Greensleeves. (Sylvester, Anabelle, Celeste)

[Sylvester Salazar Gaunt]

Sylvester listened as Celeste gave her chess analogy. It was well thought out. He could appreciate a good analogy, using many himself. From what he got from her little speech was that the four of them would make up the king, queen, bishop, and castle peices. The king would need to be the weakest of them all, but would have the most authority. This way, anyone that found out who the leader was would underestimate them and think they could easily win. Then, the queen, who would be the most dangerous and skilled magically would step up and take control. The king would really just be a figure head. A face to give the group, but the queen would be pulling all of the strings. Sy couldn't help but think about the Dark Lord's reign fifty years before. He had taken over the Ministry, but he didn't run it. He let other people be the face of the Ministry, even though he, the Dark Lord, was running it the whole time. Lord Voldemort had been the queen, and Thicknesse had been the king. Thinking of the whole thing like that made it easier for him to understand. Then, the castle and bishop peices. They would simply be the other two members that were left. Neither were as powerful as the queen, but could still do considerable damage if let loose.

Then, Anabelle asked who the king would be. A funny question coming from her, since he thought it was blatantly obvious who the weakest of the four of them was. Ana was not only the youngest, but the least experienced in the dark arts, and, from what he got from her, the most innocent. "The real question, I beleive," he started, pulling his own wand out and pointing it at the board. "Is who will be the queen?" The black queen piece rose from the board and floated gracefully in a circle, passing infront of each of them. "It doesn't matter who the king is as long as there is a powerful queen." He stopped the peice infront of himself. He stared at it for a second, taking in the way it was crafted. It was very delicately made. The peice set itself back on the board. "So?" he asked, reasserting his question.

[soby207]

Matthew finished the last of his tea. Pushing the tea cup forward Matthew sighed. "We-" Before Matthew could even finished the dinning room doors slammed open as Buttons cried out his apology while chasing a bobcat. Giving the death glare in the direction to the cat that jumped into Celeste's arms, Matthew shook his head. "Buttons it's ok..." He growled softly. Running his fingers across the table, Matthew controlled his temper sighing heavily. "Control the animal ... Please..."

Watching Celeste stand up. Matthew straighten feeling her presence behind him. Scary. The scary fact is that Celeste did remind him of his mother. They had the same dark figure when they wanted to get serious. Matthew could remember it from class. Feeling the chills go up and down his spine Matthew shivered just a little bit. Clearing his throat as he saw the chess board and four chess pieces come from her purse. It was a good analogy Matthew had to admit. Very good. She was right. The group needed a king piece. All three, Celeste, Slyvester and Matthew were very powerful. The girl. Of course! It made perfect sense. Why make the strongest members of the group a king? When the girl Annabell could be the king. And after hearing the comment it was clear who would be the king. "Annabell... It's clear who our king is..." He grinned darkly towards her.

After seeing the queen piece float around the circle Matthew smiled. "It's clear who the queen should be... " He stated standing up holding his wand. Pointing it at the queen piece he flicked his wand letting it rise and fly towards him circling around him. "I should be the queen piece. Since some of us have gotten a little soft and have forgotten the main idea." He glared at Sylvester. "And having you two for my bishop and rook."

[Celeste Lydia Rose]

Celeste could feel the Bobcat snuggle closer into her arms, hiding herself away from the chaos that would follow after. She glanced at Matthew who had taken this interruption badly, growing at his house-elf and then getting all fired up about the Bobcat. Someone needs some calming pills a voice muttered, which brought a subtle smile to her face. Celeste heard his comment about controlling Eliza, and smirk crossed her face. It was one thing to control a cat, it was a whole different playing field to try and control a wild animal. “I will do my best, darling. But she is a wild animal after all.”

