A Serpent's Heart

Chapter 28. No Ordinary Summer's Day.

Emma and I had chosen a strategic position in the corridor by the courtyard. We were waiting in an abandoned classroom with the door open, so we had a good view on whoever was passing through the corridor. We weren't exactly sure what to do in case someone hostile did pass, but Emma suggested to simply stun them.

It was an odd scene, hiding in a classroom with a view on the appealing courtyard, where it normally would have been crowded with students. If it hadn't been for the screams and sounds of shattering glass and rock, it could've just been any other summer's day.  

I regretted my curt parting with Draco, but there was nothing I could do about it now. We had a battle to win! I had found hope in Professor Vector's calculations and decided: I won't die today. I repeated that phrase in my head like a mantra.

When I heard footsteps, I clutched my wand and hid right next to the door. Emma quickly stepped behind me. The footsteps came closer, and now I heard voices, too. Carefully, I peeked around the corner and saw Harry and Luna.

"Harry, Luna! Did you find the diadem?" I asked in a muffled voice.

"Not yet, but I'm on my way to the Room of Requirement. Luna, thanks for your help, but I can manage it myself now," Harry said. He looked knackered already, so I hoped he would make it through the night.

Harry continued and Luna joined us in the classroom. "What exactly are we doing here? There doesn't seem to be any action," Luna remarked. I looked at Emma and smiled awkwardly.

"We thought we could just quietly form an ambush here for wandering Death Eaters," Emma explained. We weren't in the heat of the battle, but at least we could say we were doing our bit.

Bang! A wall surrounding the courtyard came crashing down and a giant toddled through the debris. He was holding a screaming student in his rough hand.

"We have to help her!" Emma said. We hurried to the courtyard and started firing spells at the repelling giant.

"Reducto!" Emma yelled. The giant pulled his hand away in pain and dropped the student on the grass. The giant wasn't out of the way yet, though. After I had stunned it, a cold blast made me shiver and look around my shoulder in terror.

"Dementor!" I screamed.

The closer the hooded, floating figure came, the more I freaked out. My head felt heavy and I saw gruesome visions from the depths of my memory. As I was about to dissolve in the images of a bleeding Draco on the bathroom floor, my father studying Dark Arts and the dead body of Dumbledore, there was a bright light that pulled me back into reality. A hare had driven back the Dementor. It was Luna's Patronus!

"Let's get back to the classroom," Emma suggested.

Together with the rescued student, we ran back to the corridor and hid in the classroom again.

"Oh, before we run into another villain, take these," Luna said, and she took a few yellow sachets out of her pocket. "They're amulets that I've made with Hungarian quartz, they'll protect you," she smiled light-heartedly. "Put them in your pocket, I'm already wearing mine." I took the sachet and put it in my pocket, too. No harm, no foul, and since Luna was quite a gifted person when it came to creative magic, I did feel a little safer with these pebbles in my pocket. I also hoped Ollivander was right and my Redwood wand would give me extra luck.

"Listen, there are people in the corridor," Emma whispered. Indeed, I heard quick footsteps and curses bouncing off the walls. We held our wands at the ready and waited for the people to pass our classroom.

Two students and a Professor, Professor Slughorn, were being chased by two Death Eaters. I didn't recognise them, they were wearing their masks. Before they could fire another curse, my friends and I burst out of the classroom and Stupefied them.

"Well done, girls," Professor Slughorn panted. "You two, go!" he urged the students that were with him, and they left. The girl we had saved from the giant scurried away, too.

"I'll take care of-" the Professor was distracted by the sound of another crashing wall, and another giant, a few Dementors and a Death Eater, all fighting a bunch of students, including Neville, appeared on the courtyard.

Professor Slughorn immediately ran to the scene to help the students, leaving Emma, Luna and me with the two Death Eaters. Emma pushed me back in the classroom and we hid around the corner before the Death Eaters would recover. Luna dashed off to the courtyard to drive back the Dementors. She was good at conjuring a Patronus, but I hoped she wouldn't get too excited and get crushed by the giant or killed by the Death Eater. I tried to keep my breathing steady. I heard someone grunt and get up and I hoped the Death Eaters in the corridor would leave quickly. I wouldn't be able to battle them alone with Emma.

The Death Eaters were discussing something, but their voices were muffled through the thick wall and I couldn't hear what they were saying. When we heard footsteps at last, I heaved a sigh. "Let's help Neville and the others," Emma urged.

We left the classroom and headed for the courtyard, where a heated battle was being fought now. To my relief, I saw Luna was doing alright. There was a Death Eater right in front of us, with his back turned to us. I was about to attack him, but he turned around and something in me froze. Emma fired a spell, but the man in front of us effortlessly warded it off. He had removed his mask and now I saw who he was: my father, Parzival Tacendi.

Was he under the Imperius Curse? Did he recognize me? Or did he think I was a bad daughter for fighting against the Death Eaters? Was he going to kill me?

"Keira!" he exclaimed. "What on earth are you doing here?" So he did recognize me. I wasn't sure if I should be happy or not.

"I could ask you the same question," I asked scornfully.

"Do you have a burning mark on your wrist and a mad Dark wizard that'll finish you off if you don't do as you're told?" my father asked, not insensitively.

"Just a mad Dark wizard to finish off," I said casually. "And I forbid you to hurt students," I added.

"I wasn't going to. I just run after them, supposedly to curse them, but in reality I dispel them from the battle fronts," my dad replied.

I was touched, but it didn't really make sense to me. "Haven't they Imperiused you to make sure you fight on their side?" I asked.

My dad couldn't suppress a grin before replying: "I was indeed Imperiused to take the Dark Mark and during the first few days I spent at Malfoy Manor, but Bellatrix entrusted me with a little freedom, because she remembered I was a connoisseur in Dark Arts. I played along in order to keep my freedom."

Ah, so you still have that little bit of evil inside yourself, if it means you stay alive.

I glanced at Emma, who was keeping an eye out for approaching evil, but was obviously listening. She, understandably, didn't think highly of my father, I assumed.

"Let's get you out of here," my dad said.

"I can't leave now, I have a battle to fight. I won't leave my friends," I replied, still keeping my wand at the ready.

"It's a lost cause, Keira, He's too strong. But do as you like, I just think it's better if we're not seen together. I shouldn't be seen conversing with the "enemy" and you shouldn't be seen socializing with the party you're fighting, either." He was right, there had already been enough rumours about me and my father lately. My father turned around and wanted to leave the courtyard, when someone called: "Tacendi!"

My father and I both turned around to face a Death Eater, whom I, despite his mask, immediately recognized as Lucius Malfoy thanks to his blonde ponytail.