A/N: The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round 3, Kenmare Kestrels Keeper
Prompts: kestrel (word), 1201-1500 (word count)
Total Word Count (MS Word): 1492
"It was naïve of us to believe that Voldemort's death would bring about the end of the Second Wizarding War. For the Death Eaters, it was too late to slither back into the shadows like before, and their numbers were far less diminished than ours. So they fought, and our war was passed down to our children."
—Hermione Weasley, Modern Magical History, "Forward" (2037, p. iv)
In the twilight, Hogwarts was a sore sight. She was battered and scattered and falling apart. Nearly thirty years since her halls had witness the second death of Lord Voldemort, and twenty-five since any student had crossed her threshold, the once-magnificent castle was broken and dying.
Life blazed within her hallowed halls, however. Torches were lit in every window, visible through every hole that had been blasted into the walls over the decades. The bleary light and blackened, scorched stone made Hogwarts look like a great, mythical beast that had been hollowed out and made into a massive, cavernous fortress.
Lily doubted that there were as many Death Eaters inside as there appeared to be. The Death Eaters' numbers were vast enough to fill Hogwarts, even with all the "pruning" the resistance had been doing, but she had reasonably reliable intel that only a few dozen actually defended the castle at any given time. The rest were out, spreading their poison to the rest of the world.
At least, that's what she'd been told.
"After the 2008 disappearance of Harry James Potter—widely known as "The Boy Who Lived" and heralded as the champion of the Battle of Hogwarts (1998)—the magical community descended into chaos. More witches and wizards defected to the side of the Death Eaters in the two years following this event than in any comparable span of time since."
—Hermione Weasley, Modern Magical History, "The Resurgence of the Death Eater Movement" (2037, p. 74)
Lily flinched as someone slid around the rock she'd chosen for her cover and settled down next to her. Her wand was at her fingertips an instant too late, but she relaxed when she saw the flash of silver-white hair beneath the hood of a Muggle sweatshirt.
"Don't get sloppy, now," Scorpius told her. His voice had an edge. "I don't want to see your wand out of your hand until this is over."
Lily didn't respond to that; she just tightened her grip on her wand.
"When are we going in?" she asked. She was beginning to get jittery. The only way to have the tactical advantage on the castle had been to trek through the Forbidden Forest the long way around—no magic. For Lily, being told not to use magic was like being told to breathe using only one lung. She wanted to hex something. Soon.
"Shouldn't be long," he told her, "but I'm having second thoughts about this."
Lily narrowed her eyes at him. It was hard to see in the dark, but he could feel her glare.
"You promised," she said, her tone accusatory.
"That's when I thought you had your head together, Lily," he said, unaffected by the danger in her voice. "Looking at you now, I'm not sure you can handle it."
"You can't make me stay behind," she told him. "I have a right to go. It's my dad, Scorpius."
"Your dad isn't in there, Lily!" Scorpius hissed, grabbing her wrist and forcing her to look into his eyes. The ice in them froze her blood. "The thing in that castle is a twisted, incomplete reproduction of a monster wearing Harry Potter's face, and he'll kill you the second you forget that!"
"In 2012, the Death Eater movement took another enormous leap toward victory. Though details remain unclear, documents recovered from the Hogwarts ruins indicate that an ancient goblin magic was used to magically forge a rough duplicate of the so-called "eighth piece" of Lord Voldemort's soul from the long-captive Harry Potter."
—Hermione Weasley, Modern Magical History, "The Third Incarnation of Lord Voldemort" (2037, p. 136)
"All right. All right," Lily said, sounding chastised. She shook her wrist out of Scorpius' grasp. "I know that, it's just… They used him, Scorpius, and half the world still thinks—"
"I know what they think," he said, his voice calmer now, "but you have to be smart. We can't forget who we're up against just because we think we outnumber them. Anything could happen."
At that moment, a twig cracked nearby and Lily's head snapped in its direction, her want at attention.
