The Eighth Year Universe
Love Wins
When You're Standing in the Shadows
The chapter title is from the song:
Somebody to Die For by Hurts.
Inside the apothecary, Bill could hardly see anything through the smoke. He cast a bubblehead charm on himself and pushed through, past shelves of smashed bottles and over spillages to the back of the shop where three figures were perched behind the counter with flames raging around them.
Charlie barely managed to hold the shield charm over himself, Amber and Will. His wand arm was red raw and badly burned from where the shield was decaying at the fringes.
"Charlie!" Bill yelled, pushing through the debris to his brother.
"Bill," Charlie coughed, "Bill!"
Bill widened his shield charm to encompass the three of them, and Charlie, relieved, dropped his shield charm.
"You doing okay, Char?"
"Stings a bit," Charlie said with a weak laugh, but Bill knew better. He knew his brother better than that.
He hooked his arm under Charlie's good one and muttered, "You're in agony, aren't you?"
Charlie gave him a slight nod, "Don't even know how I'm still standing," he admitted.
"It's the adrenaline," Bill murmured as he led his brother and his family out of the building.
"Charlie," George breathed in relief.
"Charlie, you're alright," Ron echoed. Then he saw the state of Charlie's arm.
Bill dropped the shield charm, and Amber grimaced at Charlie, "You need to get to medical, now."
"That's a third-degree, Charlie," Bill nodded, "Go let Gin look after you."
"Gin's here?" Charlie asked in disbelief.
Ron nodded, "She's running triage with Lilly."
Charlie snorted, and Amber took his hand.
"Amber, Freddie's evacuating all the kids into the Weasel's Den," George said, nodding to the woman.
Amber sighed and kissed Will on the forehead, "On you go, hon, they'll look after you down there."
Will nodded and headed on over to Freddie, who was his cousin.
Charlie glanced over at Amber and said, "Mum's going to be losing her mind, seeing all our hands at mortal peril on that fucking clock right now."
"Yeah, well, let's make sure one of those hands doesn't lose his hand, yeah?" Amber said, giving Charlie's good arm a tug, "Come on, let your baby sister sort out this burn."
Charlie nodded and disappeared with Amber.
"What now?" George asked, looking up the alley.
"Evacuate these flats," Ron said, looking up at the ones which were currently aflame.
"Bill!"
Upon hearing Lilly's voice, Bill turned around and saw her waving him over to triage. His first thought was that Charlie had taken a bad turn, so he jogged towards her.
"Daphne's holding up an anti-Muggle ward over the Leaky on her own," Lilly said breathily, as if she'd just been running, "She can't hold that, Bill, not without burning herself out, and I can't leave triage - "
"I'll help her!" Bill promised, already jogging towards the Leaky before Lilly could even finish her sentence.
"Lilly, this little boy just stopped breathing!" Fleur called from the red zone.
Lilly cursed under her breath and moved over to the makeshift bed as fast as she could, pain shooting up her leg from her ankle as she did.
By the time Bill got to the Leaky, Daphne wasn't in a good way. She was always put together. She didn't show that she was struggling even when she was at breaking point. But holding up that ward, her face was soaked in sweat, and she looked like she was in agony.
Bill reached through the swirling wind surrounding Daphne and placed a hand on her shoulder. She glanced behind and saw him, and he gave her a slight nod. Daphne closed her eyes and let him in, and Bill figuratively reached out and grabbed her magical core.
When he opened his eyes, they shone an icy blue for a moment, then another pulse of magic blasted out of the ward, and Daphne let out a shaky breath.
"You idiot! You could have killed yourself!" Bill yelled through the wind that the powerful ward was creating.
"I didn't see another option!" Daphne cried.
"You've clearly been married to Harry for too long then!" Bill yelled back, "You don't get to make the self-sacrifice play, Daphne!"
"It was that or expose us and break the Statute of Secrecy!" Daphne snapped.
