It was like a calm before the storm. The static feeling in the air you get moments before a thunder storm. It was like the final swing of a lighthouse light before the ship hit the rocks. It swung and tried, missing by a fraction... causing everything to fall into carnage around it. Wood splintering, thunder clapping and lightening flashing into your window as the rain started.

It was like the twitch of a cats whisker before they pounced on a mouse. The ripping of the waters surface before the shark engulfs the bird. The teeth stealing your air as it clasped around your throat. It was like the coiling of a snake before it attacks, jaws unhinged and eyes slitted into small holes that transfigured themselves into doors. That led to nowhere but a stopped heart and a one way ticket... to death.

It was all the calm before the storm. The waiting before the action. The eventual final breath and pull back as you waited for the thunder or the rocks or the cat or the shark or the snake. All of them in that moment, to put it simply, the hunter. Masked behind the concept that humans will forever be at the top of the food chain.

But a questions that scientists and behaviourists can't quite understand, is that why as the smartest species to ever exist...why are we seven times more likely to kill another human, than any other species.

Funnily enough, spending time in a captured castle allows you to come up with your own reason for this. One that is defined in four simple words. That perhaps isn't suitable for a research paper to have in it:

We are all cunts.

Anarchy was brewing at the mouth of Hogwarts. And we were all smack bang in the Centre of it all. Promising each other that we would all survive somehow.

I stumble through my day, potions sliding into charms, charms sliding into lunch and then lunch sliding into the afternoon as I decide to skip transfiguration and divination. Telling the future suddenly isn't something I would like to do. In fact, I could predict it so easily that poor Trewenely would be put out a job.

Draco had been gone for a further two weeks, my body stiffening without the knowledge if he was alive or not. No letters, no goodbye.

I woke up...and he was gone. And as much as I wanted him to be there when I opened my eyes, I knew why he wasn't. And the fear it installed in me froze my hands every time my mind lingered over it.

The rumours of the Order still going on created whispers of hope around the school.Many of the students being seen practising wand movements under their desks or in empty corridors. The Carrow's introduced the Cruciatus curse as a new form of punishment, using Neville Longbottom as their first test subject in front of everyone in the great hall. The mushy peas suddenly reminding me of the after affects of being Crucio'd too many times.

The common room was cold. I didn't get up to put a jumper on. Instead I stayed on the windowsill watching the rain stop and lay on the stone exterior of Hogwarts. I watched the owls fly through the raindrops, some of them stopping every so often on the rooftops to shake their feathers and then resume flight. I watched the clouds float and move, extending the sun and allowing it to be seen, before pulling it back and forcing it back into hiding. Just like hope.

I watched my breath hit against the window pane, a circular patch of condensation forming. I was making my own raindrops, watching them bead on the window and then race down.

I wondered If its colder in here than out there.

A thunder rumbled across the room and it light up. Black smoke appearing and the lightening cracked across my room in the form of a black suit and blonde hair.

"Ophelia!"

"Draco what the-"

"You need to go. You need to leave you"

"Draco I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going in"

He had lunged across the room and grabbed my upper arm, pulling me up and towards the door.

"We don't have time Ophelia. Move."

I dug my heels in as we reached the door, Draco's hand resting on the handle as I wrenched my arms out his grasp.

His hair was messed up and sweat had began forming on the back of his neck, his hair curling from the wetness as his eyes were panicked.

"Draco I am not leaving until you tell me what is happening. Why are you here, youre going to get killed if you don't-"

"We are both going to fucking die Ophelia. You need to get OUT of here. Now. This isnt up for debate. This is-"

"Draco. Enough" I scream. Shoving my hair out my face as I look him up and down. He was scared.

"Ophelia. It's time."

I suddenly click and my mind goes blank like a slate. Oh. THAT time.

"As in..you mean."

Draco nods wrenching the door open allowing the uproar to build into my ears.

