Atticus was running through the castle’s grounds, completely out of breath, on his way to the Quidditch field. The students he passed by were exchanging amused looks and whispers followed by giggles and laughs. But he was way too distraught to even notice.
He finally ran up to the big broom shed right outside of the field and forced the doors open, almost ripping out the handle and pulled out one of the brooms. Just as he was about to get on it he felt a hand grab his collar and pull him back.
‘Hey! Evergreen!’ – he turned around to see Sebastian, pulling him off the broom harshly with a pure fury painted on his face. – ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’
‘I don’t have time for any bullshit, Sallow!’ – he barked back at him. – ‘Emilia is in danger! I need to save her!’
‘Oh, very funny you say that, actually, since that’s just the reason I wanted to talk to you.’ – he grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close, only to immediately get pushed away by the angry boy. – ‘You see, I found a bunch of letters in one of the drawers in our dormitory, and I have a reason to believe, YOU are the one that is a threat to Emilia.’
Atticus stared at him angrily.
‘Are you fucking stupid?’ – he cussed out. – ‘I found those at Black’s office. Right after he left for London two days ago. I was going to show them to Vay… it was too late.’
‘What the hell do you mean by that?’ – Sebastian looked at him with narrowed brows.
‘I just saw Ashton cast the Imperius Curse on her!’
‘That’s bullshit, it’s impossible, she just said she was going to go make up with him…’
‘That’s right, and I followed her!’ – he pushed further.
‘Then… how come they didn’t see you?’
‘I… that’s beside the point…’
‘Tell me!’ – Seb hissed out.
‘Fine!’ – Atticus gave in with a loud sigh. – ‘I’m an… Animagus. I’ve been following Emilia whenever she’d go out somewhere by herself to make sure she’d be safe. But that is not important right now. What matters now is that Emilia is in danger and that Ash is going to sell her off to Downer any moment now. And I need to go get her.’
‘But… the letters… I thought A.E. meant…’ – Sebastian was stuttering in shock.
‘Did you read all the letters?’ – Atticus questioned him.
‘Well, no, only the first few and then I went on to warn Emilia and she went right off to Ash to tell him about it…’
Suddenly Sebastian stepped back and grabbed his head with both hands in complete panic.
‘Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck…’ – he repeated. – ‘It’s my fault she went there! I shouldn’t have assumed those were yours, I… What do we do?’
‘It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done.’ – Atticus calmed him and stepped over his broom. – ‘You just need to go back to the castle now and tell the Ominis and the girls about what happened, and tell Professor Weasley to contact the Aurors from the Ministry to head to the old Moonstone mine that’s down south from the Highlands, right next to the swamps. The precise location is encrypted in one of the letters. That’s where Downer is hiding now, and they need to capture him before he sends his loyalists to get Emilia from Ash in the assigned spot. I casted a tracking spell right after they left so I will know where he will take her and I’ll try and rescue her before the loyalists come.’
‘Okay, okay. I’m on it.’ – he nodded frantically and turned around to run back to the castle.
Atticus got on his broom and took off into the Forest, following a faint yellow trail left by the spell, leading into the same tomb hidden in the cave which he was meaning to take Emilia to all those weeks ago.
....
Emilia was sitting silently on the old tombstone that’s been tipped over and laid on the cold ground of the cave. Her eyes were staring blankly into the darkness as Ash moved around frantically, walking from one wall to the other, strands of his half chocolate-brown and half white hair resting un-styled on his forehead. He was playing around with his and Emilia’s wand, while pacing nervously and waiting for the loyalists right after he had just sent out an owl, confirming retrieving the girl.
Her completely empty mind, didn’t even register the nervous looks he was giving her almost every minute, as if to make sure she was still under his spell and wasn’t about to jump at his back to fight him.
‘I hope you won’t hate me for it.’ – he whispered to himself, glancing over at her empty eyes. - ‘I… it’s not like I’ve had a choice, love. Headmaster Black instructed me to do all of this. I’m aware that I did it willingly, but… Once I realized that I did actually have feelings for you… real feelings, Emilia, it was far too late. I had to finish my part of the job. It would have cost me my life if I didn’t.’
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
The boy began choking on his tears, fighting with all of his willpower to stay strong.
‘But you’ll forgive me, right?’ – he stepped closer and kneeled in front of her, placing both of his hands over her arms, tears in his emerald eyes. – ‘Downer promised to keep you alive and well, and even said he might let me come see you every now and then if you behave and work with him. Would you like that, love?’ – her empty stare looked right past him, so he shook her gently, positioning her to face him.
Her lightly purple eyes drilled through him, not a thought in her head and he watched her blank expression, his own eyes watering more and more.
He sighed tearfully and pulled himself away, standing back up and looking back at the entrance to the tomb, a faint light of the last spark of the day shining far away in the pool of darkness all around them.
Ash composed himself once more, wiping his guilty tears away and straightening his posture, preparing to meet with the loyalists sent by Downer that were meant to be there any second.
He heard faint footsteps echoing around the chamber and stepped forward to greet his coworkers when he was suddenly stunned as his wand flew right out of his hand and disappeared in the darkness.
‘Expelliarmus!’ – a familiar voice echoed and Ash fearfully stepped backwards, getting closer to Emilia’s absent body, completely defenseless.
