Bridges Burnt || Hugle & Stolena
Dolena tightened her grip on Stefan's hand as they ducked behind one of the stones in the Sundial Garden. They'd followed Gabrielle and the mudblood boy for almost an hour before they were finally away from anyone else. The two had chattered about magic creatures, Gabrielle's worry for the boy, and much more the two seventh years hadn't been able to hear, but Dolena assumed was boring. "This is our chance. Are you certain you want to do this, Stefan?" She verified one last time, wand clutched in her hand. There was safety in the reassurance, especially in the moments to follow when Brie's inevitable tears filled her brother's heart with guilt and he began to lash out at Dolena. She knew it, even if he wouldn't admit it.
The mudblood who was with Gabrielle was loud and irritating, and he seemed to possess the ability to babble without a break. Stefan could not, for the life of him, begin to understand why his sister cared enough to be spending time with him at all. They had been with each other for what seemed like hours and every time he and Dolena were close enough to hear what they were talking about, it only made Stefan more displeased and more determined to do what they had planned to. He couldn't say he was completely confident though, not really. He hated that it had had come to this point, him having to take such unnecessarily dangerous measures to keep her safe. But she was getting wildly out of control and it wouldn’t be long before word would reach their father. And if he found out.. Stefan didn’t want to think about how he would react. He kept telling himself that this was only so she could be safe in the long run but that didn’t really make this any easier for him. Her words echoed in his mind repeatedly. /How much longer until you can justify doing to me what father did to your mother?/ But Stefan forced himself to ignore it.
Through his confusion, he was glad to have Dolena by his side as it seemed like she was all what was keeping him from giving into his doubt and indecision. He turned to her when she spoke, his hand gripping onto hers tightly, she was all the support he had to lean on at this moment. His eyes plainly showed his hesitancy but the Hufflepuff laughed loudly at that moment making Stefan turn his gaze back towards the pair. His jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed and he nodded slowly. “It is the only way.” Despite the surge of confidence he felt, his voice trembled as he spoke. When it came to his sister, Stefan was always careful and this seemed like a reckless thing to do but it would be far worse if he just let this be without doing anything. He took a deep breath, it was ragged and shaky, so unlike himself. He took a quick look around them to make sure they couldn’t be seen by anyone and held up his wand and pointed it directly at the mudblood.
He couldn’t say why but nothing seemed to be working the way he wanted it to right then. His wand hand was shaky and his voice unsteady as he muttered the incantation. He had practiced the imperius curse several times on several people to know that the spell did not work. The boy should be blanking out now. He should stop his talking, his gaze should be unfocused but that wasn’t the case. He continued to speak to his sister like nothing had happened. Another deep breath, another attempt and nothing yet again. He lowered his wand and turned to Dolena, his frustration was obvious on his features. “I am not able to, I don’t understand..” he mumbled. “Doll, can – can you do it?”
Gabrielle was talking to Hugo about Mister Whiskers. She had wanted a cat since her first year and upon meeting the boy's cat she had become quick friends. She reminded him that his cat was the reason she had spoken to him for the first time, because she wanted to pet him. And how the cat had followed her down to the dungeons that week, Gabrielle admitted for the first time, that she'd considered keeping him for the night, but didn't want to worry the boy.
Dolena could feel the tight grip Stefan had on her hand as he watched the scene unfold, she'd known him long enough to know when the boy was struggling, and in that moment, she saw it quite clearly. Hurting Gabby wasn't something she wanted to do either, not like how she wanted to hurt others, but losing Gabrielle meant losing Allison all over again, and then Stefan in return. That wasn’t an option, she wasn’t going to lose the Notts. “I know, I never wanted it to come to this.” She said quietly, “But we can’t lose her, not to some mudblood.” She murmured bitterly, running her thumb over the back of his hand. If she could take his pain away, his guilt for what they were about to do, she would bear it for him, gladly, just so he wouldn’t have to. Dolena didn’t empathize with others, not truly, except for with Stefan. “When it’s over, we’ll take her to the tower to look at the stars, okay? We’ll make her better, better than she is now.”
