Chapter Twelve:
Talionis

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Rook was no less anxious than Crystal had been when he heard the evil laugh emanating from Hogwarts. He had run towards one of the windows, only to see a hooded figure in red walking towards the castle after kicking something black. It was incredibly concerning to notice the absence of all of his fellow Unspeakables. That alone proved that they had been weakened or worse, captured, all their priorities sorted.

It all came down to the fact that he was now alone in this fight. And alone will he avenge the defeat of his friends.

After informing Headmistress McGonagall, Rook broke into a run towards the Entrance Hall. No, he would not let his foe step into the Great Hall or any other spot of Hogwarts and contaminate the pure building with vile intentions.

"Oi, you thickhead!" he shouted, sending two stunning spells at the incoming figure. To his bad luck, the hooded person deflected both of them with a simple swish of a wand. Just by the walking style, Rook could sense an aura of power.

"You have to be much more proficient at fighting to call me that." With the voice, Rook confirmed his enemy to be a girl.

"Who the ruddy hell are you? What do you expect from us?!"

"Goodness, where are my manners? I am Talionis," she bowed, but it was a fake curtsy. "Oh to think that you and your pack of friends would have discovered what the riddle truly meant!" she exclaimed, her hands tugging at the helm of the bright robes. "It's deeply saddening that you never found out. I thought you lovely six were really a bunch of bright Unspeakables but you proved me wrong, didn't you, darling?"

Rook growled, but inwardly, his brain was racing 150 kilometers per hour. He was trying to come up with a strategy to capture his enemy.

His chess board had stopped working correctly as soon as he had asked it the third question. It had shown him a point where both the teams were stuck in a check mate when he asked whether they would be able to win or not as the fourth question. The only thought about it was that he was really going to get checkmate-ed in real life or it was simply a limitation of his Gramary.

Lost in thoughts, he was almost hit by a spell. "Protego!"

A thick shield became a barricade against the menacing looking curse and a flurry of black covered his eyesight before adjusting to make out his fellow Unspeakable, Crystal.

A fiery fight immediately broke out between the three, with Rook defending, Crystal attacking and their foe switching from offense to defense and vice versa to compete with them.

Despite Rook's rather formidable defensive strategies, Crystal was hit by a charm but it did nothing to physically harm her. Rook doubted their foe could even properly cast that charm, whatever it was.

But his doubts melted away like an ice cube out in the sun when Crystal's agility started decreasing with each hex she sent. Rook took to the offense, letting her to rest, but there was no power in numbers anymore. Soon, feeling really drained out, he was barely defending against Talionis' spells. With an enigmatic swish of the wind, his wand flew out of his hand and he dropped to his knees.

The temperature rose, something really bizarre as it was not yet summer. Rook's tired eyes widened when he saw a ball of flame sitting on the palm of his enemy. It looked like the girl was grinning. "Tired already? Tsk tsk. I am quite fired up, darling." The fireball grew steadily until she projected her palm out at them, letting it roll off and towards them at breakneck speed.

Rook was defenceless and so was Crystal. Both of their wands were hanging from the ceiling, somehow a wind managing to do that.

When Rook thought he would not survive this day and would be a pile of ashes by the time dawn piped up, Swift and Aura entered the Entrance Hall in a blaze of heat and light. A gush of water directed by Aura at the fireball from the sidelines extinguished it, flying up in vapours instead. Swift met Talionis in a single sword combat, giving time for Rook to recover.

It was not long before Swift was disarmed, the sword landing right beside the two wands. "Desperate souls," Talionis chided, conjuring another ball of flame and strutting towards them. Rook grabbed Crystal's weak hand tightly, just hoping that even if he were to die, he would know that he died protecting her. "It's getting rather boring right now. If I had expected any more of you, I would have left you four unharmed, but seeing as you are getting me nowhere more than myself, it's better to get the job done and you rid of."

Teeth barred, the four Unspeakables looked at the doom of themselves. After all he had been through, Rook had never expected to encounter a situation like this and without his two best friends by his side.

The ball of flame grew in the palm of Talionis, an equally blazing smirk tugging at her lips. Her wand was now pointed at Rook's throat, an incantation at the tip of her tongue.

"Expulso!" Talionis was thrown off her feet, landing hard on the stone walls. Rook's eyes sought for the spell caster just as suits of armour marched in. Sitting atop one of the pillars overhead was another Unspeakable, his robes bellowing over Rook's head. Headmistress McGonagall and two more hooded figures fanned behind, the former controlling the suits of armour.

A sweat a relief dripped down his forehead at the sight of familiars.

"Tired now, are we?" The Unspeakable overhead, Raven, as he recognized, asked in a deadly quiet voice and Rook knew that Raven was absolutely infuriated. The suits of armour stood defensively in front of them, with McGonagall, the two other Unspeakables and Raven as the front line defence.

With one look, Talionis flourished her cloak and disappeared into thin air, leaving behind no trace of being there besides the destruction caused. "Oh dear, are you all alright?" One of the two Unspeakables – Eternity – spoke up, running to tend to them.

"Headmistress, some of the students out there are in need of Pepper-Ups. Please see to it," Raven addressed McGonagall, who nodded.

"I must thank you for helping us out, Unspeakable Raven," she thanked. "Without the warning and the help, it would have been another massacre, what with the Auror department lagging behind."

"I get it. Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who deserve it. It's the motto of this school, as said by the previous Headmaster, isn't it, Professor?" Raven's voice had an unmistakable tone of mischievous innocence which caught the aged Headmistress unaware for a second. Before she could ask what was probably on her mind, the second Unspeakable who Rook had not yet identified spoke up.

"We will help you out with tending to the injured students and staff. That's what he means." Rook could affirm that this was a familiar voice but he could not place where it was that he had heard it. McGonagall nodded and was just about to leave when horror stuck. Crystal collapsed to the floor in a fit, shaking violently. The curse was just setting in and with no details about it, it was a moment of panic.

Your thoughts on this chapter? How was the introduction of Talionis? Let me know in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

Miyoko x