𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓖𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 || 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲

Chapter 31 - Ice

That infamous poison-green light, recognizable even by those who had never seen it. Ophelia's heart tightened in her chest, her blood shot eyes widened in shock and anticipation. A scream pierced the frigid air, she didn't even compute that it was hers, her scream calling out for her somebody.

            "Lucius!" Ophelia howled as she darted for the blonde man who'd just fallen to the floor before her very eyes. No, no, no, no! They weren't on the best of terms at that very moment, but her love and worry for him engulfed their disagreements, their fallings out. She was mad at him, furious even, but she'd never wish to see him harmed... or worse.

            Ophelia scrambled quickly across the floor, oblivious to the cease fire of spells.

            "Lucius?" She asked desperately as she reached his body, his blue eyes were closed. She looked down on his serene face, and her chest ached heavily. Oh Lucius.

            Then, unexpectedly, his face twisted into a pained expression, his forehead wrinkling, his teeth gritting.

            "Your aim is atrocious, Severus." Lucius coughed as he clutched his side, his teeth gritted. Ophelia released the breath she'd been holding with a sigh of relief. Remembering the threat in the room, she looked up to the top of the staircase, but Marcus and Draco were gone.

            "Draco, where's Draco?" Ophelia asked as she pushed herself off her dirtied knees. "Did anyone see where he took him?" Her voice was shaking with desperation, in the heat of the moment, in the face of losing Lucius, she had taken her eyes off the boy and lost him, again.

            Severus rushed across the room, his black cloak billowing behind him, he quickly dropped to the Malfoys aid, his hands pressing against Lucius' side.

            "My son!" Lucius groaned as he tried to push himself up, but Severus's hands were firm, and pushed him straight back to the floor.

            "Do not move." The potions master told him.

            "I must-" Lucius growled, as he again attempted to sit up and push the professor away.

            "You must do nothing..." Severus growled in response. "Miss Oakham and Lupin will chase down Macnair," Ophelia was alarmed at the way her brothers name dripped with poison from Severus' mouth, but she hadn't the time to question it. "He's a weasel of a man, he won't get away..." Severus turned darkly to Ophelia, and to her brother who hovered behind her, his hand securely on her shoulder. "Don't let him get away. You must retrieve the boy at any cost."

            Ophelia nodded with a gulp at Severus' words.

            "No, I will go!" Lucius protested, each word more pained than the last.

            "You will allow me to heal you, or that boy won't have a father to come home to!" Severus spoke through gritted teeth. "Go! Both of you!"

            Ophelia jumped up at the order, and looked around frantically in search for her brother, who was already half way up the stairs, his wand at the ready. Her legs carried her up those creaking stairs as fast as they could, until she reached the top where her brother crouched over a pair of slender legs.

            "Tatiana," Ophelia breathed as she neared her brother. His fingers were pressed to her neck, searching for a pulse no doubt. Though some might say she deserved it, Ophelia felt remorse when Lupin shook his head no, and his fingers fell from the girl's slender neck. Her black hair sprayed around her head like a dark halo, her dark eyes stuck open, endlessly staring blankly at the ceiling. Her pale skin seemed even paler now, its lustre vanished, replaced by a grey dullness that Ophelia remembered hard-heartedly. Her mother had looked the same, that day in the morgue.