'Truth is the first casualty of war.'
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She looked deathly. Eyes closed, skin bleached of a healthy glow; Adeline lay motionless on familiar crisp sheets, shallowly breathing in stale air with an undertone of disinfectant and lavender. Hospital gown in place of her unkempt dress, ruined by mud and violence of the previous night, it was clear her body was giving way to the dark magic residing in her bloodstream.
"Harry?"
Harry couldn't break his stare. She looked so fragile—so vulnerable. She was daybreak on a Sunday morning; the luminescence of the moon. She was the hope in this war, but simultaneously the heart of it. He'd never met anyone like her; he'd never meet anyone like her again. To hold such corrupted power but maintain the softness of a pure soul is magic in and of itself. She snuck into his life on that day in the black lake and became his life from that point on. What will he do? What will he do when she's dead and gone in nine months? How will he cope? How in Merlin's name will he win this war with such a gaping hole in his heart?
"Harry?"
"Huh?" He blinks, "What?"
"What actually happened last night?" Ron asked from his place on the next bed over from Addie's, having pulled it closer to act as an extra seat for himself and Ginny. Hermione resided in the chair between the head of both beds. The three looked to their downhearted friend, seated at the bottom of Addie's mattress.
"She's been distant," Harry tore his gaze back to Adeline. "I think it's because of her sickness. She's been having hallucinations of Voldemort, or visions maybe, and she's just drawn to that shield. Death eaters are there all the time, by Voldemort's orders I'd say, and she keeps talking about her needing to leave Hogwarts for our own good. If she leaves the shield, she'll be captured and brought to him. Who knows what Voldemort's planned for her, but it's not good."
"Wait..." Ginny spoke, drawing his eyes to her. Hermione and Ron mirrored her expression. "What do you mean 'her sickness'?"
"...Well, I..." He sighs, defeated. "She's...terminally ill. She's dying, guys."
"What?"
"What do you mean?"
"And exactly when were you planning to tell us?" Hermione asked, perplexed, her voice louder than usual.
"I kind of just did—"
"We're your best friends, Harry. Does 'best' mean nothing to you? And Addie's our best friend too, so that makes TWO 'bests'! We deserve to know she's DYING!" Ron's voice rose; Hermione gently shushed him.
"I don't know what to say," Harry looked down, as though the lines on his hands suddenly became the most interesting thing in the world.
"You don't know what to say? Suddenly the conversation is about something bad you've done and now you're not talkative?" Ron fired, words slipping out of his mouth before he could think about them. "What happened to talkative Harry, huh? What happened to the blabbermouth cooing over Cho Chang but then realising his feelings towards Addie and laying it all on me to listen to, huh-"
"Harry has feelings for Addie?" Ginny perked up, temporarily forgetting the main conversation, an eager smile developing on her lips. Harry's face burned red.
"You're surprised? I—wait!" Ron shot his stare back to Harry. "You wanted me to talk about your cheesy romance-y crush for Addie so that we'd all get distracted from our actual conversation about being mad at you! Well that's not going to work! See, we already know you love her and that you want to get married and have—"
"RON-!"
"WHAT? It's no secret! We all see the way you look at her, you couldn't be more obvious—"
"Ron, stop." Hermione interrupted, Harry grateful for his mouth to be closed. "Harry, how long have you known?"
"...a month."
"WHAT—"
"RON!"
"Okay, okay." He says, turning his voice to a whisper. "What!!"
"Dumbledore called me into his office on the first day back and he told me. But he also said not to tell anyone. He basically said it was so that word doesn't get out because the wrong people could hear it and Voldemort might try to take her—I mean, more than he is now. She's like a not-so-secret weapon for him that he can use to win the war, and if he hears that she's dying, he'd be so urgent to get to her that he'd go to 'extreme lengths' to prevent his weapon from dying."
"Dumbledore sure likes to objectify people," Ginny said, the others looking to her. "What? Referring to Adeline as a 'weapon' that...Voldemort could 'use'? It dehumanises her. Just putting it out there."
"That's the other thing," Harry paused. "...And I just found this out last night—but you know how I kind of disappeared for a little right after everything had happened? When Addie was being brought here?"
"Yeah...? We didn't really think anything of it...you disappear a lot, you know. It's kind of your thing." Ginny shrugged, Harry about to protest though eventually nodding; disappearing is a bit of a hobby of his by now. Maybe even a personality trait.
"Well...I was really scared last night. I mean, we all were, obviously, but I was completely out of it. Dumbledore brought me up to his office. I was a mess, I thought Addie had actually died. When Dumbledore did that big powerful magic thing, when he extended the shield and saved her, I was relieved, but then I ran over to her and I couldn't find her heartbeat—I made sure to check her neck and her wrist, I tried everything to find it because maybe I was just doing it wrong, but I... didn't feel a heartbeat."
"Wait so she died? Is she dead? Why does no one tell me these things! I thought she was just in here because she's unconscious, not that she's dead—"
"Ron, don't be stupid—she is unconscious."
"See, and that makes sense! I am right."
"...Anyway, I was going on about how she didn't have a heartbeat and that she was dead and why wasn't Dumbledore upset like me that she's dead, but he told me that Addie doesn't have a heartbeat."
"What, so she's been dead ever since you found her in the lake? Has she been dead this whole time and we've just been imagining that she's alive? Is she a vampire?"
"Ron, no, I- just listen, okay?"
"I-okay, keep going."
"Well, he told me that Addie isn't technically a human. Physically on the outside she is, and she obviously has human tendencies, but physically on the inside, she isn't. Dumbledore said that the dark magic inside her, which is what lets her transform into the evil-monster-witch, is what keeps her alive. She has a heart and all, but it doesn't beat because it doesn't need to. The dark magic circulates her blood and everything, just like a heart would, and basically does everything to keep her alive because of its energy. But that's where the illness comes in. As she grows up, she becomes more powerful; the dark magic develops along with her. As it develops, so does its power, which makes her magic stronger. Her dark magic, separate from her... you know, other magic, the not-dark magic that every witch and wizard has, is untamed. And as it grows in power, it grows in restlessness; dark magic is violent and unstable, so it needs to be used and controlled or otherwise it will only build up in instability and be its own destruction. That's what's happening to Addie; her dark magic is killing itself, and her along with it."
"I-woah..."
The three sat in silence, thinking about his words, whilst Harry subconsciously twiddled his thumbs, unsure if it was right to tell all of this to the others when he gave Dumbledore his word that he wouldn't tell anyone. All that seemed not to matter, however, as Adeline sat up.
Harry turned in glee to her, finally she was awake, but he was met with a glare.
"Addie? What's wrong?" He asked, but the look on her face told him before her words did.
"I'm dying?"
"WHAT-YOU DIDN'T TELL HER EITHER?"
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a/n:
oop
hii :)
i wrote this chapter all today hehe so the next chapter won't be such a long wait omg
also i watched avatar: the last airbender series and i'm crying i love it sm
thank you all sm for your support and dealing with my bad updating <333
love you all sm
see you soooooooon :)