For-
"I dare you..." challenge (GideonDorcas, angel wings)
Scattergories challenge (choice, confident)
Alpha and Omega challenge (low)
Mount Potter Competition (24/55, guarded)
i.
She goes through school guarded, keeping her head down and hoping it will help.
It doesn't. Dorcas still hears their taunts as she passes. However much she tries, however much she pretends, she still isn't good enough, pretty enough, smart enough to belong anywhere.
ii.
"Oi! Meadowes! I didn't know they let Squibs into Hogwarts!"
She plans to walk away, to lay low and fall back on her old familiar prayer that they will forget her and move on. But then he shows up.
"Watch it, Rosier," Gideon says, placing his hand on her shoulders. "Or I will personally hex you into next week."
The Slytherin hesitates. Maybe he could take Gideon, and Dorcas isn't much of a threat. But wherever Gideon is, Fabian is sure to be close behind, and few people are stupid enough to provoke both brothers together. Eyes shooting daggers at Dorcas, he stalks off, swearing darkly under his breath.
"You didn't have to do that," she mumbles.
Gideon grins with a shrug of his shoulders. "I know. But it's not often I get a chance to be a knight in shining armor."
As he walks away, Dorcas thinks that knight isn't the right word. He is an angel.
iii.
He rescues her more and more until he no longer has to. Dorcas becomes someone else entirely, some new, confident girl finally growing into her Gryffindor bravery.
"I never thanked you," she says as they linger outside Hogwarts for their final time.
Gideon raises his brows. "For what?"
Dorcas bites the inside of her cheek. She wonders if there are words to make him understand all the ways he's saved her over the years. Saved her from hurtful words. Saved her from her own self-loathing. Saved her from giving up.
Instead of answering, she stands on her tiptoes, kissing him gently. The old Dorcas would never have dared to do that. But Gideon's Dorcas does it so naturally.
When he pulls back, Gideon wears a lopsided grin, and a light pink flushes through his cheeks. "Dunno what I did," he murmurs, "but if that's how you repay me, I'll have to do it more often."
iv.
Gone. Gideon is gone. Now she imagines her angel with angel wings.
Molly clings to her, sobbing, and Dorcas tries to be strong for her even though she's breaking too.
"Gideon loved you," Molly whispers, her voice low and cracked, a pitiful sound that does not fit her.
Dorcas doesn't answer. It doesn't feel right to delight in those words when the woman has lost both brothers. In stead, she holds onto Molly, silent tears streaking her face.
v.
Her whole body trembles, and her heart races painfully in her chest. The Dark Lord himself has paid her a visit, and Dorcas is paralyzed behind the chair.
She decides that she has a choice. She can cower and run, or she can stand up and fight. Regardless of her decision, death seems to be the only outcome.
Dorcas knows what Gideon would have chosen.
Swallowing down her fear, Dorcas forces herself to her feet, her wand drawn. She barely registers the flash of green before the world drops dead.