I'll Catch You (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

The Boy Who Lived

The room seemed to erupt, and instinctively I threw my body atop of Ginny's, shielding her from the debris falling around us. Stones and cold pieces of porcelain pelted my back with momentum, and I used every bit of my resolve to stay upright and not scream in fear and pain. A particularly heavy piece of something crashed down onto my back, driving me downwards and pinning Ginny to the floor beneath me.

When the shaking finally stopped, Ginny poked her head out from under her arms. "I guess that the giants don't understand the meaning of a cease-fire" she said haughtily, pulling herself up to her feet and shaking the dust from her robes.

"Yeah" I groaned, straightening up painfully. "You okay?" I asked and she nodded, pushing her hair from her face. "Okay, good. Let's get out of here before the entire room falls in on us." I took a step forward and winced, pain shooting through my side.

"Are you ok?" she said, taking me by the wrist and towing me from the room. "I must have felt, like, twenty things hit you."

I shrugged, doing my best to hide the amount of pain I had suddenly began to feel in my back. "Just a bit sore" I smiled through gritted teeth.

Ginny raised an eyebrow at me, holding down my arm as she lifted the back of my cloak to reveal my back.

"Merlin, Ace, you bruise easily, eh?" she noted, touching my skin lightly with her fingertips.

"Or so they tell me." Despite how lightly she touched my skin, it felt as though she was poking me with a hot poker.

"Besides the bruising, you seem to be in one piece" she mused. "Should probably go get checked out by Madame Pomfrey once we get down to the Great Hall."

"Sure" I agreed, and began to march down to the steps. "Only after I find George first." We walked in silence for a few moments, every step feeling like a massive effort, as we followed the increasingly large crowd of people. Some were absolutely fine, while other certainly looked worse for wear, clothes stained with dirt and blood. Others, eyes cast downwards, helped in carrying the bodies of what I assumed were our fallen comrades.

"That poor family" someone in the crown muttered to their partner. "You know, with so many children in the fight, it was bound that one of them would get killed. But nothing can prepare you for that."

I cast a sideways glance at Ginny, confirming that she was hearing what I was hearing too. "I don't know how they're able to tell them apart, being identical in all." I felt my heartrate begin to quicken uncontrollably as we fought our way through the crowd.

"One of them lost an ear last year, remember?" The wizard nodded in recognition and I began to feel my legs go weak.

It couldn't be.

As if to be sharing a brain, Ginny and I began to sprint through the crowd, pushing through the throngs of people making their way in the same direction. My mind began to race. There was no other explanation to what the wizard was saying. Large family, identical, missing ear. The world became a tunnel as Ginny and I barreled our way down the final corridor and the towering doors of the Great Hall came into view.

It couldn't be George. I'd only seen him a moment ago. He was fine. We'd been separated, but he was fine.

In front of us, the hall was filled with cots holding the bodies of the injured and dead. A few rows in, a familiar gathering of red-headed people were crowded together. I had suddenly lost feeling in my hands and feet as every step brought us closer, and I was able to make out the image of a long-legged boy sprawled out on the cot between them. The sounds of sobbing rang in my ears, and my head began to grow light as I caught the sight of Molly kneeling on the ground, the head of the boy in her lap.