Little Memories

Charlotte, Crabbe, Draco, and Gregory were peeking from the crack of an abandoned door. They could hear the sounds of the battle finally starting, surprised screams and crashes echoing up to where they were and occasionally shaking the stone of the room around them. It would only be a matter of time now, they knew, before they’d have to face death head-on and be brave. They could either overcome it and live or die. Charlotte could tell something was different about Crabbe. He was anxious, but not in the way that Gregory and Draco were. It was almost like he was looking forward to get a jab at Harry Potter or possibly be the one that kills him. Charlotte hadn’t been very much on edge before, but when she noticed the maniacal gleam in his eyes, she was very much on edge. Things were all going according to plan and it was a fact that scared her.

“When are they going to show up?” Gregory asked softly as a few frightened students bolted down the corridor in front of them. The low, bass of spells hitting the protective bubble placed around the school had disappeared and Charlotte knew that the thousands of supporter of the Dark Lord were probably charging at the school at the moment.

“Give it time, Gregory,” Charlotte said in a hushed tone, “they’ll be here, I promise.” Draco had his eyes on Charlotte the entire time, a stupid move, he knew, but he wanted to make sure that her face and her emotions didn’t bend to tell him anything. She still hadn’t calmed his fears much with her words and he was waiting for that barrier she had built to slip just the slightest bit so he could see what she was actually feeling. She remained like stone and her facial expression was impassive as ever. He almost had forgotten how in control Charlotte as of her emotions and how they played out on her face.

Charlotte could feel Crabbe nearly jump out of his skin when he heard voices coming from the end of the corridor and the sound of a loud crash then settling dust. Then, the persons they had been waiting for rounded the corner. Charlotte glanced over to Draco for a moment, their eyes connecting for on infinitesimal moment that also seemed to stretch on forever, before she turned and watched as Harry Potter began to pace in front of the stretch of wall that Charlotte and Draco had known so well the year before. Hermione and Ron glanced around nervously behind them as the door appeared and soon enough, the three of them were entering the room without a second glance backwards.

Crabbe was the first to break free from the room and walk out into the hallway, Gregory followed him on mere nervous impulse, Draco left after him, but not after shooting Charlotte a worried look. Charlotte was the last to leave the room as a boom rattled somewhere down below the floor they were on. Draco had stepped to the front and was pacing across the footsteps that Harry had just walked across. The door revealed itself yet again to the Hogwarts students and Crabbe barreled past Draco to get though the door. Charlotte was about to reach out and catch Gregory’s shirt to prevent him from following but he had already followed behind Crabbe.

“Just go and follow them, Draco,” Charlotte said softly, turning and looking over at the two of them. “Stay behind them, your mother’s wand won’t listen or cooperate like you need it to,” she added, placing a hand on his back and looking over at him. Draco’s brow furrowed slightly as he looked down at her, his heart thudding hard in his chest with anxiety and fear.

“But what about you, Charlotte,” he asked softly, looking into those beautiful blue eyes of hers. She merely shook her head a bit and let out a soft sigh.

“I’ve got my own plan. Just stick to my brother,” she said, giving him an encouraging, yet soft shove on his back Draco merely nodded and looked down at her. He wanted to lean down, to kiss her lips one more time before they entered the room, but a loud, large boom, larger than anything they had heard before, resonated down the adjoining corridor. Debris and rubble shot toward them and Draco quickly shoved Charlotte in the room and closed the door behind the two of them. For a moment, they could hear the sound of the stone masonry and brick barraging the door, but then all noises of the battle faded.

Draco went to turn to Charlotte, to get a glimpse of her face one last time before they went in their opposite directions, but all he saw was her curly blonde hair before she turned a corner of piled up junk and disappeared from his sight. Draco let out a discontent hum before turning and jogging to catch up with Crabbe and Gregory, who were walking shoulder to shoulder and glancing around the forgotten items and flotsam and jetsam forgotten by long gone students of Hogwarts.

“Where could they have gotten to?” Gregory asked softly, his wand held up at the height of his shoulder, as if he were prepared to duel to the death. Draco swallowed hard as he looked between Crabbe and Gregory. They had been friends since he could remember. If one of them should die in this, Draco would be beside himself. Still, it wouldn’t be half as bad as if Charlotte died. The icy, yet hot feeling of adrenaline shot through his body at that thought.

Charlotte rounded a corner and noticed that Hermione and Ron were looking through the many aisles of items for the one thing they had entered the room for. She smiled slightly, as she noticed that they were hand in hand, they wands lifted as they looked over everything. They turned a corner and went out of Charlotte’s line of sight. She spotted two broomsticks among the nearest pile of junk and she tugged them clear of the junk and had them levitate midair. They would be needing those by the end of all this. Now, she could only hope that they would find it without her guiding the three, or five, towards them.

“Hold it, Potter,” she could hear Draco’s icy tone, yet the fear that lay beneath it and she stiffened a bit. A shaky sigh escaped her as she pulled her wand from her cloak pocket. She gathered herself, since she could feel her brave façade falling, and then peeked around the corner. She could see Crabbe and her brother standing in front of Draco, who had his wand pointed at Draco through the gap in their shoulders. Charlotte could tell Draco was scared, but he did a really good job at hiding it from Harry.

