Why We Fight

Red Raven

Story Summary:
A mess-up in Potions sends Draco and Hermione to the past where they meet a couple much like them. Hermione & Draco, James & Lily.

Chapter 40 - Darkness Descends

Chapter Summary:
When Draco and Hermione attempt their first date, things go horribly awry.
Posted:
08/31/2011
Hits:
300

Part 40:
Darkness Descends
(Friday, December 2, 1977)

"Would you like to go with me to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Draco said. "No." He shook his head no. "If you're not doing anything tomorrow, would you like to hang out with me in Hogsmeade?"

"Oh, of course, Drakey-wakey," James called in a high-pitched girly voice. "I would absolutely wub to spend time with you."

Draco turned to face the gangly, black-haired boy and scowled as James, Sirius, and Peter entered the Head Boy's room. "You're asking her out on a date," Sirius said. "It's really not that difficult."

"How would YOU go about it?" Draco huffed.

Sirius smiled, showing perfectly-straight, pearly-white teeth and dimples in his cheeks. He moved toward Draco, causing Draco to unconsciously back away. The blonde grunted as he backed into the wall. Sirius placed a hand on the wall a little above Draco's shoulder. Sirius's smile turned into a full-on grin in his tanned face, revealing another dimple in his chin. "So, Hermione," he said finally. "I was wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade. You and me and a nice romantic evening at Madame Puddifoot's." Sirius smirked and stood up, pulling himself to his full height, a few inches taller than Draco's wiry frame.

"You actually used that on Hermione?" Draco asked with a hint of disbelief.

"It actually took a few tries," Sirius admitted, rubbing the nape of his neck.

"She got sick of him hitting on her so she finally gave in," Peter piped up. He paused and thought it over. "I think it took twelve times?"

Sirius pouted, and Draco rolled his eyes. "But it worked on a lot of girls," Sirius defended himself, casting a glare at the chubby, beady-eyed boy.

"Hermione isn't a lot of girls," Draco replied.

---

When Hermione entered the Head Common Room, she found Lily hunched over and glaring at a paper spread out on the table. Her jaw was set, and Hermione could tell she was grinding her teeth. "Bad test?" Hermione asked, and Lily turned to look at her.

Lily's face was pale and drawn as she stared at the newspaper spread out on the table before her. Hermione's gaze turned to the paper. It took her a moment to realize what it was. In the corner of the fifth page of the Daily Prophet was a barely-noticeable blurb.

DEATH EATERS
On November 5, a group of wizards calling themselves "Death Eaters" attacked South Lancashire during a Muggle holiday called "Guy Fawkes Night." 15 are believed dead, and numerous people were injured. Several teams of Aurors were called on-site to fix memories.

Hermione stared at it for a moment and then turned to the front page: "WEIRD SISTERS PLAY STONEHENGE". Hermione sat beside Lily, a look of shock on her face. "Fifteen people are dead, their families ruined, and all the paper can talk about is the Weird Sisters?" she asked, her voice a bit breathy.

Lily nodded, and Hermione looked at her. "Muggles don't count, don't you know?" Lily's voice was poisonous. The brunette was taken aback by her rage, but she clearly understood what Lily felt. "There are people being killed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters daily, and the paper only talks about it occasionally. Muggle-borns are being killed, too. They don't matter either. The paper occasionally talks about it. Haven't you seen how letters have dropped off for a lot of Muggle-borns? A lot of their families are being killed, but no one cares because they're not pure. They're Mudbloods. Well, you know what, Hermione? I AM a Mudblood, and I am DAMN proud of it. "

Hermione stared at Lily, mouth agape. She had never seen anyone talk about being a Mudblood as if it was a good thing. "They talk about us, like we're dirty, like we're not good enough. But, I make the best grades in the entire school, I can make something out of nothing," she said. "I can wield a wand better than those inbred purebloods any day of the year. And I don't have to hurt someone to prove it. They're worse than Guy Fawkes. Some people consider him a hero, strangely enough. But he wanted to destroy the government to just set up a puppet government for the Pope."

