The International Wizarding School Competition

School: Durmstrang

Theme: Write about self-sacrifice.

Mandatory Prompt: (Physical appearance) freckles

Additional Prompt: (word) dread

Year: 2

Word Count: 2278

Additional Information: Grey's Anatomy/Doctor/Muggle!AU. Warning for gun violence and shooting.

I would like to take the time to thank everyone who beta read this story for me. It truly means a lot that you would take the time out to help me like this. So, thank you all very much. I hope you all enjoy Death and All His Friends.

They say that your life flashes before your eyes in the moment before your death. All the good times and the bad ones. The things you did and the ones you wish you had done. The people you've loved and who have loved you. All of it. But that's not true.

Instead, adrenaline and panic take over. I know this fact very well. This is the story of the day that I almost died. The day I sacrificed my life for the woman who would become my wife.

It had started out as any other day would. I had come to work early to get a head start on my rounds. I am a surgeon at a prestigious hospital, St. Mungos, and had recently been named one of the youngest Chiefs of Surgery to ever grace its halls. As I walked into the hospital, I had no clue what was to happen that day. Nothing seemed amiss. Everything seemed normal.

"Harry," called the friendly voice of Hannah Abbott as she walked towards me. She was holding a large pack of files, and I knew I wasn't about to get into a surgery anytime soon. "The board wants to speak to you in a couple of hours."

"What's it about this time?" I asked, praying it wouldn't be about the Cattermole case again. I had been questioned about that case numerous times and could almost quote what happened word for word from memory, that was how many times I had repeated the story.

"It's not about the Cattermole case," Hannah said, probably reading my face. I never was good at hiding my feelings. "It's about the hospital's budget."

I took a deep breath, already regretting the day I decided to take over as Chief of Surgery. Chief of the entire hospital in general. I could feel the tug of a headache starting to creep in. This was going to be yet another long day.

"Thank you, Hannah," I told her. "Could you go and check the inventory and see what needs restocking, please?"

"Of course, Doctor Potter," she said, walking off after handing me the pile of paperwork.

This is what my career had come to. Paperwork. Paperwork. And more paperwork. I was never one for doing paperwork. I was more excited for the surgeries. Helping to save people's lives. That was what I had gotten into medicine for.

I walked to my office hating the files and files of paperwork sitting in my arms and chatting with several of the people that I worked with. Some of them treated me differently after I became the chief. They seemed to treat me less like one of them and more like their boss. But most of them didn't change, and that included my best friend Ron.

"Harry," Ron said, slapping me on the back and almost knocking the mountain of paperwork out of my arms.

"Ron," I greeted, straightening the pile and looking over at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Have you seen Hermione today?"

"Not yet. The day's still young."

"I know. But after that row we had a week ago, she's been avoiding me. I can't understand wh—"

"Maybe because you gave her an ultimatum," I told him. Remembering Hermione's furious-looking face as she and Ron screamed at each other that evening not too long ago. "You know that wasn't such a good idea, right?"

Ron sighed. "Mum told me as much when I tried to get her opinion," Ron admitted, shaking his head. "But what do you think I should do?"

"Tell Hermione she was right," Harry said, shifting the paperwork. "She's always right. We've known that since we met her."

"She wouldn't let us forget it."

As we both started to chuckle, a tiny brush of dread crept down my spine. The sort of dread that makes your blood run cold and makes you want to drop what you're doing and turn around and walked right back out the door of the hospital. But I couldn't do that. I was in charge here. I was the Chief and a good Chief never walked away from his job. No matter how much dread he's feeling at the moment.

"You just got pale all of a sudden, mate," Ron said, reaching a freckled hand towards me and my pile of paperwork. "Are you alright?" he asked, straightening the pile for me.

I nodded. "Probably nothing," I said, looking towards my office and the drudgery of the day ahead of me. "I should probably get to this."

"Yeah," Ron said, nodding towards the pediatric wing of the hospital. "I've got to get back to my patients too. I just wanted to check in and see how our new boss was doing."

