Remember this? ((Plot people))

[macnair]

Things were not going to plan. Firstly, they were running late. And for Walden everything had to be punctual. It came from working as an executioner. But there came the second problem. Walden might have the most experience out of any of the Dark Lord's servants with stinky, dangerous magical creatures, but that didn't extend to goblins. The fact that they controlled Gringotts was enough to ensure their safety from his axe. It would be a foolish minister indeed that changed that law and saw their stock market crash into oblivion overnight. Walden tweaked his moustache as he thought about this. He wouldn't much enjoy that either - he needed his money. And executing goblins wouldn't be much fun for him personally (beyond the bringing the axe down). Goblins went in for revenge as much as any other creature as far as he knew.

Luckily this goblin was in a good mood. They had, after all, just released him from Ministry custody. Whether the official from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had been cooperating freely or under the Imperius, he'd certainly been rather inefficient. He was dead now, anyway. Walden smiled slightly to himself as they finally arrived in the main street of Hogsmeade. But that smile turned to a snarl as he saw all the children around them. Some hadn't noticed, some were staring (idiots), one was screaming (that was soon remedied) and many were scattering as fast as they could in any direction where there were not two Death Eaters and a menacing goblin. Walden hated children. Well, this could be a vermin eradicating mission, then.

"Crucio!" he said savagely, his wand pointed at one of the 'bystanders'. That soon got the idiots reacting. Although only a few seconds had passed since they appeared anyway. Zonko's was right in front of them and Walden smiled sinisterly to himself. There should be a good few students in there to incinerate. He sent a fireball in that direction and heard a satisfying BOOM, the glass of all the windows around shattering. Trust Zonko's to have fireworks. Macnair sent some fireballs at the people standing (and running) nearby, just for good measure. Beside him the infamous Hodrod the Horny-Handed had found some victims, who were now several sizes smaller than once they had been. As the goblin picked them up and started squeezing the life out of them, Walden was fairly sure he heard the cracking sound of minute bones. Goyle had gone off somewhere so he went to find another part of Hogsmeade to terrorise as well. Hodrod didn't need company to get on with his job.

[koriwilliams]

Kori had decided that Hogsmeade was the best place to go to for relaxation. Final exams were coming and she was completely stressing out about them. It wasn't that she was a bad student, in fact being in Ravenclaw kind of implied she was a good one - but the prospect of doing badly on her exams kind of frightened her more than ever before. She was so stressed that she was even neglecting her dancing; and that was very odd when it was Kori. Ever since her mother had died, Kori had danced as if it were her last request. It was as if she wouldn't be able to rest until her mother's passion passed through her - and Kori hadn't the slightest clue as to when that would be. Nor did she care. Dancing was now a part of her. It was her soul and her being.

It was a nice day out, the sun was shining; but Kori knew that later on there would be a slight overcast and perhaps even some showers. She just had that sense of the weather. All day long, Kori had the dreads. She felt like something awful was going to happen, and that feeling only grew stronger as she walked through Hogsmeade. She ignored it of course, her feelings hadn't been accurate since her mother passed away. She never really payed any attention to the dreads anyway. It wasn't something that had been hammered into her head when she was younger, it was just a tale she had heard from a relative that had stuck with her. She would explain them to anyone who asked, but if they asked her if she sincerely believed in them - she would say no.

Just as Kori suspected, the wind picked up and blew her blond hair away from her face. She had a sudden cold chill and looked up from the book she was reading. She had sat on a bench outside of a shop with kids running in and out, laughing. Kori closed her eyes and smiled into the wind, feeling it carress her cheeks. She thought she could feel a hand brush her face for a brief second but when she opened her eyes no one was there. Suddenly, the sky changed. It became dark and there was a low rumble. Then there were screams. Kori turned her attention to the commotion, and she felt the breath knock out of her. An attack? Before she could stand, she felt herself shrinking to a minute size. With a swift movement she was picked up in a goblins hands and she felt the air slowly leaving her body.