"I know all about Guy Fawkes night," Hermione said. "My parents used to talk about begging for 'a penny for the guy.' They had a lot of fun. I mean, where I come from, they don't really talk much about Death Eaters. It took them a long time to accept they even existed."

"Someone needs to stop this Voldemort guy before he destroys all of us," Lily said simply.

Hermione's brown eyes met Lily's green ones. "Someone will," Hermione assured Lily.

---

Saturday, December 3, 1977

At breakfast the next morning, Hermione took note of the lack of owls delivering letters and felt her stomach drop. She wondered how many of the people in this room had lost loved ones to Voldemort and the Death Eaters. She sat at the Slytherin table as far away from the others as she could manage. How many of the people at her table were Death Eaters? It made her sick. How come people could think of Muggles and Muggle-borns as less than human? If anything, Muggle-borns should be appreciated for the sheer fact that they had overcome their family's lack of magic to become witches and wizards themselves.

She felt guilt rise in her. She had pretty much disowned her family once she had gotten to Hogwarts. It was like they were in two different worlds; which they were. She hadn't really even tried to bridge the gap; she mostly just ended fights with "it's a wizarding thing, you wouldn't understand." She resolved that if she ever got back home, she would try to make amends. If it wasn't too late. Suddenly, it hit her. Voldemort was free in her time, flanked by a bunch of Death Eaters. If they were killing people in this time, what was to stop them from killing people in her time?

She paled noticeably, her freckles stark against her suddenly-pallid skin. What if her parents were already dead? Voldemort knew who she was; knew that she was one of Harry's closest friends. She had no idea how long she'd been gone in her present time. It could have been instantaneous, days, weeks, months. Had it been even longer than that? She had been so lost in the past that she hadn't really been thinking about what had been going on in her present. Were the people she had known even still alive? Would she ever see them again?

It had been three months since she and Draco had ended up in the past, and she had settled in. Winter break was fast approaching. Then Easter Break. Hermione wouldn't have any trouble staying at the school for the breaks, but what would she do for summer break? She swallowed hard, panic rising in her chest. How would she be able to stand back and let her newfound friends die? "Hermione, are you okay?" Draco's voice came from behind before he slid onto the bench beside her.

"I'm alright," she said. Her voice was soft and heavy with emotion.

"You don't look alright," he said with concern.

"Do you ever think of home?" she asked.

The barest hint of a smile quirked his lips, giving his angular face a smooth, boyish look. "All the time," he admitted. "I miss my parents not hitting on me. My mum also made -- makes, will make -- the best treacle."

"Your mom cooks?" Hermione asked, examining the blonde woman at the end of table. She gesticulated to a group of girls surrounding her like a queen attending her court. "I have trouble believing that."

"Just because we have house-elves doesn't mean that Mum isn't a regular June Cleaver."

"You know who the Cleavers are?" She paused for a moment. "Peter."

"Peter," Draco repeated. "But I'd miss the boys more. I never really had friends before."

"Shocking," she said sarcastically. "You weren't exactly Mr. Congeniality."

"And I am now?" he asked.

"Sometimes," Hermione replied. "You've definitely grown up since we've been here."

"Is that so?" The curly-haired brunette nodded. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Hmmm...I'll have to think about that," she said, smiling slightly.

"Am I grown up enough to go out on a date with you?" Draco asked. Hermione looked up at him with surprise.

"You're trying to seduce me, Mr. Malfoy, aren't you?"

Draco blanched. "Merlin, don't ever call me that again," he said. "I still have nightmares about my dad hitting on us."

Hermione bit back a smile but couldn't suppress a couple of snickers. "Deal," she said. "I'd like that. The date thing. With you."

Draco grinned, showing off his dimples. Hermione couldn't resist a smile herself. "How about this afternoon? Hogsmeade?"

