• — • — •
There is a Reaper whose name is Death,
And, with his sickle keen,
He reaps the bearded grain at a breath,
And the flowers that grow between.
He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes,
He kissed their drooping leaves;
It was for the Lord of Paradise
He bound them in his sheaves.
O, not in cruelty, not in wrath,
The Reaper came that day;
'Twas an angel visited the green earth,
And took the flowers away.
-HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
• — • — •
"I want to go home," Aeliana whispered, sounding like a stranger to her own ears.
"This is your home," the Minister of Magic said solemnly.
She wasn't so sure she wanted it to be anymore. After Professor McGonagall tracked her down in the corridor, Aeliana demanded they let her return home, to prove them wrong, to show everyone that her family was just fine.
From there, time passed in a whirlwind until somehow she found herself standing in the Great Hall of Gryffindor Manor with the Minister of Magic and a slew of Aurors. Honestly, Merlin himself could have been draping himself buck naked across the couch and Aeliana knew she wouldn't have noticed. She only vaguely knew the Minister was there because he had been her escort. The Minister, a man of weak constitution, quickly complied to her demands when he became too flustered by her "unseemly" show of emotion.
She wanted to prove to herself it wasn't true. But now that she was there, she couldn't erase the truth. They were all gone. Every last one.
This place wasn't her home anymore. Not without them.
"Lia," Sirius began, "you shouldn't be here. You shouldn't see this."
Sirius, without her consultation, all but ordered Dumbledore to let him tag along, saying he wasn't going to just leave her with "this old sod," as he fondly referred to the Minister. For whatever reason, Dumbledore agreed. She wasn't really listening, though. Perhaps he made a good argument. It didn't seem too matter at the time, but now she was glad she had someone with her, even if it was only him.
Wordlessly shrugging out of his hold, Aeliana spotted a familiar form across the room. Her heart stuttered in the cage of her chest. There was no mistaking it.
"Caius," she breathed, voice cracking with repressed emotion. Her knees buckled and slammed into the plush, blood soaked carpet beside him.
He didn't move. His dark, oceanic eyes stared past her, unseeing. She was instantly trapped in their hollow depths, unable to look away. People always said they had the same eyes, just like their father's. It was the only feature that identified them as being related, she always thought, because his hair was darker, his skin tanner, and his features finer, stolen from a painting of a long dead prince. Now, the light behind his eyes had all been extinguished, like so many others before him in this war.
Sirius reached out a hand and carefully closed Caius's eyelids, like a curtains coming down at the end of a show.
With his eyes shut, the truth wasn't so clear. He might not be dead if his eyes were closed. Aeliana and Caius both deserved the lie that he could be sleeping. He would still wake up, ruffle her hair, and call her his "little monster," like he did when she was small, and then she would swat his hand away and tell him to stop calling her that, even though she never really minded.
"Er... you can't tamper with the crime scene, sir." an awkward voice behind Sirius intoned. "You shouldn't change anything...."
Before Sirius could respond, Aeliana cut in hollowly. "What's the point? We already know who did this."
It was obvious. Lia thought back to the one time she had actually seen Lord Voldemort in the flesh. He had come to her father nearly ten years back, trying to talk him into joining his little cult, but he promptly banished him from the grounds.
Aeliana wasn't supposed to have been there. Her father had told her in no uncertain terms to stay in her room, but even then she had a very loose relationship with authority and went to listen in anyway. She was only a child back then, maybe six or seven years old, but she still remembered Voldemort's face as he stormed out of the house. His skin was too pale, his eyes too bright, and his face too serpentine. But the hate in his eyes... The look he gave her as he left was chilling, promising retribution. She dared not tell her father, because then he'd know she'd disobeyed.
Aeliana couldn't help but wonder, maybe if she had said something this wouldn't have happened.
"I'm so sorry, Caius," she whispered into her brother's hair, tears dripping slowly onto his face. "I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I messed up..."
"How could you think that?" Sirius protested, leaning down beside her. "This is not your fault. You had nothing to do with this- this-" He trailed off, gesturing about hopelessly.
Lia leaned back to soak in every detail of her brother for what she knew would be the last time. His wavy chestnut colored locks were messy, framing his face and nearly poking at his eyes, and his robes, despite the blood, were still as crisp and clean as ever. She didn't even want to know where the blood had come from.
A glint of gold around his neck caught her eye as she pulled away. With trembling fingers, she reached to pull out the long chain necklace carrying the pendent that signified the heir of her house. Caius had been destined to take over for their father as the head of the family in a few years. He'd been groomed for it since he the day he could crawl. What a waste.
Aeliana felt her hand tighten, subconsciously, around the pendant as she thought about the future he had stolen from him. The pain was welcome compared to the tears that just wouldn't stop.
"I should have been here, fought alongside the rest of you, but I didn't and now I'm all alone." Her voice shook as she ran a hand down his cheek. "How could you just leave me? You said it was an older brother's responsibility to protect his little siblings, but where are you now? You can't protect me if you're dead."
Unable to look at his ashen face for even a second longer, Aeliana glanced around the room, only to spot aunt on her side near the hearth. She had had a future, too, not to mention a son and daughter. She wondered what happened to them. They were so young... Unable to stomach where that train of thought headed, Lia forced herself to look away, when she spotted three unrecognisable bodies with their faces covered lying a few feet away. She couldn't help the hot rage bubbling up in her belly, ready to burst at the mere sight of them.
"What are they doing here?" she growled. "Those cowards don't deserve to be here, lying next to the people they murdered! Get them OUT!"
After a petrified nod from the Minister, a couple of Aurors waved their wands, taking the bodies away. Several departed along with the corpses.
Lia glanced back and forth between Caius and her aunt until she felt the walls begin to close in. Caius was too young, barely twenty-four. Too young to die, and far too good. He was meant to be great; he had been Head Boy and an heir the family could be proud of. How was it that such a magnetic presence could just vanish in an instant?
"I- I can't breathe... I need some air," Aeliana murmured to no one in particular, trying to force oxygen into her lungs by force of will alone.
A hand curled itself around her back, lifting her up off the ground.
"Everything is going to be okay," Sirius soothed. "Just tell me what you want to do. I'll kill Voldemort myself if you ask."
She didn't doubt that he'd try. She also didn't doubt that it would be the last thing he'd ever try.
"I- I just want to get some air."
Lia stood up abruptly, scrambling towards the door to the grounds, despite the frenzied protests of Sirius behind her. She just needed to get out. She didn't want to see the bodies anymore, she couldn't bear it. She thought she was strong enough, but she now knew she'd overestimated herself.
Aeliana threw open the great oak doors, only to fall short at the sight that awaited her.
More bodies.
She spotted her father first, then her mother, her uncles and aunt, even her grandfather. All lying lifeless upon the grassy ground, interspersed with perhaps a dozen intruders.
If Aeliana thought she had trouble breathing before, that was nothing compared to how she currently felt. Her muscles tensed into stone, rooted into spot as she took in a scene taken straight from her nightmares.
Sirius rushes out the door after her. "Bloody hell," he cursed. Coming to his senses, he shoved shoved behind his back to block the view, all the while still muttering under his breath, "Bloody hell..."
He was right. It was a hell.