i won't go down easy [viktor]

[Deleted]

december 28, 2024

Jamie had already been to Hogsmeade for the winter festival, but it was precisely because she had been before that she wanted to go again. She had seen some things that she had considered purchasing but needed more time to think about, and now she was returning to buy the items that still seemed like good ideas after a bit of a wait. Even though she had procured herself a new job and hopefully would be financially stable again soon, Jamie needed to be careful about how much money she was spending, hence the pause. She had chosen to visit the festival again around lunch time, hoping the crowds would be thinner as people crowded into pubs or tea rooms to get a bite to eat.

Jamie didn't think much of it the first time a shadow passed over the sun. This was Scotland, after all, and there were clouds aplenty. She did, however, think something of it when there was a roar that accompanied the second shadow. She turned her face up towards the sky. "What the -?"

@vik

[Deleted]

A festival was the perfect kind of place for Vik. So many people worried on having a good time and seeing all the sights, hardly any of them really paid attention to things that were important, like their wallets. They made it far too easy for Vik to pickpocket ... and he wasn't too good at resisting that sort of temptation. He made his way through the crowd, casually bumping into random people and relieving them of items that they'd probably miss later. Not too much, just a coin purse here and there, some work identification. This sort of thing definitely came in handy to someone like him. 

When most people started to head into small restaurants and shops to eat, Vik decided to start looking around the festival. It was about what he expected, lots of vendors with unique items and such. He was smirking as he looked at an "authentic" (totally fake) Chinese vase when he heard a loud roar. Vik immediately stepped back, looking up and blinking. He ... had to be seeing things, right? Dragons shouldn't be flying above Hogsmeade! He looked around and saw a girl nearby who was also looking up. Vik knew he would likely sound like an idiot, but he had to make sure it wasn't just him. "Is that a dragon?" he said, looking up again as another roar split the air. 

@jamie

[Deleted]

It was good that a man nearby looked to Jamie and asked her if that was a dragon, because she was beginning to think that the stress was causing her to hallucinate. “Yeah,” Jamie said dumbly. “I think that’s a dragon.” She had taken Care of Magical Creatures, so she actually knew for sure that it was a dragon above them, but she was still too stunned to move. She didn’t want to make it all about her or anything, but seriously – she had been back in the wizarding world for a week and there was a dragon above Hogsmeade? That had to be some sort of record.

“What… what the hell are we supposed to do!?” Jamie asked as the dragon swooped down, lower than before. They hadn’t covered this in school! They had just been told that dragons were on reserves, and that it took experienced handlers to deal with them. Jamie knew some fire-proofing charms, but she couldn’t fireproof an entire village. She could Apparate away, but Jamie wasn’t a coward – and she wasn’t going to let everyone in the village fend for themselves, either.

@vik

[Deleted]

The girl agreed with him, saying that she thought it was a dragon and Vik continued to stare for a second. Yes, they both confirmed what they saw, so at least he wasn't making this up, but his mind still wasn't working at its normal speed. What was a dragon doing in Hogsmeade, especially during the festival? Didn't they take extra security measures when it came to things like this? Apparently not enough. 

She asked what they should do, pulling Vik back to the situation at hand. "Defend ourselves and help people," he answered back. Sure, Vik might not be the most chivalrous of people, but there were students and families here. He wasn't just going to leave. Another dragon flew overhead, going toward the center of the village, where it landed on top of a building. Vik pulled out his wand and started to run. "Come on," he called back to the girl, running in that direction. 

@jamie

[Deleted]

There was only so much stunned staring two people could do when it came to something like this, and Jamie was relieved when the man seemed to have an idea of what to do. Even if the idea was extremely vague, it was still more helpful than Jamie’s mind, which was still just screaming dragon!. Jamie unsheathed her wand from the arm holster that she had started to wear again only recently, hoping that her rustiness with magic wasn’t going to get her in trouble in this situation.

The man began to run, beckoning Jamie after him, and the knot in her chest loosened a little. Running she could do. She hadn’t stopped her Quidditch training regimen when her mother was sick – it was the only thing that had kept her sane – so she was still able to run for a long, long while. “What’s your name?” Jamie asked as she fell into stride beside the man. It was easier to get someone’s attention with their name, after all, and if she did end up separated from her new companion, she wanted to be able to find him again.

@vik

[Deleted]

He could hear the woman running behind him as he raced toward the sound of the commotion. He didn't run super fast, not wanting to leave her behind, that would be rude. She caught up to him fairly quickly and asked for his name. Vik glanced over at her. "Vik Podmore," he answered, shooting her a quick smile. "What's yours?" He could at least return the question, though his attention wasn't entirely focused on the person beside him. Instead, he was looking in the direction of the screaming and roaring. Was the dragon attacking people now? Or were there more than one of them?

He turned a corner and came to a dead stop. In the open square in front of him, a dragon was attacking the people, roaring and breathing flame in every direction. He stared, stunned for a moment before turning to look at the girl beside him. "So ... any ideas for how to go about this?" he asked. It was easy to say that they were going to stop the dragon, but now that it was standing there in front of him, Vik's mind was definitely pulling a blank.