Students hurled down the corridors, some screaming others hollering at each other, some alliances already being made as people shed their robes and rolled up their sleeves. Younger students herded under the wings of prefects.

Seamus flies past, the bruises on his face freshened up no doubt by Alecto earlier that day, but he didn't seem bothered. Instead he stood clinging onto a statue on a ledge, above everyone else shouting and screaming.

"Man the exits. This is it guys. This is the fucking time."

The students blurred by in rows of blonde, black and brown. Adrenaline pumping down corridor like light as shoes squeaked and smacked off the concrete floor. A rumbling came from above us, dust settling around his as some ducked and others yelped.

"no guys move lets go. Now!" Came Seamus again, jostling people to move faster.

I crane my neck. Pushing my way towards him through the crowd leaving Draco standing at the door of the common room.

"Seamus what is going on. What is happening. Why is everyone running around."

His eyes meet mine and they are hungry, ready to fight as he grins.

"Harry is back. He's here, in the castle, and Voldemort is on his way too we think. This is it"

My jaw clenches and I turn back to Draco. Shoving my way back towards him without thinking.

I get to the door but hes gone, disappeared either into the crows of dozens or vanished away. To fight on what side, I don't know.

my eyes flicker to the wall next to the door. The words etched with speed and hurry.

"Just survive. Somehow"

*/

I should have told her I loved her. I should have went and grabbed her and apparated out of here without even telling her. I should have hooked my arm around her waist and shoved her into a floo portal so fast that she wouldn't even register before she was gone in smoke and all.

instead I etched the only words my brain could muster before I switched it off and dawned on a mask. Cold. Calculated. Turns out if you turn it off and pretend you don't feel anything, you stop actually feeling. A skill I had picked up soon before Colin and a skill I adapted too quickly after Colin.

If I was going to ensure survival was guaranteed, then I had to ensure that I got to them first. And that my wand was faster, quicker, more precise. I had to ensure that my shields were stronger and that if I dropped someone. They stayed down.

It's war. It's survival. A must and a need. Not a want.

I apparated the second the corridor gave way to space, landing in another cluster of running students gripping the collar of Zabini and Goyle.

"move this way" I hiss, pulling them off to the left and and gripping their collar tighter.

"potter is here. In Hogwarts. He's heading towards the room of requirements, and we need to stop him."

*/

*

I skid around the corner wand raised as another explosion shakes the corridor causing pieces of the ceiling to crumble around me, covering my face as I keep pushing forward. Dust settling into my hair as a yellow spell whizzes past my ear.

I scratch to a halt and flick my wand forward sending a pink bolt forward, the smoke clearing and a death eater flopping to the floor as his body expands like a balloon floating up and bouncing around the ceiling screaming at me as I whiz past without looking back.

A window to my right shudders and then shatters, shards sliding onto the floor around my feet as I jump just missing a piece, black smoke billowing into the open space. Three more death eaters forming into their uniforms in front of me.

Fuck.

"Stupefy" I shoot, hitting the first one in the arm watching him spin to the side of the wall as I create a shield charm just in time as the second death eater shoots the killing curse, my shield crumbling soon after the hit and I jump to the side, glass cutting my hands as I turn and roll. Shooting wordless spells of the rainbow at all three, my hand tiring and my brain racing. I cant fight these three on my own.

"Expelliarmus" And the third death eater watches his wand fly backwards into a pile of rubble.

"Incarcerous" the second person screams out.

"Impediementa" I rush out, watching the curse take over the third death eater sending him to the floor as I look at my saviours.

Luna and Lavender.

"luna youre alive!" I shout. Ducking as she fires a leg locking curse towards the last death eater, both of them floored as Lavender speeds forward her hairband almost falling off her head.

We run in a group, standing in a small circle when faced with a death eater, their masks forming them into one big person. One big religion.

Spells whip past us and the ground shatters, Lavender losing her footing as a curse fires into my arm knocking me against the wall exploding the air out my lungs as I fall down to the ground.

