As soon as Eva's shield went down, they were bombarded with Death Eaters, Snatchers, and giants. The army of suits of armour that were sent to the bridge that paved the entrance to the school were quickly wiped clean, while the sky above their heads was filled with masses of dark smoke.
"Eva, let's go!" Draco shouted over the sound of the buildings beginning to explode around them.
With a slightly nervous nod, Eva took his hand as he led the way back into the castle. The front steps were covered in rubble, making it easy for anyone to twist their ankle on the small pieces.
Now that the battle had fully begun, the students remaining around the staircases were screaming and running in all directions. Just as they made it up the first flight of stairs in the search for shelter, the far window blew out, sending tiny glass pieces across the room. Eva ducked with her wand still held in her hand, noticing that Hecate had momentarily appeared in order to shield them.
A Death Eater apparated in, only to fortunately be stunned before they could go far. Now everyone was screaming even louder and panicking much more than they had been prior.
"Hecate, where's Harry?" Eva asked while Draco shot a stunning spell somewhere behind them.
"Room of Hidden Things, seventh floor," Hecate answered. "By the time you get up there, he'll already be inside. Hermione and Ron are on their way too. I've got to go, shout if you need me."
Eva nodded as Hecate ran off and then turned her head to Draco. "You coming or what?"
All she needed was his nod of confirmation for her to begin to sprint up the remaining stairs. The ground beneath them was constantly rumbling as the school was destroyed piece by piece.
They reached the landing of the seventh floor, with several corridors leading in different directions around them. This had to have been the quietest area of the castle by this point, considering the only actual sounds of battle they could hear were faint explosions as fragments of stone were blown to pieces.
"Where do we go?" Eva asked.
Just as Draco began to answer, the window at the end of the corridor to their right completely shattered. A mass of black mist apparated back into physical Death Eater form but just before he could fire at them, Eva raised her wand.
"Expulso!"
The spell hit him perfectly on target, shoving him backwards and out of the window again as if a heavy object had been thrown at his middle. The only remaining evidence of the mild attack was the pile of smashed stone and the glass fragments scattered around the gaping hole in the window.
"You were saying?" she asked again as she caught her breath.
He pointed down the opposite corridor. "That way."
Entering the room was the same as Eva had seen Draco do it during their sixth year. The door appeared within moments, allowing them to hastily push it open and close it behind them.
The Room of Hidden Things hadn't changed one bit. There were the same mountains of random junk and old furniture, strange unexplainable magical artefacts, and a few remaining Cornish Pixies from Lockhart's short-lived teaching career.
"It's quiet in here," Eva mused. "Glasses?" she called out. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"
"Eva?"
Following the sound of his voice, she took Draco's hand and led him around a few stacks of furniture. They stopped at a corner where Harry was stood beside a wooden side table. On it was what looked like a diadem, Rowena Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem to be exact.
"You found it?" Eva asked, reaching out to touch the brilliant blue gem in the middle.
Harry quickly pulled her arm away just in time, much to Draco's irritation. "Don't touch it. We have no idea what it'll do yet."
"Hands off my girlfriend, Potter," Draco warned him, causing Harry to instantly back off a few steps with his hands up in surrender.
Eva shook her head. "Draco, it's fine-"
"It's not 'fine'," Draco snapped. "And he still has something of mine, and I'd like back." He glanced pointedly to the wand Harry was still holding.
Harry lifted it up in front of his eyes to examine it tauntingly. "What's wrong with the one you have?"
"It's my mother's," he replied. "It's powerful, but it's . . . not the same. It doesn't quite understand me. Know what I mean?"
"Harry, can't you just give him back his wand?" Eva suggested. "Do a wand-swap maybe? Just disarm each other and take the remaining wands."
Harry seemed to be suppressing a grin as he tossed Draco's wand in the air and caught it again. "Well, it's not his wand now, is it? Winners, keepers, Malfoy."
Draco, now fuming, stepped right up into Harry's face. "You'd do best to give that back, Potter. Didn't your mummy ever tell you that it's not nice to steal from others?"
Harry narrowed his eyes at him. "Make me."
Before their fight could become physical, Eva pushed herself between them. "Boys, not now. There's a war going on and you're arguing over magic wands like a bunch of 5 year old girls."
"Well, well. What brings you here, Potter?"
Before Eva could process what was happening, Draco had pushed her behind his back with the wand he was holding pointed outwards. Regardless, she stepped out in anyway and joined beside him. Crabbe and Goyle were both stood a few metres away, their wands aimed at them.