"As long as we avoid Madame Puddifoot's," she said. "It's so...cheesy."

"Sirius?"

Hermione nodded. "Sirius," she replied with a roll of her eyes. "He thought it had ambiance." She wrinkled her nose in distaste.

Draco chuckled. "That sounds like Sirius," he said. He gave Hermione a peck on the cheek and walked over to the Gryffindor table.

"She said yes?" Peter asked.

A stupid grin crossed Draco's lips. "She said yes," he said.

Sirius polished his nails on his robe. "Works every time," Sirius stated.

Draco shook his head no. "I didn't use your approach," he replied.

"But...but...it's classic," Sirius stammered.

"She didn't like Madame Puddifoot's either," Draco said.

"But women love it..." Sirius started.

"What'd I miss?" James asked as he sat down by Sirius. His hair was more mussed than usual, his tie rather askew. He straightened his tie and glasses as Lily sat on his other side. She looked somewhat mussed herself.

"Draco and Hermione have a date," Peter said in a sing-song voice.

"Congratulations," Lily said. James kissed her forehead and draped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. Her arm slid around his waist under his robes.

"Ugh. I can't take this," Sirius whined. He looked at Peter. "James has got a date. Draco's got a date. I guess it's just you and me, Wormtail." Peter shook his head no. "You? You've got a date, too."

Peter nodded, his eyes looking at a girl sitting at the Hufflepuff table. "With Marlene McKinnon." His eyes looked across the room at a chubby girl with pigtails. She gave him a little wave, and he grinned wide; his face turning a brilliant shade of red.

Sirius banged his head on the table. "Maybe if you weren't such a pain, then you'd actually have dates," a voice came from behind. The three boys looked to see Remus.

"Moony," James said with a grin. "It's good to see you again."

The sandy-haired boy sat across the table. "Yeah, well, I had a lot of time to think. It's your choice," he said, swallowing hard. Now, he looked at Sirius. "There's still a lot of time."

Lily looked curiously at Remus. "Did I miss something?" she asked.

"Nothing to worry your pretty little head over," James stated, and Lily elbowed his side hard.

"Don't patronize me," Lily stated.

"I wouldn't dare," he said. That earned him another elbow from his girlfriend, and Sirius snickered.

"Love hurts," Sirius stated.

"So it would seem," James said. "So, Lily, my love, what would you like to do today?"

"I think you've earned clothes shopping," Lily stated. James looked pained.

Sirius grinned. "Maybe it's not so bad. I'm a lone wolf. Sole survivor ..." he started. Then he slumped over and rested his cheek on his hand. "That really sounds boring."

"We could hang out," Remus suggested with a shrug.

"Sounds good. A lot more fun than clothes shopping," Sirius said, sending a snide look at James.

"Swimsuit shopping," Lily said with a grin.

"James, my man, can we come along?" Sirius asked, his pale-blue eyes widening. "Pretty please?"

"Eh. Nah," James said, brushing a strand of Lily's auburn hair out of her face.

Sirius looked at Remus. "Well, I guess that makes it official. Everybody's paired off. You ever think that the world's a giant game of musical chairs, and the music's stopped, and we're the only ones who don't have a chair?" Remus arched a brow in response.

---

Hermione and Draco sat in the Three Broomsticks, nursing butterbeers. So far, it had been an awkwardly silent date. "You look really lovely," Draco said.

Hermione seemed startled that the lengthy silence had been broken and jerked, nearly knocking her drink off the table. She smiled sheepishly and scooted the drink back toward the center of the table. She looked down at the simple pale-blue dress she wore.

"Thanks, you look good, too," she said. He wore a silver button-up shirt and black slacks. "Your eyes really are amazing with that color."

Draco blushed. "Oh, my God! Did you just blush?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," he said dramatically. She giggled. There was another silence; more companionable, less awkward.

