hiraeth - d.m

prologue

Gwen ran as fast as her feet could take her. The sounds of explosions and rubble falling to the flagstone were like gasoline to the fire under her heels. She gripped her wand till her knuckles turned white, and her other hand held her ribs tightly where something had bruised her. The screams of her fellow classmates flooded the halls, and it wasn't until she got to the grand stairs that her legs began to fail her. She was at the top, looking down the staircase, she saw the entrance that led to the forefront of the battle. Flashes of light bombarded her. Green, red, blue and white. Her hands trembled against her own skin. She wanted to run down the stairs, run and find Faith or Donnie. She had no idea how she got by herself in the first place. She stumbled down the stairs, stray breezes tightening the dried tear stains on her cheeks. As her feet found stability on the middle platform things began to become clearer. She saw her friends and the other students warring with the Death Eaters. Spiders. There were dead children lining the halls. Her gut turned viciously. She quickened her shaky legs and began her final journey down the set of stairs in front of her. She readied her wand. Readied herself. Gwens hands shook viciously as she got to the last step, but voices broke through her focus from the hallway next to her. Her head shot sideways. Two tall men in all black robes laughed evilly as they spotted the small girl down the hall.

"Look at that Yaxley, a Ravenclaw, you don't have one of those in the collection yet, do you?" One of the men spat. His voice sounded like venom. It left a sour taste on Gwens tongue. Her eyes darted down to her house branded sweater. Her heart stalled anxiously.

"Not yet, but this one looks like an easy catch, yea?" They quickened their pace at her and one of them cast a hex to an adjacent wall, causing debris to tumble down in front of her, but her first thought was to run into the battle. Straight into the crossfire. She heard their steel toed boots chasing after her.

Gwen stalled slightly once she saw the war up close in front of her. Her knees wobbled but the sight of the two Death Eaters chasing her propelled her.

"Stupefy!" She cast over her shoulder. It caught one of the men by their shoulder, throwing them onto their back. The other one was relentless. He chased her back through the corridors, and as she stumbled and tripped over broken flagstone and shards of glass, another Death Eater came into view, blocking her path.

Gwen whimpered in a panic, turned on her heel and ran as fast as she could, barely missing the hand extended by her pursuer that attempted to grab her hair. The soles of her feet tended with soreness each time they hit the floor, and with each corridor entrance she ran past she looked down for once she could escape. Or at least confuse them. She glanced over her shoulder and sure enough he was still chasing her. She cast another stupefy, but she missed by the slightest hair. Her chest began to wrack with a sob, and she found herself losing the motivation to run. She looked up from her feet and saw the end of the hallway approaching. All that was there was a painting where a portrait once sat. It was vacated.

"Where you gonna go now?" The mans voice stung against her skin, and felt like miniature pricks down her spine. She could hear him come to a halt. His footsteps were slow and torturous.

"No, no, no..." Gwen looked around, looking for an exit in a panic. Her eyes darted around her, and tried to look anywhere but the man who awaited her. She turned around.

"What a beauty you are." His eyes scanned Gwen up and down, and he readied his wand as if he were going to attack her.

She pointed her wand defensively at him.

"Don't come any closer!" She threatened in a small voice. Her hand shook violently.

"Yea, and what're you gonna do? Kill me?" He kept walking towards her. The sound his shoes made as the hit the flagstone sent tremors through her body, enough to make her cave in on herself. She felt as though her body was hollow.

"Expelliarmus!" She incanted, pushing the spell with her whole being. He diverted the spell and kept approaching her. He laughed plainly.

"Crucio." The curse left his lips and jarred Gwens senses before it even did it's damage.

Her body felt petrified at first, like stone. Her eyes were wide, and her breath left her lips as if it were the essence of her soul, leaving an excavated body. Then the feeling of daggers dug into her skin, all over. Her back arched instinctively and a wretched cry left her lips, echoing in the hall. It felt as though it ripped through her lungs, and trailed through her throat, leaving a long split in her vocal chords. Her soul ached desperately to be safe.

"Petrificus Totalis." The voice pierced through the air, interrupting her cries. The trauma stopped, and she collapsed to the floor, landing on her chest. She wondered why she wasn't dead. She should've died. He just tried to kill her. Her eyes tracked up and saw the Death Eater paralyzed on the floor, and unrecognizable loafers running over to where she lay.

Cold hands pulled her onto her back, and gripped at her cheeks, forcing her to look up. Her eyes dropped closed and her head shook lightly as of to wake her up.

"Bloody hell, stay awake."

It sounded like a boy. Her eyes peeled open, and she was greeted by the panicked face of Draco Malfoy. She knew him but he didn't know her. She knew he was a Death Eater. The black suit only reinforced that memory. She weakly attempted to push her way out of his grip, and her tongue failed to speak the words the was thinking. He held her tighter.

"I'm not going to hurt you, please!" He exclaimed. His hands tightened around her torso, and her flinch was enough to make him panic. "Please, just let me help you."

Her head filled with darkness, like black ink polluting clear water. Gwen looked back to Draco momentarily before the black ink took over and she collapsed in his grasp.