THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH | RON WEASLEY [BOOK FIVE]

23. BEAUTIFUL AND BOLD

Gene recognised her hair instantly, flowing delicately to the ground, swaying with Aurelia's movements as she moved further into the Hall. In a sick turn of events, Gene actually waited to see where Aurelia would place her.

On the outskirts of the Hall with the injured, or if she would move to the middle of the room, lowering Lorelai's body to the ground, where she would lie with the rest of the dead.

Aurelia charged forward, taken by a force that drew her toward her niece in some magnetic sense, before teetering the edge between the hurt and the fallen. With baited breath, she finally gasped in relief, watching as Aurelia lowered Lorelai to one of the tables that was pressed against the wall.

Hermione helped bring Gene to her feet, and they rushed toward Aurelia, who enveloped her in a crushing embrace, so tight that it seemed to make all the pain leave her body, at least for a moment or so.

Gene crouched to the floor, her fingers skimming Lorelai's cheek, devoid of colour. She was unconscious, it seemed, but Gene could hear the faint sound of her ragged breaths, slowly but surely. Lorelai was unscathed from an outsiders perspective, but Gene knew something had gone terribly, terribly wrong.

"I thought I might have been to- too late," Aurelia whispered as Gene stood to her feet. "He was torturing her. The Cruciatus Curse." her voice wavered.

Aurelia's eyes shut for a moment, as though she was reliving the horrors and a tear escaped from the corner of her eye.

"Who?" Gene said suddenly.

Aurelia shifted her gaze to stare at Gene now, somewhat caught off guard. She blinked once, twice, a third time, as though she was unsure of what Gene had just asked her.

"What?" she asked.

"Who was it?" Gene asked again.

A surge of a sudden violent and uncontrollable anger had filled Gene's senses, slowly but surely building itself up, working its way through her entire body, until it was all she could feel.

"Gene, I-I don't think–"

"Who was it!" she cried suddenly, a few tears spilling before she could stop herself.

Aurelia flinched, wiping at her own cheeks as she stared at her niece, as though she could not recognise her.

"D-Dolohov." Aurelia said his name with contempt, her voice a whisper. "I know what you're thinking, Gene." she began.

The anger that had erupted within Gene fulminated at the very mention of his name. There were things that Gene wanted so desperately to say, to do, but a feeling in her chest had soon overcome the hatred in the pit of her stomach. She wouldn't deny that she wanted to kill Dolohov, for a brief moment in time, passing, even.

But what would that have made her? Worse than him, perhaps. And in that second, she could hear her fathers words, echoing in her mind, gently bringing her back to humanity. She had dark in her, that she knew for certain. But she also had light in her, the potential to be better.

It was within her. She just had to let it win.

"Will she wake up?" Gene asked.

Aurelia's head shot up, her eyes glassy as she mustered a nod, pushing her hair from her face.

"She'll wake up," Aurelia assured her, "but she won't be the same."

"What do you mean?" Gene asked, glancing at Lorelai again, pushing a few stray hairs from her forehead gently.

"It's difficult to say," Aurelia said weakly, "she could wake up, remembering everything, or nothing at all."

"Nothing?" Gene gasped.