Chapter 109. Escape!

After a few moments of comfort, I felt a tear in the back of Chiara’s clothes, warmth spreading across my arm. The same warmth I had gotten to know unsettlingly well, blood drenching into cloth. Before I could pull away to check her condition, she slumped, like a puppet with its strings cut. “Chiara!?” I yelled, as I held her tighter to keep her up, Hermione jumping away from me, both of us looking at each other in shock.

Hermione then glanced at Chiara’s back, and gasped, covering her mouth in horror. I quickly dropped to my knees and looked over Chiara, slouched in my arms, now able to see her back. Her jacket and clothes had been torn apart, their original tint now dyed in crimson, drops of blood leaking into the floor. I could still see and feel her chest move, indicating she was still breathing, pointing towards blood loss to be her ailment.

“No,no,no,no.” I mumbled under my breath as I dug my hand under my vest, refusing to accept this. I had spent countless hours worrying over this day, but had only brought a small store of potions with me, the minimum I felt to carry. “Healing potion!” I yelled, finding the correct bottle of liquid with red and pinkish tones, but just as I was about to uncork it, Hermione grabbed my hand. “She still has bits of rock inside her, if you seal up her wounds, she’ll have to get them cut out, and risk missing one that might kill her when she transforms next!” She reminded me, her eyes shaking more than her grip.

I quickly admonished myself for my own stupidity, biting the vial of potion to hold onto it before taking out another bottle of deep red liquid I had in my vest. I quickly uncorked it, and held it up to her lips, but was stopped by Hermione again, grabbing my hand. “What is that?” I glanced up with a scowl, not wanting to waste time, but understood I had just failed a few seconds earlier. “Blood Replenishing Potion. This will keep her until we can get her to the hospital.”

Hermione quickly nodded in agreement, letting my hand go to let me continue. I did just so, carefully parting Chiara’s lips with the vial, and dripping the crimson liquid down her throat. Just after I was done, she sputtered, coughing the taste from her tongue. “Wha-... Wha- happened…?” She mumbled, still weak, the dose I had wasn’t large enough for her to be normal again, only barely keeping up with the bleeding all down her back.

I glanced back at the hooded figure behind me with hate, but feeling Chiara weakly squirm about in my arms reminded me that she was more important than harming the man responsible… For now… “We have to go. She only has about 10 minutes before the dose I have starts to lose effect.” I spoke candidly to Hermione, knowing Chiara was too loopy to truly understand my words.

Hermione glanced at the hooded man, the very same thoughts running through her mind, I was sure. However, she looked back at Chiara’s stupid grin as she babbled unintelligible words with a drunken giggle. “Right.” She agreed, helping me get Chiara onto my back.

Standing up, Chiara giggled more, gripping onto me tightly with a grin, however in her state it could have been misconstrued as playful hugging. “Hehehe… Lucas is strong~” Or perhaps she truly was loopy enough to just be playing with me in her mind. However none of that mattered now, what mattered most was saving her.

***

As Lucas took off running with Chiara on his back, Hermione glanced behind her to see another man in a hood jumping down towards the other, helping him up before disappearing behind the wall, the man responsible for her best friend's brush with death had now escaped. She bit her tongue, unable to say a word with all the rampaging emotions boiling within her now. So much had all gone wrong in so little amount of time, the only chance Chiara had was now in Lucas’ hands.

A sudden turn towards the stairs that led back up to stands, Hermione only barely able to keep up with his rushed steps. “Wait! Where are you going!?” Lucas glanced back, his glowing jade eyes proving that he took Vitamix while running ahead of her. “To the floo network! Attempting to run through the stupidity of the masses will be too long!” He yelled back, already a flight of steps ahead of her. “We can’t just run back towards them!” She fought back with his decision, her breath starting to fail her, the adrenaline in her body fading.

As she gasped, holding the metal railing of the empty stairs, she heard Lucas pause, before quickly rushing back down and grabbing her arm, yanking her to go along with him. Now she could see Chiara’s back, in better lighting, sopping with red blood, absorbing into her jeans, dripping onto the floor, leaving a trail behind wherever Lucas took her. Before she could comment on the state of her friend, realizing that her shoes now left imprints where she stepped in the blood of her friend, Lucas pulled her along faster.

***

“I have plenty in store for those that may stand in our way.” I muttered, gritting my teeth, more pages from the Tome coming to mind, and the plentiful amounts of spells I could utilize to dispatch any other robed individual in the most agonizing way possible.

Making it to the top of the stairs, Hermione blasted open the door, knocking it from its hinges, and allowing me to enter the stands first. What was once filled with the sounds of adoring fans, drunken laughter, life itself, was now left in ruin. The destroyed bleachers left with nothing but cast aside scarfs, and trinkets with team colors. The scent of smoke and burned flesh befouled our noses, a few sparse silhouettes laid strewn about, some blackened and charred. ‘This is where it started…’ I figured in horror, my gaze moving towards the masses of screaming fans pushing and shoving over each other for the exits they arrived in.

