Always Remember

XVII.

"Noah, how could you?" I ask, betrayed. Once again, my mind has been a battleground for scheming men. First, my memories were taken, now, months later, my emotions were scattered and manipulated.

"Y/N..." Noah starts but Draco shoots a spell at him. Noah dodges by mere centimeters and casts one in return. I feel hopeless as I'm wandless again, and trying to protect Matthews from any stray spells or debris from surrounding fights. 

"Stupefy!" Draco casts his spell, strong determination in his voice, and finally, there are no spells returned. Noah lies on the ground, dazed and unconscious from the stunning charm. Draco kneels beside me and places his arm around me. 

"We have to get Matthews out of here," I say and Draco makes a grim expression. 

"I don't think we can help him," he says and I shake my head.

"No, I'm not just leaving him here. It's my fault he's here, my fault he's hurt. I can't leave him!" I say, pulling myself away from Draco when he tries to guide me away from Matthews. Draco sighs. 

"Okay, we won't leave him." Draco tucks his wand into his waistband and picks Matthews up by his torso, dragging his feet as we make our way towards the exit. My hand feels empty, as we are all now defenseless with Draco carrying Matthews, and my mind wanders back to when I used Accio. If I did it once, I could do it again now. 

With slightly less concentration than the first time, I held my hand out in the direction I thought my wand would be, and it flew straight into my hands. I noticed Draco's eyes widen.

"Ask me about that later," I say. He lets out a strained chuckle that's cut short when he along with Matthews and I are thrown several feet back. I hear Matthews's weak and pained gasp as he hits the ground and I crawl over to him, shielding him from further attack. In turn, Draco shields me, pointing his wand at Zacharias who is sauntering toward us– towards me. 

Draco, still recovering from the ground, shoots a jinx at him to protect me but Zacharias dodges effortlessly. He barely even gives Draco a passing glance, his poisonous glare is focused on me. I point my wand defensively, still trying to protect Matthews. 

"Noah was too weak to do what needed to be done," he says ominously, "As the old saying goes if you want something done right you do it yourself." He points his wand and a burst of green light hurdles towards me. I roll away, narrowly missing it as it strikes the ground beside Matthews. I scowl, using a defensive spell which he deflects. 

"He had convinced me you were useful after you survived his attack months ago. Unfortunately, he failed at killing both you and your Draco," he says, catching me off guard and smiling as he sees my face fall. Noah, the Pureblood attacks, the attack on Draco and me. A memory flashed in my mind– the violence in the alleyway, the green eyes, and black hair. It was all him. It was Noah from the beginning. Taking advantage of my distraction, Zacharius hits me with a jinx and I double over in pain.

"No!" Draco yells, casting a round of spells at Zacharias who struggles to keep them blocked. Suddenly, he is thrown to the ground and both Draco and Zacharias look equally surprised. Through the pain that rolls through my body, I look up and see Noah pointing his wand at Zacharias. He turns his wand to me and I stare at him in horror, but when the spell hits me, the pain Zacharias's spell causes disappears immediately. I pick up my wand and the three of us turn on Zacharias. 

"I always knew you weren't strong enough," Zacharias spits at Noah. 

"Maybe not, but I'm strong enough to fight you," Noah responds and throws the first spell, "I'm sorry, Y/N." Then he throws himself into the fight. The battle is difficult, Zacharias is a master at defensive spells. He deflects our spells back at us, making it as if we were all fighting each other rather than us three versus him. The effort it takes for all of us to stay defended from spells keeps us from any further conversation, there is just silence interrupted by the muttered sounds of spells and magic.