Chapter 12

"Run, escape!" Someone cried pushing Draco from the behind off the ground.

There was a loud explosion, screaming and wailing. All he could see was a couple of silhouettes running ahead of him and someone behind him. They were covered by the trees from the main battle going on the large plain right in front of Hogwarts. There were Deatheaters, student, the Order… and Voldemort himself.

He fell behind a little stumbling on some root and he saw the girl who was behind him racing towards the two red headed figures, which he recognized immediately as the Weasel and the Weaselette. He could hear shuffling of some pairs of feet behind them and hoarse commands. The Deatheaters were gaining on their little group. Draco regained his balanced and ran, not too far behind from the three. He briefly wondered where Potter was to complete the little reunion but the thought came and went without any spite as usual. Of course, Potter was currently standing face to face with the Dark Lord. He shivered. And they were running from some Deatheaters which had only an ounce of power comparing to the Voldemort.

Draco's side was hurting. He was running for about ten minutes now and he could no longer distinguish the sound of the pursuers… but nor could he distinguish his fellow runaways in front of him. Draco couldn't run anymore. He stopped for a little while to breath, looking around cautiously, wand at the ready.

But as he was clutching his side and gasping for air, a dark hooded figure walked out of the shadows. Draco straightened and was about to say a spell, when his wand flew out of his hand somewhere into the trees.

"Stand up, blood traitor!" a familiar voice hissed at him.

"Hello, father. How unexpectedly we met", Draco said trying to sound much braver then he really felt.

Lucius snatched his hood away from his face. His eyes blazed with furry and hate.

"Don't you dare talk back, you little brat! You have done enough damage and you will pay!" Draco could almost see his mouth dripping with poison as it formed the syllables of the most Unforgivable curse of the three.

Draco felt strangely calm observing his father's attempt to murder him, but he wasn't prepared for a group of people running into the scene.

"Nooo!" cried Hermione Granger throwing a spell at Lucius.

Ron and Ginny came to halt behind Draco, raising their wands. It was a mistake because the second Hermione's spell hit Lucius, he swayed back and the green beam of Avada Kedavra that was meant for Draco slipped to the right and… hit Ginny Weasley right across the chest…

The moment when the girl's body shuddered and started its fall lasted forever. All gazes were on her frail form. It seemed that the whole world froze and there was no sound anywhere. Ron broke the silence.

"NOOO! GINNY!" he cried loudly and ran to her body to prevent it from hitting the ground.

Draco stupidly noted that she looked like a rag doll with plastic glazed empty eyes. Ron was sobbing and trying to shake her awake. Hermione rushed to his side and put her arms around Ron, which seemed to sooth him somewhat. He stopped shaking but he wouldn't stop crying.

Draco felt uncomfortable standing and observing this little scene. He dimly realized it was hit fault Ginny was dead but the information didn't stir any bright emotion in his soul. Suddenly he heard a triumphant roar of a crowd outside the forest. It was a victory but whose was it? Fear pricked his heart for a second but then common sense shoved it away. Deatheaters wouldn't yell that way if Voldemort killed Potter along with every single student and member of the Order.

Draco's thoughts were immediately confirmed by Harry Potter running as the wind towards them and beaming as blinding sunlight on the snow.

"WE WON! Ron, Hermione! I killed Voldemort! The Deatheaters are caught! We won! This is it! Hermione, Ron, Ginny! Ginny! Where is…?"

His smile slipped from his face faster then water from slips off an oily surface as he came to a halt in from of the bend figure of Hermione clinging to Ron in tears and his friend himself, hunchbacked and defeated holding his little sister's corpse. It took Harry a couple of moments to register everything. Then his face went ash-white and he cried Ginny's name in the most terrible voice Draco has ever heard.

"HOW? WHO!" he roared looking at Hermione who looked a little more whole then Ron for answers. But it was the latter who answered.

"It was him! That bstard!" he pointed at Draco, raising his tearstained milk white face with burning eyes, "The spell was meant for him! That sun of a b!tch!"

Draco didn't protest. What could he say? Harry just looked at him without any emotion for a mere second and turned to the red headed dead girl.

"Ginny! No, no, no…" his voice lowered to a hoarse mutter as he snatched her body away from her brother, who didn't protest anyhow. Harry sat on the ground, sobbing and laughing at the same time, tears running from his dirty stained cheeks, making little dirty paths across his face. He rocked her back and forth muttering something, chuckling privately, twirling her locks softly.

Everyone stared at him in complete horror. Hermione cried softly into Ron's shoulder. Ron looked at a tree in front of him with dry empty eyes. Draco couldn't watch. Harry Potter. The boy who lived. The boy who came face to face with Voldemort, with his own death, so many times, just couldn't cope with the death of a girl. He…

"Went mad!" said a voice laughing merrily behind them.

Lucius Malfoy got up and raised his wand. He ran his hand over the bump on the back of his head which he got hitting the rock and getting knocked out. He was chuckling, looking over the others.

"So this is your hero, huh? The one and only who could defeat the Dark Lord and finally did it. He is nuts now! A real lunatic! Haha! How ironic! The famous Harry Potter!"

Hermione and Ron watched him cautiously afraid to move to get their wands. Harry didn't even look up. He was still sitting in the same position, rocking Ginny's body, oblivious to whatever was happening around him. Lucius turned to Draco now, ceasing the laughter. Everyone heard a group of people approaching but was too scared to scream for help.

"And when I said you will pay, I meant it! Unotae!" he cried in some strange language. Draco felt a light paranormal breeze touch his face just before the spell actually hit him.

He didn't feel anything for a couple of seconds but then he began to fade. The last thing he saw was Lucius escaping into the forest and Hermione Granger running towards him, with clear worry in her brown eyes… and Weasley… he was looking at Draco with loathing hardly anyone standing there had never seen before…