{.89. The life and death of Dorcas Meadowes}
Trigger: death
It was late May of 1979 when the rest order had the news. Ally couldn't help but still hear the ringing in her ears.
She was making the cups of tea for the group that she was with, Frank having his arms wrapped tightly around her as he made sure that her wound stopped bleeding. Marlene was sobbing into Sirius arms and Toby was holding an inconsolable Luke.
Nobody thought it was real. Nobody could believe that only this morning they'd been having a laugh and joking about the future but this, it was unimaginable.
"I just can't believe it." James breathed as he held onto Lily
"Nobody can,"
***
Alcyone Montague had known that Dorcas was doing a bloody good job at winding you-know-who up. She had become outspoken, both of her parents had good jobs within the ministry and were handing out flyers that were deemed as 'against you-know-who' material.
Dorcas didn't care, she made sure that her brothers knew what was going on and that she made sure that you-know-who knew that she was ready for a fight.
"Have we got an order mission today?" Frank asked the group as he brought cups of tea out
"Probably. You know what, I'm tired of being scared. We're a few months away from 1980, Ally's birthday is soon. I don't understand what this issue is, we need to take charge." Dorcas ordered "we need this finished by Christmas," she nodded
"While I agree with you sweetheart, I think we need to be strategic rather than lead by time," Luke told her
"Luke is right, it's going to take as long as it takes," Toby agreed
"We'll I'm not getting any bloody younger, so I'd appreciate it if it was over as soon as possible." Dorcas joked
"We'll either way there is no birthday party for me this year." Ally told them "I can't be arsed without Remus and to be honest it's too much hassle,"
"Remus will be back soon Ally, then you and him can be settled and happy again." Alice reassured
Ally nodded. Remus had been gone for quite some time now since they had come out of hospital. It was okay, but it was getting lonely now without him. She longed for his touch. She wondered what he was doing, if he was safe.
Atlas was also out and about in the Wolf colonies trying to get recruits but he wasn't getting much luck, Marlene McKinnon had began going with him and helping out.
It was Dorcas' idea actually, she said Marlene was sweet and she could charm people. Ally had never seen it but she could understand what Dorcas had meant. Despite Ally thinking Marlene was a bit horrible in Hogwarts, since they had gotten to know one another she didn't have any complaints. She thought Marlene was wonderful.
"Twenty bloody minutes its taken me to get here!" Marlene fumed as she entered Toby and Sirius' flat. "I took the Muggle tube, well by Merlin first it was delayed, then there was an issue on the line, so it was cancelled! Cancelled! Imagine that!" She laughed as she took her jacket off "can you imagine the Hogwarts express being late? Or worse? Cancelled! The bloody muggles have no idea!" She fumed
"Nice to see you Marlene," Sirius joked
Marlene was about to reply when a patronus flew in.
"Attack in Manchester near the old Meadowes residence,"
"That's my ancestral home," Dorcas told the group. "It's a wizarding village in Manchester, I'll see you there." She told them before apparating off
"Get in our pairs then," James ordered kissing Lily.
Ally hugged Toby and Luke before linking arms with Frank who'd just given Alice a big hug. They were hating the fact that this was intensifying so quickly. All Alice and Frank wanted was to have a baby and settle down.
Ally didn't blame them, she just wanted things to go back to normal anyway but she imagined when you were married it made you want to settle entirely.
"Ally do you have a wand?" Frank asked her and she nodded showing her wand.
He nodded and apparated them to Dorcas' ancestral home. As soon as they arrived there was a hex shot at them which luckily they managed to avoid. Frank always looked over ally when they were on order missions and she tried her best to be independent as she knew she could do it. However, after the hospitalisation she had lost her spark and she knew she wasn't anywhere near as strong as she was before.
Frank pulled her behind a column and looked at her with a smile
"We might have to split up for this, but just stay near okay?"
Ally nodded and followed Frank around the room. She kept her wits about her, one thing about herself that she hated was how easy she could day dream or lose her focus on something else. For example, she could see Dorcas fighting two death eaters.
It really pissed Ally off that they didn't show their faces and they hid behind the silly masks. It pissed her off, it infuriated her and she couldn't work out why.
She thought it might have been because it was cowardly, they were fighting and killing people but we're not showing their faces. She thought that it summed the death eaters up.
She shot a curse at the person she was fighting, she had come back to reality. She felt a fire burning in her belly. She wanted to make sure her friends were safe. The closer it got to her birthday the more she wanted all her friends and family to survive. She appreciated how many people were alive.
Ally got shot with a hex that made her arm bleed, she screamed in pain as her arm started to burn. The death eater laughed before they apparated away.
Ally managed to drag herself to a corner of the room where nobody was to try and heal her arm. She didn't understand why it was burning. She raised her hand to try and heal it but she kept grunting in pain.