As he struggled to perform the spell, she didn’t cast any judging looks the way she would have with anyone else. Instead, she gave him a rare look of sympathy, placing her hand over his wand hand and nodded, drawing her own towards the Hufflepuff boy. “Imperio.” She felt the spell course through her veins and strike the boy across the way. Gabrielle didn’t notice the spell hitting the boy, too involved in her own chattering. Dolena breathed in the power and control that she now held over the mudblood and began giving the boy his orders. “Tell Gabrielle to stop talking. Tell her that you’d be better off without her, and say whatever it takes to make her hate you.”
Stefan couldn’t really form the words to answer Dolena. He didn’t know what they were to going do when this was over and right then, he didn’t really care. He just wanted it to be over. He knew he would soon have to face the guilt of having hurt his sister, indirectly maybe, but it was still his doing. All he could hope was that she wasn’t too attached to the mudblood boy to let his rejection be taken too seriously. Because Stefan knew how sensitive she could be about simple matters such as this. He was grateful when Dolena agreed to take over, a sigh of relief leaving his lips when he placed that burden onto her. She had always been so much stronger than he ever was. The moment the girl muttered the spell, it was plainly obvious that it had worked. The Hufflepuff spaced out immediately and he nodded at Dolena appreciatively before his eyes went back to watching his sister and him.
Hugo and Gabrielle were chatting about a lot of things that day and not all of it really were things that really mattered at all. They spoke of homework and Hogsmeade, his sisters and his cat, Halloween and Christmas, everything and nothing at the same time. When Stefan and Dolena were struggling with the spell they were to cast on him, Hugo was listening to Gaby speak about Mister Whiskers with a wide grin on his face. He was internally very pleased that he was finally getting to spend time with her without all the worrying and arguing. Ever since the start of the year, she had only been ignoring him and pushing him away – but finally it seemed like things were going back to normal again and for that he was glad because he had been missing her tremendously. He laughed at a little joke she said and began to speak about the time Emilia stole Mister Whiskers and hid him in the Gryffindor tower, when Dolena’s spell hit him.
the effect was immediate. He stopped talking and blanked out completely. He forgot where he was and who he was with. His gaze was unfocused and he felt at peace, his mind was calm and he got the feeling that there was no worry in the world. In that state of pure bliss, he obliged when he heard Dolena’s command. “I hate you!” Hugo said suddenly, not even realizing what the words which were leaving his lips meant. “I cannot bear to be by your side, you are a horrible person. You are ugly. Your are selfish. You are a murderer. You wouldn’t even care if I die – you – you – “ A small voice woke up at the back of his head and began to question what was going on. He looked horrified suddenly as he began to see that something was wrong but that wasn’t enough to completely stop what he was doing. “I don’t know why I – ! ” he panicked “I don’t – I – HATE YOU!” His words made no sense to him but despite him wanting to stop whatever the hell he was saying, he couldn’t. Dolena’s spell was too powerful. He took out his wand and started to look around, completely frenzied. “Stop! Stop!” he yelled, pointing the wand at no one in particular but yet again he uttered some cruel words despite himself. “You don’t deserve my time or my love or trust!” He spat at her and got off the bench they were seated at and stumbled back in confusion. “I don’t know – I – I don’t even know why I am here with you!”
Gabrielle looked at Hugo in concern as he stopped midsentence. “Is everything-“ She started but was interrupted by his sudden declaration of hate for the girl. Her face fell and her eyes widened with a mixture of confusion and heartbreak. It was so sudden, so out of nowhere, she could barely believe what was happening. Surely, she was having a nightmare, because Hugo was the one person she’d never had to worry about being good enough around, he’d actually liked her for her, not because of her last name, or the blood that ran through her veins. Her heart only continued to break as he spewed out more hateful words in her direction. ‘Wake up!’ She told herself, but she wasn’t asleep. His words sunk into her skin like knives, tearing away at what little self-esteem she’d managed to hold onto since the summer. “That’s not true, Hugo!” She protested, “I’d be devastated if you-if you died.” She whispered quietly, tears filling her eyes. As he began to trip on his words, she only became more concerned, until finally he took out his wand, yelling as he pointed it about. “Stop what? I’m not doing anything, Hugo!” She pleaded desperately with the boy, clueless as to what was going on.
