Any day now she would go into labor and finally bring forth the cherished life she had been nurturing for nine months inside her womb. Finally all the strain, mental and physical, would be aleiviated. Finally her worries would be put to rest. Weeks of dreaming horrible dreams and seeing horrible things, over.
She sighed and laid a hand on her stomach, massaging slow circles on the firm curved surface. It was quiet in the Manor, the house elves lurked about on high alert these days, poised to give aid the second her water broke. Peacefulness lay heavily in the house, in every room and even in the darkest of dark hallways.
She sighed again. Peace was all well and good but it was too peaceful...so peaceful she was bored. She got up and stretched
"might as well go for a walk" she said to herself. Careful to walk slowly, she exited the room and walked down the hall.
During the day, when it was only herself and the houselves home, the manor was a peaceful but threatening place. It was so large that one could never know when someone was intruding, lurking in the dark niches and around corners, waiting to attack.
She shuddered as she passed by a particularly dark corridor, one of the ones in the manor that rarely saw activity.
"Please..I is stuck! help!" her head snapped up and she looked back down the hallway the feeble voice was coming from. What could that be? A house elf? She took cautious steps towards the darkened hall,
"Please, Bibsy is stuck! I is bleeding all over Master's most favored white carpet"
Yes, it was most definitely a house elf. She sighed and steeled herself before slowly and cautiously beginning to walk down the hall.
"Bibsy? It's me...I'm coming to help you..." she called, peering into the darkness to see ahead.
"Mistress? Oh please Mistress you musn't, Mistress is almost ready to birth the Little Miss or Master, Mistress must not strain to help Bibsy..." the pleading voice was tinged with terrible pain. She sucked in a deep breath of stale air, coughed, and ventured on.
"Bibsy?" she called as she neared the end of the hall which opened to a stairway landing. She was in the least used part of the Manor, the back entrance. The stairs were steep and Draco had told her to stay away from them because she was sure to fall. She stepped onto the landing and looked around,
"Bibsy where are you?" she said, squinting her eyes to see in the gloom.
"Bibsy is here Mistress!" the house elf moaned. She crept carefully towards the stairs, leaning slightly over to see if the elf was there.
She couldn't see well through the darkness so she leaned over further and found the house elf trapped beneath a large painting which dug into his small body.
Gasping in horror she gripped the rail, preparing to make her way, slowly, down the steps.
"it is not safe her Mistress...Mistress do no come...stay back...stay away...keep safe...Mother..." she froze, leaning over on the first step. Her head snapped up and she looked down with wide eyes to the step where the House elf had been.
Big blue gray eyes stared back, glinting maliciously. A toothless, dry lipped smirk stretched across a face that was sunken and ghostly pale. The horrifyingly familiar thing opened its mouth
"Mother...you should have listened to father...should have listened to him when he told you to stay away from here...now you'll have to pay...it's all your fault. Too bad..." the smirk widened and the dried lips split and began to bleed. The malice filled eyes, just edged in endless fatigue, widened further and switched their focus to a point just behind her.
She opened her mouth to speak, to tell the monstrous little beast to leave her alone. To stop coming to her and giving her needless nightmares and worries. But the words never left her mouth as she felt someone shove her from behind, she lost her grip and the rail and began to tip forward. In the second before she fell she turned and her eyes widened in horror as she glimpsed a pale face, beloved and familiar, smirking down at her. Icy blue-gray eyes stared in morbid fascination as she fell backwards, elegantly styled blonde hair was like a beacon in the oppressive darkness. Those lips that had reduced her to nothing but mindless jello countless other times, were forming words which she couldn't comprehend at that moment.
She opened her mouth and let loose an soul shattering scream. One that tore through her entire being and carried away the pent up horror of the past nine months. She did not notice as she smashed hard into a stair and her belly gave a painful pang. She screamed and screamed, letting her soul sing its grief, letting herself mourn. She finally landed painfully on the ground, striking her head sharply on the hard ground. Immediately she curled into the fetal position, arms wrapping around her stomach. She felt a hot rush of something liquid sliding down her legs and soaking her dress. She looked down and saw red. Tears slid hotly down her face, it hurt so very badly.
"you should have listened" she looked and saw the smirking creature, peering emptily at her from where it crouched half in and half out of the shadows. Her eyes widened and a wide grin split her face. That's right! This was just another terrible dream, another horrible hallucination! She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her heart beat slowing, yes she was just asleep, all she needed to do was wake herself up. She waited and waited and her heart slowed further. She gasped and choked, eyes opening wide as a gush of blood spurted forth from her mouth.
'All I need to do is wake up...this isn't real...this isn't real' she thought sluggishly, feeling herself slipping.
'Draco...I want to see your face again, I never want to hear that word come from you...when I wake up I'll tell you to tell me that you love me...we'll watch over our child...you'll never let me go...you'll never again tell me goodbye...' she clung desperately to her last strength.
"Draco...J-je t-t'aime" she rasped, reaching out blindly.
Then her eyes slid shut and her body went limp.
All was silent.
She never woke up again.
THE END
Lily: How's that for a Valentine's Day ending?