Emptiness

"What a huge wave..."

Nagini slowly opened her eyes. The towering wave crashing toward the shore and Nelson's figure at the bow jolted her awake from a chaotic, abstract dream. She drew in a deep breath, and the stabbing pain all over her body dragged her back to reality.

"Are you all right, Nagini?!"

Seeing clarity return to Nagini's eyes, Credence, who had been bandaging Aberforth's wound, instantly abandoned the injured man in his hands and rushed to Nagini's side. He squeezed past Moaning Myrtle to get in front of her, tightly grasped her icy hands in both of his, brought them to his mouth, and gently breathed warmth over them.

Nagini shook her head. As the temporary owner of this memory of Herpo the Foul's, she knew far more than every combatant present. With effort, she raised her free hand and clasped her lover's hand tightly.

Nagini's body temperature, which had nearly dropped to freezing, filled Credence with worry, but he was no healer, and the Obscurus's violent magic could not help with healing in the slightest. He stared into Nagini's eyes, as though trying to find some good news there. After Nagini woke, the people busy around them quickly crowded forward as well.

Credence pointed at her chest and asked in a low voice, "Your Blood Malediction..."

"I'm fine, but they..."

Nagini pointed at the empty space beside everyone, her lips pressed together, a trace of emotion in her eyes that the others could hardly understand, as if it had been brewed into aged wine over endless years.

That place should have belonged to the pillars of this battle, Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and also to Nelson and Tom, who had vanished without a trace at the very beginning of the fight.

"What happened to them?"

An ominous feeling