The brunette looked past Draco's shoulder and cocked her head curiously. He turned around to follow her line of sight. In the corner, a couple were snuggling and kissing over a drink with two straws. It took the blonde a moment before he realized who they were: his parents. He rolled his eyes, but realized that his parents' snogging was much, much better than his mother attempting to snog him. Lucius Malfoy only had eyes for Narcissa.

"Wow..." Hermione said. "They seem...cozy."

The blonde winced. "We've seen them cozier," he stated. She grimaced at the memory. "They've always been like that. Just not half-naked like that one time...that I am still vainly trying to forget."

"I thought they were betrothed?" she said.

"They were," he replied. He took a sip from his butterbeer. "Betrothal is...it's complicated. Sometimes, you find a real love match. My grandparents hated each other -- I'm pretty sure that she poisoned him. Whilst Grandfather's brother found a real love match with someone just as stone-cold crazy as he was."

"Grandfather's brother?"

"Padfoot's dad," Draco explained. "Some arranged marriages are a happily ever after; many aren't. My parents got lucky. It's part of the joy of being a pureblood."

"I understand that," she finally said.

"You do?"

"My grandparents have peerage," she said. At his confused look, she elaborated, "They're titled; the upper class. My grandfather's an earl. They raised my mother like that. She was part of high society, but rebelled when she was of age. She refused to be a trophy wife, marrying for money and title. She went to dental school, and that's where she met my dad. I was the Rumpelstiltskin child."

"'Rumpelstiltskin child'?"

"My parents gave me to my grandparents whenever they wanted me to keep my grandparents appeased. I spent my summers at my grandparents' estate, learning etiquette and all of the things every young lady needs to know," she said, rolling her doe-brown eyes heavenward. "Which forks to use, what words to use. That sort of thing."

A sad smile crossed Draco's full lips. "It's not all it's cut out to be, is it?" he asked. She shook her head in the negative. "You never told me that before."

She shrugged. "You never asked. I mean, when we were friends back in first year, we were only friends for sixty-one days."

"Sixty," he said. "Remember. It was September second, and I was hiding from Pansy in the library--"

"The last place she'd ever look," Hermione added. "You ran into me and knocked my books out of my hands. I got angry at you."

"And I was about to yell at you for getting in my way, when I saw what you were reading," he said. "You were actually reading The Alchymst. You were the first person I ever met that had an interest in alchemy."

"It's a dead art," she said. "People just took bits and pieces and applied it to Arithmancy and Runes."

He chuckled. "That's exactly what you said then," he replied. "Then you said, 'I can't wait until I get to take Runes and Arithmancy.' You're one of a kind, Hermione Granger. I shouldn't have listened to my parents. I should have stayed friends with you."

"You should have, but that's in the past now."

"Technically, in the future." He shook his head. "This entire thing still gives me a headache. But I think it's been good for us."

"The past thing?" she inquired. "But -- think about it -- if we were in our own time, this wouldn't be happening. I'd probably be with Harry and Ron at Zonko's or Honeydukes. You'd be--"

"Here, probably, with Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle."

"And if we saw each other, it'd be snide remarks and taunting," she added. Her finger began to trace the wood grain on the table. "If we went back, what would happen?"

"First off, I'd need a lot of therapy," he stated with a quirk of his full lips.

Hermione chuckled. "Well, that's an understatement," she said. "Then what?"

Draco didn't get to reply. Suddenly, there was a tremendous explosion. Draco grabbed Hermione and dragged her under the table. The ground shook and mugs crashed to the ground, smashing their contents to the floor. The front window imploded, spraying glass throughout the pub. A shard of glass sliced open Draco's cheek, drawing a long line just below his left cheekbone.

The blonde grunted; the thin line growing red as blood colored it. "I can..." Hermione started.

"It's not that bad." Draco wiped the blood off his face with the sleeve of his shirt and looked up toward the broken window. The air was filled with a jaundiced light, and he stood up. "Stay here," he hissed at Hermione. He picked his way through the debris. No one seemed really hurt as far as he could tell; they were more stunned.

