STRANGE LOVE | O. WOOD ✔

[43] : A VERY NOBLE DEATH

Knowing you're seconds away from death can change a lot in a person. It could change your beliefs, much like it did with Leo, it could make accept that you would see your loved ones again, much like with Sirius. But as Astrid lay on the floor, blood pouring out her already red lips, Jack, Charlie and someone she vaguely recognized stood hovering above her, she felt sorry. She felt sorry for everyone. She was going away. She was leaving them behind in this cruel world. Leo had been right after all. He meant it in an evil manner but it still was true.

"You'll stay with me?" She asked, more blood pouring at her mouth and through blurry eyes, she saw Jack nod and what seemed like tears pour out Charlie's beautiful eyes. The stranger only smiled.

"Through and through." Jack sobbed, holding her hand. The wedding had ended in a massacre, Astrid risking her own life to ensure Harry and his friends escaped. A Death Eater had rammed his wand in her shoulder and said a spell. Half her shoulder was missing and majority of her neck was gone. "Just stay awake, for me. Please. Through and through love. Please Astrid. I can't loose you." He cried out and Astrid sadly smiled at him. "I can't loose you. Please, don't close your eyes. You can't leave me Astrid, please, I can't loose you. I just can't."

"Jack." Charlie had said, kneeling beside Jack and Astrid could hear Jack bellow in pain. He was loosing a friend, a friend who meant the world to him, a friend who knew how to make him smile even during the darkest of days, a friend who wasn't just a friend, a friend who was family, a friend who would stick with you through and through. "You can close your eyes Astrid, you can sleep." Charlie sighed. "I —we give you permission." He sniffed and Astrid didn't understand why he was crying. He didn't love her. He didn't know she existed. He knew nothing about her. He didn't know all about those drawings. He knew nothing. Yet here he was, crying for her as though he had just lost his mother or sister.

"I'll be back Jack. I promise. Through and through." She breathed out and just as she closed her eyes for eternity, she could feel someone's lips brush against hers before she heard three words that sounded like music to her ears.

"I love you."

*

"Do pigs fly dad?" Astrid asked Sirius, who chuckled at her question and shook his head.

"No, but magic can do anything my star. Magic can make them fly." He answered, placing his coffee on the table and Astrid eyed it before she cleared her throat.

"Why don't I have a mama?" Sirius nearly choked on his own spit. "The girl down the street has a mama. Uncle James has his mama still, you too dad, why don't I?"

"Your mama Astrid, is in here." He placed a finger on her chest.

"You mean I ate her and I didn't know?!" The girl shrieked, thumping her tiny fists against her chest, trying with all her might to set her mama free.

"No no my star!" Sirius laughed and Astrid cocked her head at him. "She's in your heart, you might not remember her but she loves you Astrid, very much."

"Why don't I remember her?"

"She left when you very little." Sirius replied, watching her furrow her tiny brows in confusion.

"You mean to say I was much little than I am now?"

"Yes my star." Sirius nodded.

"Dad, do you love me? Does uncle Remus and uncle James and uncle Petey and uncle Regular and aunt Lily and Nana Burga love me?" Astrid asked and Sirius sadly smiled at her.

"No amount of stars can amount how much I love you my shining star. And of course all your uncles, your aunt and your Nana love you. They always have and always will."

Astrid beamed at him.

*

Astrid was dead, there was no denying that. There was no amount of potions and remedies that could bring her back to life. She was dead, but yet she could hear them, as loud as day. On the left side, it was her father, her uncle and her aunt. On her right side, it was Jack and Charlie, crying. It seemed as though the stranger left. Or he was merely just a figment of her imagination.

"She can't hold on any longer Sirius." She heard Lily say before she heard another violent sob escape from Jack's wide open mouth.

"No! Come back Astrid! You can't leave me!" She heard Jack cry and Astrid herself wanted to cry. She could feel the tears pool in her eyes but they never fell. "You can't! How am I supposed to live?! How am I supposed to breathe?!"

"She needs to decide on her own Lily." She heard her father say before another sob escaped Jack's mouth.

"Jack, fetch my mother." Charlie ordered the boy, who sniffed and did as he was told. "You weren't supposed to die Astrid." Charlie whispered softly. "I love you, isn't it enough to bring you back? You were supposed to be mine, not Oliver's. I need you Astrid. Jack needs you. Please."

"She's fading." Lily whispered.

"We have to contact Remus." Astrid heard Molly whisper. "And Andromeda."

Andromeda. The name sounded familiar, though Astrid didn't know why. Then she remembered Narcissa and Lucuis and Draco. What would become of her family if she dies?

"Help me carry her into the house Jack." Astrid heard Charlie say, though his voice cracked with raw, unshed emotion. He was broken on the inside.

Life was unfair, wasn't it? Astrid never got to meet her birth parents, she never got to become a mother.

"She's barely alive Sirius, why keep her longer?! You're torturing her!" Astrid heard James bark at her father.

"I only kept her longer so she could see that even in a world full of liars, backstabbers, power-hungry beasts and Death Eaters, love still existed and it is closer than you will ever think."

Astrid could feel herself fall and she was suddenly met by three pairs of familiar eyes.

"Welcome my star."