Prologue
The Battle of Hogwarts
May 2, 1998
"Expelliarmus!" cried the young man with his dark tousled hair at the end of the haphazard corridor of forgotten junk.
Greg tightened his fingers around his wand too late. He watched helplessly as the 8 and one third inches of poplar with a dragon heartstring core went sailing into the debris around them. He had always hated that spell. Why did Potter and his ilk rely on it so much?
Greg knew his mind didn't work the way Potter's and that mudblood Granger's did. He saw a problem and went straight at it, why disarm when a good stunner, or better yet a crucio would work better and was faster. If your enemy was there, why not put them down? Mr. Malfoy could think like them, he understood the crazy twists and turns. What kind of mind he had to be able to comprehend the deranged minds of mudbloods and blood traitors and still be able to radiate the power Mr. Malfoy did? It was astonishing.
Greg pushed those thoughts away. He had to get his wand, so he turned to where it had flown and began jumping up and down trying to find it amidst this damn junk. Vince would have his back. He didn't need to worry. Sure their fight earlier had been viscous, but there was something about Vince, about having been best friends with a man since you were 5. You might have fights you might disagree on the little things, like whether to follow Mr. Malfoy, but you knew that they had your back.
Vince had been getting lots of extra tutoring from the Carrow's too, he could hold off the inferior magic of these weaklings for a while.
"Avada Kedavra!" Vince's voice bellowed behind him. Greg began to turn, slightly confused as he was certain Mr. Malfoy had said not to kill them. Why wasn't Vince listening to Mr. Malfoy anymore? Greg's stomach churned at the fact that he was soon going to reach point of no return. Vince was pulling farther and farther away from Mr. Malfoy, and between the two Greg knew that his heart belonged with Vince. Yet he was going to miss working as part of a three person team.
His turn framed Vince's' face staring towards Potter, lit red at the moment by an incoming stunner. It seemed strange how time slowed for him at that moment watching the taller man's flat nose and rugged jaw. Then the red light of the stunner seemed to grow amazingly fast and Greg remembered no more.