Ten. Maybe fifteen.
Blake clocked them in the first three seconds - fanning out across the campsite in a formation that was vaguely designed to cover as much ground as possible.
So I can't stop all of them, he thought, scanning quickly. Fine. What can you do?
He picked the nearest cluster - five of them, moving together, throwing hexes at random tents and the occasional fleeing wizard with the lazy confidence of people who hadn't met any resistance tonight - yet.
He moved toward them.
The first one went down before any of them had even registered he was there. A Stunning spell straight to the chest, followed immediately by a Body-Bind. The man was rigid on the floor before his mask had finished tilting. Blake had already moved to the second - same combination, same result.
Two down. Three left standing, and they finally turned.
He could tell they were surprised even through the masks. Two of them actually looked around to check if they had backup.
A single teenager just put two of your lot on the floor in five seconds and you're looking for friends. That's embarrassing.
"BLAKE!"
Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
He turned, and just as he had feared, there was Connor - wand out, sprinting toward him through the chaos, and Blake felt something cold and specific settle in his chest.
I told him. I specifically said -
"THAT'S BLAKE RENSHAW!"
A woman to his left, mask slightly askew, was pointing at him with the frantic energy of someone who'd just won something. "HE'S A MUDBLOOD - THAT'S THE MUDBLOOD!"
How the f*ck does she know me?
She raised her wand.
"CRUCIO!" she screamed. Blake instinctively transfigured a nearby tent into a stone wall as he stared at her in disbelief. Five seconds ago they were trolling and using schoolyard hexes. Now she's firing Unforgivables?
The two he'd already bound were being hauled back to their feet before he could do anything about it, and then all five of them were back upright and turning toward him. Connor was still running towards him. Blake had about 3 seconds.
"Connor - get back in the-"
"I'm not leaving you on your own-"
"Connor, I swear to Merlin-"
The first curse came in low and fast. Blake yanked Connor sideways by the collar, fired back without looking, and heard a grunt. Something connected. Good.
"Behind me," he said flatly. "Now."
Connor, to his credit, went. Mostly.
Blake turned back to face them.
They had arranged themselves in a zigzag semi-circle, surrounding him and Connor.
Surrounding someone only works if your victim's weaker than you all.
He blocked their curses with another stone wall, before sprinting forward, directly towards them. The enemy paused for a second, confused as to why a 14 year old muggleborn boy was sprinting full speed at a group of adult, trained terrorists, and that was exactly what Blake needed.
"Confringo!" he shouted, pointing his wand at the centre of their semi circle. A fiery orange and light emerged from his wand, connecting with the ground in a massive, fiery explosion, knocking back every single Death Eater immediately. Blake ran straight through the dust cloud, continuing his onslaught.
"Stupefy!" he yelled, at the nearest one, who dropped quickly. The other 4 managed to quickly clear the dust, but Blake gave them no extra time beyond that.
"Aguamenti! Confringo!" THe combination of explosion and wter created a massive steam cloud, causing the two Death Eaters caught in it to cry out. As Blake turned to the other, he was pleasantly surprised to see Connor somewhat holding his own against him. He still shouldn't be here though, he thought, annoyed, as he hit the man with a Reductor curse, causing Connor to grin and turn to him with a stupid thumbs up. Despite the situation, Blake couldn't help but roll his eyes.
Suddenly, however, Blake felt the presence of the two other Death Eaters behind him.
"Connor, get down!"
"Crucio!" the woman screamed again, the curse narrowly missing Blake, as the man tried to cut him with a Diffindo.
Blake grabbed Connor and pushed him aside, spamming a number of destructive spells behind him blindly. He heard the woman scream in pain. Good.
The problem was becoming increasingly obvious, and the enemy were beginning to realise it, Blake noted as the Death Eaters regrouped. Blake and Connor couldn't - or wouldn't, more precisely - use lethal force, or Unforgivables, and more importantly, Blake couldn't fight properly knowing Connor was outside with him.
He knew he was slower than he should have been. He was better than this - he knew it, but he kept ignoring it. Shut up, he thought at himself. Just keep him in one piece.
A Cruciatus attempt came from the left, which Blake managed to block again.
They want to submit, not kill. They're here for fun. They want us on the ground.
He dropped under a volley of three simultaneous curses and came up firing, catching the woman who'd screamed his name with a Bone-Breaking Hex that had her staggering back clutching her wrist.
Then he heard it.
Not a scream. Connor wasn't a screamer. Just a short, sharp sound - the kind made by someone who's been hit and is deciding how bad it is.
Blake looked.
Connor was on one knee. His left shoulder was wrong - the arm hanging at an angle that made Blake's thoughts go very quiet for a moment as he watched Connor silently clutch his arm in pain.
He stood up slowly from the crouch he'd been in.
Oh.
He hit the nearest one with a Blasting Hex wordlessly, watching as the man went backwards ten feet and didn't get up. One of them moved to help him, earning a Lacero across the chest that split through the robe clean, blood spurting cleanly from the wound.
The remaining three took a step back.
"What do you need?"
He didn't turn around. Zabini's voice, slightly out of breath, appeared from somewhere in the chaos.
"Cover Connor," Blake said. "That's all I need."
"Done."
What followed wasn't something Blake reconstructed cleanly afterward. He knew he'd seriously injured one - a Diffindo with more power than he should've used - and the woman who'd called his name was on the ground with a wound that would need real healing.
The rest fled, but judging by their blood splattered across the ground and on nearby tents, the Aurors wouldn't have much trouble figuring out who they were.
Speaking of the Aurors, they arrived just as the Death Eaters ran, flooding in from three directions with Stunners already in the air.
Blake was already kneeling next to Connor.
"How bad?"
"It's fine-"
"Connor."
"Rotary Hex," Connor admitted, through his teeth.
Blake pressed his wand to it and did what he could from what he knew. It'll hold until we get proper treatment.
"You were supposed to stay in the tent," he said, while he worked.
"Yeah," Connor said. "I know."
"Then why didn't you?"
Connor looked at him. "Would you have?"
Blake couldn't say anything to that.
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