Things continued to get stranger and more tense as Hagrid showed them his half-brother and more teachers got sacked. The school was losing its light especially as their O.W.L.s approached. The only thing that kept her on a routine was her runs with George, it was the only thing that stayed the same in a place that was usually full of routine. They neared the Black Lake and walked onto the pier, he took her hand, "Bridg."
"Yeah?" She looked up at him as he continued to look out over the water, he seemed really serious, it was one of the few times she had ever seen him like this. It worried her more than when he was grinning from ear to ear.
"You'll be alright without me around, yeah? Not as your boyfriend but as your bondmate?" He still didn't look at her but held her hand tighter.
"Yeah, bondmates don't have to be constantly around each other, siblings move away from each other, children move from their parents houses. It's just in moment of danger that we truly need them and for most that's rare." She looked out to the horizon.
"It's not for you though is it?" He turned her to face him, "You'll be alright without me around?"
"Yes." She smiled and let out a slight laugh cupping his face in her hand, "We never know when danger will come but if I'm ever in danger, you'll know about it."
"How?" He held her shoulders.
"You'll feel it." She pointed to his stomach, "Here…and here."
He looked to her finger now pointing at his heart, "So if you're ever in danger I can come right to you?"
"Yeah, as long as you know roughly where I am. The feeling will decrease the closer you get to me." She reassured him, "George what's going on?"
"Fred and I, we can't do this anymore. We're planning on leaving and I just want to be sure you'll be alright." He relaxed slightly.
"I'm surprised you lasted this long." She smiled, "You both were already dreading coming back to school anyways since your legally allowed to do magic. You weren't going to be coming back with me next year anyways, so it's just happening a little early."
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her head to his chest, "I know, I just didn't expect it to be this upsetting to leave you."
"It's okay." She hugged him back, "Do what you have to do, we'll be together over Holidays."
She leaned up quickly pecking him on the lips and he smiled at her, "I think I'm the one who saved the Queen."
She sat in one of her O.W.L. exams, wearing her mother's cloak hoping for good luck, and was trying to concentrate but it looked like another language, charms was what Fred and George were good at, not her. She could see Hermione with her head down low scribbling fast on her paper and Bridget couldn't help but smile at her friend. She heard a noise just outside of the Great Hall and turned towards it. Umbridge came down from the front of the room and began walking towards the noises. As the doors opened Bridget saw a Whiz-bang come flying into the room. A smile grew on her face, Fred and George were making their exit. Soon the twins came flying into the room on their brooms and threw all of the exam papers up in the air. Even Hermione was smiling.
She watched as Fred threw a Whiz-bang with a long tail into the air and she recognized it from drawing in the twins notebooks. She grabbed Harry and Hermiones sleeves pulling them back out of the way attempting to nudge Ron back as well as the dragon flew over them. Harry looked at her with a wide smile and they joined everyone else in the hall to go out to the main entrance of the school and cheered along with everyone else as a giant W lit up the sky.
The smile from her face fell as she felt Harry fall beside her. She quickly moved, catching him before he hit the ground, supporting his head. She called his names a few times and Hermione turned seeing him in her arms. He looked up at the two of them, "Sirius!"
They followed Harry up to Umbridges office and were caught not moments later. Bridget blamed the cats on all the plates but she couldn't be sure. Neville, Luna, and Ginny had also been brought in the room by Umbridges squad, Bridget and Draco equally looking displeased at each other. She sat both Harry and Bridget down in a chair, hating both of them almost equally at this point.
Their arms were tied to the chairs and as Umbridge slapped Harry she tried to lunge forward, unsuccessfully. Snape came into the room and Harry tried to tell him what was going on in code but it was unclear if he even cared as he left the room. Umbridge pulled out her wand and turned to Bridget, "The Cruciatus curse ought to get you to talk."
"No, leave her alone!" Harry yelled.
"That's illegal!" Hermione followed up. Bridget looked to both of them and her eyes landed on Draco, who had become paler than normal.
"What the Minister doesn't know, won't hurt him." The toad put the portrait of the Minister face down and walked up to Bridget, "Now tell me where he is."
