A Sliver of Change | S. Black

Part 4: Chapter 11

Part 4:

Chapter 11 –

(Authors note at end!!!)

TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains violence and gruesome details. Please read at your own advice.

May 2nd, 1998

The definition of death has always been – the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism.

In medical terms it would be – an individual who has sustained either irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. 

The definition by world renowned Plato would tell you, for example, that death is proposed to define as the separation of the soul from the body.

There will always be different definitions, always be different terms, and will always be different opinions, but in the end they all mean the same thing. They all tell you that the person who died is gone from this world, soul and body combined and never to be revived again.

But what they cease to tell you is about the death of a person who is still alive.

If Lia could describe it for them, if she could go on paper as the one who finally put into words what it meant, she doesn't think she would be able to ever put into picture how it truly feels.

Death while being alive was the most malicious type of torture. It was peeling away your skin inch by inch, but not putting an end to the misery of it all. It was chipping away your heart, piece by little piece and not having a way to tape it back together again. It was that clog of your throat that you feel; that anxiety and depression that never really washes away and degrades you day by day, bringing you down until you wished with everything in you that you were buried beneath the dirt and soil with it.

And Lia felt all of it. Felt as the invisible ropes around her neck dug so deeply into her skin. Felt as the air she wished she could breathe was taken from her by a non-existent force, pushing her lungs to drag in each pant of air just to stay slightly alive. Her body was numb to every force of nature around her, her mind was a swarm of dark thoughts that she would wish upon no one and her heart....

Well, her heart was laying beneath Harry's limp body. Not physically in the way that Bellatrix had tossed Mellie's towards her, but emotionally in the way that she was dead in every aspect but the definition it meant for itself.

Lia Black was dead while continuing to be forced to be alive.

Her mind was torn away from her thought as Voldemort stood in the center of Hogwarts' courtyard, and she was too distraught to hear what the devil was saying, his words ringing in her ears as her eyes stayed glued to the ground. She knew Hagrid was beside her, chained up while holding the limp body of her nephew and she deducted that Sirius was doing the same as she was on her right, his shoulder brushing against her own as Bellatrix pushed the two of them forward.

"Did you not hear me! Harry Potter is dead! From this day forward, you put your faith in me or suffer the consequences. HARRY POTTER IS DEAD!" Voldemort shouted, his voice breaking through the grief filled barricade she had shielded herself with, "NOW IS THE TIME TO DECLARE YOURSELF!"

Lia felt another push at her shoulder, stumbling forward on her knees as she felt the presence of a body do the same beside her. She wanted to lift her head, wanted to act brave despite the misery she felt inside, but she just couldn't.