"Where's Fred?" Hannah called, glancing around but keeping her attention primarily on the Death Eaters trying to force their way through the passage.

Lee shrugged, but as she couldn't see, he added: "I don't know —" he paused to throw a spell "— Percy came —" he swivelled, aiming at a new target "— said there was a problem further down —"

"And there isn't one here?" Hannah gasped as a spell whizzed past her ear, shattering the window behind her.

"I'm not sure you noticed," he said, a wry twist to his mouth, "but I think it's pretty much safe to say this entire situation could be labelled as a bit of a problem." A scream echoed down the corridor, as if to emphasise his point.

"Sarcasm's a little unnecessary, don't you think?" she huffed, grabbing a wand from the air before it could hurtle past her and shoving it into a pocket of her robes.

He sent a quick grin her way, no more than a flash of teeth really, disarming two Death Eaters and blocking yet another curse. "Maybe if you —"

A flash of pain, a choked shout — his, it turned out — and his leg gave out.

"Lee!" Hannah yelled, racing towards him, catching him just in time.

"You shouldn't —" He interrupted himself with another gasp of pain, his leg completely unwilling to support him and causing agony to flash through his veins with even the slightest movement.

"C'mon," she said, "we need to get you to the hospital wing. They can handle things until I get back," she added, gesturing to the five other students with them.

He nodded — he'd be more hinderance than help right now — and allowed her to help him limp down the hallway. This corridor was almost completely destroyed, the roof caved in and all the windows shattered — they'd heard it happen, he remembered now, but no one had had the time to check.

There wasn't any fighting here now, so he kept his eyes low, watching his footing as he dragged his now useless foot behind him.

He let out a scream before he even knew what his eyes were registering, ending in a choked sob as he pushed himself away from Hannah.

Taken by surprise, she lost her hold on him and he fell to the ground, hard, but the pain barely registered now. He dragged himself across the floor, stone and glass cutting into his palms and legs, digging under his nails and causing them to splinter, his breath coming out in ragged gasps and tears blurring his vision.

Distantly, he registered Hannah crouching beside him, trying to help him to his feet, her own exclamation as she followed his line of site, but all he could focus on was the figure tucked into an alcove, looking more like a broken doll than a person.

"Lee — Lee," she gasped, her voice thick with tears, "we have to go. We can't — there's nothing —" But Lee couldn't focus on what she was saying, his attention solely on the broken figure, so painfully familiar, with the ghost of a laugh still adorning his features.