Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 74 ⚡️

Just a few seconds later, Vega found herself slam heavily flat onto the ground, her face pressed into the grass deep enough to leave an imprint. The smell of soil filled her nostrils. She didn't open her eyes. She didn't want to do that in case that she was still in that dark graveyard. And even if she wanted to open her eyes, she had no energy to do so anymore. She didn't want to move at all.

Vega's head was spinning so badly that she felt as though the ground beneath her was swaying like the deck of a ship, and she was struggling to breath still. Her leg felt as if it was set on fire, the pain in her scar had been reduced to a piercing burn, and her body was still twitching all over the place.

It felt surreal to be still alive. Blood was pumping through her ears like the crashing of the ocean and when she tried to feel around, her hands clutched onto the two things that she had been holding.

Harry's warm hand was still in her right hand...
... and Cedric's cold wrist was in her left...

Relief washed through her body when she realised that she had them with her – that she hadn't left them behind at the graveyard. They were the anchor holding her back. She felt as though she would slide away into the blackness gathering at the edges of her brain if she let go of either of them now.

And once this relief crossed her brain, Vega wouldn't being if she fell into the subconscious world. But the adrenaline rush was keeping her from passing out. It was then that she noticed something.

All of a sudden, there were noises.

There was a torrent of sound that momentarily deafened and confused Vega – there were voices everywhere, footsteps, screams and shouts. She just couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.

Who are these people?
Are they Voldemort's victims?

Whatever those sounds were, they made her head spin even more and this time, painfully. She just stayed still in her place, feeling her salty tears rolling down her cheeks and into the ground below.

What's going on?
Where were they now?
Why are there people here?
Why won't they leave her alone?

All of a sudden, a pair of hands seized her roughly around the corner and turned her over. It was then that she realised just how limp she was because she fell over limply, her head hitting someone.

"Harry! Vega!"

Finally, Vega opened her eyes, and she found herself looking up at the starry sky. Albus Dumbledore was crouching over her. The dark shadows of a crowd of people pressed in around them, pushing nearer and nearer. She felt the ground beneath her head reverberating with their footsteps.

It was then that Vega noticed that she was lying on the edge of the maze. She could see that due to the stands rising above around her, the shapes of people moving in them, and the stars above.

Vega rolled her eyes around and focused her pale grey eyes onto Dumbledore. She let go of the hold on Harry's wrist when she felt him move but she kept her iron grip on Cedric's. With her free hand, she seized Dumbledore's wrist as his face swam in and out of focus, and she pulled him closer –

"He's... back...
Voldemort's back..."

With the most important job done, Vega let go of him and dropped her head back, letting out a shuddering breath as more tears flowed out of her eyes. She knew that it was the most important thing to let Dumbledore know this – she knew enough of the previous Wizarding War to know that.