AN. I am SO sorry this is so late, I have no excuse, thought I'd published this ages ago. Merry Christmas!! Hope you enjoy!
Evan exited the Hospital Wing, his mind full of questions that had no answers. He walked quickly through the halls, making swift turns and skirting through secret passages like he'd been there his entire life. He arrived at the door to the Transfiguration classroom with minutes to spare and entered to find only Lily there. She looked up as he entered and he smiled weakly.
"How'd you get here this fast," she asked, reaching out to embrace him.
Evan shrugged; he didn't remember much about his journey to the classroom.
"Luck I guess."
She looked at him oddly, most likely detecting the lie. She smiled nonetheless patting the seat next to her. He sat down glancing around the room quickly taking in the rest of his surroundings. They were the only occupants besides the young professor that was straightening papers at her desk. As he looked back at her he thought her recognized something in that face. Something in the sharp lines, in the eagle eyes, something familiar stood out to him in the tight bun and slim body.
"What's the professor's name?" Evan asked leaning over to whisper in Lily's ear.
"Professor McGonagall," Lily said softly, returning to the paper laid out in front of her.
The name seemed to stir up something within him, the name was very familiar. Whether that was comforting was debatable. What would he remember? Evan screwed his eyes shut placing his hands over his head trying to block out the memory.
Pain. Pain was his only thought. It invaded all his senses. His lungs ached, his nose burned, his legs were weary and the pain in his shoulder was excruciating. He winced as his hand brushed his shoulder coming away wet and he lifted it to his face, shocked to see it stained with blood. His shoulder throbbed painfully and he winced. He stepped over another body and knelt down next to a woman lying on the floor. Her breath was ragged but she smiled weakly and moved her hands towards him.
"Katie," he said kneeling beside the woman, "You shouldn't be here."
She laughed weakly and then coughed violently. He laid a hand behind her head helping her up and then setting her head gently back in his lap.
"We can't all be the chosen one, Harry, but we all try and do what we can."
"I don't want you to die;" he said weakly, "Everyone else seems to have."
"Listen to me Harry," Katie said sharply, "I know we've never been the best of friends. And I wish I could change that now…"
She trailed off reaching another coughing fit.
"Everything has changed and I know that, but know this Harry. Remember this moment if you remember nothing else about me. We all love you, Harry. You give people hope and everyone here is willing to die for you. Hell, I am dying for you."
She was crying the tears making fresh lines that stood out on her blood stained face. Harry lifted a hand to his face and was surprised to find it wet. Katie coughed one more time this time more fiercely than before.
"Keep fighting Harry," she said so softly he wasn't sure if he had heard her.
She closed her eyes then and took one last breath before dying.
He turned from her standing up and brushing off his robes, more out of habit than anything, his robes were stained so deeply with blood and grime that it wouldn't matter. He spared a last glance at his friend before turning away for the last time. It was unlikely that they'd have a funeral. Her name would simply be added to the causalities. Tears burned in his eyes yet he wiped them away angrily. There were death eaters to fight.
He started walking and then the screams started. They were harsh and brutal and they were followed by insane laughter. He started running then his feet pounded against the stone floor. He leaped over a pile of bodies and then kept going. And yet he battled on. It wasn't even a conscious choice. One spell after the other his eyes felt blurred and he reached his hand up to wipe the tears from his eyes.
His enemies seemed to fall like dominos against his wand, he didn't look into their faces as he walked past as he once might have, anyone of them may have been one to kill his friends. To kill or be killed.
The screams haunted his mind and he pushed open the heavy door. A woman stood over a prone body. What would normally be a beautiful face was screwed up in a insane smile. She laughed maniacally, and his face turned into a grimace. There was nothing beautiful about this woman.
"Bellatrix," he snarled, raising his wand.
She turned from the elderly woman lying on the floor to face him. Her dark eyes seemed to brighten in delight and he shuddered.
"Isn't it wee bitty, Potter?" she mocked her voice high and screeching, grating on his last nerve.
"Crucio," he called.
She dodged easily and the sickly yellow spell hit the wall behind her. She smiled in delight.
"Have you grown up then, Potty? Using grown up spells now?"
"Avada Kedavra," he growled, she dodged it again.
"Crucio," she called and he sunk to the ground.
It was like white hot knives sinking into his flesh, but he gazed at her daring her to continue. She growled in frustration increasing the spell power. The knives sunk deeper but he lifted his arm, his wand raised. She raised an eyebrow, daring him.
"Avada Kedavra."
She collapsed her eyes wide with shock. The pain stopped, and he rolled his shoulders, immediately regretted it. He rushed to the side of the woman that Bellatrix had tortured, wincing at each step.
"Professor," he questioned the woman wearily.
She blinked open dark eyes and her thin lips gave him a weak smile.
"Potter," she said.
"You're not going to die," he told her.
"I'm afraid so," she said so matter of factly that it made him want to cry.
"I've had enough pain in this lifetime. It's time to join them, finally."
She closed her eyes and let out a long deep breath that held a note of finality. Harry lay his head down and sobbed. Not really because he would miss his old Professor, though he would, not because he was really surprised that she had died, she'd hung in there for a long time. He cried because everyone he knew and loved was leaving him, layers of his very being stripped away until he was all alone.