The bobcat purred gently at Anabelle’s touch, and Celeste smiled warmly at the Ravenclaw. The girl was easy to be nice to; there was a part of her that Celeste remembered from her childhood. Unlike the guys, this girl really had it in for a certain adult, and that was a pretty good common ground to cover. Eliza stretched her feet and nestled in the warmest section of Celeste’s neck, consoling the darkness that crept into her voice. Celeste noticed Matthew tense but when she paused behind his chair and that brought a snigger to her lips. Ah, so they boy wasn’t heartless after all. Can’t say the same for the other one though. She glanced at all three other members, the boys seemed to have the same idea on who was playing king, but Anabelle, she could tell, didn’t want the job. Celeste couldn’t really blame her, the face of all evil, just didn’t look like something an innocent girl needed. Thats why once everyone had their idea about the whole chess thing, she would spring the reality upon them, hoping to see a little shock factor.

What she didn’t expect to happen did happen. Anabelle asked the first question, which was a pretty good question by all standards. That was until the two boys caught on, and decided to point out what the obviously thought was the right answer. Celeste glanced at Anabelle, hoping she wouldn’t get too offended by the remarks. There was an obvious set of thinking going on, and Celeste was a bit concerned about the whole thing. Then it all took a turn for the worse when Syl pointed out his obvious choice, and Matthew followed suit. More than annoyance coiled in her heart when Matthew said that he would be a better candidate for the leader role. Celeste clenched her fists, close to forgetting her role in the whole thing. “If we are going to play who gets the queen role, need I remind both of you who is doing the most work. I haven’t seen either of you two pull your weight!” she snapped angrily, holding back on all the swearing that was rising to her voice. Celeste’s fingers dug into her palm, close to drawing blood, but she didn’t care. The voice drained of all emotion, left the cold that was her heart. “The main purpose of me telling you three about the Chess game, was to point out that it would be a hell of alot eaiser to look like someone had more power over the other ones. In reality however, I thought we all agreed on the fact that we are all equal, or have we changed our minds already?” she explained coldly, standing across from all three of them. Celeste pointed her wand at the chess board again, and muttered an animation spell, bring the objects to life. She was still pretty pissed off, enough to be tempted to throw the whole board in flames. They would probley fight the thing out, who was the better candidate for leader. A very immature way of doing it too.

[Anabelle Evans]

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[Sylvester Salazar Gaunt]

((Heads up, this is gonna be relatively short. Low muse and little time to type this up, but I want to get it done now))

Sylvester listened as everyone took the floor one after another and stated their minds. Matthew declared that he himself should be leader. Sy was okay with him stating that, since it was never going to happen, up until he called Sylvester soft. This alone brought Sy's blood to a boiling point. Sy wasn't weak, nor soft. He would have to teach Matthew this lesson, but it would have to wait until everyone else got their rants in.

Celeste exploded at the three of them, though Sy knew it was aimed mostly, if not entirely, at himself and Matt. He disagreed with the idea of having the four of them all lead. Four leaders left plenty of room for people to make deals behind others' backs, to use the others as a footstool to take over by force. The four of them could together head their group, but Sy thought that one person needed to be leader above the rest.

Then, Anabelle threw her tantrum. He didn't listen for most of it, considering she was complaining about things that were more obvious than any other topic they had brought up. She was the youngest, the purest, and the least experienced when it came to magic. She was obviously the weakest link amongst the four of them.

After Ana left the room, leaving a slightly stunned silence in the room, Sylvester stood up calmly, his wand gripped firmly in his hand. When he spoke, his voice was calm, but serious. "Celeste, dear," he started. "I must respectfully disagree with you. Four leaders would cause disfunction in the entire group. If history has told us anything, it is that one person must lead, or else those that share the highest power will bicker and fight. I say we must have one single leader. The others of the three of us can all hold the second-in-command role, but we must have one leader." He turned his attention to Matthew, his wand now pointed directly at the boy's chest. His voice was more hostile than it was when he spoke to Celeste. "And as for you. I am perfectly fine with you voicing your opinion that you should lead us, but what I will not tolerate is you calling me soft or implying that I am weaker or lower than you." Smoke started rising from the tip of his wand, as if a fire was starting on it. He held it threateningly, as if he was going to stab Matthew with the hot tip of his wand. It would surely leave a cigarette burn-like mark if he did. "I am plenty powerful, likely stronger than you could hope to be any time soon. Do not test me, Dermandois. You will regret it, and that-" He stabbed the table with the tip of his wand, burning a hole nearly a half-inch deep into the wood. "-is a promise, my friend."

