by the time jaemin had slipped his wand out of his pocket to use the revulsion jinx to release them all, it was already too late. too much time had passed by and mark was nowhere in sight in the forest. they hoped that there was one place he would be at if he was still alive.
they ran through the forest, towards hogwarts, praying that he was there and safe. but as they got closer to the bridge in front of the castle, they could see crowds of death eaters and a sick feeling took over them.
"why — why are they here?" chenle asked as they came to a stop.
"let me try see." yunhee muttered. she climbed onto a pile of rocks and stretched onto her toes to see over the death eaters.
"be careful." jeno said, holding his hands out to catch her in case she fell. "you see anything?"
"it's not high enough. jisung, get up here. i'll climb onto your shoulders."
"why me?" he complained but joined her nevertheless.
"because you're the tallest obviously." she replied as he bent down and she got onto his shoulders. she held on, carefully, as he stood back up.
"what do you see now?" jaemin asked.
"i see voldemort. he's talking to our friends, classmates and families." she replied, squinting her eyes and stretching her back to get a better view.
"anything else?" renjun asked.
"i see hagrid. he's carrying someone... wait... uh. he's carrying..." she paused, her eyes widening. she harshly tapped jisung's back. "jisung, put me down."
"what's wrong?"
"jisung, put me down right now!"
she didn't mean to yell at him or hit him hard, but she was panicking. panicking because she saw mark, dead, in hagrid's arms.
"yunhee, calm down." donghyuck said as he helped her off jisung's shoulders and back onto her feet. "what's the matter?"
"it's mark! he's dead. he's dead." she kept repeating, scaring them all. before they could even react, she took off running towards the crowds.
"shit. yunhee." renjun mumbled, chasing after her. he pointed his wand at the death eaters and yelled, "depulso!"
the spell sent them flying off the bridge, as far away as possible from him and the others. it created a path for them and they could see voldemort and hagrid holding mark like yunhee had told them.
"NO!" jeno cried, rushing forwards.
"crucio!" voldemort yelled, aiming for jeno, but he was quickly saved by chenle and donghyuck who pulled him back. he was going to fire a spell again at them, but there was a loud thud from behind him.
"mark." yunhee said, smiling and voldemort turned around in utter horror. the gryffindor had fallen out of hagrid's arms and he was alive.
"confringo!" he yelled at voldemort and the snake then ran to hide.
"quick!" chenle grabbed yunhee's hand and they sprinted across the courtyard to the entrance of the castle where mark had gone.
"mark!" yunhee embraced him then let go and smacked him on the back of the head. "you complete arse! i hate you!"
"you guys, i'm sorry... i had to do it. you'd all be dead and i'd be alive if i hadn't. i didn't want that." he said, tears in his eyes and she smiled, hugging him again.
"you're lucky i love you."
"way to contradict yourself." donghyuck mumbled.
"shut up. this isn't over yet. we have stuff to do. i need you guys to kill the snake while i lure voldemort away." mark told them.
"we've got this. don't worry. it'll all be over soon." jeno said, ruffling the gryffindor's hair. "now go!"
they all split, mark rushing up the stairs as voldemort followed him, donghyuck, jaemin, renjun and jeno chased after the snake to stop it while the three childhood best friends went to the great hall to help their classmates and find the sword of gryffindor.
jaemin distracted the snake, bringing the attention to him as he walked backwards up the stairs. renjun was behind the snake, the basilisk fang in his hand. he was about to strike it when the snake whipped around, snapping at him.
he fell back, donghyuck catching him and dragging him back as the snake picked them as the new targets. he then tossed the basilisk fang, that had fallen out of renjun's hand, at jaemin who now had the advantage of killing the snake, but donghyuck had thrown it too much to the left and it fell over the edge, landing somewhere too far for them to reach in time.
"donghyuck!" jaemin exclaimed, staring at him in disbelief. the snake was now facing him again.