"Evan," Lily's voice came around again, "Are you okay?"
"What happened?" he said immediately.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Lily," she said slowly, and he let out a breath.
"Sorry," he said to her, "I've not been myself lately."
She smiled reassuringly, and patted his back. But her eyes were worried and unsure.
"Good morning class," Professor McGonagall stated, and Evan was surprised to find that the empty classroom was full to the brim.
"Today we will be learning to animate objects. Animation can serve many purposes; is their anyone here who can tell me one of those purposes?"
Everyone seemed to whisper amongst themselves trying to come up with a suitable answer.
"They are best suited to be used in a duel to distract an opponent or to protect yourself from an oncoming spell."
An old man whirled his wand, dust and glass swirling in the air. He stood against a man with a face like a snake, his view was blocked by a golden statue that seemed to keep him safe from harm, yet trapped him against the wall.
"Very good, Mr. Adamson is it? 20 points to Gryffindor."
"Thank you, Professor," he said, but she had already turned away.
"What Mr. Adamson has said is true; however it also takes a great deal of effort to keep any animation going for long. I would like for you all to try and animate these miniature statues."
Evan sighed, twirling his wand between his fingers, sparks flying out in a rainbow of colors. Twirling it faster, bubbles started to float to the ceiling.
"Don't do that?" she snapped.
"What?" he asked her innocently, but he stopped twirling.
She scowled at the statue the plump Hufflepuff boy had just handed her.
"I'm not that good at Transfiguration," she mumbled.
"Really?" Evan asked, with a crooked smile.
He flicked his wand, with an almost lazy gesture. The miniature dog leaped to his face. Chasing its tail. Lily was too preoccupied glaring at her own statue that she didn't notice the dog until it crawled up her sleeve and licked her ear.
She shrieked knocking the dog towards the ground, where it broke into a hundred pieces.
"Jeez, Lily," Evan said, eyeing the broken pieces of the dog skeptically, "Calm down."
Lily groaned, staring at the tortoise she was supposed to be animating with a death glare. Evan sighed, the memories of the battle still haunting his mind. It was hard to concentrate on something as simple as transfiguring a statue.
"Here," he said, showing her the wand motion again, "concentrate on the statue. Transfiguration is a lot about focus, it isn't like charms where you can just will it with your mind, with no thought whatsoever."
Once he thought she had a handle on the spell he stood.
"It seems a silly spell to know when you sit in a classroom waving your wand at it, but let me show you its use."
He summoned a small statue of a bird, the girl who had been practicing on it giving him a death glare. He simply smiled at her as if he had done nothing wrong.
"Duel me," he said calmly.
Lily looked at him like he was insane.
"Why would I do that?"
"Because," he said, with an impatient sigh, "You need the practice and I will show you the use of the spell."
She put her hand on her lips and stared at him in a way that reminded him of someone else. He just couldn't put his finger on it.
"And you don't?"
"Get in your stance," he said, pulling back his arm holding his wand and setting the bird off to the side, positioning it on the desk.
"Stupefy," he called, a burst of red light bursting out of his wand.
Lily ducked immediately and it flew over her head.
She responded immediately, her wand bursting into action.
"Flippendo," he could hear her mutter.
Harry jumped, the spell pushing the desk behind him out of the way. Lily's eyes widened as his spells came quickly out of his wand, her wand racing to keep up with him. She sent him a particularly nasty hex and with a quick and complex motion from his wand the stone bird leaped into the air, enlarging itself and leaping in front of the oncoming curse. It exploded into a million pieces, spraying both himself and Lily.
Dust seemed to be everywhere, clouding his own vision as well as Lily's. He quickly cast a summoning charm and her wand flew into his outstretched hand.
"Simple," he told her and the assembled class as they all sat watching him in awe, "the charm served to work both it's purposes. To protect me from harm and to distract you, all in one fowl swoop. Now, if the statue had been more durable, mad of say gold-"
The imagine of a golden statue leaping in front of an old man to protect him from a sickly green light once more flashed across his mind.
"-the statue wouldn't have exploded and I would have continued dealing. It's a sort of movable shield."
He could see Professor McGonagall at the front of the classroom with a twinkle in her eye.
"Excellent lesson there, Mr. Adamson," she said, "if I may have a word with you outside of class."
As if her words were magic, the bell rung releasing all the students from the classroom. Lily smiled at him, bending her head and saying, "I'll wait for you outside the door."
"How did you know how to cast like that?" McGonagall said, straightening the desks from where they'd been tossed aside during the duel.
"It comes naturally, m'am."
"Yes," she said seriously, "I can definitely see that."
She leaned against the desk, removing her glasses from the bridge of her nose, so she could replace them from her hand. She suddenly looked so much older than she really was. So more wearied by the world. Evan's mind flashed briefly to the scene of his dying Professor. It was odd that he would compare the two woman, as they seemed nothing a like. But there was a similar look in this young woman's eyes.
"The world needs as many young duelers as we can get, Mr. Adamson."
"I know that m'am. I want to do what I can."
"I know you do, son," she sighed, "What I'm suggesting you do is start a sort of organization almost. A club maybe?"
"A club, Professor? To do what?"
"To duel."