A Beautiful and Terrible Truth

Chapter 20

My heart stopped. People began to panic, especially the children. I let go of Fred’s hand and looked across the crowd for two other blondes and spotted them pretty quickly. Fred called out and reached for me, but I was too fast. I was out of his reach and across the dance floor before I could really even think about what I was doing.

“Courtney!”

I turned and saw Ron coming towards me. What was he doing? He should’ve been finding Hermione and Harry, not me. I stopped, out of breath, just to tell him that, but I didn’t get the chance to. As soon as he was close to me, he pulled me close and put his lips on mine. I pulled from him fairly quickly to see that Hermione was standing beside us with a look of shock on her face.

“There’s Hermione!” I shouted and pushed Ron over in her direction. “He was just looking for you,” I said to her before turning and spotting Astoria and Kamrynn behind me.

“It’s about time you got down here,” Astoria smirked and held up my little beaded bag that Hermione had given me. “We need to go. Now.”

I nodded. “Of course,” and reached out my hand for hers.

“Astoria!”

My head turned just to see Fred latching onto her before the whole wedding party disappeared. Before I even knew what was happening, I was rolling in some grass with someone on top of me. I rolled over to find that it was Fred, who hurriedly scrambled off of me before offering a hand. I took it and got up. Looking around, I didn’t see Astoria or Kamrynn.

“Asotria?!” Fred yelled, walking away from me.

“Kamrynn!” I yelled, walking in the opposite direction.

I then spotted her lying on the ground, breathing heavily. I ran over and kneeled beside her to find that her leg was bleeding. Poor Kam. What had happened before we apparated? Or was she splinched from disapparating so quickly?

“Court,” Kam gasped. “We weren’t quick enough.”

I cupped the side of her face in my hand, “What do you mean, Kam?”

“I mean,” she paused, “that they had arrived right before we disapparated. You weren’t looking, but I was. The Death Eaters arrived, throwing spells around. I have no idea what I was hit by. I just saw a blue light before we left.”

I looked down at the cut on her leg, which was still bleeding freely. I pulled my want out of the back of my dress and reduced the flow of blood to see that the cut was all the way down to the bone. My hands flew to my mouth when I realized that she had been hit with a dark spell. All I could do was clear the blood. What I needed was Essence of Dittany to staunch the blood flow, but I didn’t have any. Not even in my bloody beaded bag, which Astoria had. I stood up and walked in the direction I came from.

“Courtney!” Kam called breathlessly. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be right back,” I called, tears stinging my eyes. “I promise.”

I didn’t see any sign of Fred or Astoria. I called for them and looked for them, but I didn’t find them. I didn’t even know where Astoria had apparated us so I could get Kam to the closest town. Nothing looked familiar. It was just trees, trees, and more trees. I decided to head back to Kam before I wondered too far away.

“Where did you go?” Kam asked, looking weak and pale.

I bit my lip. “I went to find Fred and Astoria, but I couldn’t-“

“Courtney!”

I turned to see Fred and Astoria rushing towards us. “I am so glad to see you guys. Kam got cut by a dark spell. It can’t be healed with a wand. We need Essence of Dittany, but we don’t have any. I didn’t think to pack it in my-“