Non Omnis Moriar

4: One Hour

Happy New Year guys! How have the first five day of the new decade been for you all?

***

It was incomprehensible. Fred Weasley on his back, eyes unseeing and smile as bright as ever; lay dead. No, it couldn't be. The twins were invincible. No teacher, not even Umbridge could budge them. There was no way Fred was dead. I squeezed my eyes closed, a wave of nausea hitting the pit of my belly, burning its way up to my throat.

I slid away from Hermione and Harry, collapsing to my knees, retching. Dry heaves racked my body before Hermione bent down over me as well, shaky hands rubbing down my back. A low sniff made me look up at the despondent tears on her face. No, what was she even crying for?

I was about to ask her when the world resumed pace...and the battle around us waged again.

A body fell past the hole blown into the side of the school and curses flew in from the darkness, hitting the wall behind us.

Harry was the first to regain his senses. "Duck!" he shouted. Different hands grappled with different people, trying to pull them into safety but nothing seemed to matter in the moments that Percy hovered, static over Fred.

"Percy!" Ron screamed at his brother. "There's...nothing we can do for him." His voice choked; hurt coursing through the rasps on his throat. Hermione screamed too, only this time I didn't need to know why.

Something huge, black and clicking was trying to clamber into the hole in the wall. An Acromantula from the forest...

"Impedimenta," I yelled just as Harry and Ron's spells shot at it too. The three spells collided with the massive body of the spider, throwing it back into the darkness.

"It brought friends!" Harry called.

More giant spiders were climbing the side of the building, liberated from the Forbidden Forest, into which the Death Eaters must have penetrated. Harry fired Stunning Spells down upon them, knocking the lead monster into its fellows, so that they rolled back down the building and out of sight.

A few curses flew past him, hitting the wall across as we doubled over to avoid being hit.

"We have to move. Now!" I called, grabbing Hermione off the floor to shove her towards the corridors. Ron followed after her as Harry and Percy began to haul Fred...his body.

I didn't see where they put him. I couldn't turn my head to see Fred looking...dead. What was George going to do? What was he going to think? How would he react? I didn't let these thoughts take root in my head as we reached the end of the corridor. I looked around wildly, unable to recognize faces through the haze in my eyes but Percy soon bellowed out ROOKWOOD! Before he was chasing down a man, his hood still drawn...

I threw one look back to see Hermione tugging Ron back but didn't let my own feet stop.

"Rose! Wait, no! Come back!"

I pounded on, ignoring Hermione's panicked calls of my name, the deep boom of Harry and Ron's shouts fading as well as I charged into the battling mass.

One deep red, notion bled in me. They deserved to be punished, to be killed...

Fred deserved to be avenged...

My feet slowed down when I finally turned the corner to where the fighting had probably eased. The grounds still crawled with people running or dueling but the corner looked decrepit, as if it had never been breathed in.