Heading up and out of here!

[ascend_neville]

Who: Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Hestia Jones
What: Trying to get up and out of the 4th floor
Where: $th Floor, Stairwell up to 3rd Floor to start
When: , Early Morning May 6, 2000 
Rating: Pg for language?

They had all made it out into the hall.  Just climbing through the small opening had been a tedious affair.  Ginny had screamed

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[hess_j]

"Pairs are a good idea. No one should be trying anything alone."

Hestia kept dark eyes focused on the damaged stairs. From what she could see, they would probably hold, but one could never be too cautious. Contrary to what conclusions might be drawn from the results of this explosion, the Ministry hadn't left itself completely helpless to attack. Most of the property in the building had been charmed and re-charmed to help enforce the infrastructure. From the chaos all around them, whoever had done this had certainly caused a catastrophe, but Hestia knew things could have been a lot worse.

Her ears were still ringing, but she was determined to ignore the insistently annoying sound. Her ankle throbbed dully, and she knew it wasn't exactly the best idea to be walking on it, but now was not the time to back down. They could get help later, once they were out of this mess.

"Or," she began as she took a few steps closer, moving up the first few stairs. "I'll take the lead. You two can help Ginny and follow a ways behind. I can warn you of shoddy places and all that."

The brunette's mind seemed made up, and she took a few more steps up.

[freedginny]

Ginny started to come around with a small groan of ow. She heard all the voices and her head throbbed as she tried to pick things apart. She had fainted when her broken ankle had collided with a piece of the doors they'd floated her through. Her eyes slowly blinked open, it was so dark. Her wand had been tucked into her pants pocket it seemed. She didn't know what time it was or what day. It took her a minute to remember where she was.

"Ron? Hestia?" she asked, laying there for a moment. It took her a second to process, like everything was disconnected. Her ankle was numb though, she couldn't even feel it anymore.

She felt wet for some reason, she looked up and saw Neville. She was still so confused for a moment. She was slowing them down, that much was for sure.

[ascend_neville]

Neville moved closer to Ginny when she made a noise; he was relieved that she hadn't woken up screaming. Hair was across her face, and in her mouth, and Neville could help reaching out to move it out of her way. Neville looked to Ron, and turned to watch Hestia make her way up the side of the stairs. It seemed like she was making good progress. The stairs seemed to stable. He caught his breath as she neared the edge of a great hole, but sighed as she seemed to navigate the gap easily.

He rose, and looked down at Ginny, "I don't think she should try it; we can float her up them. Ron, you can go first, and I'll be behind her, guiding and pushing her from the rear."

"Hestia, how are you doing alright? Should we come up?"

Neville looked down at Ginny's pale face, and dug in his pockets for a piece of chocolate that he had there, "Ginny, can you eat anything? This might give you some energy."

He opened it and reached down, to hand her the small packaged piece. He was growing concerned at her color; he didn't realize how concerned he was growing about her alignments and it was spurring him to take more decisive action.

"Hestia, we have got to get out of here. Ginny does not look good," he called out loudly, keeping the panic from his voice.

[hess_j]

"I'm fine!" Hestia called out from her place ahead of the group.

The brunette sidestepped a particularly crumbled spot on the staircase. She felt particularly useless without her wand. Going through the process of getting a new one would be extremely annoying. She was picky. Christ on a cross, I don't wanna have to do that...

Shaking her head, the muggle-born witch cleared the thoughts of her wand from her head. Stay in the moment. Don't trail off task. You do have your partner to worry about. Focus.

As she turned on the landing to look down at the group following her. Dark eyes moved from Ron to Ginny to Neville back to Ginny and then finally on Neville again. She couldn't look at Ginny for too long. If she thought about their situation, it would only serve to anger the brunette. Unfortunately the youngest Weasley had wormed into one of the few places the broody Auror still held affection. Logically she knew there was nothing she could've done about this whole thing, but Hestia was Hestia.