[soby207]

Everybody seemed to have a opinion. Touchy subject. Especially Celeste. She seemed to think she deserved the role more then anybody because of the amount of work she did. Laughing softly Matthew shook his head. "Celeste my dear, nobody asked you to do all the work. You simply put it on your shoulders to do all the work. So if you wanna play little miss martyr then take some where else. Because I simply won't put up with it." Matthew hissed looking at her. That is the one thing he couldn't stand, people who did a lot of work and expected to get treatment for it. "And to be frank I'm working with someone trying to recruit them! And so has Sylvester! Everybody is pulling there weight but the dead weight over there!" Matthew yelled pointing at Anabelle. Everybody knew she was the dead weight. And it was time Matthew pointed it out.

Watching as Anabelle threw her childish tantrum, pushing the tea away from her. Kicking the chair. Tisk, tisk. Waving his wand the chair and tea went to their original places. To be frank. Matthew didn't even pay attention to the girl. He didn't have time to waste with such childish attitudes. He might of heard bits and pieces, but didn't really pay much attention at all. "Right ... With the child having a scene let's focus on the bigger picture please." Matthew said to break the ice lightly.

Matthew had to agree with Sylvester. There had to be one leader. Having a fourth could lead to backstabbing, black mail even possible death. The list could go on. Clearing his throat, "I'd have to agree with Sylvester. Having four leaders could end up leading the group into a blood splattered deli-ma and we wouldn't want that now would we? The last thing we need is this group splitting into three different rulings ... Four different rulings. With one leader there is less chance of blood being split and back stabbing. Lets not forget we all have one common goal in mind." Matthew smirked darkly before staring at the tip of Sylvester's wand and then at him even darker. Threatened? Grinning he gripped his wand tightly. "Is that a threat Gaunt?" He growled watching as he burnt a hole into his table. Can people stop destroyed the furniture please? Honestly! Matthew had invited his comrades over for a discussion and now their taring about the place! Standing up Matthew help his wand right at Sylvester, tip to his neck. "If we want to prove who's more powerful then let's do it. Although I refuse to damage anymore of the house... Take it outside." Matthew said pushing Sylvester with his shoulder slashing his wand in the air to open the doors to the back courtyard.

Walking outside Matthew gripped his wand tightly swirling around slowly. Fiendfyre.... Feeling the great heat from his wand. Matthew was stood between two Roman statues: Jupiter and Juno. Maybe they'll help him out. Controlling the great fire beast it took the form of a Chimaera. If it was a battle of power Sylvester wanted then a battle he'll get. Matthew wasn't going to back down. "Come on powerpuff! You said you were powerful so lets see it!" Matthew yelled as the flaming Chimaera rawred with power.

[Celeste Lydia Rose]

The only creature in the room stirred, sensing the flood of emotion in her mother like figure. Eliza knew, like all familiars do, that their other half was about to do something drastic. The Ravenclaw boy, who seemed to have suddenly grown a voice, commented on her outraged comment. Celeste’s bright blue eyes darkened and then narrowed when he called her a martyr. She held her breath, waiting until he finished that sentence, and then spoke, her voice like poison. “Nobody has to Matthew; I don’t see anyone else bloody doing any of it! And for God’s sake I am not playing Martyr! If I really was, I wouldn’t hesitate to rub your face in it.” she hissed back, eyes darkening as the purity vanished. Hell, with men and their stupid power hungry shit. Celeste listened to him again, and then couldn’t help scoffing when he said that himself and Sylvester were getting recruits. Oh yes, Celeste didn’t play the Judge without knowing what was going on with her comrades. After all, being a prefect, a few threats of lost housepoints did get any information. “Oh so you call that recruiting? You both have to F***en sleep with these people to recruit them! How pathetic is that!? “ she snapped back, anger and disgust written on her face. One thing this teenager couldn’t stand was the womanizers. The whole thing exploded out of the water when she witnessed her father seduce more than five women at the same time. It was just the way they up held themselves, as if they were so much better than everyone else. Low lives