I chuckled at the feeling of dread growing as I walked toward my office, not knowing that soon everything was going to erupt into chaos. That my former patient, Mary Cattermole's, husband, Reg, was going to come into the hospital and change everything forever.

Not knowing any of that, I poured myself a hot cup of coffee from the coffee maker near my desk, turned on the radio to my favorite station, and set out on the task of doing my paperwork.

I don't know how long it had been since I had sat down to my paperwork. It could have been ten minutes or ten hours. But I do know that the dread I had felt earlier intensified as the freckled Hannah stood in the doorway, the front of her scrubs covered in blood, her eyes filled with tears, and her voice shaky from shock.

"She's dead," Hannah whispered, wiping a hand across her freckle-stained cheek leaving a trail of blood across it. "Susan Bones is dead."

"What?" I asked, getting up from my desk and walking over to her.

"Susan's dead."

"How?" I asked, watching her face and knowing immediately how. "She was shot?"

Hannah nodded blankly.

I knew I had to check this out. If she was right then a lot of people would be in trouble, myself and other staff members included. I walked towards the door and could see the fear and dread in her eyes.

"Stay here and lock the door," I told her. "Don't come out until I say so."

She nodded as I made my way through the door and heard it lock behind me. Hannah would be safe here. I had to go and see what was happening in my hospital.

As I walked down the corridor, I could hear the shooting of a gun in the not too far distance. People were screaming in dread and terror and footsteps were running toward me. Before I knew it, Ginny was standing there.

"Harry," she said, wrapping her arms around me.

"Ginny," I said, feeling my heart speed into a racing beat. "What's going on?"

"He just started shooting," she cried, wiping her freckled cheeks clean of tears. "He shot Fred."

"He who?" I asked, looking at her as a man started walking towards us.

"You don't remember me, do you, Doctor Potter?" the man asked, causing the memory of his wife and him to cross over my mind.

"I do, Mr. Cattermole," I told him. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

"You're sorry," he yelled, bringing his weapon out and leveling it at Ginny. "You're sorry? You're not sorry enough… yet."

"You don't want to hurt her, Reg," I told him. "It won't bring your wife back. It won't make your family whole again."

"But it will show exactly how I'm feeling, won't it?" he asked, taking a step forward.

"She had nothing to do with Mary's death, Reg," I told him. "Mary wouldn't want you to kill an innocent woman, would she?"

Reg blinked in confusion and deep thought. "She wouldn't," he said, keeping his weapon trained on Ginny. "But she's not here, and I am."

"You want to punish the person responsible for Mary's death, right?" I asked, stepping forward and nodding at Ginny to run. "You want to punish the person responsible for what happened Not someone who had nothing to do with it."

Reg looked between myself and Ginny, weighing his options. He seemed to be feeling doubtful about his course of action.

I stepped in front of Ginny, seeing the uneasy man's finger close around the trigger of the gun. I heard the blast of it firing and felt the searing pain of the bullet going through my skin. Every nerve felt like it was on fire. I could hear Ginny screaming and crying and telling me to stay and footsteps racing off in the opposite direction.

But I couldn't respond.

"Harry," Ginny cried, sounding like she was close to me, "don't you dare leave me."

I could picture her kneeling next to me. Tears flowing down her freckled cheeks as she tried to keep pressure on my wound. I could imagine her looking around for anyone who could possibly help her keep me alive.

"Hannah," she cried, sounding happy to see the other freckled girl, "help me with Harry."

I was lifted onto something not too soft. The cold feel of steel mingled with the cold feeling of dread inside me to make everything cold. Hannah was speaking with Ginny and someone else.

"You're going to be fine, Harry," Luna said, gripping my hand tightly. "I'm not going to let you die, I promise."

I could feel the steel frame moving and knew immediately that I was on one of the stretchers that didn't have cleaning padding on it. They were going to have to operate. I knew it as well as they did.

