"They're from a nest in the Forbidden Forest!" Cassidy cried to Johann, flying high on her broom, and fighting off the creature with her bo staff. "They're really vile creatures...so watch ou-"
Cassidy was knocked off her broom by one of the chimeara. She plummited to the ground quickly...
"Accio, broom!" she cried desperately, and grabbed onto it just in time.
One of the chimeara pounced then, rearing its ugly, lion's head, their hooves hitting Cassidy on her collar bone, and pushed her off her broom once more. It was only a few feet to the ground, thankfully, but now the creature had her pinned. Her bo lay just out of reach. The chimeara bent its head to her face and roared loudly, its teeth dripping with saliva.
And suddenly, it wasn't there anymore.
Andrew, in his full tiger form, had come to her rescue, slashing with his sharp claws, his teeth bared menacingly. He fought the beast off her, standing protectively over her as the creature prepared to attack once more.
Cassidy crawled out from under him, and grabbed her bo. Before she could reach it, Snape stepped on it, his foot dirtying the black laquer. Cassidy scowled at him as she looked up into his face. His expression held no emotion.
Snape looked at Andrew, who was busy fighting off a chimeara. Cassidy did not turn her attention from Snape. He glared at her. She pulled the bo out angrily from under his foot, and he stepped back. Before she could clamber to her feet however, he grabbed her by the front of her robes, and pulled her up to face him.
"Watch yourself," he told her. Something strange swam in his eyes. She couldn't recognize what it was...it was so foreign to his persona...so strange...so awkward...Compassion? "The anger you build within yourself will be your undoing. If you carry animosity with your brother, you best make ammends. Despite how others treat you, you must rise above that...or you will become like...me, and eventually like...him."
He dropped her in the snow then, and sped away, killing chimeara right and left. Cassidy lay in the snow. She did not need a name to define who "he" was. She knew he meant Voldermort. Still, Cassidy could not believe what had just happened. All noise had vanished in that moment save for his voice. What he had told her she knew she could confide in no one else. She had seen a glimpse of his soul, scarred and tortured as it was. She looked at him with different eyes as he ran to defend Hogwarts.
A roar close by disrupted her. She rose from the ground, and continued to fight with all she had. A few sixth and seventh years had joined in the fight, a result of the Professors she was sure.
Pretty soon, the chimeara were slain, their bodies dotted the powdery snow. Cassidy looked towards the lake. The monster had disappeared as well. All that remained were the shattered shards of ice around its breaching point. She wondered who had slain it, or let it go...?
OOC: I'll leave that lake monster thingy up to the rest of you...hehe....