[UNEDITED]

A/N: The Last Chapter. Battle cries fill the air where education should have prevailed...

I couldn't have waited more to write this one!

Poem at the beginning belongs to Dylan Thomas. Brackets indicate footnotes.

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In Memoriam

Chapter 7

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Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

In the melancholic atmosphere of Hogwarts, three people stand together, trying to support each other.

The funeral is completed and Albus Dumbledore is laid to rest forever. The moment the coffin is lowered into the hole of the land, Lilith knows that good times have truly ended. Colin holds her from behind and supports his chin upon her head. Dennis catches her hand as stubborn tears line her cheeks. She knows that Colin is crying too; she can feel a little bit of wetness on her forehead. At the end, he pulls her to him, gives a soft kiss on her forehead and whispers something that sounds like 'don't cry' to her but she isn't sure. The melancholy of sorrow is overpowering her other senses.

When the ceremony is over, he presses something into her hand, closes her fist over it, kisses her one last time, doesn't say goodbye and is off before she can even realise. When his silhouette has mixed with the clouds of the horizon, she unconsciously bends down her neck to see what he has thrust into her hands.

Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

It is a DA galleon.

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Months have passed since he last saw her. They're on the run - him and Dennis. They have been all over England - Wales, Cardiff, London, Cokeworth and millions of other places. They never cease to stop to rest. It's always open, cook, sleep and pack-up in a vicious cycle. They have somehow managed to send their parents out of the country - to Greece.

Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

It is nearly five in the morning and a blinding flash wakes up Dennis from his slumber. He sits up to see Colin holding his camera. He squints with irritation.

"Colin, are you mad? Your flash would attract snatchers from miles!"

"Shut up Deni! It doesn't matter. We can outrun those idiots any day."

"Oh, really? Getting cockey are we?" he mockingly challenges him. Before Colin can comprehend what is happening, Dennis has snatched the camera from his hands and clicked a picture of his. He tries to hide his messy hair and slightly unshaven face, but fails massively.

Dennis grins devilishly.

"Now that's a revenge! Your mess for my drool!"

- н -

She is distraught. Utterly distraught.

Lilith has been running around for an eternity and she is broken. She wants, no she needs someone to hold her shaken self. At school she had suspected that something had been seriously wrong when she had received no mail for the whole of June. She had repeatedly told herself that she was being far too paranoid. Told herself that she was worrying herself excessively, but somewhere she had known all along that she had been wrong to think that everything was fine.

The smell, oh God, the smell - it had been a dead giveaway. There had been no mistaking the disgusting snake and skull left in her home. She had ran like hell, and kept running and running and running until her feet had given way to tiredness and fatigue.

She is broken and she needs someone. Now, as she lies in a cheap hotel room, she wants someone to hold her and tell her that everything would be fine. To her that she and her friends would survive this brutality. Lilith buries her head in the pillow and cries her eyes out; remembering her mother, wanting someone - more specifically Colin to tell her to be strong and not give up. She fingers the galleon he has given her, wishing that somehow the little trinket would reunite them with each other. And in this moment, in this flood of tears, amidst a thousand shades of revenge, anger and sorrow, she knows that she loves him.

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It is the First of May today and they have managed to land themselves in a decent motel for the night. After months of running around, he feels extremely tired. Colin wants to rest and lie in a bed for days on an end. He is getting very, very frustated. In the middle of the evening, when he and Dennis are watching news, he feels his pocket getting hot and he instantly knows that the time to fight the war has come at last. He gets up quietly and goes to bathroom, trying to find a way to calm his nerves, trying to think of a way to tell his brother in a manner as peaceful as possible.

Colin spins away from the mirror, bracing both hands against the towel bar and closing his eyes to feel the still-surprising strength in his shoulders and arms as the muscles tense. "Come on, Creevey," he whispers desperately, "you can do this. Alexander the Great had already founded his first colony by your age, you can talk to Deni and keep your mouth shut about the shit at school. They're counting on you. They're all counting on you. Don't you dare let them down. Don't you dare let her down."

When he emerges, he finds that the television has been turned off and his little brother is peering at him.

"I had thought you had grown up gills in there. Are you fine?"

"Nah, Aquaman[1] sucks." he replies boldly. "I am fine." He keeps chanting his last statement over and again in his mind.

"No, you're not. Your eyebrow is doing that twitching thing it does when you're nervous."

"Okay, I give up." He throws up his arms in a surrendering gesture and inhales a deep breath. He needs it. "The DA has been summoned. I am going and you sure as hell aren't going to hold me back this time." he says as much calmly as he can manage.

