"The hard part is choosing to change what needs changed..."
–Martina McBride, From the Ashes
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The bleeding wouldn't stop. It ran down the man's face, his arms, melting into the soaking grass. Latiya tried not to look at it, to bury her face further into her mother's chest, but she couldn't help it. Even with her eyes shut she could see the blood.
"For goodness' sake," Helga muttered from behind her. And then there was the sound of feet over swampy grass. "He's still alive."
"What caused it?" Latiya's mother asked.
Latiya squeezed her eyes shut.
"A glass spell," came the reply. "I'm sure of it. It can be easily cast at a distance, but only a short distance..." Helga's voice trailed off. "Marigold, Carnation, do you see anyone in the trees?"
"That vixen of ten minute's ago." That came with the laugh that adults liked to do all the time. Latiya had never understood that laugh, but when it came from her mother it made her feel somewhat better.
"Not funny, Marigold. I've done what I can, the bleeding is slowing. Do you have any idea who he is?"
Latiya opened one eye. Helga was bent over the man, her wand aglow. Latiya had always envied Helga's wand. Quaking aspen, with a center from the feather of a pegasus.
"No idea."
"Blood is icky," Carnation whimpered. "Helga, make it go away."
"I am, dearest, I am. He'll be fine, so don't you worry your pretty little head. Let's see..." Helga stood up. "Eh, I'll just make a stretcher. I would like a real Healer to take a look at him." She gave another flick of the wand. The mist congregated together into a perfectly solid stretcher. "Marigold, what does the letter say."
Latiya had almost forgotten about her mother's letter.
"Here, darling, Mother needs to see the note." She pulled Latiya aside with one arm. "'Lady Marigold, we humbly request you do not let anyone see this.' Well, too late for that. 'We admire you, and believe that all others will listen to you. Your family is intimately connected with the school called Hogwarts. You can make them understand the necessity of closing the school. Prophecy states in many generations a great evil will arise because of this school that will harm all worlds, both Magical and Muggle. We are frank, Lady, and believe you can influence and persuade the teachers to close. We wish to be kind, although one of the teachers has already murdered someone important to us.' Oh my."
Latiya uttered a gasp, almost as loud as the scream from Carnation.
"'We will not exact revenge, but we know who this person is. We yet believe they still possess the wisdom to end the school. Please, do all that is in your power to close the school. If you don't, there are those will take greater action. Sincerely, a Friend.' Well, if that isn't just a pack of lies!" Latiya's mother crumpled the parchment into a ball and flung it at her feet, where it immediately absorbed the dampness of the air and grass. "I... I will do no such thing! How dare they write me such a thing. A friend! And all their niceties. It makes me absolutely ill!"
"School! School!" Carnation chanted, now caught up in the passion of Latiya's mother.
Latiya felt a smile forming on her own lips. Of course the school would never be shut down! Not with Helga and Ricky and Rowena! "You would never let that happen, would you, Helga?"
Helga was staring up at the sky, arms folded over her chest. She looked angry, very angry. And Latiya didn't blame her. "Latiya, you know me well enough that I would never allow such a thing. Ever. Would you ever allow Hogwarts to be closed?"
Latiya shook her head. Never. She would never allow that.
Now her mother was grinding up the parchment under her slipper, mouth pulled back in a triumphant smile. "How dare they assume I have so much power. Using me to get to the rest of you. I probably should show this to Ricky, but I don't really want to. All these speeches about prophecies. Bah!"
"Jonas said to ignore them," Helga said. "Jonas has assured us all that everyone will be all right. No matter what evil comes, everything will be all right. And I trust him. But we should show that letter to Godric, he must be warned. We don't be frightened by these silly things. The glass spell, I'm sure they did it themselves, to frighten us."
No. The school would protect itself. "Or someone on our side!" Latiya said happily.
She liked the way Helga smiled at her. Helga was so wonderful. She bent back over the body. "I believe he has improved much."
