Blair didn't hesitate to fire her string of hexes, jinxes and curses as soon as the man had shut his smarmy mouth. But as prepared as she was, the Death Eater was two times more. He began to whisk his wand in all directions to deflect and block her spells. The corridor was filled with flashes of green, yellow, red and blue. The torches lining the wall were the inferior sources of light now that spells were being thrown back and forth between the two.
The Death Eater acted as if it was child's play. Every spell that was cast by Blair he was able to block and pre-empt. The exhaustion that Blair had previously thought had washed away forever suddenly returned and coated the insides of her limbs. Her arms were beginning to sag and her eyelids wanted to drop. She suspected that the man had cast a sleeping charm at some point to make her feel this way, but she somehow doubted this. She and Fred had been dreary and sluggish before arriving at Hogwarts thanks to the potion's brewing process and she barely had any sleep the night before. There was also the event with the giant who swung his sword around her head multiple times. Everything pointed to some good old basic human exhaustion.
But she forced herself to go on. Human nature wasn't favouring her in this battle but she refused to let it take over. Blair pushed herself to cast all the spells she could think of; the levitating spell, the fire-making spell, the water-making spell, the stunning spell. But all were futile. This man seemed to never tire and could see her sluggish wand work. His lips hitched into a smirk and he decided to take a step closer, shorting the distance between them by the slightest. And then he took another. And another.
Blair panicked. He was getting closer to her and she had nowhere to go. Turning her back on him would be a fatal mistake. She couldn't slip behind a pillar or a convenient wall because they were all reduced to rubble. The hallway was closing in and the man was within ten feet of her. The sweat ran down her back and her breathing was heavy. No potion could save her now. No matter how talented she was at the skill, only prestige magic could stop the advancement of this man.
She nearly cried out when her fire-making spell was swallowed by a jet of water produced by the man's wand. She wanted to cry. She had nothing left and grew unbelievably weak when her wand was sparked out of her hand and made friends with the wall furthest from her. The man grinned with a sparkle in his eye and stopped his advance towards her.
"I don't need to do much here, do I?" he rhetorically asked. He looked up to the sky that could be seen through the gaping hole in the ceiling and took a moment to breathe in the victory. Blair had never felt so helpless. It had been a foolish mistake to think she could save others when she couldn't save herself. Everyone she knew would be disappointed to hear she had been defeated by a man such as this one.
"I'm sorry, Rosier. I really am," he sulked and jutted out his lower lip. Giving her a look of feign sympathy, he flicked his wand and Blair soared through the air.
Her spine cracked as she hit the stone wall and her body collapsed to the ground with a dull thud. Her hair sprayed out around her and her skin was now caked in dirt, dust and blood. A gurgle left her throat and a string of redness leaked down her chin. She lay between the rubble and debris in agony.
Satisfied and feeling well fed, the Death Eater turned around and left her there.
---
"You have fought valiantly, but in vain. I do not wish this. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste. I therefore command my forces to retreat. In their absence, dispose of your dead with dignity. Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you. On this night, you have allowed your friends to die for you, rather than face me yourself. There is no greater dishonor. Join me in the Forbidden Forest, and confront your fate. If you do not do this, I shall kill every last man, woman and child who tries to conceal you from me."
Those of Voldemort's army sneered at their opponents before reluctantly retreating towards the bridge. The Entrance Hall flowed with Death Eaters, giants, goblins and spiders that followed their Dark Lord's wishes. Crawling over fallen walls and still corpses, the area was soon void of evil momentarily. But their influence remained in the form of dead bodies. The Great Hall had become a base for regrouping making members of the Order, Hogwarts students and Professors head into the castle.
George had been in the Entrance Hall when the slithering voice of Voldemort filled his ears. With his father, he headed into the Great Hall with his feet dragging across the floor. He had fought and won many duels throughout the night and was desperate to rest. But with that rest was the desperation to see Blair. He had done his best to push the thought of Blair to the back of his head in order to focus on his charms and wand-work, but he allowed her to fill his mind once more.
He followed Arthur into the hall and saw lines of stretchers filling the sides. Professors he once caused havoc for were seen with bandages around their heads and scratches littering their limbs. Students he had seen during his school years lay motionless with their eyes staring at nothing above them. Bodies of Remus and Tonks lay side by side and tugged at his heart strings, forcing him to look away to the heels of his father's shoes.
"Oh my boy... my poor boy..."
George nearly didn't recognise his father's voice. It was broken and near inaudible. He looked up in confusion and found that Arthur had stopped to face the right side of the aisle. Several bodies lay on stretchers but one had a group surrounding it that stood out from all the others. George realised that it was his family. Even Percy stood in between Bill and Charlie after joining his family after years of believing the Ministry was his true family.
It took a moment for George to register what his family was surrounding. He thought it had been a mirage. Maybe he had hit his head during the battle and was hallucinating. But considering the fact his mother was bawling into Bill's shoulder and Ginny needed to be held up by Charlie, George knew he was seeing what they did. A high pitch ringing filled his ears and he lost all strength in his legs, swaying into Arthur who had stepped beside him.
