didn’t have time to ask questions as he charged with the rest of his team across the grounds. Everything began to feel like a blur as he focused on his mission and also to keep an eye out for Lily. Someone commented something about smoke, and he could smell it as he got closer to the giant stone walls. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from exactly. A few students ran out the front doors along with a few younger professors, but he expected more.

It was loud, people were screaming and barking orders, and James slowed his sprint to note someone on the ground. They wore Professor’s robes, and he appeared to be stunned. James didn’t see any remarkable injuries, but he shot sparks in the air with his wand to notify the Mediwizards and Witches on standby, and he was about to continue on before he heard someone call his name—Bianca.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

15 May 2026

Everyone had their orders. The Ministry had finally arrived in full force to Hogwarts, and Bianca watched as Aurors and Hit Wizards began to split into pairs and swarm the grounds to find a way into the castle. She could already hear dueling in the distance, although the sounds of fighting mingled with the bustling Mediwizard activity in Hogsmeade and the sharp roar of the Fiendfyre as it eagerly tore through the castle. Even so, with the thought that Harry had taken command of the Order, and knowing that all her Law Enforcement agents would do everything they could to finish the job…Bianca felt herself minutely relax. The time for strategy and planning was over, and now they'd moved into action. Everything that happened in the field relied on living moment to moment, and surviving what was right in front of you. It meant acting on instinct and not allowing yourself to be gripped by fear or hesitation. It was where Bianca had grown and fought and survived all these years as an Auror, and finding herself in the middle of a crisis now felt more familiar than the last five months warring with other Department Heads in their weekly meetings with the Minister.

But by Merlin’s blasted staff, she didn’t know Hogwarts at all. She was being fueled by adrenaline and instinct, and that was the only thing that kept her moving as she tore across the grounds and past the greenhouses towards the looming shape of the castle. But uncertainty gripped her and she felt her chest tighten in anxiety – her only plan at the moment was to run close enough to the castle to hopefully find a viable way in, since she didn't have any personal experience navigating Hogwarts. Elaine had no doubt given her Purifiers orders to stop the Ministry at all costs, and she was sure that the only way through any of the obvious entrances would be by putting up a fight. But she couldn’t worry about it much, couldn’t stop moving. She began to slow as the walls of Hogwarts grew larger and larger until they filled her vision, and Bianca tore her gaze across the landscape. There were sharp blasts of red and green in the distance, and she could see a trickle of students leaving the castle with the larger figures of the professors bustling around the sides.

She didn’t approach, instead choosing a direction at random and picking up the pace again, rubbing one sleeve of her robes across her face at the increasingly heavy smoke that drifted away from the castle. Bianca stuttered for a moment at the sight of red sparks in the air – a well-known request for help – and she ran until she could see two dark shapes in the distance. One was sprawled across the ground, Stunned if she had to guess, but the other shape immediately came into sharp focus. “James!” Bianca called out, a mixture of relief, frustration, and maybe a hint of fear in her voice as she ran towards the Hit Wizard. She skidded to a halt next to him, eyes locked on the castle, before they narrowed and she turned to face the Potter. “You ran off. Your supervisor didn’t know where you’d gone,” she accused, crossing her arms. But the situation was too urgent to worry about protocol, and Bianca quickly went back to business. Her eyes lingered on the unconscious figure, but there wasn't time to wait for help -- somebody would notice James's signal. Instead, she removed her wand and clutched it tightly, eyes burning with purpose. “We’ve got some Purifiers to catch. Know a good way in?”

james sirius potter

[james sirius potter]

I don't need a light

to see in the dark

May 15, 2026
Bianca Alia Rivera

James stood up and stepped aside as a Mediwizard ran up and dealt with the man on the ground. He tried to suppress the urge to cough from the fumes and smoke spilling out of the Castle even though it burned his nose and throat to breathe. Still, it was like he could at least ignore it until he knew for sure that Lily was safe and the other students—he felt a weight still because of Phoenix Rising. This wasn’t what he’d exactly intended for them. ”What? I was in the first group in the village.” James shook his head slightly in a bit of frustration. Was he expected to stay back and let his colleagues fight? He’d like to see them try and stop a Potter in such a time of need.

