The sounds of the battle instantly vanished the second the door slammed shut; replaced by a thick, unnerving silence that pressed against their ears.

Draco, his chest rising and falling heavily, looked to his left where Blaire was stood by his side; reassuring himself of her presence.

He hated that this was how they were reunited; hated that he couldn't just grab and take her somewhere safe; away from this place that was suddenly the most dangerous place in the world.

But he needed to get his fucking wand. He couldn't protect her without it.

Although, he thought as he focused upon Blaire's fierce determined face, she was always much stronger than he'd ever given her credit for.

"Let's get the fucking git," Goyle growled to his right, sounding not unlike a rabid dog.

"Shush!" Draco spat, irritation sparking in his stomach. "We mustn't give him warning that we're here."

They crept forward amongst the towers of junk with their wands held aloft, Draco trying not to shudder as he was reminded of the horrific year he had spent in this room; a time he'd been robbed of spending the remainder of his childhood with Blaire.

"I hear something," she murmured quietly in his ear, the sweet tickle of her breath making him shiver quite unexpectedly. "Listen."

Draco strained his hearing, and there indeed was the muffled sounds of talking followed by hurried footsteps.

He quickly led the way around a tottering tower of desks and down a row of bookshelves.

And there he was - Potter; his back to them as he reached up for something. Slowly, the three of them raised their wands, ready.

"Well, well," Draco drawled softly, yet loud enough to be heard, "what brings you here, Potter?"

Potter span round and Draco was pleased to see the startled look of fear flash in his eyes.

"I could ask you the same." He answered, quickly recovering himself.

"You have something of mine." Draco sneered, beckoning down to the wand sticking out of Potter's pocket. "I'd like it back."

"What's wrong with the one you have?"

"It's my mother's. It's powerful, but it's not the same. It doesn't quite... understand me. Know what I mean?"

Another pause as Potter seemed to consider him. To Draco's dismay, it didn't look as though he was going to concede the wand without a fight which is the last thing he wanted to do.

"Please, Harry," Blaire implored, "just give Draco his wand back. I'm sure he'll let you borrow his mother's in the meantime."

Draco tried his hardest not to splutter his indignation.

"Why didn't you tell her?" Potter eventually asked, ignoring Blaire as his eyes remained fixed intently upon Draco.

What the fuck was Potter banging on about now? Draco was starting to lose his fucking patience. He could hear Goyle snarling quietly next to him; thirsty for blood. If he didn't act quickly then this could turn very ugly.

"Bellatrix." Potter continued, almost goading; almost... flirtatiously. "You knew it was me. But you didn't say anything."

The tension in the atmosphere was so thick as he and Potter continued to outstare one another, that Draco was in no doubt that you could slice a knife through it.

"C'mon, Draco," Goyle hissed in his ear, ruining the moment. "Don't be a prat, just do 'im."

Draco tried to hide his panic, his wand hand beginning to twitch. As his eyes met Blaire's, he was about to signal to her that they should just leave, when Granger jumped out of nowhere.

"Expelliarmus!"

Draco's wand went flying out of his hand, cluttering out of sight. Before he could react further, Goyle yelled the Killing Curse just as Potter disarmed Blaire.

It was absolute chaos. Thinking quickly, Draco grabbed Blaire's hand and started pulling her away as Goyle ran off into the depths of the room being chased by a furious Weasley yelling something about a girlfriend.

"Drac, we need to find our wands," Blaire said urgently, letting go of his hand to scrabble around on the floor.

Realising the others were all occupied with their own dramas, Draco crouched down beside her, frantically feeling around the dusty floor.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Blaire," he said, "I pulled you in here for nothing when I should have been getting you somewhere safe."

"You wanted your wand back," she shrugged, "I understand. And I'll be fine, just so long as we don't go back out there without a means of defence."

But it soon transpired they had more to worry about then going into battle unarmed.

"GOYLE SET THE BLOODY PLACE ON FIRE!"

Oh... shit.

******

Draco and I stood up, our eyes wide with horror as hot flames of fire started literally roaring all around us.

Our eyes met in pure terror. We were both wandless and suddenly trapped in a room with a completely out of control fire.

"FUCKING RUN!" Draco hollered, grabbing my hand as we followed the direction in which Goyle had just bolted past us.

The way we had entered the room was already blocked by a wall of fire, a fire that was rapidly destroying all the piles of junk around us, swallowing everything up in flames as thick billowing black smoke not only hindered our vision, but started suffocating us, too.

"Don't let go of my hand," Draco choked next to me, clutching his fingers around mine tighter.

"We need to climb," I rasped, trying not to inhale too much, looking around frantically for somewhere to go.

"Here!" I heard Goyle cry from somewhere behind me. "I found a place!"

Following his voice, I guided Draco along as we tripped and stumbled upon unseen obstacles.