"i'm sorry!" he yelled, running down the stairs in hopes of getting the fang before anyone could get harmed.
he reached it but noticed something else glistening further away. he squinted his eyes, trying to make out what it was. when he realised it was the sword of gryffindor, he gasped and ran over to grab it.
"i have the sword of gryffindor! it can kill the snake. renjun, catch!" he shouted, looking up from where he was below his friends, the sword raised above his head.
"i don't trust you throwing that!" renjun yelled back and donghyuck lowered his arm. "you'll end up chopping my head off!"
"i won't, but if you don't catch this, jaemin will die!"
"fine! hurry up!"
"fine!"
he threw it and the ravenclaw managed to catch it by its hilt. he then handed it to jeno, a pleading look on his face.
"kill it."
"me? you kill it." he retorted, handing the sword back to him.
"i can't do it. i can barely hold this." renjun shoved it in jeno's hands and tried to hurry away before he'd end up with it in his hands again.
"renjun!"
in the great hall, the death eaters were still attacking and the trio of best friends were right in the middle of it. they weren't aware that the sword of gryffindor wasn't in the great hall as they desperately searched for it.
yunhee had split from chenle and jisung so that she could help aerin who was fighting against bellatrix. she glared at the woman, holding her friend behind her. she seethed, raising her wand at her. bellatrix had tortured her several times and had always gotten away with it, but yunhee was no longer scared and she wasn't going to run.
"i'm sending you straight to hell. expulso!"
"you bitch!" bellatrix deflected the spell, sending it back to her as she narrowly missed it. she saw bellatrix open her mouth again and she immediately knew what spell she was going to use. the killing curse.
"silencio!" she shouted, cutting the woman off. she wasn't prepared or expecting yunhee to stop her. anger boiled in her as she stared at the brunette. unable to yell spells at her, she used non-verbal ones which yunhee avoided.
"sectumsepra!"
yunhee stared, wide-eyed at bellatrix who she had successfully hit with the spell. a large gash could be seen from her chest to her stomach. she staggered back, falling to the floor as she bled out.
"yunhee, i've got this from here." someone said, placing their hand on her shoulder.
"mrs zhong..."
"go find chenle." the older woman told her. "and aerin find your parents."
"aerin, do as she says and stay safe." yunhee said, kissing her on the forehead.
"you too. come back alive." the younger whispered, hugging her. "i still want you as my sister-in-law."
"sure." yunhee laughed. "i'll be back."
aerin let go of her, allowing her to run off to find her best friends. she found them standing in front of a wall, frantically looking around, presumably for her.
"jisung! chenle!" she called.
"yun!" chenle waved at her.
she was about to run over to them but paused when from her peripherals, she noticed a death eater pointing their wand at the wall behind the two boys.
"bombardo." she heard and time slowed for her, her heart beating so fast she thought she was going crazy.
"watch out!" she yelled.
when they stayed stood in place, she ran over, pushing them out of the way of the falling wall. the two fell to the floor, harshly, but quickly got back up when they heard the loud crash from behind them. the sight they saw horrified them.
"YUNHEE!"
they ran over to the pile that their best friend was buried under. using all the strength they could, they dug and dug until they found her, looking to be unconscious with large amounts of blood dripping from her head.
"yunhee!" chenle cried, lifting the last piece of stone off her legs. they pulled her out and onto the cold floor.
"chenle, get help! quick!" jisung yelled.
the said boy scrambled to get up and ran as fast as he could to find his friends, family, anyone that could do something.
"yunhee..." jisung mumbled, placing her head on his lap.
he stroked her hair, blood getting in his hands. he glanced down at her, thinking she was only unconscious, but as time past, he noticed her chest had completely stopped moving.
he leant down, placing his ear against her chest and heard no beating. he paled and not wanting to believe it and assuming he had heard wrong, he placed his fingers on her neck, feeling for a pulse, but he felt nothing. there was nothing. she was gone.
he looked around the great hall, pulling her to his chest and rocking her limp body.
"SOMEONE HELP! PLEASE! HELP!"