In the Midst of the Storm
The woods were strangely serene, given what they'd just gone through.
Harry's heart was still pounding from their recent brush with death. He was reminded yet again that it wasn't just his life at stake, it was the two people who meant more to him than anything. His best friends, Ron and Hermione.
Ron had his arms around Hermione, both fighting for breath. Harry watched them from a distance, suddenly acutely aware of how far away Ginny was. What would he ever do if the Death Eaters found her? Could he live with himself knowing that they only attacked her because of him?
"It will be okay, Hermione," Ron whispered gently. "I'm here."
"Yes, that's the problem Ronald. I can't bear to see you hurt." She leaned her head on his shoulder, her frizzy hair tumbling down over his chest. His freckled arms held her close, protectively.
Suddenly, Harry heard footsteps pounding towards them. He straightened, bolt-upright, and then to his horror, Ginny and a Death Eater appeared over the horizon.
No! They have captured Ginny! His heart screamed.
But just as Harry raised his wand to attack the Death Eater, Ginny screamed, "No! Don't! Draco saved me!"
Ron and Hermione were on their feet now. "What?" Ron gasped.
"They took me prisoner at school," Ginny whispered. "Draco broke me out."
The other three considered Draco as he blonde boy pulled off the mask and revealed his tragic blue eyes. The bruised skin around his eye made Harry catch his breath. "Who did that to you?"
"My father," Draco said.
"Why did you help her?" Harry asked.
"My father," Draco said.
A grim silence fell between them, as the implications of his words sank in. Harry gathered Ginny in his arms and wished he could comfort Draco somehow.
But just then, Ron tripped over Hermione's foot. He careened into a nearby rosebush, the thorns tearing away at his tender pale skin, ripping bloody gushes through the freckles. Then his red head of hair dashed against a large rock, splitting his skull in two and sending blood gushing up like a geyser, splashing Hermione in the face and getting in her mouth.
Hermione began to scream in horror and tried to run to help him, but Ginny ran to help him at the same time! They collided, wands tangling and reacting to each other's proximity. Hermione let loose a jet of fire instinctively from her wand, catching Ginny's red hair and instantly sending it aflame.
Ginny began shrieking in pain as the flames boiled down her face raising blister and puss across her skin, melting her lips into a plaster mold against her teeth. And then, she tumbled and set the rose bush on fire as well.
Hermione had fallen in the meantime, and her own wand had impaled her through the abdomen into her spleen. Frothy white subcutaneous tissue jutted out along with seeping blood along the length of the wand where he jutted out against her back, and Harry in his haste to help them, failed to notice the relaxing bear sitting nearby. But then, he caught a glimpse of that horrible creature and it distracted him as he ran forward, causing him to trip and impaled his face on the wand impaling Hermione. The pointed tip drove straight through his eye, and white oozy tissue seeped down and splattered on the ground as Harry thrashed and screamed.
His own wand thrashed with his hand and drove itself into Hermione's throat causing her to begin drowning in her own blood. Harry frantically tore his wand back, yanking out her lung tissue with it, and he tried to shake it off his wand, but just impaled her abdomen, sending dark bile bubbling out from her intestines, and half-digested biscuits oozing out of her abdomen, along with a section of her stomach. Then Ginny and Ron fell on top of them where they were thrashing with puss and blisters oozing from the flames which began to lick slowly over Harry and Hermione, and the flames made their skin rub off in a disgusting sheet. Blood splashed everywhere, along with spurting white fluid from Harry's eyeball, and the pus from the popped blistered, punctured by their movement.
The flames grew brighter as the screams filled the air, and the sound of thrashing and frantic limbs, kicking to escape the agony also filled the peaceful night air as well as flakes of burnt skin and the smell of roasted human flesh and burnt hair.
Draco watched on skeptically. Suddenly, he remembered why he never bothered to be friends with these people. He turned around to leave. They were so lame.
TBC