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STAYING AT AURORA'S COTTAGE would have been a lot more comforting if Rory was actually there. Everyone was walking on eggshells for the next upcoming weeks. Completely unsure of what to say. Soon December was drawing to a close and Christmas couldn't even be appreciated anymore.
Athena had always liked the cottage. It wasn't in the middle of nowhere but instead entwined with a small village. It was small in size but the kitchen was large with a huge map of the surrounding country on the far wall. Remus and Athena got a room to their self which although wasn't big, was very comfortable.
With every passing day the worry of Aurora's safety grew as fast as her stomach did. Athena felt as though she'd blinked and missed two months. In the back of her mind, she knew that her sister would be alright but that didn't stop her worrying. Dominique was the same, constantly asking Athena whether the pendant was beating.
Athena expected that the death eaters must have had something to do with the disappearance of her sister. Maybe they were hoping that Aurora would lead them straight back to Athena. How wrong they were. Rory would never give up Rena even if it meant compromising her own safety, that's what scared Athena.
Dominique spent a lot of her time writing messages into the book communication they shared. Athena watched as the words disappeared through the parchment but none returned. With every word, Dominique seemed to lose faith. Athena was still assured that Aurora would find her way back to them.
Life was boring since there was nothing to do but it was also simple. Athena was happy by the amount of protection over house and glad that Kennedy was staying with them.
She knew she was the only one who was happy about that. Remus didn't trust Kennedy anymore. He still blamed her for getting Athena caught even though she had explained that there was no other way for Kennedy to survive. They didn't have much reason to pretend to like each other and with the stress of everything going on, it was harder for them to control their words.
Dominique didn't get on with Kennedy either. Kenny had a bad habit of saying exactly what came into her mind which meant anything she didn't like about Dominique's home would be verbalised. The cottage only had three bedrooms and Kenny had been placed in the smallest which contained only a bed and a set of two drawers.
It's not as though she was used to a lavish lifestyle as of late but she still found a way to complain about anything she could. Athena pretend she wasn't annoyed by it simply because she didn't want Remus to say he told her so.
The full moon also became a rather large problem. If Athena believed that Remus got angry before the moon, Kennedy was a new story entirely. She was already a fairly angry person at the best of times and at the end of every month this was just amplified. She made Remus seem tame in comparison. Everyone learnt to simply stay out of her way but sometimes even this didn't work.
The other problem with the moon was separating the wolves. Athena didn't know what would happen if the two of them collided during their transformations. She worried that their anger against each other would leap to the surface. Athena didn't want to sit back and let that unfold.
Kennedy made everyone slightly tense. Athena liked knowing she was safe but she was beginning to think that Kennedy wasn't fit to stay with a group of people for an extended amount of time. She wondered how Sirius had dealt with her for so many years. Then again, Sirius had been a handful himself.
She loved Kennedy but Athena couldn't deny she was difficult.
However Kennedy wasn't the only one with a shortened temper. As Athena widened with the weight of pregnancy, she started putting up with less and less. She hated the sensation of pregnancy. In fact there was very little she enjoyed about it apart from imagining what would come after it was all finished.
Sometime towards the end of December, she couldn't go a day without feeling a small kick against her belly. At the beginning of this, it had been incredibly exciting. Remus had almost fainted from excitement as he placed his hand on her side in order to feel it. However by late December she'd had enough. Her daughter wasn't giving in, constantly kicking as though demanding a way out.
It was hard to appreciate the intricacies of pregnancy when it hurt so bad. Athena had been under the strange belief that it would only hurt towards the end but the physical and mental changes she was being forced through caused her stress she wasn't aware that she possessed.
She spent a lot of her time sleeping and the rest of her time worrying. Remus kept telling her that stress wasn't good for the baby but it was hard to imagine he really believed she could stop. The war didn't leave times to relax, it didn't give a break to think about oneself. It was a jump from bad to worse all the time. Athena often believed they were heading towards the final stages now. She wasn't sure why she thought that, it just made sense.
Everyday the consideration washed over her. The war couldn't end without her. As long as she ignored the crystal ball and denied her fate, the war would rage on and people would continue to die. That wasn't fair. It wasn't fair for the pressure to be placed on her shoulders but it also wasn't fair that this fight would have no end until she started facing responsibility.
But Athena was scared. What she had told Voldemort may have been a lie but that didn't mean it wasn't one she believed. Dumbledore may have been manipulative but he'd also been smart, cunning. He wouldn't have told Snape and Athena that Harry had to die unless it was the truth. Athena wasn't jumping around the pretence that he had cared for the boy but she still knew he'd been on the side of good. Even if his version of it had been twisted.
