HALLOWEEN NIGHT, 2020. it’s the early am when confused and buddled patrons of the poison apple, unsure of what they’ve experienced but positive it wasn’t exactly normal - begin to stumble out of the exit doors and head for home, their costumes more worse for wear now than they were at the start of the night. if it were muggle london, there’d be a line of people waiting for a taxi at one of any number of ranks, designated drivers fumbling for keys in too deep pockets and trying to round up their blacked out friends. wix do it a little differently : the knight bus stop outside of the leaky cauldron is the intended go to for many, which means they have to make their way from knockturn to diagon on shaky legs that don’t want to cooperate, small gaggles of friends moving as one along the cobbled alleys.
the thing is... drunk people aren’t quiet. they laugh. they sing. they shout at one another, sometimes, falling over their own feet as they discuss innane things like where they’re going to get their late night snack, or laugh about the stupid things they stood WITNESS to. when the first scream pierced the crisp night air, it wasn’t immediately apparent that there was a problem. that something was wrong.
for pyotr anikov - a man unfamiliar to most who is making his way in the opposite direction to the weary partygoers - the first time that he realizes the scream didn’t come from someone laughing uproariously at a joke told by their friends is the very moment that one of the beasts emerges from the shadows of a side street on diagon alley. he does a visible double take, almost comical if not for the way in which his features pale and his body jolts away, almost tripping in his haste to put distance between them. it TOWERS above him on its two hind legs, and it gives him just enough time to turn his first sharp intake of breath into a yell before it lunges towards him, faster than he can even hope to reach for his wand. its teeth tear, his throat destroyed, the red gushing over the costume he has hastily assembled at the last possible minute... and when his body is tossed aside like a rag doll, the WEREWOLF, now stood in the center of the alley, stretches its head towards the sky and howls.
a half dozen smaller beasts appear, skulking from the shadows, dropping from buildings onto cobble street below. the hunt has begun.
those closest to the ill fated pyotr trip over themselves to escape what they can see, plainly, is coming : but their DESPERATION mixes terribly with their drunken states, and the werewolves descend.
dennis creevey is one of the first to have left the poison apple and one of the first to come face to face with one : he pulls his wand from his pocket and attempts a protective spell that would have done wonders were he up against offensive magic, but does nothing when it’s teeth and claws and BRUTE FORCE - a jaw closes around his forearm and he bellows in pain, his next spell a reducto that sends the werewolf soaring away from him, daxed but not stopped.
farther away, a clerk named verity tries to reach the doorway to the shop she works - the shop she has keys for, the place she might just find SAFETY - even while persued by a wolf who only has eyes for her. she casts a spell that slows it down, for a moment, and salvation seems to be within her grasp until her clumsy feet land wrong on a loose cobble and she takes a disastrous tumble. the last thing that she sees as she struggles to grip her wand is the beast pouncing.
blaise zabini and rowan graves don’t know one another, but find their fates tied together in this nightmarish situation. amidst the chaos, the screams, the individuals rushing to retreat, to find help, to hide, the zabini heir backs down an alleyway with the intent to APPARATE to safety at the very forefront of his mind. the young graves child can’t - didn’t - know that they were leading danger straight into his path as they stumble into the shadows, hand held to the wound that one of the smaller creatures made across their throat. it follows, intending to corner its prey, only to turn onto the side street as they slump and still on the ground before a young man who almost made it. in that INSTANT, there is time enough to think that for a senseless beast, the wolf looks awfully pleased. he reaches for his wand. the werewolf dives. he sees the stars.
fleur weasley wasn’t leaving the event as much as she was searching for her husband, but the sounds of... something - draw her from the smoking area of the poison apple and towards diagon alley, where the sight of what is happening stops her in her TRACKS. in due time, she’ll be one of the first healers on the scene. from her bag she will pull a mixture of powdered silver and dittany that will save a number of victims from what they may have considered a better fate than the cursed ALTERNATIVE, but in that first moment, she will be credited with sounding the alarm.
it isn’t the red flare fired into the sky over the alley that scares the werewolves away, but the fact that in seconds, the street is flooded with clear headed aurors who kill ONE and wound another before the others disappear at an unimaginable speed. the aurors contact st mungo’s, st mungo’s sends their emergency team, and at the apple, the pounding music will eventually be CUT to inform everyoe that there has been an INCIDENT, and that they aren’t to panic, but to make their way slowly and calmly towards the exit doors...
ROUNDUP OF DAMAGES, FATALITIES & INJURIES:
shops along the alley were destroyed in the attack, with weasleys wizard wheezes and many of the buildings AROUND it taking the BRUNT of those damages. several individuals were injured and more killed in what will soon be dubbed the diagon alley massacre. they include :
dennis creevey and blaise zabini were bitten in the attack, their wounds subsequently tended to by fleur weasley. they will, from this point onwards, by cursed with lycanthropy.
verity caldwell ( a long term clerk at www ), pyotr anikov ( junior wizengamot member and husband of merry lestrange ) and rowan graves ( the youngest child of the well known graves patriarch ) were among those killed.
OUT OF CHARACTER:
this post marks the official end of the halloween event, but as mentioned yesterday : since i’m not planning on springing anything onto you all for a little bit and there was a clear desire to see some sort of extension, you can all CONTINUE to take advantage of the setting the event provided you with. i’m entirely fine with the chaos of the different potions continuing, and for more open and closed starters to go up - especially considering that this is a very stressful week, and only in the next couple days will people feel up to properly taking part. if you’re new, or would simply rather avoid the event, then THIS is just to provide some content for you to proceed with.
