'She wasn't given wings to see the world from a tree'

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"You don't know where they are? How?"

"I don't know—everyone said she just started coughing into this napkin and ran out of the room and Harry and Hermione ran after her. They were gone before I even got there—the napkin was covered in blood, and—"

"Did you look for them?"

"No; Slughorn made me stay. The dinner ended a few minutes ago, so I came straight here. I thought you might've seen them, I thought they would be here!"

"No-they haven't been back!"

The two glanced around the common room anxiously; Gryffindor students crowded around the various windows looking onto the grounds—it was hours past curfew, but now was the chance to leave unnoticed. They glanced to each other with the same idea in mind.

"Let's go," He mumbled.

Stealthily, they creeped to the exit and slipped out of view, the Fat Lady serving a disapproving look as Ron and Ginny tip-toed past the sleeping portraits. It was a wonder they had fallen asleep in the first place—the storm outside resembled the sounds of a war; lightning struck like explosives; thunder rumbled like distant artillery; the wind wailed like a lost child, stumbling through the crossfire.

Scaling down the everchanging staircases with light feet, the siblings stepped onto the start of one of the long, main halls, swiftly moving behind a nearby wall to scout for any threats to their search. With the coast clear of possible commotions, the two stepped into open once more, unbeknownst of which new hall to take out of the many.

"How are we supposed to find them? They could be anywhere!" Ginny whispered, looking behind them at the empty hall every few moments as they wandered into one, flinching with any small sound.

"Just keep looking...they can't be that far?" Ron spoke, though it sounded more like a question, keeping his head forward and strides long, peeking into each hall they passed, the duo hyperaware for any movement.

Rain clouded the windows; the aged glass submerged in droplets from the everlasting storm, distorting the shapes of the outside grounds. These windows continued along the wall closest to Ginny, each one a glimpse as she and Ron speedily walked past them. At first, Ginny could only see her cold reflection, as it was brighter inside than out. Before she looked away, however, a small flicker of light from the grounds caught her eye. She stopped.

Ron, seeing her stop in his peripheral vision, nearly spoke out in an urge for her to hurry up, but as Ginny walked up right next to the window, wiping away condensation to press her face against it, hands around the outskirts of her face to stop the inside light from leaking in, he bit back his words.

Peering outside the next window along to Ginny's, he squinted through the shadows. Sparks erupted from the outside of the shield, and as these sparks lightened the field, the silhouettes of three people were evident from within the shield—rapidly heading towards its edge.

"Is that—" Ginny started, unable to form further words as she strained to grasp the situation's reality.

"It is..." Ron gulped. Were they ever going to have a normal year?

"Go- go!"

They pulled their thoughts together and took off running down the hall, skidding with each turn, having to catch their footing through the desperation of their shoes heavily landing onto the floor, the need for stealth rid from their minds. The icy air stung their burning lungs as their hearts struggled to keep up with the pace of their breath, portraits yelling complaints in half-drowsy states from the noise the two stirred.

They turned the last corner that would lead them outside, the closest exit point, to face none other than Snape, standing in front of the two grand oak doors open to the blitheringly cold air. Perfect timing! three friends in the face of death now turned to five with the seething look upon the professors wrinkled, scowling face, his robe blowing like the wings of a bat in the chaotic wind.

"Weasley's!" He bellowed in a tone that would obliterate the run of many, though in their adrenaline, their pure desperation to ensure the safety of their friends, neither sibling stopped their sprint, ploughing right past him into the night.

Within seconds, water penetrated their clothes and soaked their hair as beads of rain smacked onto their freckled faces, squinting as their eyelids fought with the stinging droplets as they tried to decipher what was happening and who was where, subconsciously leading them to trail closer to the action.

An outline of a small figure reached their view; glowing with a burning, electric blue light. Neither Ron nor Ginny knew what this was – was that person glowing? – until they realised it was the school's shield; cast like a dome over the Hogwarts grounds. That person was on the inside of the shield; leaving.

As they ran closer, much closer, muffled shouting reached their ears amongst the storm's war. All words spoken were inaudible, though the voices were familiar. They spied the other two silhouettes in the distance—one of them suddenly pushed into the air, landing a few metres from where they originally stood much closer to the shield, the other silhouette running supposedly to their aid. Suddenly the glow of the shield was gone; the third silhouette out of sight. The siblings looked to each other in confusion, even when each other's faces were barely visible.

They moved to get closer; to see what was happening, to help, though a strong grip on each of their arms stopped them from doing so, and neither had to look to know it was Snape holding them back. In any other circumstance, he'd surely be yelling at them; a murderous loathing in his eyes that luckily Ginny had never experienced, but Ron couldn't exactly say the same thing. To their avail, however, he too was squinting ahead through the storm at the chaos, and seemed to hesitate, though just started moving towards it, when a blinding light behind them ignited the dark and plunged every shadow into the faraway distance, literally lighting up the grounds.

A silence spread, muting the storm, the wind, the rain; everything, as though the world was suddenly rid of all background noise. It was calm at first; a chance for the siblings to hear their thoughts, though eerie; ominous; silent when it wasn't supposed to be.

They turned to see a vividly purple beam of light reach the top of the shield, seemingly above the cloud. It seized the sides of the shield with vein-like, expanding lines, quickly encasing the entire once invisible, and then blue, dome to a striking violet. Dumbledore's outstretched hand shook as he increased the power emitting from his wand to the entire grounds' shield. Snape muttered profanities beneath his breath.

