Cessation ⌁ Draco Malfoy [3/4] ✔

36

People were still dragging bodies into the Great Hall. Once, it had been a room full of so many memories, where Emma and her friends dined and laughed together. Now, it was a cemetery. Never in the last few years that Emma had been here, would she ever have thought that tonight would have happened. 

She was still shaking and shivering as her mind processed over and over again that she had almost died...that she had pretty much died. But in this moment, as she sat a corner of the Great Hall by the teachers seats, leaning into Draco's side with one of his arms wrapped around her, she felt safe. Draco had told her that Harry was okay, that he was out looking for bodies with Ginny and Neville. 

Bodies... Emma thought dreadfully, and her eyes welled up with tears again as she thought of Fred, and Tonks, and Lupin, and all the rest. 

"I'm glad you're here," Emma said quietly, looking up at Draco. Her voice broke a little, which made the boy look down at her with a frown. "Even if... you weren't on our side. Were you?"

Draco swallowed thickly, his grey eyes looking away from her in thought before looking back into her eyes just as fast. "I wasn't on a side, I'd say."

Emma blinked, bewildered. "Then what were you doing here?"

"Doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're all right. You have no idea how scared I was to see you like that. It was the most scared I've been tonight," Draco said all of this in such a low voice that Emma had to lean a little closer just to hear him. "I almost died too."

Emma gasped softly, sitting up straighter. "You did? What happened?"

Draco didn't say anything at first, only shook his head as he stared down at his lap. Eventually, he looked over at Emma. "I was in the Room of Requirement... something went wrong and the whole place was on fire. Crabbe died but...Potter saved me."

Emma's heart dropped at the idea of Crabbe being dead, but instead of showing this to Draco, instead she smiled at hearing what Harry did. "I hear you saved him as well."

Draco's face scrunched up and he stammered, shaking his head. "I don't know about that -- I was afraid. I don't know."

Emma took his hand in hers and he looked at her. She smiled. "You did." 

Emma saw Draco's eyes sneak a look downwards at her mouth, then back up again in her eyes. Her heart skipped multiple beats as he leaned in towards her. It felt like it had been forever since she had kissed him, and as soon as Emma's lips connected with Draco's, she reached up and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck to pull him closer. Their kiss deepened...butterflies were fluttering in Emma's stomach...and the sorrow for all the death had dulled just a little...just briefly. 

Someone gasped.

Emma pulled away to look at the giant doors to see Neville carrying a small body of a boy in his arms. Something in her stomach sunk and she had a very bad feeling... Draco called for her as she stood from her spot, had even swiped at her hand to pull her back, but Emma needed to know who the boy was. She knew...deep down she knew...she just wanted to be wrong. Please be wrong. 

Draco was following her closely behind, repeating her name and telling her to wait, but she didn't want to wait. She needed to know.

"Neville," Emma said.

Neville's back was to her, still holding the body of a child. When he turned around, Emma's body went numb and for a moment she couldn't hear anything, feeling like needles were eventually stabbing every inch of her body, like her heart was literally shattering right there in her chest. 

"No," Emma cried. "Seth... what...no..."

Draco pulled her arm back and she obliged, flying into his chest and sobbing. Seth couldn't be dead! He shouldn't have even been here fighting! He was barely fourteen-years-old. Emma would never forget the shy little boy she had met on the Hogwarts Express, that she had watched grow into one of confidence. 

"I'm sorry, Emma," Neville said quietly, his eyes tearing up every time he looked down at Seth, so he avoided doing so. "I found him in the courtyard under rubble."

Emma didn't want to hear it, didn't want to picture it. "Did you tell Harry that I'm all right? Has he asked about me?"

"Yeah, I ran into him a couple minutes ago. He knows you're okay," Neville replied. "Seemed to be in a hurry though...Listen, I should..."

Neville was referring to putting Seth's body with the rest, and Emma nodded understandingly, not letting her eyes stray to the lifeless body.