Chapter Forty-Eight: Run, Boy, Run

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The underlined portions are taken directly from the novel; I do not own those parts. They belong to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: This fanfiction is going to be different from my other stories. This picks up where "The Heart of Everything" and "The Heart of Everything: Shallow Bay" left off. The time in the books also changes. So, pay attention the time, so you don't get confused. Some of the chapters are other Marcus Flint/Katie Bell stories, just with more changes and deleted scenes added.

Time: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Genre: Romance, Drama, and Friendship

Rating: PG-13

Marcus looked down at Draco's shaking form. He really didn't know what to do with the boy or why he even brought him here for that matter. He should've just left him in the hall with rubble threatening to fall on him. It would have been better for them all.

Katie kept staring at him, which was making him very nervous. Yeah, he knew that he had caused her to panic, but it wasn't that bad. He was just a few minutes late.

The wounded were starting to wonder in, most of them being supported by one or two others. Marcus watched as many of them were placed on the tables, on the floor, just wherever they could find room.

Nathanial and Ryan were busying themselves over a young girl who looked like she had been attacked by a werewolf. Even from here, Marcus could see that there was no way she was going to make it. Not only had she lost too much blood, but the wounds around her neck were far too deep to heal.

A boy with a broken arm, slumped into the seat next to Marcus. His face was as white as Death itself and he was panting. Wincing he pulled his arm closer to himself and closed his eyes.

"Keep your eyes open," Marcus said as he moved closer to the boy. "And try not to move your arm so much."

The boy opened his eyes. "What difference does it make? What difference does it make it I hurt my arm even more?"

Marcus gripped his own wand. "Let me see it." The break was clean. Nothing all that hard to heal. "It makes a difference. You want to be able to use that arm in the future, don't you?"

"What future? There is none." The boy paused to catch his breath. "You'd better run like the rest of us, the future is not made for us. They're trying to catch us."
Marcus didn't answer. "Episkey."

The boy winced as his bone snapped back into place. "Thank you." Without another glace, he darted away toward the Hufflepuff table.

Drcao stared at Marcus. "Do you think he's right?"

"About what?"

"Everything."

Marcus didn't answer right away. "What does it matter to you anyway? You're safer than the rest of us."
Draco didn't respond right away. "No, I'm not. I didn't go when he called and I didn't listen to him today. I have failed and now he's going to kill me."

"Good luck with that." Marcus got to his feet. "I have to go do my job." He started to walk away.

"Marcus."
He turned. "What?"

Draco blinked. "I never wanted you to get hurt, but I didn't have a choice in the matter. You're my friend and when I found you what you were doing, I had to tell them. Bellatrix was already on to you anyway."

"You always have a choice, you know that."

"I had to prove to them that I had the stomach for this."

Marcus tried not to roll his eyes. "Whatever, I've got stuff to do."

Without looking back, he made his way over to the Ravenclaw table, where the number of injured seemed to be the greatest. Many of them have real simple fixes and it took longer to convince the victim that they weren't dying and if they would hold still, all would be well in a few seconds. Others, on the other hand, made him wonder how they were still standing. Limbs had been crushed and they appeared to be bleeding from the inside. These were the ones that Marcus knew he was going to need more than spells for.

"It hurts," the girls whimpered. Her leg had been crushed by a giant and she had also had part of a wall fall on her.

"I know," Marcus said. "I'm going to require something stronger than a wand."

The girl had tears running down her face and was sobbing.

Marcus got to his feet and rushed up to the staff table. Muttering under his breath, he studied the different potions. Many of them were simple pain killers, but others were so powerful that they could bring someone back who was on the brink of death. He pocketed a small vile of a restoring potion and an even larger one of pain killers. Turning he rushed back to the girl.

"Here, you have to drink all of this." He handed her the smaller vile. "I have to warn you, it's going to taste pretty foul and it's going to hurt pretty bad."

The girl just nodded, before talking a large drink of the potion. She made a face before gasping in pain. The vile started to drop out of her hand, but Marcus reached it before it fell to the floor.

"Come on, you have to keep drinking," Marcus said, keeping his voice steady, but firm.

The girl just blinked at him. "N-no."

"You have to in order to get better." He handed the potion back to her, much to his surprise she took it and started drinking again.

The bones and muscle in her leg started forming back into something that looked like an actual leg, while the rest of her body did the same thing. He had to admit that he was kind of disgusting, but at least it was working.

Katie came over to Marcus and put her hand into his. He was surprised that she was still here and hadn't gone out to collect the dead. They both watched as the girl's body grew still and as she stared up at them with her eyes wide.

"I told you it wouldn't be pleasant," Marcus said.

