WHO: Hugh Abbott & Sarah Daniels
WHAT: Diagon Alley attack!
WHEN: March '78
WHERE: Diagon Alley
All she'd been doing was coming back from her lunch break, when it happened. First, she hadn't been able to open the phone booth to get into the Ministry, and then from just beside her, a lamp post had exploded. A split second later, there had been a scream and the woman who had just been standing beside her, confused, was pinned to the ground under a pile of rubble.
It was all Sarah could do to jump backwards through the near-paralyzing rush of her heart pounding in her chest, and then only to have a table in the café mere feet from her shoot a red hex just past her ear. She screamed, stunned, scared, and not knowing what to do as she started running down the street in the opposite direction, near a crowd of similarly screaming people, hardly able to pull out her wand as she dodged a few more hexes.
Merlin, what was going on, what was happening, she didn't know what to do, she wasn't an Auror, oh shit, that one had been close, what if--Sarah was only pulled out of her dizzying stream of thoughts, when she finally heard a faint yell in the distance... a faint yell that she thought sounded like her name, and that she thought was in a familiar voice. She turned around, out of breath, and almost gave a sigh of relief.
Clara had asked him to pick up some of her favourite candy from the local candy store. Hugh would have to owl it to her in secret of course, for she didn't want the others at the fashion magazine to know of her "shameful" secret (her famous sweet tooth). Of course, he had planned to have it brightly wrapped with a huge name tag describing exactly what the package contained. After owling the candy to Madrid, it felt as if the world had turned completely upside down. Things exploded, the ground shook, and he had managed to pull a small girl away from a falling piece of rubble just in time.
Racing down the street with similarly scared people, Hugh didn't know exactly where he was going. He didn't scream or panic like everyone else did, he was sensible enough to keep his cool, though his heart was pounding like mad. He caught sight of someone very familiar several yards ahead of him, though her back was turned to him. Cupping his hands over his mouth, he hurried towards her. "Sarah! Oh my god, are you - are you okay?"
She spun around about the time he finally reached her, in the same breath nearly having him run smack into her, back up a little, and regain her bearings before she reached out, grabbing onto his arm for what could just possibly be dear life. Before she even answered his question, she looked him up and down quickly, feeling relief wash over her as she saw that he was not hurt, then nodded breathlessly.
"I'm fine, I--" There was a cut on her right temple from the lamp post rubble, which was bleeding steadily and burning quite fiercely. But looking around at people with severed limbs, it just... it didn't seem like she had any room to complain over something so small. "What's going on, have you seen anything?"
"I honestly don't know," Hugh said, as his eyes did the same. He scanned over Sarah quickly, grateful she wasn't badly maimed or injured like he had seen - but oh Merlin...
"Your head!" He wasn't gifted in Healing spells and he could barely remember them - and he certainly wasn't going to try them out now; what if he did even worse damage? He took out a hankerchief and gingerly pressed it to her temple, taking extreme care.
She gently swatted his hand away, shaking her head. "There's no time, alright? I'm fine, but neither of us will be if we don't stop fooling around," she said, amazed at how much just his presence had calmed her down. Now that she didn't feel so insanely helpless and confused and scared, she could think more rationally about this... even if she was still scared out of her mind that something was going to happen.
Not to her, even, but to him. "We've got to find some place to hide, away from the crowd."
Hugh was still worried about Sarah's wound, but as he eyed the swarms of panicking, crying people, he knew that she was right. "Where d'you suggest we go?" he asked, as a hysterical woman calling for her daughter nearly ran into him. He stepped closer to her and held Sarah's shoulders protectively.
"Ah... how about the candy shop? I was just there to pick up something for my sister, and it seemed fairly closed. C'mon!" It seemed logical to hide, as everyone seemed to want to be anywhere but where they were. He took Sarah's hand and together they weaved their way through the massive crowds, ducking into the candy store. The door had been wide open and it was utterly deserted; even the owner was missing. Hugh shut the door firmly and with a flick of his wand, closed the blinds to the window.
So, they were safe, at least for the moment.
Breathing in deeply, but shakily, Sarah pushed herself against a wall and sunk down to the floor. She didn't know if she could stand on her own two feet anymore anyway, so it was probably good that she had taken to a wall that kept her from facing the outside. Guh, if she had to look out into all that horrible mess... oh, she was going to be sick. It was terrible, that someone would go around doing this kind of thing.
How horrible did you have to be? Closing her eyes tightly, Sarah pulled her knees up to her chest, at the same time groping blindly until she found Hugh's hand. She pulled him down to sit beside her, half out of fear that him standing up was making him an easier target (despite the closed blinds) and half out of needing him right there, where she could feel him beside her.
When she opened her eyes again, it was obvious that she was trying very hard not to freak out. As much as she'd read in the Prophet about this kind of stuff, she'd never been in the middle of it--what were they supposed to do? When was it supposed to stop? Where were all the Aurors? Sarah squeezed his hand tighter, telling him she was thankful--Merlin, so thankful--that at least he was there.
Hugh squeezed back just as tightly, reaching to take Sarah's other hand so that he was holding tightly to both her hands. It all seemed so... unreal. Of course, he read about these things in the Prophet and heard about accounts first hand - he did work for the Ministry, after all. However, the thought that a horrifying incident would actually happened to him or a loved one? Hugh had to admit that though he thought about the possibilities, he had never thought it was actually... happen.
He took what seemed to be his hundredth deep breath of today, trying his best to keep calm. No, panicking would definitely not do. Though the blinds and the door kept from him actually seeing what was happening on the outside, he still heard shouts, screams, crying, and the sound of running, stampeding, and the sounds of general terror.
"All right," he said aloud, inwardly marveling at how calm he sounded, "we're safe, we're out of the public, and..." He looked at Sarah, and his resolve instantly strengthened. "And we're together."
