Hola everybody! Here is my response to JPLE's As Life Flashes Before Your Eyes Competition. :) I love all my friends at the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges Forum. Anyways, my character was Nymphadora Tonks, and the challenge was to write about a character's life flashing before their eyes. Hope you enjoy!
She wonders, as she reaches for his hand, when she'll touch him next. If she'll ever get another chance.
Because this is a battle and this is war and she knows at the end of the day there will be many less souls wandering across this earth. And it's not much, but all she can do is hope and pray that he'll survive.
She's never been much for hoping.
How could she be hopeful?
No, she's realistic, and she's always been that way.
As the swarm of enemies begins to engulf the castle, she remembers the child she was in a world long ago.
Because it is so long ago, so, so long ago.
The memories crash over her like a waterfall, almost toppling her with their impact, flashing, flashing, flashing…
The noise of the world had always drowned her thoughts almost out of her head. When she was little the noise made her think that something was wrong – with her parents. That something wasn't quite right – not that she cared much.
And then she understood and she realized that what the entire world said was wrong wasn't wrong. Love was love was love – between Muggles, purebloods, Muggleborns, halfbloods, all of them – love is love is love – even though she doesn't have much faith in ever being loved.
That's when she realized how delicate the world is – as fragile as a glass ballerina.
And then she flashes to the time when she first met Remus and she knows she shouldn't feel that way about a much older man – much less a werewolf – because that would disrupt the fragile balance of something as softly, quietly breakable as an intricate glass snowflake.
But she's never been one to walk on the lines – she's always been ready to step off of the edge – and she does it, she convinces him.
She knows she'd follow him forever – and she does. She marries him, she follows his beliefs, she bears his child, she follows him to a battle because she loves him.
As she swerves through the battle, she can't help feeling disconnected from all of it.
Because she just keeps flashing – flashing – flashing, and the divide between reality and her memories is as thin and brittle as a glass ribbon.
She curses at herself, because she's not usually this sentimental, but as she fights alongside Remus, as they battle an enemy they both know is more than a match for them, she remembers Teddy's turquoise hair and his crooked smile – just like Remus's – and she knows their balance-tipping family is as crushable as a blown glass heart.
She can almost hear the Avada Kedavra through her flashes – and she can hear the glass behind her and Remus shattering.
They say when you die, all of your memories – your entire life – flashes before your eyes.
And as her life flashes before her eyes, and she feels his hand on hers for the last time, she knows that all glass shatters eventually.
So what did you think? Review and tell me how you felt about it! Love always, Lily