Post by Nerweniel on May 11, 2005 14:36:36 GMT -5
Title: Kiss
Summary: Dark angst. Voldemort has won, and Minerva is heading for her death- on a boat to Azkaban.
Rating: Probably 13+, just rather dark.
Kiss
Despite everything, it was the first Dementor which changed my life.
Azkaban was grey and lonely as it stood there, its many cells having been emptied of the criminals lodged there days, weeks or sometimes months earlier. An island of desolate emptiness- an island of despair, and us, its new, doomed occupants, slowly floating towards its shores through surprisingly calm, treacherously serene waters.
Our boat was the last one to go, I knew. We’d resisted the new reign of the Lord of Darkness long enough- I nearly smiled at the mere memory of Albus’s clear, fierce blue eyes- and his words, his words.
Amelia Bones, along with me the sole female occupant of the boat, was thin, I noticed, but then again so was I- we all were.
Months of fighting and struggling had, for once, not been balanced by the joy of a victory- and it was as a boat filled with death that we approached those grey, grey shores which we knew would be our final destination.
Neither of us had spoken, and the vacant look in Amelia’s now hollow, defeated blue eyes worried me more than my own fate did, at that moment. The thin, near anorexic, broken woman sitting next to me on the rough, wooden bench had once been my student- a clever and faithful Hufflepuff she had been- and I had always admired the way she, just the way I had, had made her own path through the man’s world we definitely, despite everything, still lived in- and had done so successfully. At least- at first.
Pulling my old, nearly ragged cloak a bit tighter around my shoulders- for the boat was cold, cold and wet- I, again, studied Amelia’s sitting figure. Her face was unnaturally lined, hair messy- and the dirt on her face was stained by the long, white paths helpless tears had drawn there.
The one weakness of Hufflepuffs, I wryly realized. Too much faith in goodness- and defeat equalling total defeat.
I thought, I really thought at that moment, that I was any better.
Such a fool I have been.
When, finally, Amelia did look up, the fear in her eyes was indescribable and I- fool, fool of a witch!- turned around as well.
It truly was the first Dementor which changed my life.
“My Minn-“
“Avada Kedavra.”
“DADDY!”
“Mother, don’t die, please!”
“I’m…sorry…”
“Mother...”
“I am sorry, Miss McGonagall. The baby was stillborn.”
“Harry, don’t give in, please don’t, please- please!”
“I- can’t-”
“Harry!”
“Farewell, Dumbledore.”
“ALBUS!!!”
Only then I, too, passed away into the blissful ignorance that was Amelia’s state of mind. Albus.
Albus’s end.
Albus’s shameful, defeated, broken end- murdered coldly and cruelly… as if he was just that- just another enemy, just another man- and yet I knew, we all knew, that he had been so much more.
He was the pillar of the world, of all of us- and of me- and I loved him. I never told him, but I did- and nothing ever managed to rip my cold, my frozen heart apart the way his last scream did.
Indeed it was his death which ended my life- but it was the memory of that death which broke me.
I will embrace the Dementor once the Kiss arrives.
Summary: Dark angst. Voldemort has won, and Minerva is heading for her death- on a boat to Azkaban.
Rating: Probably 13+, just rather dark.
Kiss
Despite everything, it was the first Dementor which changed my life.
Azkaban was grey and lonely as it stood there, its many cells having been emptied of the criminals lodged there days, weeks or sometimes months earlier. An island of desolate emptiness- an island of despair, and us, its new, doomed occupants, slowly floating towards its shores through surprisingly calm, treacherously serene waters.
Our boat was the last one to go, I knew. We’d resisted the new reign of the Lord of Darkness long enough- I nearly smiled at the mere memory of Albus’s clear, fierce blue eyes- and his words, his words.
Amelia Bones, along with me the sole female occupant of the boat, was thin, I noticed, but then again so was I- we all were.
Months of fighting and struggling had, for once, not been balanced by the joy of a victory- and it was as a boat filled with death that we approached those grey, grey shores which we knew would be our final destination.
Neither of us had spoken, and the vacant look in Amelia’s now hollow, defeated blue eyes worried me more than my own fate did, at that moment. The thin, near anorexic, broken woman sitting next to me on the rough, wooden bench had once been my student- a clever and faithful Hufflepuff she had been- and I had always admired the way she, just the way I had, had made her own path through the man’s world we definitely, despite everything, still lived in- and had done so successfully. At least- at first.
Pulling my old, nearly ragged cloak a bit tighter around my shoulders- for the boat was cold, cold and wet- I, again, studied Amelia’s sitting figure. Her face was unnaturally lined, hair messy- and the dirt on her face was stained by the long, white paths helpless tears had drawn there.
The one weakness of Hufflepuffs, I wryly realized. Too much faith in goodness- and defeat equalling total defeat.
I thought, I really thought at that moment, that I was any better.
Such a fool I have been.
When, finally, Amelia did look up, the fear in her eyes was indescribable and I- fool, fool of a witch!- turned around as well.
It truly was the first Dementor which changed my life.
“My Minn-“
“Avada Kedavra.”
“DADDY!”
“Mother, don’t die, please!”
“I’m…sorry…”
“Mother...”
“I am sorry, Miss McGonagall. The baby was stillborn.”
“Harry, don’t give in, please don’t, please- please!”
“I- can’t-”
“Harry!”
“Farewell, Dumbledore.”
“ALBUS!!!”
Only then I, too, passed away into the blissful ignorance that was Amelia’s state of mind. Albus.
Albus’s end.
Albus’s shameful, defeated, broken end- murdered coldly and cruelly… as if he was just that- just another enemy, just another man- and yet I knew, we all knew, that he had been so much more.
He was the pillar of the world, of all of us- and of me- and I loved him. I never told him, but I did- and nothing ever managed to rip my cold, my frozen heart apart the way his last scream did.
Indeed it was his death which ended my life- but it was the memory of that death which broke me.
I will embrace the Dementor once the Kiss arrives.
x