The Chosen One [#Wattys2016]

NOTHING LEFT

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

"I swear I didn't do it knowingly. He had me under the Imperius Curse."

Lights flashed as curses flew everywhere, some more sinister than the others. Neville and Avaline had ducked and run away from the pandemonium. They hid behind a boulder from where they could clearly see Rabastan thrash and writhe in agony as the potion they had attempted to make sapped him of his life force.

"What are you on about?"

"I was in the Forbidden Forest, getting a letter from my mum, when something hit me in the small of my back. I was trying to help you," she screeched.

"Why were you in the Forbidden Forest? The owls deliver letters to the Great hall."

"Someone was reading my letters and the Forest was the only place where I could stay undetected and undisturbed."

They dropped to the ground when a spell hit the boulder, causing it to shatter into small pieces. Rolling away, they grinned at each other in relief when they realised that neither was hurt, except for a few scratches. It was nothing that a salve couldn't heal. But it was like the calm before a storm, when a sudden voice disrupted their false sense of safety –

"Sectumsempra!"

Avaline was knocked back with the force of the spell. She lay on the ground, bleeding from various wounds that appeared to have been made from a sword. Her breathing was shallow and her hand shook as Neville held on to it, as though his life depended on it.

"Avada kedavra!" Neville heard Rabastan Lestrange shriek. The older man lay directly in front of Neville, almost five feet away, swaying on his knees with the negative effects of an incomplete spell. His skin peeled slowly and painfully, but grew back almost instantly, so that he looked like he was snake shedding his hide. His eyes spoke volumes – if Rabastan had to die, he would take Neville with him. He grinded his teeth as he spoke the spell, his eyes never leaving Neville's.

Yet, his curse coursed with the precision of a master caster.

Neville welcomed the green light that would mean oblivion. It was his path to liberation, to getting free from the pain and misery that human life had brought him.

A human body suddenly came in front of him, recognisable from her grey bun that had become undone, with several strands lose, looking like the legs of a spider. Augusta Longbottom had thrown herself in front of her grandson, bodily blocking the spell that had no counter curse, like her daughter in law before her. She fell with a resounding thud, the finality of her fall resonating in the beats of his heart.

Neville felt strangely vacant as he saw his grandmother fall in front of him, her eyes wide and unseeing, like the image of the boggart. To his left, Avaline lay, bloodied and dying.

In that moment, his mind went back to the class on Boggarts. His worst fear had come true.

"I'm sorry Neville," Avaline said in a breathless voice, as Neville attempted to hold his grandmother's limp form.

Neville's vision blurred as tears pricked his eyes, making it impossible to see anything.

"You're – you're going to be fine. We'll take you to that castle and Madam Pomfrey will be able to patch you up," he said referring to the school nurse, his voice shaking badly.

"You promised you'd stay with me till the end."

"I kept my promise, Neville," she said. "I promised I would stay with you till the end, and I was with you till the end."

"Hang in there, Avaline. We'll get you patched up," he repeated.

"Find my mother, please? Tell her – tell her I'm sorry," she said and coughed, jerking uncontrollably as more blood sprouted from her slashes.

"Tell her yourself," he said.

"Always the positive one," she smiled softly.

The fight continued around him in the instant that he felt his whole world break apart as the two people he cared about the most lay near him – one dead by the spell that was meant for him, the other suffering from a wound that would eventually kill her.

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I was feeling very emotional when I wrote this chapter, but I did what had to be done. They needed to die to mould Neville into what he needs to be.

I'm going to miss Avaline though.