Isolation

42. Blaze

.

"Bollocks."

After glancing at his watch, Draco quickened his pace.

Due to his encounters with Pansy and Snape, he now had less than five minutes to head to Binns' office and meet Blaise, as planned. He'd barely left the third floor in his hunt for Granger between the various obstacles, and he was half-tempted to forgo the detour at Binns' office, but he wanted to search upstairs anyway, and perhaps Blaise had had better luck than him.

Climbing the quiet stairwell to the fourth floor, he managed to avoid two Death Eaters, ducking inside the niches where the suits of armour had once stood. On this floor, he could hear familiar voices echoing all around him, travelling up and down the corridors and meshing together in a nonsensical jumble of noise. Among the clashing voices he recognised Longbottom's, Finnegan's, Professor Sprout's, and several others, but it was impossible to distinguish from which direction they were coming.

He continued on, passing a couple of students whose names he couldn't recall, but they paid him no attention. The further he went, the more distant the voices became; but then, this section of Hogwarts had always been quiet, which was why he and some of his fellow Slytherins had chosen this spot to gather when they'd needed to remain unseen. The corridors here were confusing and dimly lit; it was only from years of mapping out the route in his head that Draco knew where he was going.

The building shook and he lost his balance, stumbling sideways as the sounds of screams pierced the air, possibly from outside or somewhere in the castle. He glanced out of a window and the carnage in the courtyard made him pause and gasp. Aside from the many Death Eaters duelling with the students and professors, there were Giants hurling rocks and destroying parts of the building, Acromantulas crawling over debris and scattered bodies, suits of armour battling like men.

Fuck, he needed to find Granger.

Gathering himself, he rushed down the corridor, taking the final corner before he was outside Binns' Office. He leaned against the wall to catch his breath, wiping away the sweat-gems on his forehead with his sleeve, but he didn't have long to rest. His head snapped up when he heard the fast slaps of footsteps approaching, and Blaise came barrelling around the corner, dragging a rather flustered and bruised Lovegood with him.

"Go, Draco!" shouted Blaise. "Run!"

"What the-

"Death Eaters - lots of them - heading this way," he panted. "Move!"

The three of them sprinted down the hallway, and Draco could hear the horde of Death Eaters now, catching up to them. They took a left, then another left, finding themselves near one of the library doors, but they kept going until Blaise tucked himself into a niche yanking Lovegood in with him, and Draco followed. Safely concealed in the hollow, the trio waited, too breathless to speak, their chests aching with the effort to remain as quiet as possible. Blaise cautiously poked his head out, inspecting his surroundings for a moment before he released a loud and laboured sigh.

"Must've lost them," he breathed, turning to Lovegood and tilting her chin."You alright?"

"I'm fine, thank you," she replied politely, leaning up on her tip-toes to peck his cheek.

"Good. Right, we need to find Miles and the others."

"Wait a minute," said Draco. "I still need to get Granger."

"You didn't find her?"

"Does it fucking look like I did?" he snapped, incredibly irritated that Blaise had successfully managed to locate his witch while he remained empty-handed. "I barely left the third floor! Have you seen her anywhere?"