I have to give credit where credit is due. This story is inspired by Lady Altair's (the author) story, Light As She Goes. It's really good and I encourage you to check it out.
I do hope that this doesn't come off as a total copy of hers. But I was listening to this song, and WHABAM, the other part of my inspiration.
So yes, this is a songfic (which I normally am not a fan of) but I tried not to follow the lyrics WORD FOR WORD as some people do and instead kinda just use the lyrics as a guide of sorts.
Whatever. I'm rambling. I'll stop talking now.
(Oh, a pre P.S. I've decided that I'm kinda stupid when it comes to picking the genre for my stories. Sure, it might be sad, but does that make it a tragedy? That seems a little strong to me. Therefore, I've decided to just label as best I can [which probably sucks] and I hope I'm not way off the mark.)
Disclaimer: Any characters, situations, events, etc. below that you recognize belong to J.K. Rowling. If only I were cool enough to have come up with them first...
If I die young
Bury me in satin
Lay me down on a bed of roses
Sink me in the river at dawn
Send me away with the words of a love song...
She stared at Professor McGonagall as the Transfiguration teacher spoke in a hurried voice, wishing that this was someone else's decision. She was too young, too unexperienced, too afraid...
Of course, that was a lie. She was technically an adult, and hadn't her seventh year been all about the experience of surviving? That might not have been the Carrows' intentions, but that was what Lisa had managed to learn from them. How to survive their classes, how to avoid the risk of detention and the threat of being put under the Cruciatus Curse...
"And what if we want to stay and fight?" a Hufflepuff Lisa recognized from her year had asked moments ago. McGonagall had replied "If you are of age, you may stay," causing Lisa to face the hardest decision of her life.
Should she stay, or should she go?
The two sides clashed in her mind as the entire Slytherin table emptied out of the Great Hall. Her housemates, the eagles, began to stand and follow the Slytherins. Lisa sat for a moment, completely unsure of what to do.
Maybe she wasn't too young, wasn't too unexperienced, but how was she to know if she was brave enough? After all, she wasn't a lion. The Sorting Hat had ruled out the house of scarlet and gold, opting instead for the blue and bronze. She was smart, yes, but brave?
Instead of focusing on the increasingly imminent decision she had to make, for some reason, her mind imagined her funeral. Lisa thought that she would like to be clothed in a satin dress, and her favorite white roses beside her in the coffin.
She shuddered. What morbid thoughts for someone who considered themselves a cheerful person.
Of course, the time for cheerfulness had long passed. A battle was on the horizon.
In the end, Lisa chose to stay at Hogwarts, partly because she was too much of a coward to face people afterwards and tell them she didn't stay, and partly because Terry Boot was staying to fight.
I've never known the loving of a man
But it sure felt nice when he was holding my hand
There's a boy here in town, says he'll love me forever
Who would have thought forever can be severed by
The sharp knife, of a short life...
"Lisa! You're staying!" Terry exclaimed when he caught up to her a few minutes later. "I wasn't sure..."
Lisa didn't reply. She knew he was referring to Harry Potter's secret group from fifth year that he had joined. Lisa had decided against it, partly because her mother was a part of the Ministry (and had warned her about going against Umbridge), and partly because she had been too scared.
At the time, Terry had simply been a good friend of hers, and he had been hurt by her refusal to join the group's campaign against the D.A.D.A teacher. The next year, however, their relationship had changed.
"This is our time, Lisa," Terry continued, despite the fact that she had yet to speak. "We have to take You-Know-Who down. We can't sit back and be scared anymore." Terry gathered her hands in his, and clasped them tightly. "I know you're afraid, but it's going to be Ok," he told her, his voice lowering in volume.
Lisa nodded, afraid that if she attempted speech, the words would be drowned out by the tears that were threatening to fall.
"I love you," Terry whispered, pressing his forehead to hers. Around them, statues were running down the corridor, calling out battle cries. "Forever."
Lisa couldn't help it; one small tear escaped and trickled down her cheek. Soft as a feather, Terry lifted his thumb and brushed it away, before pressing a soft kiss to her lips. It wasn't long, it wasn't passionate, for this was neither the time nor place. Instead it was a kiss with the promise of forever, to echo his words.
Lisa couldn't shake the feeling that the kiss held a goodbye as well.
Lord make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother,
She'll know I'm safe with you as she stands under my covers
Oh, and life ain't always what you think it ought to be, no
Ain't even gray, but she buries her baby...
Lisa struggled to breathe while the battle continued to rage around her. Screams filled the air and colorful jets of light passed above her as she stared at the ceiling.
Lisa's vision swam when her intake of oxygen caused the pain in her chest to intensify. She had been hit with some curse that had caused her to fly into a wall and collapse onto the ground.
Lisa knew that her time was running short, but somehow, the thought didn't terrify her as she thought it would. The pain was intensifying by the second, but with everyone fighting, no one had time to come to the aid of someone of little importance, just a Ravenclaw that never learned how to fight properly.
A tear dripped out of her right eye and pooled into her dirty hair as Lisa's thoughts turned to her mother. The thought of her mother's face when she realized her baby was gone caused a different kind of ache in Lisa's chest, one much stronger and more painful than the one emanating from the site of her punctured lung.
'I'm so sorry Mum,' Lisa thought, too weak to speak, even if anyone could hear her. 'I'm sorry how much hurt I'm going to cause you.'
Lisa pictured Terry's face one last time. 'You were right, Terry,' she thought, her eyes closing of their own accord. 'It is our time. We can't be scared.'
Lisa took her last breath with a smile on her face. She wasn't afraid anymore.
So put on your best boys
And I'll wear my pearls...
A.N. Disclaimer #2: Song lyrics are by The Band Perry. I do not own them.
P.S. Go listen to this song. It's lovely.
P.S.S. Has anyone noticed how many freakin' characters there are in Harry Potter? When I go to choose which one to display for my story, it take me half a month to get to the character I want. (Sorry, my rant of the day.)
Happy January 20th :)