Bill scoffed, "You're lucky Lilly found me when she did!"
Daphne sighed and looked up at the ward.
Bill followed her line of sight, "How long do you think we're gonna have to hold this for?"
"If I know my husband, not very long," Daphne replied.
Potter Manor
Harry wasn't long back from the Quidditch game he'd been at with Al that morning. Puddlemere had lost, and Draco had been stupidly smug about it, putting Harry in a bad mood.
He was sitting on the edge of a bench in the greenhouse while Neville fed the venomous tentacula when something in his pocket buzzed. He frowned and reached around, trying to find the source of the buzzing. He felt a little like Hagrid when he eventually pulled the muggle phone out of the inside pocket of his robes.
Dudley's name was on the screen, which was unusual in itself, so he answered.
"Dudley, what's up?"
"What's up?" Dudley echoed, "You tell me! It's all over the news!"
Harry's blood ran cold, "What is?"
"They're saying it's a terrorist attack on Charing Cross Road, but they say multiple other explosions happened too," Dudley said quickly. "It's right where you get into Diagon Alley, Harry and Cho's there. She took Daisy to get school stuff today."
Harry swallowed. Daisy was in the same year as Ada and Dora at Hogwarts.
"Daphne's there too, with Thea," Harry said.
Neville was looking a little panicked now, "Harry…what?"
"You have it on the Muggle news, Dudley?" Harry reiterated.
"Yeah, they don't know what it is though, or if they do, then the BBC isn't saying," Dudley replied, "Harry, you can do something, can't you?"
"I can, and I'll find them, I promise," He said, hanging up the phone and looking at Neville.
"Diagon Alley has been attacked. Dudley said there have been multiple explosions."
Neville went from his usual colour to white in an instant, "Lilly and the kids are there."
Harry nodded and pulled a medallion from the pocket of his robes. It looked like a ministry token, but it was made from solid bronze with the Auror emblem on the front. Harry muttered a charm and squeezed it, making it burn hotly in his hand.
"Why haven't we heard anything from Daphne or Lilly?"
"Because the Saboteurs did this, or Lazarus did," Harry replied, "Multiple explosions, multiple entrances into Diagon and Knockturn from Muggle London. That's not a coincidence. I'll bet they've disconnected the floo and put up anti apparition and disapparition wards, making the only way in or out through Muggle London."
Neville swallowed hard.
"I've called the Reserve Aurors. We'll have to get as close to Charing Cross Road as possible and sneak past the Muggles."
Neville nodded, and they headed for the gates in a hurry.
Blacknot Castle
Draco and Hermione had disappeared when they received a Patronus telling them that the ministry was in lockdown. It was a complicated procedure to break, but the Minister for Magic and the head of the DMLE were two of the only people who could essentially 'unlock' the ministry.
Theo was pacing anxiously, and Sadie tapped her foot against the floor while they awaited news.
That was when the galleon he always kept in his back pocket burned. Theo reached for it in a hurry and blew on the bronze to reveal the message.
"Diagon Alley under attack."
"Oh my god," Sadie said, rising to her feet, "And if the ministry is in lockdown - "
"The Aurors can't get out there to help them," Theo finished.
Sadie grabbed his hand and said, "Well then, come on!"
Theo tightened his grip on his cane, and they headed out of the castle in a hurry.
Belgravia
London
Jennifer had just taken some hangover potion, and Rob had finally decided to get out of bed. Jennifer was making tea when a buzzing sound came from behind him, making Rob frown.
"Rob," Jen said, panic setting into her voice as she picked up the burning medallion that had left a black mark on the kitchen counter, "Oh my god, Rob."
"What?" Rob asked anxiously, "What is it?"
"Diagon Alley is under attack," Jennifer said weakly.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and Addison barrelled in, "The ministry is in lockdown. Nobody can get in or out. Angel just sent me a Patronus."
"Stay here," Jennifer ordered, "Do not let Natasha leave this house."
