Edgar Bones

"…That's Edgar Bones, they got him and his family…"

November 26th1980

There was a crash at the end of the hallway, they had broken through his barricade as he had known they would but by Merlin he hoped whomever had shattered his ward had been the one ordered to kill him. It would serve the sick fuck right being punished for their failure, because there was no way after breaking that ward the wanker would be conscious.

It was something Amelia had taught him. The thought of his sister was burning, painful hope. Amelia wasn't home! She was at headquarters for the next week. Even if they wanted the entire Bones clan, the Death Eaters loved to take whole families out, they'd never get Amelia. They would have to send a dozen Death Eaters to take her down anyway. Bright, special perfect Amelia. Edgar had never been grateful to have such a brilliant sister until now. Oh he had been proud of her but standing in Amelia's shadow when you were four years older had been hard. Hearing "why can't you be more like Amelia" had been hard. But now, with anti-apparition charms all around and the sound of manic children running up the stairs, ready to kill him, now he was glad for brilliant Amelia. Now he wished for brilliant Amelia. Amelia would've gotten him out, Amelia would have saved him, Merlin he wished he could see her one more time, hear her promise to protect his family, she would do it he was sure but he would like to hear her -

"It's this one!" A woman cackled outside his door, her voice full of madness, breaking off his frantic thoughts. "It's the only one that's warded!"

They were outside his door. He didn't have long now. His vision swam with images of his family. Lisette, beautiful, wonderful Lisette. Had he told her he loved her that day? And Jeffery, he would never see their son grow up. Merlin he wasn't even walking yet, he would never get to take his son to quiddich or see him off to Hogwarts. There was a sound outside the house and Edgar nearly choked in terror.

Merlin, protect her. He hoped that Lisette didn't come home till they were gone.

He hoped she didn't come home at all. He hoped someone else found him. Someone who would warn Amelia. He hoped Lisette had the sense to go to Amelia. He hoped she didn't cry too much. He hoped she told Jeffrey that he had been strong, that he had been brave. He didn't feel brave, he was scared and he wanted to scream and most of all he wanted to kill the sons of bitches outside his door but if his son couldn't have a father living to tell him about the war he wanted his son to have a father who had died a hero.

A dull thudding had begun on the other side of the door. His ward was throbbing from the energy it was taking in, it would probably kill a few of them – it might even kill him if they kept at it like that, but that would be better than -

"EDGAR!"

The thudding stopped.

His heart dropped.

Lisette.

"You get the screaming bitch, I'll break the ward." A man's voice said outside and the insane woman cackled in response.

And then Edgar's mind stopped working properly.

"NO! LISETTE!"

Edgar had no idea what incantation he spoke but his ward exploded and, as he had hoped, the force sent the man by the door flying into the stone wall behind him and, judging by the blood splattered everywhere, he was dead. Edgar wondered if all the killing he had been privy too and all the fighting he had been doing was rotting his soul because he felt nothing but satisfaction as he stepped over the man's body.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

He didn't even have time to look up and observe his killer but he thought it was the mad woman. For a second he felt a surge of anger at his unknown killer and then – he felt nothing.

X

Amelia lie on her bathroom floor staring at the ceiling. They got Edgar. She had thought she was ready for the emptiness, for the heartbreak of losing Edgar. He was strong, wilful and unrelenting, her childhood idol and best friend, just older and jaded like she had never imagined him becoming. He was a fighter, she had known they would want him but – she had thought when if he died she would have a task, have purpose to protect the little family he would leave behind.

Only he didn't leave them behind. The Death Eaters sent them with him. She picked up a broken glass that lie beside her and threw it violently against the wall, shattered glass showering her legs as the pieces fell to the ground. Fuck the Death Eaters.

She wished that she was still seven and Edgar was her cool older brother back from Hogwarts and she wished that Lisette had been a little smarter and that she had loved Edgar just a little less. But Amelia should have known that Lisette couldn't go on without Edgar and she shouldn't have let Lisette out of the house on her own, Lisette was pretty and kind and many wonderful things but she was not clever.

She'd run in crying, screaming for Edgar when she saw the dark mark. Surely her brain had shut down, perhaps she had stopped caring about life but Amelia didn't believe that. Lisette just didn't think, it was beyond her that the Death Eaters might still be there.

She'd run in crying, screaming for Edgar. She'd run in crying, screaming for Edgar with her baby boy in her arms. Someone else had screamed too, there had been a flash of green and poof. Lisette and Jeffrey were gone too. Amelia should have been there. She would have stopped Lisette at least, she would have saved Edgar at best.

Somewhere downstairs one of her mother's old Christmas records began to play of its own accord and the pressure that was tightly coiled around Amelia's heart burst. A crack and the tinkling of glass falling to the ground told her she had broken the mirror, her first act of accidental magic since she was nine. Amelia Bones, perfect, brilliant Amelia Bones, Head Girl, prefect, genius, friends with all the right people, always perfectly in control of herself, always has it together, Amelia Bones broke.

If she had thought her first Christmas without their parents was hard, it was because she had never imagined Christmas without Edgar.

A/N: So this is officially a series. Each chapter will stand alone and will be centered around a member of the original Order of the Phoenix and the aftermath of their death.

Next up: Marlene McKinnon