"If you won't let me make you stay, then I am coming too!"

Colin sighs yet again. "No, you aren't, Deni. You aren't." he whispers and whips out his wand. "Petrificus Totalus!"

He petrifies him twice and ties him up for extra measure. Says a quiet apology to his frozen face but doesn't chant a goodbye. Dennis doesn't forgive him for a long time - not for tying him up, because he wouldn't have been his brother if he wouldn't have done that, but for not saying goodbye. Dennis doesn't forgive him for that for a long time.

Colin doesn't forget to grab his camera and little Beatrix's photo. Armed with them and his faithful wand, he heads to fight where a thousand would play out the fate of light and darkness.

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They stumble across each other in the forest and they immediately recognise each other's silhouettes in the semi darkness of the morning. The first thing she does she is to rush to him and hug him with all she has. She doesn't say anything, just holds him, thankful that she has found him at last. It is a moment that she would cherish for an eternity.

Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

"Let's pretend a war isn't going on." she whispers desperately in the folds of his shirt.

"Let's pretend that everything is calm." he whispers back, equally desperate.

"Let's pretend we are okay."

"Let's pretend there is no misery."

And so they pretend. They pretend all this on the leaf strewn, dusty ground and try to think that everything is fine and the world still holds glorious rays of sweet sunshine. Her breath hitches a little as he enters her and she clings on furiously - not being able to think that she could have to let go of him.

Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

Lilith Moon is no exception.

Colin Creevey isn't either.

"I love you." she whispers as they lay side by side. War doesn't give one the assurance of expressing something on a later date after all. Both of them know that.

"And I have always loved you."

He takes a photo of them - two people, one seventeen and the other just on the brink of begin seventeen reflect back in the lens, smiling one last smile before the battle.

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The air around them thrums with energy and cackles with power. It is war, not the DA or their duels in the corridors and therefore there are no second chances to win. There are only two kind of people on the field - the Quick and the Dead. So far they've managed to be the quick ones. They remain side by side hissing spells with such ferocity that at times, even suprises them.

People - both allies and enemies fall around them but they carry on, not trying to pay attention to the fallen. A classmate here, a distant acquaintance there; faces not quite forgotten but still distant and recognisable stare back at the pair with empty lifeless eyes. In the two hours they have fought till now, they feel the rush of adrenaline and the glare of a possibly dark future. Determined not to make the latter a reality, they defend their home with renewed vigour.

"Colin! What are you doing here? You're underage! Go back!" Neville yells.

"Sod it! This is my home and I - we," he points towards Lilith, "will protect it until the last of our breaths."

Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

Twice she saves him from a purple hex and thrice he saves her from nasty curses of various kinds.

It is the fourth time that things go awry.

Desperate people determined not to focus on the circumstances of their lives do strange things.

Colin sees the masked Death Eater hurling a spell towards her from a little backward glance. Even after the previous three times when she has told him to stop defending her, he jumps in front of her. The opponent is fast, too fast for him to create a shield.

Too fast. Tragically fast.

He gets hit with the Sectusempra meant for Lilith, but not before he attacks with his own Impediment Jinx. Both the enemies fall with a dull thud on the ground - death and exhaustion don't discriminate between purebloods and mudbloods. Numerous rivulets of blood spread across his shirt and in that moment she stops to hear all the battle going all around her, drops down and cradles his head.

She's too old to improvise and have any blessed attack of accidental magic but too young to just sit there and see life slipping out of him. She berates herself for not learning any of those healing spells and watches helplessly as life ebbs away from his pale face.

Through the curtain of her tears she sees his lips whisper a whisper for the last time.

"Do not...go gentle...into that good night," He heaves and wheezes. "Kick their arses for me. I love...you. " With that his eyes close on their own accord. A look of tranquillity spreads on his visage and in her mind she knows that he is gone. Gone. Gone. Gone - reunited with his Beatrix. Her minds knows it all but her heart refuses to acknowledge it. 'He's just fallen asleep. That's it. That's it.' her heart shouts out.

"Colin, don't you dare die on me!" she cries out over and again. "Don't you dare!"

She breaks down on the field and falls on his bloodied chest. Millions of tears escape her eyes and some ten minutes later when the battle halts, strong hands grip her arms and pull her away from him. Through her tears she barely makes out Neville and Oliver Wood carrying him away.

"No..."

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End of chapter notes:

I actually cried after writing this.

Footnotes:

[1] Aquaman: A cartoon that I particularly dislike.