Ford had enough time to think yeah, alright, what the fuck? before suddenly Billy Darrow was leaping at him. If ever there had been a time for dueling magic this was probably it, but Ford hadn't dueled since his fifth year at Hogwarts and in the split second that he still had his feet beneath him his mind went entirely blank on offensive magic. Darrow was trying to get his wand, he realized, though why he was physically grabbing at it when he could have just used the disarming spell was beyond Ford — and in theory Ford could have just used the disarming spell now, and then at least he'd only have to contend with Darrow and not with his spells, except fuck, what was the bloody incantation for it? This was not a difficult thing, it was a thing he knew, but he couldn't come up with it when Darrow's hands were on him.

He kept his grip on his wand and tried to push Darrow back from him, but he'd been caught off guard by his sudden assault and he was off his balance. He wasn't going to win this, he didn't think. Darrow was going to get his wand out of his hands any second now, because he had the advantage, but Ford wasn't keen on being so entirely outmatched when he still had no idea what Darrow was doing here, what he wanted, or why he was apparently willing to attack Ford to get it.

With a grunt, Ford elbowed Darrow in the nose and squirmed away from him. Property damage wasn't really his thing, generally speaking, but these were dire circumstances — he pushed a tall vase full of some sort of dried flowers over in Darrow's direction and sprinted off into the rest of the observatory. Not that he had any idea where he was planning to go, with the door behind him and Darrow still armed with a wand and for fuck's sake, why didn't he remember what the bloody disarming charm was?