He paused and looked at the grounds, cycling through Hogwarts's several entrances and exits and the available passages. The main one was through Honeydukes, which wouldn’t help them now. The Entrance Hall was a natural entrance and exit, but it would be bogged down if students were in the Great Hall and the dungeons. ”The tower entrance.” James spoke. It was near the lake but would let them enter from the side. ”It leads to the third floor, this way.” James began to run, passing the West Tower to his left and going around until there was a view of the lake. There was less smoke on this side, which gave him hope that any students still on this side could get out safely.

But as he glanced up at the windows and then up ahead, he heard a spell cast and a loud noise. It came from above, and James looked up in time to see a large chunk of wall crumble and fall. ”Protego.” James cast a shield charm to deflect the falling stone, he couldn’t quite see how much damage was done to the side, but he glanced behind him to see where the assailant had come from.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

The proper planning and preparation was so important before a big event, because it was always the first thing to disappear in an emergency. Ever since Ana had stormed into Bianca’s office with game-changing information, Law Enforcement had been trying to organize itself on a massive scale to take down Elaine and any Purifiers they could find. It was inevitable that some details would fall through the cracks, and Bianca huffed slightly at the thought that she’d just found one such case. She was about to retort that James should have told her directly because she couldn’t exactly read minds, except…well, you know. So instead she chose a dignified silence as James shot back that he’d been with the Hogsmeade Team since the start. It didn’t really matter, since they were both here now and Bianca was relieved to have finally found a Hogwarts grad.

Even with her recent promotion, and the fact that Bianca had become very accustomed to throwing out orders and watching them be followed immediately…she had to recognize her own limitations, and she was facing a glaring one now. So she nodded minutely as James thought furiously for a moment about possible entrances before choosing one and beginning to run in that direction. Bianca followed immediately, keeping her wand gripped tightly in her hand as she scanned the surrounding area for suspicious activity. She wanted James completely focused on his task, which naturally left her to be the lookout. But except for the occasional flash in the distance, and the rumbling that shook the castle, there didn’t seem to be anything out of place. In fact, when it wasn’t busy being turned into a battlefield…the grounds of Hogwarts could probably be considered quite beautiful.

Bianca’s senses sharpened as she heard James mutter the incantation for a Shield Charm, and she immediately turned to look at their blind spot. She trusted James to prevent them being crushed by rubble and raised her wand immediately. “Depulso,” Bianca shouted, and she could feel her magic escape her like a runaway bull as it immediately knocked into an unknown figure. The Purifier was knocked off his feet, but quickly shot back several jets of red light at the pair. Bianca deflected one, and was about ready to cast another hard-hitting jinx when…one of the wizard’s Stunning spells deflected off James’s shield and slammed back into him. She stopped to stare in disbelief at the unconscious figure, a victim of his own bad aim. “Um…”

james sirius potter

[james sirius potter]

I don't need a light

to see in the dark

May 15, 2026
Bianca Alia Rivera

The sounds and noises around James gave him slight flashbacks to his seventh year. The original members of Phoenix Rising had been hopeless in trying to prevent Elaine’s attacks then and additional student deaths. As he held off a piece of the ancient castle, he was glad Bianca was there, or he would have been left entirely open to an attack by whoever had dislodged the stones. Gritting his teeth, he waved his wand to the side, so the falling piece of wall was now a pile next to them on the grass. So far, the rest of the wall seemed stable, but he couldn’t see much else from that vantage point.

James turned and saw Bianca looking confused, and he saw a few bodies on the ground far from them. ”What?” Disbelief was not an expression he was used to seeing on her face. But, he’d seen the red fly past him before he was able to manage the rubble but only heard one jinx be cast from Bianca, and yet there were two bodies on the ground. A thought came to mind, but only because it was funny rather than realistic, typical for James at times, but he figured he’d ask. ”Did…uh…did he…you know?” It was a bit of a statistical anomaly to stun or jinx oneself without even trying. Then again, it sounded like something that would happen at a Weasley family event.

Clearing his throat, James pointed his wand at the two stunned individuals, and ropes shot out of the end to bind their wrists. ”We should get going.” He spoke after. It was rare for James to speak so little, but the task at hand was consuming all his thoughts and keeping at bay the growing anxiety he had over not knowing where Lily was. He just hoped that his Patronus had made it to Brigh and she’d gotten her out safely.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

One of the most useful pieces of advice Bianca had ever gotten was the same thing that ultimately became her secret weapon during missions. Forget the rest of the world, forget everything that burdened you in peacetime, and focus on just surviving the next minute. And then do it again for the next minute after that. Being in the field required total concentration and discipline, and Bianca was quite talented at developing a razor-sharp focus that wiped everything else from her mind except what she needed to get through the next sixty seconds. But now? Bianca didn’t often see acts of incompetency from her opponents, much less any small loophole to take advantage of in a duel. She gaped openly at the unconscious figure on the ground, and didn’t immediately respond to James’s question when he finally turned around to check out what had been happening behind him. If only every encounter with a Dark wizard could go the same way.

