She was running across the forest floor, jumping, hopping, and leaping over the jagged roots of trees that had escaped and clawed their way to the surface from within their prison beneath the earth. Tears streamed down her cheeks and stained her vision- but she didn't let that affect her. She wouldn't let it, she needed to get away and wasn't about to let some measly tears of an obvious panic attack get in the way of it.

Her heart was pounding through her chest, it felt as if she was being punched from within─ as if something were trying to escape by punching its way out. She loved it, she deserved it.

Didn't she?

After everything that had been happening, after witnessing what had happened to her friends, to people that cared about her- yet come out with nothing. With no harm inflicted onto her even though she was the one that had been targeted, the one they wanted.

April hadn't even noticed the heavy raindrops that had been attacking her clothes and skin until, well, she fell. Her feet couldn't keep up with how fast she wanted to run- to get away- and she misplaced her foot, having stepped on the one grime-covered rock out of the bunch. "Shit!" She cursed as she fell and smacked her head against one of the rocks- yet nothing. No pain, just the same empty feeling she had been feeling ever since she had gotten comfortable at this curse of a school.

She laughed, stood up, and looked around. The school wasn't in sight, nor was Hagrid's hut. 'Good' she thought, a smile spread across her face 'Means I'm far, far fucking away from that shitty,─' "─curse of a FUCKING SCHOOL!" April hadn't noticed that she'd begun to project her thoughts- to verbalize them. She wouldn't care if she did realize.

Her breathing was manic and so was she, lungs rising and falling at uneven paces as she thought out loud "Nothing? Fucking Nothing! I- I watched─" She brought a hand to her forehead and ran it through her soaked hair. (Whether it was soaked in blood or water she wouldn't notice, or care- at least not on her own she wouldn't. Her eyes were coated red with anger anyways, the colour just blended in with the world around her at that point.)

"He fucking─" April bit her lip, skin used to the numbness of the cold. "He's fucking DEAD!" She screamed and her voice broke slightly at the sudden change in volume of it. "She- we both tried to save him, but he- he─ for fuck sake!" Thunder had struck somewhere in the far distance, yet the boisterous roar of it managed to travel through the thick woods and momentarily take her out of her thoughts. She shrieked, not because it startled her or because she was afraid, but because she didn't know how else to react. April had always been told to keep clear of thunder and lightning, that it never strikes twice and, if so, only the highest points.

Well, she was pretty high on the adrenaline and shock of it all, shouldn't that have counted? "FUCK!" She screamed again, dragging out the 'u' as she crouched down, picked up a rock, and threw it as far as she possibly could. Why couldn't she feel anything? After everything that had happened, she still couldn't feel anything- not even the pain from having smacked her head against a rock. Her lungs heaved- a desperate attempt at sucking in a proportionate amount of oxygen- and adrenaline continued to pump through her veins. "Just fucking shoot me down already!" April yelled whilst glaring up at and cursing the sky above for what it had and was doing to everyone around her. Well, everyone that was left. "Do something! Anything! You can't just- I basically just watched all of that shit fucking happen to them yet nothing to me! I refuse to be the fucking survivor!" She desperately looked around her, eyes widening when her eyes landed onto a jagged-looking stone.

The thunder rumbled again, almost like a warning, and she picked it up, held it above her left hand, and stared. "If you won't fucking do it," her grip around the stone tightened and her knuckles turned a pale-yellow colour "then I will."

Skin tore and bones broke, yet she continued, the adrenaline of the panic still coursed through her veins and numbed her senses. Why did it have to numb her senses?

The bloody rock dropped to the floor the same time she did, her knees dug deep into the dirt and her head tilted up, towards the sky. It was silent- finally.. "Come ooon, you're April-Joy, remember? Keep your head up, you can do anything" she swore she could hear his voice, the way he'd laugh after giving his stupid, cheesy advice. (She'd never admitted it, but she'll always miss his advice. As stupid and corny as it is, having it come from him with his stupid way of changing the tone of his voice- it would always mean something different to her.)

