Song Suggestion: Amber Run- "I found" … the music video to this song fits the theme of this story to perfection.
Trigger Warning: Violence, death, and attempted assault. It's the last chapter in the past. After this, it catches up to current events.
I tried to make this fit canon as much as possible, but there might be some divergences.
Marcus Flint Fancast: Lorenzo Zurzolo
The Cottage by the Sea
The days bled together and passed slowly. She spent most of her time on the shore, collecting seashells. In a fit of boredom, she asked Kipper for something else to do. The next day she arrived with an armful of paint and canvas. Katie almost wondered how the elf knew she liked art, until she realized the Death Eater sent them.
The gifts kept arriving: books, chocolates, flowers, even a muggle television with some movies that ran off magic instead of electricity. Everything was something she liked. She marveled at how well he knew her, but at the same time, it made her wary. The Death Eater must have watched her diligently to gain this information.
But still, she wished to talk to someone other than Kipper or Sampson. She wrote him letters, wishing for some type of communication, but besides the first one, he never sent anything back.
After four months, Katie wanted to pull out her hair. The cottage felt like a prison, trapped in tight boundaries. She curled in a ball, wishing to lose her senses, only finding comfort while cuddling the black cloak, until the scent gradually faded. She figured it must be more peaceful to disassociate with reality than face isolation. At least then, she'd have her hallucinations to talk to. She began to lay in bed all day, barely getting out even to eat.
And then one random day, just like any other, two people ambled into the cottage. They opened the front door—the one she could never exit—slamming it shut. It woke Katie from a deep sleep.
It was the middle of the night, and at first Katie thought she dreamed it, until she heard a voice she recognized. Katie stepped out of her bed and cracked the door open to find Zala and Thorfinn Rowle arguing furiously in her kitchen.
"You will not leave me here." Zala slapped Thorfinn's chest hard. "If you do, I'll never forgive you."
He cradled her wrist.
"Stop, you're going to hurt yourself." He looked distressed. "I have to. The Dark Lord is visiting, and if he finds you still alive, he'll feed you to the snake, especially when he realizes…" the giant blond man didn't finish. "Please stay here. I don't think I could survive it if something happened to you."
Zala slapped his chest again in anger and then she burst into tears. Thorfinn dragged her into a tight embrace and kissed her head.
"Don't cry, Zala. I don't think I can leave you if you do."
"Good," Zala sniffed. "After everything, it's the least you can do. I don't want to do this without you."
The side of Thorfinn's lips curled up, and then he slid his hand to her stomach, which was slightly rounded. In a moment of pure shock, Katie realized Zala was pregnant.
"You'll be perfectly fine, especially since you won't be alone." Thorfinn caught Katie's eye, and she understood he knew she stood there the whole time. He gave a wink.
Zala twisted around and caught sight of her.
"Katie?" She gasped. Zala ran to her, and Katie opened the door and landed in her embrace. Zala laughed out loud, grabbing her face in her hands and kissed both her cheeks. "I thought you were dead."
Tears welled behind both their eyes—the terror, the trauma, the isolation. They both knew the expense on the soul. No one else would understand.
Thorfinn cleared his throat.
"If you're wondering Bell, no, I'm not going to tell you who he is. He threatened to kill me if I did, and he's crazy enough he'd probably follow through. I'm lucky he's allowing Zala to stay, because I have nowhere else to hide her. I think it was only because you were about to die of solitude. He began to worry, so I guess I should thank you as well."
Zala dropped her hands from Katie's face and wandered back.
"Promise you'll come back for me."
Thorfinn looked gutted.
"I don't know if that will happen, dove" he said. "Even with the best outcome, they'll put me in Azkaban. You know they will, even if I'm a turncoat at the end. I've done bad things that I must answer for, even if it was done under coercion. But I can't allow the Dark Lord to continue. He won't stop until we're all dead. It's madness, and I regret getting sucked into it." He paused and gathered Zala's trembling form into his arms and then leaned down and gave her a passionate kiss that made Katie feel as if she intruded on a private moment. After, he grabbed the sides of her face in his giant hands. "After this is done, I'm gifting the estate to you."
Zala gave a noise of protest.
"Stop," Thorfinn said. "You're carrying the Rowle heir. The last of the line. I've no parents, no siblings. You're all I have left. The only thing that's ever mattered to me. Don't deny me this. And promise." His voice cracked. "Promise you'll visit me in Azkaban."
"I'm not visiting you in Azkaban until the day you get out," Zala snarled. "Think about that while you turncoat. You better do it in a spectacular manner to lighten your sentence to a pittance, or you'll never again get to prove to me you're better than Bill Weasley."
Thorfinn sighed.
"I can't very well let that happen. My ego would never recover."
He gave her one more kiss, and then went to his knees and cradled her stomach, giving it a kiss as well.