Rob nodded and took Jen's hand.
"Where are you two going?" Addison called after them.
"To Diagon Alley!"
"My mum and my sister are there!" Addison yelled, running after them towards the door.
"We'll send you a message when we find them, sweetheart," Jennifer promised as she and Rob disappeared out the door.
The Sheppard Residence
Hertfordshire
They were talking about the wedding. Lacey was still in bed because she was exhausted. Jack had been called into work earlier because of staff shortages.
Johnny was rolling a toy car along the floor and humming to himself while Marcella lay on the sofa nursing a hangover, and Grayson milled around the kitchen with his parents.
John noticed the burning sensation against his leg first. He reached down and yanked out the medallion he carried on him at all times and kept by his bedside table every night.
Harry had issued them when he shook up the Reserve Aurors during his time as Head Auror.
"John…" Elizabeth said, feeling the burn against her own thigh. She pulled the medallion out, and they both looked down in horror.
"What's wrong?" Grayson asked, his eyes flitting from one parent to the other.
"Diagon Alley is under attack," John said, grabbing his wand holster and clipping it onto his waist.
Elizabeth grabbed her leather robes and turned to Grayson, "Stay here."
"But - "
"You're not an Auror."
"He's a Healer!" Marcella exclaimed, sitting up, "For Heaven's sake, Elizabeth, they are going to need those if there's been an attack."
"Let me help," Grayson said, looking directly at his mother.
John and Elizabeth shared a look, and Elizabeth bowed her head very slightly at her husband,
"Come on then, son," John said, pulling the door open a little wider.
The three of them left, and Johnny looked up, "Huh…where everybody go?"
"To save the world, baby," Marcella said, kissing her son on the head and giving his toy car a little push.
"Broom broom!" Johnny said, accepting his mother's answer and not worrying about the issue.
Marcella, however, still had her eyes on the door.
St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies
London
They had managed to get the lights back on, and for the most part, the patients were calm. But it wasn't enough.
"We have to get this bloody building unlocked!" Clara exclaimed.
"Only the most senior member of staff has the authority to do that," Michael pointed out.
He and Clara looked across the ward at Healer Hubert Davies, "And he has no intention of 'risking the lives of his staff for the sake of a potential threat'."
"He's an idiot, and I'm going to hit him," Clara said, taking a step towards Hubert.
"No, you're not," Michael cut in, "Just let me talk to him."
Clara scoffed but let him cross the ward anyway. She trailed close behind him, just to make sure he said the right thing and didn't chicken out.
"Sir, I understand your concerns, but you have to open up the hospital," Michael began to say, "We're Healers. It's our duty to help people."
"We can't help people if we're dead ourselves, can we?"
Michael shook his head, "Sir, please - "
"Corner," Hubert said firmly, "I said no."
"My wife is in Diagon Alley today," Michael said, fixing him with a hard glare, "My little girl is there. So please, reconsider."
"I'm interested in saving people who are worth something, Corner," Hubert said coldly, "Your muggle wife is collateral damage - "
Before he could finish, Michael had swung for him and lain him out cold with one blow.
Clara nodded and cocked her head at him, "I never liked you much, Michael, but you just went up in my estimations."
Michael shook his head angrily, "My wife might be a muggle, but she's not collateral damage."
"Hey," Clara said gently, "If your wife is anything like her daughter, she's gonna be bossing the hell out of everyone in Diagon Alley right now, okay? She's gonna be fine."
Michael swallowed and turned around, "Who's the most senior Healer in the hospital now?"
"With that idiot laid out cold, it's me," Clara said, her feet carrying her along the corridor, "And I know just how to unlock this place."
Michael jogged after her and followed her into the ward sister's office. On the wall above the desk was a large, lifelike portrait of the hospital's founder, Saint Mungo.
"You are not Senior Healer Davies," Saint Mungo remarked.
"No," Clara said coldly.
