Would You Like A Hand?

31 | and wait

Draco didn't wait.

He didn't want to hear yet another speech come out of the Dark Lord's mouth - he had heard him enough for one lifetime, so as soon as he counted the enemies, he threw an incendio into the room. He had aimed at the Dark Lord, but the older wizard deflected it easily and set a pair of curtains on fire.

And then everyone in the room followed suit, letting waves of pain-inflicting spells loose.

Somehow, in the chaos that followed, the Dark Lord still managed to speak (to Draco's annoyance) as curses flew around him. If Draco had been paying attention, he would've noted that, at the very least, the Dark Lord was not speaking as calmly as usual.

His maniacal laughter filled the room, over top of all the shouted spells.

"You still aim to kill me? Look at the state the world is in!"

Coloured streaks of light ricochetted off of each other, tearing the room apart.

"What do you hope to achieve, Harry Potter?!" the Dark Lord inquired.

Peace. That was it. As long as the Dark Lord was alive, there would be no peace. The answer was clear as water to Draco.

But Harry didn't answer, focusing on the battle for once. He just wanted all of this nonsense to be over. It had been dragging on for far too long.

"I won't lose to the likes of you! Even if the world is already destroyed!" the Dark wizard spouted.

Furniture was blasted to bits and pieces, decor turned into debris, and soon enough, there was nothing to hide behind for either sides of the battle.

And as prepared as they were to fight, the students did not have as much experience as the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord himself. Slowly, they lost ground and resorted to more defensive spells than offensive ones.

Their enemies were bleeding and battered, but it was of little console. They were relentless and the four students wouldn't be able to defeat them.

It was hard to enough to keep up with their enemies' curses - and they still had to look out for the ones bouncing off of each other in the air. A stinging hex that Ron fired just barely missed Draco's calf, and it left behind an itchiness similar to a mosquito's bite. Harry had a welt on his cheek that must have been from one of Draco's spells, and Ron's entire left arm was soaked in blood - maybe one of the Death Eater's curses had landed on him. Hermione was mostly unscathed except for a blooming bruise and some scattered cuts on her forearm. She had been hit with a piece of decor that had gone flying.

Seeing all the injuries they had sustained, Draco found himself once again thinking, I wish I-

A spell whizzed by his head.

Later, if anyone asked Draco what happened during this battle, he wouldn't have been able to tell them much. He would only come to remember the Dark Lord's strangely panicked preaching, the Death Eaters' nervousness when they got too close to their Lord, and the fact that he'd heard Hermione shoot a reparo at Harry's glasses during the fight.

I wish-

He would vaguely remember that Ron had been knocked back against a wall and had trouble getting up.

I wish-

And Harry's favourite "Expelliarmus!" missing his target again.

I wish-

The one and only thing he could vividly recall was watching one of those red ricochetting curses fly towards Hermione again and finally knowing what exactly he had wished for as he put himself in front of her without thinking.

I wish I would've taken the pain for you.

And then everything after that went black.

-

end note: well there goes Draco. stay tuned to see what happens next! and, as always, leave a vote or comment if you liked the chapter! thanks so much, guys!

aeratheninja-