Courage

-79-

Book: Courage
Chapter 79
Word Count: 5445

Layla didn't believe it. She wouldn't. She couldn't.

"Stop lying! Get off of me!" Layla struggled in her dad's arms, pushing him off of her. "He's not dead! Don't say that!" Her eyes flickered around frantically for any sign of Sirius' shaggy black hair, listening to see if she could hear his childish laugh. Nothing. "SIRI! SIRI, THIS ISN'T FUNNY!"

"Layla..." A quiet voice muttered. Layla turned to see Harry, tears falling freely from his emerald eyes. "I'm sorry. He's d—"

"No, he's not!" snapped Layla, but she knew that she was in denial. Deep down, she knew the truth.

There was movement going on around them, pointless bustling, the flashes of more spells. To Layla, it was meaningless noise, the deflected curses flying past them did not matter, nothing mattered except that both Remus and Harry should stop pretending that Sirius was not going to emerge at any moment, shaking back his dark hair and eager to re-enter the battle.

Harry tried to grab Layla's hand and drag her away from the dais, but she ripped her hand out of his grip and shoved Harry away from her.

"No... no, no," she kept repeating in disbelief, feeling as if her legs had gone numb. She stayed rooted to the spot, swaying slightly as she tried to wrap her head around the truth. "No. No, no, no..."

Dumbledore had most of the remaining Death Eaters grouped in the middle of the room, seemingly immobilized by invisible ropes; Mad-Eye Moody had crawled across the room to where Tonks lay, and was attempting to revive her; behind the dais, there were still hashes of light, grunts and cries — Kingsley had run forward to continue Sirius's duel with Bellatrix.

Harry, who appeared to be in just as bad a state as Layla was in, was being comforted by Neville. Layla, however, couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She couldn't feel. She didn't feel anything. Not when the first tear fell, and definitely not when she second one followed soon after. And not before long, Layla's legs had given up beneath her and she crashed to the ground, sobs wracking her body as her heart physically ached in her chest.

"Please, Siri... please don't leave me. I can't lose you, too. Please!"

There was a loud bang and a yell from behind the dais. Kingsley hit the ground yelling in pain: Bellatrix Lestrange turned tail and ran as Dumbledore whipped around. He aimed a spell at her but she deflected it; she was halfway up the steps now—

"Harry — no!" cried Remus, but Harry had already ripped his arm from Lupin's slackened grip.

"SHE KILLED SIRIUS!" bellowed Harry. "SHE KILLED HIM — I'LL KILL HER!"

And he was off, scrambling up the stone benches.

"Harry," whispered Layla, stumbling to her feet and steadying herself. "Harry!"

She ran after him up the stone benches, avoiding Remus' arms as he tried to stop his daughter from getting herself killed. But no matter how angry she was at Harry, she couldn't let him walk right up to death's door by going after Bellatrix.

"Harry, stop!" screamed Layla, quickening her pace as she wiped her damp cheeks.

The hem of Bellatrix's robes whipped out of sight ahead and they were back in the room where the brains were swimming...

She aimed a curse over her shoulder. The tank rose into the air and tipped. Layla gripped the back of Harry's robes and yanked him backwards out of the way. The brains slipped and slid over them and began spinning their long colored tentacles, but Layla shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!" and they flew off them up into the air.