Aurora | Harry Potter

chapter eighty-two

"Stupefy!" I shout, directing my wand at an incoming Death Eater, the spell making contact directly in his chest and knocking him out of the air. Harry and I duck as he tumbles to the floor, completely unconscious, whilst students all around us scurry to either get someplace safe or to fight against the Dark Forces that have broken through. "Harry! Aurora!" The two of us stand and spin around to see Ginny and Neville - who has a large gash of blood flowing down his cheek - almost bump into us on the stairs.

"Are you okay?" I gasp, taking the brief pause in movement to catch my breath. "Never better," Neville replies, slightly buzzing with an eager smile on his face, "I feel like I could... spit fire! Have either of you seen Luna?" When we both shake our heads with slight confusion, he confesses to us: "I'm mad for her! I think it's about time I told her, since we'll probably both be dead by dawn!" He proceeds to continue sprinting up the stairs, leaving Ginny beside the two of us.

She just nods for us to go and she runs off in another direction, and Harry grabs my hand again, pulling me down the stairs behind him. We eventually reach the hallway that leads to the entrance of the Room of Requirement, but just as we make it to the corridor, parts of the ceiling start to cave in. Somehow, we manage to dodge the explosions, broken bricks and falling wood columns, safely making it to the end. Once we reach the empty wall, we see the large black door start to take shape, revealing the entrance. 

When we step inside, I'm slightly taken aback by the sheer amount of... stuff scattered throughout the room. There are piles upon piles of books, chairs, various other pieces of furniture and just other objects; carelessly abandoned and almost thrown away. I turn to Harry to see him staring at a pile fairly into the middle of the room, so I give his hand a little squeeze and start to walk forward, gently pulling him along with me. We reach the pile and we began searching for the diadem, which I know must be in quite a drab casing to have not been found for centuries. 

As we're digging through the mountain of objects, my hands fall upon a dark blue case, with slightly rusted gold details. I open it carefully and I feel my eyes widen ever so slightly at the beautiful sight in front of me: a gorgeous silver diadem, complete with ocean blue sapphires and a few hanging crystals. "Harry," I whisper, nudging him in the arm whilst keeping my arms trained on the jewellery. Harry's fingers reach over and carefully trace over a part of the diadem, marvelling at it also.

Suddenly, I hear a slight creak nearby and when I turn around with my wand whipped out in my hand, I see Draco, Blaise and Goyle; all of them with their wands trained on Harry and I. "Well well," Draco starts, glaring at Harry, "what brings you here, Potter?" I watch as he refuses to look at me, his eyes meticulously focused on Harry alone, as they converse about Draco wishing for his wand back. After Draco comments that the wand in his hand at the moment is his mother's, Harry asks him why he didn't tell Bellatrix his identity back at Malfoy Manor.

As soon as that time is mentioned, I see Draco's eyes momentarily flit over to me and in that brief second where we make eye contact, I see a deep sadness in his eyes. Goyle distracts him by whispering something in his ear, and I take that distraction to step forward, my wand still trained on the group. "Draco, don't listen to him," I start, keeping my voice calm and collected, "you don't have to do this. You don't have to fight on his side anymore." Before I can get a response out of him, I hear Hermione exclaim, "Expelliarmus!" behind me and the spell is just diverted by Goyle. 

"Avadra Kadavra!" He shouts, aiming the spell at Hermione who dodges out of the way, the green light barely missing her leg and hitting the pile Harry and I were previously digging though. The contact sends various objects flying in the air, but I'm more distracted as Ron rushes past me, anger in his voice as he curses out Goyle for trying to murder Hermione. When I turn back around, I see Harry clambering up another pile. The case must have been in the flying arrangement of objects, as I can't see it around the area it had been before. I start climbing up the massive mountain of chairs and tables, throwing away any that are poking out in awkward places, trying my best to reach and help Harry. 

A small bunch of Cornish Pixies burst through a small hole in front of me, which almost sends me tumbling to the floor but I feel Hermione's hands catch and push me back up. When I finally reach Harry, I see his hand fishing around underneath a large red cabinet, so Hermione and I try our best to pull it out so he can-- "Got it!" he exclaims, cutting off my train of thought as he reveals the glittering diadem in his hand. Hermione and I relieve an exhale as we jump back down to the floor, Harry following close behind. 

My head turns around sharpish at the sound of Ron screaming, and there's a bright burst of light. "Shit... run, run!" I shout, pulling at Harry and Hermione's sleeves, Ron sprinting through with a terrified look on his face. "Goyle set the bloody place on fire!" He screams and just as I get Harry to move, a towering snake made of angry orange flames slithers through the piles of objects, making its way towards us as fast as possible. We all try our best to avoid the killer flames which continues to change its form - snake, griffin, panther - but we end up being corned against one of the hundreds of piles.

Just when it looks like there's nothing we can do, Ron stumbles over a set of broomsticks.