"Astoria!"

Daphne ran through the grounds of Hogwarts, dodging the spells, people and creatures taking part in the battle. It was complete chaos everywhere she looked. A jet of green light shot past her ear, hitting, and obliterating, a statue in front of her. Daphne stopped short, fear and relief spiking her heart rate. She shook gently but continued on, dismissing the danger with a shake of her head and continuing her search.

"Astoria! Blaise!"

Neither her sister nor her boyfriend had been in the crowd of students fleeing the battle, so Daphne had taken it upon herself to return to the castle and look for them. She did not want to fight; she didn't care which side won as long as her family was safe. If she had to pick a side, Daphne supposed she would have fought on Potter's side of the war. Although she was a pureblood and guaranteed to be treated nicely under the Dark Lord's reign, Daphne had never enjoyed the Dark Arts, and she knew that with the Dark Lord in control the Dark Arts would be inescapable. Astoria, on the other hand, loved the Dark Arts more than anything else she'd learned at Hogwarts. When the Carrows had taken over teaching, Astoria had been thrilled to be able to use the Unforgivable curses on the younger students and had learned an abundance of dark spells that hadn't even been taught to them. If Daphne's suspicions were correct, and they usually were, Astoria would be somewhere in the castle, showing off her spells fighting for the Dark Lord's side, even if she didn't completely agree with his beliefs.

Running into the Entrance Hall, Daphne spotted Theodore Nott in the corner duelling with a man in Death Eater robes. She had never considered which side of the war Theodore would choose, but she knew his father was a Death Eater so seeing him fighting against one of them came as a bit of a surprise to her. It wasn't quite as surprising, however, as the jet of green light that shot out of his wand a second later, killing the Death Eater he was duelling.

"Theodore!" Daphne called his name across the hall. He whipped around with his wand firmly in his hand. He looked like he was ready to kill whoever was coming after him. When he saw that it was Daphne he lowered his wand.

"What do you want?" His voice was cold and detached. It sent a shiver down Daphne's spine. "Come to tell me I'm betraying my house? Save it. I've already heard it all from your sister."

Relief flooded through Daphne at his words; Astoria was somewhere in this castle.

"You've seen Stori? Where was she? When she wasn't with the rest of the evacuating students I was so worried. I thought something awful had happened to her."

Theodore stood his ground, starring Daphne down. It took a minute, but eventually he seemed to relax. "She was in the east wing on the third floor, but she looked like she was heading upstairs."

"Thank you!" Daphne shouted, almost breathless as she sped off up the stairs to the third floor.

It was only as she was climbing the stairs that Daphne noticed just how much damage the castle had already taken. Rubble littered floor from parts of the stairs, railings, and even the floor from the higher levels of the castle that had been destroyed. Most of the canvas in the paintings she passed had been cut open, and the inhabitants were either crowded into neighbouring paintings that had survived or else had disappeared somewhere else entirely. She passed two suits of armour that had obviously both been hit by a stray curse as parts of them were scattered everywhere.

She felt a rage build up inside her; this was Hogwarts, how could anyone do this to their school. This, more than anything, made her wish for this war to be won, and she found herself wanting Potter to win. At least if his side won Hogwarts would go back to how it should be. It had been her escape from her parents fighting at home, and she had made some real friends during her time at school. She'd hate for any of her future kids to miss out on that opportunity.

As she rounded the corner to the floor Theodore had seen Astoria on, Daphne stopped in her tracks. A little way down the corridor she saw Blaise and Astoria, and they seemed to be in a heated argument, spells flying between the two of them. She was overcome both with relief that Astoria was still where Theodore had said she'd be, and confusion at why they were fighting each other. Blaise, who was facing her, spotted Daphne first. He started to call out to her, but the words stuck in his throat as an orange light from Astoria's wand hit him in the side, leaving only a hole behind.

"No!" The sound that tore from Daphne's throat was so crushed and broken that the word she screamed was more animal than human. She knew that spell; the results weren't pretty. If Blaise wasn't already dead, he would be in less than a minute.

Astoria whipped around as she heard Daphne's scream. Her face, which was twisted and full of malice, quickly fell into one of shock and then remorse as she saw Daphne and realised that she had witnessed the whole scene.

"Daphne, I—" Astoria's words were cut off as she was hit in the back with a killing curse.

Daphne crumpled to the floor, unable to move and barely comprehending what she'd just witnessed. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, sobbing over the deaths of her sister and boyfriend, but the fighting had almost completely stopped by the time she was found. By that point, numbness had started to spread in her mind and her heart, and she barely registered Theodore leading her from the castle and apparating her home.

Words: 1,005.

AN: I'm thinking about turning this into a short NottGrass multichap. I got a really cool, but slightly dark, idea from an Emma Blackery song called 'The Promise'. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

Also, a huge thank you to Mary for betaing for me.

This is for:

Hogwarts - History of Magic;

Write a story that occurs during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Hogwarts July Event - Treasure Hunt;

D4 – Location: Hogwarts

Gringotts Prompt Bank;

Sex and the City prompts – (word) Chaos, (object) Canvas painting.

Charmed prompts – (word) Surprise, (word) Curse.

Words instead of said – called, screamed, shouted.