Songs of Revolution - by missmarthanightingale

Catelyn Maguire. Quiet girl. Overlooked, normally. Just another Ravenclaw; quick mind, clever ideas [but totally useless in real life]. Half-blood. Mother died in the war, grew up with her father in the Muggle world [poor thing. Not much better than a Mudblood, really]. Introvert, shy [arrogant. Thinks she's better than us, does she? She's worse than a Mudblood, doesn't belong anywhere!] But at least she's got some wizarding heritage [we'll leave her be. Let her fade away into nothing, trying to survive society. Let her be forgotten, so that no one even remembers her name. She doesn't matter, anyway. She's of no consequence. She just is].

They talk and talk and talk as if they know her. Well, they used to. But they forgot her in the end [she barely exists]. That's good. It's how she survives. A Muggle father is practically a death sentence, these days. Now that the Ministry's gone and the Resistance is all but dead. Voldemort rules now. They never really say so, but everyone knows it's true. She can see it in the eyes of her teachers [they're afraid, trying to protect what's left of their school. Trying to keep their students safe. She can't help but think that they're fools], in the eyes of her classmates [they're divided into sectors; some who want to fight back, 'Dumbledore's Army'; some who are loving this, torturing the first years, feeling better, more powerful than everyone else; and those who just want to survive the war and live their lives in whatever's left of their world in the end]. She sees it in the students being dragged out of class to be used as leverage against the few families who are still fighting, in the students who disappear, one by one, hiding away in the magic room on the seventh floor [they think they're so clever, hiding there - do they really think no one else knows about it?] and in the students who remain, always ready to fight, to flee, to protect the friends they have left. She sees Voldemort's power in the Carrows; delighting in the fear they can feel from the children [because they are children, these poor creatures who were born into a world which never gave them a chance, dragged into a war that was not theirs to fight] that they spend their days terrorizing. She sees it in her headmaster, in the look on his face when he is forced to allow these atrocities to happen [he's good, that man, at hiding his emotions, but there is always a split second before his mask clamps down, and she sees everything]. She sees it everywhere [and she's had enough].

It's only a matter of time before they remember her, she knows that. Soon, someone is going to remember the Ravenclaw with the Muggle father, and they will realize that she [fool that she is] is still here, that she didn't run away. That there is still an example to be made of her [see what happens when you commit the crime of being born to a Muggle man], still an opportunity to horrify the world with the lengths that they will go to to remove the Muggle taint from their society. It's not a question of if; it's a question of when. But until then, she is as invisible as she's always been. She can do something with what's left of her life. And she will. She will.

She's been helping the Army, here and there [she knows where they go for their little meetings, all the little bolt holes they have. She knows the castle better than anyone, even better than the Weasley twins]. She sometimes hears them talking about little things that need doing, which nobody has time for. She always has time. She doesn't sleep anymore [what if they come for her in the middle of the night?] and she might as well do something. Sometimes there are things they deem too risky [wouldn't want a repeat of what happened to poor Michael Corner], because they don't want to seem suspicious. But no one sees her [and they're going to kill her anyway, she can take the extra risk]. But she never lets the Army see her. She needs complete anonymity [because helping the Army isn't her final gift to the Resistance. She has something much bigger in mind].

She's spent years setting this up. It was going to be her gift to the world, her proof that she was worth something, that they were wrong about her [that she deserved a place in this world]. She's not a Ravenclaw for nothing, after all. She's smart. She found, when she first came to Hogwarts, that she missed the conveniences of the Muggle world. Computers, television, CD players [she misses her music. Stories are always her only escape now], the list goes on. They told her that that kind of thing simply couldn't work around magic [but radios did. Watches did]. No one could tell her why. So she went looking for answers. Cogs, as it turned out. Clockwork machines. They worked. How very clever. But difficult to do for all these Muggle devices. After all, if you wanted to keep things at a reasonable size, the parts would be tiny! How could they ever be put together at that size? Well, magic is the logical answer [she can't help but think, sometimes, that wizards are very stupid]. A shrinking charm would work just fine. But it's still a fairly complex process. Time consuming. But she has time [it's amazing how much time you have when you have no friends]. By the end of her sixth year at Hogwarts, she was finished. She'd done it. But then Dumbledore died, and it didn't matter anymore. All her work was for nothing. Or was it? After all, Muggle technology used against the people who hated Muggles more than anything sounded like poetic justice. But there is still work to be done. A few individual electronics aren't going to faze the Death Eaters [she has something much bigger in mind].

So she spends the nights of her seventh year sneaking around the castle. She indulges herself. She becomes a character out of her books. She dresses in a black cat suit and ties her hair back and puts sticking charms on her hands and feet [no one ever looks up]. When she's not working on her pet project she's helping the Army. Somehow, she feels happier now [the world's going to hell and she won't live to see her eighteenth birthday, but she feels like she's finally found her place in the world]. She's finally doing something worth doing. History might not remember her [maybe no one will] but she will have done her part, played her role in the war. Maybe it won't seem like much [she won't fight in the final battle, she won't help rebuild the world when this is all over] but she knows that what she's doing is important [she's bringing hope]. And when it's finally ready, she doesn't hesitate. They will kill her for this, she knows, but that's all right. All wars have casualties. Better her than someone else, right?

Music always gave her hope. And these children need hope more than anything. So she gives them hope. She gives them music. Her music. Muggle music. Songs of Revolution.