"He has been…temporarily incapacitated, which makes me the most senior healer on this ward. On behalf of the staff of this hospital, I ask you to release the hospital from protective mode."
"The building does not think that the danger has passed."
"No, and the danger won't pass anytime soon," Clara agreed, "But people are injured in Diagon Alley, and none of us can get there to help them. We're Healers; we heal people! We don't sit in a hospital and hide. We are needed out there in the world, helping people! So unlock the bloody hospital, or I will curse you off this damn wall!"
Saint Mungo bowed his head, "Very well."
A siren sounded, and the doors all clicked open.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Michael stepped out back into the ward, and Clara yelled, "Anyone not urgently needed here, follow me to the Trauma Apparition Point, now!"
Diagon Alley
Ron was exhausted, but there were still buildings to be evacuated and no sign of any help arriving yet. He was currently trying to evacuate the flats above the ice cream parlour, one side of which had been blown to pieces.
The explosion that ripped through the alley from the manhole cover in-between Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and the ice cream parlour should have taken down the entire WWW building. However, Ron's shield charm had ensured it only caved in a section of the basement on one side.
The ice cream parlour hadn't been so lucky.
He had seen people scrambling out of the side that hadn't collapsed, and people had been busy clearing debris while he evacuated the flats above before a secondary collapse could bring them down too.
"There are people trapped in there!"
Ron looked over at a woman who had just crawled out from the ice cream parlour, "I can hear them calling from below!"
The adrenaline was still pumping through Ron's veins which was probably the only reason he was able to shift as much rubble as he did with a singular spell. When it moved, the shouting became clearer, and Ron moved forward, pushing the debris away by hand to find a trapdoor that had been fused shut.
The fire that had raged through the building was mostly out now. It had spread upwards into the flats, though. Still, the metal handle of the trapdoor burned Ron when he tried to yank it open.
"I'm going to blast open the trapdoor!" Ron yelled, "So stand back!"
"Alright!" A woman's voice said, "We're all away from it."
Ron aimed his wand at the trapdoor and said, "Bombarda!"
The blast of air sent the trapdoor flying down the stairs into the basement, but the force of the spell made the remains of the building shudder, and that made Ron nervous.
"Everyone out, quickly!" He yelled.
A young girl who he recognised climbed out, and then her mother followed her up.
"Ron?"
"Cho, Daisy," Ron realised, "Are you two okay?"
Cho nodded, "Just shaken up, I think."
"Yeah, we all are. Go on, get out of here before there's a secondary collapse," Ron added, shooing them out of the wrecked building.
Another girl climbed the stairs, "Grace!"
Linda followed her daughter out. She looked like she had seen better days. There was a lot of blood running down the side of her face, "Linda, you alright?"
"Fine," Linda said offhandedly, "They always told you to hide in basements in them cold war films from when I was a kid. Turns out they were right, huh?"
Ron smiled slightly. Despite Linda being his ex-girlfriend's mother, Ron had always been kind of fond of her.
"Yeah, listen, Lilly's running triage," Ron said, "Let her get a look at your head and - "
A loud rumble came from above, and Ron realised what was happening before anyone else did. He pushed Linda and Grace towards the open gap in the wall that led out into the triage area of the alley.
They stumbled through as the wooden beams that had been holding the flats above upright crumbled, bringing several floors down onto the ice cream parlour and on top of Ron.
Grace screamed, and Linda yanked her back, away from the wreckage. She turned around and yelled, "There was someone in there! Ron, he was in there!"
Lilly looked up, her eyes widening in horror.
George ran over, "Underneath that?"
Linda nodded, "It just rumbled then came down. There was no warning or nothing!"
Lilly limped over, "George, he'll have gotten a shield charm up."
George shook his head. He was panicking because he was back in the battle of Hogwarts in his mind. He could see pieces of rubble falling everywhere and Fred…
"George!" Lilly yelled, "He's Ron, okay? He's Ron. He'll have got a shield up. Now come on, let's get him out."
