Roses and Riots | f. weasley

Chapter 50: Say Something

'Dear Fred.'

Emilia wrote it, and then the ink ran out of her quill just as she'd finished writing his name, and she opened her pot of ink to see it was empty and dried up.

She set down her quill with a groan of frustration and put her face in her hands. She'd planned on going shopping anyway, but she'd make a quick stop downstairs in Flourish and Blotts first so she could finish her letter.

She walked out of the flat and quickly went into Flourish and Blotts to get ink, the door of which was beside the entrance to the flats. A few minutes later, she had just stepped out of the shop with her purchase wrapped and stowed in her bag when she heard loud voices and urgent shouting from down the street.

She paused where she stood, as did a few others, and then the shopfront of the ice cream parlour exploded in a burst of heat and flames, the glass and wooden window frame shattering out onto the cobblestones.

Emilia gasped and stepped back into the alcove of the shop door to hide. She would've been right there, outside that shop, had she not first stopped to get ink to write to Fred.

People began screaming and running away as masked, black-cloaked figures stalked down the street, destroying other shopfronts and attacking those who were running away, with both their wands and their fists.

And then, the owner of the ice cream parlour, Florean Fortescue, was dragged out of his shop, fearfully begging for his life.

Emilia stepped down onto the footpath, as if she was going to be able to help him, and she watched in horror as the man was flung to the stone street, and instantly murdered in a flash of green light.

She gasped and ducked back into the doorway of Flourish and Blotts, her hand over her mouth to stifle her shocked sobs. The kind wizard who she saw most days, who always had a kind smile and friendly wave to give to those walking past, had just been killed in cold blood.

The sounds of screaming children snapped her out of her frozen terror, and she looked around to see a mother being pulled away from her small children who clung to each other in fright.

Emilia pulled her wand out of her belt, she refused to let those two little kids lose their mother like she and Harry had.

With fire in her veins she aimed a Knockback Jinx at the Death Eater, and the woman cried in relief as she was freed and she ran and picked up both of her crying children.

Emilia intercepted her, "go! Get somewhere safe!"

"Thank you, thank you," the woman sobbed, and she ran down the street while her children wailed in fright.

Emilia turned and ran towards the rest of the Death Eaters without a thought for herself. She knocked out two of them within seconds, and engaged in a duel with another while more people came out to fight the Death Eaters off.

Down the street, Ollivander was dragged out of his wand shop with a bag over his head, by Fenrir Greyback, the werewolf who had attacked Remus when he was just a child, and who'd tried to kill her with his bare hands the night at the Department of Mysteries.

Anger filled Emilia, anger that she'd only felt after watching Bellatrix killing Sirius in front of her eyes. She swiftly knocked out the Death Eater she had been duelling with, and she ran after the werewolf.

She caught sight of the twins running out of their shop and towards her, but they were too far away to help, and she ignored their shouts after her.

She furiously flicked her wand but Greyback was too quick and he blocked her, and with a sneer he cast his own spell in her direction, sending her flying backwards through the air before he Disapparated with Ollivander.