My chest tightens as I try to bring my breathing back into a pattern time ticking as my vision swims, a hand gripping my throat and pulling me up the wall.

"Little fucking brat. Fighting against your true calling is a cowardly thing. Killing you is going to be like taking candy from a kid...oh wait, you are a kid."

Amyus Carrow. God fucking damn it.

His hand was tight around my neck, squeezing as he snarled at my gasping posture. His eyes darted up and down my body, his wand twitching at his side as he lifted it and pointed it towards my sternum.

"Tell me little bitch. Should I make this quick, or nice and slow for you. Perhaps get the Malfoy boy to watch hm?"

My eyes widen as I scratch at his hand, trying to loosen it enough to breath, my wand beside my foot too far to be grabbed and Amycus knew this.

"Perhaps ill take that pretty little head of yours and send it to Draco after all of this. Let him hang it on his mantel piece as I warning to hide his fucking high school crushes a bit better."

My eyes begin to draw in on themselves, the room beginning to tip backwards as he mutters under his breath a spell I had never heard before, the scream echoing the the hall as my chest began burning and searing. Slices etching their way across my sternum in a ink splotch style, starting in the Centre as it bubbles and then begins to spill out blood, pooling to the surface and then tricking down.

I look to my right, Luna in a duel with a death eater that was almost double her height, her brows fused together as she ducked and dived out the way of the spells, throwing ones back almost in half the speed as the enemy.

"Advera Kedabra" And Amycus went stiff and crumbed letting me drop to the floor in a gasp and a heave, air flooding back into my lungs as Lavender stood behind the once standing form of Amycus. Her wand still smoking as she looked triumphant and brave. A hero.

A "thank you" stopped in my throat, her form lunging to the right as a body slammed into her, the growl unmistakable as her screams travelled down the corridor before stopping almost as soon as they started, gargling overcoming the noise as Greyback ripped into her chest, pulling open her skin and licking up the blood with his pointed tongue. His teeth sinking into her neck and pulling back as he chewed, nerves and veins trapped in his teeth like stuck meat, her skin covering his chin like a napkin. His eyes trained on mine as he growled.

I tear my eyes away and feel Luna pull me to the side, her opponent lying on the ground crying in pain as boils begin to leak up his neck from under his shirt, some of them beginning to pop already as the blood stains the once white shirt.

We run. Down corridors and up two flights of stairs, breathing hollow as we stop and lean against a pillar.

My chest is bleeding from whatever spell Amycus did, some of the blood making my hair stick to my shoulder, the smell metallic and potent. A smell that wouldn't go away anytime soon.

Luna has a cut on her cheek that she hasn't seem to have noticed yet, the blood sliding down her chin and onto her cardigan.

Suddenly an explosion outside rips through our ears, and we turn out the window.

The bridge connecting the castle to the mainland rumbles and it begins to break, splintering in the air as we watch. Fire licking at the edges and the death eaters that stood on it scramble to safety. The wail of the bridge crashing down onto the rocks and water below set my mind back into action, breaking me out of my thoughts.

The death eaters were now in Hogwarts, and we now had no escape.

"we need to get to the great hall. It's our best chance to find other people and form a group" I shout over the rumble of spells and fighting.

Luna nods. Gripping my hand again as we take off turning around to fire a spell at a death eater that flew around the air, eventually crashing into the side and tumbling down the stairs into darkness.

*/

**

We stood in the room of requirements, the same layout I had spent my time in during sixth year. Stacks of furniture and forgotten items piled high creating small corridors weaving in between each one. A maze created by the brain of people that threw out things they no longer wanted.

I followed harry and his group in, keeping my distance while making sure that we kept up. All of them discussing the ghost of Ravenclaw, shouting about it being near. Hermione pulling small clumps of objects down, shifting through forgotten drawers and cabinets. Ron slinking off to the right, doing the same as Hermione as Harry looked around, eyeing the top of the rubbish.

