Cessation ⌁ Draco Malfoy [3/4] ✔

34

It didn't take long for Death Eaters to make their way onto the grounds of Hogwarts and up into the castle. The grounds were dark save for the lights of spells and jinxes that were flying back and forth between duellers and, as Emma followed Remus Lupin and a small group of others by the Black Lake, she realised that not everyone on the grounds were, as simply as she could put it, human. 

There were hundreds of shrieks and cries and screeches, bangs and thuds and things that sounded like they were breaking or broken. 

The earth beneath Emmas feet shook as a twenty-foot giant stomped it's large feet across the field. It was making its way up to the castle. Dozens of red and blue lights were sparking from wands up onto the giants stomach and chest but it did little to nothing. The giant hardly seemed to notice the jinxes and curses failing to penetrate its skin. 

Over a dozen shapes moved by the Forest; large, car-sized, hairy spiders creeped from the woods and for a moment Emma felt a chill running through her body and she shuddered. From where she was standing with Remus Lupins group, spiders and giants seemed to skim over her and head straight up the grounds and towards the castle. 

"DOLOHOV!" 

The roar of Remus Lupin made Emma gasp, even more so as she saw him tear off in the direction of the main courtyard, duelling a masked Death Eater along the way. 

Everything was happening so quickly that she almost couldn't keep up. 

"Girl," a voice snarled, and Emma whirled around, having no time to think of anything other than to lift her wand and shield herself against an unfriendly spell. 

Emma had no idea who it was that snarled at her. It was a woman whose voice sounded as though she screamed every night into her pillow for hours on end, leaving her voice to sound permanently shattered and bitter and frail. But this woman was not frail. She was strong and incredibly skilled, but Emma managed to fight her off very well. 

The Death Eater was good on her feet and moved so effortlessly and perfectly that it seemed to be one of the greater things that gave her an advantage. Emma knew exactly how to stop this. 

"Colloshoo!" she cried, a pleasant feeling flowing through her chest at the sight of the woman's feet stopping, the sight of her legs jolting, trying so hard to move but unable to. 

The woman growled a terrifying growl, but Emma didn't stop there, didn't want to pause too long and give the Death Eater a chance to come up with something clever. 

"Redactum Skullus!"

The hex caused the womans head to begin to shrink, and she cried out, her hands reaching up to her head. Emma felt rather proud. The sound of a spell hitting a target behind her made her turn her head around quickly, her heart beating so fast it could have been palpitations. Ernie Macmillan was standing there with his wand raised, smoke flittering out of the tip of it indicating that he had just sent a spell. Emma looked down and saw a Death Eater laying at the back of her feet, unconscious. 

A snarl coming from the woman whose head Emma had just shrunk caused the girl to turn back around even quicker, but the girl couldn't stop the loud gasp that seemed to shock her even more. 

The small-headed Death Eater had just slashed her wand through the air, and Emma knew by the sticky feeling trailing down her cheek that there was a gash, and that the Death Eater had used her wand like a sword and snipped at her face from ten feet away as she, Emma, was turning. 

What happened next happened so rapidly. 

The Death Eater woman raised her wand to the opposite side of her small head, ready to slash from ten feet away once again, but Emma, anger, fear and determination all at once bouncing back and forth in her mind, made an action that looked as though she was about to hurl her wand at the woman. 

"Avada Kedavra!"

Of course it was possibly expected of her and everyone else on her side to have used the killing curse but she had hoped to avoid it. Emma knew exactly what might happen if she used it, knew that at this very moment she would freeze, would feel the blood flowing inside her body stop for a minute, feel it freeze and crack and explode and repeat over and over. 

She had never wanted to use the Unforgivable Curse that had once been used on someone she loved. 

Her heart wasn't palpitating any longer... It stopped, and her eyes staring hard at the lifeless body of a hexed woman, unable to tear them away. Emma was stupid, so, so stupid, so, so human. She wasn't made to fight-- she wasn't a fighter. She was just a stupid girl. A stupid girl who would never forget the last sound the older woman cried before falling lifeless, knowing the woman must not have expected a seventeen-year-old girl to use the killing curse. 

The Death Eater underestimating Emma was probably the only thing that saved her life. The older woman not expecting Emma to use it was quite possibly the only thing that made the woman not use it so quickly, as she clearly seemed to want to toy with Emma first. 

Although her surroundings seemed to slow with the sounds of her heartbeat, Emma forced herself to snap out of it and bring herself back in the moment, to stop thinking and just do. She spun on her feet, ready to help Ernie Macmillan as she heard him yell, but her eyes were forced shut as her face was hit with a spell that sent her flying into the depths of the Black Lake. 

She was forced down at least ten meters, if not more, and for once she registered everything quickly. Emma felt her wand beginning to slip from her fingers, felt sea creatures swimming all around her, but hardened her hand around her wand and began her swim up towards the surface of the Lake. Only, as she neared the surface, she saw it begin to freeze over. Needless to say, this made the girl swim faster than she had ever imagined she could swim. 

Her wand slipped from her hand and she swiped at it, but it sunk deeper and deeper, faster and faster. There was no time. Emma reached beneath the icy surface and banged her hands against the thick layer of ice, banged and banged, used her fists, kicked, over and over again but nothing made a difference. She could feel the air in her chest leaving so quickly and everything was beginning to blur. The ice over the lake could only mean one thing... Dementors. 

And Emma Baranov began to sink, could barely keep her eyes open... saw shapes swimming past her, and time seemed to go by so, so very slow. And her last thought before everything went black was a small prayer that Harry was still alive.