"Smile!"

Fuck that. I hated smiling for cameras, so instead I glared, unlike Seamus Finnigan (324) and Dean Thomas (250) in front of me - both of whom had tried to pull the silliest face.

The two of them joked and laughed all the way down to the game arena, a place we reached by marching along a maze of pastel coloured stairways and corridors.

I couldn't share their carefree attitude. I was too nervous, focusing solely on the possibility of what the game ahead might entail. Even though I wasn't in as much debt as many others, I needed that prize money. It was the key to getting my family back together.

At least with my sisters being in the competition, we had more chance at winning.

We entered a brightly decorated arena which was painted to look as though we were stood in some sort of cornfield. At the far end of the room, a giant robot doll stood in front of a painted tree, looking rather like an elderly woman - a five foot walking stick in hand, grey hair presented in a bun and a creepily smiling face where pale eyes squinted out from behind a pair of small rounded spectacles.

"What the-?"

"Attention all players. After you enter the game hall, please stand behind the white line drawn on the field and await further instruction."

As the same bodiless woman's voice from the dormitory filled the room, everyone looked around in confusion. Everyone that was, bar Dumbledore, who was doing an array of enthusiastic warm-ups, a determined grimace on his face as he bent down to touch his toes.

Luna stepped up to my side as we exchanged baffled looks. Behind us, Draco was whispering furtively in Crabbe and Goyle's ears, clearly ensuring he had his goons watching his back, Padma and Parvati were stood nervously side by side, and the once Golden Trio were all looking sickly pale.

"Once again, will all players please stand behind the white line and await further instruction."

All four hundred and fifty-six of us shuffled behind the line, glancing warily over at the giant old lady who was grinning back at us.

"Here is the first game. You will be playing Red Light, Green Light. You are allowed to move forward when It shouts out 'green light'. Stop when It shouts 'red light'. If your movement is detected afterwards, you will be eliminated."

"Red Light, Green Light?" I murmured quietly in Luna's ear. "What's that when it's at home?"

"It sounds a lot like Grandmother's Footsteps. Didn't you used to play it when you were little? Daddy used to dress up for the occasion. He used to get very into the role, even after the game was over - insisting I call him Granny Bates and sit on his knee for a story."

There was a loud mechanical sound as the ten foot grandmother slowly turned around to face the tree. Seamus and Dean kept nudging one another and snickering.

"I bet me mam's potato hotpot recipe that I get to the other side before you do." Seamus loudly challenged his best friend.

"God damn it," Dean chuckled, punching him playfully in the arm, "you're on!"

"Those players across the finish line without being eliminated within the five minute play time will pass this round. With that, let the game begin."

The tension was suddenly too much. My heart seemed to beat in my throat as we awaited the next instruction.

"Green light!"

Too freaked out by the sound of the old lady's gravelly voice, the majority of us stayed frozen on the spot, watching as the timer began it's countdown.

Seamus and Dean, however, sprinted across the field, with Seamus making great headway.

"Red light!"

The old lady's giant head span around, her eyeballs going crazy. Seamus, who had skidded to a halt, began to lose his balance.

"Player 324: eliminated."

"Your dumb arse got caught," Dean chuckled behind Seamus.

A loud bang sounded in the arena, echoing off the walls and making the players startle.

Seamus fell face forward, collapsing dramatically to the ground. I felt all the breath evacuate my lungs, not wanting to believe what I thought had just happened.

"Green light!"

Trembling, I crept forward, my eyes not leaving Seamus's collapsed body, watching as Dean hesitantly approached him.

"Red light!"

"Hey-" Dean said in a loud whisper as he leant over Seamus. "You got eliminated, you idiot. You can stop with the act."

From where I stood, I could only see the back of Dean's head as he appeared to freeze. And then, he turned, his face rife with terror as he began to run back towards us.

"THEY KILLED HIM!" He screamed. "EVERYONE, RUN!"

And then another loud bang as Dean's chest exploded, blood spraying over Hannah Abbot's face as he fell to the ground in front of her.

