Watching

Watching

Chapter 30

I hid when they started to arrive. There were all sorts of people there--Order, Auror, and some not involved in either, ready to fight. When Harry arrived, I decided it was time to make my way somewhere no one would look.

"Athena!"

I froze upon hearing my father's voice.

He quickly had a tight grip on my arm.

"You'd best get home," he said in a deadly voice. "Your husband is out of his mind with worry about you."

"No," I insisted. "I've been cooped up in that house for far too long," I informed him. "I'm not staying there another minute without a fight."

I shook out of his grasp and found my hiding place.

As I watched the battle rage, I saw my husband's unmistakable blonde head in the chaos. I had the distinct feeling he'd come here looking for me.

That was when I decided that it was time for me to come out of my hiding place and begin fighting.

Not caring that it was still illegal, I cast the Cruciatus curse on the nearest Death Eater. He screamed and dropped to the dirt. I walked up to him and yanked off his mask.

Dolohov.

"Remember me?" I asked in his ear. "You cast a little curse on me that nearly took my life." I saw his eyes flash fear and I knew he recognized me. "I'm not giving you that chance," I muttered. "Avada Kedavra," I whispered, the tip of my wand pressed into his back.

"Athena?"

I turned sharply and saw my husband staring at me in shock.

"What?" I demanded.

"You...you just...."

"What of it?" I demanded. "Don't be so surprised, I was a Death Eater, after all, and I told you I've killed before."

"But--"

"Sod off, Draco," I yelled. I turned to look for my next victim.

Lestrange. Bella, as the Dark Lord so affectionately called her.

I heard Draco's breath hitch, though I don't know how. The sounds of the battle were far too loud for me to have heard it. I turned, despite my desire to give Lestrange hell. Draco stared at me, eyes wide, and dropped his wand.

The raging battle was lost to me as I saw the look in his eyes. Blank. Dead.

I felt my breath catch as Draco fell to his knees, the seconds taking an eternity.

The shock left me as his knees hit the rocky dirt and I was at his side in less than a second, despite the feet between us.

"Draco?" I asked, frantic.

"A-Athena?"

"Don't you dare die on me," I ordered, my voice cracking and harsh. "You live," I begged. "Promise me that you'll live!"

"I-I love you..."

His body went limp in my arms.

I let out an agonized scream and cried. I held him close to my chest, trying to tell him how sorry I was without saying anything at all.

My Draco, my dragon, had been slain.

"I love you," I whispered to his deaf body.

I lay him down, fully intent on retrieving him when the battle was over, and started killing every Death Eater I saw.

Every time I would take one, the person he or she was battling would look around in confusion, but I would already be gone, killing the next, as though I were a plague rushing upon them.

Finally, my trail of death lead me to Harry and the Dark Lord.

"Prostemus Nex*!" my brother yelled.

An eerie white-green light shot from the tip of my brother's wand and hit the Dark Lord where his heart would be if he had one.

"Candedus Ignis**!" he shouted next.

Voldemort was consumed in a shining white fire.

"Avada Kedavra," he whispered finally.

Voldemort had become nothing more than a pile of ash.

* Final Death

** Shining White Fire