The War | The Sister Book #4 | Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty-Nine

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It was like I stepped into a different world.

Rubble lies around my feet and where walls once stood I can see a flashing battlefield in the distance. The air crashes and screams around me and I run through the castle, leaping over fallen bricks and squeezing my wand in hand as walls explode around me, flashes of light and fire, the place I'd grown up in falling to ruin and flame. Where would Harry be? Where would he have gone?

Something hits my side and I am thrown from my feet.

I blink, pushing myself up, spitting dust from my mouth. I heave myself onto my knees, stones and bricks falling from my back as the numb silence fades away. I shake my head, stumbling to my feet and raising the bloodied hand that squeezes my wand, stumbling forward down the corridor. Harry, I must find Harry.

I glance back to where the wall had fallen on me, then kick off at a run. I take a left then a right, unsure of where I should even start. He could be anywhere. I leap over something- someone and take another right into the centre of the castle, and the roaring of the battle disappears. I put my hands on my knees, taking a breath, and then begin to run again. I turn a corner, slamming into someone-

I scream, scrambling backwards the raising my wand when Harry grabs my arms and pulls me up,

"It's me!" He yells, and I let out a breath, resting my head on his shoulder.

I look up, "Did you find anything?"

He nods forward at the wall behind me, and I turn, seeing the door to the room of requirement materialise before us. I blink, glancing back at Harry,

"Why?"

"The Diadem is in there," Harry says, "Ron and Hermione are trying to destroy the other Horcrux, they have the map,"

I nod, my shaky hand taking his and I flinch as I hear a loud crashing behind us. We walk forward, slipping through the door and into the dark, dusty, silent air of the room of requirement. The vast mountains of furniture and curiosities tower around us, stretching out forever. Harry stops.

I glance at him, taking a breath and brushing off the hopelessness of it, "Come on then,"

We begin to search, walking through the room, eyeing trinkets and objects and brushing dusty fabrics with our fingers.

Something tugs at me, poking and clawing.

It's here.

I take a step back, looking up towards where the twitching, hissing sound seems to come from. I squint, looking back down at the red sofa that is lopsided, stacked in front of me. I grab onto it, pulling myself up and clambering up over the furniture towards the noise.

It scratches at the back of my head, it stings, and I wince, reaching a place where the noise is so loud it's all I hear. I push off a dining chair, which tumbles down to my right and reach my hand underneath a lounge chair where I feel velvet. I move my hand to find the fabric coats what seems to be a box. I grab it, pulling it out, and when it doesn't move, I pull harder.

I slip off the table below me, tumbling down over the sofa and onto the ground. I wince, sitting up and reaching for the red velvet box. I open in slowly, my eyes widening when I see a large blue gem, the centre of a beautiful Diadem. I run my finger over it, flinching as something stabs at the back of my mind.

This is it.

"Harry! I-"

"Clara?"

I freeze, the voice hanging in the air around me like smoke. I turn slowly, and Draco sighs in relief upon seeing my face. I stand shakily, taking a breath and running to him. He pulls me into his chest, warm, safe, and I wrap my arms around him under his blazer, feeling his hands on my back, in my hair.

I pull back, wrapping my arms up and pulling him down desperatly into a kiss. It was bitter, hard, hot, not like kisses we've shared before. He smiles, resting his forehead on mine.

"How did you find me?" I whisper,

He kisses my forehead, "Luck, mostly, Blaise helped a bit,"

I step back, wiping my nose and looking around. I open my mouth to speak, to explain, to tell him something I feel I don't know myself, but something cuts me off. I frown, turning to see a glowing orange light from behind me. Someone runs past- Ron- and then-

I see flames, my eyes widen and Harry appears, grabbing my arm and pulling me away from Draco, who goes the opposite way we do. I grab the Diadem, screaming Draco's name as where we were standing is engulfed in flame. Harry pulls me forward, we run so fast I can barely feel the floor beneath my feet,

"What happened?!" I scream,

"Bloody Zabini thought I was a death eater and set the whole place alight!" Ron yells over his shoulder when a wall of flames appears in front of us. Draco- no no, please Draco-

He turns looking at us hopelessly, then he stops, seeing a collection of broomsticks leaning up next to him as flames begin to seer into my clothes despite Harry's effors to keep them at bay.

We each take one, climbing on and kicking off into the smoky air above. I almost fall from mine, screaming and holding on as we fly faster and I regain my balance. We fly through the flames, and my eyes scan the room desperately for him. He can't be dead, he can't be.

Then we see them, two dark figures perched atop a mountain of smouldering furniture. Harry and Ron fly past them.

"Turn around!" I yell, turning my broom and flying back, flinching as the table they stand on topples, and they hang by it's edge,

"If we die for them Clara I'm going to kill you!" Ron cries, and I roll my eyes,

I slow slightly when I reach Draco, holding my arm out for him to take. I know it's stupid, he's heavier than me, but I swing him on, screaming as I start to slip off, clutching the box to my chest where it's held under my jacket and he grabs me, arms on either side, holding me steady.

We fly back towards the door, hitting the ground and stumbling out. The Diadem falls from it's box onto the floor.

"Clara!"

Hermione throws me what seems to be a fang, and desperately I plunge it into the large blue gem.

It hits me like a wall of ice water.

I am thrown onto my back as the gem explodes in a cloud of black smoke. I feel as though my breath is sucked from my body, that I am empty, and he's there, him, his snake, his echoing whispery scream.

Hands find my shoulders, and I peel my eyes open to see Draco kneeled before me, cradling my head in his hands. I sit up, swallowing, blinking the numb sting I feel throughout. He helps me up. I stagger into him, and he catches me, brushing hair from my face as I regain my balance.

"It's the snake," I croak, looking past Draco at Harry, "The last one, it's his snake,"

Ron glances at Harry, then at me, "Find him, if we find him we find the snake, then we can end this bloody thing,"

I nod weakly, closing my eyes and opening what feels to be heavy floodgates, letting him in. I see a boat, oars tapping against stone in the rhythm of the water, the snake curled around him, his cold, pale skin-

"The boathouse," I manage, resealing my mind as best I can. It feels like closing a door when something is leaning on the other side. You have to do it quickly, so it doesn't fall through. "He's at the boathouse."

Hermione, Harry, Ron and I take a breath, knowing what we must do. I stand up straight, looking up at Draco as Harry motions for us to move. I take his hands.

"I love you,"

"I love you too," He whispers, and I squeeze his hands once before letting him go.

As I walk down the crumbling corridor, the roar of wand-fire in the distance, I realise I may never see him again.