"Enough talk," said Robert Jugson III, "time for pain," and raised his wand. "Cluthe!"
Simultaneously Susan pointed her wand and said "Prismatis!" and a small rainbow sphere formed in midair almost instantly, the miniature barrier so condensed and bright that it stayed intact even as Jugson's hex hit it and bounced off toward Belka, whose wand flashed to swat away the dark bolt; and then a moment later the many-colored blaze was gone.
Daphne's eyes went wide for a moment; she'd never thought of using a Prismatic Sphere like that -
"Jugsy, honey?" said Belka. Her lips widened in a vicious smile. "I thought we discussed this. First we beat them, then we play."
"P-please," said Hermione Granger in a faltering voice, "let them go - I, I, I promise I'll -"
"Oh, really," said Lee in an annoyed tone. "Are you about to offer to turn yourself over if we let the others go? We've got all of you, now."
Jugson smiled, then. "It could be funny," said the sixth-year junior Death Eater, softly and with menace. "How about if you lick my shoes, mudblood, and one of your friends can go? Pick whichever one you like best, leave the others to get hurt."
"Nope," said the young voice of Susan Bones, "not going to happen," and with a blindingly fast motion the Hufflepuff girl leapt leftward just as a red stunbolt erupted from Belka's wand, Daphne could hardly see the movement as Susan seemed to hit the corridor wall and then bounce off it like she was a rubber ball and her legs smashed into Jugson's face, it didn't go through the shield but the sixth-year went sprawling backward with the impact and Susan followed him downward and her foot stamped down on the boy's wand arm, again being repelled by the shield, "Elmekia!" shouted Lee and Parvati shouted "Prismatis!" and the rainbow wall formed but the fiery blue blast passed right through it like it wasn't even there, the bolt missed Susan by inches, there was a whirlwind of motion that Daphne couldn't follow during which Belka had her feet knocked out from under her, but the older witch just rolled back to a stand and then -
Daphne saw it coming, and her lips started to mouth "Pris-" but it was already too late.
Three blasts of brilliance slammed into Susan at once, she had her wand raised as though she could counter them and there was a white flash as the hexes struck the magical wood, but then Susan's legs convulsed and sent her flying into a corridor wall. Her head hit with a strange cracking sound, and then Susan fell down and lay motionless with her head at an odd-seeming angle, her wand still clutched in one outstretched hand.
There was a moment of frozen silence.
Parvati scrambled over to where Susan lay, pressed a thumb over the pulse point on Susan's wrist, and then - then slowly, tremblingly, Parvati rose to her feet, her eyes huge -
"Vitalis revelio," said Lee just as Parvati opened her mouth, and Susan's body was surrounded by a warm red glow. Now the seventh-year boy really was grinning. "Probably just a broken collarbone, I'd say. Nice try, though."
"Merlin, they are tricky," said Jugson.
"You had me going for a second there, dearies." The seventh-year girl wasn't smiling at all.
"Tonare!" screamed Daphne, raising her wand above her head and focusing harder than she ever had in her life. "Rava calvaria! Lucis -"
She didn't even see the hex that got her.
Hermione felt the jolt of Innervation bringing her awake, and out of some intuitive strategism she didn't roll to her feet right away; it had been a completely hopeless battle and she didn't know what she could do but some instinct told her that leaping to her feet wasn't it.
Just a crack, Hermione opened her eyes, and the thin rays of light that entered them showed Parvati backing away from all three bullies, the last girl standing that Hermione could see.
And her eyes also showed Tracey fallen not far away from her, and Hermione's wand was still in her hand; and so, desperately hoping the Slytherin girl would show more sense than she usually did, Hermione made the wand movements as subtly as she could, and hardly moving her lips, whispered, "Innervate."
Hermione felt the spell working, but Tracey didn't move. Hermione hoped it was because Tracey was being cunning, and waiting to...
What could they do?
Hermione didn't know, and the panic that had waited through the moments of fighting was starting to eat her up inside now that she was still, now that she was trying to think, now that she could see that it was all absolutely hopeless.
That was when Hermione heard a thud, and though it was out of her field of vision now, she knew that Parvati had fallen.
A moment of silence came, and passed.
"Now what?" said the voice of the scary-soft boy.
"Now we wake up the mudblood," said the precise voice of the scary-formal boy, "and find out who's really behind them, not Salazar Slytherin's ghost."
"No, dears," said the voice of the scary-sweet girl, "first we bind them all very securely -"
And then there was a sound like lightning and thunder and Hermione's eyes widened in shock before she could stop herself, and in her widened field of vision she saw the scary-soft boy convulsing as yellow arcs of energy crawled over him like giant blazing worms. His wand flew out of his hand as he collapsed to the ground, twitching, and then a moment later he lay still.
"Is everyone else asleep now?" said a voice. "Good."
Susan Bones rose from the floor near where the scary-soft boy had stood, neck still oddly bent. Then she rolled her head around her shoulders, a casual loose motion, and her head was straight again.
The round-faced first-year girl stood facing the remaining two bullies with one hand cocked on her hip.
Grinning.
And surrounded by faceted blue haze.
"Polyjuice!" spat the bully-girl.
"Polyfluis Reverso!" roared the remaining boy bully.
Something like the form of a mirrored scarf spat out of his wand -
Passed without resistance through the haze surrounding Susan -
For an instant, she glowed in a strange mirror-color, like a reflection of herself -
And then the glow faded.
The young girl still stood there, hand on her hip.
"Wrong," said Susan.
"And this is the truth," said Susan. "In case nobody ever told you -"
In her small hand a wand rose up, blurred by the blue haze surrounding it.
"You don't mess with the 'Puffs," said Susan, and with a grey flash so bright it hurt Hermione's half-closed eyes, the real battle started.
It went on for a while.
Some of the ceiling got melted.
The girl-bully tried to cry a truce, that they would leave and take Jugson with them, and Susan roared out the syllables of a curse Hermione recognized as Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting which was illegal in seven countries.
Eventually the girl-bully lay unconscious and unawakenable on the ground, and the last boy-bully had fled leaving his companions' bodies behind, and Susan was leaned over against one wall, covered in sweat and her scorched robes soaked through with wet spots, gasping for breath, and clutching at her right shoulder using her left hand.
After a while Susan straightened up, and turned to look back at where her fellow witches were sleeping on the floor.
Well, they should've been sleeping on the floor.