An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Sixty

"Stun him!"

My head was pounding. What happened? What was going on? The last thing I remembered, someone was trying to kill me, and by all rights they should have succeeded.

I heard some kind of commotion, some pounding feet and spells and screaming, lots of screaming...

I managed to look up in time to see Harry crouched behind a large angel statue. The wings of the angel shattered, raining stone down on Harry and around me as it was blasted apart with spells. I sat up blearily and looked to see what was causing the commotion, only to be met with a horrific sight.

Death Eaters were charging us, blasting off spell after spell. And behind them, yelling commands and aiming his wand to kill Harry...

"Alexa!"

I ripped my eyes away from that horrible face when Harry yelled. He was sprinting towards me, looking panicked but determined.

"Grab Cedric!" he yelled. "We need to grab the cup!"

Cedric! Shit, Cedric.

I looked to my right to see Cedric laying on the ground, unconscious or... or worse. I didn't have time to think about that right now. I grabbed Cedric and dragged him to the cup, just as Harry hurtled the last few steps to get to me and the Cup.

"Grab it on three!" I yelled as Harry got closer. If we timed it right, we'd grab the Cup at the same time, with no delay between when Harry arrived and when we all got the hell out of there. "One!"

"Stand aside! I will kill him! He is mine!" That horrible, horrible creature was still yelling. I'd put the pieces together in my mind as to who he must be, but I didn't want to even think about what that meant. Now was not the time for processing, now was the time for escaping.

"Two!" I yelled as Harry hurtled a final gravestone. He landed right next to me, and we moved our hands to the Cup in sync as I yelled. "Three!"

We were ripped up into the sky again at dizzying pace, and I barely managed to keep my grip on Cedric. We heard one last horrible, angry scream from... from Voldemort, and then the graveyard was nothing but a whirl of colors. I was getting dizzier and dizzier, and my entire body hurt. I felt myself drifting towards the blackness again.

We landed hard, with a horrible thud. Cedric was three for three on catching me after Portkeys, as I landed on his chest instead of the hard ground like Harry. My vision was swimming, and the noise in my ears seemed watery, and far away. My eyelids fluttered as black spots danced at the edge of my vision; I couldn't even really remember how I'd gotten here, or what I needed to do now.

I'd been trying to lift my head and get a sense of my surroundings, but I gave it up as the darkness closed all the way in. My head dropped like a stone onto Cedric's chest, and my confusion and pain was lessened slightly by the steady sound of his heartbeat in my ear. I was laying somewhere with Cedric, and we were both sleeping. That must mean there was no danger anymore.

****************

The next time I woke up, pain was the sharpest feeling. No watery confusion or loud noises, just incredible pain in every part of my body.

"Fuck," I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut tighter. I was awake now, and I wanted that to change again as soon as possible.

At least, that's how I felt until I heard my dad sob next to me.

"Alexa. Alexa, thank God."

I pried my eyes open to see him sitting next to me, holding one of my hands in both of his and looking at me with tears in his eyes.