Emerson Wilmore was an exemplary Ravenclaw student, known for her unwavering dedication to academics and an unyielding moral compass. However, things took a twisted and deviated turn in her life after her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, was murdered by L...
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For one horrible moment, no one knew who died.
The green light was too bright from the Killing Curse. It filled the room in a vicious flash, swallowing desks and faces and breath, and when it vanished, the silence it left behind was worse than screaming.
"Olivia!" Blaise shouted in horror.
"Neville, don't—," Seamus yelled.
"What the fuck—?" Draco swore loudly.
The classroom seemed suspended around the place where the curse struck, as though even the stones were waiting to see what was taken. A chair was toppled somewhere near the middle row from Parvati. Someone was crying quietly into both hands, as if making too much noise might invite Alecto to remember they existed. Neville stood half-risen from his seat, his face white with horror and gripping the edge of his desk so tightly his knuckles looked bloodless.
For half a breath, Enzo could only see Olivia. The sound that came out of his mouth did not feel human.
"Liv?" He croaked.
Olivia did not answer him immediately. That half-second was enough to gut him.
Then there was movement beneath the desk, followed by a small, shaking gasp.
Enzo's lungs seized so hard it hurt.
Olivia's ears rang as she inhaled shakily, trying to focus. Her arms were locked around something warm and shaking. Melo was alive. His claws dug into her sleeve, his little body trembling violently against her chest, but he was alive. His fur stood on end. His eyes were huge. He made a small, terrified sound that broke something in Olivia more completely than Alecto's interrogation ever could have.
The curse narrowly missed. It struck the stone where Melo was an instant before, leaving a blackened scar across the floor.
"You!" Alecto snarled, realising what happened as well. She looked furious. Her face was twisted into something ugly and almost inhuman, rage sharpening every line until she seemed less like a teacher and more like a thing that crawled out of the walls after being starved too long. She clutched at the side of her robes where Melo clawed her.
Olivia's head lifted slowly. Her eyes were wide, glassy with shock, but she did not let go of Melo. If anything, her arms tightened around him.
"You stupid girl," Alecto hissed and instantly, her wand swung toward Olivia.
Enzo moved from his desk before she finished the sentence. He stepped in front of Olivia so fully that her view of Alecto disappeared behind the line of his back.
His wand was already in his hand. He did not remember drawing it. One second he was trapped in the horror of green light, and the next he was between Alecto and Olivia like his body made the decision before his mind had caught up.