She looked around the room, there were too many of them against not many of the order. It was obvious that the order were outnumbered. There was no way that they could have won. She started to sweat, she noticed her hand becoming sweaty. She didn't know what was happening but her vision became blurry and she was struggling to breathe. How on earth did she keep all these people safe.
She could hear someone say her name. It sounded a lot like Remus but she thought that she was imagining it. She did that, Remus was her safe space and he had always helped calm her down. However, as her vision was clearing up she could see Remus.
"You're okay darling, keep breathing," she heard
Ally listened to Remus and continued to breathe. She thought it was silly having enough time to have a panic attack in the middle of a mission. Once she had came around she saw Remus, she didn't know what to say but he pressed a kiss to her forehead then her lips and ran off in the other direction.
There was now only Dorcas and Ally in the room. She didn't know where Frank had gone but her arm was better and she managed to get up. She went to try and help Dorcas when a hex was shot her way. By some miracle, she deflected it with her hand but as she tried to somehow blast magic out of her hand the death eaters apparated out of the room.
"What on Merlin's balls is going on?" Dorcas asked
Ally shrugged and went to pull her toward the exit. However, Dorcas' hand got detached from Ally's. Ally turned around to look when she saw who was in the room.
You-know-who was in the room. Ally gasped as Dorcas was being held in the air.
"Miss Meadowes, you've created quite the issue for me." He hissed
Ally tried to do something but she felt as if she couldn't move, she didn't know what she could do, it was you-know-who! She tried using occlumency, she didn't know who she was trying to use it on but she thought if she could do something it would help. Sadly, Regulus was in Hogwarts and all he could do was try and pen a letter to Caspian to try and help his sister who managed to get through to him.
"I will never stop," she hissed, you-know-who hit her with a curse that caused her to scream in pain, ally snapped back to reality and chose to be brave.
"Get off her!" Ally snarled trying to shove a curse at him which was quickly shot away. You-know-who chuckled before shooting the curse at her.
Ally screamed in pain, she had never felt a pain like it, while she was recovering from the curse she heard Dorcas scream in pain again. Ally tried to help her, she really did but she couldn't move and as she tried she felt the curse being shot at her from behind.
Dorcas looked towards Ally and gave her a soft smile while she saw Ally recovering from the curse.
"It's okay," she nodded reassuring Ally "Be brave and tell Lucas I love him," she whispered as a tear fell down her cheek. Ally went to speak but you-know-who shot the killing curse at Dorcas and disappeared into air.
Ally let out a heartwrenching scream, it was a scream that echoed throughout the building. It was so loud that it was heard from downstairs, causing the order members to stop what they were doing. Both Remus and Luke's blood ran cold.
Ally was holding onto Dorcas, she was sobbing into her forehead. Dorcas' head was placed on Ally's lap and she was clutching onto Dorcas' hand.
"Please wake up." She hiccuped "please," she sobbed
Remus and Luke barged the door open. Luke saw the scene and felt his heart drop.
"No...no... no..."
He ran to Ally's side and slid to his knees as he looked at the girl that he loved. He placed his fingers on her neck to try and find a pulse, he tried something he called CPR for seven minutes but there was no luck.
Dorcas Meadowes had been murdered. She had been murdered by you-know-who himself.
Toby arrived upstairs a few minutes into the CPR and checked Ally out alongside Remus. He came to take Luke back to the Montague Mansion.
"Come on mate, let's take her and let's leave her rest," Toby told him wrapping his arm around his brother.
Remus left his arm wrapped around Ally.
It was late May of 1979 when the rest of the order had the news. Ally couldn't help but still hear the ringing in her ears.
She was making the cups of tea for the group that she was with, Frank having his arms wrapped tightly around her as he made sure that her wound stopped bleeding. Marlene was sobbing into Sirius arms and Toby was holding an inconsolable Luke.
Nobody thought it was real. Nobody could believe that only this morning they'd been having a laugh and joking about the future but this, it was unimaginable.
"I just can't believe it." James breathed as he held onto Lily
"Nobody can," Frank asserted knowing Ally had been through a lot today.
"How are you feeling Cece?" Remus asked her as she sat down.
They had all seen she had bruising but she refused to talk about what had happened.
"I'm okay," she mumbled.
She was terrified. She saw how accepting Dorcas was of death, did they all have to live like that? Ally didn't want to die. She wanted to live out her life, even in Dorcas' last moments she reassured Ally that she was okay.
"She reassured me, I think she knew what was about to happen." Ally told the group, "she said that it was okay, that I need to be brave and that she loved you Luke." She told him.
Luke wrapped his arm around her. He sobbed into her shoulder and she soothed him quietly. She didn't like this, she didn't think they needed to be this accepting of death and she certainly did not think that this was going to get any easier.
It most definitely would not get easier.
***