It was if a bomb had suddenly gone off in the youngest member, and she had just pieced together who’s fingers were pointing at her. Celeste’s concern rose, as she watched the teenager glance at each of the boys, and than at her, with such a familiar expression. Not knowing how to answer, Celeste glanced down, there was no other choice, the boys thought Anabelle was the weakest, she couldn’t change that anytime soon. The sudden slamming of hands, made Celeste jump, which she pretended to fake a second later. Guilt and a bit of I-told-you-so rushed at Celeste, as she heard Anabelle go off at them for thinking she was the weak link. Celeste watched in sadness, as the teenager kicked the chair and storm out of the room. “Anabelle! Wait!” Celeste yelled trying to steady her voice. But the girl was too far out of reach. She was already out of her chair, and near the door by the next few comments made her pause to look back at the boys.

Celeste listened to Sylvester, but sort of zoned out, knowing that the real battle was between the two boys. The thought of them using the muggle way of fighting, with the plain old hand to hand combat, brought a hidden smile to her face. Oh how they would fall. Of course, the other boy had to back him up, work his way up to the top of course. Celeste couldn’t help her lips tightening into a line of annoyance, more so at their agreement than anything else. “Look, right about now, I’ve worked out the whole alliance thing between you two, which is fine I suppose. So there’s really no need to back each other up, when its the four of us. As for the leader thing? Truthfully, I know you two will work it out, men always do. Let me just say if it all turns to pot, I won’t be letting my father’s power hide either one of you.” she added, tonelessly. Celeste just didn’t really care anymore, yet again another man was ruling, and that just picked the wrong buttons on her list. Sometimes, she wondered if voicing this whole thing to the boys had really been such a good idea. Hell, they could act all high and mighty, but she knew something they had failed to look past.

Then the battle started, Celeste couldn’t help her sigh in annoyance. Hearing one threaten the other, Celeste pushed in her chair, took one last sip of her tea and placed it down again. Although she did have a little giggle when Matthew complained about people wreaking the furniture, it was such a stupid thing to get made over. The Slytherin watched them fight, and then decided to voice her opinion before leaving to find Anabelle. “Try not to hurt yourselves too much; I am going to hate tying to heal either one of you if something bad happens. Remember to use protection!” she added, heading out of the door. She grinned a little, knowing how much the boys would hate her comment, but she doubted that either would stop fighting because of it.

“Anabelle?” she called softly, scanning the hallway for the girl. A faint glow came from the power looking room, recognising a spell had just taken place, Celeste pushed open the door slowly and entered the room. “Anabelle? I’m really sorry about what happened back there. You remember what I said before, at the Owlery about Matthew being, you know.” she said, approaching the teenager with slight hesitation. Celeste stroked the cat softly, eyes glancing at the other teenager, she was about to speak again when a loud smash came from the room she had just exited. She jumped in surprise, and then laughed softly, “They are fighting over who is most powerful. This just makes it all the more amusing, considering they are too similar. Care to watch from the sidelines, maybe even have a bet?” she asked, lightly, trying to please the other girl again. Celeste wasn’t good when people were upset, it really wasn’t her area.

[Anabelle Evans]

[Sylvester Salazar Gaunt]

Sy walked out to the yard to be greeted by Matt and his Fiendfyre chimaera. Laughing slightly, he flicked his wand, muttering the counter-curse. The firey beast exploded, sending fire in every direction before evaporating into thin air. Sylvester could feel the heat coming from the flames that couldn't be quenched by any water. "Your little pets won't help you here, Dermandois," he said with a scowl. He flicked his wand quickly and the earth rose up around them, creating circular wall surrounding them. "Duro," he muttered, the rock walls hardening to a point that would make it nearly impossible to break through them except with the most powerful curses.

