Elysia

Chapter Twenty ~ The Battles End

Neville's Perspective~

I'd never truly seen someone broken until I saw Elysia in the stiff arms of Severus Snape. Perhaps losing this one last person after a flood of so many was the last gust of wind to push her over the edge of the cliff, to peel back her skin and expose her heart to the darkness.

"I'm gone... I'm burnt out, Neville. There's nothing left."  she whispered, empty eyes travelling from Snape to me over and over.

"V-Viperous... I can't find her. F-Fred he's..." I murmured, unable to control my thoughts into a sane order.

Walking over it was as if I had entered an external projection of all of her sadness, and below me my knees gave out before her. Pulling her face closer to me I kissed her just to see if the magic was still there, if she was alive enough to love me; the spark alone was enough to comfort me, Elysia would be okay.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so so sorry... I love you, I do... We'll be okay, this- fuck- we'll be okay... I'm sorry..." I offered, trying to articulate some magic phrase that would cram the missing piece back into the puzzle and bring her back to me.

Suddenly her slight frame pulled away from me, her fists balling into fists and swinging at me again and again, the notion alone feeling like a wrecking ball tearing through me. Yet, I wouldn't stop her. We both needed this, she needed to exert her pain and make it someone else’s.

"No! No! No! I was too fucking late! I was too late! Not me, not me... Not me I should have... I should have-" she began to moan, anguish tainting every syllable.

In a few moments she stopped, eyes widening as some great thought dawned on her. Looking up blankly I knew that I would never penetrate that head of hers, but this development evaporating her current pain and turned her towards the future whatever that may be.

In the silence, covered in blooming bruises, I felt my head loll to my side as sleep pervaded my brain. I felt the pain lift from me and hover in the air before leaving entirely, and I knew that she had healed me. Suddenly my brain began to rattle as a voice entered it.

"You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat, immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured."

"Nev, we have to go... We gotta go... I can go and heal everyone..." Elysia chimed, holding her wand with such ferocity her hand turned white.

As we ran from the flailing limbs of the Whomping Willow Elysia stopped to breath for just a moment.

Squeezing my hand she hesitated before letting go of my hand completely and walking forward across the slope. Perhaps she needed a moment alone to face the newest lapse of emotional torture presented to her. Walking at the slowest pace I could manage I let her go, before realising what had provoked her to move.

"Look, my gifted daughter approaches." Voldemort called, snickers of his followers filling the brisk air.

"You killed my true father, you fucking bastard." Elysia bellowed, drawing her wand in sheer anger.

"I am your true father, and I am very much alive. However, if your feelings of sentimentality are towards Severus Snape; I will inform you that your growth was a mere formality. He did not succeed in producing me a worthy heir, anyhow, with that useful pup of yours always in tow." Voldemort spat, shooting a venomous look at me.

Fear pulsed through me faster, faster, faster. Bellatrix stood amongst the crowd, her sneer enough to enrage me. Hand held firmly on my wand, I gazed around those Elysia had confronted and planned how I would stun her and carry her away safely.