The Other Side: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter XXXVI

The moment Lana felt hard, solid ground under her feet again, she heard Sirius’s excited voice shout, “Lana! Get down!”

           Her eyes snapped open and she dropped onto her stomach just as a bolt of red light shot over her. Sirius lay on the grass beside her, scrambling to his feet. “There’re more of them than we’d expected,” he said, holding out his hand to help her up. “We need to run."

            The gate into Hogwarts was surrounded. Several duels seemed to be going on at once, making it impossible to get through easily.

            “Follow my lead,” Sirius ordered, “Whatever you do, do not get hit.”

            “Right,” Lana muttered as he started towards the gate. She had to hasten her pace to keep up with his long strides. “’Cause, you know, my goal in this whole battle is to get hit by some horrible hex and end up dying on the ground, bleeding out of my ears.”

            “I’m pretty sure a hex like that doesn’t exist,” Sirius said, “Just saying.” With a quick flick of his wand, the invisible barrier of Protego appeared in front of him just in time to stop a green bolt of light from hitting them.

            Lana gaped at him. “How’d you do that? You didn’t even say anything!”

            He grinned. “Years of practice, darling.” Then he frowned and said, “What did I tell you at the house? Get your blasted wand out!” Without waiting for a reply, he started toward the gate again, shooting curses at any Death Eater that so much as looked his way.

            Lana darted after him and pulled James’s wand out of her pocket. As a tall man in a black cape and wearing a strange mask that hid his face raced toward her, wand held high, she pointed the wand at him and shouted, “Petrificus Totalus!”

            The man didn’t have time to react. He went suddenly stiff, his arms tight against his sides, and collapsed.

            Sirius barely glanced back at her. “Well done!”

            “Thanks much,” she said, trying to watch for any other potential threats.

            Suddenly, Sirius spun around and grabbed her arm, hauling her towards him. His arm shot over her head and he shouted, “Stupefy!”

            Lana twisted in his grasp and saw a Death Eater barely a yard behind her. He fell as if the ground had been pulled out from underneath him, and stayed down, completely unconscious.

            “Thanks for that,” Lana murmured breathlessly.

            His grip still hard like iron on her sleeve, he said, “Come on, we have to get to the castle.”

            Ahead of them, Lana could see Dumbledore with what looked like a protective shield of fire surrounding him. It whipped his white hair around his face and his wand hand was held high above his head. He appeared to be shouting something to no one in particular, and suddenly the shield of fire burst away from him, spraying the surrounding Death Eaters with flames.

            “Whoa!” Lana shouted, and Sirius, with a panicked look on his face, yelled something to her that she couldn’t hear. The next thing she knew, he dropped to the ground, flat on his stomach, dragging her with him.

            “What the—?” she screamed, but his hand went to the back of her head, holding it down, and she could hear him repeat what he’d tried to say before: “Keep your face to the grass!”