He was coming. She was frightened. And panicked. Not for herself, but for the boy. The tiny boy only over a year old in her arms. Harry. Her only son.
She knew. She knew he would be coming for Harry, but she never expected him to come so soon. She didn't know how he found them. But he did. And now he was coming after her. And her boy, of course.
Her life sped before her eyes – that's what happens when you're going to die, isn't it? It was a wonder how many things she could think of in a matter of minutes and seconds.
First she thought of James. Who else if not James? He was her husband, her loved one, her soul's other half. And she remembered what he told her just moments ago. He told her to run. And she did. She was running as she was thinking these things. What's happened to James now? She could hear a bang and a short scream. It was James. She felt a sharp pang in her heart. Oh, Merlin, please, please! Don't let him be hurt. Don't let him die. Even though she knew death was coming for her, she couldn't bear the thought of James dying.
James. That boy. The boy who admired her so. The boy who she rejected time and time again but never backed down. The arrogant boy who changed, and managed to steal her heart in return. The boy she finally said yes to. The man waiting down the aisle, beaming as she walked towards him in a beautiful white dress. The father of the boy in her arms.
Harry. The one she's loved even before she set her eyes on him. The one who she knew 'the prophecy' was about. Although there was no way she could be certain, she was. She knew deep inside her heart, her instincts told her; that the child – the child in the prophecy – was Harry. The one whose future she's been worrying about, the one who she's thought of a thousand ways to protect. But now, here they were, exposed, with no way to defend themselves. She had no wand with her. James had no wand with him.
She swore, she'd never imagined the moment to come so soon. If she had, she'd have done something about it. She'd have prepared protection. But now there was no time. That was what she thought as she blocked the door with piles of chairs and boxes. Desperation crept over her heart as she pulled Harry closer to her chest. He wasn't crying. She didn't know why. Couldn't he feel the panic in the air? Was he not scared?
As the door opened, and the stacked chairs and boxes were flung away, terror flooded her. She quickly put Harry down on his cot behind her. She flung her arms wide. And then she saw him. Voldemort. All covered in a black cloak, complete with a hood. She suddenly thought of Death Eaters. And then a certain Death Eater. Severus Snape. Sev. Her first best friend. The wizard from her neighborhood. The first person who introduced her to magic. The one who taught her lots about it too. The one she'd competed with in Potions class. Also the one who betrayed her trust and friendship. The one who called her Mudblood, right after she'd save him from further embarrassment.
She could never forget that day. The day she was so hurt. She couldn't believe she'd hear such an insult, especially from her own best friend! She understood the humiliation he'd felt. But it was no reason for him to insult her in such a way. Even at this moment, as demise was approaching her, that memory still ache her heart. Of course he'd said sorry, but it was too late.
She'd sense him go another direction, anyway. To a path of darkness. He hailed 'The Dark Lord', the person – if you could call him a person at all – before her who she was pleading with, the one who was about to murder her and her son, who probably have killed her husband already. Does Sev know anything about this? That just added to the resentment she felt towards him right then.
She couldn't believe her best friend would turn out to be a bad person. She knew he loved her. More than just the feeling of love for a friend. She was very close to loving him back, but she hesitated at the thought of what he wished to be. A Death Eater. She'd suspected it already, but it was only confirmed the night he called her Mudblood. The incident that day was another factor as to why she changed her mind.
What happened had hurt them both, she knew. Only he wore it upon his sleeve, put it on the front of his mind. While she buried it deep under a thousand masks, and stored it in the corner of her mind. But that doesn't mean she's forgotten it. She'd always remembered it, no matter how far away she tried to push away those thoughts.
She could think of nothing further, as that moment Voldemort stopped her pleas and pointed his wand at her. She flinched just before the killing curse hit her. The last image in her mind was Severus' face in a black hood, and then all went black. All traces of bitterness and fear washed away into nothingness.