I finally bumped into a large thick body, not unlike a tree trunk.

"'Ere," Goyle's voice grunted as he helped me get a foothold on a teetering tower of desks.

Draco followed close behind as Goyle then went up last. I concentrated on nothing but climbing higher and higher, trying not to panic about what would happen when we could climb no more.

I sucked in some much needed air when we managed to get above the smoke cloud we had been submerged in. Draco was coughing and spluttering below me, every now and then yelling at me to keep on going.

At one point, a loud hoarse scream of terror bellowed hauntingly beneath me, and when I looked down questioningly at Draco, he just shook his head mournfully at me, looking as though he was going to be sick.

And it was then I noticed Goyle was no longer there.

My stomach gave a sickening violent lurch and I had to close my eyes as a dizziness overcame me.

Don't stop, I told myself, willing myself to go on. Don't think. Just keep going.

So I kept on, constantly looking down to reassure myself that Draco was still with me.

When I reached the last desk, with great effort in my weakened state, I hoisted myself up onto it; quickly leaning an arm down to help Draco up with me.

We immediately clung to one another, holding each other as tight as we could, praying for some kind of fucking miracle to come along.

"I'm sorry," Draco rasped, clasping a hand to the side of my face as his bloodshot eyes looked sorrowfully into mine through blackened skin. "This is all my fault we're going to die like this."

I shook my head, trying not to let the panic overwhelm me. "Don't- don't say that, Drac," I trembled, leaning my forehead against his despite the unbearable heat.

"I love you, Blaire," he sobbed, "I've always loved you. I should have told you that before. I should have told you every fucking time I saw you."

"I love you too, Drac," I wept, tears rolling down my cheeks mingling with his as we nuzzled our faces together. "You've been the best thing in my life."

Our hearts raced wildly against our ribs as we clung on even tighter, refusing to let the other go, the one consolation being that at least we got to die holding onto one another.

And then, just as all hope had been lost, a sudden shout made us both look up.

Harry.

Draco jumped up immediately, pulling me up with him as he frantically waved his arm.

The complete and utter relief hit me with such a fierceness that I found myself actually swaying, thanking Merlin that Draco was holding onto me or otherwise I would have ended up being the hottest I'd ever been in my life; toast.

"We're saved, love," Draco murmured hoarsely in my ear, just as Ron and Hermione suddenly appeared on another broom close behind Harry's.

As they drew up to us, Draco reached his hand to grab Harry's the exact same moment as Hermione caught my arm and hauled me up behind her and Ron.

"Thank you," I choked, as I held on tightly to Hermione, looking back over my shoulder to see Draco doing the same to Harry.

"Thank us when we get out of here," Hermione gritted over her shoulder before turning to bellow at Ron, "Hurry up, Ron; we've got to get to that door!"

"You don't say? I thought I'd go on a detour to see if any rats needed saving!" Ron scoffed loudly over the thunderous crackle of flames. "What the bloody hell do you think I'm trying to do, woman?"

"LEFT!" Hermione screeched, "Ronald, it's down there on the left! You just flew past it!"

"Oh," Ron said; making a dramatic u-turn so that we all nearly toppled off to our doom.

But amazingly, we made it; crashing quite unceremoniously through the door into the corridor as we all lay sprawled on our backs,  gulping in huge lungfuls of air.

I didn't know how long it was until Harry and Draco came crashing out behind us, but the second Draco rolled off the broom, he scrambled across the corridor, nearly suffocating me as he dived on top of me, peppering my face in urgent kisses.

"Drac," I wheezed, uselessly whacking his back, "can't...breathe-"

"Shit, sorry," he muttered, climbing immediately off of me as I took in another grateful gulp of air.

Ron jumped to his feet slamming the door to the Room of Requirement shut behind us just as a loud explosion sounded from within, shaking the walls around us.

"G-Goyle," I choked, the horror of what had just happened hitting me like a tonne of bricks as I slumped my back against the wall next to Draco.

I mean, I hadn't exactly been close to the dude, but he'd always looked out for his fellow Slytherins; especially Draco. And the way he died was just horrific.

"Good riddance, I say," Ron snarled, without a single trace of empathy or pity. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke."

I felt Draco bristle angrily next to me. "Do you mind, Weasley? I'm grateful to you for saving us, but that's our friend you're talking about."

"A friend who almost killed the lot of us with that stupid idiot brain of his!" Ron snapped. "Nope, sorry; the world is officially a better place right now."

"Ron!" Hermione scolded indignantly, offering me up a sympathetic glance at the same time.

"Look, come on, guys," Harry sighed wearily, giving his glasses a thorough clean on his top, "there'll be time to discuss whose death was most deserving later on. In the meantime, I've kind of got a job to do. You know - like save the entire fucking world."

Before he could replace his glasses back on his nose, however, the air exploded.

******