‘Everyone makes mistakes,’ his mother had always told him. 'Mistakes exist so you learn from them. They help you grow.’ Only that this time Kingsley might never get the chance. He might not get the chance to learn anything ever again.
It’s funny, he thought, how the smallest actions can have the biggest consequences. When he’d left Fabian at their table out in the main room to go to the bathroom, he’d never thought that leaving his wand there with his friend might turn out to be that one mistake that might cost him his life now. How could he ever have been this stupid?
The sound of the first explosion had caught him completely off-guard just as he was washing his hands. Instinctively, Kingsley had reached for his wand only to realise that it was not where it should have been. Just then, the second explosion gone off off and this time it had been much, much closer.
The first thought that had gone through his mind was a silent prayer to whoever might be listening, if there was anyone at all, to please, let Fab be okay. The second one had been that he could smell something burning.
Thick smoke filled his lungs as soon as he stepped into the narrow little hallway leading back to the main room causing him to cough until his eyes filled with tears and he could barely see anything at all. There were screams coming from the bar room sounds of terror and destruction and even worse, sounds that sounded like duels. Kingsley knew what this was, even if he didn’t even dare finish the thought.
His brain only then managed to process what he was looking at: the cupboard right next to the door back into the bar had caught fire and half collapsed right in the middle of the hallway, effectively blocking his way. Without his wand, moving it seemed nearly impossible. Kingsley was trapped in between the burning cupboard and the stairway leading to the guest rooms.
Everything in him screamed to go save his friends, save Fabian. Yet, how could he, if he couldn’t even save himself?
Paralysed Kingsley watched the flames creep closer. Move, you fool! The part of his brain that still functioned screamed. Turn around! Go up! But there was another voice, a quiet, insistent one, sweet as honey and so, so enticing. Go on, it said, just take one more step. It’ll be quick. It’s so much easier than you think.
And maybe he would have. Later, when he’d go back to those few seconds in his mind, reliving them over and over and over again, he’d never be able to say with certainty.
The spell was broken by fingers wrapping tightly around his biceps and yanking him backwards with force. Kingsley crashed hard into the banister and blinked up at his savior, confusion, surprise and gratitude all mixing on his face. “What are you doing here? I thought I was alone.”
To be honest, Mary hadn’t been scared like this ever since the attack on her last year. Maybe she was even more scared now than she had been back then for now not only her own life was in danger but the life of many others (including many of those she loved so dearly). She could get hurt, but God help those who tried to hurt her friends.
Though she had come to Hogsmeade together with Marlene and Lily, she’d split up with them as soon as they had arrived at the village because they wanted to go to Zonko’s to get some prank supplied whereas the brunette had wanted to get a new feather quill and some other stuff for school. While only the second week of school had passed, she already felt the need to stock up on supplies. Better safe than sorry right? And now, she was more than concerned about where they were and, even more important, about their safety and wellbeing. Mostly about Lily as she was a muggleborn like herself, but of course about Marley as well. If they had gotten hurt, she’d probably never forgive herself for that, even though there was almost nothing she could have done to prevent it. The only thing she could do at the moment was to find them and make sure they were safe and well.
Her attention was drawn to an entirely different person, however, when she discovered Kingsley standing in front a fire about to be burned. Without even thinking about a second, her delicate fingers wrapped around his arms with an inhuman quickness and pulled him back with all the strength she could bring up. “What in Merlin’s name do you think you’re doing?”, Mary demanded to know with an unusual authority glaring at him with a mixture of anger and concern while she tried to pull him away further from the fire, “do you know that you’ve almost gotten burned by the fire? If I hadn’t interfered, who knows what might have happened.” Honestly, how could he be so careless? Of course, she was only mad like this because she seriously cared about him. “And you were alone until a minute ago. I just stumbled across you on my search for Lily and Marlene, but they don’t matter right now.” Sure, in some way they still did. The two were her best friends, after all. However, she wouldn’t leave him until she’d made sure that he was fine. “Are you okay?”