Lillian 'Anna' Potter || Goblet of Fire

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Dancing With Death

Five minutes and twenty-seven seconds.

That was the amount of time it took for the potion to stop her heartbeat and send her to the world between the living and the dead, and the same amount of time she had to get Draco-hecking-Malfoy out the door before he thought she kicked the bucket.

“What...are you doing here?” She asked. Her chest ached, and her legs wobbled, but she managed to nonchalantly sit on the top of one of the desks, seamlessly tucking a stray curl behind her ear.

“Ginny Weasley sent me. She told me what happened.” Draco raised an eyebrow. “Are you feeling ill? You look pale.”

“And you actually listened?” Anna scoffed, ignoring his previous inquiry.

“I’m not the thick-headed fool you think me to be. Whether I actually respond or not, I’m always listening.”

She chuckled dryly. “Right. Well, can you listen to me when I say that I want you to leave me alone?”

“That day at the lake..." He said instead. "I didn’t want to push you away. But I had no other choice. The Slytherins were getting antsy...my parents...they don’t want me to associate with you. They think it’s...unnatural.” Draco looked up from the ground to meet her eyes, which narrowed slightly at her trembling left hand.

Anna smoothly shifted her arm away from his line of sight. “So you just let them make your decisions for you like a puppet? Who you hang out with, what you do - it’s all up to them?”

He shook his head. “You don’t get it. You’re a Potter. Your name has been in all kinds of storybooks and newspapers - etched into history forever. I can never measure up to that, no matter what I do. I will always be known as ‘the boy who went to school with the Potters’. And the only way to make a name for myself is to separate myself from you and your family.”

“That’s a bunch of balderdash and you know it.” She countered. “Why does ‘making a name for yourself’ matter so much to you? In a thousand years from now, who’s going to remember us? A millenia? The only opinions that should matter are the people who matter most to you.”

So why was she so hellbent on separating herself from the ones she loved? Mrs. Weasley - she had accepted and loved the Lillian Potter that had no secrets. But Anna had wiped that person away from memory. Ginny, Hermione - their intervention wasn’t because they wanted to annoy her. It was that they loved her so much, they didn’t want her to keep hurting herself anymore.

Pushing them away would make it easier when the time came for Harry to finally kill her. It would hurt her a lot less, hurt them a lot less. But a life without friends, without love and companionship and happy moments, life wouldn’t be life at all.

She couldn’t continue down this path any longer. Because even Anna - with all of her half-baked plans and horrible choices, she knew that a short and fulfilling life was a better life than a long and lonely one.

Draco hands clenched into fists as he kept them by his sides. “Then...what do you think of me?”

Anna flushed. “Me?”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” She watched him carefully. Draco was oddly stiff, his eyes unable to meet hers as he stood there rigid, awaiting her answer.

“I..I don’t think you’re cruel...or unforgiving,” Anna finally answered after a long moment. “You’re cautious. You like to stay where you feel comfortable - even if you want to try something new. You’re stubborn, intelligent, and a bit too cocky, but underneath all of that, you’re just a big softy. It’s...one of the things I like about you, actually. Because some of us...we aren’t born naturally soft or caring or kind. But we can only try our best to be.”

It was one of the same things that drew her to Cedric - the same big, tough quidditch player with the biggest heart she knew.

Draco’s face was thoughtful - his brows drawn heavily over his eyes, but it was only then that Anna realized that he had been staring at her eyes for far too long, and then his hand had reached out and grabbed her hidden left hand - shaking erratically now.

It was only then she felt the full force of the granules, and her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she slumped forward, sweat dripping down her face as she panted heavily - as if there wasn't enough breath the the world to breathe.

This...wasn’t what happened last time. She thinks. Draco’s face is in front of hers - burring in and out of focus. He’s saying something, but Anna can’t seem to process his words.

His...his eyes really are silver.

And then Draco’s face was gone, and Cedric’s hazelnut eyes were piercing through her - shining with worry.

“I was just….why is she….what happened…”

“I don’t know….we just….she collapsed..”

“Anna! Anna! Can you hear me?”

“Don’t...don’t want to die. Not...not anymore.” She whispered, though she wasn’t sure if they could hear her as her throat began to close up, her heart beating in an erratic pattern, speeding up and slowing down - dancing with death.

But how could she go now, when she only just realized the kind of life she really wanted?

Anna wordlessly pressed the semi-empty baggie into his chest with the little strength she had left. She felt the fabric leave her fingers.

“Star...starglass…” Cedric’s eyes dilated in horror as he finished reading the label as he unclasped his robes, laying them over Anna as he laid her on the desk. And then he was gone - fumbling through tiny glass bottles at the other end of the classroom.

She heard Draco’s frantic shouts as Cedric went - sounds of metal clanging and glass shattering filled her ears.

“Come on, come on.” Cedric said hurriedly, continuing to look through the cupboards. “Stella Speculas - where is it?”

The world seemed to be swirling around her, and she couldn’t think as the cold began to close in on her - eating her away little by little.

And then there was a bowl at her lips as she was forced to drink.

Then the darkness came - but it was oddly comforting as it began to lull her to slumber, taking her away from the pain.

“Stay strong, Anna.” Draco’s voice came to her.

It was barely a whisper, but she heard it.

And then it was black.