Ameortentia - Collection of One-shots

Life Debt (Hermione x Marcus)

When a stray bombarda maxima hit the wall above Fred Weasley, he hadn't had another choice but to swallow down the pain from the torture curse and and take off in a sprint, launching his full weight into the Weasley twin to knock him away from the collapse. Once they were sure everyone around them was okay, the two had taken off towards the room of requirement to meet up with Ron and Harry. Marcus hadn't been sure what to expect in the ROR, but seeing one of his closest childhood friends fall to his death, consumed by fiendfyre, after failing to cook Weasley alive wasn't it. He hadn't expected to save Blaise Zabini's life while he and the trio had made to escape, and he certainly hadn't been expecting Potter to rescue Malfoy from an impending fiery death. To say his former housemates had been surprised to see him clinging so close to Granger would've been the understatement of the century, he hadn't been one that anybody would've expected to swap sides- his father was much like Draco's afterall, an inner circle death eater without any sense of human emotion. They didn't have time to dwell on it though as they watched him run off after the trio back into battle. 

When the ceasefire was called, Marcus had been led by the hand into the great hall behind Hermione; not once did her hand leave his, it was her way of showing he wasn't a threat. They'd found the bodies of Professor Lupin and his wife placed amongst the fallen, it'd taken everything in Marcus not to cry. Lupin was the best Professor he'd ever had, werewolf or not that man had gone above and beyond for his students; Taken because some couldn't be bothered to let go of the old ways. Hermione had followed after Harry when he'd gone to turn himself over in the forest, Marcus decided to get to know Molly Weasley in the short time he was without Hermione before the craziness could resume. In that moment he'd wished his own Mother could've been so kind, maybe he'd have never ended up with that blasted mark on his arm. Hermione returned to him a short time later, the two conversed about the battle that was sure to come if Harry didn't survive... In that conversation, Marcus pledged to put her life before his own if it came down to it; The world would need her regardless of how this war turned out, he was nothing to the revolution- or so he thought at the time... 

Though the speech he gave when Voldemort returned with Harry saved many of his housemates lives. His words would be later recanted in the daily profit, his speech immortalized within the pages in history of magic textbooks around the world; It had happened seemingly out of nowhere, Voldemort had been calling out to Draco Malfoy one moment and the next Marcus had begun speaking- his words halting the young Malfoy in his steps. It was this speech that gave several of his housemates the courage to deflect and do right by the world, to stop being sheep and start being independent. Former housemates and current Slytherin students alike, the latter of which most had never even met Marcus, stopped in their tracks to listen to him. Draco Malfoy even stopping halfway to meet Voldemort's embrace in order to listen to his former quidditch captain. His grasp on Hermione's hand tightened ever so slightly with every word he spoke, every word stinging his throat as it clawed its way up from the depths of his heart; He needed them to understand just what they were doing, and that they had a choice to change their minds if they wanted to... they couldn't be defined by the choices their parent's had made for them. 

"I know it feels like the sky is falling in on us right now, and that there's nothing we can do but fall back into what we know; but everything is caving in around us and I'm not sure if we'll make it through this if we continue on the way we are. The time has come when we all need to stop and think for ourselves and ask ourselves is there light beyond the dark? Could we find our fire deep within our hearts and finally do right by ourselves, by the classmates we've known since we were eleven years old? I'm sure by now you've all learned that death has a very certain fragrance, though how much longer can any of you honestly stand to smell it? The fear you're all feeling right now? I can taste the bitterness of it, but I know we could rise above it and escape it- there must be another way, a better way. Our once noble house has fallen to it's knees at the hands of Voldemort, but I'm asking you all to please rise the bloody fuck up. Your future has almost been stolen from you, don't let this man take a moment more than he already has; It's too late for your parents, but it's not too late for to save yourselves. Gather up all the broken bits and pieces inside of you, use them to cover up the scars of the past and prepare to defend your home. Hogwarts has housed every one of us, it is now our duty to defend it- to defend everything it stands for as well. I need you all to show me what it's going to be; Is this the end? Or is this just the beginning?"