The Same Mistake

“Rennervate!” The word sounded like a whisper, floating past Ellie’s face and encompassing her entire being. With a rush, consciousness was thrust upon Ellie, she felt vaguely dizzy and weak.

Lifting herself slowly into a sitting position, Ellie registered the feel of down feathers beneath her, of bed hangings pulled to the sides, and of Sophi’s face hovering inches away from hers.

“Ellie! Ellie, are you alright?” Sophi questioned anxiously. But there was something else in her voice that caused Ellie’s heart to flip in her chest. Barely concealed in her tone, Sophi’s words came out panicked.

“Wh-“ Ellie shook her head, trying to clear the fog. “What’s going on?”

“Ginny . . . she brought you up here. Draco had you and – and you were unconscious. What happened?”

“Draco?” Ellie forced herself to throw off the last remnants of fog and dizziness.

“Yes . . . he had you with him and now –“ but Sophi’s words were drowned out as a sound that closely resembled thunder rumbled out from somewhere inside the castle.

Jumping to her feet, Ellie frantically searched the bed for her wand. “My wand! I need my wand! Where’s Ginny? Draco?” her words flew from her mouth as her fingers trembled. Finally, her fingers clasped the smooth wood.

“Ellie!” Sophi’s voice was shrill, “You should sit back down! You were attacked, you need rest.”

“No!” Ellie said fiercely. “I need to find them. Where are they?”

“Ellie, I don’t know,” she said anxiously. “No one knows what’s going on. There’s – there’s something going on in the castle. Ginny, Neville, Hermione, and Ron all took off shortly after Ginny brought you in. They told the rest of us to stay here. Ellie! Where are you going?”

Ellie raced down the stairs of her dormitory. She dashed past disgruntled Gryffindors as she flew through the Common Room and out of the Portrait Hole. A distance from her, the sounds of battle echoed against the ancient castle walls.

It had happened. What ever Draco had been planning, what ever purpose the Vanishing Cabinet was to serve, it had been done. Her heart wrenched.

“Draco!” Ellie screamed, her blood seeming to freeze in her veins. Where was Draco? “Ginny!” Both names were lost behind an explosion.

Without a pause for thought of her own safety, Ellie tore through the hallways of Hogwarts, tracing the sounds of the fight. Up and up she went, twisting ever closer to the Astronomy Tower. The closer she got, the louder the remnants of the spells became, the brighter the flashes of light were. Panting, Ellie reached the edge of the fight, blazes of light tore past her, whipping her hair in her face.

“Ginny!” Ellie screamed a second time, seeing a flash or bright red hair fly between two persons clothed in the all black of Death Eaters.

And though Ellie had made a pact with herself to join the Death Eaters, she did not spare one thought to fighting on their side. “PROTEGO!” A bright clear shield exploded from the end of her wand, coming to land between Ginny and a distressingly tall Death Eater.

“EXPULSO!” The Death Eater flourished his wand in Ellie’s direction.

She dove to the floor, the red and orange jets of light streaking mere centimeters overhead. The brunt of the spell hit part of the castle wall, exploding it into deadly shrapnel.

Rolling to the left, Ellie pointed her wand once more at the Death Eater, “Incarcerous!”

The Death Eater quickly deflected her spell, sending the ropes to the floor in a disgruntled heap. “Impedimenta!” Ginny shrieked, dodging out from behind Ellie’s spell shield. Her own spell caused the Death Eater to stumble backwards, hitting the floor with an invigorating thud.

“Neville needs us!” Ginny exclaimed, crawling across the floor to Ellie. Her face was covered in the soot of battle. Together, they rose from the floor, darting behind the flying curses of the group of Death Eaters, students, teachers, and persons Ellie didn’t recognize.

“IMMOBULUS!” The girls shouted together from their position behind the Death Eater who was dueling Neville. The Death Eater’s body became rigid, toppling to the floor, arm still outstretched with the wand pointed directly at Neville’s chest.

“Thanks!” Neville wheezed before immediately being intercepted by another fighter.

“No!” Ginny cried in frustration. “Stupefy!” The Death Eater dropped like cement to the floor.

Neville slung one arm around Ginny’s shoulder. “Thanks again!”

“Anytime,” Ginny said, slipping out from Neville’s grip and running straight into the heat of the battle.

“NO!” Ellie shouted in panic. Leaving Neville to fend for himself, Ellie chased after Ginny’s red mane, desperate that nothing harmful should befall her friend due to the actions of Draco.

At the back of her mind, Ellie wondered frantically where he was. She knew he would be fighting on the side of the Death Eaters and the idea of him harming one of her friends, well, it sent chills down her spine. How had it come to this? She wondered, flattening herself against the castle wall to avoid a jet of ice blue sparks.

Jabbing her wand in the direction of the attacker, Ellie yelled, “Lacarnum Inflamarae!” A ball of fire shot from the end of her wand, engulfing the robes of the Death Eater.

Hunched over, Ellie continued to scramble through the foray, gaining on Ginny who soon became entangled with a shorter, possibly female Death Eater. Ginny’s spell flew one after the other at the Death Eater, but the other deflected each one with an almost lazy flick of her wand. When the Death Eater turned her wand on Ginny, Ellie watched in near amazement as all the spells seemed to miss Ginny by mere centimeters every single time.

It was almost as if Ginny was being protected by some invisible force. Astounded, but still unwilling to leave her friend should the mysterious protection wear off, Ellie crept up beside Ginny, flourish her wand at the Death Eater, but her spell barely grazed the other.

“No!” Ginny shoved Ellie to the side. “I don’t need your help! You need to get out of here and stay safe.”

“Are you mad?” Ellie asked in disbelief, but her momentary distraction at Ginny’s bizarre words granted the Death Eater the time she needed. With one sufficient sweep of her wand, Ellie was lifted off her feet and thrown into a wall.

Her head snapped back, slamming against the stone with a sickening crack. Ellie slid limp down the wall, her head lolling to one side. Stars popped before her eyes, dazing her. She tried to get up, but the moment she shifted, Ellie’s entire world swung crazily. Her stomach twisted at the nauseating movement.

“Ellie!” Ginny called, but her voice sounded muffled as though she were kilometers and kilometers away rather than meters.

Ellie knew she needed to get up, get back to Ginny, find Draco, but her body simply wouldn’t move. Warm wetness dripped down the back of her neck. Moaning, Ellie watched in dismay as her world became darker, her vision tunneling. “N-non,” she mumbled, the word barely coming out. Ellie slipped further down the wall, slumping forward.

“Run, Ellie! Run!” Ginny’s terrified cry barely reach Ellie’s ear.

“Little girl,” an animalistic voice crooned so near Ellie that she felt the creature’s hot breath on the nape of her neck.
Panicked, Ellie tried to crawl away, but the sudden forward movement sent her body tumbling forward onto the stone floor rather than to safety.

“Is she hurt? Is the little girl injured?” the creature purred. Dipping its face to her, it sniffed her face, her neck, and paused. “Mm,” a hot tongue licked against Ellie’s skin, “blood.”

And Ellie knew in that moment that she was going to die. Here, on the rubble covered cement, with her head cracked open, and Draco’s ring digging painfully into her chest bone, she was going to be murdered. The fuzzy pieces clicked into place one by one. The voice, the words, the actions. Fenrir would be the one to kill her.

The last thing she saw before it all ended was a narrow face and white blonde hair. How very much she would have liked to be enough to save Draco from himself. But in the end, love wasn’t enough to save either one of them