fire and ice (we will rise from the ashes)
Disclaimer: As much as I'd like to, I do not own the Harry Potter series.
Written for: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) — prompts at the bottom!
Word Count: 1252
They run, because that is all they can do.
The mass of decay and despair reeks throughout the deserted city, but the sky above them threatens to unleash a torrent of tears upon their weak and underfed bodies, so they seek shelter in the most habitable building they can find.
The night is unforgiving, and even Luna can't spot any constellations with her usually sharp eyes.
The group huddles in a corner, their bodies emitting heat that radiates between one another. Their fingers are numb, their faces cut and frozen from exposure to the harsh, freezing-cold winds rushing through the bleak desert.
The ground is covered in a thin layer of moss, encrusted in a sheet of frost that spreads throughout the entire chamber.
The walls are damp. Mould grows in every corner, and there is a substance splattered across the room that resembles blood in the most morbid way.
There is a shadowed corner across from them, in which an unmoving figure lies, open-mouthed, a look of terror still spread across the pale, cracked face.
Padma feels sick.
She stares out a half-open window, which gives way to a view of desolate buildings and, far beyond that, a whirling haze of fire and dust. The skyscrapers of the city highlighting the horizon spike up into the sky, their tips shrouded in a dark, red light. She can see the centre of the infernal place — a pulsing, throbbing, deep orange ball of energy that she knows serves as the gateway between their world and theirs. Even now, from such a distance, she can almost see the crawling shadows, their spiked tails and curved claws rising out of the mist. She knows that is where they are spawned, the foul monsters that have wrecked and ravaged their planet, their home.
/
A feeling of pure hatred rises up from deep within her.
The landscape laid out before her is not dissimilar to that of depictions she has seen of Hell.
/
The black sky shakes with a loud flash of bright light, blinding her momentarily. Then another. It takes her a moment, but she realises that is a warning. And as she stares out the window, her stomach a pit of dread, her dark eyes can just make out what she already knows is there — the mass of robotic figures, slowly making their way towards them, towards her.
"They're coming," she whispers, hoarsely, her mouth already dry.
Her sister comes up behind her, distress plastered across her face. Gripping each other's hands, they wait in silence as the rest of their party take in the inevitability of their situation.
Neville is the first to react, leaping over to the window and then retreating slowly backwards with a grim expression.
It is the mark of true courage when he proceeds to grab the long spears they have accumulated throughout their journey, and heads straight for the open doorway, from which the battered staircase outside the room leads down to an open cavity, where a wall once used to stand.
Padma's girlfriend gently places a hand on her shoulder, causing her to startle and look up.
The fierceness of the love Padma holds in her heart for this girl, this brave, brave girl, surges through her all at once, and all she can think is I will protect her.
The blonde says nothing, simply looking at her counterpart with slight puzzlement in her eyes, but with the same ferocity that Padma can see reflects her own expression.
Then she smiles, sadly, her sky-blue eyes filled with an ethereal glow that reassures the brunette in the strangest way.
"It's going to be okay, you know," she says, gazing out at the invisible stars with a placid expression.
She turns her head, her long mane of hair swishing gently in the breeze.
"We'll make it through this, together. I promise."
Padma remains silent. She lost hope after the very first day.
The weeks that came after the first attacks — she spent them huddled in a dark corner of her room, wishing and wishing that they could just go back.
But it was Luna who pushed her through it, Luna who had always convinced her to keep fighting.
And it is Luna who, now, gently coaxes her up from her hunched position on the ground.
She is the strongest person Padma has ever seen.
Her quiet yet fierce determination is, perhaps, what she loves most about her.
And so Padma stands, breathing in, and takes her place in between the two people she loves most: her sister, and her soulmate.
And it begins.
The first wave of creatures comes tearing into the building like a pack of wild hyenas, and they hear Neville's scream of frustration as his spear misses.
And the silence that follows.
There is a single moment, where they are all looking at each other — Parvati, Lavender, Luna, Hannah, Susan, Ernie, Terry, Cho, and Padma — in which time seems to stop, and they are together, they are together, and they have lived together, and they will fight together, and if they die together, at least they would have found peace surrounded by those who have been with them from the very beginning.
Padma's heart hurts more than she ever could have imagined.
But then they are thrust into battle, as so many innocents are, and they are forced to fight for their goddamn lives.
She sees it before Luna does.
Its open jaw oozing saliva, its eyes a piercing red, its mouth turned upwards in a snarl — but what horrifies her more than anything else is the resemblance it bears to humans.
The fact that she has never seen one this close is the only thing her brain registers, as she stands there, paralysed with fear.
It makes its way towards her, towards her friends, and then — passes her?
Because it has established a bigger, better goal.
Luna stands at the opposite end of the room, watching the window as the creatures make their way up the rusted ladder attached to the outside wall.
Her hair floats around her like a halo, seemingly defying gravity as it drifts lazily across her back. The heavenly image it strikes, against a backdrop of fire and ashes, cause a hysterical bubble of laughter to surge from Padma's stomach. But she stops herself.
(A lone angel, lost in a desolate world consumed by despair and the ravages of power-hungry domination.)
She watches, her eyes wide with realisation, as the thing stalks towards the love of her life, one clawed hand poised above its grinning face.
And suddenly she is running, running faster than she ever has in her life, but she isn't going to make it, and she isn't going to make it, and she isn't going to -
She makes it.
The sharpness of the claw passes through her body in a swift motion, and it is so quick she barely even registers the pain.
She stands still, for a moment, before slumping to the ground, and she is in the arms of the woman she loves, and the woman is asking her what on earth she thinks she has done, but it does not matter, because she is still alive, and Padma has saved her, she has protected her, and it is a final feeling of contentment that rushes through her body, of relief and love and love and love, before the light dims within her eyes.
At long last, she has found peace.
Prompts:
365 Prompts: 16. (AU) Apocalypse!AU
Insane House: 83. (Pairing) Padma/Luna
Resolutions: 9. write an AU you've never written before, 10. write a pairing you've never written before, 32. write something hurt/comfort
Forty Days: No-based — 9. No canon locations
Scavenger:
Serpent Day: 8. Bird Snake (character) Padma Patil
Play More Cards: 4. Rummy — write a slash/femslash pairing
Femslash February: 5. Padma/Luna
Writing Club:
- Character Appreciation: 13. (trait) loyal
- Showtime: 14. I'm Not That Girl (reprise) — (word) wishing
- Days of the Month: Pluto Day: write about someone who is often overlooked or forgotten (Padma)
- A Year in Entertainment: book: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult - (relationship) sisters
- Liza's Loves: Apocalypse Now — write an Apocalypse AU (BONUS)