Everything seemed to freeze. His breathing, the air, all sound. There was a heartbeat of dead silence before Draco was once against lifted up off his feet, thrown backwards by a powerful, unavoidable blast of heated air. At almost the same moment, the room, the building, shook with the force of a massive explosion and an earsplitting scream rent the air. Silence descended, thicker than the dust falling from the ceiling Draco found himself staring at. It took him a very long moment to get his brain to switch back on, to register that he needed to get back up. Needed to figure out what the fuck had just happened. Ears ringing, feeling as though he'd just exposed his skin directly to the sun's rays for an inadvisable amount of time, Draco lifted his head and looked around. He'd been tossed back onto the second floor landing by the explosion, his head landing dangerously close to the edge of the staircase leading up to the third floor. To his right, there were paintings on fire. To his right, an empty, dust-filled hallway. Sitting up, her turned to look behind him, and saw her. Rapidly, the pieces of the puzzle seemed to come together seamlessly.