Flower Petals

-21-

"Alstroemeria! Come on! We have to go!" Harry screamed dragging her, she fell to the ground, weak, her knees gave out forcing Harry to hold her up. His words echoed through the air as if he was saying them in slow motion. "ALLI! Come on!" Harry pulled her off her knees and onto her feet, he pulled her hand down the astronomy staircase. She turned back for a second, but Draco wasn't there.

Harry and Alli ran down the stairs and back to the main level underneath the astronomy tower. The hallways were empty, and a green shadow stuck to the stone walls. Echos shelled around them as their feet slammed against cobblestone. Harry's nails dug into her knuckles as he pulled her around corners, without any words or noise other then gasps for air and whimpers from Alli.

The courtyard was completely full with spectators, all in there afternoon robes, and all looking into the center of the crowd, or up in the air.

The sky was carved with a green and black dark mark, it was clouded and evil. Its eyes stared down the crowd, finding every possible speck of insecurity and fear, amplifying it like a megaphone. The air was thick and every breathe felt like drowning in tar, the students were heavy, only two thirds of them seemed to be in the courtyard, but the castle was empty.

Those who weren't scarred by this, present here and now, were traumatized by a life forced upon them until this very moment, when they followed their families into darkness.

Ravenclaws, Gryffindors, and one Hufflepuff, missing in action.

Harry threw people aside so that they could pass through the crowd.

"Move!" he screamed, shoving people aside. Hermione, Ron, George and Ginny were already in the front, Hermione was on the ground next to Dumbledore compressing his chest and breathing life back into him. Her hair stuck to her forehead, matted with sweat, and mascara ran down her cheeks. Her hands were covered with blood, sticking her fingers together and keeping her palms warm in the freezing air. She shivered, and she screamed behind her,

"Where's my wand?" she gasped "Ron get me my bloody wand!" Ron was pulled her off of him, wrapping his arms around her chest, pulling her to him and back from Dumbledore, who lay lifeless and soaking in blood as red as cherries. "No! No Ron let me go!" she screamed, clawing at him "He can't be dead, Harry Potter will not lose another father today!" she kicked against him, scratching at him leaving blood trails across his arms and cheeks, only the blood was not Ron's, it was Albus's.

"Mione!" he said, strained from holding her body weight up as she fought "Mione, he's gone leave him be!"

"No!" she said, struggling against him. She lost, slowly declining like a waterfall, all of his fight. Hermione gasped, shaking under the cold and the lack of air, "Ron he's dead..he's dead" she turned, collapsing onto Ron, tracing blood down his back.

Ginny was searching the crowd, she left no face un-turned like she was looking for a needle in a haystack, her eyes were precise and unhinged.

"Paula?" she screamed. She dug her hands into the hair on her scalp pulling just to ground herself in her own reality. "Paula?!"

George was pushing people aside, he was so tall that he could see over the crowd, Angelina was holding his hand but he let it go to search, he'd been out of the dorm with her when he heard the screams, he knew very little, but what he did know is that wizards and witches from every house were gone.

"Freddie?! Asshat?!" he wretched, it came from his gut like a feral call.

Harry jumped in front of Hermione, coming into her view behind Ron, and she grew immediately slack, Ron let her go and she fell into Harry's arms crying.