Without a word, I raised my hand over Hermione’s eyes before she could clearly see the horrific imagery before us. “It’s best to not observe for too long.” I mumbled, speaking to her, just as much as reminding myself. There was nothing to be done for them now, Chiara could still be saved. ‘Focus. Focus on what matters most.’ I looked up, trying to find the broken window I had burst through earlier just nearby. However something else entirely caught my attention.

***

Hermione knew that Lucas was hiding the scene from her, failing to do so. His hand fell downward as he looked upwards, giving her the full view of the stomach turning imagery, she only then noticed it was all illuminated by a dimly glowing green light from above. She followed Lucas’ gaze, all the way up in the sky to see a green skull opening its mouth, revealing a green snake that coiled across the clouds. “I found it.” Lucas pointed, directing Hermione to see a broken window high above the bleachers most viewers crowded on. “What is that?” She asked, following behind him closely as they trekked the short distance to the broken window.

***

“It’s where I came from while evacuating.” Hermione was silent for a second before asking the obvious question. “How did you know we…?” I shrugged at her unfinished question, not bothering to even look back to see her giving me a look of disbelief, truly I still remained unsure why or how I felt that overwhelming sense of dread about to befall Chiara and Hermione.

Standing underneath the broken window, the sound of crunching glass marking our every footfall. Just as I wondered how to get back up, Chiara mumbled in my ear. “I had a bad reading today… I thought we might lose this match… Is Hermione okay…? I wish we could all be happy together…” I held back digging my nails into her thigh I was holding her up by, keeping my emotions quelled to focus on the task at hand.

“Hermione?” I asked, getting her attention back from the mumbling Chiara. “Grab hold of me.” I ordered, Hermione squinting at me with confusion at what I was planning while I bent forward to readjust Chiara on my back, the feeling of drenched blood bleeding through my clothes. “She can’t hold on her own while I pull us up. I need you to be on my front, and wrap your legs around my waist for her to sit on.” I held back a sigh, the idea was uncomfortable to say the least, and I knew Hermione would argue with me, but we had no time for us to find any service stairs used by staff. However, with each passing moment of pushback would bring Chiara closer to her demise.

After a few seconds of silence, watching Hermione’s deep frown, I was about to urge her again, but to my shock, Chiara spoke up for me in my stead. “C’mon Hermione~ Itzz vun…” She slurred, rubbing her head against mine with a giggle that only sought to aggravate my rage to the perpetrator that caused this. “For Chiara…” Hermione mumbled, taking another step closer to me, our faces only centimeters from each other. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and held herself up while tightly wrapping her legs over my hips. I stood up straight once again, Chiara’s weight falling to Hermione’s knees.

Trying to avoid discussing the situation, I remained silent while raising my wand above my head, only muttering words to better utilize the spell. “Carpe Retractum.” The purple tether quickly latched onto the ceiling above the broken window, and after a small tug, I began retracting the tether, pulling us all up with it. While we slowly raised ourselves to the window, Hermione shuffled, squirming a bit as she turned her head away, filling my face with her frazzled hair. “Hermione.” I whispered through grit teeth, not wanting any of her hair in my mouth.

“Hold on… I’m- AAH!” Hermione screamed, her and Chiara slipping off from me. I instantly let go of my wand with my left hand, catching the underside of Hermione with it while only leaving my right to hold us all up. I groaned, the weight of us all tearing apart every fiber of muscle in my arm even with the added help of the Vitamix I drank in the stairwell, but I pushed through the pain. I kept pulling us up, we were almost there.

At the top, I swung us inside the window, all of us collapsing in a heap, luckily the glass shattering outside leaving us safe from lacerations. “Get… Off…” Hermione mumbled, her words now forcing me to realize I had fallen on top of her, my hand still firmly placed on her posterior. Slightly embarrassed, I picked myself up, a reddened Hermione doing the same.

Hoisting Chiara higher on my back, I looked up at the plentiful floo systems for us to take. With no time to waste, I walked into the closest one, Hermione silently standing beside me as I did so, neither of us wanting to speak of what just occurred. “Hermione, if you could hold Chiara, please?” I asked, glancing at her while Chiara lazily held her arm out for Hermione. Hermione frowned at me, but gracefully took Chiara, leaning her on her own shoulder.

Without another word, I jumped from inside the floo, and grasped a handful of powder held within the bowl beside it. “Lucas, What-!?” Hermione started to yell, but before she could finish, I yelled a location. “St. Mungo's Hospital!” Throwing the powder beneath Hermione’s and Chiara’s feet, they burned into a green blaze that soon dissipated, leaving nothing of them behind, even the blood had been vaporized. With a sigh, I grasped at more powder. “Sorry… I still can’t be seen with either of you…”