𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑

the one with meredith and alakay

“It's not a matter of
surviving the war. It's
a matter of choosing
the right time to die.”

•

I COULDN'T SLEEP that night, as I curled up next to Draco, who occasionally winced in his sleep, and watched as the all-powerful stone floated above the palm of my hands. It could show me anyone I wished to see, I realized with a shudder. And the only people who I wished to see, the only people who were dead, were my parents.

The moonlight was seeping through the windows, diffused by the pale white curtains of the hospital wing, and illuminated Draco's face like a mirage. I noticed how the scar on his face, and down his neck, from the dark curse he was hit with, had not quite faded yet. It made me smile slightly at how rustic and older the scar made Draco look. I thought of what Fleur said, how the scars showed nothing but the fact that Bill was brave, and I smiled wider.

But the stone in my hand gleamed darkly against the beautiful moonlight. It floated away from my touch but not far enough. I only had to think of who I wanted to see. I only had to enclose my fingers around it.

I couldn't. Instead I thought if Harry, Draco and I were one single person, we would be the master of Death, for Draco was now the master of the Elder Wand, Harry the owner of the Invisibility Cloak and I possessed the Resurrection Stone.

"Skylar- "

I immediately grasped the stone in my hand and turned my head around to see Draco, moving uncomfortably.

"Yes, I'm here Draco," I said quietly. "What is it? Does it hurt?"

"For once," he opened his eyes groggily, having slept for several hours. "It's me in the hospital wing at the end of the year, rather than you."

I stared at him blankly. The audacity of this boy to crack a joke when my heart felt like it would jump out of my throat. "Very funny Draco."

He opened his piercing, molten grey eye and looked at me, still a little red rimmed from all the crying and screaming when his Dark Mark bled. "What happened to me?"

"Well," I turned, placing my head on my arm for support. "You took down three Death Eaters. And when Snape left, along with a few others-apparated back to the Malfoy Manor, your Dark Mark started bleeding," I shuddered. "Not like a wound, but like. . ."

"Like the blood didn't want to be in my body," he said. "That's what I felt. The senses, Skylar, they were so heightened I felt the blood rush in my veins and pour out."

"It must've hurt a lot," I said, pecking his temples.

"It did," he nodded. "But what was that spell you did?"

"It was a cleansing spell,"I said. "The one I told you about. That cleanses Dark Magic. I didn't know if it would have worked," I said quietly, as Bill stirred, five beds away. "But I had to try. And it worked. The bleeding stopped immediately. And all we had to do was feed you blood replenishing potions."

Draco stared at the curtains wistfully and said, "Is my Dark Mark-"

"It's still there," I said, stroking his hair gently out if his face. "But it's deactivated. I doubt it will ever burn or bleed again."

Draco was quiet for several minutes. Wind rustled slowly around the hospital wing. Everything seemed calm and serene, except the Hallow in my hand buzzed faintly.

"Do you reckon I should have gone?" He asked. "With Snape? To the Manor."

My breath hitched in my throat. I was waiting for this question to be asked. I didn't have an answer to it, but I had my regrets and condolences. "Yes, Draco," I said stiffly. "I wanted to let the Death Eaters go back tonight with a sense of win-and they probably did, except for the death of Dolohov, Gibbon and Mulciber-but I also wanted them to think you're with them, so that you and your parents are out of harm's way. But the moment you attacked the Death Eaters, they realized you weren't for them, and they informed to Voldemort. Who-I guess had sort of implement a special but of magic there, to kill you in case you defect-activated it the second he found out what had happened here. In short," I sighed. "Your parents are under the mercy of Voldemort now, and you're on his hit-list."