22 | S H A T T E R E D

love is not a victory march.

   "NO LUCK WITH your wands lately, huh?", Ember snorted at Malfoy, who was leaning against the wall, his face covered in ashes and dust. She turned his wand between her fingers. "You better leave now."

  She threw a glimpse over her shoulder, where Harry, Ron and Hermione were discussing what to do next.

   "Crabbe ..." Malfoy whispered in a cracking voice.

   "Is dead. Does him well, the little shit", hissed Ember, her eyes flickering back on Malfoy. "Take that fatso here and hide your arses." She nodded at the still unconscious Goyle. "And thank Harry for the rest of your bloody life, which will turn out unpleasantly short if our paths will cross once more tonight."

   He just stared up at her, hands shaking, his eyes wet. "Ember, there's another one", he suddenly spoke, the words tumbling hastily from his lips. "Snape — he's got it — I saw him trying ... He can't touch it ..."

   "What are you talking about?"

   "It hadn't been in the ministry, someone took it long ago", the boy babbled on. "Snape found it, he's hiding it, I saw him."

   "What? He's hiding what?"

   But still under shock, Malfoy was just stuttering more and more, and to Ember it didn't make much sense. She kneeled down, so their faces were on the same level.

   "Okay, c'mon, calm down", she whispered at him. "And then tell me what you know."

   Malfoy swallowed heavily. "Your power isn't lost. It is weakened by Wormtail's death, but it's still in you." She opened her mouth for an answer, but Malfoy shook his head. "Snape was the one who brought Wormtail's corpse away. I sneaked after him. He found —"

   But he broke off as yells and shouts and the unmistakable noises of dueling filled the corridor. Ember looked around and her heart seemed to fail: Death Eaters had penetrated Hogwarts. Fred and Percy had just backed into view, both of them dueling masked and hooded men. 

   Ember jumped to her feet.

   "Ember", Malfoy called, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the fighters. Her feet started moving on autopilot, the wand in her hand rising, Harry, Ron and Hermione right behind her. "Ember, you need to find Snape! You need to find him!"

   But his words faded into the battle noises, and as she reached Fred, she didn't lose another thought about Malfoy or Snape.

   "There you are!", Fred greeted her with a wild grin on his face. "Sorry it took me so long, I was on my way to you when those suckers appeared."

   "Oh, nevermind, I've recently been a bit busy", Ember snickered and ducked away from a red jet of light.

   Fred looked at her and his grin dropped as he spotted her bloody nose, that was obviously broken. "What the hell has happened to y—"

   "Avada Kedavra!"

   Ember's eyes widened, as a green light bursted out of one of the hooded men's wand, aiming directly at Fred. Her brain was empty for a second's split, then panic overwhelmed her; her surroundings seemed to move in slow motion, and Ember whipped her wand up, her lips moving to form the only spell that came to her mind. But as she spoke, she knew it wouldn't change a thing: Fred was about to die right in front of her eyes.

   "PROTEGO!" Her voice boomed through the hallway, causing Fred to flinch, and his head jerked around, chocolate brown eyes reflecting the green envoy of his certain death. His arms shot up to cover his face, as if it could save him, but Ember knew it wouldn't —

   Hermione's gasp kicked Ember out of her state of crippling fear, and astonished she watched the impossible; the deathly curse had been stopped. Green light crushed against the invisible shield of Ember's spell — only it wasn't invisible. Like a black hole hanging midair, a round shield of darkness held against the power of the one curse that was said not to be stopped ever.

   Ember felt a tingling in her arm, and as she looked down at it, she almost let slip the wand in her fingers. Like thick black fume, darkness was winding around her arm, running down her fingers, covering her wand and finally errupting out of its tip to perform what no one had ever witnessed before.

   After seconds that felt eternal, the black shield had absorbed all of the green jet of light; it grew smaller and smaller, until it vanished completely.

   "That was —"

   The tip of Ember's wand seemed to explode, cutting Fred off. The Death Eaters were thrown off their feet, collapsing to the ground, as what looked like a solar flare hit them; glistening bright, it smashed the hooded man onto the floor, where they remained motionless.

   Seconds passed, and Ember was panting heavily, while she was perfectly aware that all eyes were on her now. Her eyes still torn wide open and with lips parted in surprise, she turned to Fred.

   "Eyes on the battlefield, you bloody moron!", she screamed at him, while tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes. Her fist crushed down on Fred's chest. "You could be dead, fucking git!" Again and again she hammered her fist down on him, and she was no longer capable to supress the sobs forming in her throat. "You'll be the death of me, Frederik Weasley! The de—"

   But Fred didn't let her end her rant; he grabbed her fist before it could hit him again, and his other hand, though still wrapped around his wand, found the small of her back and pulled her closer. Soft, warm lips met Ember's, which were crusted with blood, and a sharp pain was jolting through her synapses, as his nose touched hers, but Ember didn't mind. She wrapped her own free arm around Fred's neck to pull him even closer.

   "Don't know if you noticed, but there's still a war going on", Percy's amused voice sounded, and Ember forced herself to pull away from Fred.

   "I love you." The words bursted from her lips, before she could even think about it. But there was no need to overthink; she felt his lips still on hers, even though they now were grinning down upon Ember.

   "Took you a while", he chuckled, his hand still on her back. Her cheeks grew hot, but she wasn't sure he could see her blush underneath the black smears of ashes. Though, his grin grew wider. "I love you t—"

The air exploded. Ember felt herself flying through the air, being torn away from Fred, and all she could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was her one and only weapon, and shield her head in his arms. She heard the screams and yells of her friends without a hope of knowing what had happened to them.

   And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness. Ember was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told him that the side of the castle had been blown away.

    Suddenly she heard a terrible cry that pulled at her insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and she stood up, swaying, more frightened than she had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than she had been in her whole life.

   Harry stumbled out of the debris next to her, grabbing her hand, as they staggered out of what was left of the corridor.

   "No — no — no!",  someone was shouting. “No! Fred! No!” 

   And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred’s eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face. 

—