Redamancy

• Chapter 1 •

The hero who is meant to be the villain:

☆ ☆ ☆

This wasn't how everything was meant to go down.

It was all planned out.

They were going to run away together, Nikolai Amare and Katherine Odium, before the Battle began. But he had quickly lost her in the chaos and now couldn't find her anywhere.

Thoughts of finding Katherine was all he could think about as he ran through Hogwarts, crashing into the figures that were still standing, and tripping on those who weren't.

Explosions echoed through the halls, and spells ricochet off of the tips of wands, its casters unrecognisable through the panic and fear drawn of their faces.

Who was who didn't seem to matter anymore, it was just a battle for survival. And survival was growing less probable by the second.

Nicolai wasn't sure who was winning and he wasn't sure whether he wanted to know.

Everyone was dying, and a dread was slowly consuming every nerve in Nicolai's body. Tears stung his eyes along with the ash of the fires that burned within the halls of which he had once taken refuge. A home away from the horrors of reality. A realistic form of escapism if you must.

Suddenly the few breaths of air that remained within his lungs were lost as he turned a corner.

In front of him stood Fred Weasley and his older brother, guards up and back to back, both dueling masked and hooded men.

Nicolai noticed that Percy Weasley was talking to the Minister of Magic, a 'fellow' Death Eater, in what seemed to be a joking manner.

Fred seemed to notice that too.

"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred, as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells.

'He's amazing' was a prominent thought that crossed Nicolai's mind as he took in the sight of the barely injured Weasley twin.

"You actually are joking, Perce."

Behind them Nicolai spotted his mother, her wand pointed to a wall and a destructive spell slipping past her tight lips.

'Watch out!' He thought in a split moment of panic.

He rushed forward, disobeying every command he was given by that same woman before the battle had even began.

"Watch out!" He screamed, this time aloud and through blackened lungs; but Fred didn't hear him.

"I don't think I have heard you joke since you were - "

The air seemed to explode just as the spell made impact with the now crumbling wall, and just as Nicolai's body made impact with a surprised Fred Weasley, throwing them both centimeters away from the wreckage.

His arms clutched desperately at the dirty clothes of the boy now positioned above him, his head tucked into Fred's chest as relief settled into his aching bones.