"I could ask you the same," Harry retorted.
"What do you two think you're playing at?" Draco questioned them sharply.
"We hung back, Potter," Crabbe explained with a sense of stupid pride. "We decided not to go, decided to bring you to him. We gonna be rewarded."
Harry nodded, pretending to be impressed. "Good plan."
"Come on, Draco," Goyle hissed, assuming they wouldn't be able to hear if he was quiet enough, "don't be a prat, join us."
Eva rolled her eyes. "Boys, seriously," she tailored her voice to sound like a pre-school teacher's, considering there were many children that age with higher intellect levels, "just lower your wands and leave, now. This is a bad idea, and you're outnumbered too. We can take you out easily, you know this."
"Who cares what you think?" Crabbe snapped unexpectedly. "I don't take your orders no more, you mudblood, or from Draco. You're both done, anyway."
Eva blinked. "Excuse me? You twats have the brains of a bunch of baboons, so why don't you piss off rather than getting yourselves killed by us?!"
Goyle was now fuming, apparently the first to understand Eva's sentence. "Oh, you-"
"Expelliarmus!"
Hermione dived in from behind a pile of Potions books and successfully disarmed Goyle. Ron was standing just beside her.
"Everte Statum!"
Eva's spell ricocheted off a mirror and was absorbed straight into the ceiling.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Draco dived in front of Eva just as Crabbe launched the Killing Curse into them blindly. Fortunately, it missed both of them due to its poor aim and instead hit an old sofa behind them.
"Stupefy!"
That last spell Hermione casted bounced off the diadem Harry had just found, launching it towards the top of one of the mountains of furniture. Now that Crabbe and Goyle were both retreating, Draco finally removed himself from Eva.
"Are you okay?" he murmured.
She nodded briefly. "You?"
He also nodded. "Best find the fat lumps before they cause any more problems-"
Draco's sentence was interrupted by a sound that resembled a war cry from Ron. "THAT'S MY GIRLFRIEND, YOU NUMPTIES!" he shouted as he ran after them.
Draco rolled his eyes and took her hand, leading her down a separate winding path. "This way's faster."
She followed him as they weaved between little items like rusty cauldrons and what looked like a bunch of old uniforms. Then he stopped suddenly, causing her to collide with his back.
"What was that for?" Eva asked him impatiently.
Without turning around, he slowly began to back up the way they came with her. "Something's not right. They've done something. We need to leave."
She drew her eyebrows together. "What do you mean-?"
In a cracked mirror beside her, she caught the reflection of the view behind her and gasped. A fire was beginning to spread at a rate much faster than any natural fire, and it was coming straight for them.
"DRACO!"
Grabbing him as she went, she began sprinting down another gap between furniture piles without daring to stop and check on the space they'd left behind. Just as they reached the end of the little makeshift corridor where it met a junction with three other paths, they skidded to a halt when they realised they were surrounded.
"Protego Aguamenti!"
Eva swiped her wand horizontally in front of her, forming a bubble-like shield of water, though somehow the fire burned straight through it, leaving the liquid in the form of evaporated steam.
"Up here!"
Draco grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her towards a pile of tables, chairs, and sofas. The couple began to scale the mountain as quickly as they could, using the different surfaces as hand and foot holds. They were making steady progress, but the flames below them were ever gaining height.
Eva made to grab a shelf above her but it slid straight out like a Jenga block, completely tipping her off her balance. She felt one of her feet, the one holding her weight, slip beneath her thus causing her to fall backwards.
"Eva!"
Just as she closed her eyes, bracing herself for impact with the flames, that impact never came. Hecate had appeared just in time, grabbing her by her waist and yanking her back towards the pile of furniture the fire was slowly consuming.
"Climb, now!" Hecate ordered.
Seeing Draco a few feet above her, Eva began to increase the speed at which she was climbing, this time avoiding the spot she'd slipped up at. They reached the top at the same time, standing on a table which had been perched precariously over a few wooden chairs.
Hecate joined them as they scanned their surroundings. "I'm not going to be able to get you both out of here," she said. "I'll take Eva. Are there any exits other than the main entrance door?"
Draco shook his head. "That's it. That's the only way in or out."
"Okay." Hecate took a deep but unnecessary breath considering she didn't really need to breathe. "By my calculations, there's only a few human minutes until this room is swallowed whole. That's not a lot of time to work with but-"
"You're not being serious?!" Eva yelled over the roaring flames. "I'm not leaving without you."
