Heart of Darkness

Chapter Twenty Five

"Tom?" I asked quietly, swallowing back the lump in my throat.
"Yes, my queen?" He put his book down and touched my cheek tenderly. "Are you all right?"
I shook my head and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I can't. I can't." I sobbed.
"What can't you?" He asked calmly, wrapping me in his arms.
"Everything. I can't. I..."
"On the contrary, I know for a fact that you can." He kissed the top of my head.
"I can't."
"You can, love." He said. "You can do anything you want to."

My Pensieve was my favorite place to be. I visited it every day. It was, more or less, all I had.
Saying that makes me sound like a lonely old lady, I know. But I wasn't, not really.
Anyways, I had my memories stored in a very organized manner. I had them divided into people, and I even had separate sections for Tom Riddle and Voldemort.

But Harry had kept his promise of not returning the following year, and Ron and Hermione had gone with him. They'd left from Bill and Fleur's wedding, as the Death Eaters had attacked. I was glad they'd kept out of it.
Molly Weasley had been livid. She'd done everything in her power to prevent it, but, in the end, the kids won.
"Aunt Petunia told me I have my mother's eyes." Harry had told me of his taking leave of the Dursleys.
I had almost cried.
He did have his mother's eyes...
You'd think I'd have been okay with it by now, seventeen years later, but I wasn't.
Fortunately I'd at least gotten to the point where I could look at Harry without wanting to cry.
George got a hole in his head when they moved Harry from Privet Drive to the Burrow. As his teacher, though, if you asked me, I'd say there's been a hole in his head.
Alastor Moody died.
Sometimes I wondered if things would have been different if they would have let me help get Harry and maybe Mad Eye wouldn't have died. Maybe the whole story would have turned out different.
But Remus wouldn't let me go, and Mad Eye had died.
He'd let Tonks go.
Not that I was bitter.

Hogwarts was horrid. We had the Carrows here, and they were terrible.
Snape was the headmaster. That was okay, only because I knew his loyalties. Not many others did.
Minerva would stand up to Snape, I would stand up to the Carrows.
I was only safe because of my relationship--or lack thereof--with Voldemort. According to a letter I'd received from Tom, he had given them specific instructions not mess with me, but apparently he thought it acceptable for them to torture students.
Voldemort received a very angry letter from me, to which I received no reply.
At least, though, I could somewhat protect the students.
I could also write letters to Remus, who was staying with a werewolf pack.
That poor boy. He'd lost everything and everybody, and now he was alone with strangers siding with Voldemort.
"Neville! Your face!" I said.
"It's all right." Neville Longbottom said, as if the gash on his face was normal.
Unfortunately, it was.
These were dark times.
I had thought things were bad when I was a teenager. Turns out I'd had no idea.

"Cho." I said at a D.A. meeting. "You're pronouncing it wrong. 'Ahn' not 'an.' Fianto duri."
She nodded and tried again.
"There you go." I smiled.
"Harry." I heard Ginny say.
I watched them kiss with a smile.
"Does anybody know where Ravenclaw's diadem is?" Harry asked.
Harry went to look for the diadem, and we fought a war.
Voldemort said he would give us time to tend to our wounded, but if we didn't give him Harry, that not one of us would be left standing.
Harry ran up to me. "Aunt Angie." He said.
"Harry!" I hugged him tightly. "Oh, thank God you're okay." I whispered.
"I... I have to go. But I just wanted to tell you that Peter Pettigrew and Snape are dead."
"What?" I choked out.
"I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you about Peter before, but I couldn't. Voldemort just killed Snape down by the lake."
He killed Severus too?
"I'll be back." Harry said, and ran away.
I helped gather the dead and wounded.
For a little bit, at least.
I went to get Severus.
That bastard thinks he can kill them all.
I saw the Weasleys gathered over a body, and there was only one twin, and he was missing an ear.
I knelt down beside George and put my arm around him. He turned his face into my shoulder.
When Ron and Hermione came over, I went to talk to Harry.
He hugged me tightly. "Thank you, Aunt Angie. I'll be back." He said, and ran out.
Somebody touched my arm, and I turned around.
It was Minerva.
She put her arm around me and led me down the rows of corpses to see Remus and Tonks, their bodies laid so that their hands were almost touching.
No.
Just when they'd had a child, just when Remus was happy again, that bastard had to come and fuck everything up.
I would go find him and kill him now, but I knew that Harry had to be the one to do it, so I settled for sobbing with Minnie.
The remaining of us filed outside. Minerva stood beside me as we watched Voldemort approach with some Death Eaters and Hagrid in tow. Hagrid was carrying something.
"The Boy Who Lived is dead." Voldemort announced as Hagrid laid Harry down.
"No!" Minerva and I screamed simultaneously.
I didn't know Minnie could make a sound like that.
"Surrender to me, and you will be spared." Voldemort continued.
I stepped forward, pissed beyond comparison. "Tom Marvolo Riddle!" I yelled, marching towards him.
"Oh shit." I heard him say.
"Angie!" Minnie said sternly. "Stop this! Get back here!"
"Aunt Angie!" George said.
"Angelica." Molly said quietly.
"Professor Black--" Hermione began.
"Do you really think that we'll ever follow you? If so, you're sorely mistaken." I said when I was close enough to avoid screaming.
"Don't make me kill you." He warned.
"You. Wouldn't. Dare."
"I would." That whore Bellatrix said.
"Don't lay a hand on her." Voldemort told her sternly.
I slapped him. "You fucking--"
"You bitch!" Bellatrix yelled.
"No! Bella! Stop!" Voldemort screamed.
"Avada Kedavra!" She said anyways.
"Angie!" Voldemort yelled.
"Aunt Angie!" Harry Potter yelled, standing.
"Angelica!" Others yelled.
But I was okay with it. I hoped Harry would win.