The flames from the only torch lit in the room shined it’s wiggly light over Atticus’ face as he appeared from the darkness, squeezing Ash’s wand in hand.
‘Step away from her.’ – he ordered calmly, yet with extreme cold.
‘No. You won’t ruin this for me, you understand?’ – Ash stood right beside Emilia and forced her up from the tombstone to stand beside him, holding her by the arm with both of his hands. – ‘It took me almost the entire schoolyear to get to this point, and you’ve tried to ruin it for me enough times already.’ – he scoffed angrily.
‘I knew you always hid your true self from everyone, even mother and father, but I never would have expected you to trade someone’s life like that. Especially not Emilia.’ – the younger brother hissed out with anger visibly building up but not bursting just yet. – ‘I saw all those letters you’ve sent to Black and Downer. How you were the one that told him she was the girl mentioned in the prophecy, not even by the end of the first week of school, how you talked her into healing you repeatedly and hurt yourself on purpose just to study the way her power works and tell everything to them to plan out how to get her. How you faked a relationship with her to gain her trust and tried to keep her away from me because you knew I was getting suspicious and when you saw that trying to frame me into casting an Unforgivable Curse on her to make her hate me didn’t work decided to try and kidnap her that night right before Christmas break. Too bad it didn’t work right?’ – he smirked with pure hatred piercing out of his grey eyes.
‘You think I’m some kind of villain?’ – Ash asked, forcibly hiding his feelings of fear and regret.
‘Well, that’s who you’ve painted me to be throughout our entire lives, brother. It’s funny how things turned out to be the exact opposite, isn’t it?’
‘It’s not that easy, Atticus, and you know th…’ – the boy tried to explain himself but was cut off.
‘Oh but it is. It’s easy enough for it to end now. So, give Emilia to me and maybe you won’t rot in Azkaban once this is all over.’ – Atticus offered, trying to contain his anger.
‘I can’t.’ – his older brother simply replied, pulling out Emilia’s wand and pointing back at him.
‘Diffindo!’ – the spell cut through the air like a knife, leaving a big cut going over Ash’s face.
The boy wailed in pain through his teeth and pulled the girl closer and placed her hands on her, barking out the order ‘heal me’ and sighing deeply as her powers immediately caused the cut to vanish and his hair to turn snowy white.
He grabbed the girl and placed her in front of him, using her as a human shield.
Ash smirked, knowing Atticus would not try and attack, risking the girl’s life. He took the wand out of his hand and forced it into Emilia’s whispering in her ear as he pushed her forward.
‘Kill him.’
The girl stared blankly in front of her as she pointed the wand towards her friend.
‘Emilia… please. Wake up.’ – Atticus lowered his wand, his eyes fearful, knowing he would never force himself to hurt her.
‘Avada Kedavra.’ – her lips spoke plainly.
‘Flipendo!’ – the boy yelled, dodging the green bolt.
All three of them watched as the bolt changed directions as the girl turned around in the result of the spell and Ash dropped himself on the ground with fear, avoiding it’s blast by mere inches.
Atticus used this as an opportunity to pull Emilia back to him and hid her behind him, breaking the bond of the curse.
‘Arresto Momentum!’ – the body of the Ravenclaw grew stiff and he stayed there on the ground, frozen, watching his brother pick up the girl’s wand and beginning to back out of the cave.
Emilia was only just beginning to wake up, her dull eyes filling up with emotion once again and her breathing quickening as her awareness was brought back.
‘Atticus?’ – he stared at the boy with fear and confusion, as he kept pulling her through the darkness of the case and towards the light at the end.
An unidentified sound could be heard up front. Frantically, he pulled her into one of the dark crevices of the cave and put his hand over her mouth, waiting.
Two hooded figures passed right by them with their wands lit up, hurrying back towards the tomb.
Downer’s loyalists.
Atticus waited a good minute, keeping still confused Emilia close in his arms to make sure the danger is gone. Once he was certain, he finally pulled her up to the surface where there were two brooms waiting for them in the bush beside the entrance of the cave.
The boy cupped Emilia’s face and looked her in the eyes with worry.
‘Vay? How are you feeling? Can you fly?’ – he pointed at the broomsticks on the ground.
‘I… uh…’ – her mind still foggy, struggled to form a proper thought. – ‘What is even going on?’
She stared at him with genuine confusion, visibly startled by all that was suddenly happening, and very obviously not remembering anything.
‘I’ll explain everything to you once you’re safe inside the castle, okay? We have to go quick, before they realize you are gone.’ – he forced the broom into her hand. – ‘Let’s go.’
He helped her get on and get in the air and quickly followed on his own broom, flying back towards the castle and over the black depths of the Forbidden Forest.
Atticus’ breath was finally slowing down as the emotions lowered and his fear was beginning to pass. They were close. All he had to do is just get her safely inside the school grounds so nothing more could happen to her.
They were just flying out of the Forbidden Forest and over a small hill beside Hogsmeade. Only a little bit further. He sighed with relief and turned around slowly to look back at her to make sure she was following right behind him.
All he caught was a glimpse of the same two figures standing on top of the hill, one of them holding unconscious Ash in his arms and the other pulling Emilia down with a spell only to immediately dispparate into thin air.