“Why aren’t you three with Lord Voldemort?” Harry asked, raising Draco’s wand toward the three of them. Charlotte stepped out from behind him, peering over Harry’s shoulder to Draco. Harry spun to look at her, giving her a look before turning back to the other three.

“We’re going to be rewarded,” Crabbe spoke proudly. “We ‘ung back and thought we’d bring you to ‘im.” It took everything for Charlotte not to roll her eyes at him, but she managed not to.

“Good plan,” Harry murmured, shooting a look over his shoulder at Charlotte. She stared hard at him, hoping to convey that she wasn’t here to hurt him with that single look. She noticed he was edging toward this old bust with a wig and the diadem he sought on it. Harry turned his eyes back to the three in front of him; the ones he knew were trying to take a jab at him. He trusted Charlotte, she knew, and he knew that she was on his side.

“Harry, are you talking to someone?” Ron’s voice echoed from behind a row of stacks of junk and Crabbe spun around waving his wand and bellowing a spell that caused the teetering, precarious stack of junk to begin to fall. It seemed everything was going to hell after that. Harry had turned and pointed his wand at the stack of rubbish and junk.

“Finite,” he screamed, halting the avalanche before it happened. At the same time, Draco had turned to Crabbe, furious with him.

“STOP! The Dark Lord needs him alive!” Draco yelled at him, his voice echoing off the cathedral ceilings of the room. Charlotte merely began to take steps back, providing Harry an easy escape if he needed it.

“Harry?” Hermione asked breathlessly, barreling past Charlotte and watching Harry with wide eyes. Crabbe’s attention then went to her instead.

“It’s that Mudblood!” Crabbe bellowed, lifting his wand and aiming toward her. “Avada Kedavra!” Hermione dove out of the way and Harry shot a Stunning Spell toward him. Crabbe dove to the side, knocking Draco’s wand from his hand and sending it rolling beneath one of the piles of junk. Within a matter of moments, Crabbe and Gregory were shoulder to shoulder again and Harry had disarmed Gregory in their moment of hesitance. Hermione charged toward the two of them as Harry scrambled to help Ron and find the diadem at the same time. Crabbe shot another Killing Curse to Hermione, who deftly dodged it and hit Gregory with a Stunning Spell. Charlotte watched as he brother collapsed to the floor and helpless, wand-less Draco ducked behind a wardrobe.

“It’s over there!” Harry bellowed as Crabbe raised his wand, a wicked grin curling his lips. “It’s over there!” Suddenly, a low rumbling nose began to reverberate through the room and Charlotte turned and began to run down the aisle just beside the one where all the action was happening just as she heard Crabbe ask, “Like it hot, scum?” Charlotte let out a shaky breath of air as she felt the heat from the fire and began to see it creeping over the tops of the silhouetted junk heaps. Over the roar of the fire that had soon grown out of control, she heard three sets of footsteps running behind her and disappearing beyond another row.

She pumped her legs even harder as she stopped at the end of a row as the chimaeras of fire began to overtake the aisle they had all just been down. She turned a corner and nearly ran headfirst into Draco, who was pulling her unconscious brother along. A sharp gasp escaped the both of them as smoke and heat surrounded the two of them and they met eyes.

“He practiced this spell last Christmas, what’s going wrong?” Draco asked her. Charlotte merely shook her head and looked up at Draco, finally letting all her emotions show to him. He deserved that much instead of having her blatantly lie by hiding everything from him.

“He’s not thinking clearly, he’s too angry and set on killing nearly everything in sight,” she called over the roar of fire as a fiery serpent crashed down on a pile of junk just beside them, sending a wave of heat toward the two of them. “Carry my brother up that pile of desks, climb as high as you possibly can,” she yelled to him. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, I’m going to try and get Vincent to safety and control the fiendfyre.” She placed her hand on his arm wanting to give him a kiss or a hug or something before she ran off, but the fire was much too close and there wasn’t any time left. He had enough time to get to safety and she wanted to save her childhood friend.

“No, wait,” Draco cried as Charlotte turned and bolted down another row, directly toward the fire. “He’ll save himself, just don’t-” She was too far gone to hear him and Draco immediately began to pull Gregory up the stack of desks. Draco let out a grunt as he lugged the unconscious body of Gregory Goyle up a stubborn stack of disregarded desks. Just as he got about halfway up, he noticed the fire was surging around the bottom of the stack of desks. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. Charlotte was down there in that mess, trying to save a friend of theirs from imminent death, death that she would face if she didn’t get out of this room soon enough.

“CHARLOTTE!” He yelled, but the roar of the fire was so great that he couldn’t even himself yelling out to the girl he loved. Fire surged around the stack of desks once more and a scream escaped him before he could help it. The fire had taken the form of a raptor and it was clawing at the row of desks. Draco could feel the desks beginning to wobble beneath him just as he managed to get to the top of them. He looked up and around, for any sort of safety or savior. Just at that moment, he saw Harry on one broomstick and Ron and Hermione on the other. Harry stretched out his hand and Draco mirrored the gesture immediately.