Blair felt her energy begin to diminish once the werewolf had left the corridor in true loser style. She let her arm fall to her side and felt it swing limply, her body swaying to shift her weight from foot to foot. The corridor was quiet besides the faint sounds of explosions from other places in the castle but there was no time to relax. Blair sighed and turned around to check the other side of the hall, only to remember that Lavender Brown's body had been lying behind her.
Getting on to her knees, Blair could see no movement from the girl yet. Her skin was still grey and her once luscious, wavy hair was limp against her shoulders. The Hogwarts uniform looked wrong on her as it was usually worn by a lively, young student who had a whole life ahead of them. It was abnormal to see Lavender's corpse wearing it. Especially when her eyes were closed, and she was looking as if-
Blair froze. When she had first found the girl's body on the floor of the hall, Lavender's eyes had been open. They had been staring at the arches of the ceiling without focusing on any aspect in their coldness. But her eyes were closed. The girl's lashes lay over her cheeks and her chapped lips had parted to show the edges of her two front teeth.
Blair thought she was seeing things. She was sure that Lavender's eyes had been open before she was distracted by Fenrir Greyback's appearance. Her cold skin had not yet changed, but her eyes were certainly closed. If one were to think she was only sleeping, they would be believed. Lavender had changed since Blair had first tended to her. She had at least slid her eyes shut either consciously or not, but the movement wasn't something that was the characteristic of a corpse.
"Lavender?" she found herself calling. "Lavender, can you hear me?"
She felt foolish talking to someone who had just been staring coldly at the ceiling and pronounced dead. But she couldn't assume that she had been going crazy. If Lavender's eyes had slid shut, it could mean that she was alive. It could mean that Blair's potion had worked and revived the girl from the afterlife.
"Lavender?" Blair called again and took hold of the witch's shoulders. She shook them lightly and watched as her head fell to the side as limp as dead meat. This made Blair's heart drop and all hope in reviving Lavender was lost. Living peoples' heads didn't roll on to their shoulders like that. There was no structure or muscle in that neck. She was dead. Blair's potion was a waste of time and money.
But then she groaned. Lavender groaned like someone who has slept heavily yet is unaware of their voices' actions during the night. Blair's stomach leaped into her throat and she took hold of Lavender's shoulders again. Shaking them with another call of her name, Blair waited for the girl to sit upright like a vampire in its coffin. Lavender groaned again and it was like an angel singing to Blair's ears.
"Blahhmmhmm..." words now started to fall from Lavender's lips. Even though Blair had been positive and told herself that the potion would work, she can't believe that it actually did. Lavender was alive and talking as if she hadn't just been stone cold dead minutes ago.
"Blahhmm," the witch's eyes cracked open and saw the grinning face of Blair. "Bla... Blair Rosier?"
"Yes! That's me!" she cried and let out a madman's laugh. "I'm Blair Rosier! Lavender, you're awake and this is absolutely, positively brilliant!"
Pushing aside her immense exhaustion and the sour taste in her mouth, Lavender watched as the girl she only knew from sight and rumours laugh over her. She was confused as to why she was lying on the ground of a corridor with Blair Rosier laughing over her with tears gathering in her eyes. Her head ached and she couldn't remember what had happened before she passed out; at least that's what she think had happened. Why else would she be disorientated and on the floor? She must have passed out from a wound or from the overwhelming idea of the school being torn down by Death Eaters. Blair, however, was something that her brain couldn't make up an excuse for. She had no idea why the witch who she had heard was dating one of Ron Weasley's brothers was here with her.
"W-What's going on? Did we win?" Lavender questioned and even sat up, making Blair grin even wider and force her legs to resist tapping together in pure glee.
"Not yet. We're working on it," Blair answered, taking Lavender's shoulders and helping her stand. "But you need to find somewhere to hide. I'm not having you dying again after all of that."
"What do mean 'again'? Dying? What?!" Lavender stared at Blair but the eldest shook her head with a wave of her hand.
"Nevermind. Just head to the Great Hall. I'm sure that's where they've set up an infirmary," she made sure the girl could stand on her feet before letting go of her shoulders. She then turned around to start heading the opposite way down the corridor, leaving Lavender to splutter and squeak after her.
"W-Wait! What's going on?! What happened to me?! Blair?!"
Blair ignored her and knew that she would be smart enough to do what she had told her. Lavender was the first person to be revived by the potion and Blair was planning to save everyone she saw. Running through the halls, Blair kept her eyes peeled for others who she could bring back into the living. Her shoes clapped against the tiles and her breaths were heavy through the thick air. She could feel the bottles of pure life clanking together in her pockets and she pulled one out to hold, telling herself she had done the impossible.
She had never felt so energised. The exhaustion that coated her veins before seemed like it was a life time ago. She felt that she had never been tired once in her life. The potion may have brought back Lavender's life, but it reignited a spark in Blair's that made her seem invincible.