Standing with his arms open and his ash wand gripped tight in his hand, he stared down Matt. "You make the first move, Matt. Home team always goes first," he said, smirking. He nonverbally cast the Shield Charm, casting an invisible barrier between the two of them. Sure, Sylvester said that Matt could strike first, but did the dark and demented ever play fair?

[soby207]

Matthew grinned as he saw his opponent walk outside to the battle field. Feeling the heat of the creature was like being outside of the gates of Hades. It was HOT. Feeling the sweat slowly bead down his forehead. This was defiantly going to be a interesting duel. Holding his wand at mid-diaphragm, Matthew felt the explosion of the giant beast, soon disappearing. Grinning. Apparently it was going to take more then a giant flaming cat to scare this boy. Seeing the earth rise and soon turn into solid rock was a little out of left corner. "If it's a bottle of elements you want Gaunt then a battle you'll get!" Matthew shouted as he noticed the stone turn rock solid. Mmm, great this will be a little more difficult then thought. Muttering the incantation, Matthew soon had control of the water that was in the three fountains. Circling the abundance of water around him, Matthew slowly rose to level with Sylvester. Glacius! Casting the freezing charm over the pillar of water, soon became a giant pillar of ice.

Now aiming his talon shaped wand at Sylvester, Matthew grinned. Soon feeling around him the pressure of everything changing Matthew threw all of his might into the spell, "Deprimo!" Matthew shouted casting the pressure charm towards pillar of stone he was standing on. Casting the spell, Matthew felt a large amount of pressure pushing down around him, mostly towards the stone pillar Sylvester was standing on. Seeing it slowly crack, it was a shock to see it only do minimum damage. But knew it would slowly work. Once a crack had started he knew it would slowly multiply into more cracks, and from then on, Sylvester's pillar of stone would crash. "Thanks for the first start mate," Matthew grinned.

[Celeste Lydia Rose]

Celeste watched the girl, and could see something more than anger pulse through the Ravenclaw. She couldn’t help but feel the guilt creep into her heart, pushing at the evil that had caused such a war between the four of them. A small bit of her didn’t want to feel guilty for something she had no control over. It wasn’t as if Celeste could brainwash the guys into thinking things other than what they were. Suddenly it dawned on her what needed to happen, oh and it was going to shut those two boys up for good. A dark smile crossed her face and she stroked the animal. “You know, I think its high time the boys got the karma that’s been waiting for them.” she murmured softly, her eyes darkening as the plan played out in her head. All she needed was two willing girls to play along.

The thoughts went away as she glanced back at Anabelle, who looked ready to cry. She shifted her feet with an uncomfortable glance, Celeste really wasn’t good with sad people, always made her feel like crap. Hell it had been alot easier to friend the kids who wanted to be evil and destroy the ministry. Unlike the boys, Celeste had gone out through the non-Slytherin’s, since every house had their evil. Then Anabelle finally spoke, and Celeste flinched at the words. She opened her mouth to argue, but decided it was entirely up to Anabelle. “Yeah, it might be best. I don’t want to stick around either.” she admitted gently, and glanced out of the door again. She could hear the faint yelling of spells from each of the boys. “Lets hope one of them gets blown up.” she added smiling a little.

[Anabelle Evans]

Anabelle wiped any remaining tears before inhaling a large amount of oxygen, her ears twitching slightly as Celeste spoke of boys needing some karma thrown back at them. She was curious, but now was not the time to talk about it. "Well, let me know if one of them does get hurt." She added, her words played as if she was worried for the both of them. Ha! As if! She wanted to see one of them with a torn off limb. Preferably Matthew. Syl without a leg would be just as nice.

Grabbing a small bag out of her pocket, she left the room and entered the parlor, and with a small smile of relief at the sight of a fireplace, threw some Floo Powder into the small fire, green flames growing. She quickly put the small bag into her pocket before hopping into the flames. "Ravenclaw Common Room, Hogwarts!" And she was off.

