"Stay close to me," whispered Regulus, glancing over at his older sister.
Before stepping into the cave, Astrid tightened her grip on his hand and met his gaze. "I'm not going anywhere."
Although she wouldn't admit it, Astrid was scared.
Her chances of survival were slim to none. If she died, her family would live the rest of their lives never knowing what happened to her. And if she succeeded, it was only a matter of time before Lord Voldemort found out and sent someone to kill her and Regulus.
As bad as it sounds, Astrid wasn't doing this for the greater good of the wizarding world. She couldn't recall a single time she had tried to right someone else's wrong. That was a hero's job, and Astrid was anything but.
She didn't care if the world burned— only that her brothers didn't burn with it.
As she and Regulus made their way into the cave, her thoughts drifted to her eldest brother.
"Would Sirius be proud if he knew what we were able to do?
Would he go looking for us if we disappeared?
Would he even care?"
The closer they got to the cave, the more she hoped her sacrifices would be worth it in the end, even if she wouldn't be alive to see it.
Then, unbidden, another thought surfaced—James.
Memories flickered through her mind: the night he taught her how to cast a Patronus charm, the afternoon they spent racing across the Quidditch pitch, the times they snuck out of Hogwarts at night to go to Hogsmeade. But her favorite memory of all was when James and Astrid danced together in the Room of Requirement, escaping the weight of the world for just one night.
Oh, how her heart ached for him. She knew James well enough to know that he would never approve of her plan. If he were here, he would hold her back, beg her to stop, to rethink—to live.
But this was her decision. Her sacrifice to make.
Astrid could only hope that he would understand
James was her lifeline, yet here she was, walking willingly into danger.
Why?
Because she valued James's life more than her own. Astrid didn't want James to survive—she wanted him to live. To fall in love, to marry, to have a family, to grow old.
She wanted James to tell his grandchild the stories of his heroism—how he had fought alongside the Order, how they had given everything for a future where blood did not matter.
Astrid didn't care whether the war was won. She only cared that James got the life he always wanted. A life where he could breathe.
Astrid wasn't a hero.
But she would gladly die for them all.
She would gladly die for him.
YOU ARE READING
Keep Breathing ♢ James Potter
Fanfiction"I want you to understand something, Harry...James loved Lily. He truly did love you and your mother. But what Astrid and James had was more than just love. It was all things above love. It was a sacrifice. It was putting each other first. It was m...
