Another Year at Hogwarts

Coward. That was the word echoing through the air as Snape and I fell towards the ground. I tightly clutched onto Snape and my face was buried against his chest. I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer because I couldn’t stand to see the stone ground quickly approaching Snape and me.

But suddenly, I felt myself being tugged in all directions. There was a pressure on me that made it hard to breath. Within moment, though, I felt ground beneath my feet and air came flooding into my lungs.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself staring at Hogwarts. Snape had Apparated us to a cliff a few miles away that overlooked the castle.

“Stay here and wait for the others,” he ordered as he took my hands and slipped out of my grasp.

“Where are you going?” I asked while turning to him.

“You know where I have to go,” Snape said without looking back at me.

“Snape. Snape, stop!" I ordered, but he kept walking. "Severus!” I shouted before he could Disapparate away. “Don’t go—please,” I begged. “Please don’t—”

“There are things in this life we must do, even if we don’t want to,” Snape said in response. “We all have our parts to play.”

“SEVERUS!” I bellowed as I raced towards him. But before I could reach him, he had Disapparated.

Just then, a bright light shined from behind me. As I turned around, I could see series of white lights being shot into the sky from within the castle. The lights hovered above Hogwarts for a moment before they all exploded in unison. Slowly, the light spread over Hogwarts like a lit mist—creating this sphere of protection around it.

I inhaled deeply as the light from the protection spell faded. As it did, I could hear the sound of countless people Apparatting to where I was. I then took a small step back as a large smoke of appeared before me, and then take the form of Voldemort.

“It seems like Victoria has beaten us here,” Voldemort laughed as he turned to face his minions.

“My Lord,” I addressed with a small bow of courtesy.

“Where is Severus?” he questioned.

“Probably trying to find some way to penetrate the defenses the teachers have put up,” I lied.

“Or the coward ran away,” Bellatrix commented from behind me.

“They never learn,” Voldemort laughed as he turned around and faced the castle. With a heavy sigh, he said, “What a pity.”

Despite his words, I could feel the sinister grin forming on Voldemort’s face. He enjoyed this. It was the moment he had been waiting the last seventeen-some years for.

“Let’s begin,” ordered Voldemort.

With that, all the Death Eaters around my rose their wants and pointed them at Hogwarts. Within moments, the air was filled with flares from wands. Continuous explosions were heard as the spells made contact with the barrier around Hogwarts. Despite all their attacks though, the barrier didn’t looked like it was going to come down any time soon.

“Victoria!” I heard someone call from behind me.

I quickly spun around and looked into the crowd of Death Eaters. I then dove into the group in search of the person who had called out for me.

“Draco!” I exclaimed when I saw him fighting through the crowd to get to me.

“You’re all right!” he gasped as he finally reached me.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “Snape—we got out of there before anything really began. And you? How are you?”

“Better, now that I know you’re all right,” Draco smiled as he reached out and took my hands.

I immediately gasped and pulled my right hand away the moment he touched it. We both looked down at my hand, and it was only then that I remembered the burn I had gotten.

“What happened to your hand?” he asked as he gently took my hand by the fingers.

“Got into a little fight with McGonagall before getting out,” I explained. “It’s all right, though. I’m fine.”

“When we got the news that Potter was at Hogwarts… I was…so worried about you,” Draco confessed.

My grip tightened around Draco as I stared into his eyes. “D—Draco,” I whispered, “I have to tell you something.”

Before I could say anything else, though, a loud gasp was heard from the front of the group. Draco and I withdrew our hands as we turned to look at the ground of the crowd. It was Voldemort, and he sounded like he was in pain.

From where and Draco and I stood, I could see Voldemort stumbled backwards a bit. He then remained frozen and looked as though he was trying to catch this breath. Then, out of the blue, a fearsome yell escaped his lips and he thrust his wand before him. A beam of light shot out from the tip of his wand and into the protection barrier.

The earth shook beneath all our feet as Voldemort’s attack came into contact with the barrier. The sky then blazed a deep red as the protection spell slowly crumbled to pieces. As the barrier fell to the ground, it evaporating into thin air.

Gleeful roars were heard around Draco and me as Death Eaters began Disapparting. The invasion of Hogwarts had begun.

“Draco?” we heard coming from within the crowd of Disapparting Death Eaters. Out of the black mist appeared Narcissa. “Victoria? What are you doing here?” she asked when she saw me. “Aren’t you supposed to be with Severus?”

“I think he was trying to find a way into the castle when I last saw him,” I replied.

“Well, I want the two of you to stay close to me,” Narcissa insisted. She then sighed heavily before adding, “You two shouldn’t even be here. This is no place for children.”

“You know I can’t do that, Mum,” said Draco. “I have my orders.”

“‘Orders’?” I repeated. “You mean the Dark Lord expects you to go in there?”

“I have to go,” Draco whispered to me.

“No! You can’t!” I objected as I grabbed hold of his hand. “You can’t go in there, Draco. It’s a suicide mission.”

“I have to,” he replied. He glanced passed me at Voldemort and said, “I’ll be dead anyways if don’t go.”

“But—but you—Narcissa!” I exclaimed as I turned to her. “You can’t let him go. You know how dangerous this is!”

From the look on her face, I could tell that she didn’t want Draco to go either. But she knew—and I guess I understood, too, that if Draco didn’t go, Voldemort would kill him for sure. So, instead of saying anything, Narcissa just turn and walked away. For the safety of her child, she was going to let him go off to battle.

“Let go of me, Victoria,” Draco said as he tried to pull his hand away.

“No!” I cried as I pulled him back. A tear slipped from my eyes as I begged him not to go in. I knew he was going to be all right, but that didn’t mean that allow him to go into battle would be easy. “I don’t want you to go. So for me, please don’t go.”

“Are you starting to care for me again?” Draco said with a small smirk.

“I will always care for you.”

Draco looked down at our locked hands before approaching me slowly. He then wrapped his free hand around me and pulled me in for a warm embrace.

“I’m going to be all right,” he whispered to me. He then parted from me, but our gaze were still on each other. “I promise you that I’ll come back,” Draco said while taking a few steps away from me. A bright smile came onto his face as he said, “We do have a lot of discuss, after all…Violet.”

And with those final words, Draco Disapparated.