Finally, she grimly observed, “It took us years to find these idiots.” The dryness of her reply was accompanied by an underlying note of disbelief, and an implied question. Who was the more incompetent figure here – the Purifier who’d knocked himself out with his own Stunning spell, or the Ministry officials that couldn’t locate him for years without inside information from within the organization itself? That was a troubling thought, and one that Bianca didn’t want to linger on. She was sure everyone else would be asking themselves that question once all the noise and chaos died down. She watched as James waved his wand at the two figures to bind their hands and leave them for the backup team to find and arrest. A moment later, she turned to examine the landscape and search for any other dark figures in the distance. Bianca was usually able to realize quickly when she was being watched or followed, an instinct that had developed after years of active duty in the field. But in a chaotic battlefield like this one...it was easy to miss things, and a chill ran down her spine at the thought that she couldn’t protect herself as easily as usual. Even veterans could miss something.

If there was anything that could remind her of the gravity of the situation, it was the serious expression on James’s face and his short, clipped sentences. That was more characteristic of how Bianca gave orders, and it was unusual to see James move on so quickly from the humor of a self-Stun. But, Bianca reflected, there was nothing amusing about watching Hogwarts being slowly engulfed in flames, and knowing that people you cared about could still be inside. And he’d spent seven years of his life in the castle – she couldn’t imagine watching Castelobruxo slowly collapse. So she nodded grimly and prompted, “The tower entrance?” That had been their destination before getting sidetracked, and Bianca waited tensely for James to point out the right direction. Her eyes were locked on the castle looming in front of them. They just had to get inside.

james sirius potter

[james sirius potter]

I don't need a light

to see in the dark

May 15, 2026
Bianca Alia Rivera

James had a feeling of déjà vu to his seventh year. The chaos that had erupted when the school was attacked and those kids kidnapped. There was that same feeling of helplessness as he looked up again at the giant and ancient stone walls of Hogwarts Castle. His home away from home. A place he had grown up and grown to love and where he made lifelong friends and even found love. Was it not yesterday he was chatting with Ariadne in the courtyard or admiring the calmness of the grounds with Yas on the hill or seeing who could throw the other off their broom with Lily in the Pitch. It was all crumbling right in front of him and focusing on the singular goal of getting inside and capturing more of these Purifiers as keeping James from crumbling.

But just as when his father had disappeared, he forced himself to remain strong and focus. He had to be the one to hold himself together because nobody else would. James shared Bianca’s sentiment. It was a foolish move to stun oneself and taught to young Hit Wizards and Witches in training in their first week. Careful where you are aiming your spell, or you end up with collateral damage. ”Yes. Right.” James glanced back at the bodies on the ground before turning and resuming his course. Fortunately, as they reached the last corner to turn, a tiny clearing was near the open entrance to a spiral staircase that took them up a few floors.

But then rock exploded near his head as he instinctively ducked to avoid the dust and particles landing in his eyes, and he stepped back to get cover. He should’ve looked before he turned, but as another jet of red flew past them, he tried to peek around the corner again and make sure that there wasn’t anyone chasing them or approaching from the other direction. ”He’s only throwing stunning spells. He’s probably as harmless as those other ones.” James commented. At this point, he wasn’t keen on waiting. His training had taught him to act decisively, and Hit Wizards were known for their speed more than anything. ”Cover me.” He told Bianca, but he waited for another spell to fly by them before he crouched low and peeked around the corner. ”Relashio.” And as the spell hit the man square in the chest, he was pushed back, but his wand was also out of his hand.

