Author's Note: I don't often listen to The Fray when I write, but when I do it gets angsty as fuck. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.
Warnings: Canon character deaths
Stacked with: MC4A; Shipping War; Eternal Rhapsody; Summer Bingo; Remains of War
Individual Challenge(s): Cracked Facade; Gryffindor MC; Hufflepuff MC; Rainbow Focus; Tissue Warning; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes and Things A (Death); Themes and Things B (Deception); Ethnic and Present; True Colours; Rian-Russo Inversion; Flags and Ribbons (Y); Letter of the Day; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux
Representation(s): Battle of Hogwarts
Bonus challenge(s): A Long Dog; Larger than Life; Second Verse (Odd Feathers); Chorus (Middle Name)
Tertiary bonus challenge: NA
Word Count: 1665
Shipping Wars
Ship (Team): Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin (Technicolour Moon)
List (Prompt): Summer Medium 1 (Death/dying)
Summer Bingo
(Prompt): 1B (Hike)
Wigtown Wanderers, Chaser 2
Prompt: Mistaken Identity
Additional prompts: [Word] starlight, [Emotion] Disappointment, [Dialogue] "How are you okay with this? I can hardly believe it myself."
Word count: 1426
You Found Me
I found God on the corner of First in Amistad
Where the west was all but won
All alone
Smoking his last cigarette
I said where you been?
He said, ask anything
-You Found Me, The Fray
"I don't know what anybody would be doing so far out here," Robards told Kingsley quietly.
He and Giwain, the disgraced Head Auror who had just defaulted to their ranks, were nearing the edge of the Forbidden Forest now. If he listened closely and hushed the roaring in his head, Kingsley could hear the rippling of the lake. Otherwise, there was the starlight pouring down from above to be thankful for. The rest of this night was dark and grim.
"I don't know, either," Kingsley admitted. "But the chaos that broke out… it was worse than we'd expected it would be, Robards. The fighting spread out far, and there were creatures coming out of the… If someone fell here, I wouldn't want us to miss them."
They circled back towards the castle.
"I want to walk up the East side of the castle," Kingsley said. "Lots of fighting along the walls there, late in the night. I can do it on my own; you should circle back to the castle, help whoever's left organize for a second round of combat."
"Like hell I'm leaving you alone, Shacklebolt," Robards sneered. "Mad-Eye would turn in his grave if we left each other in a mess like this. Bad enough you've been underground so long..."
"I'll be fine, and so will Mad-Eye. I think the Dark Lord was honest when he offered up a cease-fire," Kingsley said. "At least for now. I'll just finish looking at the edge of the woods. Otherwise, you're more useful organizing the other insurgent Aurors and helping to slot them into whatever the Order and Dumbledore's Army have got planned. Hestia, Dedalus, and Tonks are around and they've already got a foot in the resistance, they'll help."
Robards hesitated. "You'll be okay on your own?"
"Promise. If I get scared of the dark, I'll shoot up red sparks and you can come hold my hand."
Robards snickered and then paused. "How are you okay with this? I can hardly believe it myself."
"With what?" Kingsley asked. "With the battle? With the Order falling? With the fact that school children are helping us win a fight we should have stopped before it even reached them?"
Robards nodded, gravely. "I've kept my nose out of the resistance to avoid suspicion, to try and stay put in the Auror department and keep us from getting overrun by Death Eaters. But these are your friends, your people. I can't imagine how…"
"I'm not, Robards. But there's no use in not being okay about it now, when we still have a chance to make it through."
Robards sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"I'll go, try and make sure we're prepared enough to get to that other side of yours. Cheers, Shacklebolt. I'm glad to see you again."
"Me too," Kingsley said. They bumped their fists together, and Robards trudged back towards the castle.
Kingsley continued. Just as he was about to admit that he really pushed the limits, that nobody would be there, he saw a slumped-over figure hidden underneath the fallen beams that had once held up the Eastern pavillion's entrance. He saw dark clothes and a pale hand.
