Twenty-Five

There was chaos the moment her feet touched the landing outside the Fat Lady's portrait, and it only seemed to get worse as she descended the stairs. Her feet pounded against the stone corridor, her breath coming out in short, sharp huffs as she felt the future urge her forward and into the unknown. The veil split suddenly, though, careening her back into the now, as a spell knocked her into a nearby wall a moment before the ceiling behind her came crashing down. The sudden rush combined with the cloud of dust it created sent her into a coughing fit, as Kagome tried to shake away the pain and confusion that flared up from her unexpected meeting with cold, hard stone.

Disoriented, her foresight prickling beneath the surface, the Gryffindor girl yelped, grasping for her wand hidden within her pajamas, when someone grabbed her from behind. The dust cloud lit up around them, a spell hitting the wall where she had been, as their other hand latched over her mouth and silenced her attempts to expel the particles that had rushed into her lungs. Trying to quell her shaking hands, Kagome turned her head and found herself almost sighing in relief when she recognized the former Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor that had apparently saved her.

Remus Lupin had his finger to his lips, urging her to stay silent, as someone shouted another nasty spell just beyond the dust shielding them from view. She realized then that he had his wand nearly trapped between her teeth, as he finally pulled away and gave her a once over to make sure she was all right. Kagome almost found herself grateful that he could not ask her what in the bloody blazes she was doing outside of Gryffindor tower, in her pajamas no less, as she heard a voice that nearly stopped her heart.

"It's over, time to go!" Professor Snape's voice cut through the battle, as the Death Eater poised before them was finally revealed through the thinning cloud. The large blonde's attention was pulled away before Remus could even utter a spell, however, by a thin, brown haired woman who quickly began to deflect the curses thrown at her, and Kagome noticed the way Remus tensed at her side with the distraction.

His green eyes cut her deep, as the werewolf only snapped, "You have to get out of here, now," with a hard push back toward the corridor that would take her safely back to Gryffindor tower. Then he was up and moving, briefly glancing back a single time, before engaging another Death Eater that had retreated and attempted to send a curse at the woman now fighting the blonde wizard.

Rising from her position on the floor, Kagome almost wanted to say she felt bad for not even considering taking her former Professor's advice after he risked his life to save her. Taking a deep breath, the Higurashi girl pulled her wand free and attempted to still her heart as it picked up the pace with the sudden realization that this was all real. The vision she had seen earlier was real, and she… she needed to find Draco now.

She could have sworn she heard Remus shout for her as she rounded the corner, but it was drowned out by the sound of a window shattering somewhere above her head. A spell flew from her lips instinctively, protecting her from the glass that pelted the floor around her, and she grit her teeth as she lunged over the pile and landed haphazardly on the other side with tiny shards embedded in her feet from the fall. A glance upward revealed Professor McGonagall herding away the Death Eater that had caused the damage, just as her eyes clouded over and sent her vision in the opposite direction where Harry Potter stumbled over a body laying flat against the floor.

Still for a moment, the sudden vision holding her fast, Kagome felt herself lurch to her feet the moment Harry scrambled up from the floor after casting a spell toward the blonde Death Eater who appeared to be attempting to retreat himself. She shook herself then, blinking it away rapidly, and felt her blood run cold with the knowledge that her sudden lapse into the veil had given Harry ample time to rush forward in the direction she felt herself being pulled. Was he chasing Draco? Did he know about… about Dumbledore?

"No," she whispered, ignoring the shouts around her when she finally managed to force her legs to do what they should have been doing all along. A hex barely missed her as she ran, the veil parting once more, turning the world around her into the gray haze of the unseen, and pulling her attention to the bloody footprints fleeing toward the main entrance. The ruined suit of armor around the next corner was narrowly avoided in a similar fashion, as she allowed herself to be pulled further into the future where Draco was waiting for her.

A pathway she had never taken before revealed itself to her, and she wondered for a moment how she had found such a shortcut, before she felt her feet leave the ground to leap over the vanishing step and through a tapestry she almost found herself tangled in. Hufflepuff robes vaguely flashed before her mind, before they were spirited away by the clouded, gray sight of the Gryffindor hourglass cracked and broken, littering the floor with rubies she narrowly avoided. Her breath was coming out in thick pants once again by the time she reached the grounds, urged forward still by the brief flashes of Hagrid's hut.

A brief sense of panic she somehow knew did not belong to her.

Two Death Eaters pulled themselves together, shaking off some kind of spell, just as her wand lifted and she heard herself shout, "Impedimenta!" The responding yelp almost pulled her from the unseen, but for the first time in her life she found herself clinging to the veil, forcing her mind further into rift between the future and the now, in the hopes that she might make it in time.

He had to be safe.

She had to make sure Draco was safe.

Cresting over the small hill, Kagome felt herself ripped from her sense of foresight with the sudden explosion that set Hagrid's hut ablaze. Stumbling momentarily with the sudden disconnection, she almost lost her footing, as she took in the sight of Hagrid attempting to fend off several Death Eaters that were hurling curses in his direction. Blinking rapidly to dispel the future attempting to pull her back in, the Higurashi girl lifted her gaze further and felt her mouth open in a near silent shout at the sight of Draco turned toward her near the gates where the Death Eaters were escaping. His name tumbled from her lips in a whisper, her feet moving forward once more, and she could have sworn she felt a tear streak down her face when he ignored the witch near him in favor of rushing back to her.

She slipped near the bottom of the hill, feeling the air leave her lungs when a spell hit the ground above her head.

"No, you idiot!" she heard Draco shout.

Lifting her blue eyes toward him, she finally caught sight of Harry wriggling upon the ground in front of Professor Snape in the fire light. A blood curdling sound ripped itself from his throat, as the Potions Master turned abruptly on his heel to snarl at another Death Eater nearby about Harry belonging to the Dark Lord. Rising to her feet quickly, she barely registered the two Death Eaters from before shoving by her to get to the gate beyond, as Draco came to a halt at Snape's side when the Professor thrust out his arm to stop him from advancing further.

The Malfoy boy mouthed her name, worry written on his features.

Kagome took a single step forward, before her attention once more drifted to the Boy Who Lived as he staggered uneasily to his feet. Her mind drifted into the unseen with the movement, her bright eyes clouding over, and she never heard the gasp that escaped her from what the future told. Her wand rose in her vision, a fierce protectiveness piercing through the haze, and before she had time to shake away the future that might not even come true, she felt her mouth form a spell that she had seen hurtling toward the boy she loved.

A spell she knew somewhere deep down had been used upon Draco before, as it spilled forth as a furious roar of vengeance.

"Sectumsempra!"