As I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Chapter 12: Lights Out

Close your eyes, you don’t got no one else to see

Realize exactly what you’ll never be

This time, the curtain’s landing on you

Someday I’m gonna see this come true

I wake up slowly, forcing my eyes open. The room is demolished, ashes and dying flames everywhere. There is a stream of red in my vision. Bringing my hand to my head, I find that it is blood, coming from a rather large gash just under my hairline. How the hell did that happen? I attempt to stand up, but immediately sink back down, clenching my eyes shut once more. Star bursts are going off behind my eyelids. Hot white flashes of pain are coursing through my entire body.

When finally I open my eyes, I take a moment to look around the room. Death Eaters lie on the floor in charred, bloody heaps. My father is crumpled beside Voldemort’s dais, his white blond hair blackened and his robe tangled around him. I know immediately that he is dead, and a knot forms in my stomach. I tear my gaze away with a sick feeling, searching for the girl.

I see her, unconscious (perhaps dead), only a few yards away from me. Gathering all of my strength, I rise on shaky legs and stumble over, collapsing next to her. My legs are coursing with fire, the throbbing in my head increasing. I look down at her. Her hair retains the blood red coloring, and her crimson lips seem even deeper red against her now waxy skin. The slow rise and fall of her chest tells me that she still lives, which is only slightly amazing. The amount of raw magic that she used should have killed her. It would have incinerated a normal witch. But from what I have seen of her, she is far from ordinary.

Not knowing exactly why, I lay one arm over her stomach. Her skin is hot to the touch, almost blistering, and I pull away from her immediately. In that same instant, her eyes fly open.

I barely see the scarlet gleam beneath her lashes before she is on her feet. She doesn’t even seem dizzy, having just awoken from a fainting spell.

"You’re still breathing," she says.

I nod.

"Not for long," she adds, looking pointedly at my chest, where it feels as though a hand is squeezing my heart.

Through clenched teeth, I ask, "Why do you want to kill me?"

"It’s not just you, Draco. It’s all of your kind."

"My kind?" I sneer.

She gestures at the dead bodies around us, at my father.

"You destroyed me. I destroyed you," she states simply.

"What? How the hell did we destroy you?"

"Tom started it. The work of unraveling me."

"Tom?"

She jerked her finger at a pile of ashes where Voldemort had been. "Your former master. He possessed me. I was a weak little girl, and I wanted someone who understood me. No one was better than Tom."

I wanted to ask her what I had to do with her pathetic social life, but I kept my mouth shut. Partially because my throat felt like sandpaper, and partially because her eyes were still glowing like hot coals.

"Then there was Harry. I loved him more than anything. But he was a hero, and he had a destiny. Tom killed him. As well as my father and three of my brothers. I went to the battle that night, intending to help Harry. And I tripped over his dead body."

I had killed Ron. Tortured him by making him watch his girlfriend die, until he begged to join her. Human emotion is a more powerful tool than any wand. My father had boasted about Arthur Weasley’s death, snickering as he told me how the fool had refused to scream. And every one of us had turned to watch the hero fall. It was our highest moment.

"I sought revenge, and I was given the power to get it."

"It will kill you. You’re not strong enough to handle it."

She smirks. That little bitch stole my smirk. "I highly doubt that. If it does, that is a price I am more than willing to pay."

She raises her hand, her eyes narrowing. The air ripples, and I close my eyes in anticipation. Let her kill me. At least I got to see Potter fail at something before I died.

That is my last thought before the life drains out of me.

Before my eyes roll back in my head and my breathing ceases.

Before a little girl with fire red hair slumps to the ground.

Before the red fades to black, and there is no more.

~*fin*~