The Last Lieutenant

The Descent to Hell is Easy

Snape kicks her out.

Audra knew she had been pushing her luck, what with how she kept picking fights with Wormtail and drinking all his expensive whiskey, but even when she was at her worst she didn't think he was going to turn her away.

"Fine!" She kicked out at the door, telling herself that she wasn't upset about it, that she didn't need him, that she couldn't wait to leave this stupid muggle town.  Audra had lost more and come out on top, she didn't need to worry about some professor that would rather live alone than have someone to care about him.  "I didn't want to stay here anyways!"

Really, she hadn't been sleeping here every night like she had been at the end of the summer.  Now she only came here when she needed a break, and for that she could go to the tree house and wait for Fred, or hang out with Emmeline.   The only thing that she was losing was what Snape could provide- someone she could speak freely to, who knew both the best and worst parts of what she was doing in order to stay part of the fight.

"Shit."  She runs her hands through her hair and looks down the hill at the town.  It's full of misshapen buildings and little shops, and further down she can see the playground that Snape had showed her.  It was where he had met Harry's mother for the first time.  Audra knows a lot of stuff like that now.  "What now, Audra?"

Snape had told her to go home.  It was as good a plan as any, so she goes there.  The impact of her feet hitting the ground sent  stabs of pain up her legs, forcing her to hang onto the iron gates while she caught her balance, giving her time to stare at the mansion she used to call her home.

She hadn't been here for anything except meetings since Vance died, but these were still her parents, it was still her home.  This was hers, and they weren't going to take it away from her.

"Mom?"  She pushes on the doors with a sigh of relief and breathes when they open.  There's a spell on it that unlocks the door for certain people, reading their thumbprint or something.  She had been half afraid they took her off the list.  "Dad?  Are you here?"

It was quiet.  Her house always was, but that had been silence brought from stifling and suffocation- this was the quiet you find inside a tomb or mausoleum, like someone had just died.  Which makes sense, really.

There's footsteps in the hallways, heels clicking quickly against the floor.  "Audra."  They hadn't seen each other for three weeks, but her mother already looks different.  She had always been thin, but grief had eaten away at her, and now there was nothing.  "What's wrong?"

It's a mark of how bad things have gotten that seeing her at home sparks alarm.  Maybe this is what they were always destined be, but it still hurts.

"Nothing."  She lets herself be wrapped in a hug, even though the motion came so hesitantly it was actually awkward and Audra was half afraid that she would break her mother just by touching her, as small and thin as she had gotten.  "I just wanted to come home."

Whatever you do, whatever you have done, Her mother had told her once, There will always be me to come back to.  Audra had thought that she had finally proved her wrong, but now, seeing how happy her mother was to have her in her arms, she understood that maybe it wasn't her family who was turning her away.

Maybe Audra was doing that to herself.

"I came home."  She was choking on tears.  Audra always found herself balancing on the edge of some emotion these days, whether it was making her burst down in tears or try to put her hand through a wall.  "I came back home."

Dinner is quiet.