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Airiala awoke with a start, leaping up and nearly knocking heads with Lando who was leaning so close to her.
Lando jumped back quickly and ended up on the floor next to her bed. Airiala didn't notice as she observed her surroundings.
She was back at Hogwarts, in the infirmary. She wasn't sure how she had gotten there, but she knew that she had to get out of there.
If what she had just learned was true, then she could reveal the Ultimate Truth and be able to save everyone before slipping into her coma and dying. She could still help Harry like they had planned from the start.
She could still help end this.
"Airiala!" Raina said with a wide smile. She looked like she was going to lean in for a hug but changed her mind at the last minute. Airiala was confused about that, but didn't say anything. It wasn't important right now.
All that mattered was...
"Where's Severus?"
Raina's eyes widened in surprise before she had a smile grace her lips. "He's at the front with the other teachers. They are planning some sort of strategy to..."
Raina never got to finish what she was going to say.
The building shook, much more violently than before. Apparently Voldemort didn't like being flung out of the area as he had been and was taking it out on the school.
Airiala wasted no time flying out of the bed and out of the room, leaving the other Elementals behind. There was no time if Voldemort was back in action.
She turned down a hallway on her path to the front of the school. The path that would lead her to Severus and the end of all this.
Suddenly her feet stopped and she hit the ground from the sudden stop. She turned her head to see what had stopped her and found herself face to face with Draco Malfoy himself. He was smirking down at her and she realized almost instantly that he had been the one to stop her.
She also knew that the power she had used to fling the Deatheaters away had taken most of her strength and there was no way she could fight this child in battle if it came to it.
"Father's been looking for you," Draco said before silencing Airiala's voice and dragging her out of the hallway.
Severus stood from where he had ducked down with the other teachers over the trio.
"What was that?" Ron said as he stood slowly.
"Voldemort," Harry said with a sneer. "That was a shot of anger. He's pretty pissed at Airiala for what she did, I'm sure."
Severus said nothing in response. He knew what the boy was saying was true. He had seen the glare that the Dark Lord had sent her before he was caught up in the whirlwind she had created. He wasn't happy and when that happened, people tend to die.
He watched as the other Order members finally arrived moments later, coming into the school through alternative means that the Dark Lord was unaware of.
Dumbledore went over to them to start updating them on the situation, but Severus found that his mind was not on the task at hand.
He was still thinking of Airiala, in the infirmary, so close to death when before such power had done little but knock the air out of her, no pun intended.
He didn't understand what had changed.
Did it have something to do with the Earth Elemental's crush on her? Or was it something different. Had it been fading all this time and no one ever noticed?
He didn't have too much longer to think about it because seconds later the three other Elementals arrived at the front, and each one looked around the room and came back looking more confused than the last.
"Where's the Air Elemental?" Severus said firmly. "Surely you didn't leave her alone up there in the infirmary?"
Lando glared at the Potions Master, but said nothing. Pyro stepped forward and spoke instead. "Airiala woke up suddenly. She asked where you were seconds before the blast on the building. Right after she took off here and we thought for sure that she would have beaten us here. We don't know where she is right now."
Dumbledore approached the group, his eyes narrowing at the confusion he was seeing. "What is going..."
"She's missing!" Lando cried out to Dumbledore. "Airiala is gone. She's so sweet and delicate and I don't know where she is. She started running here and that was the last I saw of her!"
Dumbledore looked up at the other Elementals and Severus before he let the panic begin to set in. He turned back to the group preparing behind him. "Harry!"
Harry turned at the sound of his name and approached Dumbledore quickly. His eyes filled with panic at the tension he sensed around the group.
"I need the Marauder's Map. I know that you have it."
Harry's eyes widened at that information, but he reached into his pocket and pulled out the map. "I had it on me to help keep an eye on the other entrances to Hogwarts," he said firmly. They unfolded the map and Harry spoke, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The blank pages of the map changed until they had it all laid out in front of them.
Most of the people were either at the front entrance or in the infirmary or dorms, but there was two sets of footprints that were way outside of both of those areas, heading through a secret passage out of Hogwarts.
One set read 'Draco Malfory'
The other read 'Airiala Jones'
Severus suddenly felt as if a part of him was missing, a part that he so desperately wanted back. It was almost ten times worse than when he lost Lily.
Lando's face turned red at the sight of those sets of footprints. "She's being taken, what are we going to do?"
Seconds later the footprints disappeared from the map. Harry looked up at the Earth Elemental sadly. "There is nothing we can do, they're gone from Hogwarts grounds."
The ground shook with Lando's rage and, for the first time since meeting him, Severus felt the same as Lando.
Airiala tried to struggle, but found that, unlike his father, Draco actually cared enough to keep himself in shape and was more powerful than his father.
He would still have been no match against her had she been at full strength, but she hadn't corrected the issue with Severus yet and as a result her powers were still giving her trouble.
Draco dragged her off Hogwarts grounds, she almost physically felt it the moment they were off the grounds. She struggled, but found that she couldn't fight him off.
He pulled her through the forest quickly and quietly. The silence was deafening as almost all the creatures were now in hiding due to Voldemort's arrival there. Their breathing was the only sound that was breaking the silence, and strangely enough Airiala was glad for it.
Draco hadn't killed her, luckily. He also didn't know that she knew the Ultimate Truth either. Had he known, killing her when he found her would have assured them victory over Harry and the others.
Now she just had to keep the truth away from Voldemort and not die in her attempts to get back to Hogwarts, back to Severus.
They broke through the tree line and Airiala almost screamed, or she would have had she had the ability to do so.
There were at least a hundred Deatheaters there, all wearing masks and hoods. They were glaring at her, as if they had known that she was the reason they had been flung away when so close to their prize.
Draco didn't stop, he just continued to pull her forward, through the crowd of Deatheaters, towards the center of the field.
Never before had Airiala felt such hatred focused on her. It was almost stifling, she could barely breath.
The next second she knew, Draco flung her forward so she felt to the ground. She lifted her head slightly to find that he had flung her at the feet of the Dark Lord himself.
She looked up at him, malice in her eyes. He was even more hideous up close.
"So," he said looking down at her, "you are the Air Elemental that has been causing me all this trouble this past year. Even with Lucius' description of you I never imagined how pretty you would be."
He pulled his wand from his sleeve and lifted Airiala into the air, hovering her in front of him. He stepped forward so that he was almost nose to nose (well, if he had a nose) with her.
"Now then," he said firmly, his eyes focused on her stormy ones, "let us see what you know about the Ultimate Truth."
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