A/N: Written for the Houses Competition. Thanks to AJ, Alixx, and CP for the betas.
House: Ravenclaw
Category: Drabble
Prompt: Dagger
Words: 493 (excluding title), 500 (including title).
if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones
As she runs, weaving through the pines of the forest, Dorcas' breath dances in front of her, ethereal and mesmerising. She has long since stopped noticing these things, though. In the world that she lives in, a world of war and sacrifice, there is no such thing as beauty. Especially tonight.
A chill envelopes Dorcas and she shivers, though she's wearing too many layers to be cold. She remembers what Benjy used to say whenever she got that tingle up her spine, one of his Muggle superstitions.
"It's someone walking over your grave," he'd say, and she'd laugh with him, their eyes bright and hopeful.
Benjy hasn't said that to her in a long while. They've had to dig far too many fresh graves for it to be a joke anymore. Especially not now, when she's sprinting through a forest, trying desperately to find Benjy before she has to stand beside his own.
He needed her. She was stupidly brave and ran off to play the hero, leaving him behind. Now, screams ring through the autumn air, and Dorcas can't possibly know if they're his.
It's killing her.
Finally, after almost endless running, the sounds grow louder, flashes of red and green just visible through the trees. Dorcas slows, reaching for her wand and steadying her breathing.
As she creeps through the foliage, branches tearing her robes, she hears nearby voices. Heart swelling with hope, Dorcas ignores the deafening pounding of her heart and listens.
"Marlene, go!" Fabian, thank Merlin. "Gid and I will stall them."
Footsteps crash through the undergrowth and Dorcas sighs, relieved. Marlene made it.
But she pauses too long, delighting over her friend's escape...
A flash of green splits open the night sky. Gideon's anguished screams for his brother fill her ears until they, too, are silenced.
Dorcas feels her heart crack just a bit more.
Ignoring this, because grief's a luxury she cannot afford, Dorcas moves into the treeline, watching the Death Eater's assemble around the lifeless bodies. She itches to charge them, screaming curses until the ground is stained red, but she doesn't. Not until she sees Benjy again.
The Death Eaters talk briefly before dispersing into the forest.
"No!" Benjy suddenly appears, shouting and sprinting full pelt towards the Prewetts.
Dorcas wants to warn him, "Get back," but no words escape. She is frozen with fear, a menacing pair of yellow eyes staring out at her from the darkness.
Benjy is crouching, unaware of the danger inching closer with each second.
Dorcas only stares as Fenrir Greyback plunges a dagger into Benjy's back, blade glinting in the moonlight. She claps a hand to her mouth as he falls to the ground, only an ornate hilt visible. The designs covering it are warped, twisted. Fenrir curls his lip, smiling sickeningly.
It feels like Fenrir has stabbed her too, the dagger piercing her heart. She doesn't notice Dolohov behind her...
Dorcas is dead before she hits the ground.