• Edmund Hall •

"We are all bad in someone's story."

Adjusting his uniform and tying his green tie at the same time, Edmund walked down one of the staircases, of which there were plenty at Hogwarts. He didn't even know what exactly had brought him back to the Ravenclaw tower, where he had been hanging around quite often lately. Maybe it was the vaulted starry ceiling or the incredible hospitality of some of the girls, maybe both, but maybe he had just been curious and wanted to meet Black there.

The thought of her made his hand tighten into a fist. He really had used every strategy to dissuade her, but her stubbornness would be his undoing. He had failed at one of his already few tasks, and it was a damn easy one at that. In fact, he had thought that she would have written this Frenchman off much earlier if he had convinced her, but she had actually preferred him.

Of course, his father hadn't liked this failure at all, as he had made abundantly clear to him over the holidays. And now he was in trouble again. This time he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of it so easily. But his fate was now in Black's hands and her stubbornness - which was not a rosy outlook at all.

After last night, she had to think he was a hopelessly jealous love-struck imp, but that was better than being a walking disappointment and he hoped that his actions might have made a difference after all. Because in that case, she would definitely not want to be with the Frenchman again. The fact that he hadn't found her in the tower could mean either way.

A flight of stairs further on, he heard voices that sounded familiar, but in a rather unpleasant way for him. Edmund slowed his steps and tried to interpret something from the spoken spells.

"Aperire!"

"Alohomora!"

"We've already tried that," complained a female voice, the sound of which echoed through the corridors, tearful and panicked.

"Alohomora maxima?"

"Ron!"

Perhaps, if he was very quiet, they wouldn't even notice him and he could continue on his way unperturbed, Edmund thought. But he had barely stepped onto the last step when Price turned round. Her face suddenly lit up and he didn't want to know why.

"You have to help us!" she shouted, running towards him and dragging him by his right arm over to the door they were trying to open. If he wasn't mistaken, it was the astronomy tower, so he was all the more surprised that it was locked.

"Stop tugging at me, Price," Edmund growled and tried to snatch his arm from her, but the Hufflepuff showed amazing strength. Normally, he didn't have anything against the use of a woman's body, but he hadn't yet condescended to muggle-borns.

Weasley, like himself, looked rather unenthusiastic about Price dragging him here and crossed both arms in front of his chest. "Can you get the door open somehow?"

"Why?" he asked the counter question.

"Serena's in there!" Price spoke up and looked at him pleadingly. "She was screaming!"

Edmund lowered his eyes and had to pull himself together not to laugh. "Listen, maybe your brains aren't quite mature yet, but girls scream when they like something."

They both looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Price let out a long sigh and stared at him urgently with increasing frustration. "She told us to get help, so something else must have gone down."

He raised both eyebrows, but not without a tiny bit of unease spreading through his body. The astronomy tower. So that was where the snail-eater had taken her. However, he didn't like the fact that the door was locked. "Then why are you still here if you're supposed to get help?"

The two brainiacs couldn't seem to think of anything to say, because they scowled at each other. "Well, that's why Hailey fetched you, isn't it?" Weasley interjected with a snide undertone.

Now it was Edmund's turn to cross both arms in front of his chest, "What are you doing here anyway?"

With an embarrassed expression, they exchanged glances before Price contritely admitted that they wanted some time to themselves. Edmund had then silenced them with a wave of his hand and closed his eyes balefully, certain that he would never be able to banish this image from his mind again.

"Well, I'm a prefect and I could actually deduct points from you and Devillier too, if he's in there." He nodded towards the still locked wooden door before Weasley began to grumble. "So are we, in case you haven't noticed, Hall."

"Could you please postpone this discussion until later?" hissed Price with a scowl that rivalled that of her best friend. "It's gone bloody quiet on the other side of the door and I'd appreciate it if you'd open it."

Edmund sighed. He had a faint suspicion as to why Black might have screamed. She was probably not as open-minded as she always pretended to be. But the door wouldn't be locked for no reason. Perhaps she had got her head round it again and he was going to burst in on something incredibly embarrassing. But what if the lock was locked for another reason? Edmund felt hot and cold at the same time. Then he would have an even bigger problem.