The brunette gave him a look. "Not on your life," she said, following him. They peered out the window frame to find the quaint cobblestone street that was now a crater, smoking with vile, brimstone-tainted smoke. "Oh, my God..."

The smoke bubbled through the street, choking the people with the stench of rotten eggs. Hermione moved to climb out the window, and Draco grabbed her arm. "No," he ordered.

She squinted, and she could make out shadows in the foul-smelling smoke. The smoke began to clear, and the shadows took shape. Death Eaters. More than Hermione had ever seen before. In the middle was a tall, dark-haired, handsome older man with black hair and graying temples. He was the only one not wearing a mask. He carried himself with confidence, surveying the destruction with the barest hint of a smile. Chills ran down Hermione's smile. This was Voldemort.

"It's a sad state of affairs," he finally spoke. "Mudbloods and half-bloods, and disgusting Muggle-lovers have taken over our world. They pollute our blood, creating Squibs, worthless creatures with no magic whatsoever." He looked over the people who peered out of the shops.

The smoke dissipated completely, and Hermione and Draco could make out a woman being dragged to Voldemort. She was vaguely familiar to Hermione; it took her a moment before she realized that the woman was Delia, the Frenchwoman from the shop where Hermione and Lily had done their Halloween shopping. She struggled vainly against the two Death Eaters that were bringing her to their lord. "Mudbloods are integrating themselves into our daily lives, taking over the few pure Wizarding towns still left behind. Muggles taint everything."

Voldemort grabbed Delia's chin, squeezing it between his long fingers, and she began to plead in French. "I don't speak French."

"We have to help her!" Hermione said, jumping through the window, Draco on her tail. Before Hermione could reach the woman, a stream of green light hit the middle of her chest, and she collapsed. Hermione stopped mid-step, staring at Delia with horror.

Hermione had never seen anyone die before, and bile rose up her throat as she remembered how she had wished she could see thestrals only a few months before. It was so quick, so...brutal. One second, there was that spark of life and then there was nothing but an empty shell. Voldemort stepped over the corpse, the hem of his robes brushing her face.

He took a few steps forward as another figure was dragged toward him. A tall, pretty, slender redhead was between two hulking men. She fought, kicking and lashing out at the men as much as she could. Hermione and Draco realized that the young woman was Lily.

Behind her, two even bigger men held James. He was fighting hard, giving the two men a beating, but they still held him tightly. "Crucio!" Voldemort growled. James ground his teeth hard, doubling over. James's chest heaved as the dark wizard kept his wand trained on him.

A few others were racing toward Voldemort as well, Hermione picked out Peter, Sirius, and Remus. All of them had their wands drawn and came in from different directions. A cold smile twisted the Dark Lord's handsome face.

With a twitch of Voldemort's wand, almost like a conductor conducting an orchestra, Peter doubled over and screamed, falling to his knees. Remus grumbled something under his breath, and one of the men holding James was thrown back. The other man was taken aback by the loss of his partner, and James body-checked the Death Eater, effectively freeing himself.

James tackled one of the men holding Lily, and dragged her away from her second captor. Hermione, Draco, Remus, Sirius, and Peter -- who had recovered from the hex that Voldemort had sent his way -- joined Lily and James in front of the Dark Lord. "Isn't this sssweet," Voldemort said, his voice hissing. "All of this trouble for a Mudblood."

"Don't call her that!" James growled, pulling Lily in close and protecting her with his body. Hermione looked around, swallowing hard as she realized that the Death Eaters had formed a tight ring around them. She tried to see around them, but was unable to do so. It didn't look like anyone would help them so they would have to fight this on their own. Her hand twined with Draco's, squeezing it tightly.

Draco swallowed hard, looking around. Even with the masks on, he could make out who some of them were. "Go for Rosier; he's weak, he'll take down Dolohov and Rodolphus." He nodded toward one of the figures. Hermione nodded. Ah, yes, Dolohov, the monster who had attacked her in the Ministry of Magic.