“Hugo, please?” The girl let out a small sob, reaching out to take his hand. “Where is this coming from? Please, just tell me what’s going on.” The thought of losing another person was unbearable. She’d already lost Rabastan and Sirius, not that she and Sirius were all that close, but now Hugo seemed to hate her as well, out of the blue, and she wanted to know what it was that she’d done. “Please, explain what I’ve done wrong. I’ll-I’ll leave you alone if you want, but just tell me why you hate me, now?” Despite her trembling form, the girl managed to stand up right, trying to search his face through her tears. How had they gone from laughing and talking about the past to this sudden bout of hatred? Had he been bottling it up all along?
Dolena’s eyes narrowed as she fought for control over the boy, she hadn’t expected he’d be a fighter, but she as stronger. “Dig deeper, Hugo, use anything she’s ever confided in you against her.” She demanded more powerfully than before. “Stop waving your wand around and don’t allow her to touch you. Tell her that you’ve known from the start that she wasn’t worth your time, that she has been useless and you’re done wasting your time pretending to be her friend, pretending like you care about her.” Dolly ordered. She didn’t let up her focus to look at Stefan, but reached out her hand for his. She was shaking from the power and trying to hold on to control of the boy, she needed her friend to ground her.
Stefan visibly winced when the boy began to yell at his sister. If he hadn’t been doing it under their command, if he had somehow walked in on them yelling at Brie by his own free will, Stefan would have ended him without a second thought. His eyes focused on Gabrielle and he could visibly see her shatter right before his eyes with every word the mudblood uttered. He hated what they were doing to her and in those moments, he was so focused on Gabrielle and his own guilt that he didn’t notice that Dolena was struggling with the spell till her hand touched his. He frowned a little, his concentration turning to the boy who seemed to be fighting the curse. He didn’t think the boy had any strength at all, let alone enough to actually fight the imperious curse. He gripped her hand tightly for a second. "It's okay, he will never really be able to overthrow the curse." he said, as he raised his own wand again. Dolena's struggle gave him the confidence he needed, he didn't have before, and now that they had started this, they needed to finish this, and smoothly. He pointed his wand at the Hufflepuff and muttered the incantation for the third time that day. But the difference was that his hand didn’t shake and his voice didn’t waver this time. If Dolena needed his help, then his help she would have. Just as his spell hit him, the boy froze suddenly and he knew that his spell had worked this time and he that they would be off with Gabrielle soon enough.
Hugo wasn’t in a state listen or answer to Gabrielle's questions and worries. He knew that he was hurting her with every word he was saying but he simply couldn’t stop himself from saying more. Every time he tried to apologize, to explain, whatever it was that was jinxing him seemed to hit him harder and he went ahead and told worse things which only hurt her more. When she reached out to take his hand, Hugo slapped it away harshly and took a step back from her, looking as though he was disgusted by her. “Don’t. Touch. Me.” He spat at the girl, glaring at her with sheer hatred. Hatred which he did not feel. “Don’t you understand? I hate you! I’ve always hated you! I’ve known from the start that you weren’t worth my time! You are useless and I’m done wasting my time pretending to be your friend, pretending like I care about you!” Once again he attempted to fight the voice which was ordering him, a look of pure horror in his eyes as he realized what he had just said. “Gabrielle, I – “ he started to explain but at the moment Stefan’s curse hit him and he froze completely. He gripped his wand tight and let out a bloodcurdling scream the power of the magic performed by the two was too much for him to take and his mind was fighting way too hard. Pain shoot through his head, blinding pain which lasted long enough that he lost control of everything. Without his realization, several balls of fire shot from his wand just as his screaming ended and he fell unconscious to the ground.
Gabrielle's heart pounded as her friend slapped her hand away, she cowered back from him. She'd have never thought Hugo, of all people, would reject her in such a way. They'd been friends for years, so as he admitted that it was just pretend, her legs trembled and tears poured down her cheeks. She'd trusted him with so much of herself, so much of everything, and he had never cared at all. It was the scream that caused Gabrielle to reach out for him again, an instinct to help anyone in pain, but he shot out balls of fire at the young brunette and it was quicker than a match lighting, her clothes were suddenly on fire and just as Hugo's screaming stopped, hers began. The flames licked at her skin and crawled up her arms and legs, surrounding her. The pain was something like she'd never felt before and an animal-like cry fell from her lips as she hit the ground, trying to get the flames to stop.