Ron and Ginny, finally able to tear their eyes from this god-like wizard, turned to where the silhouettes had been. In their place was Harry and Hermione, kneeling beside each other on the mudded ground in their soaked clothes worn to Slughorn's party. The sixth-years all locked eyes with one another, a trading of looks for the insanity of what was happening.

Addie was nowhere to be seen.

The siblings' heart rates sped up just when they thought they couldn't go any faster. Not again they thought, and as though this thought was written on their forehead in bold, capital letters, Harry, with a ghostly look in his eyes, as though he was mentally in another place, nodded grimly in confirmation of Addie's disappearance. Hermione's face was pink; startled, choking back tears, visibly shaken—though not just from the cold. Addie was nowhere to be seen. Addie was nowhere to be seen.

Immediately the siblings ran to them after the moment's shock, forgetting about Dumbledore and the shield and Snape and the silence of the storm, before collapsing on the ground next to the two.

"I-" Hermione started; she shook her head, lip quivering. "I-I don't know what happened, she just- she wouldn't come back...she wasn't coming back!"

"Was she..." Ginny took a breath, speaking softly. "Was she being controlled? Could...could you see?"

"I'm not sure—but I don't think so, she looked normal...willing."

"...Harry?" The group turned to him. He stared into space. "Harry? Are you okay?"

Tears clouded his vision, and as one dropped and slid down his cheek, he turned away from their gaze. He was meant to be strong- he was meant to be indestructible; he was meant to blare his teeth in the face of danger, not sit down and wallow in his pain. The boy who lived felt like he was dying.

Everyone says a heart can't be broken if it already is- that it can't be broken any more. That fragments are just fragments and that's all they'll ever be. But once your heart is broken, it never fully repairs. It's like a plate. Either knocked or dropped, it smashes. And even when you put it back together, assembling the pieces, sticking them back together, maybe it's not broken anymore, but it's not the same—and it never will be again. His heart is broken. It's been broken for a long time. But with every drop and every effort to repair it, it gets harder and harder to fix. The pieces are getting too small to pick up, and even when, or if, he does pick up the smallest pieces, the time, the energy, the patience needed to form his heart once more is almost diminished entirely from gathering the broken parts to begin with. What if he loses pieces? What if they slide out of sight, never to be found again? He'll never be whole again. It's like he's running out of glue, he's running out of patience; of energy. What if he can't put it back together? What if it's just forever broken, with thousands of small yet irreplaceable missing pieces? What if he doesn't want to put it back together? It will only be a small amount of time before it's broken yet again, anyway.

"I-" he started, though all words seemed foreign to him. Nothing could put what he was feeling at that very moment into words he could say straight to his friends without crying. He didn't want to cry; crying felt weak. And although its one of the strongest things you can do; although it's a sign of life, a sixteen-year-old boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders, facing the reality that he may never see the already dying girl he loves ever again, rids the brain of reason and the heart of hope.

At the sound of feverish sparks, the storm still silent though rain still falling, the four looked once more to the shield; it was rapidly expanding by the will of Albus Dumbledore. Not thirty-seconds had passed since Addie had disappeared from their sight, succumbed to the grip of Death Eaters, pulled into the shadows beyond where light could reach. As the Headmaster expanded the radius of the dome, more things became visible. Around the Hogwarts grounds was nothing but hills; valleys; forest. Designed to ward off invaders, the outside of the shield disintegrates those trying to enter with ill-will; if they touch its outskirts, that is.

So, naturally, Dumbledore expanded this shield to catch up with the ten Death Eaters, really taking their time to leave, who, after a mini celebration in the successful capture of their notorious leaders' daughter, had just begun to leave on their brooms; hovering straight up into the stormy clouds seemingly for both the aesthetic and cover for flying back to their master. These two actions were literally grave mistakes; as soon as the expanding shield intercepted their unknowing selves, each Death Eater, along with their brooms, vanished; dead and gone. This left Adeline, in the clouds of the eye of the storm, to free fall back down to earth, her unconscious body turning and twisting in the strong current of the wind, wet hair flying around her, sticking to her face; arms, legs and mouth still bound by rope.

Dumbledore, whilst the others yelled for the falling girl, remained tranquil, yet just as powerful, and restored the shield to its original size, before softly swaying his hand in Adeline's direction just before she hit the ground, leaving her to hover and, eventually, slowly lower all the way down to the ground.

Harry's heart felt at rest; relief flooded through him like a tidal wave the second he saw her unmistakeable freckled face from the droplets gathering on his glasses lens, her dishevelled, lengthy brown hair cascading her back like a waterfall transforming into ringlets, her.

Maybe his heart is okay—maybe it's not so broken; maybe it fell but it didn't smash. Maybe. And although this will change in the future, he has a feeling, but at least, right there in the middle of the extensive Hogwarts grounds, sitting on the mud, drenched in rain, freezing with the wailing wind and just about crying—that in that very moment of that very night, he's okay, and she's okay, and maybe that's all that really matters.

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a/n

imagine having a consistent updating schedule..

anywaY

thank you all so much for your support on this series!!

all your comments are so much fun to read through and i love seeing all the new readers pile in and really get invested into the story and its plot hehe <33 i love you all sm.

and btw, if you see me 'update' / republish a few chapters on both this book and trust, i'm trying to add some GiFs in at the top of the chapters soo we'll see how that goes lol.

(i'll add gifs to the other chapters in this books in a of couple days heh)

:)