Surviving Fate // Mattheo Riddle ♣️

Chapter Thirty-Three - Heartbreak

Word Count: 2,527 words. 

Warnings: Heartbreak. 

I didn't go to the Great Hall. I didn't have it in me to look at the bodies of the dead. I had passed by Neville on the way back and he had told me that there were some casualties. I didn't want to see them. I didn't want to know who I had lost.

Instead, I found myself wandering. Voldemort had stopped fighting. At least, for now. To collect our dead and mourn our loses I assumed. I wondered how many he had lost and if he actually cared for any of them. 

I didn't know where I was walking, but it didn't matter. Anywhere that wasn't where I was supposed to be. Putting off the inevitable can only be done for so long, but with each step I took, it got closer.

"Lyra?" Harry's voice asked.

I stopped, turning to face him. Potter was sat on the steps by the entrance to Dumbledore's office, twirling a wand between his fingers. It wasn't his. He looked as though he had been lost in thought before I arrived.

"Harry," I muttered in response, taking a deep breath. I sat down beside him with a small groan.

The two of us sat in silence for a moment, both too afraid too speak. Harry was the one to break it. "Is Snape –"

"Yeah."

"Have you gone –"

"No."

"Do you know –"

"No."

He nodded in understanding. "I'm a horcrux," he revealed with a heavy sigh.

I turned to look at him. "What?"

"Snape's tears," he began to explain. "I looked at his memories through the Pensieve. When my mother threw herself between Voldemort and I, a part of his soul latched onto me."

"That's why you can hear him," I muttered in revelation. "Why he seems to know exactly where you are all the time."

He sighed. "Either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live as the other survives."

"The prophecy?" I posed. "What does that mean?"

He turned to look at me, unshed tears in his eyes. "You know what it means."

I stood up abruptly. "No," I denied. "No, Potter, we can't just give up."

He stood to meet me. "I have to die Lyra. He cannot be killed unless all Horcrux's are dead..." he paused. "When I'm gone, you have to end it."

I shook my head. "I won't last that long," I argued. "I'll be dead as the sun rises."

"You don't know that –"

"Yes I do," I cut him off, sniffling. "I saw it happen. As clear as the prophecy you believe it. I can't kill him if I'm already dead."

He swallowed. "We should get to the Great Hall. Get to the others."

"And mourn our losses?" I asked. "I know you can feel it too. That fear. We've lost people. I don't know who and I don't know how many, but I know they're dead."

Harry nodded. "I know."

"I don't want to lose you too."

"I don't want to lose you," he repeated.

Fumbling with the gem in my pocket, I rushed forward to take the Gryffindor into a tight hug. He returned it, placing a gentle hand around the back of my shoulders.