The gun shook in my hands as I stood with my back pressed flat against the wall, listening to Draco demand our son back just inside the room next to me.

My heart was beating wildly as adrenaline coursed through my veins, waiting for my cue.

Jack was so close and all I wanted to do was to race in and scoop him into my arms. But it was too dangerous, and we needed to do this properly.

I held my breath. You could cut the tension with a knife.

But rather than the sounds of blasts which I was expecting to hear by now, they began to have a chat.

"Draco, Draco," Voldemort said, his voice so soft that it sent tremors along my spine. "It's good to see you again. Rumour reached me that you had gone into hiding. I do hope it wasn't something I said."

"Hand him over." Draco ordered, and I was dismayed to hear the giveaway quiver in his voice. He was terrified.

A cold laugh.

"You do know what wand I hold right now in my hand, don't you, Draco?"

Silence.

"It's unbeatable, Draco. You would be a fool to try and kill me."

"It's a myth." The uncertainty in his voice was rife.

"Do you want to take that chance? With your son, right here, in the firing line?"

The silence that followed pressed down on my ears. It was so quiet that I could hear the shallow, uneven breaths emitting from the occupants through the doorway next to me.

I inhaled a deep breath which was cut short by a cold, hard hand clamping firmly over my mouth. A wand tip dug painfully into the side of my neck. My eyes shot up wildly and I found myself staring up into a smirking face. My blood went cold.

Cedric.

*****

The first thing Jack realised, as he stirred on the cold hard ground, was that he was wet.

He wanted his mummy so badly. Mummy always knew how to make him feel better, never once making him feel bad for being such a baby.

But, as he opened his eyes, all he saw was Daddy. He was pointing a wand and he looked really really angry.

"Jack!" He hissed, his cold, furious eyes darting down at him. "Come here, come here now!"

But Jack was frozen in fear. He didn't understand why his daddy was acting this way. Was he in trouble for running away?

A whimper by his ear. Orion. Jack circled his arms around his neck pulling him close, feeling his soft furry body against him.

"Jack!" His daddy hissed again.

Jack started to cry, he couldn't help it. Great big fat tears rolled down his cheeks. Where was Mummy? And why was he lying on the floor? He had never felt so frightened in his life. He clung his arms a fraction tighter around Orion.

An unfamiliar laugh sounded behind him. It made Jack shiver inside. It wasn't a nice laugh, but cold and cruel.

"He truly is a Malfoy this one." The voice was soft and dangerous. It made Jack's skin crawl. He closed his eyes, pressing his face into Orion's panting body, not wanting to look at that man again.

But then there was yet another voice, a new voice that he had not heard before.

"Drop your wand, Malfoy, or your little side hoe gets it."

And, lifting his tear stained face, Jack looked up in time to see his mummy getting dragged into the room by a strange man, her face full of terror as a scary looking metal thing was pressed to her head.

*****

Draco whirled round, instantly letting his wand clutter to the ground at the sight of Diggory aiming a gun into Blaire's temple.

His heart was in his throat. No. He couldn't lose her again. Especially not at the hands of that fucking piece of shit.

But now he was defenceless and so was Blaire, and their little boy was sat frightened in the middle of it all, a target just like them. They literally had no way of overpowering anyone.

"Cedric!" A quivering, female voice.

Disgusted, Draco snapped his head up at the woman cowering in the corner. He had literally taken no notice of her until this second. That wicked bitch who had put everyone he loved in danger. His fucking wife.

"Well, isn't this nice," Voldemort spoke softly, looking gaily around the room. "A reunion. So good of you to join us Miss Zabini. I've just been telling Draco what a fine specimen you two make. No offence." He added, glancing at Astoria.

"Let him go!" Blaire spat, her eyes flashing furiously as she glared at Voldemort, struggling against Diggory's restraints. "Let my son go now! He holds no threat to anyone!"

"Clearly." Voldemort snorted. "Now kindly lock them all up, Diggory. It's getting late and I need to go and locate that snake of mine."

Draco's chest grew tight. He felt panicked and helpless, unable to see how he could save either Blaire or Jack.

"The dungeons are all full." Diggory answered at once, gripping Blaire tighter to him, white spots appearing before Draco's eyes as he watched him sink his fingers into her arm.

"Oh, just kill them then." Voldemort said in a bored voice, shrugging his shoulders. "Only make sure you clean up the mess after. The last thing I need are the prisoners complaining about the smell of rotting corpses ruining their morning tea."

Draco was blinded with panic. He couldn't let them die, he couldn't. He looked to Jack who was clinging to a growling Orion, sobbing distraughtly into his fur.

And, as he heard the metal click of the gun, he didn't think twice, diving down to his son just in time to shield him from the loud deafening blast behind him.

*****

Cedric's head exploded in a mixture of brains and blood.

I lowered the gun which I had managed to wrangle out of Cedric's grip at the last second, breathing heavily as my heart raced wildly in my chest. Adrenaline was pumping so hard in my veins that I was convinced my body was going to go the same way as Cedric's brains.

His body dropped heavily to floor, landing with a sickening thud at my feet. Draco looked up at me from where he was shielding our son on the ground with his body. Relief flooded his face as his eyes met mine.

Astoria's screams pierced the air just as Voldemort let out a strangled cry of anguish.

Without thinking, I lifted the gun and pointed it at Voldemort. But when my finger pressed the trigger, nothing happened.

My heart stopped as the empty click reverberated against my skull. Silence fell.

A terrifying grin pulled at Voldemort's lips as he slowly lifted his wand. "Well, well, well, Miss Zabini," he said wickedly, causing my blood to run cold. "It seems that this finally is the end of the road for you."

"NO!" Draco hollered, jumping to his feet.

"Avada Kedvra!"

What happened next played in front of my eyes in slow motion as though I was simply watching some kind of cheesy action film.

But it wasn't cheesy in the slightest. And if I could have lifted the remote and hit the pause button, I would have done in an instant.

No - in fact, I would have pressed rewind. I would have pressed it over and over again until we were back to a time when Draco and I were blissfully sat side by side on beanbags playing video games in the treehouse; laughing, joking, and gorging on sweets without a care in the world as his mother prepared pancakes in the Manor.

Back to those carefree days before all the shit happened and blew our lives into painful smithereens.

Draco and I hadn't deserved that. We were just two innocent kids falling in love, wanting nothing but happiness and contentment for one another.

But I did not have a remote control. In fact, I had no control whatsoever at what happened next.

Three people died that night in that room.

I wasn't one of them.

*****