"This doesn't look good for our young heroes," a voice came and Hermione immediately recognized it as Professor Faust's. Well, that explained a lot.

"Padfoot," Remus said. "Head toward the Three Broomsticks. Wormtail, Gladrags. Prongs, take Lily toward Zonko's. Whiskers, head toward the Hog's Head. If we each go a different direction, we might stand a better chance. Breaking them into smaller groups."

Voldemort muttered a curse under his breath and the group of Gryffindors and a Slytherin were frozen in place. He grabbed Lily by her hair and dragged her away from the rest of the group. The Death Eaters parted to let their leader out from the ring. He pulled Lily to the center of the street. "You see this...THING right here?" he hissed. "This disgusting creature is a Mudblood. If you value yourselves, you will join me in destroying them all."

The redhead used his momentary distraction to jab an elbow hard into the Dark Lord's solar-plexus. A perplexed look came over his face for a split-second before he doubled over, clutching his abdomen. Lily raced forward, her wand dancing through the air. Three of the Death Eaters were thrown aside, giving the people trapped between the Death Eaters an escape route.

Draco, Hermione, Peter, Remus, Sirius, and James shot out through the opening. "Stupefy!" Draco shouted, stunning a Death Eater.

Almost at the same time, Sirius let out a cry of "Stupefy!" and another Death Eater was stunned. The Death Eaters and Voldemort were startled by the fact that the seven people were actually intending to fight them. The bewilderment was temporary before they started fighting back. One of the Death Eaters lashed out with his wand, and Hermione grunted as her breath was temporarily knocked out of her.

Draco grabbed her and dragged her behind the corner of one of the buildings in Hogsmeade's main street. "We have to get them out of town," she said, panting hard. "There are too many people here. They could be killed."

"Yeah, I'm more worried about us right now," Draco said, ducking out from behind the building to lob a spell at one of the Death Eaters. The Death Eater returned with a spell that hit the corner of the building they stood behind. The two flattened themselves against the wall, getting littered by a spray of brick dust.

Hermione peered around the crumbling corner of the building. "Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, and a Death Eater collapsed. She was able to use the curse once more on another Death Eater before retaliation, more brick dust caked Draco and Hermione, and a chunk of brick scraped Hermione's arm. She looked to Draco, panting. "I'm not sure how much longer we can hold them off."

In the distance, she could make out the voices of her friends shouting curses at the Death Eaters, and the Death Eaters' retaliating curses. "Hey, Hermione, Whiskers, how are you holding up?" Sirius yelled.

"Never better!" Draco shouted back. "You?"

"Bloody brilliant!" Sirius cried. Hermione realized that the back-and-forth banter was probably not the best strategy but at least it relieved some of the tension. If Sirius was injured, he wasn't badly injured. "Prongs?"

"We're alright," James called. "How 'bout you, Moony?"

Remus uttered a spell and then replied, "Wormtail and I are holding up pretty well." A Death Eater sent a curse flying at Hermione and Draco, the wall crumbling even more. The entire building was beginning to look rather shaky. She grabbed his hand and raced across the stone alleyway just in time for the wall a great chunk of wall to cave in at the corner, leaving a gaping hole in the corner of the little café they had been hiding behind.

The new position that they had taken allowed them to view the main street of Hogsmeade, a small group of Death Eaters still stood in the middle of the road, lashing out at spells coming from behind various corners. Other Death Eaters had also taken cover behind corners and buildings like the Marauders, Hermione, and Lily.

"Are you two alright?" a woman's voice came from behind them. Hermione looked to see who the voice's source was: a tall woman with a round face, shoulder-length black hair, and bright blue eyes. She knew who she was without an introduction; she was looking at Alice Longbottom. Alice moved slowly alongside the building until she was in front of them. She lashed out with a couple of curses, and two of the Death Eaters in the middle of the road were knocked over. Just as the others moved to retreat toward the relative security of hiding behind buildings like their cohorts had, they were knocked down as well.

