Marooned - Fred Weasley

Chapter 82: In Between

The leaves felt heavy. She dragged them along with every step, and it seemed as though they were trying to stop her. With all their might. Everything they had seen, they wanted to tell her. That it was worth staying, all of it. But they were just born a few weeks ago, what did they know? The roots peeking through the dirt on the other hand, much older, much wiser, not one stood in her path. They frayed it for her. And for those few steps, Sarah didn't know if she wanted to be pushed forward or held back.

Come back to me, McCauley.

Only Fred could make it sound as though she had a choice. Like it wasn't life or death they were talking about but something much more complicated. It was only natural, wishing for a miracle. They lived in a world of magic after all. If miracles didn't happen here, then where?

"It seems not that long ago you helped me get out of detention in the library," muttered Harry. "Who would have thought?"

He was holding her hand through all of this. He helped her step away from Fred. George, Selena and Remus watched her walk away, and if there ever was a moment Sarah hated herself completely, it was then. How horrid, to walk away and exchange a simple and last look with three people who'd forged her world into this wonderful thing. Something she left with such great pain. There was something beautiful in it, but she failed to see it. Couldn't.

Harry had talked first, and Sarah wasn't sure if she was even able to. Kept looking at her feet, ordering them to move forward. She didn't have the strength to think of something else aside from walking. Just one foot in front of the other. She had used it all, all the strength she had, all the strength she will ever have, when she said goodbye to her best friend.

"I'm glad I don't have to do this alone." Harry gave her hand a gentle squeeze and sounded as soft as a breeze shuffling the branches. It ached to hear it.

"I'm glad we're together, still." It took an effort, but she had spoken. And now that she had, she was surprised with the fact her voice didn't break.

Step, step, step. On repeat.

Until something inside her told her they were getting close, the hairs stood at the back of her neck. She had to go on alone from there. "This is where we split up."

Harry refused to let go of her, "Stay. Maybe there's something we can do, the Golden Snitch, I think—"

She stopped him from talking with a hand in his shoulder. And there it was again, the full cycle moment. "It's okay. I have to do this, this is—It's the only way they get a chance."

"But—" he searched her eyes in the dull light, the moon was strangely darker tonight. Wearing a dark veil, grieving as well. "I don't want to lose you." 

"You could never." She squeezed his shoulder and inevitably, as she stepped forward yet again, her hand left it, for now. She wanted to see it this way. 

That all this is simply transitory, fleeting, fleeing, until we're free.

So she faced them, like she'd done before. And was met with nothing but hatred in her last moments. But she didn't think of them, she forgot about them. She thought about her love, about her family, about her friends. They had saved her and now, she was repaying them for every kindness, every unspoken act of love they had made towards her. She owed them her life, otherwise, she would have lost it that night. Frozen to death, or asphyxiated, or faded away from a broken heart.

Two Death Eaters grabbed an arm each and immediately tossed her wand far away from her. Voldemort was snickering, having a triumphant speech, telling her she was nothing but Harry Potter's stray. She didn't think of them. She had something else to think about. And for the first time in her life, she did not put up a fight, there was no point. She wasn't planning on making it out of here alive.