Three Hallows, Two Weasleys and One Broken Girl

Chapter 44: Battle of Hogwarts, Part 2

"Hello Minister!" Yelled Percy brightly, sending a jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his ropes, looking distressed. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"
"You're joking Perce!" Roared Fred, grinning as the fifth death eater he'd encountered on his way to the tower collapsed under the weight of three stunning spells. The minister had collapsed as tiny spikes erupted all over his body. Fred recalled Bill teaching them that one.
He turned gleefully to his brother, "You actually are joking, Perce...I don't think I've heard you joke since-"

Delphi had sprinted along several corridors, mowing down a couple Deatheaters in the process.
She'd made it just in time though.
Despite the fact she'd been building toward the moment for years, she didn't realise until she reached the ill fated room, exactly what she was going to do.

But her feet didn't falter as she barrelled into Fred like a bull, knocking him away toward Percy just as the wall he had been stood by exploded.
It may be selfish, but this death was one she truly couldn't live with. A life for a life, surely Death couldn't complain.

A large piece of rubble hit her shoulder first and she felt it break, then a chunk of wall slammed into her rib cage, which caved under the force like it was made of twigs. Then, milliseconds later another part hit her head and Delphi Lovegood knew no more.

Fred, however, screamed.

He launched off of the tapestry she'd thrown him against and dived toward the mass of rocks and rubble, Percy only a second behind as they desperately threw bricks and mortar aside to uncover the body beneath.
The sounds Fred was making were animalistic as he uncovered her bloodied form, eyes closed and a soft triumphant smile on her face.
He lifted her body toward him, shaking her in a desperate attempt to see her wake and screaming and howling enough to draw people from near by. Including George.

Unlike Fred, from the moment he saw her, George only knew silence.
He could hear nothing and his throat was constricted, he was unable to breathe, let alone speak as he stumbled forward like a bomb survivor replacing Percy at her side. Their older brother stood above them ready to fight any Death eaters who tried to take advantage of their fragile state.

"It was meant to be me!" Fred wailed, nursing her limp body to his chest, whole body wracked with tremors, "how could you Delph...I... why..."
George sat at his side looking hollow and lost as he gazed at the broken body of the woman he loved. It wasn't meant to be this way. That he knew in the very core of his being, this was wrong, incredibly wrong. He reached out slowly, almost reluctantly, and took her limp hand in his. He wove their fingers together and squeezed, even though he knew she couldn't squeeze back, gazing at those slim clever fingers.

He'd always liked her fingers, watching her stitch runes in Umbridge's dresses, write in her delicate script filling out prank order forms, feeling them wind in his hair.
George curled inward, slowly raising her hand to kiss her knuckles, as the pain and sorrow mixed with the adrenaline of battle, reacting and evolving into the purest, most volatile form of anger a human can experience.
He needed to kill.

He rose, leaving Fred to protect her body and turned to where most of the sounds of battle came from. A masked monster chose that moment to enter, and without hesitation, George roared, "AVADA KADAVRA!"
It felt good.

———

There was a conversation Delphi had had with Harry- would have had with Harry, about his near death experience, which would happen about an hour after she decided to die. Merlin, seeing the future makes tenses a mess.

He had found himself in a railway station, that Dumbledore, real or imagined, had suggested was his deepest subconscious place of belonging.
Considering the only animals that live consistently in railway stations were rats and pigeons, Delphi was glad she hadn't helped the kid become an animagus. His self esteem was fragile enough already.