Flower Petals

-26-

Paula Abbott, though metaphorically split in two was in fact a whole, and usually decisive woman. She had yet to see Mason, but as the mission to kill Harry approached closer, she knew that if the death eaters were successful she would be reunited with him. She sat day in and day out in her room at the headquarters of darkness (the Malfoy Manor) alone and torn. She was two magnets ushered together by opposing forces, neither charge lined up and yet they stayed, polarized inside of her, ready at any moment to destroy her shaky foundation.

Mason swam through her dreams and nightmares and she felt as if everyday he became just a bit further from her grasp, out of reach.

But tonight it would all change when Mason arrived by the side of the Dark Lord, with Harry Potter dead. Voldemort had clear instructions and motives for Alstroemeria, though nobody was permitted to know. The sun was setting and the air grew cold, through the dungeon bars a faint humming trickled into the air. It was far off and beautiful, pouring light into a world which seems so full of darkness.

Paula sat, anxiously awaiting on the front porch, listening secretly to Luna Lovegood's song from captivity.

Luna hummed out an Irish folk song, saying to the goblin next to her

"My mum used to sing me this one to help me sleep, perhaps this one will do!"

She sung on about a land of milk and whiskey and honey. Green grass that rolled on for decades and into the second verse she slipped in something about rabbits and marmalade. Luna wasn't sure who was listening but she hoped it would bring light into their day. 

Paula waited, and waited.

But Mason never came.

The war party came apparating into the hall behind her and into the dining room, sitting at their table, greased in black marble and blood. But when she looked, Mason's chair was empty. 

They dragged a man behind them to the table, his body shifted upright so that he was standing as the Dark Lord controlled his body. He had a funky eye, he was heavier set and familiar, as she approached further Paula recognized Mr. Moody from defense against the dark arts in her third year. She and Ginny loved his class beyond words. Ginny. She remembered for an instant what she'd done to her, where she'd been. She wondered if she received the letter she'd sent, or if she even cared.

Draco turned the corner, bringing the prisoners from below the mansion to witness what the Dark Lord had made out to be a big show.

Draco stared at the man. Becoming angry. His hands flared and his eyebrows turned down

"Hello ferret boy" the man laughed

Draco laughed too though, under his breath, then becoming suddenly scared as he looked around the room. Terrified that a smile would be seen as weakness.

The Dark Lord flew his hands to the air, ushering silence over the crowd.

"This was supposed to be a joyous occasion for the Abbott family, and now, little witch, it is a vengeful one."  

The air flash froze, biting at Paula's hands and arms under her shirt. 

"I don't understand." she whispered. Though she did.

Mason Abbott was dead.

She'd waited a trillion years to be reunited with him. With the brother who brushed her hair and made her soup when she was sick. The brother who let her sleep in his room to avoid monsters and joined the death eaters so Paula could avoid the Dark Lord at all costs. Mason Abbott, star of the Slytherin quidditch team and the best hugger Paula had ever known. She pictured it now, his body growing cold on the ground somewhere, his face against a damp and icy sidewalk.