𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐲 | 𝐝.𝐦.

twenty nine

By the time the trio makes their way down the spiral of stairs flooded with students, manages to squeeze through the quavering crowd by the courtyard outside of the Astronomy Tower, it is too late.

The broad space is congested with blood and heavy pounding of hearts, people bumping into each other as they try to save their own lives.

Aurors, in midnight blue cloaks, scurry across the stone floors, deflecting spells, striking Death Eaters with spells, attempting to arrest some masked figures.

The teachers, Professor Mcgonagall, Professor Flitwick - who seemed to have recovered quick from his attack - , and Professor Sprout is on the grounds too.

Even some students, Blaise, Luna, Ginny, and Neville are in the midst of the calamity, trying to hold their own against the Death Eaters.

The hour is a blur, engulfed by screams for help, shrill cries and mourning, people collapsing on one another, and lights of different colours flying around.

"Hermione, this way!" Ron yells over the chaos, yanking Hermione over.

Betty, instinctively, follows the duo, dodging from spells that are sent her way.

"No. Not you, Betty. You leave us alone!" Ron adds when he notices the Ravenclaw girl coming behind them. Her heart plummets lower hearing the next word to flee his lips. "Bloody traitor."

She halts in her tracks wordlessly, as Hermione glances over her shoulder, tries to tug Ron back to get closer to Betty. Betty allows herself hope for a brief second, but that is quickly dismantled too.

"This was your plan wasn't it, Betty?" Hermione jeers, sweat trickling from her hair and her face, eyes wet with tears. "You were sent to distract us while your Death Eater friends came to accomplish your task - wreak havoc too after they've done what they're supposed to."

Betty feels a sharp hole in her chest where a knife's been plunged into over and over again, in the same rhythm as Hermione's words.

"Hermione," she cries out, despite the urge to remain strong in that second. "You know I'm not - "

"No, Betty Lin," the tanned girl snaps, shaking her head grimly. "I don't even want to hear it anymore. I can't believe I - I can't believe we were guileless enough to trust you when you've been playing us all along. All of us. I was wrong about you. You're truly the most devious girl I've seen."

A flash of pity and despair passes the girl's eyes. But that is all it is. A flash that Betty couldn't decipher whether or not was a genuine emotion for her.

Betty's lips quaver, in an effort to say something but she knows, too, that nothing that leaves her mouth could make the pair change their minds about her.

So, with that, Hermione and Ron are scuttling away, Ron tugging Hermione persistently as if he couldn't stand to be breathing the same air as Betty is any further.

The girl stands midst of the disaster for a brief second - an arduous second that feels the longest, most shattering in her whole life as she bottles the tears that threaten to leave her eyes, keep them in her.

It is not the moment for crying, she tells herself that.

"Betty!"

She turns around, hearing that low, resonating voice. Her mind must be in a muddle, as she had imagined the voice to belong to someone else's. Some other Slytherin boy, whom isn't the one standing before her now.

"What are you doing standing around, like that?!" Blaise scolds, pulling her away from a curse that flies across both their heads. "Are you fucking mental? Get out your fucking wand."