This feeling growing in Diana's stomach, growing tighter and tighter, ate at her insides the higher they climbed. This was a feeling that was not foreign to her: she felt it the day Dumbledore came for her in the hospital, and she felt it the day Sirius Black was killed. She felt it the day Dumbledore died. This feeling, brought on so often now with the onset of the war, was something that always pained her because it only ever meant one thing: something bad is going to happen.

All at once, the feeling in her stomach heightened until she hunched over her broom, wand gripped tightly.

They were surrounded.

At least thirty hooded figures, their cloaks whipping in the chilly wind, most slightly unsteady on their brooms, obviously unaccustomed to that particular mode of transportation. They circled the group, and there was just a moment of stunned silence from both parties.

Then the screams started.

Green and red light flashed through the air, broken every once in awhile by a single flash of blue or purple. The Death Eaters yelled commands to each other, stalking closer and closer, causing the Order to tighten into a small circle. The circle of Death Eaters was broken by the hurtling motorbike which held Hagrid and Harry. The Order, seeing their opening, scattered.

Diana followed the motorbike as close as she could without making it look too obvious. The others had scattered, trailing Death Eaters behind them in all directions, multi-colored lights flashing through the sky like fireworks. There were a few Death Eaters ahead, pursuing the motorbike, and a handful were hurtling as fast as they could toward Diana.

Ahead, the Death Eaters sent multiple Killing spells toward the motorbike. It missed both Hagrid and Harry, but the latter began shouting fervently over the wind.

"Protego!" Diana yelled, and a transparent shield erupted between the bike and the Death Eaters. It was so strong, in fact, that though it shattered like glass, it was able to stop three jets of green light from hitting the bike.

A red light missed her face by mere inches, sent from behind by the three Death Eaters on her tail. At once, she turned her head and aimed her wand over her shoulder--

Without even muttering a word, a long rope burst from her wand, flying toward the Death Eaters behind her like a snake. It coiled itself around the three, trapping them in its hold, if only for a little while. Even if it didn't hold forever, at least she could gain some distance.

At the last second, Diana flew to her right until she was flying in a new path parallel to the motorbike, quickly approaching. A solid brick wall, as tall as Diana and twice as wide, erupted from the exhaust pipe. Three swerved and successfully avoided it, but the fourth hit the wall with shattering force and fell through the open air, his broomstick broken into pieces falling after him.

The sky, which only minutes before had been black, was just an explosion of colors and shouts. Green and red and blue and purple and every other color on the spectrum, dancing through the air like glow sticks, crossing and merging and flying blindly into the night. It was display of fireworks, and Diana had half a mind to admire the beauty, but this was not a beautiful light celebration; this was a war zone, with the explosion of bombs and the spark of guns being fired, the sound of dying shouts and bullet impact. That kind of war was a melody, too, but just like this one, it was not a beautiful one.

Diana was now right next to the bike. The three remaining Death Eaters were trying to stun Hagrid so they'd lose control of the bike. Both Harry and Diana sent Stunning spells in their direction, and they collided with the Death Eater's spells in a spectacular, sparkling explosion.

"Diana, try to keep up!" roared Hagrid over the noise, and he slammed his hand down on a small lever, and a gigantic, nylon net flew from the back of the bike, aimed right at the Death Eaters. They, though, were ready, and all three successfully dodged it and continued sending spells at them.

"Harry, hold on tight, and Diana, you be'er get ready to fly as fast as that broom can carry ya!"

He slammed his fist on a large purple button on the dashboard.

Blinding fire erupted from the bike, and the Death Eaters swerved to avoid it. The bike shot forward with the speed of a bullet, with Diana trailing behind as best as she could. With every second, the bike was just a little further ahead, and no matter how hard she pushed the broom, she was always just a little too far behind for her liking.

In a flurry of commotion, Diana's horrified eyes glued to the swaying sidecar, the bike gave an unnerving groan, and the sidecar seemed to be breaking off. Hagrid tried to fix it with magic.

The sidecar was falling. Inside, Harry was visibly panicking, and so was Diana.

Without thinking twice, she dove at a steep angle, nearly falling forward off of the broom, held steady only by her fear. "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!" she screamed, and the hurtling car came to an abrupt stop, floating now as opposed to falling.

Before they would be surrounded, she approached the sidecar with gut-wrenching speed.

"Get on, NOW!"

Without a word of protest, he climbed onto the broom behind Diana, back to back so he was facing backward. He grabbed his rucksack just in time, and the sidecar began to fall once more, still holding Hedwig's cage, where she seemed to be laying oddly still.