"She'll be fine. Give her more credit." She said, her tone turning short. "Float her. Don't drop her. Hurry it up."

Then she turned and continued up the stairs.

[freedginny]

"Oh god, Neville, stop yelling." Ginny whimpered as she slowly moved to sit up, "I'm fine. I'll be fine... just fine." she mumbled to herself. She wasn't going to slow them down and leave them in danger. She turned slightly to see Ron and Hestia moving slowly up the stairs. She looked around and damn it, they were still in the ministry.

It took a minute to get her brain fully functioning now that she couldn't feel her ankle. "Neville, give Hestia my wand so she can see where in the bleeding hell she's going." she mumbled, handing him her wand. She knew that it would be perfect, but Hestia could manage it. Ginny finally looked down at her ankle and felt a little sick, "God feet aren't supposed to go that way are they...."

[hess_j]

"Oh bloody fucking hell in a handbasket," Hestia groused. If she wasn't sure doing so would knock the wrong things loose in her brain, she'd bang her head against the wall repeatedly.

Turning around, she bounded back down the stairs, long legs clearing the space at an unsafe rate. Not that she cared. Compared to other situations she'd found herself in, this was a cakewalk. It was Ginny she was worried about. The boys could find their own way for all she cared, but her partner was her responsibility. But she also knew if all they did was treat the redhead like she was helpless, her injuries would get worse exponentially. And they'd never get anywhere. Sometimes you just had to go all out and check in with the consequences later.

"Don't make me show you boys up," she said, sounding a little more good-natured than before. She was, however, getting more peeved by the moment. The good nature was an act. "If I have to carry her myself I will."

Dark eyes moved to the red-haired girl. "You're not a piece of glass, right, kiddo? Soldiered through that bitch Lestrange an' Merlin knows what else. An ankle shot to hell ain't all that bad, yeah? Just don't stare at it like you're a sideshow freak." Despite the situation, she winked at the younger girl. It was like working with a kid. Kid falls and the parent freaks.. kid starts to cry. Kid falls and the parent gives reassurance.. kid's okay even if it does hurt.

A bruised ( though you couldn't tell through the tattoos ) arm shot out and took Ginny's wand. She looked at both Ron and Neville, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. Then she was off and up the stairs again.

[ascend_neville]

Neville looked at Ginny and said, "Sorry, I'm sorry."

He winced slightly, and looked pained. He wasn't trying to baby Ginny; he was surprised at how difficult it was to see her in this state. He moved his hand into her pocket and found the wand; holding it out, he watched an energetic Hestia come bounding back the stairs.

He was speechless for a moment at her comment, and then sighed, a small smile of relief coming across his face. He watched Ron move towards the stairs, and Neville said, "I got her, I got her."

With a wand flick, he levitated Ginny again, and like with a trunk at the train station, the hovering figure followed his every movement. He begin moving up the stairs, faster than he would have normally approach the situation, after seeing Hestia move up and then fly back down the stairs. Neville thought he was making good time; Ginny's form floated behind him, not bouncing or hitting the wall or railings.

[freedginny]

Ginny needed to stop looking at her foot and Hestia had given her something to concentrate on. Ginny nodded to Hestia. She would be okay. She would deal with it. She just had to suck it up and deal with it. She gave her partner a shakey smile, pale as a ghost, but she would be alright. "It's okay, I'll be okay, I won't slow you guys down!" she said, nodding to them.

Once she was levitated, Ginny used her own hands to guide herself a little bit to help out so that Neville could watch where he was walking. The last thing they needed was someone falling down a hole into a great abyss. She glanced behind her, Hestia and Ron above them, she was the tail end. She gently pushed away from the wall.

[hess_j]

Hestia continued up the stairs, making a point to not look back at her partner. The sooner they all got out of here, the sooner the redhead could really get fixed up. Dark eyes narrowed, focusing in the pale light provided by the fallen Weasley's wand. It helped some; Hestia had worked with far less in the past.

