Piece By Piece

Chapter Thirty-One: Into Thin Air

      "Reducto Maxima!" Lily screamed.

      A rush of heat. A flash of light. Everything went black

      Lily's vision was the first of her senses to return. From where she lay down the hallway was sideways... and empty.

      Touch came next. One by one each of Lily's limbs regained feeling until she could sense every part of herself against the cold stone floor. Everything ached as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. She wiped away the blood that was trickling down from her nose. Her movements were sluggish; her brain wasn't running at 100% and her ears were still ringing from the blast.

      The blast. Greyback. Dora.

      Lily's heart raced as she jerked her head around to assess her surroundings. She looked behind her to where Greyback had been what felt like only moments ago; but he was nowhere to be found. In fact, the only other person in the hallway was Dora, lying just as Lily had left her only a meter or so away.

      Lily stumbled as she moved over to Dora's side. She shook the young woman by her shoulders in an attempt to wake her up. "Dora!" Lily yelled. With the ringing still in her ears even her own voice sounded like it was coming from underwater. 

      To Lily's relief Dora began to stir. Her eyes flew open and Lily let out a small, grateful laugh.

      "What happened?" Dora asked groggily.

      Lily recounted her own last few minutes of consciousness as Dora propped herself up against the wall behind her. When she was done, one question hung in the air.

      "Where is everyone?" Dora wondered aloud.

      "I don't know," Lily replied. "There's no one in this hall but, truth be told, I haven't gone anywhere else yet. Also my hearing isn't quite back yet- I could be missing a few things."

      "I noticed."

      "What?"

      "Your hearing. There's a ringing in your ears and to compensate you've subconsciously been talking way louder than you need to be for the past minute or so. Don't feel bad, though; it'll fix itself once your hearing gets better."

      "Oh," Lily said, attempting to correct her volume against her damaged eardrums, "Sorry 'bout that."

      "Don't be; I've had it happen plenty of times."

      Lily smiled. "We should try to find people. I'll help you walk if you need."

      Dora shook her head and began to stand up, but fumbled over herself and nearly faceplanted. Lily caught her as she went down. 

      "That's not a testament to my health," Dora protested as Lily put her arm across her back for support. "I'm just clumsy."

      "Better safe than sorry," Lily said. 

      "You sound like my mother."

      "She's a smart woman. Which way should we go?" 

       "That way," Dora pointed to a section of hallway off to their right. "I'm pretty sure that's where we were headed in the first place."

      "Let's stay vigilant," Lily cautioned. She began to walk them in the direction that Dora had indicated.

      The more they walked, the more nervous Lily became. They spotted very few Death Eaters; and the ones that they did see were being rounded up by the Aurors, who seemed to outnumber their opponents at leats 10 to 1. Moreover, everyone looked just as confused as Lily felt. As her hearing gradually returned she began to hear snippets of conversations.