I could hear Ginny, Luna, and Hannah speaking to someone else, but I couldn't tell who it was. My eyes grew heavier and heavier. Soon, they slid shut, and everything faded to black silence.

Ginny's pov

"Stay here and don't look," Luna's voice rang through my head as I sat next to Hannah and looked at the wall across from us.

It had been almost an hour since she'd said that, or at least, that's what it seemed like to me. I looked over in dread as the door opened to the scrub room, and relief washed over me as I saw Luna's boyfriend, Neville, standing there.

"Neville," I said, watching his face pale. "Is everything alright? I'm not supposed to look."

"Everything's fine, Ginny," Neville said, walking towards the door to the operating theatre. He pressed the button to open the door.

That's when the dreadful sound of crying reached my ears. I could feel a cold bloom of dread shooting down my spine as Luna's voice asking for one of the medical tools reached my ears.

"Stop what you're doing," Reg Cattermole yelled. I pictured him waving his gun around like he had earlier. "You're going to let him die."

"No, I'm not," Luna said, sobbing, asking again for another tool.

The sound of a shot came from the room, and I could hear Neville thudding to the ground with a groan of pain. He had shot Neville too. He had shot several of my friends and colleagues

"I will shoot you if you do not stop right now," Reg screamed, pointing the gun at Luna as I raced into the room.

Luna was sobbing as one of the scrub nurses held out a surgical instrument to her. I knew that I had to do something, and I knew that it had to be soon.

"Shoot me," I said, drawing the attention away from Luna. "You want him to suffer the same way that you do, right?"

Reg nodded.

"Then you should shoot me. I'm his girlfriend. I'm the love of his life. I'm your eye for an eye. Shoot me."

Neville, who had somehow regained his feet, spoke sending the room into a dreadful silence. "You can put the gun away," he said, nodding towards the pulse ox machine. "In a few seconds, he's going to flatline and die. You just watch that machine there and you'll see."

"Don't let him." I cried, looking over at Luna. "Please, Luna! Don't let him."

The blaring sounds of a flatline sounded from the machine as I fell to the floor sobbing. I could hear the retreating sounds of footsteps and knew that Mr. Cattermole must have left. Then, the most beautiful sound in the world filtered into my ears. The beeping of the heart monitor had replaced the blaring flatline.

I looked up and could see Nevile placing the electrode back on Harry's chest. The look he shared with Luna made me smile in relief. I knew that the surgery would be touch and go from here, but Harry had the (second-)best surgeon in the world working on him.

Harry's POV

I blinked, trying to clear my eyes and make the dark shape in front of me come into sharp relief so that I could recognize it as a friend. I blinked again and again until the freckled face of Hannah came into view.

"Doctor Potter, you were shot," she said, causing the memory of the earlier events to flow through my mind. "Doctor Lovegood repaired the injury and you're in recovery."

"Ginny?" I asked, picturing the freckled face of my girlfriend and future wife.

"She's fine," Hannah told me, putting a hand on top of my own. "She went to get some dinner, but she'll be right back."

"Okay," I said, leaning back and allowing my eyes to drift shut again. I knew that I had a long recovery ahead of me, but with Ginny by my side, I also knew that I would make it.

Also written for the following items on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry:

Epidemiology: Fictional Diseases: Task 4 Write a fic about a murder or about a murderer.

Guess the Name: Bunny Thumper (word) threat

Planting Flowers: Sweet Peas 2,278

Bird Watching: Hamerkop (character) Hannah Abbot

Paint a Rainbow: Pink (AU) Muggle

Bunny Bingo: (word) helpless

Scavenger Hunt: Careless Whisper by George Michael (emotion) regret

Home Sweet Home: Breakfast Bar Seating Purple Velvet Bar Stools (character) Hannah Abbott

Hogwarts Garden: Toys/Games Sandcastle Bucket and Spade (character) Harry Potter

I hope you all enjoyed Death and All His Friends as much as I enjoyed writing it.