This is an extension to Fly Away. I was starting to wonder why Alicia did not write George when she was so in love with him and felt it needed to be explained.
Disclaimer: For the last time, I have absolutely positively no connection to Potter or Rowling!
Final Words
Alicia Spinnet lay on her sleeping bag; eyes wide open, listening to the scratch of her tent-mate's quill on parchment. They were supposed to be attempting to get a little sleep before flying out on their next mission, but lying on top of twigs with the wind howling through the trees made it rather hard to get any sleep at all.
"I'm not keeping you up am I?" Mary asked, looking up briefly from the parchment, most likely a letter to her fiancée.
"No," she assured the girl, "I never have been able to sleep before missions. Nerves and adrenaline I suppose."
There was a rustling noise just outside their tent, and both girls reached for their wands immediately. The noise would continue for a few moments and then stop before continuing again.
Alicia leaned towards the flap that was hanging down as a sort of door.
"On the count of 3," she whispered.
Mary nodded, her wand ready.
"1…2…3…"
She flung the flap open. However, instead of finding a group of deatheaters poised to kill them, she found Dumbledore.
"Merlin," Mary muttered, "I was 10 seconds away from cursing the world's greatest wizard into oblivion."
"No worries, Miss Hampton," he assured her, "You would not have done much damage seeing as how you grabbed a twig instead of your wand."
The girl blushed a bright red. Neither of them had even noticed in their rush to protect themselves.
"Oops," she laughed nervously.
"Your secret is safe with me. I just need to see Miss Spinnet for a moment."
Alicia gave Dumbledore a curious glance, but his facial expression revealed nothing. She got up off the ground and followed him through the dark woods, tripping over exposed roots she could not see. She groped along blindly behind him.
"Professor Dumbledore, where on earth are we going?" she asked.
"To someplace a bit more private," he replied cryptically.
Alicia groaned in frustration, continuing to stumble over large rocks and nearly falling to the ground.
Finally, the old wizard stopped.
"I suppose here is as good a place as any. Lumos."
The tip of his wand lit the small clearing just enough for Alicia to see Dumbledore but nothing else. His face was no longer devoid of expression. Instead, it looked serious and grave.
"Is something wrong?" she asked tentatively.
"What would you do if I told you that you would die tomorrow?"
Her breath caught in her throat.
"What?" she managed to choke out, "I know performing raids is dangerous, but that doesn't necessarily mean…"
"Your raid tomorrow is a suicide mission," he interrupted.
She shook her head in disbelief, her stomach beginning to crawl. The words seemed surreal. People died during the war all the time, but it was never supposed to be her.
"The Ministry would never intentionally send us to die."
"I know it is unintentional," Dumbledore said, "They have foolish hopes that you will succeed, but they know the odds. I have told them every day."
"Then why? Why are they still sending us?" she questioned, angrily.
They were too young, too inexperienced for something so serious.
"They need a diversion. To them, this is for the greater good."
Alicia could feel her stomach perform a gut-wrenching turn. Death was so final.
"So we're all going to die tomorrow."
The full meaning of the words began to sink in. It was the end. A part of her wondered how it would end for her: painful or in a flash of green light.
"Perhaps, Miss Spinnet, but there is always hope. If you wish, I could request that the Ministry reassign you immediately to me."
She looked at him, determination and fear in her eyes.
"These are my teammates, my family. I can't just leave them. If they die, I die with them."
His eyes filled with sadness, and it was obvious that he was disappointed by her decision, but he did not press the matter further.
"Very well, Miss Spinnet, but may I make a suggestion."
"Of course."
He sighed and grasped her hands firmly.
"I think you should write your good byes, especially to Miss Bell. It has been very lonely for her as a Blue Flame member."
Alicia twirled her quill in her hand as she stared at the blank piece of parchment. Only an hour remained until the team was to head out on its mission, and she had yet to write anything. At first she had tried to write a short note to George to reveal the feelings she had hidden for years, but writing that letter felt like she was giving up on any hope that she might survive. She still had hopes of coming back, even if they were no bigger than an ink dot.
Dear Katie,
She shook her head. It was impossible to think of something to write to someone you had not seen in a while. How was she supposed to start when it seemed that she no longer knew anything about Katie?
"Alicia?"
She looked over to Mary.
"Sorry, am I disturbing you?"
The blonde shook her head. "No, I was just wondering if everything was alright."
Alicia forced herself to look calm. It would be unfair to tell Mary what was happening, that the wedding of her dreams would never take place.
"Everything's fine. Dumbledore just wanted to let me know how some of my friends were doing."
"Oh, well, try and get some sleep."
Alicia nodded, choking on a lump forming in her throat. Mary did not know what was in store for them. Mary did not know that she would probably never see her fiancée again. No one knew that they were going to die. She wanted to tell them, to give them a chance to leave, a chance to live.
She got up and left the tent, anger welling up inside. The whole situation was unfair. None of them deserved to die, not when there was so much they had left to do in life. Not when they all had so much to live for. She did not want to die when there was so much left undone. George popped into her mind, and she was once again tempted to write. But what if he had felt the same? Could she put him through the misery of knowing that they could have been together? What if he had not felt the same? Did she want him to remember her for her schoolgirl crush? Katie was another story. Alicia could not let her best friend think she had died angry.
She went back inside her tent and grabbed the quill and parchment once more, determined to leave a few last words for her best friend. Tears dripped from her eyes and onto the parchment. She was going to die.
Dear Katie…
To Creepy Susie: Thank you. I just couldn't do the normal Harry saves them all.