"Both my girls need to wait for me."
"It's a boy," Zala said.
"It's a girl." Thorfinn smirked. "I can feel it. And she'll have her mother's attitude and dark curly hair. When I get back out, we can focus on making a son."
He winked and stood up, and then all his bravado melted. He looked distraught as he walked to the front door and vanished before either of them could stop it.
Zala went and tried to open it back up, but it didn't budge. After pounding pointlessly, she collapsed and wept.
"I'm such a fool," she told Katie. "I promise I tried to hate the big, dumb bastard."
Katie
They spent the winter months cooped up. The cottage felt better with Zala there. Sometimes they got annoyed with each other, but then Katie would remember how isolation felt, and she'd do everything to make amends.
Zala's friendship grew to something beyond what she experienced before. Katie didn't think anyone on the planet would understand what she went through, the complicated labyrinth of emotions, but Zala did.
A week into confinement Zala admitted she'd had an on and off fling with Rowle for years. He tried to save her before getting captured, cornering her in Madam Malkins. He begged her to leave, said he'd go with her and that he loved her. But Zala miscalculated how close the ministry was to falling, how the hatred towards muggleborns would turn violent in an instant. Two weeks later, on her way home from work, she was snatched from the streets.
Zala spent most of her time stroking her stomach and staring at the sea in deep contemplation.
"I shouldn't have allowed myself to love him. He'd always been a brute, demanding and infuriating. But… he's sweet. A little chaotic. I never know what fun thing he'll do next, always making me laugh. His father forced him to join the death eaters. At the beginning, he thought he'd be the inside person who brought them down… until the day he was forced to kill someone. Then he gave up resisting."
The dark lord bound people to him with violence, forcing the reluctant purebloods to partake in ways they couldn't return to the normal world. They chose survival over morality, and the deeds were carved in stone, irrevocable scars on the soul.
Katie wondered what her Death Eater's story was. Did he regret the deaths?
The winter turned into cold rain, and then to slushy mud, and then it began to tease with days of sunshine and warmth.
It was then the birth began, the day before May, a month earlier before the due date.
"It's too early," Zala cried, clutching her stomach. "What if she's too small?"
Katie didn't know what to do. Tilly helped set up, but Katie was a ball of nerves, afraid of all the things that could go wrong.
But it went smoothly. After several hard pushes where Zala cursed Thorfinn Rowle in a variety of creative ways, the little body slipped free, and Katie caught the baby in a shocked hold.
A girl. She handed the baby to her mother.
Zala clutched the tiny crying baby to her chest with an exhausted laugh.
"That wanker is right again." Then she looked at Tilly. "Don't tell him. He won't ever shut up about it."
Of course, Tilly told him.
Several days later a note came through, along with a mountain of baby items.
Told you. Name her something strong, not pretty. I'm going to make sure she lives in a better world. If I'm not there to raise her, please teach her to throw a better punch than you can. It was pathetic. I only pretended it hurt me, so I didn't hurt your feelings. Also, make sure she knows her father loves her just as much as he loves her mum.
Zala decided on the name Athena. The baby fought for life, coming out tiny but strong. She had tufts of dark curly hair, like her mother, and loved to ball her fists in a fury, howling at the world when anything didn't go her way.
Katie loved her completely.
Katie
Several days later, Zala sat at the dining table, attempting to feed a colicky Athena with Sampson curled at their feet. Magic snapped around them, a faint buzzing in the air before vanishing.
"What just happened?" Zala looked wane from lack of sleep and pain.
Katie gasped.
"The wards are down."
"What does that mean?"
Katie swallowed hard, hands shaking. Something sunk in her belly. As much as she wanted freedom, she dreaded this day. It meant her Death Eater was either captured or killed or about to be. A wave of nausea overcame her, and she put a hand on her stomach.
"It means we should leave."
"I can't leave," Zala said. "Where would we go?"
Zala was right. She just gave birth. It still hurt for her to move around.
"Let's try and figure out what's wrong."
Katie pulled out the radio the Death Eater sent several months before. They used it to keep track of the outside world. They stopped listening when the reports became too bleak to listen to.
Today there was nothing but static. They twisted and turned the knobs, but it gave nothing. Katie sighed and sat back.
"I don't think we are in direct danger," Zala said. "I think your Death Eater did it as a precaution."
"But why?"
As soon as she said it, the answer arrived.
"It's the end," Katie gasped. "They are fighting, Harry and… or they're about to be."
It was odd how so much rested on a single day. Any second could pivot the world. Whatever happened today would matter for years.
"I need to go and fight."
"Katie…"
"No, the Death Eater left my wand with Kipper. I need to do something."
"But you don't even know what's going on, or where it will be."
Katie bit her lip.
"I'm going to Hogwarts first. I'll go in the way the professors got me out. If nothing else, Neville can tell me what's going on."