James sent more ropes out of his wand to bind his hands as he was harmless without his wand now. And as he caught his breath from the running, he suddenly felt the small out of blood that ran down the side of his face, but he merely wiped it away with his sleeve. Now they could get into the castle.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

For once, there wasn’t much to say between them and the pair grimly focused on the task at hand. This wasn’t like the Order meetings at Harry’s bar, where they could discuss business over a glass and allow themselves to be sidetracked by other topics (which, with James, was a fairly common occurrence and the tangents would often take longer to wrap up than the actual thing they’d come to discuss). And it wasn’t like most of their daily business at the Ministry either. Most Ministry employees had never set foot outside of the office, and even fieldwork positions like the Aurors and Hit Wizards required an inordinate amount of time spent navigating the bureaucracy and completing their paperwork. The department lost a good amount of trainees every year once they realized that there was more substance to these jobs than the grit and glory they saw in movies. But in those normal circumstances, in meetings or daily patrols, Law Enforcement had the most valuable resource at their disposal – time. But in the middle of a battle, especially surrounded by green recruits that had never been in a firefight before? Mistakes could be magnified to have dire consequences, and it could cost you so much more than what you might realize. Bianca had the scars to prove it, and she was still one of the luckier ones for still being around to talk about it.

They didn’t linger by the two Stunned figures once they had been restrained – the clean-up team would find and secure them later. Bianca impatiently brushed her hair out of her face as she craned her neck up to track the progress of the flames, watching fiery chimeras soar into the air. They were running out of time, and she dreaded to think how much worse the situation could have been if the Ministry hadn’t known beforehand about the Purifier base in the Chamber of Secrets. Law Enforcement had only mobilized so quickly because of Ana’s tip from Ivy, and that fact was what still gave them a chance to combat the flames and rescue the students. If they hadn’t known at all? If Blaise’s warning had been the first time Bianca would have heard about trouble at Hogwarts? Mobilizing the teams would have taken ages, and it might have been too late to do anything at all about the fiendfyre. A shiver ran through her body at that thought.

Bianca gave a grunt at James’s observation as they skidded to a halt around the corner and out of the line of fire. “Never assume that an opponent is harmless,” she warned, watching the speed and intensity of the Stunning spells as they whizzed past. It never took much for a Dark wizard to escalate, and the choice of spell was probably only because he wasn’t sure what he was up against. How many Ministry wizards, how well-armed they were, and whether he had even a fraction of a chance to escape with his identity intact. Once he saw there were only two, and that they lacked back-up, Bianca had no doubt about how quickly he would switch to the Unforgivable Curses in a desperate bid to escape. “No-” Bianca bit back a curse as she failed to grasp James’s robes in time to pull him back. Launching himself into the fray was the strategy of a rookie, in that there was no strategy at all and only a tendency to throw spells at a problem until one stuck. Typical wizard attitude. Had he never read any Muggle war historians or strategists at all?

But it was too late to change the plan, so Bianca swore under her breath in Spanish and rounded the corner just enough to cover the area with a series of spells. “Expulso!” She watched the blue flashes of light sail past the Purifier and tear into the wall behind him, causing large chunks of stone to fall so that he needed to raise his wand instead to cast a hasty Shield Charm. James took advantage of the distraction to catch the man square in the chest with a Stunning spell, and he went down like a sack of rocks (no pun intended). And well, Bianca could justify the destruction in that the castle was falling to pieces anyway and nobody would be able to tell what had been caused by the fiendfyre and what had come from…somewhere else. She was already starting to breathe heavily from the exertion as she watched James bind this one’s hands too, although her wand was up in a flash to cast a Shield Charm over the pair as more of the castle wall began to shake and collapse over them. “No time to stay together,” Bianca said through gritted teeth, watching in alarm at how quickly the Fiendfyre was tearing through the stone. Her wand hand shook slightly at the pressure of the rubble on her Shield Charm, and she shoved James towards the spiral staircase with her free hand. She wracked her brain to think of any last minute advice she could give the young Hit Wizard before they'd be forced to split up to cover more ground, anxiety gripping her chest at the thought of leaving him without her protection. “Get in, we’ll fan out on the other side once we see what’s going on. And for Merlin’s sake, don’t assume that Stunning spells are the only thing they’ll throw at you.”

james sirius potter

[james sirius potter]

I don't need a light

to see in the dark

May 15, 2026
Bianca Alia Rivera

This was probably the first time Bianca had probably observed James in such a situation or mode. She was his boss’s boss, but it didn’t mean she was there for their training or even out in the field necessarily. Yes, he talked quite a bit, asked too many questions, and enjoyed laughs and pranks, but he could be serious when it came down to it. And right now, he had the singular focus of getting the students out of the Castle that seemed like it would crumble to the ground if the fire spread even further, and in the back of his mind, he still had that anxiety that he didn’t know where his sister was. He was being asked to step up once more, just as his seventh year, and deep down, he was desperate for success where he had failed before.