Athena couldn't do it. She wouldn't see the death of the boy she swore to protect unless she knew there was a way to prevent it. But as the months drew on she knew she couldn't hold off anymore. A spark had hit her when she'd considered the idea of a sacrifice and now she had to follow through on that idea.
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She spent the majority of her time in bed these days. Christmas passed and the new year dawned on them. Athena had faced many New Years but few had been as dark as this one. There was a constant fog rolling over the hills outside. Kennedy said it was because of the dementors. They could go anywhere they wanted now. Muggles couldn't see them but they could feel them. Athena couldn't imagine how terrifying that must be.
Some days it was hard to know when the sun came up and went down. The sky was covered by thick dark clouds that stopped light from pouring through. On one hand it meant that Athena could fall asleep any time that she wanted to but on the other hand it did nothing to pick up the moods of those having to live through it.
No one questioned when Athena started to spend more time in her room. After collecting her bag from her house, she'd made sure to bring any book she could on the magic even she didn't understand. Athena had found the books a while ago in the restricted section of Hogwarts library. She'd left them unread simply because she hoped she wouldn't have to use them.
However as the months went by where no visible progress was being made, Athena realised she had no choice but to think of the future. She spent most of her time reading and rereading the books. A lot of the magic within them was irrelevant and a lot of it was extremely dark, she didn't want to resort to using that.
Athena had believed that she had extensive knowledge of magic but as she read these books, she became aware that there was so much she did not know. Magic she had never even imagined. There was no question why some of it wasn't taught in schools. She simply wondered why it had been in the library at all.
Some of the books were simply theories. For a few days she became completely obsessed with a book that said it could bring people back from the dead. Athena had been convinced this could be her answer until she started to realise that magic such as this didn't exist. She'd only wanted it to be true as she'd always wished in a power to bring people back. Athena dreamt about it a lot. If she could have anything in the world, she supposed she'd choose that power.
It was impossible to bring someone back from the dead. Athena had heard stories of it. They'd simply been nothing more than ghosts, figments of souls that couldn't be put back together. It didn't count as bringing someone back to life when that person wasn't living. The idea was often twisted and dark. It sounded more like a curse than a blessing. It was impossible to defy fate, impossible to stop something like that from happening.
However things got even more impossible as the books went on. Magic that Athena knew for a fact could not be accomplished. Theses books must have been written hundreds of years ago when the idea of this kind of magic wasn't laughed upon.
With every page she seemed to lose faith. Some of the answers may have solved her problem if the magic they discussed was real. The books were practically fairy stories. Even the pictures within seemed ethereal, angelic.
However a few days into January, Athena finally finished the last book. It was within some of the last pages that Athena found it. Exactly what she had been looking for except she had been beginning to think it didn't exist.
Ponte Vitae
She'd heard of it before but she'd never thought she'd need to know about it. This magic was hard and incredibly dangerous if done wrong. Athena was smart enough to think she'd be able to achieve it but she also feared it wasn't worth the risk
Ponte Vitae
Magic created in the late 1700s. The Ponte Vitae is the strongest protection anyone can posses. The simple rendition completely stops normal jinxes, hexes and curses. The complex rendition was discovered by Mallcius Contarium in an attempt to trick death, to act against the unforgivable curses.
This magic is selfless. It will not protect the caster. Users must understand that by performing this magic they are creating a bond stronger than life. They must understand that when death arrives, the path of fate will be changed and there will be no way back. This magic can stop death but only with a sacrifice. When dearth arrives, a life will be taken. This magic simply manipulates whose life that is.
In order to cast this charm, the protector must be willing to undergo this sacrifice. There is no way back. The magic requires complex and intricate work. Many try and fail but failure is a path worse than death. Only the smartest, only the most powerful will be able to succeed.
The method to this magic is as follows.
"Rena"
Athena jumped, shutting the book tight with a harsh snap. Remus was stood in the doorway holding a sandwich on a plate.
"Everything ok?" He asked warily, looking between Athena and the book.
"Yeah... yeah I'm alright" Athena smiled gently as she took the plate off him, "I'll come down"
Remus nodded before he turned and started to walk back down the stairs. Athena cast a glance back towards the book lying on her bed. Everything was even more complicated now. The answer existed but what was the cost? Once her daughter was born, Athena was free to make a sacrifice but would she be able to go through with it? She couldn't leave Remus and she couldn't leave her daughter... then again, she also couldn't let Harry die.
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A/n
Words - 2086
Published- 23rd August 2021
watching the maze runner :)
I used to be obsessed with the films
I don't want to
think about the ending
of this book bc it hurts