"Please, don't go," Zala asked in a soft voice.
Athena began to cry, and Katie wished to cry with her. But she was a Gryffindor, and today she'd live up to that. If somehow Harry lost, she'd never forgive herself for hiding. Even if he lived, she'd never be able to face her friends again.
In silence, Katie turned and got dressed, putting on some trainers, and comfortable clothes, along with a jacket. She dragged her hair back in a ponytail.
When she exited her room, Zala sat at the table. Athena was asleep in a bassinet next to her with Kipper slowly rocking it. Sampson lay at her feet.
"It was selfish of me to ask you to stay. If I didn't have Athena to care for, I'd be right beside you. Nothing matters more than destroying that evil snake."
"I'll be careful," Katie said. "We might be wrong."
Zala got up and grabbed her hand.
"Now, go, before I start begging again."
Katie gave a soft smile, pulling her friend in for a hug. It hurt to separate, but she pulled back and walked to the door—the one she could never open before. How often had she tugged on the handle, hoping it would give? Katie sucked in a breath and turned the knob, and with one step exited her haven.
Katie
Katie tumbled out into a random field. A single cow stood in the middle. It mooed at her arrival, chewing its grass.
Katie stood up and cleaned off her pants, wondering what to do next. But she already knew. She just hoped her magic held up, having not used her wand much since before the revel.
Still, she concentrated as hard as she could, conjuring a perfect imagine of where she wanted to go. Without a broom or a floo, she'd have to risk apparition.
"Hog's Head Inn!"
She arrived with a small crack just behind the inn. She looked down at her body, surprised she didn't splice from lack of practice.
A loud noise erupted around her—a Caterwauling Charm.
Katie ducked when she thought she saw something move. She scrambled behind a rubbish bin just as a few Death Eaters walked by, with their wands out, looking around. She waited, trying her best not to move.
"Come on, Yaxley," one of them said. "It's probably that cat again. Let's get back to the others. It's about to get bloody."
They walked away, distracted by something else, and Katie let out a breath. She looked around until she no one was in view and slid along the building, taking gentle steps.
Katie went in the back way to the Hog's Head Inn, the way Professor Sprout brought her when she whisked her way into the night back to her muggle home.
Aberforth greeted her, looked her over, and frowned.
"You're back."
"I am."
"You should have stayed away. If they find you, there won't be mercy."
Katie nodded, attempting to gather what little courage she had.
"Soon it might not matter at all," Katie answered.
Aberforth answered with a small grunt. His eyes flicked around before he led her to the portrait of the pretty young girl that always intrigued her.
Aberforth stared at it a long time, eyes narrowing, mouth twitching, before he looked down at her.
"I'm coming with you, or I will as soon as people stop arriving."
"Why?"
"The battle will soon begin."
"A battle?"
He pointed as if she could see something.
"The Dark Lord's forces have amassed and march on Hogwarts as we speak. Minerva has called on Hogwarts' defenses. I've already helped Potter and his friends through, and people have been arriving since then."
Katie gripped her wand. Zala was right. The day of victory or defeat had come. By tonight, she'd either be freed, dead, or enslaved. She refused to be the last one, even for her Death Eater. So it was all or nothing.
"You know what to do," he told the portrait. She girl gave a shy grin and walked backward. A long tunnel appeared behind her. Just as the girl left, she saw a figure approach, getting larger and larger, until a head peeked out, opening the portal.
"Neville!" Katie rushed forward and grabbed him in a hug, which he returned.
"Katie!" His eyes looked troubled. "Where have you been? One day you were here, the next you were gone. We thought… well, I'm glad you're alright."
"It's a long story."
Neville's eyed her, knowing she downplayed everything, but there was no time, and he knew it too.
"Follow me," he said.
Katie
The arrived in the room of requirement. Yellow, blue, and red hammocks lined the room. People filled the space, mostly students, but some of them were adults… the Order.
The final battle loomed. It began to feel real. A familiar terror overwhelmed her, but she pushed it down, gripping her wand. This time she wasn't helpless and vulnerable at a revel, with no wand, relying on the goodwill of a Death Eater. This time she was armed with a vendetta. She remembered the bodies, the unending screams scraping down her spine. A rage entered her, remembering all the faces of the girls, the victims. Only her and Zala made it out alive. With that came a sharp survivor's guilt, lanced only with the idea of revenge.
Leanne and Cho pushed through the crowd.
"Katie!"
She choked back her tears when the arms of her best friends cinched around her.
"Why are you here?"
"The same reason you are, right? We're Dumbledore's Army."
They reached in their pockets and pulled out their galleons that Hermione created to communicate.
Katie looked between her friends. They knew she had been taken away by the professors. She bet they believed she'd been safe at home this whole time. Instead, she'd survived a revel and had been sequestered away in a pureblood's old seaside cottage.