The girl just nodded. "Thanks, I guess." She slowly got to her feet and darted away from them.

Katie squeezed Marcus's head. "You're doing good."

Marcus sat down at the table. "Katie, there's just too many and we don't have the supplies treat them all. Madam Pomfrey said that what's up here is all there is." He looked down at his hands. "More people are probably going to die up here than in the actual battle."

"You can't blame yourself, Marcus. You really can't save everyone."
"I know that, but most of these people don't trust me enough to get close to them, let alone heal them."
They both looked up as the first wave of the dead came in. Everyone in the Hall stared, crying as the bodies of friends and family members pasted them. Marcus studied each body, but didn't know the majority of them. A couple times he saw Katie wince and quickly blink. He put his arm around her and pulled her close.

"Fred's dead," Katie whispered. "I saw his body up on the seventh floor."
Marcus blinked. He hadn't really been all that close to Fred, but he hated to see Katie suffer. Fred had been a really close friend. "I'm sorry."

Katie didn't answer.

Marcus watched as two more bodies were marched past them. His heart missed a beat, that pink hair was all too familiar and so was the brown-grey hair. There was just simply no way that they both had been hit. It couldn't be true, but it was. He could now see their faces and how it looked like they had been reaching for each other.

Remus and Tonks...They didn't deserve to die! They had a newborn! Teddy would never know his parents, never fully understand why his parents weren't there to tuck him into bed. Marcus found himself wondering if Emily would ever think that of him and Katie.
Katie was looking up at him. "I know. Trust me I know."

They held each other, staring as even more bodies came in, trying to tune out the cries of the ones still living.

Potter walked past them with a pale face. Marcus frowned. It was rather odd to see Potter walking around when the Dark Lord wanted to kill him or, worse, give himself up. Why wasn't Potter hiding? Unless, he was actually going to give himself up. Potter stopped and studied the wounded and the dead.

Ron Weasley and Hermione rushed in right behind him. Ron's face fell as he stared down at his dead brother's face. He rushed over to his family with tears running down his face. Marcus watched as the family embraced each other, howling over the body.

He looked away, back towards Potter. Hermione was standing next to him, blinking hard and gulping. Potter muttered something to Hermione, before turning and walking back out the Great Hall. Hermione turned, opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She slowly turned back to the Great Hall, stunned and bleeding from the head. Marcus frowned, why hadn't he noticed that before.

He slowly got to his feet avoiding looking at Remus's and Tonk's bodies and made his way toward Hermione. He didn't know why he was even bothering going over to her, but healing her just seemed like the right thing to do.

Hermione turned to him as he approached. "Marcus." She looked him up and down, as if she was seeing a ghost. "You're okay." She moved toward him and briefly hugged him. "When I heard what happened, I-"
"You're head."

She reached up to touch her cut. "It's fine."

"I can heal it, real quick."

"Um...okay." She looked at him, then back out of the Great Hall.

"He's gone to him, hasn't he?" Marcus asked, looking at her cut. It was just a little one, nothing major.

"Yes, he seemed to think that it was the only way."

Katie appeared and handed Hermione a cup of water. "Why does he insist on being the hero?"

Hermione sighed. "I don't know." She winced as Marcus's hands got closer to her cut.

"Sorry," Marcus muttered. "He probably thinks he has something to prove."

"By dying?" Katie asked.

Marcus shrugged. "I don't read minds, so you tell me." He reached into his pocket for his wand. "This should work."

"Should work?" Hermione's voice got real shrill. "I thought you knew what you were doing? This is my head!"
"Nice to have you back, Granger, and I do know what I'm doing." He pointed his wand at her cut. "Episkey." He waited for a few seconds, before muttering, "Tergeo."

Hermione reached up and touched his head. "Maybe you made for this."

"For what?"

"Healing."

Marcus didn't know how to answer that. He really wasn't all that far into his education, in fact, he hadn't worked on it at all this term. He supposed that some of it do manage to find its way into his head forever.

Hermione looked at the Great Hall entrance. "Maybe there is something in what Harry is doing. The Dark Side made think that by killing him that the war is over, but it's not. We may to run, but it's not the end. The war is not over, not even close. We are going to win."

Ron came over to them, wiping tears from his face. "Are you ready?"

Hermione nodded, pulling Ron's hand into hers. "Let's go finish this."

"I suppose you're not going to tell us what you are doing," Katie said.

Hermione looked them both in the eye. "If you see the snake, kill it. It's the last link to You-Know-Who. With the snake dead, he can be finally killed."

Marcus and Katie exchanged looks as Hermione and Ron walked out of the Great Hall.