Killing me softly

Think this is another Harry creature fic? Bit of angst and drama, then a romantic mate and creature union? - Think again. The Dark lord is rising, his powers grow ever stronger, Harry's time is coming, but his power alone isn't enough. Can his inheritance help him? Prepare for sacrifice.

Takes place in his last year

Warnings-

SS/HP + hints of DM-HP pairing – if you don't like that pairing then this likely isn't the fic for you. Don't like it – don't read it.

Character death

Chapter 12

Despite his best efforts, Harry could not get Sarah Stevenson out of his head. They had both lost their parents to Voldermort, and yet Harry knew that if he knew of a way in which he could rid the world of Voldermort without the loss of any other soul – Deatheater or not - he would take it. Sarah on the other hand seemed utterly lost to her rage. She not only despised, understandably Lucius, in much the same way Harry loathed Bellatrix. But unlike Harry, she seemed quite prepared to hurt if not Lucius himself, than those close to him. She had had no qualms about killing Draco – that made him and her very different... There had to be a reason and he simply had to find out. Thus armed with his ever faithful map and cloak he set out...To the seventh floor, Harry briefly wondered what it was about that floor and the West Tower that attracted the holding of prisoners - First Sirius and now Sarah...

Held down, restrained firmly by heavy chains, inside a barred cell, with only the moonlight for illumination Sarah Stevenson cut a very lonely figure. Her blonde hair looked painfully knotted now, her body hung limply as if any energy her fragile body ever may have possessed had been deliberately and decisively been sucked out of her. Harry removed his cloak, the slight rustling of the material caught Sarah's attention and all of a sudden her blue eyes locked onto his green ones.

They were full of despair.

"H-Harry?"

Her voice was a meek sounding whisper, nothing like the menacing tones she had used on Draco. Feeling obligated, Harry tilted his head in acknowledgement.

"Professor"

Sarah snorted. The ends of her hair swung slightly, and with mirth in her eyes corrected him.

"I can hardly still be viewed as your Professor now Harry..."

Harry stared at her coldly, not in the least bit amused.

"He almost killed you, "

Harry began, his tone level and with effort his gaze, detached.

"You almost got a man sent to Askaban or worse, and a student murdered for a crime they didn't commit."

The mention of Snape and Malfoy appeared to breathe new life into Sarah and she tried to lunge closer to the bars. But her chains maintained their cold hold, rattling with her fruitless exertions.

"Bastards! Both of them!"

Harry looked at her searchingly, moving closer towards the bars.

"The ministry has already been contacted, this time tomorrow you'll have already been kissed."

Not a single flicker of fear passed through her pretty eyes, she accepted her grisly fate with air of dignity and quiet resignation.

"I failed my parent's" She stated simply. "I deserve nothing more"

Harry looked at her completely thrown.

"You really don't care do you? You had Malfoy literally begging you for mercy and you still would have killed him..."

Sarah looked at him desperately, looking for the time since he had seen her distressed. Her desire for him to understand was so strong, Harry almost felt, looking at her, like he should.

"Lucius killed my parents! He ruined my life! Voldermort killed yours, gave you this... This nightmare for a life! When you face Deatheaters, when you fight and defeat them don't you feel it?"

Her eyes were beginning to look psychotic again, eerily gleaming an inflorescent blue in the moonlight.

"That sense of obligation being fulfilled? You fight Deatheaters, I chose his conceited smug son instead. We're are not so different you and I"

Harry looked at her in open disgust.

"I'm nothing like you, I don't feel fulfilled. It's a huge waste"

Sarah smirked disbelievingly, and the maniac look that had grown in her eyes faded and her entire face softened.

"Come on Harry, there's no need to hide here. We both know I've got no one to tell, you can be completely be honest for once Harry. It's just you and me"

Harry stared into her remarkably open eyes for a moment before he pulled his gaze away, pacing up and down the front side of her bars.

