you're flesh and blood, give it up, go

Disclaimer: All credit to JKR

Written For: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry – prompts at the bottom!

Word Count: 392


The green light consumes her like a blanket.

She does not know who casts the spell.

(She does not care.)

She is floating —

Up, up and away, and it shocks her, the mere feeling

(Of freedom, because she is free, and for the first time, the freedom is hers to take, hers to keep.)


(She drifts.)

She enters a place that shines with an ethereal glow of luminosity, a hazy light that fills the space around her.

And space becomes a simple concept, and she becomes a mere fragment of all that is, a tiny soul flying high amongst the thousands of other travelling individuals.

Because Death is a mere gateway, a point in the road to travel from one existence to another.

And the afterlife is not as she expected — instead of swallowing her whole, reducing her only to the weakest, innermost pieces of her core, it releases her, frees her from the burden of life — a life where she was forced to contain her true self, where she was barricaded from the rest of the world.

And as she floats, a new feeling takes over — pure, unadulterated bliss.

A dusty pink dawn rises above her, illuminating her surroundings, and for the first time, she sees the world in all its virtuous glory.


For a second, she is thrown back, plummeting down into the place she was always forced to call home.

But she is there and not there — she sees, she hears, but she is just a part of the air now, an unguided soul that drifts from one place to another.

And she examines the scene — her oldest brother, the gentle swaying of his auburn hair the only movement present in the still, still room; his lover, the blonde boy who had brought so much trauma into their lives; and her second brother, her Aberforth, the unwavering horror still etched into his young face. The wands are still gripped in each of the trio's hands; but they are immobile, eyes drawn only to the small figure situated amongst all the burning chaos.

Finally: her own body, lying motionless in the centre of the room, her blonde hair fanning out around her head like a halo.

And she smiles.

For others, Death may be an ending, but for Ariana, it is a beginning.


Prompts:

Assignment #10, Muggle Music, 2. It's Raining Men — The Weather Girls, task #2 (write about something happening for the first time)

National Photography Month: 1. Abstract Photography — use no dialogue whatsoever

Cocktail Corner: Pink Grapefruit (colour) pink, (emotion) bliss

Writing Club:

- Character Appreciation 30. (plot point) death in the family

- Disney Challenge: Songs 1. Circle of Life — write about someone finding their place in the world

- Book Club: Eddie (AU) Afterlife!AU, (word) nightmare, (word) forgiveness

- Showtime 2. The Bishop (colour) silver

- Emy's Emporium 16. Inter-family rivalries — write about a fight between siblings/cousins