Saudade

Chapter 28 Death Never Discriminates Part 1 Ophelia

Ophelia hissed as she crawled through the broken glass, a bit of it going into her hand trying to make her way to Hermione. Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly towards her from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged--his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face. Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose. Harry and Ophelia twisted around, their own wand held high, and saw that the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry and Ophelia, who recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Prophet: Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts.

Dolohov grinned. With his free hand, he pointed from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione. Though he could no longer speak, his meaning could not have been clearer. Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her...

"Like you won't kill us all anyway, the moment I hand it over!" Harry said.

A whine of panic inside Ophelia's head was preventing her from thinking properly: she had one hand on Hermione's shoulder, which was still warm, yet did not dare look at her properly. Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead...

"Whaddever you do, Harry," Neville said fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, "don'd gib it to him!"

Then there was a crash outside the door and Dolohov looked over his shoulder--the baby-headed Death Eater had appeared in the doorway, his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him. Harry seized his chance:

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

The spell hit Dolohov before he could block it and he toppled forwards across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.

"Hermione," Ophelia said at once, shaking her as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up..."

"Whad did he do to her?" Neville said, crawling out from under the desk to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.

"I dunno..."

Ophelia looked at Harry with tears in her eyes as Neville groped for Hermione's wrist.

"Dat's a pulse, Opbea, I'b sure id is."

Such a powerful wave of relief swept through Ophelia that for a moment she felt light-headed.

"She's alive?" both Harry and Ophelia said relieved.

"Yeah, I dink so."

There was a pause in which Ophelia listened hard for the sound of more footsteps, but all she could hear were the whimpers and blunderings of the baby-headed Death Eater in the next room.

"Ophelia, Neville, we're not far from the exit," Harry whispered, "we're right next to that circular room... if we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you two can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift... then you could find someone... raise the alarm..."

"And whad are you going do do?" Neville said, mopping his bleeding nose with his sleeve and frowning at Harry.

"I've got to find the others," Harry said.

"Like hell, you're going alone!" Ophelia exclaimed angrily.

"But Hermione--"

"We'll dake her wid us," Neville said firmly. "I'll carry her--you two tp bedder at fighding dem dan I ab--"