The scream that left her would be a scream I'd never forget. It was worse than anything I'd heard during the second wizarding war. It was worse than what I'd ever heard during my nights in the sewers.

It would also be the first of many screams of pure terror that would assault my ears over the next coming days.

Hannah was silenced with a shot wound to her head, making her flip backwards as blood spurted like a fountain from the centre of her temple.

And then suddenly, the room was filled with even more screams as many turned on the spot and tried to run as far away from the giant old lady as possible. We were deafened by relentless gunfire as more players were mown down trying to escape through the clearly locked doors.

Shock was the only thing that saved me in those first horrific moments. Both Luna and I stood side by side: too terrified to move, too afraid to even breathe.

It was like a bloodbath, and I was beginning to get truly soaked in my old classmates' blood and brain matter.

Dumbledore, however, calmly strode across the field, his lips pulled into a sedate smile as he stepped over the bodies of his past students.

Susan Bones, who was dragging herself across the field in an army-like crawl and leaving a trail of blood behind her, tried to reach out and grab his ankle as he passed her.

"P-Professor-" she rasped, choking on her own blood, "help me... please."

His smile never once faltered as he shook his leg free from her grasp, kicking her away as though she were simply a weed caught around his ankle.

I felt sickened by what I was witnessing. It was only when Luna whispered beside me, "The timer, Ali. Come on. We need to get across the line." did I realise that I needed to get moving. And fast.

"Green light!"

Taking a deep, steady breath, I moved forwards, my eyes on the doll, concentrating as hard I could.

"Red light!"

Luna and I froze, our breaths rapid and fearful as the doll scanned the room.

Bang! So long, Percy Weasley.

Bang! Farewell, Millicent Bulstrode.

Bang! Auf Wiedersehen, Zacharias Smith.

Bang! Goodbye, Marietta Edgecombe.

No house was spared. It was brutal.

"Green light!"

I quickly wiped blood from my cheek as I deftly moved forwards, thanking Merlin that my years of living on the streets had given me good practice in moving quickly and without detection.

Every now and again, I checked to make sure Luna was still by my side, vowing to myself that I wouldn't cross the line without her.

When she accidentally stumbled after a Red light! I managed to reach out and grab the back of her tracksuit before she could fall.

As I held her, I could hear the sound of someone trembling fearfully behind me. But I did not dare turn my head to see who it was. I needed my focus to be solely on getting to the finish line with Luna, and pray to the heavens that my sisters would also make it.

"Green light!"

Luna and I sprang forward, with me just behind her. The timer was literally on its final seconds as we sprinted towards the line. But, just as I was about to leap over it, I tripped over Michael Corner's dead body, my arms flailing as I began to lose my balance and topple sideways.

I was dead. I knew it. Because surely, by the time I righted myself, it would be too late to get past the line.

Sorry, Mum. Sorry, Dad.

However, what I didn't expect was to find a pair of hands shoving heavily into my back from behind, causing me to lunge forwards and land flat on my face on the ground past the line.

Keeping my face pressed against the ground, I closed my eyes, waiting for the race of my heart to slow down. Gunshots started firing relentlessly and I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter, trying to stop myself from sobbing out loud as I heard body after body thud heavily to the ground.

Please not Padma and Parvati. Please.

When I finally dared lift my head, it was to see Draco Malfoy getting shakily to his feet next to me, his chest rising and falling heavily as he scanned out back across the field of the eliminated. He looked just as sickened as I felt, the horror of what we'd just endured paramount in his fearful eyes.

I couldn't be one hundred percent, but I was pretty sure he was the one who had just saved me. Saved me or saved himself - it was difficult to tell. Either way, I wouldn't be alive if he hadn't done what he'd done.

An arm went around my shoulders: Luna's. I turned to her and broke down. So did she. And so did my sisters who both thankfully survived.

Less than half of us made it through the game alive.

It was clear at that point exactly what kind of sick competition we'd all unwittingly entered. Especially when afterwards we witnessed a great big glass Niffler bank fill with millions of Galleons above our heads - the prize money promised to the winner of the games.

The big question was, though, was it really worth dying for?

*****