The gentle clinking of metal tools on a metal tray greeted Rachel as she opened her eyes. She frowned, sitting up with a gentle moan. Rubbing her face, she looked around, catching sight of TJ taking care of a wound on one of the soldier's hands.
"What happened?" Rachel asked, finding her voice hoarse. TJ looked her way before quickly finishing up, ushering the soldier away as she walked over to the confused witch. "Why am I here?"
"Do you remember anything that happened last night?" the medic asked, shining a light in each of Rachel's eyes.
Rachel didn't even flinch at the blinding light. "Only getting into bed. And a faint dream."
"Can you remember what you dreamed?"
Rachel looked at her hands, thinking. Unconsciously, she took a deep breath in, swallowing as she stated, "What happened. Before I went through the Stargate."
"Rush heard you screaming in your room last night. You probably would have killed him if Young hadn't met him there. You were in a craze and were using your wand." She smiled weakly. "You're a pretty good fighter as well. Young made the comment that you got out of his hold twice."
Rachel winced, rubbing her left knuckle. "Are they OK?"
TJ nodded. "Just bruised. What happened?"
Rachel sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "With Everett and Nicholas. I don't want to have to repeat myself."
TJ nodded. "I'll get them here."
Rachel buried her face into her hands as TJ paged the two men over the radio. She stayed like this till a hand was placed on her shoulder. Rachel looked up at TJ before she looked at the two men standing before her. She smiled as best she could. "You guys might want to sit down. It's a long story."
TJ brought over two other chairs and handed one to either man. Once everyone settled, Rachel leaped into her story.
We could finally see the castle that had once housed our school. It looked years beyond its age and that worried both of us. As we entered through the front doors, I shuddered, gaining Draco's attention.
"This place has been deprived of magic for a while, now," I stated, looking around. My heart sank. "It doesn't feel like Hogwarts anymore."
Draco touched my shoulder, stating, "We have to get to the Stargate, Ray. There's nothing more we can do for this place."
I nodded, sighing. "I know. Just hurts seeing it like this."
I followed him up the main stairs, walking beside him down the hall. The walls were bare and there was no light the deeper we went. All the windows were blown out and bricks were missing. Draco pulled out his wand and muttered, "Lumos" under his breath, light illuminating the way from the tip of his wand. As we came to the stairs, we stopped.
Magic was on the air that was foreign to the building and the stairs were obliterated by magic. Draco cursed under his breath as I looked around, chewing my bottom lip as I tried remembering the floor plans.
"There's a staircase down this hall. It'll lengthen the amount of travel time that we don't have," I commented, looking at him. He was glaring at something unseen.
"Let's hurry then."
We broke out into a run, not even bothering to cover up our footfall. It wasn't till we were at the top of the stairs did we hear others coming.
A flat out sprint was probably the only reason why we made it around the corner before our followers could start shooting spells and hexes our way. It was all I could do to not look back and panic started to become overly familiar at the site of the door at the end of the hall. “Draco–”
“Just keep running, Ray. Don’t look back.”
He ran ahead of me a bit, colliding with the door first, forcing it open. I stumbled past, the door slamming shut behind me. We were both panting as we looked around, surrounded by complete darkness. I felt for his hand and released my breath as I felt his thin fingers engulf my hand. I pulled out my wand, casting Lumos without uttering a word. Draco chuckled, shaking his head. I smiled at him before I let my gaze wandered.
The Room of Requirements felt empty of magic and, in doing so, let the room return to its original form. I shifted.
At the center of the incredibly large room a pyramid like structure jutted out of the floor, stairs leading up to a stone ring at the top of the plateaued pyramid. The Stargate. I swallowed, squeezing Draco’s hand.
“This is it.”
Draco removed his hand and I turned to him, confused. He pulled out his shrunken trunk and tucked it into where mine was hidden in my traveling robe. He pulled out a book from within the depth of his robe and shoved it into my hands. I fumbled with the book, watching as he pulled a chain off his neck.
My breath caught. “Draco, please!”
He pulled the chain over my head, letting the ring on the chain clatter against the ring I wore around my neck. He kissed my lips, the heated contact full of love and passion with a hint of regret to it. The kiss lasted as long as Draco deemed safe and when the kiss broke, I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him close.
“Don’t go,” I muttered into his neck as his arms held me securely against him.
He kissed my temple, stating, “I’ll follow if I can.”
The stone ring started to move and then stopped, a light appearing at the top most chevron before disappearing. The ring moved again, repeating the action. I stepped back, taking in his gray gaze before I cupped his cheek, feeling him lean into the touch.
“Be careful, Draco.”
“You too,” Draco chuckled, kissing my palm. I ran a hand through his platinum blond hair one last time as a wormhole appeared, expanding outward like a bubbling mess of air rushing through water before collapsing back into a horizontal pool of rippling, glowing, water like substance. We turned, just as the door exploded behind us. Draco forced me to run half crouched towards the gate up the stairs as the shards of wood and metal fell from the sky.
“Run!” he barked, shoving me up the stairs as he removed his wand, firing off shield spells as he followed.
At the top of the stairs, he started shooting off spells, trying his best to knock back the opposing force. It did little against the weapons they were using. I ran towards the pool of water, not looking back as an explosion sent me flying into the gate.
Rachel looked up, stating, "You know the rest."
...last for a while