But Price was still staring at him with eyes widened with worry and he was sure she wouldn't let up any sooner. "When you finally give up," he finally growled. He concealed the fact that he now wanted to soothe his own bad feeling.

Satisfied, she moved aside so that Edmund was now standing right in front of the door. There didn't seem to be a peep coming from the tower, which wasn't necessarily a good prospect. Gritting his teeth, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the door. "Bombarda!"

With a loud explosion, the door was immediately blown off its hinges and toppled inwards. Edmund let Weasley and Price go first, because if they really had interrupted something, he didn't want to be the first person Black saw.

He stepped out into the cold and tried to keep behind the pair, who seemed to be frozen in place, staring at something still unknown to him with horrified faces. It wasn't until Price let out a horribly pointed scream and slapped both hands over her mouth that they started to move again. She and Weasley rushed forwards out of Edmund's sight.

He could hear Price calling her best friend's name over and over again and Weasley shouting various curses at someone. That sounded anything but good. Panic began to spread through his chest as he walked forwards to see what exactly was going on on the platform.

The redhead stood with his wand shaking, pointing it at a figure on the ground whose teeth were bared like those of a predator. It took Edmund a moment to realise that it was Devillier and his heart sank. Meanwhile, Price was crouched next to Black, who lay motionless on the floor, her neck twisted strangely.

"Oh, damn," was all he could manage as he slowly began to comprehend the situation right in front of him. Which wasn't hard in itself, because blood was dripping from the lower half of the Frenchman's face and Black had a big fucking gash on her neck that really wasn't pretty to look at. Bloody hell.

Weasley's disarm and shock spells had no effect on the vampire, of course, who was looking at Price like she was his dessert at that moment.

"Get a teacher, Weasley," hissed Edmund, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. "And for real this time."

The Gryffindor gave his friend one last look and then hurriedly disappeared through the battered passageway, over the door lying on the floor. Price began to scream again when she realised that the vampire was slowly approaching her.

At the last moment, Edmund managed to grab him by the neck and press him against the opposite wall. He took all his pent-up rage out on him by letting him crash against the hard stone again and again. He was furious at Black's stupidity, at Weasley and Price being so incompetent, at his father, his brother, but also at himself. Hadn't he brought this on himself in the end?

"H-hall?" stammered Price in a shaky voice, "S-she doesn't have a pulse."

Edmund jerked his head round and saw that the Hufflepuff was sitting next to her friend in tears. He hadn't realised that he had unwittingly tightened his grip on Devillier's neck. His concentration had long since been torn away and was focussed on the girl on the floor, who had lost too much blood to be healthy. Now he was going to get his comeuppance. Devillier managed to free himself in his moment of inattention and punched him in the face with incredible force.

Blood dripped onto his snow-white shirt and the almost numbing pain told him that his nose was probably broken. He couldn't stop himself from staggering back a few steps and gasping in pain. Before Edmund could catch himself again, he was grabbed and dragged to the parapet of the tower. "You rotten rat," the vampire growled. "Let me guess, you always get everything you want, don't you?"

"I will," Edmund gasped.

The ice-cold wind whipped through his light-coloured hair, while Devillier had turned the tables and had now grabbed him by the neck and squeezed. But behind him was not a wall of solid stone, but the abyss into the depths. Only the steel beams that cut into the lower half of his back saved him from falling.

His upper body, on the other hand, was already hanging over the parapet and if his attacker exerted just a little more force, he would plummet into the depths along with the railing.

Edmund struggled in vain for air, which was being squeezed out of him, and tried to loosen the hand that had tightened around his throat. But he had to realise that he didn't stand a chance against a fed vampire.

The blue eyes directly in front of him flashed contemptuously at him and his lips, still smeared with blood, twisted into a grin. "Not so cheeky now, are you?"

He wanted to say something back, but all that came out of his mouth was a weak gasp and with it the last bit of air from his lungs. Black dots began to dance in front of his eyes and he was aware that he would lose consciousness at any moment.

