Story Title/Link: How To Save A Life
School and Theme: Mahoutokoro/ Wartime struggle
Mandatory Prompt: [Genre] Drama
Additional Prompt: [Word] Hopeless
[Object] heart-shaped sunglasses
Year: 4
Word count: 1163
Special warning: Muggle World War Two AU, character death and mixed POVs

Harry stared at the notice with soul crushing dread. He had hoped against hope he wouldn't get one of them but there it was before, the stock crisp and white with glaring black ink. This.. This flew in the face of all he planned for the future for him and his girlfriend Luna. She was the strangest soul he had met but it was that strangeness that he had fallen in love with. She adored the myths and legends of old, advocated the values of what she described as the 'Old Religion' and left little offerings to 'fairies' on special calendar dates having to do with the moon and sun. It was odd and at odds with his Christian upbringing but Luna never hurt anyone or had a bad word against his beliefs beyond the condemnation of the church clergy telling people who they could and could not love because of what she called 'an ancient book of suggested guidelines to live by for a good life'.

"Harry, are you alright? You look like the word has come to an end."

Harry turned with grim hopelessness taking control of his emerald orbs. He held up the envelope and letter for his parents to see. "It's a draft notice. For me," he said dimly. The war had been getting progressively worse lately, and the whole need for a draft had been a looming threat over the heads of every able bodied British male over the age of seventeen.

It was no longer a threat. It was no longer every parent's worst nightmare. Their children were being conscripted to fight a war that would most likely see them killed overseas by the enemy.

Trembling hands snatched the letter stock from his hands as furious yet fearful eyes absorbed the words printed by the off-spaced typewriter. Red hair fell on the face of his mother as the letter fell from her hands and the first of many outraged tears fell from emerald eyes much like the ones that haunted his own face. He understood his mother's fear and anger. He was a peaceful young man who had never so much as scrapped with the prats at his school that took pleasure in making everyone's existence miserable. Now they wanted to draft him into a war that was, without much doubt, likely to see him sent home in a casket.

James Potter looked between his wife and son with conflicting eyes. On one hand, there was the law and great public need at hand. Their home, their fellow countrymen were at risk and being killed by the Axis Powers every day. Air raids by Nazi planes came closer to London every day that it was only a matter of time before the bombs built by the devils of the Axis Powers would be blowing their homes to smithereens.

On the other hand, James understood where Lily was coming from and why she was so upset. Harry was a lover, not a fighter. Harry was a politician at heart, not a soldier that belonged on the frontlines. The only thing had seen his son 'kill' was several pieces of roast after a hard day's labor around the house and in the garden. "Lily Petal, you need to think clea-"

"How in the name of Lord God am I supposed to think clearly when the government wants to send my boy to his death?!" Lily asked with a hysterical screech.

Then, before James could give any form of an answer, there was a sound that filled the home with horror. The earth trembled, screams of pure agony pierced the silence of what had been a pleasant enough day, and the fierce sounds of explosions consumed the very air. Air raid sirens blared to life between the chaotic explosions rocking the city.

Panic settled over the family as James herded his wife and son out to the street. The nearest bomb shelter was fifty yards down the street and their only chance at survival, this the man knew all too well. It was the reason that they lived in this part of London, near the Port, in the first place since the tensions with Germany and the other Axis Powers had escalated recently. More buildings exploded into pieces sending shrapnel and deadly beams of projectile death in every direction.

Harry struggled to help herd others with them as the family fled to the safety of the bomb shelter, but there was too much chaos around them to be helpful. People were dying instantly from fatal shrapnel or getting caught under the weight of buildings collapsing on top of them. Adding to the soul killing horror, he felt run through his veins not unlike a wolf chasing wounded prey.

"Harry!"

The raven haired young man froze as the yell calling out to him turned into a scream of agony and the sound of a crumbling building coming down as another bomb fell two streets over.

"Luna!"

Lily's heart broke for her son as she saw the dust and bricks settle, leaving the sweet blonde girl her son was in love with, trapped under the weight of the structure. The bloody sunglasses, cheap plastic things done in a garish shade of pink and shaped like hearts, were half crushed with only one heart intact in the girl's limp, bloody hand. She knew Harry had plans to marry the sweet but odd girl, they had been inseparable since primary school. She and James adored Luna, she spoke her mind without any real thought, but she brought the best in their son. The blonde inspired Harry's already admirable and kind qualities to an entirely new level.

Fighting Harry to the bomb shelter was devastating. He was thrashing trying to go back to save her but James knew it was already too late for the girl. Her eyes were glassy and lifeless, her visible limbs limp and without motion. That went without her being buried under a brownstone guaranteeing that the sheer weight alone would crush the life out of her.

That day both elder Potters knew that there was one more casualty to the tally by the end of the bombs falling. Even though he was physically there, both Lily and James knew Harry's heart died with his blonde love.

By the time that the sun broke the horizon on April 8th, 1940, Harry James Potter was gone from the shelter and in the conscription office. His paperwork was rushed and sent out to go with the latest regiment for training .As selfish as it was, he vowed to kill every German that he came across as the covered truck left London proper with the remains of Luna's heart-shaped sunglasses clutched in his hands. He would have justice for her death if he had to spill the blood of Germany's people and turn the world's waters red with it!