@jamie

[Deleted]

Jamie nodded when the man gave his name, burning it into her memory. “Jamie,” she said, purposefully leaving off her surname when introducing herself. She didn’t need anyone freaking out about a possible werewolf on the loose when there were dragons around. If people were freaking out about a werewolf in the middle of the day almost two weeks after the full moon then they had bigger problems, but either way Jamie didn’t want to have to deal with gaining someone’s trust if they decided her surname was a point of contention.

When they turned the corner, Jamie almost ran into Vik. One of the dragons had landed, and was wreaking havoc by breathing flames over everything – including some panicked people. “We need to get everyone to safety before we deal with the dragon.” Neutralizing the dragon would take time and focus, and they wouldn’t have either of those if there were people in danger. Jamie cast a nonverbal Sonorus, tapping her throat with her wand to amplify her voice. “Everyone, please proceed to the nearest building. If you’re capable, cast a Protego Maxima on the building you are in.” Hopefully people would follow her instructions and clear the square – and hopefully protect the buildings more than they currently were protected. She cancelled the Sonorus and turned to Vik. “I don’t want to have to kill it, if we don’t have to. But dragons are lizards, so they’re cold blooded. If we cool them down they’ll move slower.” Not to mention if there were a lot of ice spells flying through the air, it was possible they could neutralize some of the dragon’s fire.

@vik

[Deleted]

She gave her name and Vik repeated it softly to himself. He was normally really good with names, but right now, since he was a bit distracted, he wanted to make sure he remembered hers. Jamie. Cute, blonde Jamie. He could remember that, right? At the very least, he would try his best to. 

When he stopped, seeing the dragon attacking a bunch of people, Vik's brain froze. He normally was really good in crisis situations, he could generally deal with lots of stress too (since that happened a lot in his line of work) but this was entirely unexpected. Jamie seemed to take it all in stride. She suggested getting everyone safe and then dealing with the dragon. Vik turned to her, nodding when she started directing people to the nearest buildings and giving them instructions. Good. He watched as people started following her instructions. After just a few seconds most of them were out of the way. "Me neither," he agreed when she didn't want to kill it. She gave ideas of what they should do an he nodded. "Good idea. Let's go! Umm, I think we should probably stick together though, watch one another's backs you know?" It sounded like a good idea to him, at least. There were still dragons flying above, what if one of them decided to join this one or something. Working together as a team sounded like a good idea. 

Vik stepped forward, shooting cold, ice and stunning spells at the dragon. Like Jamie said, he didn't want to hurt it, but anything to slow it down or stop it would be a good idea. So far, nothing was making a difference. 

@jamie

[Deleted]

Vik agreed that he didn’t want to kill the dragon, which was good. Jamie wasn’t sure if the two of them had enough magical power between them to kill the dragon even if they wanted, but it was better they were on the same page. “Sticking together sounds good to me,” she agreed. She didn’t much fancy finding herself cornered by a dragon without any way of backup. The familiar burn of adrenaline was beginning to thrum through Jamie’s veins, and she took a deep breath to clear her head before following Vik forward towards the dragon. She tried to aim about the same place as he did, but the dragon’s magical resistance was clearly showing, and it seemed like none of their spells were doing anything other than bouncing off the dragon’s scales.

Another roar ripped through the air, but Jamie didn’t risk looking up to see what was happening. She had her hands full with one dragon. “Try aiming for the eyes!” She suggested to Vik. The dragon’s eyes weren’t covered in scales – obviously, it needed to be able to see – so Jamie was hoping the magical resistance there would be less and their spells would be more effective. The next freezing spell she launched towards the dragon missed its eyes, glancing off its cheek instead. Jamie swallowed hard. It seemed like the dragon was getting angrier now, and she was worried it was going to shoot fire at them if they didn’t sedate it soon.

@vik

[Deleted]

Vik nodded, glad that Jamie was good with the idea of sticking together. He figured that if they ran into anyone else that wanted to join in the fight, they could all just stay in a little group. It'd probably help them be a little more successful, or in the least it would make him feel a little better about the situation. Honestly, he could hardly believe that this was happening, but now wasn't the time to worry about that. Now he needed to act. 

He continued shooting as many spells at the dragon as he could, but the thing was getting annoyed. "Good idea," he answered when Jamie suggested they aim for the eyes. There. He'd try to hit the eyes, unless he could make it in the mouth before fire came out. That could be a good idea as well. "Or the mouth if you get a chance." It was a way to get through the scales. He shot another freezing spell at the dragon, hitting its nose and Vik almost groaned, but he didn't have the time. The dragon was actually starting to pay attention to Jamie and Vik now, which didn't bode well. He shot three in rapid succession, hardly believing it when one hit it in the eye. The dragon, which had previously been turning to face them, was now moving noticeably slower. "I got it once. We need to do it again!"