They will have no trouble tracing this back to her. She's the only person with a Muggle upbringing that dared return to Hogwarts this year [even the Carrows can connect those dots]. But they'll have a lot of trouble turning off the music. She's spent the better part of six months setting this up, after all. She's thought of nearly everything they might try, nearly every weakness they might exploit, and she's dealt with all of them. And since she barely used any magic, they'll spend several days just finding the machines. It'll take them at least a week to figure out how to disable them, even longer to actually do so [she is a Ravenclaw, and she takes pride in her creations. They are incredibly complex and all but flawless. She's a perfectionist, you see] because they know nothing of Muggle machinery. She's left a letter addressed to Ginny Weasley in Professor McGonagall's office, telling her of a hidden attic room in the Ravenclaw tower. Her life's work is hidden in that room, along with journals detailing everything she's done and why she did it, and all the secrets she's uncovered in the process. She's been a dead-girl-walking for a long time [ever since Voldemort took over]. She's had plenty of time to prepare.

She's indulged her strange sense of humour and left a big red button marked 'do not press' in the Slytherin common room [some of the Slytherins are complete imbeciles]. She returns to her own common room and doesn't even have to wait fifteen minutes before she hears the music start up. Her fellow Ravenclaws come thundering down the stairs in an effort to discover where the music is coming from and several scream when they encounter the invisible wall that keeps them from reaching her. When they [finally] notice her sitting in the middle of the room they don't recognise her at all. Well, she doesn't blame them. Even if they did notice her normally, she looks very different today. After all, she wants to look nice for her last day on earth. She always did want to dress up in those beautiful gowns from all the fairy tales. Oh, she's not wearing anything quite so elaborate as that. It's a simple dress, with a black bodice, a dark blue skirt, long black fingerless gloves and loose dark blue sleeves that fall down to her elbows. She's let her black hair down, and in her tense wait she's braided parts of it. She has a Galleon hanging from a black cord around her neck [let them think she was part of the Army this whole time] and she thinks if she saw herself now she would describe herself as a warrior queen. No wonder they don't know her.

Ten minutes later and the Ravenclaws are still trying to figure out what's going on. She sees the lights go on in their eyes when the banging on the door starts. She sees their horror when they realise that the Carrows are coming for her and that there is nothing they can do about it. They try to break through the wall, but she's done her work well. They are braver than people think, she knows, and many of them would defend her to their dying breath. That's why she had to make sure they couldn't [because while she is ready to die, they are not]. She takes a deep breath, stands up, and opens the door to the Carrows [to Death].

It takes them two weeks to turn off her music. They keep her in the dungeons during that time, and while she is there the Army attempts to break her out eleven times. She's touched that they value her that much, but as she explains in the many letters the house elves deliver for her, she would prefer them to devote their time and energy to a more worthwhile venture. They ignore her and keep trying, but she is too well guarded. Voldemort plans to make an example of her [he's terribly predictable] and the last thing he wants is for her to escape.

They finally do something with her a week before the Easter holidays. They bring her to the Ministry and hold a ridiculous trial, find her guilty of treason and sentence her to death. They tell her she is to be executed the next day at dawn but refuse to tell her how. For the first time she feels afraid. She does not fear her death [she's known it was coming for too long to be afraid] but she is afraid that it will hurt. For the first time she realises that they will not let her die easily.

They bring her back to Hogwarts for the night and she writes a letter to Ginny Weasley, telling her all about the trial. She asks her to put it with the journals and to write about her execution as well, to complete the record of Catelyn Maguire's short life. She tells her that she does not regret what she did, only that she did not do more. Ginny writes back and promises that she will never be forgotten, that she is a hero and will be remembered as such, and that her clockwork machines will have a place in the world they will create. Ginny tells her that her music gave everyone hope, and that she has done enough. Ginny tells her that she wishes they could have known each other, that she's sure they would have been good friends [that's a lie if she's ever heard one, but it's a nice sentiment]. Ginny tells her that the students were ordered to be in the main courtyard by dawn. That she won't be alone when she dies. Ginny promises that the Army won't do anything unless she wants them to, but she wishes Catherine would let them save her. She writes back and says that if they risk their lives trying to save her she will never forgive them, that they will make her sacrifice worthless. Ginny's reply is to turn the music back on [that girl is very clever]. The Carrows know how to get rid of it now, so it only lasts a few hours, but it does what it was intended to do. It gives her hope.

Dawn approaches and she is manhandled into the main courtyard. She finally realises what they intend to do to her. She can't help but pull away as she takes in the sight of the pyre that awaits her. They're going to burn her. Unbelievable. She catches Ginny's eye and shakes her head. She has not changed her mind. She will not let all her work be for nothing. She notes the conspicuous absence of the teachers and wonders where they are [probably spelled out of the way so that they could not try to save her]. They tie her to the stake and ask if she has any last words. She allows herself one last quote from the stories that sustained her and gave her entire universes to explore and shouts, "Vive la Revolution!" Then they light the pyre and she knows without a doubt that her life is over now. The short story of Catelyn Maguire ends here. She will never fall in love, she will never marry, she will never have children. She will never change the world. She will simply die here, in front of the people who ignored her all her life and who will [most likely] not grieve for her, only for another ally lost, another child killed in this damned war. So she takes a deep breath. And she sings.

I have no idea why I wrote this, or what is, but I like it. Imagine her hair to be kind of like Nimueh's (Merlin).

I own nothing.

I hope you don't completely hate it.

Martha