Nobody knows how long the young witch was kneeling on the ground while the rain was relentlessly soaking her to the very skin. At a certain point her tears dried out, her voice failed her, so she was just sitting there, shaking with silent sobs.
Helios watched her sympathetically for a while, then took pity on her and reached out with a golden finger, caressing her face with a feather-light touch of a sunray. She turned her tear-stained face to the heavens and acknowledged the warm sunshine with a wry smile. Taking a deep breath, she stood and looked around, not really sure of what she was going to do next.
The first body she came across was that of a Death Eater; the eerie tattoo depicting a snake protruding from the eye-hole of a skull was still clearly visible on the left forearm of the young man. She cursed out loud and pointed her wand at the corpse, murmuring an incantation in a strange language which caused the body to incinerate and turn to ashes in a mere few minutes.
She pulled a quill and a piece of parchment from underneath her robe and directed her wand at the quill.
"Enunta mihi, quid es!" she pronounced clearly and resumed her pace, the quill and the parchment floating nearby. As she made her way though the clearing, she came across more and more bodies, scattered on the grass and one for one, she disposed of the Death Eathers' bodies the same way.
She recognized more and more faces from the times of her first Hogwarts visit; when she pointed her wand at the bodies, the quill scraped another name on the parchment. Suddenly, with a shriek, she recognized the handsome face belonging to Terry Boot among the dead. She didn't even have to instruct the quill, which, however, indifferently scraped down the name on the bottom of the ever-growing list of casualties.
Pale, bloodless, the boy lay there peacefully, his once vivid blue, now glassy eyes staring into the skies. The two tiny, swollen puncture wounds on his neck - the same spot she was once trailing with her soft, wet lips causing him to moan softly and shiver with excitement – told her that Terry had been attacked by a vampire. She sat down besides him in the dirt and pulled his head into her lap. Slowly, gently caressing his hair, she closed her eyes, recalling the night of the Yule Ball, only three years ago, a night she would never forget, and silently mourning this handsome young man, her first real love.
It was a beautiful December morning. The sun was shining brightly through the tall, richly decorated windows of the Great Hall and even the ceiling was enchanted to let the sunshine through. The Hogwarts hosts and the guest students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were having their breakfast. She was sitting at her usual spot at the Ravenclaw table, engaged in a conversation in rapid French with two other Beauxbaton seventh-years, her best friends, when she felt somebody's presence behind her back.
She turned around and smiled at the boy behind him. "Hi, Terry," she greeted him, waiting patiently. The boy flushed red and opened his mouth to answer, but he couldn't; he just stood there, marvelling her beauty with his mouth agape. Her two friends started giggling, but she cast a disapproving glance at them.
"Can I do something for you?" she repeated, looking into his deep blue eyes. The boy gulped once, then finally found his courage, although, she could clearly feel, he was extremely nervous.
"I wonder..." he started in a hoarse voice, and the whole Ravenclaw table drew closer to be able to catch his voice, "I wonder, Ms. Delacour, if you already have a date for the Yule ball."
A collective "Ahhhh" was heard and the other three houses all raised their heads, curious about what was to follow. Fleur, however, looked approvingly at the boy and shook her gorgeous hair.
"No, Mr. Boot," she laughed, "I haven't got a date yet. However, my name is Fleur and I do like my name, so I'd rather you call me Fleur as well, Terry." She shushed her friends again, an expectantly looked into his honest face again.
"In that case, Fleur, I would consider it a great honour if you'd allow me to accompany you to the Ball," the boy blurted out, flushing even redder, but seemingly relieved.
Fleur stood and took the boy's hand, eliciting a small shock from him. "In that case, Terry, I would consider it a great honour if you'd accompany me to the Ball," she answered simply, giving a short peck on the boy's face. She felt, rather sensed that his heart skipped a beat or two and reassuringly squeezed the hand she was still holding.
Terry drew a sharp breath and smiled at the beautiful young girl. "Thank you, Fleur. You've made me really happy." Collecting all his courage, he quickly kissed her back on her face, causing the Great Hall to bust out in loud cheering, then fled the hall.
"What?" Fleur snapped irritatedly, turning back to her friends."He IS a nice guy, besides, he's the best in his year. You'd better start looking for your own dates in case you don't want to turn into a wall flower." Not that that was a real danger, she smirked. The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were popular and had made quite a number of friends very soon after their arrival; the Hogwarts students were queuing up for them. Fleur, however, was different; she naturally attracted males due to her Veela origins, which, for one, she started to hate. Terry was the first boy being attracted to her and not to her Veela nature and Fleur really did appreciate this.
Before leaving the sunny France, the seventh-years had made a bet which of them would be bedded first and quite surprisingly Fleur didn't win. Halfway through the ball she was thoroughly enjoying, after a few dances with Terry she danced with other Hogwarts students as well. When the Wicked Sisters switched to a slow song, however, she was pleasantly surprised to see Terry thanking his last partner for the dance and making his way towards her and now it was her heart that skipped a beat. Politely rejecting a handsome sevent-year Slytherin, she met Terry halfway the Hall and snuggled into his firm hands, resting her head on his shoulder. They slowly moved around the dance floor, gently swaying at the rhythm of the music, holding each other tight, oblivious to anything and anybody else. When she, halfway the song, looked up into his beautiful eyes, her stomach fluttered and her knees went weak; she captured the boy's lips with hers without thinking, almost causing him a heart infarct. When he felt her soft, warm, moist tongue seeking entrance, however, he lost all inhibitions and eagerly granted admittance. Their tongues fought a fierce battle, their chests rising heavily;they didn't even realize that the slow song has ended and everybody around them was jumping around to a fast-paced song.
When they finally broke apart, flushed, out of breath, they looked into each others' eyes and started to speak.
"I..."
"I..."
They smiled at each other, overwhelmed by the lingering magic of the moment. Then Terry, reluctantly, let go of her, took her hand and took off, pulling her away from the crowd, trying to keep this small universe of theirs unscathed for a moment longer.
Unseen by the patrolling Professors, they entered an empty classroom and Terry flicked his wand, closing the door and applying an Imperturbable charm on it. Still breathing heavily, the two hungrily eyed each other. Then she caught his lips again in a fierce kiss, while her hands started working on his dress robe. With his trembling hands, Terry finally managed to pull down the flyer on her back and the magnificent dress, unsupported, fell around her ankles, revealing her magnificent body covered in nothing but a lacy knicker underneath. Their lips not parting for a second, they relieved each other from the last remaining pieces of garment, then Terry turned themselves around, effectively pinning her to the wall.
She pulled him even closer, wrapping her right leg around his waist and pressing herself against him. When he gently entered her, she moaned softly into his neck, delighted with the sensation. And then, there was nothing else, only the two of them, as time seemed to slow down and their ragged breaths came in unison with their heartbeats, until Heaven came down on Earth.
Breaking out of her reverie, Fleur wiped her eyes, sniffing loudly, and slowly stood up, gently laying Terry's head back on the ground. Closing his eyes, she kissed his cold, lifeless lips and murmured a few words of goodbye.
With her sharp senses, she felt the presence of the ancient wards around the castle which were still intact. Being married to a curse-breaker, her instincts told her not to tempt those wards, so she decided to walk around their perimeter, trying to find a way to get inside. A good ten minutes later, when the tingling in her scruff had subsided and she found herself at the magical dead zone – the breach in the wards - she found another victim of the massacre, someone very close to her heart, and her heart-breaking cry swept over the hillside once again.
"Bill, mon cher mari!"