SHE'S ALL THAT ➭ SIRIUS BLACK ❨2❩ ✔︎

ACT SIX, SCENE FIVE

THE BATTLE OF HOGWARTS

Walking on a broken ankle was harder than her father's muggle movies made it look, Madeleine realized belatedly.

She'd been limping on it for the better part of an hour, searching the castle for her mother and the rest of her family. They'd been separated when the boy she had been raised alongside had made a miraculous return from death, in the chaos that ensued afterwards.

Madeleine just wanted her mother. She just wanted to go home. In a passive, painful thought, she missed her Aunt Sage, too. She'd seen Regulus fall, and Remus, too. Almost every pseudo-guardian she'd ever had was gone, and she desperately wished to wake up from this awful, horrid dream.

"Mum!" She called out, voice breaking as another wave of agony rolled upwards from her broken ankle; she'd fallen—been pushed, truly, by the power of a blast on one of the upper floors of the castle—down a set of stairs, and she was certain that she would pass out soon, without medical attention. "Mum!"

Footsteps, swift but light, came up from behind her, and before she could react, a hand slapped over her mouth.

"Maddie, shut up." Rowan's voice was startlingly somber for once. "You're going to get us killed if you keep screaming like that."

Madeleine let out a sob of relief. "My ankle—my ankle's broken. I think. I dunno. I'm not a Healer, so maybe it's just sprained, but it hurts." She whimpered.

With a nod of understanding, Rowan looped an arm around her waist. "They're gathering everyone in the Great Hall. All the injured and dead. My bag's down there too—I think I've got a bone mending potion. Just try to walk, alright? I'll hold you up the best I can."

The two of them hobbled their way down several sets of stairs, Rowan bearing the brunt of Madeleine's weight. It was a harrowing journey, and several times on their trek to rejoin their family, Rowan had to pull Madeleine behind a column or into an abandoned classroom to hide from Death Eaters.

Madeleine could tell that it was absolutely killing Rowan to not fight back or attack. After all, Rowan was fierce by nature and nearly foaming at the mouth to defend her former home and avenge her best friend. But Rowan did not complain, didn't for a moment voice her annoyance. She just grit her teeth and continued to lead Madeleine.

"Almost there." Rowan panted. Despite only being thirty eight, she was running out of steam, quite quickly.

When they reached the Great Hall, Madeleine subconsciously looked for Sage. When her search came up empty, however, her eyes locked on a head of red hair, attached to a body that laid flat and still against the stone floor.

"No." She whispered, eyes wide with horror. She yanked her arm away from Rowan. "Please, Ro. Tell me that's not who I think it is."

Rowan stayed silent and simply stared at the dead Weasley boy, jaw slack and mouth hanging open.

When Madeleine hobbled her way towards him, Rowan didn't stop her.

Madeleine nearly collapsed in front of Fred Weasley, her ankle finally giving out. "Freddie, it's me. It's Line. Come on, wake up." She said, voice choked up, and she prodded at his shoulder. "It's your best friend, Line."

He'd started calling her that—Line—when they were twelve and thirteen, so long ago in comparison to how old she felt now. It was a stupid nickname, one she'd hated immeasurably, but when she'd started to like him, as more than just a friend, she'd hated it less and less.

Now she was begging for him to call her by that stupid nickname again, to wake up and tease her for the idiotic unrequited crush she'd been harboring for so long.