Dolena rejoiced silently as the boy screamed until she saw the fire. "Drop your wand!" She commanded, but it was already to late, Gabby was lit up like a candle and the boy was on the ground. Her feet took off before she could really process what was happening, but she fired off shots in order to put out the flames, but she was still too far away to do any good. Gabrielle's screams pierced the air along with the horrid smell of burning flesh and hair. Had it been the mudblood on fire, she might have relished in the chaos of it all, but Gabrielle was never meant to get physically hurt. The guilt filled Dolena as she got closer and she shakily tried to put the fire out, but her spells weren't enough. The water seemed to only dampen the fire, not put it out, but she kept trying.
Merely seconds has passed since he had pointed his wand at the mudblood and uttered the curse. The reaction was just as expected – he froze the very next second but instead of falling in line with what Dolena was ordering of him, the younger boy let out a bloodcurdling shriek and went completely berserk. He didn’t seem to be in control of his own actions but neither was he under the control of Stefan or Dolena. Before anything could be done to change that, flames began to shoot out of his wand in a very erratic manner. But also with such alarming speed that despite both Dolena and Stefan plunging into action immediately, a lot had happened which they hadn’t expected to. And it had all happened far too soon.
His eyes went wide with horror when he saw that Gabrielle’s clothes had caught fire. Immediately afterwards, a chilling scream filled the air and Stefan knew what that meant but he couldn’t afford to think of the pain his sister was in because of this mess, the mess he had started. He wouldn’t be able to focus if he thought about it, and right now all he wanted was to make this right before it was too late. He shot spell after spell even before they were anywhere close to her, and once they were close enough, he stood still to get ahold of his own emotions and made waves of water wrap around his sister till she was free of the flames. It was obvious however, that they hadn’t managed to get her out of this unharmed – maybe he had only just barely even saved her life. He didn’t need the tattered clothes, her severe looking burns and stench of burning skin and hair to tell him that his sister was in excruciating pain. The flames may have disappeared but, she was still burning, her scream – that terrifying scream was not getting any less louder. He knelt down beside her and forced himself to ignore her wriggling and thrashing. He lifted her up gingerly and held her as still as possible. “I am sorry, Brie.” he mumbled as the tip his wand touched her temple and he murmured an incantation under his breath before she fell limp onto his lap.
“Don’t you fucking dare.” He hissed when he spared a glance at on Dolena. “Don’t you dare touch her.” He was shaking with fury but she wasn’t the only one he was angry at, he was angry at himself too but he didn’t know what else to do right then except lash out at her, He didn’t even know why he was doing it but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He wasted no time, muttering a few healing spells at the worst looking burns before lifting his sister up in his arms. It wasn’t even difficult to do so, she seemed to have lost a lot of weight because inspite of the present situation, he was reminded in a flash of the many times he lifted her up when she had been younger. “She was not supposed to get hurt.” He hissed through gritted teeth. “My sister was not supposed to get hurt!” He glared at Dolena icily and without another word, disapparated from there with Gabrielle. He apparated back as close to the gates of the school as possible, before racing inside the grounds and to the hospital wing, the only thought in his mind right then was to make Gabrielle well again.
Gabrielle’s screaming and pain only ceased when her brother’s wand settled on her temple and she fell unconscious. Dolena, on the other hand, had to live through it all, wide awake and soberly so. She rushed towards the siblings, but was struck by her friend’s words. They were like a punch to the gut, worse than any torture she’d ever endured. Her mouth hung open, but Stefan and Brie disappeared, leaving her on her own with an unconscious mudblood. Without a second thought, Dolena left the unconscious boy and made her way towards the castle once more. She would go wait outside the hospital wing for news about Brie, and wait patiently as guilt ate her alive.
@stefannott, @huggleshugo, @dollygreengrass
