Another bad word in this chapter (sorry, Ann, it's the last time I think!)
Chapter 10
Bill felt Fleur pulled away from his side by the pressure of the crowd in the Entrance Hall. He cried out her name and tried to grab her hand, but was too late. He saw a flash of her silvery hair as she was carried away from him by the crush, and as spells began to fly and the air was filled with renewed screams and crashes. Bill pulled out his wand and joined in the fray. He had no idea where Fleur or the rest of his family were now, and the refrain of: "Please let them be okay" was beginning in his head once more.
Bill was forced by the crowd into the Great Hall as still more people poured through the doors into the devastated Entrance Hall. Suddenly, there was a flash of red fire, and Bill felt a searing pain across his forehead and cheek as a spell hit him and reopened the partially healed scars from Fenrir Greyback's attack. He fell backwards, dropping his wand and gasping in agony, half-blinded with his own blood. Through the blood in his eyes, he saw a hooded figure standing in front of him, and he knew he was going to die. He closed his eyes, waiting.
Then there was a furious yell of: "Stupefy!" from behind the Death Eater, and the figure fell forward, trapping Bill under his body. Through a haze of pain, Bill was aware of someone hauling the Death Eater off him and crying, "Bill! Bill! Are you okay? Please don't be dead! Please! Bill!"
"Ch-Charlie?" he croaked, hardly daring to believe it. "Charlie!" Then the two brothers were in each other's arms, and Charlie was crying as he held Bill tightly. "Don't fucking do that to me! I thought you were dead! I thought I'd lost you!" Bill remembered then that Charlie didn't yet know who he had lost, and that here was still one more person to whom he had to break the news of Fred's death, but for a minute he just gloried in having his favourite brother close again.
Then he pulled away from the hug, wiping the blood from his face with the edge of his robes, and looking Charlie in the eyes. For a brief moment, Charlie looked back, half-grinning, but then he saw something in his older brother's expression and his grin faded. "Oh God, no, Bill! Who? Which one…?" Bill was crying again, tears and blood mingling on his scarred cheeks. "Fred. It's Fred. He's dead, Charlie, he's dead." Charlie's sobs joined with his own, and the two clung together on the floor as the battle raged around them.