Watching

Watching

Chapter 31

Everyone had stopped fighting to watch Harry and the Dark Lord fight.

Now we all stared in breathless shock.

Three years...it had taken three years for us to reach this moment. Now, few of us could believe that it had actually arrived.

What do we do now?

A shrill cry broke through the air.

"NO!"

Bellatrix fell to her knees.

"MASTER!"

I chuckled despite myself. He was a pile of dust and she was grieving.

But on the bright side, it got the remaining Aurors into action. The began to arrest the Death Eaters and I was suddenly very grateful that I had changed sides before it had been too late.

But now I had a new life in front of me. One without war, without fear, without chaos...but most of all, without Draco.

I went back to my fallen dragon and knelt at his side.

"Are you really gone?" I whispered, brushing the hair from his marble face. Cold, just as marble.

"Athena?"

"Save the reprimand for another time, father," I requested, not bothering to look up or away from my dragon's face.

"I wasn't going to punish you, Athena," he confessed. "I was going to help you get him back to the manor."

"Why?" I whispered. "Why did he have to follow me?" Why did he have to drop his guard? Why did he have to die?"

I wanted him to open his eyes, to say that he was joking, to wrap his arms around me....

I felt a sob rising and made no move to hold it in.

I lay on his chest and I sobbed. I cried for every horrible thing I had ever done to him, for not listening to him in his moment of fear, for being so bitter and spiteful that I had caused this. I sobbed because I never had the chance to tell him how sorry I was, I sobbed because I knew I could never love another as I had him. I sobbed as I had never sobbed before.

I had been vile, arrogant, self-centered, angry, vicious....

I cried harder, wishing I could tell him how sorry I was. How sorry I am. I wished he would open his eyes so I could see their crystal clear depths and tell him how much I loved him.

I wanted to hear his heart beating, like I had so many times before.

Why? Dear Merlin, why did he have to die?

And who had cast the curse that took him?

I heard a bitter laughter behind me.

"You may have taken our Lord, Mab, but we've slain your dragon!"

I whipped around to see Lestrange being held by two Aurors.

"Did you do this?" I demanded.

She laughed sinisterly.

I pulled out my wand and held it to her throat.

"Let me have her," I said to the Aurors.

"What do you plan to do with her?" the female one asked.

I glared at the person. "I plan to kill her!" I screamed. "She killed my husband, she deserves to die!"

"And what curse do you plan on using?" she asked.

"The Killing Curse," I answered simply.

"You're lucky the Minister okayed the use of the Unforgivables on Death Eaters during battle. Technically, the battle's over, but..." she looked to her partner. "What do you think, Shackelbolt?" she asked.

The tall, bald, black man nodded. "Hand her over, Tonks," he said.

The fear on Bellatrix's eyes was priceless.

"Avada Kedavra," I said, my wand still lodged in her throat. She went limp and fell to the ground. "Thank you," I said, turning back to Draco.

My father stared at me in shock.

"How many times have you used that curse?" he asked.

"Three," I answered. Killing Death Eaters during the battle had been with different curses. I hadn't actually used the Killing Curse on them because I hadn't known whom I was killing and didn't know if I truly wanted them dead. And some random Death Eater wasn't someone I really wanted to kill. However, learning that Bella had been the to kill Draco, I wanted her dead more than anything else in that moment.

"Three?" my father asked in shock. "And who, may I ask, have you killed with that curse?"

"Lestrange, Dolohov, and that babysitter you used to get for me before you sent me to the Malfoys," I answered.