𝐢. 𝐌𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐎𝐒𝐌𝐈𝐂 ; harry j. potter ( UNEDITED )

066. "i wonder if your heart will never freeze over"

"HERMIONE!"

Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly toward her from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged — his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face — Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose. Harry twisted around, his own wand held high, and saw that the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry, who recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Prophet: Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts.

Dolohov grinned. With his free hand, he pointed from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione. Though he could no longer speak his meaning could not have been clearer: Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her...

"Like you won't kill us all the moment I hand it over anyway!" said Harry.

A whine of panic inside his head was preventing him thinking properly. He had one hand on Hermione's shoulder, which was still warm, yet did not dare look at her properly. Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead...

"Whaddever you do, Harry," said Neville fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, "don'd gib it to him!"

Dolohov was about to strike when he gave a sudden "Oof!" and toppled down to the floor harshly. Harry and Neville glanced up at the perpetrator and their shoulders slackened, relief to see whom did it.

Lucia stood there, feet on Dolohov's head as she held what's left of a recorded prophecy in her hand, glass shards scurried around the floor. "Goodness, I hope that wasn't important..." she grimaced before she threw the excess records aside. "Oh well," she shrugged.

She then peered trying to see whether the man was still conscious and smiled when she knew that he wasn't. She stepped over him and smiled at them. "All right there, guys?"

Harry was about to respond but his eyes snapped as he saw the baby-headed Death Eater appearing behind Lucia. his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" Harry shot.

Lucia wheeled around and grimaced when she saw what it was: The baby-headed Death Eater toppled forward and fell on Dolohov; both rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.

"Where were you?" Harry immediately asked.

"Whedid you get that?" Neville inquired with a throbbed lip.

"Oh, uh..." she laughed nervously. "No comment — also," Lucia turned to Harry, "a 'thank you' would've sufficed,"

He rolled his eyes. "Thank you," Harry hastily moved on, "Now where were you?"

"Running from Death Eaters, duh," she said as the matter-of-factly. "Where are the others?"

"Doing the same I reckon," said Harry simply before gazing back down at Hermione. He shook her shoulder, attempting to wake her up. "Hermione, wake up..."

"Whaddid he do to her?" said Neville, crawling out from under the desk again to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.

"I dunno..."

Lucia crouched down, groping her wrist gently. "She's alive." She sighed in relief.

Such a powerful wave of relief swept through Harry that for a moment he felt light-headed.

"She's alive?"

"I'm no licensed Healer, but I certainly know what a pulse is," said Lucia.

There was a pause in which Harry listened hard for the sounds of more footsteps, but all he could hear were the whimpers and blunderings of the baby Death Eater in the next room.