POV Angelina and Alicia
In the middle of the room, at a height just above the heads of the tallest wizards and sorceresses, a rectangular strip of paper hung in the air, glowing with a deep red light.
Everyone in the living room looked at the amulet in silence, afraid to miss the moment, to hesitate, and the girls were no exception, on the contrary — they were really worried, because they had no time to prepare themselves morally, and made a decision without thinking much about the possible consequences.
However, after being together with experienced people, after seeing the metal hand of one of the former Aurors now working for Hoshino, the girls somehow felt their enthusiasm cool down, but their stubborn nature did not allow them to "turn on their backs", and the girls remained silent. They were a little happy that Hoshino had kept his word and that the girls were not to be dragged to the front, but were to be "in the back", helping with the support group and medical aid.
Or something like that. Not that the two young girls were eager to get into a real battle with real dark mages and evil and dangerous creatures! And they certainly didn't want to brag about their victories to anyone who would listen!
Basically, the thoughts of both girls were almost identical, and they were in the same position, especially since they were friends. Neither Angelina nor Alicia could catch the moment when the red glow changed to green, they just failed to notice that moment immediately. They were brought to their senses by a sudden jerk, for the girls were being held tightly by the hand of one of the men they had been assigned to mentor and babysit for the evening and night — as it would turn out.
They were jerked synchronously, spun around, their minds and bodies shaken by the vestibular apparatus unaccustomed to the girls, and even active sports did not help them cope with the aftereffects of moving not the best port-keys. In fact, both would have fallen to the ground if their babysitters hadn't held them down.
For the first few seconds, they didn't even notice — they felt sick, and all their attention and energy went into recovering. Bright flashes of light, crackling and hissing spells, explosions, screams — it was all a blur in the girls' minds, and they both quickly realized that if their secret wishes had come true, such an unexpected start and such a rapid turn of events would have simply disoriented them on the battlefield.
In the seconds it took for the Gryffindors to regain consciousness, the attacking forces had managed to sweep away a group of guards, but it turned out that those wizards, who looked more like beasts, weren't even guards — the bell above the front door.
The air around the squat building shook, and on the ground, a few feet from the walls, stones glowed brightly with white light, creating powerful shield spells that could not be broken at once.
Again and again, multicolored beams and clusters of spells came from the wands of the attackers, shaking cores of ordinary and enhanced Bombarda flew, sometimes Reductor, but much less often. Even they realized a simple thought: the purpose of the raid was clearly similar, and had been for a long time, so these dark figures had prepared themselves thoroughly.
Frankly speaking, neither Angelina nor Alicia had any idea how to break through this defense, and if they didn't do it now, the initiative would be completely lost.
However, what kind of initiative can we talk about when the plan for a sudden, swift attack was broken right at the beginning? And if everything goes on like this, the owners of this creepy place will definitely have time to raise other defenses, organize barricades, or something else, up to threatening hostages. It was bad, and this conclusion of the two young girls was agreed upon by almost everyone present.
For a few seconds, the attacks stopped: everyone watched as several Patronus bodies danced in blindingly bright spots against the night sky, but, strange as it may sound, they could not penetrate the anti-apparatus barrier... or rather, everyone thought it was such a barrier, but it was clear even to two not-so-best students that it should not be able to hold the Patronus.
Several times, 'do-o-n-n-n' sounds could be heard hitting the barrier, making the barrier visible, with waves rippling across it like water. No, this was definitely something new, unknown even to the local Aurors, who were as surprised as the girls. For about a minute, the embodied defenders tried to overcome the barrier, then dispersed with silver sparks.
— Mr. Burke, have you ever seen anything like this? — Alicia said, still trying to see the dome, which had become transparent again.
— No, — she couldn't see the frowning Auror nodding in the negative as he considered the possibility that such a magical barrier might one day be available to an intruder, and then the Law Enforcers and people like himself might not be able to call for help. He did not voice his thoughts to the two young girls, of course, but after the operation he would talk to Madame Bones about it. He would.
