Blood Magic ✦ George Weasley ✓

84 - Intermission

musical mood: christmas lights - coldplay

The Bride

The concept of marriage had always sparked dread into Bethany Burke's mind, which was why it was odd that she stood there, a mere seventeen years old, and perhaps the happiest in her life.

Of course, she'd been expected to marry Theodore Nott, a boy she couldn't stand. As if she'd ever allow that to happen. She'd sooner commit suicide.

Bethany was practically committing suicide, standing in a white dress, just minutes away from holy matrimony. The stupid death eaters would have her head for this, for sullying herself to a mudblood, or whatever they'd say.

To be fair, she could hardly believe it herself.

Had she gone back in time and told thirteen year old Bethany that she would be in love with Colin Creevey, that Ana would be dead, that Voldemort had returned and the world was going to shit, she would've laughed in her future self's face. Funny, how things turned out.

It was fairly easy, to track down where the Creevey's were hiding. Colin and Dennis still kept in contact with the new members of Dumbledore's Army, and with some firm convincing of Neville Longbottom that she was on their side, he'd helped her find them, and escape from Hogwarts castle on Christmas day to meet up with him.

It was also easy to convince Colin's muggle parents to agree to their marriage. Being just 16, he needed parental permission to be wed. But his parents allowed him; perhaps they were just as aware of the war that was sure to kill them all, and wanted to allow their son one moment of happiness before their inevitable doom.

Bethany looked pretty. She could admit that to herself, as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her black hair was pulled back into a braided bun, and a veil fell over her face. It was a classic look, like they did in olden times. She looked good in white, she decided. Ironic, considering her personality.

Most women got nervous on their wedding day, but Bethany felt nothing but relief. Chances were, her and Colin wouldn't both survive the war. But they sure as well would fight to the end, and they'd do it together. She didn't care if on the other sides of their wands were her sisters, her father, her uncle, as long as she had Colin at her side.

"Beth, dear, are you ready?" It was Colin's mother, peaking her head into the changing room.

Ready. A funny word. She was ready to marry Colin, but she wasn't ready to accept that her and her husband-to-be were doomed.

"Yes."

Bethany nodded, a sigh escaping her lips as she thought of Colin, of the life they could have, without this war. If only they didn't have to rush things, out of fear for the worst. If only they could live out their lives together in safety, just the two of them.

If only they had a future.

The Traitor

It was a mystery, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, what happened to Henry Nott.

Some said he had died during the battle, hit by a stray spell, and someone had brought his body into the nearest place - being the Ravenclaw common room. Some said he'd slit his wrist and killed himself, after he saw Cassiopeia Crouch, whom everyone knew he was in love with, get hit by the killing curse. Some said Cass had been the one to do it - given that when she'd last been seen, she'd also been drenched in blood. She was crazy, after all, that was common knowledge.

The rumours were incessant, but none of them ever so much as grazed the possibility that it could've been Theodore behind it.

Sometimes, when he thought back to that night, when he thought back to all the blood, the screaming, it blurred together with the day his mother had been killed. Cass and Henry's screams mixed with hers, blending into one horrible, beautiful noise. Sometimes, his own screams were mixed into those of his mother, of his brother, of his sister in law. The screams of what he'd been forced to endure after failing his task, the screams before his task, when his father had tortured him because of Ana. The torture in the Malfoy's basement, an endless array of spells shot at him, two summers in a row.