She'd never tell them otherwise. Only Zala would ever know.
"Of course… the galleon."
Katie
The battle raged. She ducked, and a red spell crashed overhead. She was in the Great Hall, but she decided to make an exit when the Acromantulas showed up. One grabbed up a wizard near her and began devouring him. Another almost swiped her with a pincer, but she ran down a staircase, shooting curses over her shoulder. She didn't even know if she hit her mark or not. There was no time, and danger twisted around her corner.
Katie kept sprinting down the hallways, dodging the Death Eaters. She'd never been the best at dueling, so she tried to wait for the right moments, hopping behind stone statues and tapestries.
She decided to take a chance and run across the hallway, but when she got close, a gloved hand grabbed her arm and tugged her in an alcove. Katie almost screamed, but his opposite hand covered her mouth, pulling her tight against a hard chest. Katie almost hyperventilated, thinking of the worst possibilities. What if it was Fenrir?
Whoever held her dipped their head close to her ear.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" The voice was deep and raspy, and she recognized it instantly. She made a noise of relief behind his glove. He dropped his hand but kept her pressed to his chest.
She took several gasping breaths.
"I had to come and fight."
"Go back to the cottage."
"You let the wards down. I had to figure out why."
She felt him sigh, the noise going through her chest and into her back.
"So you could escape if necessary. Not so you could march up here like you're Potter with a death wish."
"I'm a Gryffindor and a muggleborn. This is my fight."
"Oh, I haven't fucking forgotten. The lot of you have been a thorn in my side, constantly running into the worst danger without thinking of a way out."
Katie twisted, and he let her. She peered up into his silver mask, and he looked back down on her with his green eyes. When their eyes met, a rush of emotions entered her, the clenching feeling in her chest.
"I missed you."
He looked to the ceiling and placed both his hands on her shoulder. And then he pushed her hard to the side. She fell over, catching herself on her hands, just as he gave a quick flick of his wand.
"Avada Kedava." A Death Eater crumbled over in the distance—a perfect shot. And then he twisted, because another Death Eater was behind him. He sliced his arm downward before the other man could, and blood spewed everywhere. The other Death Eater's heart was outside his chest and on the stone floor. The body fell forward, giving a sickening crack with the impact.
"You just killed them." Katie glanced up at him from the ground. Blood from the body trickled close to her foot, and she moved it out of the way.
He slid his eyes to her.
"Would you rather I had let them live?"
"Well, no…"
It just shocked her how easy the unforgiveable had been for him. How he ripped a heart from a man's chest without a second thought. He'd told her the dark lord favored him for it. But with her stay in the cottage, she might have pushed aside those traits and made him more of a hero than he was.
No, her Death Eater was a stone-cold killer.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her back up, twisting her hard to face him, no longer gentle. His green eyes narrowed in anger, and in response, Katie pressed her own wand against his neck.
"You can't make me go back."
He gave a sharp laugh.
"Going to curse me?"
"If you try to order me around, I might."
"You won't."
"Why are you so certain."
He cradled her jaw, brushing his gloved thumb along the line of bone.
"Because you're not me." His wand came up before she could stop it.
Katie body froze in place, and he dragged her across the hallway, shooting a curse at a lingering young Acromantula. He kicked open a door to reveal a classroom she'd never seen before. It looked like it hadn't been in use for a hundred years. Dust coated the desks, and a few potion cauldrons were still in the center, most of them cracked.
He laid her down and leaned over, fists pressed the ground on either side of her shoulders. She wished to glare at him. What he did felt like betrayal, though she understood he just wanted to keep her safe.
"I refuse to live through your death," he said. "Don't you see… this is for you. I'm going to kill them all, so you get to live as you wish, free from men like me."
He reached up and tapped his mask. It shrunk like it did at the revel, revealing his full lips, his slightly crooked teeth.
He leaned down and almost pressed his lips to hers, but stopped right before he did, eyes searching hers. Instead, he rested his forehead against hers.
"When this is over, beg the headmaster to let you finally finish your seventh year. Get your NEWTS, and work at some high-level job. I want you to fall in love with some normal bloke. Deeply in love. Go and get married and have two or three children. Give him everything I want from you, because I don't plan to survive. And if by a miracle I do, I don't want you to be with me out of gratefulness or pity. I'd rather be alone than do that. So don't leave this room. I can't be distracted."
His mouth went down to the dip in her throat, lips brushing along her skin as he gasped in two sharp breaths. She wished she could move, wished to run her fingers through his thick brown hair, and bring his head against her chest for comfort. Wished to kiss him.
Maybe the feelings stemmed from her traumatized mind, but she didn't care anymore. She didn't even care that she didn't know his identity. She knew enough about him to see his bravery, to see his relentless pursuit to do good under the heavy eye of evil, to see the way he cared for her.