"I knew it," he whispered to nobody. "I knew it."
He ran to the body, but as he knelt by the woman he knew that it was too late. She was gone, whoever she was. He didn't recognize her right away; he had never seen her set of features before. He scanned her face by wandlight, trying to recognize her. Straight nose, heart-shaped face, strong eyebrows, long and thin lips, prominent cheekbones, dark hair soft to the touch…
He was disappointed in himself. No, he didn't know her. He'd helped Remus organize the bulk of the fighters as they'd poured in, how had he failed to catch her name?
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry, but we'll… we'll find out who you are, I promise. We'll make sure you're remembered."
Who had she come with? How would they tell her family what had happened when all was said and done? She may have been one of the students who had stayed behind. She was no Death Eater, that he knew from the lack of marks on her arms.
"I'm so glad I found you," Kingsley said quietly, checking the pockets of her cloak to see if she had any identification on her. All he found was a wedding ring, so he supposed she may not have been a student after all.
She bore no serious wound, save for some scrapes and bruises—nothing that could explain her death, anyways. Kingsley came to the conclusion that she'd been hit with a killing spell. From the way she'd fallen, she also must have been hit in the back.
"Wand," Kingsley hummed to himself. "Where's your wand, that'll help… Accio wand."
A wand that had rolled away and gotten trapped under some debris flew to Kingsley's hand. He didn't pay too much attention to its wood or carvings, he simply hoped that it would be enough for someone later to help. Maybe they'd be able to see what the last few spells that had been cast were, and they would be able to piece together what had happened to her.
He tucked the wand into the belt of the woman's skirt so that they didn't lose it on their way back to the castle. He folded the woman's arms onto her chest, and her hand must have brushed it. The wand spat out sparks jarringly, as if it was being jump started, startling Kingsley.
The woman's features hardened. Freckles sprouted across her skin. Her eyebrows lowered just the smallest bit. A birthmark at the corner of her lips disappeared. The woman's hair was shorter, too. And then there was the most obvious tell: it turned bright, bubblegum pink.
Kingsley had already stumbled back, but he wished he could get further yet.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "No… No, fuck, it can't be you. You weren't here. You weren't fighting…"
But the shape didn't change. It stayed in the form Dora preferred, that of the Dora he knew.
"What were you even doing here? Fuck, fuck…"
But there she was. And when he looked at her with the few tweaks she made to her appearance daily… he should have known.
"How did I not recognize you?" Kingsley whispered. "How did…"
He buried his face in his hands and drew a long, shaky breath. When he looked up again, he had half a mind to pull the wand from her hand to let the facade drop again.
"You just had a baby, you just got married, and we had an Auror's Office to reform together," Kingsley said. Only the starlight heard him and he knew, so he left it at a sigh and bitten back tears.
He carefully picked her up, one hand under her knees and one under her shoulder blades. She felt broken in his arms—who on Earth had she been fighting?
He stood up slowly, trying to be careful and delicate even if it didn't entirely matter now, and sighed. He dreaded his walk back to the Great Hall where they had installed a temporary field hospital. He dreaded the faces of the people who had known Tonks recognizing her and registering her death, and he had no idea what he was going to tell Remus, or Andromeda, or this baby he hadn't even met… Oh God, what would he tell Remus? Remus who had finally decided to be happy, Remus who knew this woman like the back of his hand and would have recognized her in any form and colour…
He looked down at Tonks. Even now that she bore the face he'd seen day-to-day, she looked so unlike herself when she was still and quiet. Perhaps that was why he hadn't known it was her.
He lowered himself back to the ground and felt the tears stinging his eyes. The others—they couldn't see this, they couldn't see him falling to pieces like this, he couldn't be showing just how bad the situation was, just how hurt they were…
"I'll…." Kingsley took a deep breath. "Give me a second, Tonks. You get it."
She didn't answer and all he knew was that he was definitely, most certainly, not okay with this.