Charles's POV
Almost there.
I struggled, using all my might not to gasp in more water as I saw Lily's face loom up before me. She looked so peaceful, so calmed by the fact that she was —
NO! I couldn't tell if it was tears or the salty water but my eyes stung. She IS alive! She will not die here!
She will not die today.
She was so close now, only five feet away. Her hair was sprawled out around her and her arms tossed carelessly to the side.
My ears popped loudly and I resisted the urge to swim back up as I moved even closer. My lungs ached.
She's not dead, I thought again as I stared at her. Not ... dead ... she can't be.
Her face seemed abnormally pale in the black waters. More tears seeped into the lake around me as I slowly reached out to grab her hand ...
... and hit glass instead.
Glass.
Glass? It took me a moment to realize that a flat layer of glass was attached to all four corners of the lake, separating the bodies from the rest of the pool.
It also meant something else.
She's alive. They all are. The death eaters didn't drown them.
The joy soon faded as a chug of water entered my nose. I gasped, letting in more as I tried to breathe it out but there was no more air in my lungs.
Looking up towards the sky, I saw Scorpius and Karl were both swimming at the surface, black blobs of shadow.
My lungs burned like fire. I struggled, a colossal of bubbles escaping my mouth as I let myself float onto the glass beneath me.
So this is it, I thought, staring sadly up at them. The actual end. This is where it ends.
I thought of everything we had gone through to try and save Hogwarts. It had all happened to fast. I hadn't even gotten a chance to save anyone yet. Not even Lily.
Lily.
Turning around, I pressed a hand against the glass and gasped again. She was still so calm, so peaceful.
But she was bruised. Marks expanded over her arms and wrists. Little damage was done to her face. Thank Merlin.
I could feel my heart start to slow and struggled to fight back. I didn't want to remember her this way, lying almost dead from the torture and whatever else they managed to do to her.
I shut my eyes. I also didn't want to think about it.
Lily, I thought, banging my fist weakly. Lily, wake up! I came. I was here!
My heartbeat was thumping in my ears, slower and slower now. I closed my eyes, feeling my whole body go numb ...
$$$
"Charles, wake up!"
A familiar voice echoed through my brain, merged with sobs and quiet curses.
"Wake up!" The voice yelled louder.
God? Is that you? Am I in heaven?
"Goddammit, he's not breathing," the voice exclaimed exasperatedly.
Okay. Not God.
Loud thumping, extremely close, started in front of me. My heart jolted in response and another round of burning filled my chest.
Crap, am I in Hell?!
"Karl, check his cloak," another voice answered, making an instant connection to someone I know. "It might be too tight."
Scorpius.
The sound of unraveling silk scrunched up in my ears and the burning tightened.
I groaned slightly and a sharp inhale sounded next to me.
"Unravel it more," the voice said.
More silk erupted around me but it quickly stopped and a grunt was heard.
"I can't — do ... He made a knot," another voice said, who I also instantly recognized as Karl.
"Let me," Scorpius muttered. There was a shuffle before more silk was twisted. A tearing sound split my head. "Shit, I ripped it."
The familiar voice, still not apprehensible, let out an irritated groan, "You boys are such ninnies. Move it!"
More silk sounded, before an entire weight was lifted off my chest.
I gasped, my eyes snapping open as I stared at the blurry picture of colors. A curtain of red flashed before me.
"What ... who ..."
"Charles, are you there?" The familiar girl voice whispered, the red towering over me. I felt a wet hand touch my pulse, which was thumping ravenously. "Can you breathe?"
What do you think? I thought, feeling my chest heave with the sudden realization that I almost died. But something about the quivering in the voice's tone said I shouldn't.
I nodded briefly and a groan of relief filled my ears.
"Thank God," a small sob came from the voice before my whole vision was flooded with red. "Thank God."
I waited for my eyes to adjust, feeling confused as to who was hugging me when it hit me.
Lily.
My eyes focused. I blinked as the sobbing face of Lily Potter came into view. Her face glistened with tears and her mouth was in a small frown.
A strange sensation filled my stomach and I knew three weeks worth of planning had been leading to this moment.
"Lily ..." I said under my breath, not able to look away from the clear blue eyes in front of me. "... I didn't buy you a Christmas present."
Lily half-laughed half-cried, her drenched red hair circling around my face.
"Neither did I," she said softly, smiling now.
"You have a better excuse," I said, smiling back.
After a long moment she pulled away and extended a pale hand for me to take. Water dripped from her fingers.
I grabbed the hand and she hauled me into a sitting position. That was when we both realized she was sitting on top of me.
"Will you love birds cut it out?" Karl snapped irritably, poking his head out from behind her. He was squeezing water from his sleeves. "I think we all would rather not barf after realizing the fact we could have just drowned."
All? Looking around, I realized that we were sitting on the layer of glass with more than a dozen other alive Hogwarts students as they wrung out their drenched clothes and hugged each other in relief.
We were on the glass at the very bottom of the lake and living.
The water was gone.
"Shut up, Karl," Scorpius said next to him, a grin on his face as he ran a hand through his wet hair. "The show must go on."
Scorpius and I locked gazes and a grin filled my face.
Lily smiled and adjusted my cloak, "I think I'll get off you now."
"That would be very much appreciated," I answered and she laughed, but as we both stood up to go separate ways I didn't want to unlock our hands. I didn't want to let go.
Seeing my agitation she leaned into my ear, "I'll wait for you on the side."
I approached Scorpius and he shook his head irritably.
"Damn you Charles," he said, making me laugh. "Do you have any idea what you put us through? You were out for like ten minutes."
"You could've been dead," Karl added, walking over. "But you're not. So ..."
I sighed, "No, I'm fine, thanks. How are you guys doing?"
They laughed and I punched them both hard in the shoulder when I realized Karl was holding his wand.
My jaw dropped.
"You brought them!" I exclaimed, staring in shock. "The wands!"
Karl nodded, "Yup. After you passed out, Scorpius swam over to go get you and that was when I realized the wands were in my other pocket," he explained, as if he hadn't just given us a solution to saving our lives too late. "Thank God. None of these people have wands, for some reason."
"I wonder why," Scorpius snapped, looking over his shoulder at the seventeen students who had been prisoners for the past month.
"Aaaand why aren't we escaping again?" I asked. "We're still on death eater territory. They can come in at any time and lock us ALL up this time."
"Relax," Scorpius looked over his shoulder to watch two fourth year boys cursing the death eaters angrily and then over another to see a sixth grade couple telling each other that they wouldn't let the other die.
"I have a feeling this will be a lot easier with the numbers we're shooting at them ..."