**

Hogwarts was silent. Eerie. Like the walls knew something was happening, but those inside it didn't.

Everyone but me and Draco.

The Slytherin doors seemed taller than before, almost like I had shrunk during my time away, or her naive nature had shrunk.

Either way, I didn't want to go in.

I had no idea where Draco was, I didn't even know if he was alive.

I gulped at the thought, deciding to put it aside.

I turned, deciding that my best bet would be to stay low until something happened, deciding to attack when they least expected it.

But I didn't know who they where. Would I need to attack Draco? What if someone else did and they killed him.

I shook my head not wanting to think about the possibility.

"Ophelia?" I jump and turn, shocked that someone else would be in the halls at this time.

Lucas. Fuck sake.

I stood ridged. Out of all the possible times for him to crop up. He chooses now.

"Why are you up so late?" He asked.

I looked at him. His eyes had regained their shine. But his poster had slouched. He was different. In a good way, I couldn't tell.

"I'm. Just going for a walk. You should go back to your dorm." I say cold. The last thing I want in life is to see him. Speak to him.

"Ophelia. We should talk. About us. Fae. Look, your summer was horrible and I understand. But so was mine, so was Fae's. And when you left me, I was upset and I understood why. But it didn't stop me from being sad. And Fae, she-"

"Stop." I shoot my eyes at him praying lasers would shoot out.

"I don't want to hear this Lucas. I'm okay with it. Really. And if you want to talk fine. But not right now. There is something I need to go do. So please"

"Fae has the Dark Mark Ophelia."

I stop. And stare. The information seeping into my ears, spilling over my brain like someone had split an egg over my head.

"She what? Why? Why would she. She never, she didnt follow."

"I don't know. I don't. She showed me at the end of summer, something about 'accepting that not all paths are right' and when I pressed her all she would say was that it would all make sense. I don't know if it was because of losing her dad, or because of her mum. She just. Did it."

I stand gaping, my mouth opening and closing like a gum ball machine.

"My dad died the exact same way hers did. And I'm not here wearing it. "

I couldn't compute. I couldn't figure out why, as a quiet girl with the heart of gold, she had decided to join...HIM.

I shake my head, deciding to place the fact aside and come up with a set of questions to ask later on. I have things to do.

"Look. Lucas. I have to go. But we can talk later. Okay"

Lucas nods. Standing straighter. "Fine. But Ophelia, she said something was going to happen. She mentioned your father. She kept mentioning him. Every time she would trace the mark she would say that you would understand. I never understood why. She said she found out some information and after the summer she wanted to be the one to tell you."

My breathing hitches and I turn my head to look at him fully.

"What did she want to tell me Lucas. She told she. Didn't she. What did she say"

He ponders for a moment and then opens his mouth

"She said that your-"

He stopped mid sentence as green sparks shot from behind him. The force sending his back to arch as he looked straight at me.

And then he was on the floor.

Dead.

I turn and look.

Death eaters. 6 of them.

I couldn't recognise some of them. Bellatrix Lestrange. Greyback. And Draco...

Bellatrix was hooting and laughing, her wired hair electrocuting the air as she waltzed around, her eyes manic and deranged.

Her eyes locked onto mine, and dancing changing into a manic walk, her feet tripping forward as she danced her wand between her fingers.

"You're out of bed late little witch" she scathed, her voice sounding like cutlery scraping down a plate.

I didn't move. I didn't reply. I knew Bellatrix. Of her reputation and her ability to fire a curse quicker than I could pull out my wand.

Draco clicked his eyes onto Ophelia, fear funnelling into his eyes as he realised she was here. And not at home.

"No answer? Sad. I like when they reply. Makes the end taste so much better"

She was only 2 feet away, my eyes averting to Lucas on the floor.

He was dead. She just killed him. Gone. Just like that. Blink and you'd have missed it.

A hand suddenly grabbed her chin, turning so she was staring straight into the foreboding eyes of Bellatrix, the death toll of her crimes tallied in the dead pupils.

" such a pretty girl" Greyback.

Bellatrix giggled and traced her wand up My chest and neck, ending at the tip of my throat under my chin, pressing enough that it would bruise.

"Did you hear the noise? Your headmaster is dead. Just like that."

She laughed hysterically. The laugh making me flinch as I ducked my head.

Dumbledore can't be dead. He can't.

A whimper escaped my throat and before I could turn realise, Bellatrix slashed her hand across my face sending my flying to the ground, the sting spreading across my face as my head hit the concrete floor, my head cracking and the world blurrying around me.

I was pulled to my feet by Greyback as they began to walk, Bellatrix sending out wordless spells, each one hitting the lanterns on the walls exploding the light, sending the hallway into darkness as we walked.

I could feel blood drip down my ear, my head throbbing as bellatrix sang out continually on a loop as she burst lanterns and portraits

"He's dead. He's dead. He's gone he's dead."

We walk down corridors, my vision fazing in and out as we twist and turn.

I shake my head and refocus.

We were in the great hall.

Bellatrix stood on the tables, kicking and throwing the goblets and plates across the room. Glass shattering and splintering as she dancing and jumped.

"Stop. Please" I sob out before I can stop myself from talking.

She drops off the table and

saunters towards me.

"Stop. You want me to stop. Is this too much for you. Is this painful. Does poor itty bitty baby want this to stop."

She was inches from my face, her breath making me want to gag.

I don't reply and instead looked at the mess around me, the shattered plates felt like a prick in the heart.

She was destroying Hogwarts. They were destroying it.

"I suggest you allow it to continue little witch. Otherwise you can join Dumbledore in his grave if you prefer. "

"Bellatrix. Please. She isn't worth it. Really. You're wasting your time on a silly slytherin girl."