Bridgets breathing hastened as she looked at the wand. Harry pulled at his restraints, "Don't hurt her!"
"Harry it's alright." Bridget tried to keep her voice even as she stared down the wand, "She's been dying to do this since she first saw me."
She gripped the arms of the chair tight, she knew what to expect. She kept her eyes locked on the woman as she watched her mouth open, about to say the word. Hermiones voice cut through the air, "One of you tell her!"
"Tell me what?" Umbridge looked at her.
"Well if you won't tell her I will." Hermione said and both Bridget and Harry looked at their friend confused and worried. Hermione said she would tell her where Dumbledores secret weapon was and in an instant both of them were untied and following Hermione through the school, Umbridges wand trained on Bridget the whole time. They went into the forest and Bridget began to catch onto what her friend was playing at.
They got to the rope where Grawp had been tied up and he was gone. Umbridge caught on quick that it was a trick but soon they were approached by Centaurs. To which the brave head mistress moved behind the three of them. She watched as they pulled their weapons and Bridget was prepared to show them some of her Phoenix abilities to show that at least she, Harry, and Hermione were friends. As Umbridge spoke one of them shot an arrow at her which she deflected then yelled, "How dare you! Filthy Half-breed!"
"Don't call them that!" Bridget yelled turning but a spell was passing by her, a rope wrapping around the Centaurs neck and human torso. She watched as it struggled to breath and fell down the slope towards them, "Let him go! Please stop it!"
She rushed to the Centaurs side trying to remove the ropes and Hermione did as well. When she turned to look she saw Umbridge wore a satisfied grin. Her anger grew and she lit a fire in her hand, beginning to burn the rope away from the creature without burning him. Grawp came and picked Umbridge up and the Centaur she had been helping stood up throwing the remainder of the rope off of him. Before he joined his herd he placed a hand on her shoulder bowing his head in respect and thanks.
They finally made it to the Ministry, Hermione only having a mild panic attack while riding on a Thestral that she couldn't see, and made their way to the Department of Mysteries. Once they enter the Hall of Prophecies they begin looking for the area Harry saw Sirius being attacked. They make it there and find no one but Neville notices an orb with Harrys name on it.
Bridget watched as Harry walked up to it but was distracted by a whispering behind her. She turned and saw and orb glowing on a lower shelf. It completely entranced her as she moved closer to it. Reading the label her eyes grew wide: S.P.T. to M.M. Dark Lord and Bridget Faltey. Her heart beat fast seeing her name on the paper, she had no idea what it meant. She reached out for it and just as it was in her hand she was called back to reality by Hermione calling Harrys name. Quickly she put the orb in the pocket of her mothers cloak and moved to stand with the others as Lucius Malfoy and LeStrange approached them.
She was ready for anything as Neville tried to lunge for the woman but Harry stopped him. As Malfoy spoke they realized that they were being surrounded by Death Eaters and they moved to be able to defend all sides of them. On cue Harry told them to attack and they did, all of them running down an aisle. They got separated for a moment and she stunned a Death Eater that came near her trying to get back to the others. Once they had finally all found each other Ginny used the Reductor Curse on a group of Death Eaters coming towards them which was effective but caused the shelves and prophecies to begin falling. They ran making their way back to the door and fell through it landing only inches above the ground. In the center of the room they were in now was an arch way with a silver mist inside of it. Bridget, Harry, and Luna could hear the whispers coming from it but were soon distracted by an onslaught of Death Eaters attacking them. One of them had gotten a hold of her and had her hair gripped tight to the back of her head, his wand pointed at her neck.
George and Fred had made it to Diagon Alley and were looking around at shops. Fred noticed his brothers wrist as he took a sip of his drink, "Mate, what do those colors mean?"
"What?" George looked down and saw on his bracelet Bridgets part contained both dark red and a yellowish green. He swallowed hard, "It means she's mad and scared."
A brilliant white light flew past her, knocking the Death Eater away from her and soon she saw Remus as he pulled her down below the rock she had been standing on. He saw the cuts on her face, "Are you alright?"
