The courtyard was on fire, the black smoke curling, billowing, thick in the night sky, obscuring the few bright pinpoint stars splattered like paint across the night sky.
Hogwarts is burning, I thought dimly, before a blood-curdling shriek drew me out of my reverie and away from the choking black smoke that engulfed the buildings around me.
I saw a body.
I saw a few.
I stepped over a body and tripped over another to reach that scream's source: dirty blond curls surrounded a heart-shaped, sooty face that pressed itself against the brick wall. Lavender Brown, cornered by a man who'd never cease to make my skin crawl.
Fenrir Greyback, his mouth stained crimson with blood.
Time slowed down as I realized what would transpire here.
I was suddenly, painfully, aware of my left arm, and what it would look like if I did this, but it was the lesser of two evils and I'd seen too many mangled throats already tonight.
I could not hope to stop him, but I could spare her that agony.
The whispered spell had barely spilled from my lips as the sickly green light erupted from the tip of my raised wand.
Would you consider it a mercy killing?