Memories whizzed by her mind as her vision started to become unfocused. The pain in her ribs was barely noticable as her breathing became slower, shallower, until it was as if it wasn't there anymore. She had so much to live for, so much to accomplish - and all she had taken for granted was now disappearing from her hands. A wish on the tip of a tongue soon forgotten. Suddenly, final exams didn't seem as important now. Suddenly, dancing seemed like something she would never finish. Her last emotion was an emotion of despair and disappointment in herself. She had failed what she had promised her mother she would accomplish.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy was smiling as she walked back to Hogwarts from Catalina's Cubby. She was glad she'd taken up a job there. It widened her horizons to be doing something other than schoolwork and Quidditch and she enjoyed meeting people, but most of all it had lightened the burden of having to manage her financial resources very carefully. The generous paycheck allowed small presents for friends, covered all her school books and supplies, as well as going some way to paying the bills and maintenance of the now empty house back in Taunton. So she wasn't going to get herself so much in debt now that she ended up without a roof over her head. She smiled at a passing third year Hufflepuff as she thought over how lucky she'd been this past year. She was doing well in class, she didn't have too much to worry about, and she had great friends. She was becoming especially close to Charlie. Ivy didn't know why she had the luck other people had surely deserved more who had not had any, but even with that sudden flash of sadness, she was in a good mood.

What Ivy would remember the most afterwards was how quickly it was possible for the atmosphere of a place to change. Someone screamed and she looked up to see two cloaked Death Eaters and... was that a goblin? They all seemed to be getting bigger. No, it wasn't just them. The whole world around her was getting bigger. Or rather she was getting smaller in proportion to it. A moment later all the breath had been knocked out of her and she realised the goblin had her in its hands and was slowly squeezing her to death. No! She didn't want to die yet. She had plenty to live for still. But yet she was here, helpless. All she could do was kick her legs back and forth, and that wasn't doing anything to free her. If anything, it was spurring the goblin on. She couldn't breathe anymore and her chest was hurting so much she couldn't tell where it was hurting anymore. It was hurting everywhere.

Suddenly Ivy heard a monstrous grunt from above her and a moment later she went flying through the air as the goblin lost its balance. She felt so very dizzy. She closed her eyes to stop the world spinning around her. Having them open wasn't going to help anymore anyway. The pain in her chest was still there and she gasped as she tried to get air into her system. There seemed to be nothing she could do to help herself. Any moment now she would hit the ground too. Ivy's consciousness was slipping away from her but as it did so she felt someone catch her, gently, and her breathing eased up even though the pain was still there. That seemed to be getting further away too though. The nightmarish sounds around her ebbed away as she relapsed into her own troubled sleep.

[Mitch Collins]

Why had he become an Auror again? Why had he ever thought he'd be worthy, capable of handling this job? His family had been happy enough about his career choice before it was revealed to the general public that You-Know-Who was back. Back from the dead. Would that ever happen to all the people he and his supporters had killed since then? Working as an Auror you tended to lose more friends than usual. Mitch continued trying to put the fire out. It was quite a blustery day and the fire from Zonko's joke shop was spreading everywhere, licking out onto the pavements and jumping from roof top to roof top. The heat where Mitch was standing was intense, and his face was by now blackened with smoke and shiny from perspiration. But still he persisted. Magical fire or no, it couldn't go on forever. Many of the flames had been doused now and he turned his attention to the street around him as well as the burning building.

There was a goblin there! Mitch stared for a moment and then sprung into action as he had been trained to. He used ropes to tie the goblin up, starting from its feet to trip it up. It fell, forcing it to let go of the students it had in its hands. Very small students. It must have shrunk them. Mitch caught one of them in his hands but as the goblin toppled over he realised in horror that it had just fallen on top of the other one and squashed her. No point even checking whether she was alive now. The girl he had in his hands seemed to be having trouble breathing and it didn't take him long to realise she had a punctured lung. He cast a quick "Episkey" to provide a short term solution to that problem. Then he was forced to abandon her again. He thought he could see Death Eaters coming this way yet again and while there weren't many people left around here they all needed to run, now.