@jamie

[Deleted]

Their strategy with the dragon was probably not the best one, but Jamie couldn’t blame herself or Viktor for it; neither of them were dragon tamers, and she doubted even a dragonologist would be able to subdue a dragon without a significant amount of effort. The way the dragon was continuing to eye her was making Jamie more than a little nervous, but she continued to shoot freezing spells at the dragon’s face, still having no luck with hitting it in the eyes. She almost cheered when Vik announced that he had gotten a hit to the eye, but didn’t have the time to. The dragon opened its mouth, and Jamie’s priority wasn’t cheering – it was moving.

Maybe it was self-preservation, but it felt a lot like her inner wolf taking over. Jamie dove across the cobbles of Hogsmeade, curling herself into a ball to try to make herself as small as possible as a stream of fire spewed towards her. She didn’t get more than singed, and Jamie sprang to her feet again. Her blood was pounding in her ears and she was slightly off-balance from her dive, but she had enough presence of mine to send another series of freezing spells towards the dragon. She didn’t think that she was injured, but she also knew that adrenaline was enough to mask many, many wounds. She needed this altercation to be over with so she could check herself out.

@vik

[Deleted]

Vik was so excited that he actually hit the dragon that he was distracted from what was going on for a second. The dragon slowly turned its face toward them, opening its mouth and that's when Vik realized he needed to move out of the way. He jumped to the side, trying to get behind something in the street. He didn't know where Jamie was anymore, but he wasn't really thinking about her. He'd just made this dragon very angry, which probably wasn't the best move. He found himself behind a booth, taking deep breaths before turning to shoot more spells at the dragon. He was further away now, which made it harder to hit the creature accurately. 

That's when he remembered Jamie. "Jamie, are you okay?" he shouted, shooting a string of spells at the dragon before jumping behind the booth again. If he had time, he'd feel bad for the vendors that were losing their wares today, but he felt very lucky by the fact that they were here during the attack. It gave a lot more cover than there would normally be on the street. 

@jamie

[Deleted]

The dragon, which had seemed close to being subdued, now seemed to have shaken off the effects of the freezing spell in its anger, which was great. Just great. Jamie was still gripping her wand with a vice-like grip, but when she raised her arm to shoot another spell, pain lanced up her shoulder. Dive-rolling across the street probably hadn’t been the best idea to avoid getting injured, but it was what it was. Jamie sent another freezing spell at the dragon, celebrating silently when it hit the dragon straight in the eye. The lizard staggered, but didn’t fall. Vik was also sending spell after spell at the dragon, and she just had to hope that one of his hit, too.

At the shouted question if she was alright, Jamie nodded before realizing Viktor probably wouldn’t be able to see that. “Fine. Ish!” She called back. She wasn’t going to neglect the shoulder injury, but it was hardly enough to put her out of commission, especially with the dragon still rampaging. “We might need a plan B!” Neither of them seemed to be doing enough damage for this current plan to work.

@vik

[Deleted]

This wasn't working. Every once in a while, it seemed like one of their spells hit the dragon in the eye and it would pause for a few moments or slow down in its attack, but not enough to really make enough of a difference. Vik was starting to feel a bit nervous. He liked living dangerously, but not via attacking. He liked the thrill of stealing from people who either did or didn't expect it. Those who prepared against people like him were more fun to steal from. Fighting a dragon was a different story and it was obviously much harder than he thought it would be. He considered himself a good marksman, but hitting a moving dragon in the eye was difficult and he wasn't really much of a fan of it. 

He was glad when Jamie answered, saying she was fine-ish. He rolled his eyes, a surge of annoyance passing through him. That wasn't helpful at all. He was just going to assume that she could continue, since she said she was fine. Kind of. He heard her shout, saying they might need a plan B. He turned to the side, glancing to see if there was anything that might be able to help them. He saw a group of wizards a way up the street, seemingly heading towards them. "Reinforcements are coming," he told her, continuing to shoot at the dragon, smiling when one of his spells connected and the dragon moved slower again. "I think we should try to keep it focused on us. Then maybe they can take it by surprise and it can all be over," he suggested hopefully. That many wizards should be able to at least knock the creature out. 

@jamie

[Deleted]

Reinforcements were coming. That was a relief, considering neither of them were skilled enough at this whole dragon thing to be doing much good. Viktor suggested they try to keep the dragon’s attention focused on them so the reinforcements could surprise it. Jamie nodded, moving closer to Viktor so she wouldn’t have to shout at him. “Maybe try to keep switching its focus? That way it doesn’t get to look at either of us long enough to think about attacking.” She didn’t want either of them to get hurt – or, in her case, more hurt – just when the end was in sight. Jamie also didn’t have any idea if a dragon’s attention could even be ping-ponged the way she was suggesting, but there was no harm in trying, right?

With that idea in mind – distraction, not taking the dragon down – Jamie’s entire strategy had to change. Bright sparks and louds noises were what she needed to do. Jamie was willing to admit that the idea scared her a little bit more than just facing the dragon head on; asking to be attacked was different from the dragon defending itself. Jamie took a deep breath, steeling herself, before sending off a shower of red sparks she hoped would keep the dragon from looking at the group of wizards heading towards them.

@vik