"I think I love you," he said.
She had no time to comprehend the statement, because he gave a devastated look, pushed off the ground, and walked out the door. She heard spells hit the door and knew they were strong locking ones. It would take quite a while to pick them apart.
Having nothing else to do, she ran the words over and over in her head. When the curse finally faded, she heard Voldemort's voice projected into the air. He was giving a single hour to give up Harry, or they would all die.
An hour left until she met her fate. She wondered if she'd see the Death Eater when it happened.
She couldn't stay and obey him. Not today. Not with everything at stake.
Katie
She managed to break the locking spell thirty minutes later. When she walked out, her footsteps echoed within the eerie quiet. She shifted around the corners, wand out, but she found nothing except dead acromantulas, torn portraits, shattered stone, and jagged glass. Parts of plants littered the floor, and she stepped over them, avoiding the spikes. Blood splattered and pooled in various spots on the walls, floor, and ceiling.
The bodies were absent, even the Death Eaters.
Katie headed to the great hall, knowing she'd regret the sight.
She was right. The dead bodies were laid out side by side. The Weasley family were crowded around one body, weeping against each other. She thought it might be one of the twins, but again, she didn't wish to know. Not yet.
The bodies congealed together in her mind, faceless, formless. No, that was not Lavender brown. No, that was not Professor Lupin. No, that was not Colin Creevy. People her age shouldn't have died in war. They should be sitting in classrooms, worried about test scores and boy drama, not mutilated at revels and raped and enslaved. The trauma of the year boiled inside her.
She walked over and sat on a bench by herself. No one came to sit next to her. Everyone seemed to be in their own states of shock, eyes wide, staring into nothing.
Katie
They gathered outside at the announcement that Harry was dead. Katie gasped, clutching her stomach. The Death Eaters marched forward in glee. Bellatrix cackled, but Katie kept her eyes on the slight form in Hagrid's arms.
No, no, no.
It couldn't be.
But it was. The despair wanted to gut her. What could she do? She refused to live in a world they'd create, tortured and used and broken. Her Death Eater couldn't save her forever, and she already knew she couldn't survive the isolation and the death of everything she knew.
Katie decided she'd fight until death. And if that wasn't possible, she'd turn her wand to her own forehead. She'd never been suicidal before, but this wasn't an act of giving up, but one of defiance. A last decision to control her fate.
As Voldemort jeered and talked, Katie zoned out, dissociating from the moment, until she felt eyes on her.
Her Death Eater stared at her. His gloved hand clenched at his side.
I'm sorry, she mouthed.
Don't do anything stupid. She thought he mouthed back, but she couldn't be sure.
He meant she shouldn't fight, if Harry died.
Katie gave a sharp shake of her head. No, she refused to promise him such a thing. She deserved to decide this fate. With Harry dead, there wouldn't be any survival for her. No future wizard or high-level career. No love story, no children.
The next events happened too quick for her mind to process. Neville walked forward. She almost cried as he limped into the heckling crowd. The burning sorting hat appeared, and then the Gryffindor sword did as well. Neville killed Nagini, and Harry disappeared from Hagrid's arms. He was alive! As one, they rushed forward with a cry.
Katie no longer kept civil. She ran along the stones and back into the building, flinging curses forward, backward, over her shoulder. She used the nastiest ones she knew— cutting spells, exploding spells, binding spells. She tried to say the words to the killing curse, but they stuck in her throat, unable to get out.
When she got back to thickest part of the fighting, a red light almost slammed into her, but a blue Protego shield sprung up around her. She glanced around for her protector, and even though she couldn't find him, she knew who sent it.
She managed to bind two Death Eaters and knocked a third out by flinging a suit of armor at him. She wrapped another up in a tapestry. At one point, she fought next to Aberforth and Leanne, but she lost them again.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ron and Neville bring down Fenrir. She gave an audible whoop and started to run toward them, but she should have paid more attention.
A black cloak fluttered beside her, and a Death Eater jumped in front of her. The spell wrapped around her and slammed her into a wall, dragging her along the walls and floor in a haphazard manner. She scrapped down several hallways until they were in a more private spot, and then she was flung upright.
"I remember you," a woman's voice taunted. The mask and hood were in place, so she couldn't guess who it was. "How did you survive?" Her eyes lit up with understanding. "Oh, what a naughty boy!" And then she turned angry, pressing her wand into her neck. "Did he keep you locked up somewhere, hmm? Did he come and fuck you when bored, make you suck his cock on command? I can't believe he'd defy the Dark Lord and drop me for an average looking mudblood. Poor choice. Though… maybe he'd like to share? I wouldn't mind joining. Girls like you scream the best."
Katie spit on her mask. She probably shouldn't have.