Latiya wanted to be Healer. It was one of her many dreams. "I want to see him!" Much braver, she scampered over. The blood had stopped completely now, leaving only a few red scratches on his skin. His eyelashes fluttered slightly, from time to time. And his cloak... His cloak had fallen off. Nice and black and soft. A very thin material, but strong. Latiya picked it up. "Ooh!" She put it over her shoulders. Much too big for her, of course, but that was half the fun. It was her cape to protect Hogwarts. Clenching it over her neck, she began to run in circles. "Look at me! I'm a guardian of Hogwarts!" The black cloak whistled after her as it fluttered in the wind.
Her mother gave another giggle, meant for her. "Yes, you certainly are. Now put the cloak down."
"Marigold," Helga said after a pause. "Take the girls back up to the castle, fix them some hot to drink and get them some cookies. Class is over, we have enough supplies."
"Because of me!" Carnation shouted.
Another smile. "Yes, dear, because of you. You have done very well, you will be one of the best witches around!"
Carnation beamed and walked to her aunt's arms. "Aunty Marigold, I want a cookie!"
"Of course you do, though I'm sure your mother will wring my neck for such behavior. But I'll talk to my brother and get you anything you want. Come along, Latiya!"
Latiya skipped through the trees and the dying mist, heart still thumping in her ribs. Fighting! Not like the Fighters! It was the Fighters who wanted the school closed. It was confusing, how many people wanted to protect the Magical world in so many different ways. How did anyone ever keep track of it all?
She realized that Helga wasn't following. She stopped. Her mother and Carnation continued on ahead, Carnation blabbering whatever silly little girls liked to talk about. She'd be right there. She would just walk back up with Helga. That would be all right.
She turned around.
There was Helga, bent over the figure now lying prone in the misty stretcher. The moonlight found its way directly to them, almost a spotlight making the world see them. Helga never looked more beautiful, Latiya thought. She wished she could be that pretty. Helga was so wonderful.
Helga circled the stretcher, humming a little song under her breath. Then she pulled her wand back out.
Did the man need more healing?
Then Latiya realized that Helga was crying. She crept closer. Her red hair clung to the back of her neck like moss. Helga still did not notice her presence.
"I do what I must," Helga whispered.
Latiya couldn't hear very well, as Helga mouthed something else. The little girl whispered a Hearing Charm she had taught herself.
"I have always done what I must, what I have to," Helga continued. She was walking faster now, circling the man in a stretcher like he was a fire that might leap out and burn her if she paused in one place too long. "They call be an angel, all of them. No one understands what I've been through. My best friend, marrying the only man I will ever love. My father, my horrible, rotten father who was never meant to be called by such a name."
Helga's father had been murdered half a year ago, Latiya remembered. Cut and bleeding, like ten thousand ribbons.
"I didn't even know he was one of you! He hid it so well, just like it hid everything except how he felt about it. He never loved me, and I had to protect myself the best way I could! So much the better if I stopped your wicked cause the same time I killed him for my sake!" The sobs became louder, the tears brighter. "And I don't feel sorrow! I never felt sorrow, for I knew I did what was right! Do you think I will stop now? If any of you are out there, hear this! This school will do so much more good than any evil that will ever come from it! Do I doubt the prophecies? No! But there are other ways! All the students I love so much! I will not turn my back on them! And so, you, the messenger, I am not sorry for this!"
Latiya could not shut her eyes.
The spell had no words. All the appeared in the air were shards of what looked like glass. Almost like glass, but made of magic. They glimmered like so many stars. The mist left them clean and clear and perfect and sharp like sunlight. Latiya had never seen anything so beautiful. Even though she knew what was coming.
The shards dropped.
Their sharp edges glimmered, almost flaming. The blood that arose made its own color of fire. The stretcher dropped, the man not so much as gasping.
And then it was over.
Latiya realized she was not breathing. Nor crying. She was not scared, not one little bit.
She had no idea Helga was so brave.
And there was Helga.
She sunk to the ground, next to the now-dead body, her sobs loud like the screams of an animal.
Latiya felt her heart break. Slowly, she crept toward the woman and gently touched her shoulder.
Helga shuddered and fell back.
Latiya stood where she was. "I'm sorry, Helga. But I did not want to go back to the castle."
