AN: This is my submission for the first round of the Last Man Standing Competition on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges forum. My prompt was to write a Fabian & Gideon death!fic inspired by the T.S. Elliot poem The Hollow Men.

None of these characters belong to me, they are not mine.

He was cold. Not as cold as Gideon would have believed being dead would be, but it was still a bit nippy. More like the first cool wind of winter wrapping itself around him. Perhaps he should have allowed Molly to wrap him in his cloak tonight despite how cumbersome it was in battle. You're dead, ya Hufflepuff, he thought to himself. Not like another layer would have helped much. The young man let out a huff, noticing he could no longer see his breath.

Death was nothing like Gideon had pictured it. There was no bright light, no gates of gold, certainly no pretty girls with wings singing to him. Instead it was like watching a movie, with himself in the picture. The world was just going on around him without a care. He actually didn't even notice what had happened to him at first. However, the more minutes ticked by, the fuzzier his memories became surrounding his death.

He remembered fighting in a field not too far away from the muggle town he was assigned to keep watch on. He remembered keeping back to back with Fabian, completely surrounded by Death Eaters. Their faces were a blur, like someone had spilled water on a drawing. Determined words were exchanged between himself and his brother, and then all hell broke loose. He lost track of Fabian quickly as they were both blasted in different directions.

Pain. Overwhelming pain bore down on him from a smeared dark blob that seemed to hover in mid air. Multicolored lights flashing back and forth lit up the nearby trees as blood curdling screams filled his ears. Gideon had the feeling in the pit of his stomach that those screams were his own. He could feel something warm running down his face, but the pain was too much for him. He could feel this strength being drained as his body struggled to breath. His fingers went numb, his limbs too heavy to move about. One more glance up as he tried to focus only revealed a pearly white smile that seemed to widen as his vision blurred.

Then it faded to black.

Gideon awoke what only felt like a moment later. The pain was gone, he could move his limbs once again, and the smiling blob had left, leaving his vision restored. He jumped up quickly, ready to join the battle once more. Pulling his wand out of his cloak, he rushed toward the circle of figures hovering over who he assumed was Fabian. Casting several hexes in succession, he slowed himself when not a shot hit their intended targets and no attention was paid to him. He sent off another one directly at a smaller cloaked figure, only to have it dissipate soon after leaving his wand.

Deciding he must have broken his wand somehow, the red head tossed it to the side and charged the figure, ready to pound his fists right into it. His body, however, went straight through them, the surprise causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. How can this be?! He could not understand what had happened. It must have been a curse. Trying to think of any spell that could render its victim a specter, he got up and wandered back to where he had first fallen, hoping for some clue. What he found made his heart drop.

A crumbled broken body lay motionless where he had been attacked, his wand just out of the man's reach. My reach.

Patting down his robes franticlly, Gideon took hold of the slender wooden rod he'd had most of his life, finding it where he always kept it. He crouched over his bloodied body and started casting every healing spell he could think of, each dissipating before ever reaching their target. His movements turned frantic, tears running down his face as the situation at hand finally sunk in.

He was dead. The Death Eaters had gotten him. He failed his mission.

He lost track of how long he sat in that field, worrying over the safety of his family, musing over death and what it held for him, trying to block out the noises of the group behind him. He could only hope Fabian was stronger than him, that he would be able to hold out long enough for help to arrive. Perhaps there would still be some hope if the Order didn't lose both of them tonight.

Gideon was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the man walking up behind him until a gentle hand took hold of his shoulder. Startled by the sudden contact, he whipped his head about. Fabian slowly came to sit down next to his broken twin, a soft smile and tear filled eyes not giving him much comfort. Gideon couldn't hold back his loud sobs as re pulled his brother close and cried into his shirt.

"Shhh," Fabian murmured, wrapping his arms around his brother's shaking body, "we've still got each other. Everything will be alright now." His own tears slid down his cheeks as they stayed huddled together, waiting for the help that came too late.