So this is the last chapter, but there will be an epilogue, so stay tuned one more week.

Oh, and… sorry in advance.

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PART 5: Curse (Devotion to a Muggle)

Curses are the worst kind of dark magic; they affect the target in a strongly negative way.

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5.5 AVADA KEDAVRA

Avada Kedavra (the Killing Curse) is a spell used to kill an opponent.

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After Maddie had been in a coma for two months, even I started to lose hope. I clung to the sliver of hope that I did have, and I kept coming to see her, though not always every day. But I refused to give up.

Unfortunately, it seemed Mrs. Carpenter was losing hold on her hope quickly.

I saw her less and less as the weeks went on, though Bennet did continue to visit periodically, and I still had dinner with the pair once a week.

It was early on a sunny Monday morning when everything changed.

I was going to visit Maddie, as usual, but then my eye caught on a bunched up figure in the corner.

"Bennett?"

Maddie's brother was curled up in a chair, knees to his chest and arms curled around his knees. His head swiveled to look at me when I said his name, and I saw his eyes were red-rimmed from crying.

Suddenly I was on high-alert.

"What's going on?"

I glanced at Maddie's bed to ensure that she was still there, and she was. So then…

"She's signing the papers," he said. "My mom's signing the papers to take her off life support. She's just going to let Maddie die."

My heart nearly stopped at his words.

"When?" I demanded. "Now? Where is she?"

"Not now. Tonight. I'm supposed to be at school, but if… if this is the last time I see her…" Bennett dissolved into sobs.

I honestly felt like joining him, but I wasn't about to give in.

"I'm going to stop her," I said firmly. "I'll convince her."

I left the room and apparated directly to outside the door to the Carpenters' apartment.

I pounded on the door, and Mrs. Carpenter answered a few moments later, looking tired. There were dark circles under her eyes, and her shoulders sagged.

"You're taking Maddie off life support?" I asked angrily.

"How did you..." she started to ask, but she answered her own question. "Bennett. Of course."

She pulled the door all the way open, "Please come in."

I walked in and Mrs. Carpenter led me to the living area. She sat on the couch, leaning heavily on the arm. I sat across from her on an armchair.

"I was going to tell you," she began. "I just didn't know how to yet."

"You're giving up," I stated dryly. "She's your daughter, how could you just…"

Mrs. Carpenter flinched, and her face looked pained.

"I don't want to let her go. She's still my little girl, and I love her, but I have to see reason. I've lost my husband, and as much as I want to believe otherwise, I've lost my daughter too. She isn't getting better."

"It could," I argued. "You don't know for sure."

"You're right, I don't. And I could never be completely sure. But I don't want to do this any longer. Keeping her here won't help anyone, and we can't keep living like this. I can't keep drawing this out."

"Please, just… just give her a little more time. Another month or two."

Mrs. Carpenter sighed. "I don't even have the money to pay for the medical bills for these past two months. I have to make sure I can take care of Bennett and myself first. He's… he's having an especially hard time with this. He believes - maybe even more than you - that Maddie will just wake up someday. He's not able to live with any semblance of normalcy because he's… waiting. He'll always be waiting. And the longer he waits, the more it'll hurt when..."

I was silent.

Mrs. Carpenter's eyes were glassy, full of unshed tears, and she didn't finish the sentence. Instead, she said simply, "Maddie would want us to move on. It's the right thing to do."

My heart was heavy, but I knew she was right. I'd clung so tightly to false hope because I knew Maddie wouldn't recover.

I'd never see her green eyes or her smile again.

"I don't want to say goodbye," I said quietly, without anything else to say.

"I know."

…

Mrs. Carpenter signed the papers that night, and I sat with Bennett while she did. He was angry with me for letting her do it, but more than that, he was devastated. We all were.

We spent a long time in silence.

"We should write something for her," he finally said.

"What?"

"We should write a song for Maddie. Before they…. you know."

I nodded. "Okay. Let's do it, then."

By the time Mrs. Carpenter came back, we'd already started brainstorming, but we stopped as soon as she appeared.

"Tomorrow," she said, and we all knew what that meant.

"We can finish it tonight," I told Bennett. I'll get my cello and come over, and we'll finish the song."

Bennett nodded.

So as soon as they'd left the hospital and I was out of sight, I apparated home, feeling the sense of urgency. I grabbed my cello and then apparated near the Carpenters' apartment building, walking the rest of the way so they would still arrive first.

Bennett and I stayed up the whole night, writing, rewriting, and perfecting a small piece of music. And I knew it would be the last thing I ever played.

The next day, in late morning, the three of us went to the hospital, weighed down by what was to come.

We sat around Maddie's bedside, and when the doctors came in, I asked them to wait a minute so Bennet and I could play our composition.

The song was slow and sad, mournful, full of heart, telling of Maddie's life in a way that words never could. Tears slid down my face as I played, and when it was over, when I opened my eyes, I was that Mrs. Carpenter had been crying too. Even the doctors were glassy-eyed.

Then Bennett joined his mother on Maddie's right side, and I went to her left side.

And they unplugged her.

She continued to breathe for a few minutes after they removed all the tubing, and it was just like she was sleeping. But slowly, her breaths became more shallow, and eventually tapered off.

I held her hand when she took her last breath, when the last bit of air passed through her lips, when the heart monitor was reduced to one long tone.

And she was gone.

.…

That was one of the hardest things I've ever had to write. I was listening to a cello and violin duet while I wrote, and I literally made myself cry. I knew it was going to end this way from the beginning - this is my invented backstory, not a new ending to J.K.'s books - but it hurt a lot more than I expected.

So, there you have it. But, like I said, we aren't done yet. There will be an epilogue, and you'll see how this feeds into Draco's later life. I promise, the epilogue will not be nearly as devastating as this chapter was.

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