Helga stared back at her, looking more frightened that Latiya herself had ever felt. "You... you saw that?"
Latiya supposed, briefly, that most other little girls would have been scared that the same horrible fate would have been given to them, but for some reason Latiya did not feel that way. "I will keep your secret, I won't tell anyone. I thought you were very brave."
"You shouldn't have watched," Helga said, pulling herself to her feet and tightening her cape around her. She wouldn't meet Latiya's eyes. "Why did you watch?"
"I wanted to. I want to protect Hogwarts. I won't tell."
"I had to, Latiya. I had to."
Latiya nodded. Of course. She knew that adults sometimes had to do things they did not want to do. "I promise."
Helga buried her face in her hands. "I know. I believe you. Thank-you."
The man's cloak was still on the grass. Latiya picked it up. "Can I have this?"
Helga barely glanced. "Yes. Your mother won't like it, but... it's a gift. From me."
Latiya put on the cloak. Helga watched her, still sniffing back tears.
"How do I look?" she asked, twirling around. She would have to grow into it.
Helga shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know if I like how you look in it. I guess I will just have to get used to it."
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"They're just trying to scare us, dear." Rowena sat by the mirror, brushing out her curls. "All they want to do is scare us. At least for now."
Godric smiled. At least his wife was trying to add some sort of humor into the situation. He was so tired, still so tired. The fire they had set up seemed so out of place so early in the morning. It burned out of defiance, nothing else.
"I still feel they should be a concern," said Marigold. "If it is the Fighters... they have all sorts of methods, you know that!"
"And so do we!" Godric replied, stomping his foot hard into the ground. It hurt, but he didn't care. "I'm tired of this. Jonas and Terminus... they knew all about this! But they wanted to build the school anyway! There is a reason! The school is necessary for whatever fate plans on throwing at us."
"Sometimes you say you don't believe in fate," said Helga. She was there, standing in the doorway, face paler than normal.
"And sometimes I don't know what to believe." Godric slid his hand through his hair, feeling his breath rip its way at his lungs. A nightmare. He would wake up soon, find himself in bed next to Rowena. Everything would be all right. But they hadn't heard from the Fighters in so long.
Why were they so concerned once more? Salazar... he was gone. Long gone. He had given up on the fate of his friend. If Salazar ever wished to return to Hogwarts, wonderful. But they had also instructed him before to simply kill Salazar. Hah. Murder. Murder never did anything. Evil begat evil, no good could ever come from it. If only he did what he needed, everything, somehow, would be all right in the end.
He hated having to care so much.
Rowena put down the brush. "They really are trying to scare us. And I mean it with more severity than it sounds. If they can scare us into closing the school, who knows what will happen? This great evil of the future... I believe it will still happen, regardless."
"And the way to defeat it will also come through this school," Godric said, remembering a conversation he had once had. It seemed like centuries ago.
"So much good comes from the school," Rowena said. "The Muggles... the speak of God, some. Others of the Goddess. We are accused of what we are not. God wills this school and I accept it. We can't toss aside so much goodness for the sake of a little evil."
A servant, bringing the food Godric had asked for, nodded in silent agreement.
"Thank-you!" Rowana replied proudly.
She was right, Godric thought. His heart seemed to glow at the thought. These Fighters, he had always known they were evil. Only something of evil could demand the closure of goodness, the death of someone he loved.
But if they ever tried anything again... people could die. His students. The young witches and wizards full of so much promise! And it could expand. Other schools were being built, from this example. All part of the plan created by Jonas and Terminus. But people could die.
The Fighters were ruthless.
His father's sword was kept in the corner, carefully and lovingly watched over.
Godric nodded to no one in particular and swept across the room to pick up the sword. It was lighter than he remember, and somehow so much more beautiful. Made by Muggles. But that didn't matter. His father had been a Muggle, but a good man.
This sword would protect everyone.
"We will not obey them," he said finally.
Marigold rolled her eyes, but the smile was there.
"The school still stands, no matter what they do."
Hopefully they wouldn't do much.
He caught Helga's eye, and they exchanged the briefest of smiles. Somehow that smile meant more to him than anything.