"And I'm not giving you a choice in the matter!" Draco snapped. "You deserve to leave this place alive more than I do, so leave!"
Before Eva could argue, she could feel herself being lifted up and somehow carried carefully out of the room. Hecate led her across mountain after mountain until eventually grabbing her around her torso and leaping for the door.
Eva tripped over into the corridor, landing on her front. Her lungs, filled with smoke, were burning for oxygen as she took long and wheezed breaths in and coughed heavily out.
Just as she began to climb painfully to her feet, she felt herself get flattened back down to the ground by a heavy weight colliding with her. She groaned in pain and attempted to sit up again.
"Eva, get back!" All she saw was a quick flash of blond hair before being forcefully dragged away from the door and up to her feet.
"Draco?" she said in disbelief.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Goyle run off down another corridor. Harry was knelt down a few feet in front of the door, still with the diadem in front of him.
"Harry!" Hermione threw him the Basilisk fang.
As soon as Harry stabbed the fang into the metal, a dark smoke erupted from it, with a strange scent to it that Eva couldn't quite put her finger on—oil, maybe? Before it could cause any more problems, Ron kicked it into the remaining fire, causing the flames to grow extortionately and slamming the door in the process.
"What—the fuck—was that?" Eva asked between breaths after having fallen backwards again in Draco's arms.
"Fiendfyre," Draco replied breathlessly from underneath her. "It was part of the Carrows' Dark Arts curriculum. I guess the boneheads weren't listening to the lecture on how to stop it, and it cost me my mother's wand."
Once they returned to the courtyard, the scene was much worse than it had been when they'd left. As soon as Eva stepped out, she would've been attacked by an Acromantula if Draco hadn't grabbed her wand from her and blasted it into the remains of a wall.
"Are you okay?" Draco asked her, considering the giant spider had been millimetres from her neck.
"Draco, behind you!"
Snatching the wand back, she pointed it at a Death Eater that had apparently recognised them.
"Crucio!"
A beam of bright purple light shot out from her wand, and a green one from the Death Eater. The duel somewhat reminded her of that from Voldemort 2 years prior, both of their spells colliding with spectacular force.
Seeing herself losing, she pulled away from the spell and targeted her wand once more.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Without giving him a chance to react, he froze up completely in his position before falling back onto the ground. After dodging a spell from another Death Eater, Eva launched herself forward and took their wand away, tossing it to Draco.
"It'll do for now, let's go!" she shouted as they continued through the battlefield.
The scene was a mess as they continuously duelled Death Eater after Death Eater, somehow still managing to cover for each other in the process. Honestly, Eva was pleasantly surprised to see Draco like this, to see him so willing to abandon his own side in order to stay with her.
Then the hissing returned. It was the same sound they'd heard a few hours previously when Voldemort had completely invaded their minds for his little podcast, as she liked to jokingly think of it. With the people around them distracted, Draco began to back up with her towards the Great Hall once more, where they had at least a chance of shelter.
"You have fought valiantly, but in vain," Voldemort whispered. "I do not wish this. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a terrible waste. I therefore command my forces to retreat. In their absence, dispose of your dead with dignity."
Able to still concentrate on her own movements, Eva pushed past the people frozen into place with a bewildered Draco in tow, stopping once they were inside the Great Hall.
"Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you," he continued. "On this night, you have allowed your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. There is no greater dishonour. Join me in the Forbidden Forest, and confront your fate. If you do not do this, I shall kill every last man, woman, and child who tries to conceal you from me."
The Great Hall was completely full of people on benches, chairs, and stretchers. Madam Pomfrey and some of the other nurses were dashing around, treating everyone they could simultaneously.
Without knowing what to say, Eva and Draco very slowly walked through the hall hand in hand. A pair of third year Hufflepuffs walked past with a body on a stretcher which had been covered by a sheet of white cloth.
Eva's eyes hesitantly cast downwards towards the bodies on stretchers lined up near the centre of the room. There were just so many, each one being someone she at least vaguely recognised. Then her gaze stopped at Remus and Tonks, lying motionlessly beside each other.
As soon as Draco realised where it was that she was looking, he held the side of her face and twisted her head around to face him. "Eva, don't look, don't look," he urged her as he cautiously led her past them. "Just focus on me, okay? Focus on me."
Tears pricked at her eyes as she began to turn back around. "But they're . . ."
He held her chin and turned her head again. "I know, but don't turn around."
As they continued to slowly walk through the room, Draco walking backwards slightly to keep an eye on Eva, they stopped where the Weasley family were congregated. Pulling away from Draco, Eva pushed through the family of gingers.