"No," the woman said with renewed anger. "I think I'd rather kill you. Vensugo!"
The woman's wand sliced down. Katie felt the spell hit her, but the pain came slower. When it finally arrived, she gasped at the severity. Her veins split inside her, hemorrhaging. Blood poured out of her eyes like tears, out of her mouth.
"You'll bleed like a pig at—" A green light cut her off, and the woman tilted forward, pressing them together against the wall, dead eyes still looking into her soul. Two gloved hands shoved the dead body away to the side. The mask clattered off to reveal a pretty young woman with dark brown curls and blue eyes, a classic looking beauty with a withered soul. It was no one she'd ever seen before.
"Katie," his ragged voice said. She slid down against the stone wall, clutching her stomach that was slowly distending with blood.
What was this spell? She'd never heard of it.
"I'm dying." She coughed and blood came out, spewing a little on his face. He didn't flinch.
"No, you won't." His wand glowed blue as it trailed along her stomach. It burned, but she felt her body responding. The wand made a second pass. "This will only hurt a moment." He made a cut through her skin, and she screamed in pain and tried to struggle away, but he held her firm, siphoning out the blood that pooled in her stomach, before making another pass stitching it up. "There now," he said gently. "It's all done."
She gasped against his shoulder, wishing to cry. After, he sat back on the heels of his boots. He tenderly reached up and wiped off a blood splatter on her lips.
"I feel weak," she said.
"You've lost a lot of blood." He sighed. "Luckily, I knew the counter curse or else her death wouldn't have been so fast. Vanessa was always a vindictive whore. It's too bad she didn't realize I've always fucking hated her." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Again, my mistakes have hurt you."
She tried to respond, but her eyesight went a little black. The last thing she saw were his green eyes, staring at her with an odd gentleness that clashed with his mask, and then she succumbed to exhaustion.
The Death Eater kissed her forehead, lingering against her skin.
"Sleep, Bell. By the time you wake, it will be over. You'll be free."
Katie
She woke up to Pomfrey touching her neck. When her eyes fluttered open, the old woman put a hand on her chest, tears flowing down her cheeks.
"Oh, thank Merlin," she said. "When I saw you in that position, I thought… I'm so happy you made it through."
She tried to sit up but cried out in pain. Pomfrey went into work mode, forcing her shoulder down and shoving up her shirt.
"Oh dear, that's a nasty wound… and someone did a magnificent job repairing most of the damage, but it looks like it might be dark magic. You'll need to go to St. Mungos after to make sure. Here, I think you can sit up and possibly walk, but don't move too fast or the wound can reopen." She held out her hand, and Katie grasped it. Every movement resulted in a deep agony as the old nurse helped her stand. "I'd walk you to the great hall, but there are worse patients, and I'm needed elsewhere. Do you think you can make it by yourself?"
Katie looked around, trying to orient herself. Vanessa must have dragged her down several hallways away from the worst fighting. The woman's body was to her right, looking as if she only slept.
Katie remembered Pomfrey needed an answer and nodded.
"So does this mean we won?"
Tears began to drip down Pomfrey's cheeks again.
"Yes, dear, but at great cost. Harry defeated Voldemort, but he lost his life in the process. The killing curse, once cast, is almost impossible to deflect if aimed true. The spell rebounded, but only after it hit him too."
Katie gasped, unable to process the pain. She remembered him as a little boy, straddling the broom next to her in quidditch practice. She'd been impressed by his raw ability, excited to be near the boy-who-lived. How could he just be gone? All the life, all the love and friendship? Where did it all go with death? Everyone that survived now held jagged broken pieces of memory, the only thing left of their loved ones.
Pomfrey patted her cheek.
"I'm thankful for every life that made it through, and that includes you." Katie reached out and squeezed her wrinkled hand, a hand that had healed and taken care of her many times. She couldn't find the words to speak, but Pomfrey seemed to understand and gave a soft smile before continuing down the hallway.
Katie looked around and took a step, almost tripping over her wand. Feeling a little dizzy, she leaned down and picked it up, limping in pain back to the great hall.
Halfway down the hallway, she heard a growl. It slicked down her spine as a visceral memory of a time of sharp teeth and decaying breath.
No, he couldn't be here. She saw him fall. Neville took him down.
She whipped around with her wand, clutching her wounds. The fast movement jostled some of the new skin, and wet warmth trickled down her stomach.
The hallway was empty and dark. With the torches extinguished, and Pomfrey gone, she was alone.
Finding nothing, she shook her head, sure she hallucinated. She twisted back around and came face to face with Fenrir.
She stepped back, a scream at her lips, but Fenrir lunged froward and grabbed her mouth, giving her a warning shake. He snatched her wand and threw it out a shattered window.
"I wouldn't fight, pretty." He looked around. "That's how little girls get injured. Let's get out of here and have some fun."
