lumos/ h.p.

34

saige black drowsily awakened to the most peculiar thing she had ever witnessed, she thought. it only felt like seconds since she had faded- from what, she couldn't remember- but this new, dream-like state was definitely a different place than where she used to be. it felt as though clouds were cradling her to their chests, warm and fluffy and crooning soft lullabies into her ears so she could slip back into darkness. they held her and stroked her dark hair and made her feel as though there was nothing else in the world that could hold her attention. it was probably the most comfortable she had ever been, except for that time when harry, ron and saige had all bundled together by the fire just this past christmas in his father's invisibility cloak, which was surprisingly warm and cuddly. harry. oh, merlin. 

and suddenly, the clouds threw her out of the sky. there was no warmth or comfort or songs left to spare, only bitter cold and darkness and screaming. so, so much screaming. saige's eyes shot open the second the cold hit her skin, teeth somehow already chattering, and took in her surroundings with a deep sense of confusion. she had been dropped in the middle of a field- no, a graveyard, she could see headstones just across the large, muddy expanse- and the sky looked darker than it ever had in her entire lifetime. it wasn't black anymore, but a deep, barely-visible green that made her want to keel over and vomit into the grass. panic had begun to set in when she noticed, floating above the tallest headstone, was the source of the screaming- a woman, all sharp elbows and joints as her limbs jerked involuntarily in the most violent movements saige had ever laid eyes on. she was frozen to her spot, eyes glued to the woman's gaunt frame, until a crack of lightning in the same sickening green hue struck dangerously close to the frail body. the woman stopped moving, her back dropping like a sack of flour from it's previously arched position. and saige, struck just as hard by the harsh reality she had been dropped into, swallowed the bile rising in the back of her throat and started running towards the limp frame hanging lamely in the sky. 

her bones felt hollow as she raced across the field, the numbness that had set into her feet painfully apparent as they burned. saige, in a very strange moment, found that she didn't mind- it felt the same as when she would run out to the quidditch pitch in her first year early in the morning to watch the players practice, and - godric, was she seriously thinking about quidditch when someone could be dead?

it didn't take long before she reached the gravestones, and she panted heavily as her hands settled on one of the cool stones, trying to hide from whatever was happening before her. she shakily peered out from behind, eyes settling on a congregation of dark, hooded figures, each dressed in a set of sweeping black robes. her heart dropped to her feet- no, below her feet, sinking six feet under into the ground- when she noticed the silver masks clasped tightly in each of their hands. 

"are you going to cry, cromwell?" cold words cut through the hollow silence left behind by the woman's, cromwell's, tortured screaming. saige's eyes focused on a death eater, stood closer to cromwell than the rest, laughing maniacally as her frizzy hair whipped behind her in the wind. nobody else laughed behind her- a pin could have dropped onto the cushy grass and they would have heard it. "are you going to cry and whine and beg like your filthy little family?" 

saige became suddenly and painfully aware of the laboured breathing echoing above her when cromwell's frail figure, wracked with shivers, croaked out a reply. "no," she said raspily, "i'm not going to give you the satisfaction, dearest cousin-in-law." somehow, through the pain, saige made out a dry, unamused tone from cromwell. it made her feel slightly better that the woman was still alive. 

the death eater looked terribly angry at cromwell's words. "you are no family of mine," she yelled, sending a jolt of fear down saige's back. 

cromwell only let out a weak, shaky laugh. "that seems to be the only thing we agree on these days," she seethed. the young girl hiding behind the tombstone could practically feel the rage radiating off of her- no, not practically, literally. it was difficult to describe, but the feeling snaking up her spine and curling itself around her throat was oddly familiar. saige knew it wasn't just her as she watched the death eaters shift uncomfortably in their spots. cromwell, it seemed, had some sort of power without a wand. fascinating. 

the curly-haired woman raised her knobby, ugly wand towards her nemesis' position in the sky and waited a moment for cromwell's eyes to lock onto hers, seemingly in a very weak play of power that everyone but her recognized as futile. her mouth opened, and in a hot mix of anger, adrenaline and sudden courage, saige popped out from behind her little headstone and dove at her.

and then, her world faded, and saige came back into reality screaming.