George nodded, and he and Lilly aimed their wands at the rubble, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The rubble shifted but didn't lift, and George cried out in frustration, "It's not enough!"
Karina and Callie pointed their wands at the rubble and cast the same spell. Then other bystanders started to do the same, and gradually, the debris lifted enough for Linda to peer through it.
"I see him!" Linda cried out, "He's got a shield charm up!"
"My legs trapped!" Ron coughed, "I got the charm up, but not over my right leg!"
Lilly crouched down and called, "I can get you out, but not with your leg."
"Just get me out!" Ron yelled back.
Lilly grimaced, "Grit your teeth. It's going to hurt."
"Just do it!"
Lilly aimed her wand through the gap, "Diffindo!"
A scream of pain came from within the rubble, and as George pulled Ron out, Lilly shouted, "Mum, don't let Gracie see this."
Linda pulled Grace into a hug, covering her eyes as Ron came out with blood pouring from his lower leg.
Lilly cast a spell at the open wound, cauterising it but causing Ron to scream in agony. Karina and Callie were quick off the mark, giving Ron fluids and blood while Lilly cast a numbing charm on the area.
Ron's breaths were coming in quickly. He was covered in sweat.
"Ron," Lilly said, pressing a hand against his chest, "He's in shock. Before I amputated, it had obviously developed into crush syndrome."
Lilly shook her head and pressed down on Ron's chest, "Ron, you do not get to die on me now," she said, pressing a little harder.
"Karina, shock him."
Lilly lifted her hands, and Karina sent an electricity shot into Ron's chest. His body convulsed, and Lilly resumed what she was doing, pressing her thumb against his wrist to feel for a pulse.
"I've already had my childhood best friend die in a goddamn battle, and my first ex-boyfriend marry my mother," Lilly said, pulling back, "Shock him again."
Karina did, and Lilly pressed hard on Ron's chest, "So you do not get to die on me today!"
She felt his wrist and let out a breath, then she pressed her ear against his chest and nodded, "He's back."
A general sigh of relief went around the bystanders, and Linda blew out a breath.
Lilly looked down at Ron, her worry growing, "He needs a blood transfusion soon, though."
She shifted her gaze upwards, "We need to get these damn wards down so that the Healers can get in here!"
Sorenson hadn't given up on finding Felicity. Still, while digging through the rubble, he had found survivors who needed to get to triage, and he had been ferrying them back and forth.
That was when he saw something shining in between the ice cream parlour and Weasley's Wizards Wheezes. The flats above the parlour had partially collapsed, but somehow it was there, squeaking and struggling to get through the rubble.
Sorenson ran forward and picked it up, his blood running cold when the little mechanical creature struggled against his grasp. It was a decoy detonator, charred grey from the explosion it had just caused.
He swallowed and shoved it in his pocket, then a shout sounded from above.
"Help, please! Help!"
Sorenson looked up. It seemed that a central support bar had collapsed, causing half of the upper building above the ice cream parlour to collapse. Standing in the doorway to a flat that's entrance hall no longer existed was a little boy who looked around the same age as his granddaughter, Sage.
"Our mum went out for help!" The little boy cried, "She went out there!"
He pointed to the thin air, where the building had collapsed, and Sorenson swallowed.
"And there's fire! I can't get to my sister!"
Temporarily forgetting about the decoy detonator in his pocket, Sorenson transfigured some debris into a ladder. He got to the ledge where the corridor had once been and lifted the boy onto the ladder.
"Go down," Sorenson said, "I'll get your sister. What's her name?"
"Sadie," The little boy replied.
"Sadie?" Sorenson said, pausing for a moment.
The boy nodded.
"That's my sister's name too," Sorenson said with a sad smile, "I'll get her out, I promise."
And while Aurors were all told, 'never make a promise if you're not 100% sure you can keep it', Sorenson hadn't been able to help himself that time.
