Malfoy's Moon

fear and love

Her eyes burn - not with tears, no. With fear. Raw horror that scrapes her insides. 

Her waist and hands are empty - painfully bare. No cold hands holding her, no ringed fingers gripping her skin tightly. 

It's just her. Her and six other Death Eaters standing at the end of the corridor. 

And so she turns and runs. 

The moment she breaks into a sprint, there are shouts and thundering footsteps after her. Flashes of light blaze around her and she moves with blind fear, begging that sheer luck might be enough to dodge the threatening spells.

She tears through the corridors, moving across stairs, belting past empty classrooms. Her hands fist at the material of her dress, lifting it several inches so to not trip on it. Just as the thought occurs to her, she kicks off her heeled shoes, letting them tumble away into the corner of a hallway. 

The mere seconds it takes her to do this, they close in several feet of distance between them and she hurries off again, her heart aching with exhaustion. A flare of light misses her elbow by centimeters and catches the tip of her hair, singeing it. 

There are shouts behind her, shrieks that shatter the air. She can only hear the thudding of her heart and the pores of her skin, screaming at her to stop, to slow down. 

She can't bare the ache in her calves but she continues. Her hair has flown out of her elegant bun, cascading down her shoulders. 

 And when she runs, she thinks of him. 

She can hardly begin to understand where he is, why he disappeared at her side. Had the Death Eaters somehow caught him before she could realize it? But it didn't make sense; he was right there. 

She remembers the tight grip of his hand on her wrist. And then it had suddenly loosened and when she turned, he was gone. Apparition was impossible inside the castle, and there was no way the Death Eaters could have taken him without her seeing. 

A small thought seeps through her mind, one she had been fighting against. Had he left? Had he let go of her hand at the sight of the them, leaving her alone?

She can't understand. Was it fear that made him leave or... betrayal?

Had this all been planned before, had she had been blinded by the boy she thought she'd saved from a terrible future and curse? 

Maybe these thoughts had weakened her heart, made it so that she could hardly breathe. And so, she slows down. 

The Death Eaters are catching up, she can tell. 

She considers for a brief moment running back towards the Great Hall, where there are students and professors. But, that's on the other side of the castle and she can not turn back now. 

There are two corridors in front of her; one that leads to the Prefect's bathroom and one that leads to the Astronomy Tower. 

She turns to the right, sprinting up the twisting staircase. Her limbs seize up as she reaches the top and bolts the door closed, locking it. 

She knows it wouldn't matter that the door was locked. Just two seconds later, there's a blast of light and the door flings open.

She dives out of the way and as the dust and light settles, the Death Eaters enter the room. 

She blinks through the wreckage, backing away. There's a ringing in her ears, a numb ringing that brings the scent of death. 

She recognizes several them - from the Wanted posters among Hogsmeade and from the Azkaban photographs in the Daily Prophet. Yaxley, Greyback, the two Carrows, Rowle, and Bellatrix Lestrange.