"Last year Voldermort sent me a vision, the scar on my forehead it's a link. A link between me and Voldermort. Last year I started reaching his thoughts... He realised this eventually of course, and I've never managed it since. Snape, he tried to help me, tried to teach me Occlumency – but I was too stubborn. I couldn't do it straight away so suddenly Snape was actually opening my mind for Voldermort even more... "

Harry shook his head, smiling ruefully at his own suspicions.

"Maybe if I had tried harder, I don't know, maybe Sirius might still be alive...-"

"Black?"

Sarah ventured her tone incredulous.

"Yes. Sirius Black, he was innocent. He was the only family I had left. I got another vision, a vision from Voldermort's mind... I saw him being tortured, my godfather being tortured from the man who had killed my parents... The thought that perhaps Voldermort would have wanted me to see it never even crossed my mind. I fled after him, to the Room of Requirement, the big heroic rescue!"

Harry's face twisted into a bitter smile, and he met Sarah's eyes.

"The order came after me naturally, because of me Sirius got into a fight with Bellatrix – He lost."

"I'm sorry"

It was strange Harry decided, hearing such heartfelt genuine sympathy in her voice. The woman currently in front of him was millions of miles away from the crazed maniac back in the potions lab.

"I hated her" Harry continued. "I really hated her, I think in that moment I hated her more than Voldermort... I wanted to destroy her. She kept laughing, jeering and taunting I wanted to hear her scream instead. I tried to crucio her, I've never told anyone this, but in that moment I enjoyed it. I heard her screams, saw her writhe on the ground in pain and I liked it."

Harry paused and Sarah was staring at him without any reproach. A silent acknowledgement of what he was confessing, a unsaid concession of understanding... A part of Harry felt relief at finally admitting out loud just how much torturing – however briefly- Bellatrix had affected him.

"Voldermort egged me on; I could hear him in my mind. He told me how much she deserved it, how she had killed Sirius, how she'd laughed"

Harry turned his gaze away from her then, staring into the darkness of the room.

"Harry..."

Sarah breathed out softly, her voice taking a soothing motherly quality. Harry wondered if perhaps she could have been, if only she had let go of her anger. She probably could have been a lot of things. He turned back towards her, his face critical now.

"It would have been so easy, so easy to just have given in. To have carried on and tortured her, killed her even, but then you already know that"

For the first time a glint passed through Sarah's eyes.

"Don't judge me. Not everyone can possess your inherently heroic strength of character"

"Bollocks!" Harry retorted angrily. "No matter what you did to Draco, you strike me as someone intelligent. You don't seriously believe that do you?"

Sarah turned her face away from him, rejecting him, but the exaggerated movement of her neck gave away her emotions. Harry watched from the side of her face that wasn't cast in shadow, her screw her face up with the clear intent on reigning her emotions in, before she turned back to face him. She looked tired again, her previous animation gone.

"Why did you come here Harry?"

Harry looked at her levelly.

"I wanted to understand, I wanted to know why you did it..."

Sarah shook her head softly, her eyes held a vaguely condescending emotion within them. Something Harry found hard to take from a mad woman hell bent on murdering a student.

"If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand"

She finally uttered softly, and feeling at last that his entire visit had been one gigantic waste of time and energy, without saying another word he turned to leave.

"Going to tell Draco?"

She called after him, her voice sounding defeated.

Harry slowly turned back round.

"Actually he already knows, he said he was your greatest punishment, said the fact that he lived was worse than anything they could do to you... I think he feels sorry for you."

Sarah wore an expression of anguish so absolute Harry found he couldn't bear to look at it for too long. She seemed to hang from her chains more than ever, as though any remaining life she had been clinging to was slowly being drained away.

"Just kill him Harry"

Harry looked at her questioningly for a moment, and a shadow of a smile graced her delicate features.

"Voldermort, Harry"

Harry looked deep into those blue eyes, eyes which now looked achingly human and young.

"I will"

He promised her. They were the last words Sarah Stevenson ever heard, and for the first time in a long while, Sarah felt at peace.

Thanks for reading, as ever eagerly awaiting your views, especially on the characterisation of Sarah and generally about the inclusion of her character

Regards

Lisi the slayer