James ignored Bianca’s attempt to stop him, he needed to get in that Castle, and these two were in his way. To his side, he heard Bianca yell her spell, and that provided him with enough distraction to land his spell. More rock crumbled, and James took cover again to shield his eyes from the dust. It was always the simple things that could render a Witch or Wizard vulnerable. But the spell that Bianca had sent earlier was beginning to cause a cascading effect as more of the wall began to fall. A shield charm kept the rubble from falling on him, much like the one he’d cast earlier. ”No, but—“ Before he could protest, Bianca shoved him into the doorway.

He wiped away more fresh blood on his face. He’d have to heal what he could when he had a moment, but otherwise, he was fine. As James clenched his jaw, he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. ”I’m not an idiot Bianca.” Maybe it was the adrenaline in his system or his impatience and anxiety about this situation. James could let a lot slide, but in that moment, he was frustrated. James was capable. He’d felt that he’d proven that time and time again. ”I’ll get the students out from the tower. You should head back to the Entrance Hall.” And James paused once more as anxiety crept into his chest. ”If you run into Lily, please let me know.” His hazel eyes were very green in the mix of light from the moon and fire. The likelihood that Purifiers were spread into the Castle was high in his mind, but he knew that he would have allies in there as well.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca could see other signs of fighting in the distance – green and red and blue bursts of light, and the occasional shout or groaning of the stone – as the Ministry teams encountered the first wave of Purifier resistance. And from the other side of her line of view, she could see the distant effects of the fiendfyre. The castle wouldn’t hold much longer, and she couldn’t assume that the protective enchantments would be much help either. As part of the Ministry’s preparation to take Elaine dead or alive (preferably the latter, although there was no guarantee of that now), they’d studied web of enchantments that surrounded the castle. Restrictions on getting in and out (everything from spelled walls to blocking wizards from their ability to Apparate), not to mention the security measures within the castle itself. That would be an obstacle for the Purifiers, but also for the Ministry as they attempted a hasty large-scale evacuation. It was an enormous task, but there was no room to fail.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot,” Bianca snapped back at the clear signs of frustration in James’s face as she pushed him up the spiral stairway. She wasn’t the most patient of people even in her daily routine, and now in an emergency there was no time to say everything that was on her mind. All the advice she wanted to give, any last-minute warnings for someone who was still young and whole and hadn’t seen past the gilded surface of the job to the lurking darkness and ugliness that they encountered daily in their work. Her eyes suddenly snapped to a point beyond James’s shoulder, and she raised her wand quickly. “Stupefy!” She barely paid the now-limp body on the floor any attention as she turned back to James. In the shadows of the castle, with the fire illuminating the dust motes floating in the air and the shadows of fleeing figures in the distance, Bianca saw Harry for a moment as he looked at her with sharp green eyes. Then the light shifted and it was James again. She exhaled and told him in a firm voice, “You’re not an idiot. I just need to know I can count on you.”

His last request was heavy with anxiety and fear, and Bianca nodded slowly at him before taking two steps in the other direction. There was nothing else to say, and even the simplest of words that occurred to her – good luck, or take care – well, it felt too close like jinxing their small chance of success. There were too many variables at play here for her to think it would all go well – Purifiers making their last stand, cursed fire tearing through the castle, and the inevitable reality that Aurors and Hit Wizards chose their career knowing the risks and dangers of it. There would be casualties, but for now – Bianca pushed the thought aside. She didn’t need it to survive the next sixty seconds. She only needed her wand, and her guts, and to be quick on her feet.

She watched as James began to run in one direction, and chose the other until she skidded to a halt by the unconscious Purifier she’d stunned. Bianca made a sound of disgust as she prodded at his still figure, then used her wand to levitate him out the window. The whole magical process of evacuating unconscious figures from a burning building – a levitation charm followed by a cushioning charm as he almost hit the ground outside – had become a standard part of Auror training after the explosions at King’s Cross a few years ago. And even a Purifier didn’t deserve to be burned alive. Bianca moved on until she reached the end of the hallway. James’s advice had sounded fine to her, but the Entrance Hall…it would be on the ground floor, and she was still a few floors up. Bianca chose a direction at random, ran past one corridor and then another until she found a staircase. And every time she found a Purifier? Stun, levitate, send outside. Rinse and repeat. Merlin, she’d be revisiting this in her nightmares later. But for now? There was no time for uncertainty. No time for anything but her absolute best.

james sirius potter
[End post Bianca!]