She nearly gasped aloud when she saw another body lying in a courtyard. She could see it was a young boy and his Hogwarts robes were covered in dust and debris. But he wasn't alone as another Hogwarts student could be seen duelling a Death Eater in the clearing of the courtyard. Blair suspected that the boy lying on the floor had been a friend of the other and he was trying to avenge his death. But the boy was struggling and was seconds away from fumbling over his spells and meeting the same fate.
Swishing her wand, the Death Eater began to shrink and grow large antlers. A cockroach replaced him and the student who had been losing his duel stepped back in complete shock. The bug scurried through the grass in an attempt to escape but was sent up in a small explosion sent by the avenging Hogwarts student. The tiniest of squeaks was heard before the smoke cleared and a burn mark was all that was left of the Death Eater.
"T-Thanks!" the boy said as he turned around to see Blair standing there. "I wouldn't have won that without you."
Blair nodded at him and sent him a small smile, before diverting her eyes towards the body inches from her. The boy in front of her followed her gaze and Blair could see his entire being sag. His frown was deep and his eyes became cold, the sight of his friend lifeless brewing the deepest of pains in his heart. He gulped and forced his head away from the corpse, looking at the sky through the hall's window pane in hopes of a distraction.
"I can help him," Blair spoke up and lowered into a crouch beside the boy. "I can bring him back."
"Help him?" he whipped his head around with a flare in his expression. "He's dead! You can't bring him back!"
"I understand that you're upset. You have every right to be. This never should have happened to either of you," Blair gestured her hand to his friend and the boy himself. She was wary with saying things that could be taken as being condescending and cruel. She realised that stating she could bring someone back from the dead sounded absolutely barbaric and could only be an attempt at a joke. Tears had begun to well up in the boy's eyes and Blair felt awful for making him think she was playing with his vulnerability. He was young and could only be a third or fourth year. Only a sociopath would do such a thing to someone so young.
"Take this," she decided to hold out the bottle she had in her hand. "I know it sounds insane but believe me, it'll work."
The boy looked at her with a hint of fear and eyed the milky contents of the bottle with suspicion. This girl he vaguely found familiar had turned up, turned a Death Eater into a cockroach and was now offering him some beige milk that would apparently bring his friend back from the dead. It sounded like a story from the Tales of Beedle the Bard; only much more sinister and cruel.
Going against his better instinct, he took the potion from Blair's hand and nodded robotic-like. She gave him another smile before standing to her feet. Giving him one last look of encouragement, she turned away and headed through the halls to the next part of the castle. The boy watched her leave and felt his attention being pulled back towards the body on the floor. He gulped down his tears and fell down beside his friend, uncorking the bottle and dribbling its contents down his throat.
Rustling around in her pocket for another bottle, Blair started heading back towards the Entrance Hall. She assumed that most of the causalities would be there as it was where the first fleet of Lord Voldemort's army hit the castle with full force. Judging by how high in the sky the moon was, it had to have been past midnight. Maybe one or two in the morning. This meant the battle had been going on for over five hours. That was enough time for an entire village to be wiped out; especially with ruthless ad merciless Death Eaters in the mix.
Blair reached the corridor that led out to the school grounds where Hagrid's hut once lived. The home that was loved not only by its owner but by the majority of Hogwarts, had been burnt down because of one of Bellatrix Lestrange's many lunatic sprees of destruction. She could see the night sky over the hills and forest that were bound to be full of impending followers of You Know Who. For a moment, the quietness settled into Blair's chest and put her at ease. It was dark and the torches that once lined the castle's walls had dimmed to near cinders. For a moment, her mind went blank and her breathing had soothed to a soft pattern. For a moment, everything faded into nothing.
In some part of her brain, the footsteps that were creeping up behind her pulled her out of her daydream (or night-dream, if you will). She was able to whip around and swipe her wand to cast the Protego spell. Her eyes went wide and she cursed herself for falling into fake solitude in the middle of a battle. The spell that had been meant for her hit the arch of the corridor above her causing stone and dust to fall in her hair.
"Eyes on the back of your head, have you, Rosier?"
Blair should have guessed she would be faced with this man again. It wouldn't be a full circle if she somehow avoided a confrontation with the man who had near started it all. With Fletcher gone, there was one Death Eater left to face. His bald head shined in the moonlight and if it had been a different situation, she would have laughed about its smoothness. He smiled maliciously at her and tossed his wand back and forth between his hands, reminding her that he was a complete lunatic.
"Nice to see you again," he cheered. "I heard you found about your father and finished Potts off for good. I'm impressed. Your father would also be impressed."
Fiddling with the hilt of her wand, Blair pressed her lips together while glaring at the nameless man. She had no interest in finding out his name. She planned to get rid of him. Her conscience would never clear know this man was somewhere grinning and swishing his wand about as if it was a play wand. She didn't care for more meetings with the man despite the information he had given her that led to finding out about her father's potions. He was the chip on her shoulder that she wanted to crush into particles of dust.
"I know that look," he grinned and lost the playful look in his eyes instantly. "You want to finish this, don't you? Alright, Rosier. Give it your best."