Voices - A Collection of One Shots

My Guardian Angel (Seamus Finnigan)

A battle: that's what awaited Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A battle couldn't have waited two more years until I was out of school?

Oh well, nobody ever said living in a world where a dark lord terrorized it was easy.

Lord Voldemort and his trusted followers—Death Eaters—were about ready to attack the school, should the school not give up Harry Potter, the very person destined to defeat the Dark Lord himself. We were only given an hour.

We were using this time wisely, setting up defenses for the school and preparing for battle. I stepped outside into the courtyard attached to the viaduct. A few teachers—Professors Slughorn, McGonagall, and Flitwick—were all outside, setting up protective enchantments. I watched in awe as jets of light flew into the sky, all of them melting together to create one huge, blue shield to cover the entire school, even the Wooden Bridge that connected Hogwarts to the Forbidden Forest.

"Lauren," someone called my name.

I turned my attention to see Seamus Finnigan trotting to me. He and I were pretty good friends even though we were in different Hogwarts Houses: him Gryffindor, and me a Ravenclaw. He had a year on me, being in his seventh and final year at this school.

"I'm going to need your help with something," he said.

"Oh?" I asked, stealing a glance up at the forming shield above our heads. "What is it?"

"Professor McGonagall gave me permission to blow up the bridge, but I'm going to need an extra hand in getting the explosives in place. I don't know how much time we've got, and there's no way I can plant the explosives all by myself quickly."

"Can't you find somebody else to do it?" Whenever Seamus asked me to do something, I almost always ended up having things explode in my face. Just last year, he had told me about his potion blowing up in his face when he had tried to make a Draught of Living Death in Potions.

It seemed like every year he blew up something.

"No. So...will you help? I've got the explosives." He patted the bag hanging at his side.

"Why are you asking me? I know nothing about explosives!"

"But you know how to wave a wand and do magic. I don't trust anybody with these except for you."

I wasn't sure whether to be flattered or concerned. "You really think this is a good idea, knowing our past experiences?"

"This time is not accidental. Please, Lauren?" Seamus pleaded.

I sighed. "All right," I said uneasily.

Seamus beamed. Hastily, he grabbed my wrist and tugged me away to the Wooden Bridge.

We had to maneuver past hustling students. I was glad I had pulled my light brown hair into a tight ponytail. I couldn't exactly concentrate if I had loose hair in my vision.

Seamus led me down the zigzagged, sloped terrain that the Wooden Bridge held itself against.

The shield was complete now, it vanished. I was sure it was invisible so that the Death Eaters thought we were naïve. I hoped a good handful got a taste of their own medicine trying to penetrate the shield.

"All right," Seamus panted. We were at one of the holding platforms of the bridge. He planted a glowing crystal explosive in the wood. "One down, four to go. Do you think you can manage to levitate two into good places?"

"Maybe," I considered.

Seamus pulled out two more glowing crystal explosives, handing them to me. "Be extremely careful with them," he said cautiously. "I'll get the remaining two. If anything goes wrong, yell for me."