Draco.

I turned to look at him, his face cold and emotionless, his eyes not even looking at me but instead look at Bellatrix.

"I want to have fun Draco. Don't ruin it for me."

And she pulled a silver dagger from within her robe.

It was trailed from my wrist up to my neck, the pressure getting tighter as it rested in the bottom

Of my neck, my skin stinging as she nicked it, a bead of blood pooling and the trickling down my chest.

"Leave us. Let me see if we have use for her."

Greyback turned and stalked out followed by the 3 other death eaters.

Draco didn't move. He stayed put and looked straight at Bellatrix.

"Draco leave. Leave the half-blood to me. Go and find Severus. Tell him that Hogwarts is ours.

Alecto! Wake the children. It's time they learned who their new professors are"

I closed my eyes. Praying that if I opened them everything would disappear and I would awake in my room. Or in Draco's.

"Bellatrix please. She really isn't worth it I really don't see the point in -"

Draco pressed further. He was getting panicked.

"Draco. Darling if you really don't want to leave then you can help. Or you can leave and tell the dark lord that it is done. That you completed your task."

He stood for another 7 seconds, before Alecto grabbed him by the neck and pulled him away.

His eyes didn't leave mine. His apology written across them as he was turned and pulled further away.

Leaving me alone.

With Bellatrix Lestrange.

"Now. Where shall we start. Shall I mark you as a half-blood. Or shall I brand you with a practise dark mark?

You are a slytherin after all aren't you. Surely you would be getting one soon."

I struggle under her grabs as she pushes me down onto the benches, my back pressed against the big dining table as the wood digs into my back.

She pulls up the sleeve of my top and runs the blade up my arm.

She does it twice more. And then looks me dead in the eye and she pressed deep, carving into my skin.

I scream and tremble. Fighting, trying to get out of her grasp. Trying to wrench free and run.

But she clung to my throat and dug her nails in. Her body blocking my escape.

I scream and thrash feeling the blood begin to pour down my arm and pool in my curved palm.

She releases the pressure on the knife and then moved it towards my eye, flicking my blood off the knife and then setting it just next to my left outer eye.

"Please stop. Why are you doing this" I plead.

I wanted someone to storm in and help me. I wanted Draco to fly in on a Hippogriff and swoop me.

But instead the knife nicked beside my eye as blood slid down my head.

My vision was blurring. The corners softening into a red glow. I had split my head open when it hit the floor, I could feel the blood cluster in my hair matting it and no doubt turning it a deep red.

Whatever it was that she carved into my arm was stinging like mad and my body ached.

I was losing blood.

Bellatrix stood back and watched me. Her chest rising and falling fast, her eyes thinning until she almost resembled a snake.

She snarled her mouth and showed teeth.

"Crucio"

Her wand flicked with hardly any movement.

And the curse hit me with a blow and I crumbled to the floor.

It burned my veins. Searing up my nerves, biting and scratching as my bones grind and creak, my skin setting itself on fire. Rods stabbing into my body over and over again, each rod getting deeper and deeper.

A scream could be heard.

Mine.

The scream exploding from my lungs with the energy I had left. Bouncing off the walls as it I chocked and gargled, the pleads stopping in my throat as my nerves lacerate through my entire body.

It felt like my brain had been placed in a cauldron of basilisk poison.

It felt like it went on for hours. Forever.

And then it stopped. And my vision Swam and my body jerked. Twitching and jerking. Tears leaking out the corner of my eyes as Bellatrix stood looking up.

"He has called us." She gleamed.

"The dark lord has called us"

She shrieked in happiness and whipped her wand. It reverberated around the room shattering the windows and turning out the floating candles. The glass skimming over me like a rock skipping over a lake.

Bellatrix looked up once again and then disappeared with black smoke and a lightening crack.

More cracks could be heard and Hogwarts fell silent.

I lay still. My vision danced as I tried to analyse myself.

Concussion. Severe. Lacerated arm. Bad. Cut in the face. Bad, but easily dealt with.

The curse. Godawful.

My body had stopped twitching but my brain still felt electric, burnt.

I don't know how long I was lying there for. Minutes. Hours. Days?

But soon the room turned cold and my breathing became painful in my chest.

My head throbbing and my eyes sore.

I'm going to die here. I'm going tI die. And nobody find me.

My thoughts end when I hear footsteps.

They were advancing towards me, I could hear them walk over the glass.

"Ophelia. Ophelia I'm so sorry."

Draco.

He did come for me.

He kneeled beside me. Looking at my head and arm.

His face paled

"Ophelia your arm" he chocked out touching it gingerly and hissing as I flinched.

Everything hurt. Every cell. Every fibre. Ever nerve.

I tried to open my mouth, but only a croak came out as my twitched.

I felt Draco move and he placed his arm under my legs and then his other under my back. Lifting me off the ground he turned. Walking out the great hall.

Fear and worry was spread across his face.

"She—she—crucio— she on me"

I manage to croak out.

I feel him stiffen as he continued to walk. His breathing stopped for only a second. And then resumed.

I felt tired and cold. I nuzzled into his neck and closed my eyes, thankful for his warmth

"Ophelia you need to stay awake." He barked.

"Am I going to die" I asked, my voice sounding washed out and faint.

"You will not die." He replied. His eyes trained straight ahead his voice certain and dominant.

I relaxed into his chest. "I can't die. Not if you're always with me"

Silence emitted. And then Draco spoke "I'll always be there. When you need me. I'll be there. Always Ophelia"

And with that he apparated with me in his arms.

The broken corridors of Hogwarts disintegrating into smoke.

✨✨