Sacrilege

Sacrilege

by Calypso

Wandless. Witless. Lost.

Not all together the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Really I would prefer being locked in my room at the Dursleys’ again. Anything would be better than shivering in this grey drizzle, stumbling around blindly.

I’m not exactly sure where I am. I was with Ron and Hermione, in the heart of the Forbidden Forest. We had spotted a greenish light there on our way back to the castle from the Quidditch pitch, so naturally we went to investigate. We figured that the three of us could take on anything we met; we had, after all, plenty of experience defending ourselves against the Dark Arts, and two fifteen year old wizards and a sixteen year old witch with that kind of practice could conquer anything!

How wrong we were….

Hermione was able to figure out where the light was coming from and, despite her protests, we charged right through the forest without the assistance of a professor. We went deeper into the woods than we ever had before and nervous tension overtook our curiosity and confidence.

I’m not sure how long we walked before reaching the source of the eerie light. It might have been ten minutes, it might have been an hour. Time seemed to stand still and the only sound in my ears was the beating of my own heart.

I was vaguely aware of my own nervous breathing as well as my two companions’. We had reached the light at last. Just a few steps around a thick tree and we would see exactly what was there. The moment of truth. I walked forward.

And that was when they disappeared. They darted before me, obviously trying to protect me from whatever danger laid ahead. They were there before me… and suddenly they weren’t. It took a few stretched moments before I even realized they had vanished. They had gone so smoothly that even Apparating seemed flashy in comparison.

A wave of cold fear washed over me and I dreaded whatever was about to happen even more so than when I had been in the graveyard with Voldemort just last year. I stumbled towards where my friends had disappeared and pitched forward into the matted, damp leaves on the forest ground. I question now whether I actually tripped or if I was pushed.

My glasses slipped off my face and I couldn’t find them when I frantically reached for them. I stood up and resigned myself to having to look for Ron and Hermione with blurred vision. At least I have my wand, I thought.

Reaching into my pocket I felt the splintered ends of what had once been my wand. Rain chose that moment to begin warming up for a storm.

Ron had always been the one to curse and cause Hermione’s eyes to widen with his language. I had always been milder in that department. At that moment, my words would have put all the Weasley boys to shame.

I couldn’t see. There were blurs and vague shapes around me but I could not make out anything. This added to my terror; even with the rain and no glasses, I should have been able to see a little bit. Instead, I was seeing the world as I’m sure Oliver Wood had when he was hit by his first Bludger.

I rubbed at my eyes and took a tentative step forward. Straight smack into the thick tree. The last thing I saw before blacking out was the green glow getting brighter….

I think I woke just a few hours later. Something had dragged me into the clearing though the light was gone. I felt something cold on my face when I came to. I carefully pulled myself into a sitting position and squinted to see what it was.

A hand. Two hands, actually. One was much larger and paler than the other. Unwillingly I let my gaze drift up to see what was attached to those hands.

The world snapped suddenly into focus and, though the rain was heavier now, I could see clearly. Two bodies laid side by side, face down in the dirty earth. One with a shock of red hair, the other with a tangled brown mane. Both stock-still.

I tore my eyes away and looked behind me. It was like I was compelled to. I nearly vomited at what I saw. Pinned to the thick tree with arrows were two grotesque human hearts.

With a shuddering breath I turned back to the corpses of the two people I loved more than anything in the world. They had been turned over when I was looking at the tree but by then I didn’t care what was lurking beyond the clearing. Horrified, I stared at the mutilated chests of their bodies.

I only hoped that they were dead before they had been torn open.

Lightening sounded overhead and the rain really began to pour. My vision blurred again as I choked and staggered away from them. I began to blindly stumble around the forest, just waiting for the same fate to befall me. I was even wishing for it, wanting nothing more than to lie beside my two most intimate friends, my heart hanging alongside theirs.

The rain did not cease the entire time I wandered around the forest, waiting, wishing for my own death. Only an hour or so ago did I realize that I would not die here; cruel Fate would not let me. I was to suffer more. I calmly accepted this, however, and then wondered whether I was in my right mind.

And now as I replay the events of the last couple days in my mind for the infinite time, I see lights ahead. Search lights and a voice shouting.

“There he is! Someone get Dumbledore!”

So I do get to live after all. My best friends are dead but I am still alive.

Still the Boy Who Lived.