fanfic by volly
harry potter (c) j.k. rowling
...
Title: Veil
Theme(s): look over here, jolt, gardenia, perfect blue, red, violence, cradle
Notes:
I was upset when I wrote this. Could you tell?
Spoilers: mentions an event in the 6th book. Otherwise, everything here is pure fiction.
...
"Ginny?"
And the girl--no, young woman--in question whirled, the incantantion for one of her notorious bat-bogey hexes just on the very tip of her tongue. However, the sight that greeted her caused her to give a start and lower her wand guiltily. "Hi Dean. Sorry, I'm a bit skittish."
"Isn't everybody?" Dean smiled, but it was a sad and empty one. He hadn't offered a true smile in months, it seemed. Ever since Seamus' death, he'd never quite been the same.
Ginny nodded, slipping her wand carefully up one tattered sleeve. "What's going on? Something you needed to tell me?"
"...yes." Her friend hesitated, and a familiar panic flared up in Ginny's heart. It was the same pause Harry used when first relaying news of Lupin's assassination. It was the same pause Hermione used when she tearfully admitted that her Muggle family had been massacred. It was the same pause her own brother Ron Weasley used when he finally mustered up the strength to inform her of the death of one of her very own older siblings, Charlie the dragon tamer.
That pause was never a good thing.
"Who is it this time, Dean?" Ginny spoke softly, but wearily. Over time, the deaths started to harden you until with every new name spoken you started to care less and less. It was frightening, but necessary in a world as cruel as theirs, in the war that never seemed to end.
"I...I think you should come with me." And the youth spun on one heel, beckoning to Ginny to follow him over the battlements. A particularly gruesome mass fight had broke out here in what used to be a pleasant, unnamed British hamlet. Bodies, Death Eater and Order member alike, were strewn carelessly across the once verdant grass, staining the ground a deep, forbidding red.
It was sickly, but Ginny strode across the weeping carcasses without looking away. She was used to such violence now.
Dean slowed as he neared the residential zone, where it had all began. The muggle houses that had once stood there were now no more than large piles of chipped wood and melted metal, or charred mounds of ashes from the Death Eaters' sadistic Incendio spells. A lonely gardenia lay quietly amongst the destruction, the flowers long since having been trampled into dust, the trees long since having been torched down to the ground. Ginny gave her accomplice a curious look as the other allowed himself inside the barren courtyard, but stepped inside warily.
"Look over here."
A stump, blackened to coal. A figure lying against the shadowy support, breathing shallowly. The violent jolt of recognition as the dying character opened her eyes, the perfect blue of her gaze capturing and locking onto Ginny's own.
"Luna!" The redhead raced forwards with a cry of dismay, collapsing to her knees next to her fading friend. Luna Lovegood gave a weak cough and a sigh of disappointment.
"I thought...Dean...I told you not to call her...?"
"I didn't want you to have to die alone," Dean responded simply, glancing away. "Not like he did."
Not like Seamus, whose name was to be banned forevermore from Dean Thomas' prescence. Luna shook her head in resignation, her eyes lidding a bit before blinking wide in astonishment as something wet landed on her cheek.
Ginny was crying. She had never cried before, not even for Charlie when he'd been slain by the giants in his attempt to protect the dragons. She had never cried since the day of Dumbledore's departure, and had vowed viciously to Luna herself that she would forget such acts, such shows of weakness and defeat. She had never cried, never allowed herself to shed a single tear for each acquaintance who'd passed away in the war, until now.
"Ginny? Don't cry." Luna mustered a smile and attempted to lift a hand. However, her muscles weren't working very well--apparently someone had decided to pull a Sectumsemptra on the Ravenclaw. Or two. Or twenty. Her torso was nearly shredded apart, deep gashes raking across her chest and limbs, with a lonely, vicious cut right across her throat. It was a wonder how she could even talk.
"I'm not! I won't! You can be saved, I'm sure of it," Ginny shakily withdrew her wand from her robes, forcing herself to be calm as she whispered healing spells over Luna's various wounds.
"It won't work." And it didn't. Luna knew that her injuries were fatal. She had lost too much blood and muscle already, and was certain that one of the Sectumsemptra attacks had nicked a lung. "Ginny? Don't worry, please? Don't worry about me. I'll be alright."
The redhead hiccupped, trying to swallow back more tears and stifle the urge to snap her wand in half, instead opting to pull her friend closer to herself, cradling Luna's broken body closer, hugging Luna closer like it would help keep her on earth, keep her alive. How come the charms weren't working? Why weren't Luna's slashes magicking themselves well again?
And how could the Ravenclaw act so calm about dying?
"I'm going, Ginny," Luna murmured, raising her gaze to the sky. "But...try not to hang on to me so tightly, okay? Don't be like Dean."
"Luna...?"
"You're still alive, Ginny," the Ravenclaw breathed, lids flickering shut. It was too much of an effort to keep them open for much longer. "Live, won't you? Don't follow me. I'm not afraid of death...as a matter of fact, I'm sure it'll be exciting..."
Her voice was softening, dwindling to an almost inaudible volume. Ginny gave a hollow wail, crushing Luna's body, holding Luna's head to her neck, unaware of the tears that flickered freely from her eyes, splashing down and mixing with the red of Luna's blood. "Don't leave me, please...?"
Luna pressed a last soft kiss to the Ginny's collar, her lips freezing into a dreamy smile. "I...won't..."
And the Ravenclaw flickered away, leaving her friend heartbroken in the sterile gardenia, still cradling her bloodstained corpse like one would a comfort toy. Luna's last few words echoed in Ginny's mind like she had screamed them out loud.
"...I'll see you behind the veil."