The voice that greeted her in the dark wasn't a particularly welcome one, but it was at least familiar. She glanced over at Scorpius, but he had already disappeared somewhere.
"Talkin' t' yerself?" came the heavy, Texan drawl of Lacey, one of the American resistance fighters. She stepped into Lily's field of vision, all of five feet tall, blond and made of muscle and spite. She carried a thin bundle that was nearly as tall as she was, draped in black cloth. Lily could just barely make out the symbol sewn into the shoulder of her fatigues: a kestrel with a half-eaten snake dangling from its beak.
"In 2027, the bodies of Death Eaters and their allegiants began to turn up in public locations all across Europe. A symbol—later to be identified as that of the legendary figure known as "The Kestrel"—was found magically burned into the forearms of the bodies, partially covering the Dark Mark (Fig. 201-A)."
—Hermione Weasley, Modern Magical History, "The Emergence of The Kestrel" (2037, p 201)
"No," Lily said sourly. "You know what I was doing."
"S'pose I do," Lacey said, sidling up next to Lily and kneeling behind her rock, eyes on the castle. Lacey had a wry manner that made Lily feel like she was always being made fun of.
"What'd he say?" Lacey asked without looking at Lily.
Lily fiddled with her wand. She didn't want to tell her, but Lily trusted Lacey even if she couldn't stand her attitude.
"He doesn't think I should go," she said finally.
"He right?" Lacey asked.
"No," Lily said firmly.
"Hope so," Lacey said, lazily removing the black cloth from her bundle. Lily shivered as she saw the cold chrome of the rifle that Lacey was propping on the rock. "'Cause there's the signal, princess."
"Through the remaining years of the Second Wizarding War, until its resolution in 2035, the example set forth by The Kestrel was taken up by several groups of resistance fighters. These fighters, both magical and Muggle, fought independently of one another until 2033 when The Kestrel himself—previously considered to be an urban legend—united them into a single, tactical unit."
—Hermione Weasley, Modern Magical History, "The Resistance and the Role of The Kestrel" (2037, p. 288)
Lily whipped around at those words and saw that Lacey was right; the grounds had been set alight with Fiendfyre, which was being controlled by a wizard near the treeline. The destruction had already drawn out several Death Eaters from inside, who were frantically trying to locate the source. Lily heard a soft click from next to her, and then an explosion that made her ears ring as Lacey calmly fired her rifle.
Lily could tell from the screams Lacey had hit her mark; her stomach turned.
Lily dashed around the rock—away from Lacey's shooting—and sprinted toward the castle. She had barely taken ten steps, however, when she felt her whole body snap to attention and sail forward toward the ground. She landed on her face, unable to put up her hands to protect herself, and the pain brought tears to her eyes.
"I'm sorry," whispered Scorpius' voice in her ear.
The Full Body-Bind Curse made her stiff as a board as he turned her over onto her back. She looked up into his eyes, the only part of him she could see behind the mask of The Kestrel, face full of betrayal.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go," he said. "I need you to live, Lily. Please. Forgive me."
He leaned over her and placed a gentle kiss on her mouth, then stood, and raced off toward Hogwarts.
"In ornithology, the kestrel belongs to the scientific genus falco, which it shares with a similarly falconine bird, the merlin, an obvious reference to the Medieval wizard of the same name. Merlin—the most powerful wizard in recorded history—was a celebrated Slytherin, and a staunch supporter of Muggle rights, leading to wide speculation that The Kestrel was a descendent of a traditionally dark-magic family. Whether this connection was intentional, however, was never determined, and the true identify of The Kestrel was never uncovered. During the Final Siege of Hogwarts in 2033, The Kestrel famously collapsed the Headmaster's Tower while still inside, killing himself, the Third Incarnation, and twelve other unnamed Death Eaters."
—Hermione Weasley, Modern Magical History, "The Turning Point of the Second Wizarding War" (2037, p. 344)