[Sylvester Salazar Gaunt]

Sylvester watched as Matt rose on the quickly solidifying pillar of water, which was now ice. He heard as the Ravenclaw boy cast Deprimo on his own rock tower. Sy wasn't worried about what this Charm would do, seeing as he had fortified the ground into something as solid as it was. However, when he felt the pillar shake slightly and the ground beneath him gave way ever-so-slightly, he was surprised. The Stiffening Spell usually never failed unless hit with a powerful curse or was Finished by the caster of the spell originally. The fact that Matt could loosen it with his spell worried Sy. Matt may be a better dueler than Sy had anticipated. A small matter, though, really. Sy still knew he was better either way.

"Let's make this battle slightly more interesting," Sy said, a smirk on his face. Slashing his wand upward quickly, nearly a dozen more pillars of rock rose between and around them before Sy Stiffened them as well, making an entire battlefield of pillars for them to fight on and around. Sylvester spun his wand through his fingers once before casting the first spell to pop into his head. "Icendio Maxima!" He shouted, his wand pointed directly at Matthew. A huge stream of fire, larger than any that would be seen by casting the regualr version of the spell, flew from his wand like a flamethrower, speeding through the air towards its target.

[soby207]

Matthew grinned when he saw Sylvester's reaction. Matthew was strong. It was actually a bit of a shock that he did some damage to the pillars. "Told you Gaunt. I'm good." He grinned before it was whipped away. When Sylvester raised more pillars Matthew groaned. This could be a little longer then thought. But, he also set the battle arena up. Matthew was fine with his one pillar of ice. He could know jump from pillar to pillar. Possible could get closer to Sylvester. Closer to your target the more you could blast them away.

When Matthew saw the great stream of fire come towards he has quick to think. Matthew with his wand. “Aguamenti!” He cried out. Swirling the jet of water to warp around the flamethrower-like flames. Once the water cocooned the flames Matthew knew the spell could go both ways. It would either work or would be too weak. But the cards were slightly on Matthew’s side. Water had the upper hand against fire. Mentally he crossed his finger. Slashing his wand, Matthew made the water collapse on the flame. Watching the steam cloud the field Matthew jumped from his ice pillar to stone pillar. Watching the steam curtains slowly open Matthew saw his target and grinned. “Crucio!” Matthew cried was the torture curse left his wand flying towards Sylvester. Grinning he prayed the spell hit him. Matthew proved he was powerful. But it was time for the signature move.

[Sylvester Salazar Gaunt]

Sy growled slightly as Matt turned his raging fire into steam and fog that covered the entire area. Keeping a calm mind and focusing more on his hearing than his sight, Sy stood there on his pillar, ready for the slightest sound which would indicate where Matt was and what he was doing. Hearing movement and a voice off to Sylvester's right, Sy only had a second to react to the curse that Matt sent his way.

"Crucio!"

With a swift rising movement of his wand, the stone pillar between himself and Matt that was closest to Sy rose up, taking the full blast from the spell. The pillar, even after being Stiffened, shattered at the top, sending shrapnel and debris flying everywhere. A shard of rock made contact with Sy's left shoulder, baring into his arm and knocking him back slightly. Letting out a low groan of pain, Sy quickly recovered, jumping to the pillar on his left, away from Matt. But Sy wasn't running, he was simply trying to get a better aim at his target.

Normally, in a duel like this, between himself and an ally, Sy wouldn't try to hurt the person too badly. Disarm, knock out, that was fine, but if Dermandois was going to use one of the Unforgivables on him, then Sy wasn't going to hold back. Sy would just have to try to not accidently kill Matt now. No promises though. The first and most powerful spell that popped into Sy's head was a particularly powerful and dark piece of magic. Only known as Dolohov's Curse, the hex was every bit as lethal when cast at full strength as the Killing Curse. However, if cast nonverbally, the spell suddenly became much less lethal, yet still very destructive, causing emense amounts of internal damage and pain to its unfortunate target.

Sy pointed his wand into the cloud of steam and thought the curse with all his might. A bright beam of purple light shot from his wand and towards its unknown target. If it made full contact, the battle was as good as over.