"There. Up there" He stated, pointing to a small table balanced halfway up a pile. And within four and a half minutes, they had a tiara folded in Harrys hand.

And that's when I stepped out, heart racing and palms sweating as Goyle and Zabini following suit. Wands raised, eyes trained.

Harry stood pointing his wand at me, eyes blazed as his eyes glanced around the room quickly.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

Harry shot out a stupefy, missing me and hitting a pile of books behind Zabini.

Hermione came up the rear with a jelly leg jinx and Blaise captured it with a shield before whipping a series of silent spells, wall six of us casting back and forth, furniture exploding and tumbling around us.

Three steps forward. Five steps back. Spell. Duck. Fire back. Turn. Shield charm. Two steps forward. Three back. Twist. Dodge. Stupefy.

Goyle turned to the right as he fired spells at Hermione, one of them hitting her shoulder and casting her back a few paces before she regained herself and squared her eyes. Running back and away from Goyle as he fired the green spell at her.

"That's my girlfriend you numpty" and Ron darts behind a mountain of objects after Goyle, his wand raised and face red.

Ron came running back around the corner seconds later, waving his hand and high tailing it, his face no longer red but instead covered in soot?

"Run. Fucking run. Goyle used Fiendfire and the place is going up."

Harry and Hermione followed Ron as they sped down one corridor, Blaise grabbing the cuff of my suit and pulling me away as we watched Goyle shake and flick his wand fire erupting out and catching on the piles of junk.

The heat built as we thundered down corridors, the fire roaring and diving in between the piles of rubbish

It spurts out of his wand, lapping up the air as it catches onto the rug. It builds until it creates the shape of a snake, hissing and slithering along towards us as we turn and run, Harry and his friends out of thought as the heat prickles my neck.

Just survive. Somehow.

We run around a corner, books and a pile of half rotten stools cascade down, the fire hot on our feet as the red snake dives up and plummets down slamming into the floor and dispersing with a roar and a fresh flood of heat.

We run and scramble, tripping over our own feet as we meet dead ends and blocked paths, turning and watching the fire erupt from within a pile of chairs as a bear, grizzling and charging towards us, its hair licking the ceiling as the smell of burnt wood begins to fill the air making me cough.

My mind is racing, Blaise and Goyle right behind me as I run left, finding a pile of drawers and tables piled high.

"Climb" I shout, grabbing the nearest table and hoisting myself up, Blaise close behind as I feel his hand scramble beside my foot to pull himself up.

I push a pile of books off a chair as pull, gripping tightly as it moves and I jump suddenly slipping and managing to grip onto an old oak wardrobe pulling up and slotting my in between the wooden slats of some weird object.

Turning round I watch the fire lick the place we stood seconds ago, climbing higher feeling the rubber in my shoes begin to heat up as Blaise scrambles beside me.

I turn back around again as I hear a clatter. Watching as a chair Goyle held onto gave way and he tumbled back, the bear reaching up and engulfing his body, his scream silencing quickly as I freeze. Before climbing higher, the top of the pile coming into view, the ways of getting up beginning to thin and harder to grab.

One of my closest friends. Gone. I swallow the lump in my throat as I realise that the rest of my life wont have Goyle in it, and instead will only have a pained memory of this moment. The time he grabbed the wrong object and it cost him his life.

We climbed and climbed, reaching the top and nestling on a table, searching for a way out, a way that we could maybe jump to another pile?

Just survive. Somehow.

Blaise spots them first, pointing the the shadows whipping above the flames as it takes shape of a dragon, getting closer to reveal Harry Ron and Hermione on brooms, each gripping on for dear life as the circled around and dipped. My hands reaching for Harry.

His hand slipped from mine from sweat and he flew past, spinning around and coming back again, dipping lower as I rubbed my hand on my trouser leg. Reaching up again and feeling his arm hook onto mine and hoist me up. My groin hitting the broom as I wrap my arms around his torso and I turn to watch Blaise land on Ron's broom.