He dragged her along the hallway, only stopping and pulling her into an alcove when someone walked further down, but whoever it was must have changed their mind and went the opposite direction. She didn't dare make a sound, knowing if someone investigated, they'd be killed on the spot.
Katie
He maneuvered her down the hallway until they walked into a transfiguration classroom.
Her Death Eater rested against a cabinet with his hands bound. Blood dripped from his mouth, and more blood littered the floor. Katie suspected he was injured far worse than he showed.
"Let her go," he growled.
"You're in no position to make demands of me." He flung Katie to the floor, and she hit hard with a cry, landing wrong on her wrist. "I'm going to fuck her now, and you're going to watch. I bet the bitch will enjoy it." His fingers laced through her hair and yanked her up to her knees. Fenrir kneeled behind her, placing his sharp teeth against her throat in warning.
Katie shivered. Tears dripped down her cheeks from fear. She kept the Death Eaters' stare and so did Fenrir. They all looked at each other until the werewolf started to laugh.
"I was right." One of his claws traced the edge of her throat as a taunt. "You care for the mudblood as more than a slave. It's a shame the Dark Lord never listened to me when I told him you were a traitor."
"The Dark Lord is dead," her Death Eater said. "They'll be searching the castle now. You should spend your time escaping."
"They won't find me," Fenrir answered. "By the time I've fucked her bloody, slit her throat, and eaten your heart, I'll be long gone." His hot breath made her gag as he tightened his grip. The Death Eater attempted to sit up and rip away his bounds, but it was useless. He was too injured to do anything but show rage. It only made Fenrir bark out a laugh.
"Take off your clothes, mudblood, and I'll show you how big a werewolf cock is."
A noise of despair exited her mouth, mouth quivering.
"No," she said.
"Take them off," he growled. "Or I will, and I promise if I have to do it, it will hurt a lot more."
Katie closed her eyes, intent on finding another place for her mind. A place of sanctuary. She imagined the cottage. Imagined her Death Eater beside her, tracing her skin in the moonlight. Her shaking fingers went up to her jacket to take it off, but in the process, she brushed against something hard in its deep pocket.
Her eyes sprung open.
"Okay," she said, knowing what she had to do. "I'll do it. Just back up a bit."
Fenrir sat back, pleased. She didn't look at him, but knew he wore his sharp smile. She smelled the rotting breath. It permeated the air, her skin, her clothes. She'd need to scrub and burn everything on her.
"So submissive. With just enough fire. No wonder you had so much fun with her."
The Death Eater tried to lunge again. Katie kept her eyes on him for strength. Her fingers went to her robe, to her pocket. She pulled out the wand—her wand. The Death Eater must have placed it in her pocket after she passed out. The one Fenrir flung out the window hadn't been hers at all; it had been Vanessa's.
The Death Eater looked at the wand as she cradled it low in a place Fenrir couldn't see. He grimaced.
"Any day now, pretty," Fenrir said. She felt his claw on her back. "I'm eager to taste you. I bet your blood is like fresh fruit, strawberries on a summer day."
Her death eater's eyes seemed to be warning her: you need to mean it, because you only have one chance.
She did. For the first time in her life, she felt capable of the two words.
Before the claw could shred her robes, she flung around, putting the wand to his nose. She held it there for only a moment, only long enough for his eyes to widen in surprise. Before it could turn to anger, she sent the spell.
"Avada Kedavra."
The green light exited, ripping something inside her chest as it did. The life left Fenrir's eyes, and then he folded forward, face to the stone, empty and unable to hurt her anymore.
A noise exited Katie. She didn't regret the werewolf's death, but it still took its toll on her soul. The rip ached inside her, an invisible bleed. She clutched at her chest with a cry.
"Katie," a voice said, anchoring her.
Katie dropped her wand and turned, crawling to the Death Eater. When she reached him, she fumbled with the bounds on his hands, ripping and tearing until they loosened.
"Katie," he said again. She stopped when his freed hand rested on her cheek. She stared into his pretty green eyes. "It hurts, but it won't last. Your soul will heal. One as pure as yours can't be broken." Tears dripped off her face and onto his hand. He gave a soft smile, letting his eyes roam her face. "I hope the afterlife is as beautiful as you, if I even get to go there."
"Afterlife?" Katie asked. She saw it then, the ugly tears in his robe. He'd been bitten and scratched, blood seeping out of the wounds. Mortally injured, her brain whispered in panic. She ran and got her wand and attempted the few healing spells she knew, but the blood kept bubbling up around her fingers when she attempted to put pressure on the wound. She wasn't knowledgeable enough in field medicine to help. "Hold on, let me find someone."
His strong hand wrapped hard on her wrist.
"Just let me die."
"No," she said.