A clanking sound pierced the night and the firm pressure around Edmund's neck, which had certainly left an imprint, was released. He drew in a sharp breath and narrowed his eyes as sharp glass flew towards him.

When he opened them again, Price was standing in front of him, still clutching the neck of the cracked bottle she had hit Devillier with.

"That was a near thing, Price," Edmund remarked, wiping particles of glass from his shirt. He couldn't help but give the Hufflepuff a cursory glance of appreciation for the rescue.

"Oh, don't thank me," she snorted contemptuously, throwing the neck of the bottle on the floor and crossing both arms in front of her chest.

A horrified scream made them both jump. Professor McGonagall stood at the entrance to the tower, her eyes wide behind her glasses, with Weasley in tow. Her gaze lingered on the motionless Ravenclaw on the floor, whereupon, after the initial shock, she muttered a curse, binding him with ropes.

But Edmund was more interested in Black at that moment, who still hadn't moved. Her skin looked even more translucent than usual and even her usually dark lips had lost their colour. He couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he felt for her pulse. Her pale skin was ice-cold, yet he could feel a faint throbbing in her artery.

Relief flooded through him before he gave Price an angry look. "Her pulse is weak, but there," he remarked coldly, whereupon she also seemed to relax a little. But Edmund's attention had long since returned to the girl he was crouching next to.

However, the pulse was no assurance that she was not in mortal danger; after all, she had probably lost a huge amount of blood. He gently began to shake her. "Serena, please wake up."

But nothing happened and the anger slowly began to well up inside him again. How did she always manage to get herself into situations like this? After the incident with Snape last year, he had thought that it couldn't get any more stupid, but it seemed that he had been proven wrong.

"Damn it, don't make me pay for your naivety," he hissed softly at her and began to tighten his grip a little.

To Edmund's surprise, it actually seemed to have an effect, her lips began to quiver as if she was about to say something. It was little more than a whisper, but he heard it clearly, as if she had shouted it directly into his ear, "Ed."

"Yes, I'm here," he breathed, stunned, and took her cold hand in his. But Black's features had long since gone slack again, whereupon his heart sank again, "Please stay with me."

Only now did Edmund seem to realise that they were not the only ones on the tower. His cheeks turned a little pink as he looked up at his transfiguration teacher. She had placed a hand over her heart and her features looked less stern than usual, "Mr Hall, why don't you take Miss Black to the hospital wing?"

He nodded hurriedly, not missing the suspicious look Price gave him. Trying to ignore it, he picked up the Gryffindor and carried her to the hospital wing. As he crossed the empty corridors, Serena's friends didn't leave his side, as if they didn't trust him in the slightest.

"Oh, not you two again. What is it this time?" Madam Pomfrey asked with a worried look on her face and she seemed to be experiencing a moment of déjà vu. The situation also reminded Edmund of last year, he just hoped that it wouldn't take on such proportions.

The healer seemed a little overwhelmed by the bite and kept scurrying around the room before administering a potion to her still unconscious patient. "Unfortunately, I don't know enough about this. I think it would be best to consult Mr Lupin. The medicine will stimulate haematopoiesis, so if she responds to it, she should wake up soon."

The three students nodded, not wanting to imagine what would happen if her body didn't respond. Who knew what vampire venom could do?

"Mr Hall, stop wandering aimlessly around the room and come over here so I can fix your nose," Madam Pomfrey instructed Edmund, who was promptly startled out of his thoughts and had almost forgotten about his painful face.

He really wouldn't describe himself as a wimp, but when she pointed her wand at his nose, there was a sickening crack and a short but much more intense pain ran through his bones, he couldn't stop himself from screaming.

An eternity seemed to pass before Professor Lupin finally joined them through the double doors, his face pale as chalk. His eyes rested briefly on Edmund's bloodied face and shirt and he knew what it looked like. But the former teacher patiently let Price and Weasley explain the situation to him before turning to his goddaughter and giving them the all-clear shortly afterwards.

Edmund was sure that it wasn't just rocks that had fallen from his heart and was glad that he didn't have to dig his grave next to Black's.

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