Harry Potter and the Sorceress of the Stars

Daphne slowly trudged towards the Aurors, who were looking at her with increasing apprehension. On the other side of the Great Hall, it looked like Ginny was having trouble shaking off her brothers; it seemed like she was also planning on giving herself up without a fight.

Ginny probably thought that she'd be fine, seeing as she wasn't the prime suspect…

Oleandra's words were still ringing in Daphne's ears, and she couldn't shake the image of her twin sister's expression of guilt, either. Daphne liked to think that she knew her twin sister quite well, so she could easily tell that when her sister had been about to call herself an abomination, she'd truly meant every word of it.

But why, though?

"It's not over yet," said Ginny loudly. "You're not going to let things end like this, are you?"

Daphne looked up; Ginny was confidently walking towards her and the Aurors, wand at the ready. Why was she doing this? She was obviously the future Dark Lady, so all Ginny had to do was sit tight and wait to be released from the Aurors' custody, right?

"Lower your wand," Dawlish warned her. "If you refuse to comply, we will be forced to—"

There was a bright flash of light, and he howled in pain. He obviously hadn't been expecting to be attacked by a fourth-year student using nonverbal magic; his attention had still been mostly focused on Daphne, whose green hair kept undulating like an octopus's tentacles.

A copious volume of liquid snot began continuously pouring out of the poor man's nose; and once a certain length of snot had emerged, it would grow wings and detach itself from his nose, before circling around his head and dive bombing onto his face. And then, he'd blow more bubbles of snot, and the cycle would repeat.

Gross.

"How'd you like my Bat-Bogey Hex?" Ginny said coolly. "It's my signature spell, I'll have you know."

The other eleven Aurors reacted immediately by firing off a volley of red Stunners towards the two girls, but unfortunately for them, none of them hit their mark, as Ginny manipulated the snot bats into blocking the shots, creating a series of disgusting snot explosions.

"Come on!" Ginny cried as she dashed into the Entrance Hall. "We can't stay here!"

By the time Daphne had shaken herself out of her trance, she found herself running after Ginny, despite her better intentions. Just what was she doing?

"Behind you!"

"Elhaz!" Daphne screamed, right before a Stunner caught her in the back.

She stumbled and fell to the floor; using runic magic without hand signs had diminished the efficiency of her magical shield. Daphne dug into her bag and retrieved a handful of seeds; her head was still spinning, so she had no idea what she had just grabbed.

"Yera," Daphne whispered, before scattering the seeds all over the stone floor.

She had called upon the growth rune and infused the seeds with some Wood Nymph's nature magic. Hopefully, the seeds would grow into something helpful. Since she was stuck in the body of a twelve-year-old, her legs were quite short, so there was no way she'd be able to outrun adults without interference.

Luckily for Daphne, the seeds quickly grew into irascible Chinese Chomping Cabbages…

By the time the Aurors had dispelled the Hex that Ginny had placed on Dawlish, they found that the floor outside the Great Hall was crawling with cabbages that nipped and bit at their ankles. As one might imagine, it is quite difficult to run with a ruptured Achilles' tendon.

Unluckily for Daphne, her opponents were all seasoned Aurors; even Dawlish. The first to set foot in the Entrance Hall was unfortunately the savage cabbages' only victim; and even then, his injuries weren't close to being life-threatening. The remaining Aurors escaped unscathed and quickly dispatched the rampaging vegetables, before resuming pursuit.

Daphne sprinted out of the castle as fast as her legs could possibly carry her, before coming to a stop next to Ginny on the front steps. A second, larger group of Aurors were rushing up the steps towards them, led by a tall black Wizard.

As soon as the Aurors behind them caught up, they would effectively be surrounded.

"Stop!" the black Wizard shouted in a deep, booming voice. "You are only making things more difficult for yourselves. Surrender now, and I promise that you will not be harmed."

For some reason, he was discreetly tapping his breast pocket with his wand while winking at Ginny. Roughly two seconds later, the sound of feet drumming against the ground sounded behind them, and a second later, twenty wands were pointed straight at them.

"Drop your wands!" Dawlish screamed behind them.

The Aurors knew better than to start to shoot wildly right away; if they missed, they'd only be hitting their coworkers behind their targets. They were pretending to be waiting for the pair to comply, but in actuality, they were beginning to spread out; both to cover escape routes from the sides, and to reduce the chances of being accidentally shot by a comrade.

The situation was desperate; Daphne couldn't see any way she could possibly fight off thirty trained Aurors. She looked to Ginny for help, but from the looks of it, the younger girl hadn't given up just yet. Ginny's brow was scrunched up in concentration, and her lips were moving slightly, as if she were reciting some sort of mantra under her breath, but she still took the opportunity to shake her head slightly at her.

"Drop them!" Dawlish repeated fiercely. "You have until the count of three! One—"

"What a nice day it is today," said Ginny nonchalantly. "The sun's particularly bright, don't you think?"

"What was that?" the black Wizard said in confusion.

For a moment, Daphne was equally confused; then she remembered that one of her twin sister's favourite tricks was to blind her foes with bright light. Ginny had probably heard her bragging about it, so she was assuming that she could do it too.

Dozens of Stunning Spells fell upon the pair the instant Daphne pointed her wand upwards, but Ginny was ready for them. A silvery bubble appeared around them, which only shook slightly upon blocking so many spells. Nevertheless, it managed to send each and every bolt of light back at their attackers; those who were quick enough on their feet managed to duck out of the way, but an unlucky few were knocked out by their own spells.

A trickle of blood was running down Ginny's nose; at her age, she likely couldn't maintain such an advanced spell for too long, so Daphne drew in a sharp breath and shouted, "Lumos Solem! May the Light of the Sun Blind our Foes, Sowelo!"

The tip of her wand grew incandescent; even the sun above them seemed to grow unbearably bright, instantly blinding anyone who hadn't had the good sense to close their eyes, leaving them moaning and holding their faces.

Upon feeling the sun's rays upon her skin, Daphne suddenly felt incredibly energized; like she could do anything. She held out her hand, ready to command the grass growing between the stone tiles of the steps, when…

"Will you turn down the light?" Ginny called out; her eyes still tightly screwed shut. "I'd like to see what's going on!"

"Nox," Daphne whispered, and the harsh light died down.

Once she had regained her sight, Ginny quickly ran to the black Wizard and reached into his breast pocket, before slipping whatever she had taken into one of her own pockets.

"You go on ahead, I'll catch up. But for now, I need to make sure that they won't come after us," Ginny said urgently. "We'll need to cross at least half of the Black Lake before I can Disapparate us out…"

"I hope you know what you're doing," Daphne panted, before starting down the steps at a run without a second look back.

"Protego Diabolica."

Ginny's voice rang out coldly behind her, but still Daphne did not look back, even as a corona of ominous blue light behind her began casting flickering shadows in front of her…