"Fine." She nodded, "Just a little banged up."
"Good, get to the others." He pushed her towards her friends as he began fighting Death Eaters.
Some of the Death Eaters tried attacking the students as a means to distract the members of the Order but she quickly blocked their attacks and returned it with fire chasing after them. She corralled her friends below where the fighting was and heard Remus yell, "Keep them safe Bridget!"
"Yes sir!" She yelled back her wand at the ready, a flame already ignited in her other hand.
"Bridget that's so cool!" Neville said seeing it for the first time.
"Thanks." She smiled at him, knocking a death eater back. She spotted Remus out of the corner of her eye being approached from behind and she flew over to him blocking the attack with her wand, a long spiral of fire leaving her hand.
The man looked to her, "Nice improvement, now get back."
She returned to her post with the others in time to see Bellatrix use the killing curse on Sirius. Her heart stopped watching Harry try to go after him but Remus quickly grabbed the boy, holding him as he yelled out in pain. When he broke free of Remus' grasp she watched as he ran after Bellatrix and she looked from her friends to where Harry had just disappeared to and her legs moved without thinking.
She heard him yell Crucio and she flew moving behind him and watched as he hovered over the woman, both of them hearing Voldemorts voice. She called through the taunts of the Dark Lord, "Harry no, it's not you!"
Voldemort landed behind her and Harry turned to him, Voldemort throwing his wand away so she held firm to hers and stood to where half her body was covering Harrys'. She took her friends hand in his, "Together, we're together Harry, that's what matters."
George felt a pain in his stomach as if he'd been punched and doubled over in front of the shop he and Fred had just decided to buy. Fred tried to support him, "George! What's happening?"
"Bridget." He muttered, "She's – She's in danger."
"What do we do?" Fred quickly asked.
"I don't know. We have to figure out where she's at." He spoke through the pain.
Dumbledore had pushed them both back but she stayed in front of Harry. She turned to him handing him her wand, "I know it won't be as good as yours but just in case."
"Bridget are you sure?" He hesitated.
"I have my Primal magic, you need something too." She pushed it into his hand and they watched the duel not wanting to get in the way of powerful magic like the two wizards were using. When the bricks behind them began exploding and falling they covered each other trying to protect one another, doing a decent job at it until it finally stopped when Voldemort created a fire snake to attack Dumbledore. She knew she could dissolve it and tried to run forward to help but Dumbledore pushed her back again, Harry catching her from falling.
With the fire gone and Voldemort inside an orb of water she and Harry were finally able to get back on their feet steadily and moved closer to Dumbledore only to have him try and push them away again. When Voldemort got out of the water he sent a spell at them which Dumbledore blocked and the evil wizard grew angry yelling out causing all of the glass in the hall to shatter and fall to the ground. Bridget and Harry grabbed each other, trying to cover each other from falling glass and she tried to blow as much of it away from them as she could. Once the glass had landed they looked back to where Voldemort was and watched as he lifted it all up sending it towards them in a spear. Harry grabbed her once again covering their faces as she lifted an arm trying to create a windshield from it but Dumbledore turned it to sand before it reached either of them.
George was unable to apparate on his own so Fred took them to Hogsmead, the closest they could get to Hogwarts and the twins pain increased, "She's not here."
"How do you know?" Fred almost yelled from the panicked stated he was in.
"Because it hurts more." George writhed, "She said it would be less if she was close."
"Alright then, we have no choice." Fred said before apparating them to 12 Grimmauld place where their parents were. Molly came the second they opened the door and Fred looked at her, his face wearing fear and worry, "Bridget, where is Bridget?!"
"Hogwarts I would-" Their mother moved to help support George but stopped in the middle with a gasp, "Arthur! Didn't the others say something was happening at the ministry?!"
"Yes why?" Arthur came out, his arm still in a sling, seeing Molly and Fred supporting an in pain, but now managing George, "Oh goodness. You don't think Bridget is there?"
"She's in danger!" George yelled before going limp as the pain stopped. He looked up at his parents "It stopped, why did it stop?"
A/N: Don't forget to let me know what you think!