"Freddie!"
She knelt down next to him. Fred was staring up at the ceiling, but with only one eye. The other had been replaced by a bloodied mangled mess where his right eye socket had been. A long gash glistened down his face from his hairline to the corner of his nose.
Blinking with his remaining eye, his gaze slowly moved to her. "Hey, Evie," he muttered weakly. "Am I still the best-looking?"
The tears from earlier now falling down her face, she nodded and carefully hugged him as tightly as she could without injuring him further. "What the hell happened to you?"
With a very quiet laugh, George pulled her back from Fred and crouched down beside her. It seemed that he still had the remnants of tears under his own eyes. "Let the man breathe. A wall blew up in his face I think. At least everyone can definitely tell us apart now, isn't that right, Fred?"
Fred smirked faintly. "Exactly. I'm the sexier one."
George jokingly punched him very lightly in the shoulder. "Shut up."
Deciding to leave them to it, Eva lightly ruffled George's hair as she stood up again. But, before she could move, she was engulfed in a tight motherly hug from Molly Weasley.
"Oh, Eva," she breathed. "I hadn't seen you for hours, you had me so worried." She pulled away slightly to look her in the eyes. "How are you?"
Eva shook her head. "Not good. How are you?"
Molly sighed with a faint tremble. "Not much better, dear, no. And you, Draco?"
Draco, who had been standing behind Eva, waiting for her to be quite finished with hugging the Weasleys, froze with a bewildered expression. He'd been admiring her closeness with the surprisingly kind family, but still he was taken aback by the question.
"Not brilliant, no," Draco answered hesitantly to the woman he'd insulted behind her back on several occasions.
"I didn't think so," Molly said. "It's a difficult day to be a Hogwarts student, I suppose. You young ones shouldn't have to be exposed to all this. It's just inhumane."
Eva shrugged as she rejoined Draco. "I guess it's just such as life. Stay safe."
"And you too, dears," she called after them.
After walking a little further down the room away from the deceased, Draco sat down on a free space on a bench and pulled Eva onto his lap. He coiled a strand of her now slightly faded and dusty crimson hair around his finger, noticing that she'd grown it out considerably in the time they'd been apart for.
"Why was Mrs. Weasley being so nice to me?" Draco asked her.
Eva shrugged, absently twisting one of the buttons on his jacket. "Mrs. Weasley just is nice, I guess. I think it's more to do with the fact that we're so close, so she sort of cares for you by association, but I think she's feeling bad for everyone in this room right now. Other than that, the entire Weasley family don't like you, so don't get cocky."
He rolled his eyes. "They're just so different to mine. The constant smiles and friendliness, the obsessive hugging—it's bizarre."
"Imagine you as a Weasley," she wondered.
"Eva," he warned,
She laughed. "No, I'm serious. Ginger hair, freckles, maybe change your eye colour too-"
"I will never join that blood-traitor family," he hissed venomously.
She shook her head and leaned back against him. "I didn't think you would. But, then again, I didn't think a lot of things. I didn't think I'd have to watch Crabbe die in his own fire, or in fact listen to him snap back at us."
"'I don't take your orders no more'," Draco mimicked in a grunted tone that perfectly resembled his. "If he hadn't tried to hurt you, I'd be more upset over his death." He then glanced down at her hands in her lap. "You still have it?"
Eva lifted up her right hand and twisted the emerald serpent ring around slightly. "Of course I do. I think your jumper's somewhere too, maybe in Hermione's bag. I don't know, I have to check-"
"I don't need that back," he humoured. "However I was rather glad to discover that you'd left that stuffed unicorn of yours behind. It had fallen behind my desk, but still had your scent on it."
She raised an eyebrow. "I have a scent?"
"Everyone has a scent," he replied as if it was obvious. "It's like when you find someone's school jumper and you can't tell whose it is so you smell it to figure it out."
"You're more like a ferret than you'd care to admit," she laughed.
He rolled his eyes again. "Shut up, Eva." He rested his head on her shoulder. "I missed you."
She placed her hand over his arm. "I missed you too, ferret boy."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: HAHA I DIDN'T KILL FRED! I honestly just couldn't, he's so pure and wholesome, so instead I decided that he loses an eye. I still hate Remus and Tonks' deaths though, but I knew we'd have to leave at least a few deaths in. And I know, Molly being so nice to Draco might seem just a little bit OOC, but I reckon in that whole battle scenario she would just be nice to everyone.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!
