The Bitter End

by lionesseyes13

Colin Creevey, Nymphadora Tonks, Mandy Brocklehurst, and Severus Snape all remained loyal to their Houses until their deaths, and all of their deaths serve to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses inherent in their respective Houses.

1. Chapter 1

Oh, you might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart.

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart.

Colin Creevey: Seize the Day

I can feel the life ebbing from me as I lay prone on the ground, my blood staining the emerald grass a stunning Gryffindor crimson. The Death Eaters didn't have to make my death as painful and gory as they did, but they did because I am a Mudblood, and Mudbloods are vermins that don't deserve even the consideration of a clean death.

A clean death. I can't even accept that that I am dying at all, and what makes it even more impossible to absorb is that it is happening on the grounds of the school I love so much beneath trees that I used to do homework, talk with friends, trade Chocolate Frog Cards, ad compete in Wizarding chess tournaments underneath.

I am dying, though, and I need to accept that. I can't waste my last minutes in denial. That will be cowardly. I must not be a coward. I must be brave until the bitter end and not shrink from my fate now.

As I struggle to embrace the death I never really imagined would happen to me, I ask myself whether I would do anything differently if I had the chance to relive my final hours, and my answer is no. Maybe I charged into this battle impulsively and without a plan, but that doesn't make what I did stupid or wrong.

Perhaps even my fellow Gryffindors when they hear of my death will shake their heads and mutter mournfully to each other that my foolishness and my hastiness were my undoing. Maybe even they won't comprehend that I would never have jumped into the fray so willingly if I believed that a satisfactory strategy would be created. Perhaps even they won't understand that I relished life on the precipice and that living on the safe side in my eyes wasn't living at all. Maybe even they will think that I was nuts to thrive off danger and uncertainty as I did, and that it was silly for me to love the rush of adrenaline that coursed through me as I performed my latest bit of insanity.

Maybe even my parents will think me an idiot when they grieve over my cold body, but I know Dennis won't. Dennis will know that his older brother, Colin Creevey, seized the day, and that isn't too bad a legacy for a slight young man who died before he could shave or kiss a girl.