I Wish

There was screaming, shouting, and people rushing about. His feet were padding against the cold stone as he walked past the frantic members of both sides. Everyone had on different expressions of pain; from a grimace, to a scream of agony, each persons' pain coming from a different place. He watched as spells flew passed. He didn't even flinch as one flew right through the centre of his chest – he knew they couldn't hurt him. He walked for a while, watching the people around him fight for their existence and die for what they believed in.

He knew the story, of course. He had been told it when he was young, like a fairytale. There were handsome knights and princesses fighting along side them. There were witches and wizards, and there were people made of shadow and death. He searched the halls but found it hard to focus on one specific thing, as everyone was moving too fast. There was an explosion a floor above, and rubble showered down the side of the castle. I wondered what happened there? He thought to himself. He found himself wandering back outside, down the front steps which were already covering in blood, rubble, and a body or two.

Then finally his eyes landed on what they had been searching for: He was standing there with his wand arm outstretched, a look of grim determination on his face. There was a large scar running down the side of his face and his sandy hair was far too long. His eyes were what really got the boy, they were so familiar, so warm – they were his. Against the mans' back a woman had herself pressed. Her body screamed exhaustion and her eyes had bags under them. She had tied back her mousy brown hair, to keep it from her face. They were staring down a death eater, whose face looked to be made of death. Each time either flicked their wands, the other responded faster than thought possible. Then there was a shout from behind them and both turned to look. The man's eyes widened, while his companions hair shifted to a sickly shade of purple, fear crawling across her features.

There was a woman standing snarling at them, flanked by a few more death eaters. She looked at the woman and spat something at her about 'family' before she raised her wand. Everyone raised their wands in response and sent spells flying, each of them ricocheting if they failed to hit their mark. The couple looked worried; they were surrounded and their breaths were coming out in pants as they deflected spell after spell.

Everything suddenly happened in slow motion. There was a flash of pure green light, the kind that sends a sickening feeling all the way through you until it settles in your stomach – in your bones. There was a scream as the woman launched herself at the man, their eyes connecting for just a moment before the light fades from one side. He held her as she collapsed to the ground in front of him, her chest still. His eyes, so similar to the watching boys' own, were suddenly alight with flame as his head whipped around, ripping them from her still face and to the death eaters only meters away. It was obvious who had been responsible for the spell, as Bellatrix stood cackling across the courtyard. Three of the death eaters around her had been engulfed in the piercing green light before they knew what was happening. The others just stared, unable to react as the man surged toward them.

Then he stopped. His foot was still in the air, mid-step, as he halted all movement. His eyes were wide and then peace seemed to contort his features as he dropped to the ground, the green shimmering light fading around him. Standing behind the place where the man had just occupied, completely forgotten behind the onlooking boy, Antonin Dolohov stood. His lips twisted across his face in a sickening grin. Bellatrix then barked some instructions to the remaining death eaters and stormed off, firing spell after spell. Everyone dispersed leaving the courtyard suddenly empty, quiet, devoid of anything but the two bodies strewn across the ground. The 'good guys' had gone to avenge their fallen friends, the 'bad' had gone to wreak more havoc.

Teddy walked across the courtyard, his heart beating fast as he looked down at the bodies sprawled beneath him. He wanted to cry out, he wanted to scream. But he didn't. He didn't know these people, he didn't feel the hole they left when they died. He wished he did, he wished that their deaths were more than an unfortunate back-story that made him unique when he introduced himself as Edward Lupin, son of two martyrs of the Wizarding War.

He bent down next to the woman, her hair faded into a dull grey. Her eyes were empty as she stared at nothing. Next he looked at the man, who had been 'the strongest through the hardest times'. He had heard so much from his godfather, that he had expected more – the man before him looked weak, tired and fragile – there was no longer anything in him... just the skin and bones of a warrior. The was a gut wrenching scream from behind him, and Teddy turned to look. He knew that face, it was younger, but he knew it. Ginny ran forward and dropped to her knees beside the pair. Uselessly shaking the shoulders of the immobile witch before her. She was pleading for the woman to wake, to open her eyes. She was talking about someone who needed her, who needed them. Who is she talking about? Ginny's cheeks were streaked with tears as she recklessly mourned her friend in the middle of a battle field. She was whispering a plead for them to 'get up! Get up and fight. Fight and live to see your son grow up in a happy world!'

Oh.

A prayer left her lips as arms wrapped around her waist. She was being dragged away from the bodies as spells began to hit the ground around her. Ginny weeped into the shoulder of the man carrying her, his argyle sweater covered in different shades of sickly blood. He whispered to her that everything would be fine, that they were at peace now. Peace? Is that what they left me for?

He watched her as she was carried away, then looked back to the bodies on the ground. His heart hurt for the woman who was as mother as he could find – hurt as she wept for the people who he'd never known, who were supposed to mean the most. He gave a loud Gasp! as he was ripped from the dream, his forehead slick with sweat.

He sat in his bed and, reaching for his wand, he lit the room. He didn't know what caused the dream, and his heart ached with pressure and his brain strained to understand, to remember it. The dream was slowly fading from him, and by morning it would be just a rough night sleep. But, while he had stood there with his eyes trained on his parents, he had cursed them for dying and wished with all his heart that he cared they did. He wanted them to be there, but nothing he could wish would change that. So he had to wait until his dreams brought him to them again.

A/N: Words – 1,250

Choc Frog – (Bonus) Teddy Lupin

Herbology - "Write about parents..."