The Mudblood

Chapter 91 : Summer

This photo of Lyle's nicknames for Melody (Flower Witch) and Draco (Blond Prat) was made by a fan on Quotev.

I had never wanted to take and Arithmancy exam so badly in my entire life. I had never desired normalcy so much in my entire life. Because even to struggle through magical math that made absolutely no sense would have been better than watching the wind whisk away the ashes of my dead brother on the dawn of that Friday morning.

Eventually, as the fire had begun to burn out, the Death Eaters had Disapparated, leaving Evan, Astoria, and I as the only moving bodies. The two of them curled up against a tree, as silent as either one of them had ever been, and watched the flames trickle away. I could not sit with them; I could not relax. After Bellatrix released my hair and neck, my body drooped into nothingness as I fell to my knees and remained there, motionless. 

Garren woke up as the sun began to rise, and upon realizing that our worst fear had been accomplished, he fractured both of his hands from repeatedly punching a tree. They were so bloody and so broken that I was not sure if even magic could heal them. Due to the fact that Bellatrix had taken my wand with her, I was unable to attempt to fix my brother's hands, though I doubted that I would be able to produce even a simple spell in my current state. All magic seemed to have drained out of my numb body, my hollow soul. I was a corpse, a weak body with no mind, no emotion, no life. Voldemort had murdered my twin brother, and it had been entirely my fault. There would be no forgiveness from anyone for this, and I didn't want their forgiveness or need their forgiveness. I deserved to die.

Eventually, Lupin stirred, and while no one uttered a word, he saw the embers and the dark soot, which was all that remained of my twin brother. There should have been some bones maybe—something left, something that the fire hadn't been able to destroy, but it had been Voldemort's fire: a magic fire.

Magic. Cursed magic. I wished that I were a Muggle like my twin had been before that inhumane monster burned him. I wished that I'd never gone to Hogwarts. I wished that I'd never learned that my mother was a Gaudium or that I was a Seer. I wished that I had never made that prophecy as a baby, because the prophecy had stated that I would turn to darkness, and at the moment, I felt very inclined to turn to darkness. Never would I join that nose-less, worthless scumbag, but I was feeling particularly murderous and extremely vengeful.

When Lupin finally mustered the strength to un-paralyze Melody, I closed my eyes with the comfort that within seconds, I would be dead. Though under the influence of a Full Body-Bind, Melody's open eyes had seen me take the stick and touch Lyle with the fire that killed him; she would obliterate me.

But, after a few long minutes of silence, I looked up to see that Melody was standing calmly at the center of the clearing, staring at Lyle's ashes with the same remorse and almost...sadness as everyone else. When she twisted around to face me, however, I noticed that deep within her eyes there was an untamable fury festering, and the color of her irises had now settled in a green so dark that it was humanly unnatural.

"You're pathetic," she spat with her upper lip curled. "Don't look at me like that, Fitzroy. I don't want to hear some bloody apology that won't make either of us feel better."

"I wasn't going to apologize," I mumbled as I stared down at my fractured arm that's pain had been shoved into the back corners of my brain by the more prominent agony of my brother's demise. "I don't want forgiveness, and I shouldn't get it—"

"You're trying to make me feel bad for you, are you?" Melody interrupted snidely. "That's low, Fitzroy, even for a pitiful piece of trash like yourself. I know how much you loved Lyle. I know you didn't willingly light him on fire. I know that Voldemort had you under the Imperius Curse—"