"All right. Up here's pretty clear. The left side's a bit shaky, so stick to the right, and it should be a clear shot up to the next landing," the brunette called out. "And remember, Neville, you drop my partner, and I drop you." It was a friendly-sounding warning, but a warning nonetheless.

Hestia paused at the top of the next landing, what should by her count be the landing to the second floor. Her ankle pulsed as soon as she stopped moving. Hestia frowned and began pacing while she waited for the group to catch up a bit.

[ascend_neville]

Neville watch Ron move forward to stand by Hestia as he made his way up stairs. Ginny was doing a great job at helping to keep herself from bouncing into anything. With a sigh of relief, Neville made it to the landing and gave Hestia a small frown.

"No need to get threatening; I'm NOT going to drop her," he answered, slightly indignant at the implication that he'd voluntarily let Ginny get hurt. He knew he was tired, and he might be acting a bit moodier than normal; he didn't know her, but realized she was an auror and used to giving out directions that all followed immediately. He still did not need her to growl at him like that, sarcastic or not.

[hess_j]

"Good," she replied gruffly. "Then we won't have any problems."

Hestia didn't know Neville, and she didn't care to know him. The only reason she was cordial at all was out of necessity. It wasn't anything personal against him per se. Hestia didn't like much of anyone.

The brunette eyed the elder Weasley for a moment or two. He looked a bit green around the gills, but he would make it just like the rest of them. And just like the rest of them, he'd been in far worse situations.

[freedginny]

"Neville won't drop me, he's one of my best friends." she said, lightly guiding herself up the stairwell, knowing that Hestia wasn't the nicest personality to deal with in a stressful situation, but that was her partner. Somedays she really thought that Hestia needed to let go of her anger and just get over everything. Otherwise she'd just end up angry and alone for the rest of her life.

She watched as they moved up and up slowly, "How far are we from the next level?" she asked, hearing a groan and rumble as the ministry rubble settled again. She was cold and wet and was not relishing the idea of being buried alive.

[ascendant_ron]

Keeping himself upright was the easy part. He had a hand against the wall and was leaning on it heavily as they made their way laboriously up the stairs. No, the difficult part was trying to figure out what they'd do once the staircase ended. There was extensive damage to the building, that much was clear. And just how much of it had been destroyed, there was no way of knowing. The staircase might just as easily be blocked with rubble a flight up from where they were as the entire main floor and entryways might be impossible to navigate.

In short, they might very well be trapped.

He looked upwards, the stairs quickly disappearing into darkness at the perimeter of the glow of the wand. "Don't think we're too far off from the next level," he called out in response to his sister's question. "But I'm not too sure what we'll do once we run out of stairs." He looked around questioningly as if to say, "Anyone got any ideas?"

[ascend_neville]

Neville kept moving, and was glad to see that Ron seemed to feel a bit better.

"We'll be on the second level. That's only one level down. If the stairs are blocked, we can go down the hall to the elevator shaft I suppose. But, come on, Ron! We won't know until we get there. I am sure people are working from the first level, digging down."

Neville continued to move up the stairs, pleased with their progress. He was sure they were practically at the landing for the second floor. The water was continuing to stream down, making a small river, in one part of the staircase. The echo of pouring water filled his ears, and he caught sight of the water reflections on the ceiling, caused by the wand light. It could be far worse, Neville reasoned. At least they were all conscious.

[hess_j]

"There're bound to be rescue crews by now," she said, continuing her trek up the stairs. "We just keep going as high as we can. The closer we get to the surface, the more likely it is we'll meet up with help."

The ringing in her ears had dulled thankfully. She could think more clearly without the annoying sound playing on repeat. Hestia would allow herself to consider the "C" word once they got up and out of here. Until then she had to ignore any and all wounds.

"The path looks fairly clear up here," she called out from her place ahead of the group. "Some damage, but looks like the structural charms and reinforcements are holdin' up nicely."