There were a lot more wands now, Draco noted. It looked like they had finally gotten some backup, which was a relief. Neither of them was quite sure how long they'd been fighting, but they were starting to get tired. With Alice's help, they felt a lot better and threw themselves back into the battle raging around them. Spells flew through the air, and then there was silence. A silver sparrow flitted through the air and landed on Alice's shoulder before dissipated. She smiled.

"That's the all-clear," Alice told them. "Expecto Patronum." A wisp of silver spilled from her wand and formed into a toad and hopped across the way. Hermione smiled. "I like toads."

Cautiously, the three of them edged their way out from behind the building and into the town center. Once they were out of hiding, they saw just how much damage Hogsmeade had endured. There wasn't a window overlooking the road that was intact, the glass glittering in the streets. All of the buildings were damaged, and in some cases, the damage to the buildings was great enough to show the interior. Smoke, both from the fires the spell had caused and the greenish-yellow fog the Death Eaters had used, curled up from the buildings and darkened the sky.

Slowly, they were joined by the rest of their group. Sirius had a particularly-nasty-looking burn on his chest, the edges of his shirt burnt around it; he looked more upset about his clothes than the wound he bore. The left side of Lily's face was badly-bruised; a knot above her left eye was crusted over with dried blood, and her left eye was swollen shut. James wrapped an arm around Lily's waist; his glasses were broken and bent, cuts and scrapes were all over his face and neck, and his arm was obviously broken. Remus was covered in soot, his right arm limp by his side. Peter's ankle was either twisted or broken, and Remus had to help him hobble to the rest of the group. Hermione and Draco had fared better than the rest of their friends, only dust and soot and the cut on Draco's face.

Marlene, the Hufflepuff Peter had taken to Hogsmeade, raced over as she saw her injured date. She took his other side, helping him to stand. The blonde looked like she, too, had been a part of the fray, her blond hair was burnt, shortening it by several inches, soot coating her. She had a deep cut that trailed down from her shoulder down to her wrist, caked in dried blood. Peter frowned as he saw her injury and examined her arm. They were rather cute together.

Alice hugged a short, chubby man with thinning hair, and he smiled: Frank Longbottom. A younger, less-scarred Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, his eyeball fluttering around in his head, constantly on-guard. Dumbledore. Hagrid. The rest of the people, Hermione and Draco recognized from the photograph that Moody had given Harry: the stern-looking, tall, woman just this side of elderly with violet-blue eyes, and long black hair with a streak of gray tied back in a tight braid down her back was Dorcas Meadowes; the tall, red-haired man with brown eyes and a beard was Fabian Prewett; the identical but beardless man was Gideon Prewett; the short, thin man with hazel eyes and straw-colored hair was Sturgis Podmore; the petite, chubby brunette with brown eyes and freckles was Emmeline Vance; the bearded blond man with pale-green eyes who hugged her was Benjy Fenwick; the middle-aged black-haired man with brown eyes and the bare-beginnings of crow's feet and smile lines was Edgar Bones; Dedalus Diggle was the thin, tiny, elderly man with white hair in the purple felt top hat and matching suit; the elderly, chubby man with a shining bald spot was Elphias Doge; and the last person to join them was a tall, muscular man with reddish-brown hair and blue eyes was Caradoc Dearborn, who gasped as he saw the too-still form of Delia.

He scooped her into his arms, and held her close, tears sliding down his dust-and-soot-covered cheeks. "My Delia," he murmured, stroking her dark hair lovingly. Alice frowned, kneeling beside him and rubbing his back.

"Here, we'll help you bury her," she said softly. The Order of the Phoenix watched solemnly for a moment before helping Caradoc and Delia's corpse Disapparate. In the distance, Delia's costume shop was a smoldering pile of ruins.

Nothing would ever be the same.


I know it's taken me a long time to write the next chapter, but I have every intention of finishing this story, so please stop asking about when the next chapter will come or if it'll ever get finished. It will, I promise.