"Someday I'll make it out of here
Even if it takes all night or a hundred years"
-Billie Eilish
...
"Here dear" proffesor McGonagal said, handing me a cloth to wipe the blood from my face. I took it silently, neither my head or heart having the will to say anything.
I pressed the cloth against my skin, the stinging causing my eyes to water slightly. I sat on one of the many benches in the great hall - people had payed there respects to those dead. Their bodies had been removed from the hall leaving only the mourners.
Give me Harry Potter
Harry was no longer in the hall, nor Hermione or Ron. All we could do was wait. Wait for either Harry or Voldemort to show up. No one could do anything other than wait and it was driving us to insanity.
Cass, Blaise and Zack sat next to me. Eddie was sat with another student - his younger sister had her head rested on his shoulder as he tried to comfort her. It felt so immensely wrong to see the happy goofy character I knew Eddie to be act in such a way. I had seen him upset, but never this. It was the first time I had known him when he didn't have a joke or comment to lighten the mood. Though nothing could lighten this. As we waited in near silence, the half an hour flying by with the absence of any action, I started to pray that something actually did happen. Because after the action comes the end, what ever it is.
...
"You mean him? He's actually-"
"Helena come on" cass said dragging me.
She had received word from proffesor McGonagal. Approaching the castle were the army of death eaters that were only an hour ago attacking the school. And in front of them, leading them into battle was the dark lord himself.
The sun had begun to rise over the horizon, the cloud of dust that lingered in the air creating the feeling of fog. The so called army of our school stood together as one.
The group of the death eaters got closer by each second. The figure at the front of them becoming more apparent as he came forward, discarding bodies of giants and death eaters over the edge of the bridge to clear his path towards us. The students and teachers stood across the courtyard, lining the castle in a thick defence, though everyone knew it was no match for this army of killers.
The sight of him chilled me further than my bones. Emerging from the bridge, his army following him close behind, he raised his two arms out in a victorious stance. His skin was a pale flesh stretched out over a harsh skeleton, tinted grey. Two slits replaced his nose, the snake that slithered on the ground beside him bore a striking resemblance to him, his beady piercing eyes reflecting it further. He was draped in a black cloak, his wand held in his outstretched arms.
"Who is that" I heard a voice say from a fair distance away. I turned to see the girl I recognised as Ron's sister. "Hagrid's carrying, who is it?" She questioned her father. I turned towards Hagrid. As she had described, a boy lay in his arms. His head tossed backwards, arms dangling down and his circle glasses laying unsteadily on his face.
"Harry Potter" Voldemort jeered. "Is dead!"
I couldn't tel if the yell was mine, but the yell that Ginny let out may as well have been as it was exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to scream out. In just a single night everything had been lost. And now the last hope had been too.
"SILENCE" Voldemort yelled to her as her father held her back as she tried to run out to Harry. "Stupid girl" he stepped forward filling the space between our army and his, not a single person from either side daring to object to him. "Harry Potter is dead. From this day forth, you put your faith in me".
I looked towards Cass who had her eyes fixed upon Voldemort, anxious to look away.
Voldemort turned away from us and instead faced his own army, a evil grin on his face outstretching his arms in triumph. "HARRY POTTER IS DEAD!"
A roar of laughter emerged from the army, Bellatrix's prominent. Their sneers increased the feeling of helplessness we all had, being laughed at as we mourned those he had killed. "And now is the time to declare yourself" he continued, addressing the rest of us. "Come forward and join us. Or die."
Not a soul moved. To afraid to object, too valiant to join him. None could bear to look at him, the mere thought of maintaining his eye contact sending shivers down me. It seemed all on our side were prepared to die - die rather than betray our side.
"Draco"
The last thing I anticipated to hear. Lucius' voice hoarse and strained calling out to him. And I followed his gaze to find stood mere feet to the left behind me was the boy I was sure had abandoned the castle. "Draco" he repeated in only little more than a whisper but the deadly silence of the battle field made it so all could hear him. I couldn't bear to look at Draco again. I couldn't tell what he was thinking as I always could when I looked into his eyes.
"Draco" said Narcissa. "Come"
The few moments of silence I wish would have lasted even a little while longer. Please stay.
The noise of his feet stepping on the floor covered in broken stone and shards of glass making their way into my ears. The noise of his choosing his side.
Choosing his side, indeed he was.
The cold made me flinch slightly. But it was warmed almost instantly as the coldness of his fingers inter locked with the warmth of mine. I looked upwards. He was staring to the dark lord. Looking him dead in the eyes as he held my hand - his feet rooted to the floor and not planning on moving.
There it is. There is the boy I knew he could be.
"Draco." Hissed the dark lord. "I see you have chosen your side". Draco stayed silent. "So you are the fool I thought you were" he spat, venom in his eyes.
"You are the fool" he replied.
"Yours forever and always..."
And now I know you are.
"I'd like to say something" the voice was Nevilles, who had stepped forwards, a limp holding him back slightly and the gash in his forehead from before even worse and had more scabbed blood covering it. An old battered hat was clutched in his hand. Voldemort looked at him trying to hold back his rage.
"And who might you be?" He asked.
"Neville Longbottom" a cackle from Voldemort's army following his words.
"Well Neville, I'm sure we would all be fascinated to hear what you have to say" Voldemort said with a smile of mockery on his face.
"It doesn't matter that Harry's gone" before he could continue, Seamus interrupted.
"Stand down Neville"
"People die everyday! Friends. Family. Yeah. They're still with us. In here" Neville placed a scabby hand on his chest. The crowd was looking at him, fearing as the rage in the dark lord rose once again but admiring him simultaneously. I tightened my grip on the hand I was holding, desperately awaiting the second I could pull Draco into my arms. "So's Fred. And Remus. Tonks. All of them. They didn't die in vain!" He turned to face Voldemort directly in the eye. "But you will!" Neville yelled, the dark lord laughing in his face, antagonising his speech. "'Cause you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us. For all of us!" Neville reached into the hat he was holding, pulling out a sword that gleamed even in the dismal weather - the sword of Gryffindor. "AND ITS NOT OVER!"
And as though awakened by his words, falling out of Hagrids arms and scrambling on the floor earning the gasps of everyone on each side, Harry Potter walked, very much alive once again.
...