𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 •°𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴

[69]

Nico, Hermione and Luna were already at Snape's office, pacing the corridor. Snape was inside, doing absolutely nothing, something that reassured Sara a bit.

"Look, Lupin's here!" Ron whispered as Ginny sat down to check the map as well; Lupin was indeed two floors under them. They recognised many names as some of the aurors that used to guard Harry in the last years. They also spotted Tonks somewhere close to the Great Hall.

Everything was quiet; the moon was their only source of light as everyone got their wands ready, waiting for the unexpected to happen. Ron kept close to Ginny as he didn't want his little sister to get hurt. Neville was stressed and Sara usually whispered reassuring things so she could give him some confidence.

They needed to believe in each other for this since it was the only way they could get through it. She hoped that the Felix Felicis would at least keep danger away from them and that no one would get injured.

Sara's mind drifted to Nico, what if everything went to shit and they would have to be taken away from each other? She shook her head and gripped the necklace he had given her in 4th year, something she never wanted to take off.

It was almost 12 when the doors to the Room of Requirement opened and Draco Malfoy walked out of it, followed by a few figures, their faces hidden by their dark hoods.

Sara didn't even have time to get out from her hiding place; he had noticed her and his eyes begged her to go away, but it was in vain since everyone had their wands trained on them.

There was a sudden noise and darkness enveloped them, followed by the echo of steps. Ron started shouting spells like Lumos or Incendio but nothing seemed to work against the darkness; they couldn't even find each other.

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," Sara yelled, feeling her way around with her hands, trying to not trip or anything.

"I'm going to kick Fred and George's asses!" Ginny grumbled from somewhere around her and the Potter girl was able to find the other redhead and take a hold of her hand.

"We have to go and find someone!" Neville exclaimed from somewhere. "We need to tell them there are Death Eaters in the- Auch!"

"Sorry, Neville," Ron apologised and somehow they all found each other. "We need to get out of here first."

They all took a hold of the others and started running, Merlin knew where until they all tripped on the stairs and got out of the annoying darkness.

Sara got up and helped Neville to get on his feet as Ron did the same with Ginny.

They had no time for a plan or anything, they took off, running down the stairs like crazy so that they wouldn't switch on their way.

At some point, before running into Lupin, Sara conjured her lioness patronus and sent a message to professor McGonnagal so she knew to take action before it was too late.

Lupin looked taken aback by their explanation, the color draining from his face as minutes went by.

"I need to tell everyone, the order-" he started but Sara cut off her godfather.

"I've sent a patronus to professor McGonnagal but it would be good to send one to the others, we don't know if my spell even worked."

"First time you tried it?"

"Yes."

"Okay kids, listen here, you need to get back to your common room before all hell breaks loose," Lupin explained, looking like he was out of time.

From somewhere inside the castle, the fighting had already started.

"Remus you know I can't do that," Sara hissed as they all started to run in the direction of the fighting. "Besides, Nico, Hermione and Luna are somewhere in the dungeons waiting for Snape to play his cards."

"Snape is on our side."

"No he's not!" Sara yelled.

"How can you know that?"

"Harry warned us about him before he went with Dumbledore," Ron explained.

"But what does Harry know?"

"Snape has been acting strange these few months, we all noticed it at some point," Neville defended her brother, making Sara smile towards the boy.

"Okay then, I believe you, but you all need to-"

Before he could finish the sentence however, pieces of the ceiling started falling on them but Ginny was quick to summon a shield to protect them.

"We're fighting whether you like it or not, Remus!" Sara yelled as she took off alone in the direction of the dungeons, making herself invisible about halfway.

She encountered little professor Flitwick who was running towards Snape's office as well; he didn't even notice Nico, Hermione and Luna, who were leaning against the wall next to the door; he just burst inside the office and slammed the door behind him.

It was the moment Sara made herself visible, the others got a bit startled but Nico pulled her into a big hug nonetheless.

"What's going on above?" Hermione asked, fidgeting.

"Death Eaters, it was just as I thought, Draco brought them, I think they were headed towards the Astronomy Tower but they stopped us from advancing on them with some Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," she said quickly and everyone was looking at her with wide eyes. "We told Lupin and I sent a message to McGonagall, they're already fighting over there."

"That's why professor Flitwick almost kicked down Snape's door," Nico mumbled.

"Yes, but we can't trust this git."

"Should we go up there and help them fight?" Luna asked, looking quite worried herself.

"First we need to-" Sara started as Snape burst out of his office, not acknowledging them as he hurried up.

"Merlin's beard," Nico exclaimed as he looked inside the snake's office.

Professor Flitwick was lying unconscious on the ground.

"Fuck," Sara exclaimed under her breath. "Luna, Hermione, make sure he's fine," she snatched Nico's hand in the process.

Hermione looked terrified. "And what are you two going to do?"

"We're going to go kick some ass, Mione," Nico yelled as Sara was already dragging him away.

They managed to get to the entrance hall where everything was in chaos. Nico looked out the window and his expression turned dark.

The redhead followed his line of sight and gasped.

Above the Astronomy Tower there was a Dark Mark.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───