Fred's eyes were clear and lifeless. His eyelids were low over his irises and his skin was like cement. The orange in his hair had dulled to a deep grey and his clothes that were identical to George's looked wrong on his lanky, limp body. The stretcher that sat underneath him disappeared from his height, but it couldn't hide the fact that Fred was dead. A trickle of blood had fallen down his temple and cheek, but the cause of his death was no doubt the killing curse. No other fatal scars were seen on his body, leaving his death seamless and unnatural.
It was as if George was being faced with a boggart. It was too surreal to comprehend. Fred couldn't be dead. Fred always came out okay no matter how dangerous or stupid the situation. They had survived Umbridge, for Merlin's sake. They had been a team since birth; he couldn't just leave George by himself. The pain was yet to sink into his chest and make living indescribably painful. The denial coated his mind and the numbness protected him from the agony that was itching to settle in.
"George?George, where are you going?" Percy called after him but he ignored hisbrother.
He fell through the double doors of the hall and stumbled through the corridors. His mind could only focus on one thing; Blair. Fred wasn't dead. He was fine. He would be fine without him for a couple more minutes. But Blair, Blair could be hurt. Blair could be dead and he didn't even know. She was the last thing he had. He needed to find her and that's all his brain could comprehend from the last few minutes.
His stumbling turned into running and he soon was shooting through the corridors in search of Blair. He hadn't seen in her in the Great Hall so she had to be around here somewhere. Jumping over fallen walls and dodging flickering fires, George's heart pounded against his chest. He wasn't sure if he was thankful for the adrenaline that coated the despair scratching at his insides, but it made his legs push harder and his fatigue become the least important thing in the world right now.
He didn't see Blair's body at first. His feet skidded around the last corner and his stomach fell when he saw nothing but fallen bricks and cracked archways littering the floor. But then he caught sight of a familiar wand sitting against the bend where the wall meets the floor. Its star-engraved pattern immediately peaked his attention and he ran to pick it up, looking around the corridor for its owner. That was when he saw the tip of a soot-covered shoe laying behind a fallen pillar, making him sprint to find the rest of the body.
"Oh Merlin, Blair," he whispered, getting to his knees and pushing away the debris for him to crouch beside her. Under all the dirt and dust laid Blair's blood splattered body. Tears had already begun to fall down George's cheeks and he followed the trail of faint redness that seeped through her clothes. He came to her torso and found a thick puddle sitting on her jumper, causing a ping to dig through his heart.
His breath hitched in his throat as he pulled back the edges of her torn sweater to find a deep gash stretching from the bottom of her chest to the start of her waist. It was wide and he couldn't see any skin that wasn't covered and leaking with blood. His hands shook and the tears blurred his vision. The only thing that kept him from going insane was the slow rise of Blair's chest and the sudden breath that erupted from her gurgling throat.
"Blair? Blair..." he repeated and took hold of her cheek, staring at her pale face. Her eyes were open but were out of focus and her back rolled around with groans of pain. Her back was most likely broken and George's stomach plummeted further down his body ever time she groaned or coughed.
"George..." her voice was little and squeaky. George sniffled and used her wand in attempt to heal some of her injuries, but there was no use.
"I can help you... I can h-help, Blair," he rambled.
He slipped his arm under her knees and around her back, lifting her off of the ground. A small groan came from her and he apologised profusely, using a strong Espiskey charm to at least treat her back. A small crack was heard and the lightest of sighs left Blair's lips, the side of her head slacking against George's shoulder. Taking slow steps at first, George carried Blair away from the fallen debris and towards the Great Hall. When he found he wasn't hurting her further, he began to hurry down the corridor.
"Stay awake, Blair," he let out in a huff. "Please just stay awake."
She couldn't reply. She only focused on breathing which came out in loud pants with an occasional splutter of fluids filling her mouth.
"I c-can't, George," Blair whispered. "I-I'm sorry. I tried so hard. I t-tried but..."
"No, you did fine," he shook his head glanced down at her, seeing her glazed eyes looking up at him. "We still have to get married, remember? Remember that? Please Blair. You can't do this to me... not you... not you and Fred..."
"F-F...?" she tried to repeat but couldn't finish.
George worked on pumping his legs towards the Great Hall. His heart soared when he saw the double doors at the end of the corridor and picked up his pace. He could save her. Help was within reach. He shoved his shoulder against the wood and heaved it open, ignoring the ache that spiked at his muscle. The hall was still filled and he spotted his family still surrounding the body he had refused to believe was dead.
"I found her! She's okay!" he called out, making heads turn. "She just needs a potion or something! Something to cover the wound!"
"George..." his mother's voice was heard and he saw her already wet face covered with fresh tears. Molly stared at the girl in his arms before glancing up at her son, crestfallen and helpless.
"George, look."
He followed her gaze and found Blair's dark eyes vacant and unseeing; her body limp and cold.