"Heh.." April hummed and let her eyes shut, adrenaline having started to wear off "It's almost- it's like I can hear you, y'know?" The voice seemed to get closer but she paid no mind to it as she shut her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the rain as it fell onto and caressed her face. (If she had been paying attention, she would have noticed that whilst the welcoming voice of Cedric wasn't calling to her or getting closer, a certain blonde that had sprinted into the woods in search of her was.)

Her eyes snapped open, strong arms having quite literally pulled her out of her lucid trance. She panicked, raised her left arm and tried to push him away- she hadn't managed to, her hand wasn't cooperating. Why wasn't it co- oh, oh- "─ctual fuck happened to you?!" His voice finally registered in her ears "Shit, April you've got blood all over you!" she snickered, eyes landing on her bloodied and broken hand with a 'wow' "Oh yeah," she laughed "forgot about the rock. It's nothing really, Cedric"

The voice stayed quiet for a moment, nothing but a stiff cough coming from him. "Cedric?" April asked and finally looked up to meet his eyes "I'm n- I'm not Cedric, April.." She felt her blood run cold, his words pierced right through all her layers of skin and shattered whatever was left of her heart. Spoiler alert: there was barely any left. "Oh, hello, Draco"

It fell silent again, April swallowing the lump that was clogging up her throat before muttering out the words "Oh yeah, I can't─... I can't believe I forgot about that." Draco just nodded and mumbled a quiet "It's alright" before the silence engulfed them both once more.

The rain continued and Draco shuffled over so that April could position herself better and not be sat in such an uncomfortable position. She did, it was still silent. She liked the silence.

She could tell he was uncomfortable, the way his muscles were flexed and shoulders stiffened. He hadn't said anything since she mistook him for Cedric, and- she couldn't blame him. Regardless of what had happened, Draco knew of Cedric and her history. Nights spent sneaking through the halls, fingers knitted together as they ran. They would swap secrets and odd stories of their mundane lives before Hogwarts, each time the topic got brought up they would ask each other which they'd rather,

"Okay, so- no rambling or going off-topic like last time, Alright? Just give me a one-word answer─" He'd spoken with a slight croak in his throat, voice sore from all of his yelling during his game earlier that day (luckily, he hadn't gotten any serious injuries) "─would you rather: Hogwarts and this- this absurd, crazy, unrealistic and dangerous life we're living; or, go back to your simple, mundane, muggle life where you're saf-" April had cut him off, gently pressed her pointer finger against his lips and chuckled "Hogwarts, obviously. I wouldn't have met you if I didn't come here"

She would take one of their late-night, stupid conversations over this any day.

April was sitting next to him, right hand numb from how tight she had gripped and pulled on the fabric of her clothing. "Are you- uhm... Are you doing any better, now?" The boy next to her asked, at least trying to be somewhat optimistic, and immediately wrapped an arm around her at the defeated whine that passed her lips in response. "Shit... I-I'm sorry-" She chuckled, shook her head, and leaned into his warm touch "don't apologize, please.. You haven't done anything wrong, Draco. Just─" She took in a deep breath, sighed, and closed her eyes as she tried her best to relax and ignore the blinding pain that had finally hit her from the gaping wound on her hand and the cut on her head "─just.. Shut up and hold me, okay?"

It was quiet once more, not even the noise of the rain had registered in her ears. 'Peacefull' she thought to herself. But- it wasn't silent, not in the slightest. Draco was panicking, tears had built up in his eyes and mixed with the rain and his own sweat. He yelled, shaking her to try and get some kind of response- but nothing. She was out like a candle with its copper cap placed onto it.

 Without thinking he stuffed his wand into his pocket and checked the area around them, once he figured out which way he needed to go he picked her up with ease. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders and legs around his waist, the only way he knew she was still alive was because she kept mumbling. (It sounded like she was having a conversation with someone, he didn't know who and would never ask her, it was private and he didn't want to overstep her boundaries.)