"He bit me," he said. "His venom is in me. Even if I don't die, I'll still have his traits. Don't let me live like that. Just let me go."
He tugged her forward, lips hovering next to hers. Even now, he refused to take things from her. She collapsed against him, letting her lips press against his. Their mouths opened, tongues and heat touching each other. Katie whimpered against him, as it overwhelmed her. He sighed, content, letting his fingers play in her hair.
"Remember what I asked from you," he said.
She shook her head.
"I don't want some ordinary bloke. I just want to be with you."
He looked angry, grabbing the back of her neck with bloody hands.
"You don't. Not really. You just feel abnormally bonded to me because I was kind to you. It will pass."
She shouldn't feel this much at the thought of his death, but she did. And she refused to let him die.
"You can't make that decision for me." She ripped his hands from her and stood up. "You're going to survive today, and then you'll show me who you are. I promise I won't care. After that, we can go back to the cottage and live the rest of our lives by the sea in peace."
His expression turned dark.
"Don't you fucking dare get help."
"Stop being a martyr," Katie said and then she grabbed her wand exiting, finding strength in her mission, though her side ached, fresh blood leaking out.
Katie
Only two hallways down she ran into McGonagall. The old witch looked worn, with her bun out of place, stands of hair falling along her shoulders, clothes burned and torn, but she looked uninjured.
"Katie," she exclaimed, "Are you alright?"
"Someone is dying," she said. "I need help."
Her expression hardened in a serious way, going into battle mode again.
"Show me."
Katie led the way back to the classroom. Her Death Eater's head rested against the stone, hand on his wound. Fenrir's corpse was still folded forward on the ground, on his knees, forehead on the ground.
McGonagall gave a gasp, and her wand came out.
"Stand back, Katie," her old professor said.
But Katie just shoved past her and ran to the Death Eater, throwing her body over his as a shield.
"Please," she begged. "Please help him." Her eyes went to the werewolf. "He saved me. He's good…he…I love him."
The body under her stiffened. He looked even more furious than before, but he must be too tired to say anything because he only grunted.
McGonagall's eyes went from Katie to the werewolf to the Death Eater.
"Who is he?"
"I… I don't know. He never told me."
She sounded stupid. She just told McGonagall she loved a Death Eater while not even knowing his name. Katie blushed with her professor's confusion. But still, the respected witch gave a harsh nod.
"I'll need Pomfrey. She is near the library. Go and get her and come back here. Most of the severe injuries from the others are already stabilized."
Katie nodded, knowing her face was wet with tears, hands sticky with blood, clothes torn. She stood on shaky legs. The pain arrived then. It had been absent before, but it roared down her skin now.
She ignored it as she made her way down the hallway in search of the Hogwarts' healer.
Katie
When she arrived again at the abandoned room, Pomfrey on her arm, McGonagall was out front.
Katie stopped, heart sinking.
"Why aren't you healing him?"
"It's no use."
She tugged her wand out and pointed it at the old lady.
"Go back in and save him."
Her old professor didn't look afraid, only stared down the wand. She let her arms fall by her side.
"I'm sorry, Katie," she said. "It's no use."
"No, no, no," Katie cried in shock. She leaned her weight against the stone, feeling the years of them pass into her skin, the ghosts inside the cracks of mortar. How much loss had these stones seen in a thousand years? How much heartbreak?
"He's gone, Katie," McGonagall said, walking forward and bringing her into her arms before she could slide down. The cries didn't come. Her heart shattered. Nothing else could be squeezed from her.
"Who was he?" She gasped out.
But McGonagall shook her head and didn't answer her question.
"A few order members came by and took his body. He managed to give a confession, and I filtered through his memories for proof. He saved you at the revel, hid you in a cottage from Voldemort, along with Zala. He killed eight of the Death Eaters during the battle and managed to trick fifteen of them with a potion that slowed their reflexes before the fight under the guise of a shot of celebratory firewhisky… I'm so sorry. I know how much he meant to you."
She thought she might see tears in her old Professors eyes. How did she manage to keep going after losing her colleagues and students and friends?
"Here, my dear," Pomfrey said. "Let's get you back to the Great Hall. I'll need to patch your wounds and then you can find some of your friends. After, you might need a few nights stay in St. Mungo's."
Her old professor was looking at her with an odd expression, one she'd pin as regret in another circumstance.
"With the amount of Death Eaters he killed and compromised… I don't think we would have prevailed without him. Even with Voldemort dead, they might have still won. The boy wished to remain anonymous, and I'll respect those wishes for the risks and bravery he displayed. But maybe… maybe someday…"
She shook her head, as if unable to finish. There was an odd tone to her voice, as if she was trying to tell her something essential, a double meaning. But Katie wasn't in the right head space to interpret it. She only could nod, clinging to Pomfrey, as she made her way back to the Great Hall.