"Confringo!" he yelled once they were far enough from the car. The car exploded into a huge ball of blinding fire.

"What about Hed--!"

"She's dead," he said over the wind and Diana sped. His voice was oddly blank, and she had no time to say something back.

"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," groaned Hagrid, now next to their broom. They flew parallel to each other, close enough to touch. "I shoudn'ta tried to repair it meself--"

"Hagrid, it's okay!" yelled Diana, watching the approaching mass of Death Eaters. "It's--"

They were bombarded by another wave of light, and they narrowly swerved to avoid them. As Diana steered, Harry attempted to Stun as many as he could, holding them off as much as he could. The closest Death Eater swerved, and in the process, their hood fell to reveal their face.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled, unable to Stun Stan Shunpike.

"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"

His mercy was his downfall now. Diana growled, the bike somehow growing faster with the fuel of her anger. All was quiet, though, and there were no more direct flashes of colorful light except for in the distance. The Death Eaters fell back and disappeared from view, leaving them alone.

"What's happened?" Hagrid yelled. "Where've they gone?"

The fear in her stomach, knotting and chewing at her insides, burning and tearing. She only half-consciously began to mutter that she didn't know.

Like a fever breaking, the feeling in her stomach heightened until it was unbearable and then dissipated. There were no Death Eaters approaching, nor were they already at the safe house.

Then, she saw it.

Flying through the sky with no broom or Thestral, she saw the horrible glow of red eyes. Death Eaters surrounded him, flying toward them with a gleam of pure evil in their eyes.

It was so chaotic, so loud and so intense, that Diana couldn't follow what was happening. One moment, Hagrid was flying the motorbike. The next, he was hurtling through the air toward a Death Eater, his hand outstretched, trying to keep it away from Harry and Diana. Harry shouted 'no!' behind her, but her eyes stayed glued on the figure of Lord Voldemort. Her father.

Beneath her, she thought she saw sparks fly toward the broom, and then she heard the soft cracking of splintering wood.

Like she was floating through water, slowly and slowly they began to descend, floating like a light feather plucked from a bird. She saw the slow movement of her father's mouth, his wand pointed at Harry and forming the words to a spell she feared he'd cast--

But then, at the speed of something wading through tar, Harry's arm seemed to be moving on its own accord. His wand seemed to be dragging his hand on its own, soon pointing at Voldemort like the needle of a compass. Golden fire, the color of Harry's Polyjuice potion, erupted slowly from his wand, so powerful and bright that it seemed to blast all Death Eater's backward, flying toward Voldemort.

There was a sharp crack, and a screech of anger from Tom Riddle.

Their broomstick shattered completely now, and they were free falling toward the ground with speed that would kill them on impact. The world around her was not slow anymore; the wind hit her face and her surroundings blurred overwhelmingly as they fell.

There was a face, a beautiful one, smiling lightly at something behind Diana's line of vision. She couldn't tell if she could see the face in front of her, or she just imagined it in her mind's eye, but she saw it.

With instinct and power she didn't know she possessed, her wand was now pointing toward Harry, who was a few feet away.

With magic she didn't even learn, a substance, almost liquid-like, shot out of the wand. It was like an opal gem: it held an entire rainbow of color inside, clear and white, though dotted and woven throughout were the beautiful glinting colors. It encased the boy, like an opal shell, hardening around him until it was no longer opal liquid: now, it was hardened diamond, distorting Harry's form inside like she was looking through frosted glass.

Looking into the scarlet eyes of Lord Voldemort, falling through the air freely, knowing Harry was safe beside her, she was oddly content. They were approaching the ground, Hagrid spread-eagle on the floor below, Voldemort seething above with red-hot rage.

For a moment of ethereal euphoria, just before she hit the ground, all sound seemed to be sucked from the world until it was just silent. Above, there was only the soft pinpricks of stars in the sky, the moon illuminating the faces of Voldemort and his followers. For just a split second of strange ecstasy, the face of her father disappeared, along with the all of the Death Eaters, the silence now overwhelming in their loneliness.

Maybe it was this odd euphoria, or maybe it was real: the last thing she saw before they all vanished was the face of her father, warped and twisted to look normal. For a mere second, his eyes were no longer red, but a deep brown, and he no longer looked like a snake: he looked like a normal, handsome man, what he would've looked like if he never tore his soul apart like he did.

But he was gone, both physically and emotionally. He might've just vanished a moment ago, but the face she saw for just a second had been destroyed for a long, long time.

She hit the ground with the force of a speeding bullet, with the last thing she saw being the beautiful opal sphere falling from the sky above.

im screaming i just found out yesterday clarawriting lives twenty minutes away from me holy shit omg