You Can't Say You Love Me

I sprinted down the hall, sliding around the corner and starting up the next corridor, casting a quick, haphazard glance behind me.

“She’s running!” Alecto’s voice shrilly echoed, magically magnified, through the castle. “Catch her!”

She didn’t have to order it like that, I thought to myself. I wasn’t going to run away or hide, just get the Carrows out of the Gryffindor common room and away from everyone else. Maybe I was a bit too worrisome, but I wasn’t taking any chances. There were several young, impressionable minds in there, and I didn’t want them acting like me or to get caught in the crossfire of a duel. I wouldn’t be able to bear having something like that on my conscience.

I ducked into a secret passage and sprinted through, ending up two floors beneath. I took another passage shortly after and ended up in the charms corridor. If my plan worked, I’d make my way to the Great Hall and there I would just stand and wait for some of the death eaters to find me. So far so good.

“She’s just one girl!” the shrill voice had probably woken up the entire castle by now. “Catch her! Don’t let her escape!”

As she finished shrieking, I threw the doors to the Great Hall open and strode in, not even bothering to look at where I walked. When I judged I was in the middle of the room, I turned and faced the open doors, gripping my wand tightly. All that was left to me now was to wait for them to check down here, to see if I was hiding on the lower levels or in the dungeons. And when they found me, I didn’t intend to go quietly.

Three more times, Alecto’s voice rang out, and once it was Amycus who gave orders, but finally a form appeared in the doorway.

“You the one they’re looking for?”

The voice was familiar, with a hard edge that sounded fake to me.

“Ami Carson,” I said in return, using my own fabricated, hard tone. “So yeah, it’d be me they’re chasing after.”

I raised my wand and pointed it at the figure, who I couldn’t see because the light was at his back. Mustering my darkest tone, I said, “I won’t go down without a fight. Are you ready?”

“No,” the voice said, the edge it had previously had now completely absent, “no, I’m not. What the hell did you do to piss them off this bad?”

“What are you so angry about, huh?” I asked, frowning, “You’re one of them, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you just try to take me in without question? Or are you scared?”

“Damn it, Ami!” the voice took care not to shout as the figure came closer. The way he said those words made me freeze, so that I didn’t even take action against him when he grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. “I don’t want them to catch you! I don’t even know why they’re after you! I…do you have to make this so difficult for me?!”

I caught a flash of familiar eyes and I gasped.

“Draco?!”

As if it was enough of an answer, he pulled me closer and pressed his lips roughly to my own. It was brief to say the least, but it was enough to remind me of what we had had in our time together.

“You need to get out of here,” he said forcefully, glancing fearfully back over his shoulder. “Leave! Get away! Don’t let them catch you!”

“I don’t have any way to get out, Draco!” I hissed, casting a glance of my own over his shoulder. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m as trapped in the castle as you are and there isn’t any way we can change that! At least if they take me somewhere, I might be able to get out and help the Order! It makes us enemies, but if that’s what it takes to save everyone then I will gladly do it! I want them to focus on me and forget about my father, forget about the rest of the Order, forget about Harry, so that we can win! I’ll do whatever it takes!”

“Ami…” Draco trailed off, then shook himself, “No! I can’t let you do that!”

“If you want to help so bad, let them capture me. It’s almost winter break, right? And you’ll be home for that. Find a way to free me then if you care so much. That is, if you’re willing to risk the wrath of the Dark Lord just to save the life of a measly, replaceable little bit of Gryffindor trash.”

“Draco! You’ve caught her! Good job, boy,” a voice said, and Draco froze, the expression on his mostly hidden face contorting into a combination of pain and fear. “Come along, Ami, it wouldn’t do to keep us waiting.”

“Sorry,” I whispered to Draco so the others couldn’t see or hear, then I hit him with a stunner and cast a hex at one of the people approaching.

“She’s still fighting!” Alecto’s voice howled. It seemed like I had hit her yet again.

Flashes of light permeated the once dim Great Hall and a loud crack indicated the curse that hit the floor at my feet as I dodged a stunning spell. Soon, there were several loud explosions and crashes, and I’m sure the whole school heard the fight happening between one seventh year Gryffindor girl and the five death eaters currently stationed at Hogwarts. It was sure to become the stuff of temporary Hogwarts legend, I thought wryly as I rolled to avoid an actual killing curse as Amycus bellowed, “We need her alive, dope!”

He was the real dope, I wanted to say, but an impediment jinx blasted me off my feet and another blew up the floor nearby. I landed hard amongst the rubble from the second jinx, and was cut on the arm by flying debris.

Ropes flew out of nowhere and bound me, and a sneering Fenrir Greyback loomed over me.

“Looks like we finally got her,” he said unnecessarily.

“She will be punished for this,” Alecto hissed, her voice shaking as she nearly waddled over. “Someone revive Draco and send him to his dorm! He’s done well.”

I heard the revival muttered by one of the death eaters I didn’t know as I was hauled to my feet by the Carrows.

“You did a wonderful job, Draco,” Alecto cooed, pinching my cheek as he looked towards us. “I’m sure you’ll be rewarded. Come now, Ami! A little punishment is in order before we send you off. Think of it as our farewell present!”

The statement was topped off with a cackle, but the thing most prominent in my memories of that night was not the torture, but the helplessly lost expression on the face of the once imperturbable Draco Malfoy.