— The important thing is that the messages did not reach their intended recipients. — The man decided to say what he thought would give the girls optimism. And it did help, partially, to steer their thoughts in a slightly different direction.
— How do you remove these shields? — Angelina waved her hand at the shields around the building. — If we don't get through them quickly, there could be trouble... ....
— You don't have to worry about that, — the broad-shouldered man grinned and nodded at the two Aurors who had stepped forward. — Look carefully: this spell is called 'A Round Dance of Sun Butterflies', it can be cast alone or in groups, it is effective against various shields. But it can only be used by wizards who are able to summon a real physical "Patronus", i.e. this spell is based on light emotions and memories...
As Auror Burke said this, a pair of wizards were doing something with amazing synchronicity of movement, which in itself could become a great memory. The Aurors' wands moved sharply, the curved imaginary lines gradually turning into a silvery cloud in which clumps of golden light formed.
Different in size, once formed, they moved smoothly but quickly towards the shield, transforming into golden moths as they flew, landing on the surface of the protective film, manifesting it and increasing the load.
With each passing second, the number of moths increased, and the golden glowing pollen scattered from their wings slowly fell to the ground or floated in the air, filling the surrounding space with a pleasant, soft light. The surface of the shield was already almost completely covered by the golden magical insects, their wings flapping, moving from place to place, wiggling their antennae, and generally behaving like moths.
This sight somehow warmed the two girls' souls, and the weight of fear and anxiety fell away, as if the world was being warmed by the gentle sun after the long rains.
The people around them had similar feelings, sensations, and partly similar thoughts, and on this relatively positive note there was a loud crack, a crunch, black cracks running along the brightly glowing stones, and then the stones split, and the shield, falling into unequal pieces, fell to the ground in heavy flakes.
The moths, having accomplished their task, had turned into golden sparks, and their glow continued for several more minutes. The two wizards who had conjured this beauty immediately moved in behind their comrades, taking some of the potions Hoshino had given them beforehand.
As for the effects of this magic, the girls had quickly figured out its principles. The fact that it was obviously designed for something else was clear without explanation — it was enough to feel what they felt when this magic worked, but the fact that it could overload the shields quite quickly — that was obvious, mainly because of the high energy content, as well as the magnitude of the spell.
Even if the girls were not the best students and not the smartest, it did not mean that their heads were as empty as some fashionistas whose raison d'être was to follow the fashion of various magazines and public opinion.
Meanwhile, the attack continued. A trio of Aurors approached the door, narrow but sturdy in appearance, followed by a couple more wizards. The first two held shields, the third Auror was ready for a counterattack, and the wizards who followed them cast some kind of diagnostic spell nonstop, and the stream of them didn't even think about stopping.
For a few seconds they stopped at a distance of three meters from the door, and then the third Auror launched several explosive spells at the door itself and the wall around it, but the magic seemed to simply be absorbed or dissipated without a trace, with no effect at all.
A few more seconds of diagnostic spells, a brief encounter, and then the three Aurors raised their wands, jets of fire erupting from them. The girls didn't understand what was happening, so they turned to Auror Burke with the question.
— Norfolk Moss is the kind of stuff that wizards of the old clans liked to plant on the walls of stone buildings and fences, and it was a common practice even a hundred and fifty years ago, because this moss can absorb a lot of magic without harming the inhabitants of the house on whose outside walls it has grown. It's a cheap and quite effective way to protect the house from mage attacks, but it has two drawbacks. The first is that it is difficult to seed on the walls of the house, and the second is its weakness to fire....
Confirming the auror's words, the previously invisible moss appeared as a gray-blue coating on the walls, but under fire it quickly turned black, shrank, and fell to the ground in dirty, greasy lumps. After a minute of methodical treatment of the walls with a simple incendio, the door was blown open, the bombarda shattered into pieces of wood and metal, and the assault teams moved into the building.
A Japanese man was among the first to infiltrate, literally threading his way between the two groups, and the girls were surprised to see that he was holding a blade instead of a staff. Now all they had to do was wait...