Hermione's Twin ⇒ Fred Weasley

Ch. 11: Hogwarts Express

Ch. 11: Hogwarts Express

"Elle! ELLE?!" In the distance, I could hear Hermione calling my name.

      The hoard of people rushing past me and therefore pushing me back was now gone, having either Disapparated away, or used some other form of magic. But, I was tired, and sore, from the hundreds of bodies crashing into me in order to escape. It was darker now than before, the fires set by the Death Eaters having died down to embers.

    The thick smoke silhouetted everything around me, while the horizon glowed a smouldering red, thick and hot with tainted air. I struggled to see much of anything, my eyes watery and stinging from the smoke-polluted campgrounds.

     Despite this, I could still picture them. Those sharp, black hooded cloaks and grotesque masks. It was hard to believe that just mere moments ago this place was one of celebration, now turned tumultuous with turmoil and chaos.

     My stomach churned, sickened by fear. 'Death Eaters,' my mind could hardly process it. 'I didn't think they still existed.' But, as plain as the moving pictures from my History of Magic textbooks back at Sorcellerie, I recognized them instantly.

    Back then, they were only stories at my school. They were a history lecture, a faded memory that was told to me about an old-world through textbooks, though it wasn't too long ago. But, here they were, very much alive... very much ready to kill.

     For the briefest of moments, I wondered if it were too late to go back home. 

     "Elle, over here!" Hermione's voice rang out across the dishevelled landscape. I turned my head and, in the distance, I could make out her figure through the clouds of ash as she and Ron, covered in soot and bruises like me, approached. "Are you all right? Where's Harry?" Hermione asked, closing the distance between us.

     They were a bit ruffed up, but they were fine. 

     I looked skyward, a glint catching my eye. Slithering in the air like a menacing cloud, was the Dark Mark. I'd never seen it in person, much like the Death Eaters. It was horrifying and chilling all at once. "I don't know," I said, forcing my eyes away from the terrible stain in the sky to focus instead on the missing Boy Wonder. "I-I lost him in the crowd."

     The three of us began to search around, turning our heads and squinting to make out any sign of movement.

     "Harry?" Hermione called, "HARRY?"

      "Bloody hell," Ron cursed, running a hand through his hair as his face paled. " 'arry? Harry where are you?!"

     Hermione drew her wand with a furrowed brow. "Come on. We've got to find him, he could've been seriously hurt."

     The three of us searched high and low for Harry Potter, calling out into the dystopian waste that had been a fun campsite only an hour before, hoping that Harry was out there somewhere, alive and all right.

      "Harry?! Harry!" Hermione shouted again, combing through a pile of rubble. "HARRY?!"

     Then, just as we had begun to fear we wouldn't hear it, Harry's voice called out in the distance: "Over here!"

      There was a rush of relief as the three of us hopped over piles of ash and destroyed belongings to reach the place where Harry was standing, glasses askew, a few cuts on his cheeks, but otherwise all in one piece.

      Before Hermione could tackle him with questions, Harry told her not to worry, anticipating the reaction my sister would have to his sudden appearance after a long disappearance. "I'm fine, Hermione, honestly," Harry sighed and brushed himself off.