He crawled into the burning flat, the floor creaking beneath him, threatening to give way at any given moment.
"Sadie!" He called through the flames, "Sadie! I'm an Auror. I'm here to help you! Just call out!"
"Help!" A weak voice cried from behind a wall of flames.
"Help, please!"
Sorenson cast a shield charm over himself and crawled the flames, which still licked at his skin because they were burning white-hot. He peered through the smoke and the fire and saw her, a little girl with soot in her blonde hair. She looked around four, and she was hiding underneath the bed.
Sorenson flashed back to his childhood.
"Sadie! You can't hide all day!"
"Yes, I can. If I hide you can't say goodbye, then you won't go to school!"
Sorenson chuckled and dropped to his knees, peering under the bed, "Hey, little mouse. I still gotta go to school."
Sadie pouted at him, "I don't want you to go."
He reached down and took her hand, "But if I don't go, I can't come back again."
Back in the present day, he reached under the bed, "Take my hand, Sadie!"
"I can't!" She cried, "The fire!"
"I'll protect you from the fire, I promise," Sorenson said, his eyes on hers, "Just take my hand, and trust me."
Sadie reached out and took his hand, and Sorenson pulled her into the protection of his shield charm. The floor shook again, and Sorenson knew he had to think fast. They were minutes away from another collapse, and then this entire building would come down.
He looked down, knowing that they couldn't both make it.
"Sadie, this is going to sound really scary," Sorenson whispered, "But I promise, you're going to be okay. I'm going to throw a spell out this window, and then you're going to jump right down to your brother. When you hit the ground, you're going to bounce like it's a trampoline. Okay?"
"Okay," Sadie whispered.
Sorenson pulled himself up and cast a cushioning charm on the ground below. Then he helped Sadie up and sat her on the edge of the windowsill.
"You gotta jump now, Sadie."
"I can't. I'm scared!"
Sorenson closed his eyes and flashed back again.
"I can't! I can't, Sorenson. I'm scared!"
Sadie was sitting on the broom, but she refused to fly any higher than the house.
"Sadie, you're fine!" Sorenson laughed, his Gryffindor jumper hanging off his shoulder as they flew around the back garden of their childhood home.
"No, I'm not!" Sadie yelled, "I'm going to fall!"
"You're not gonna fall," Sorenson laughed, "And if you do, look."
He cast a cushioning charm on the ground, "You'll be fine because I've got you."
Sadie swallowed and looked up at him, "Okay."
Sorenson enchanted an apple and threw it, "Go get it!"
Sadie whizzed across the grounds and grabbed it.
"Sorenson, look, I did it!" She yelled. She was so proud of herself that she let go of the broom and tumbled to the ground, the cushioning charm bouncing her back into the air as she shrieked and Sorenson laughed.
The memory made him smile, "You can do it, Sadie. You're gonna bounce, trust me."
The little girl let go and shrieked on the way down just like his Sadie had. He smiled as the cushioning charm caught her, then Sorenson felt the floor go. He tried to grab the windowsill and keep a hold on his wand, but one had to go, and his wand disappeared with the floor he had just been standing on.
As he clung to the windowsill, Sorenson knew he couldn't hold on forever. He had seconds until the floor above caved in and crushed him anyway.
There was no getting out of this one. He tried to pull himself up onto the windowsill to jump down onto the cushioning charm, but he was exhausted as it was.
"Sorenson!" Lilly yelled from the street below.
Sorenson shook his head, "It's going to go, Lilly, don't come anywhere near it! Just give Sadie this!"
He threw the decoy detonator to Lilly, and she caught it deftly, "Sorenson, no. I can get you out - "
"Give it to Sadie," Sorenson yelled as the ledge he was holding onto began to crumble, and a rumble sounded above him.
He grimaced and braced for the impact, "Tell Sadie it was him!"
"Sorenson! No!"
Lilly's scream was the last thing that Sorenson heard over the rumbling of the collapsing building.
- TBC -
