Hallowed be thy name

I

Theodore Nott stares at the girl on the other end of his wand, and can't help but blame his mother for all of this as the Dark Lord tells him to just kill the girl.

It all begun when his mother - an Australian Muggleborn - transferred to Hogwarts alone, her family dead in a freak fire accident or something else (details were foggy, blurred by blinding green light).

His mother was lucky - her surname matched one of an old, ancient and dead pureblood family from the continent. When people asked, his mother(Catherine Katz, already aware of it by her previous education of pureblood mania and the war that was raging around her) smiled prettily and played pretend, claiming to not know things based on her Australian upbringing, claiming to have lost family heirlooms through the ages between the last remembered Katz and herself.

Somehow, people bought it. Somehow, his father bought it. Somehow, they found each other married, and Theodore was born.

His mother, fully aware of his father's pureblood mania, did her best to keep up the pretense, blessed be her soul. In the small time they had together, she sat with him and taught all he knew from the Muggle world, including the prayer on the girl's lips.

" Our Father, who art in Heaven... ", she mumbled, baby blue eyes focused on his. Theodore knew her - Lily Moon, Gryffindor, good with Potions.

"Hallowed be thy name,", Theodore continued, and she frowned, confusion clear in her eyes.

His mother had taught him to pray, even if he had never taken to it. He still knew the words to heart, however, and he wondered if she could continue.

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done...", Lily said, defiant, and Theodore kept wondering.

Had she been someone else, perhaps he could make a case for her. Claim her as a cousin or another - how many there were out there, after all? Too many, the cluster of a family tree in his house proof enough (his mother's name burned off, her life censored and snuffed by his father's hand once more).

Lily Moon could be reborn as someone else - a Liliana Nott, perhaps, under an alias for her safety -, and her defiant baby blue eyes could stare at his with something else more than disgust and curiosity.

"On earth, as it is in heaven; give us our daily bread.", Theodore had never heard his voice so soft, so cautious, so full of emotion. His mother's prayer had been much of the same, the same quiet softness, like speaking to a lover. He did not know Lily Moon, but he knew the feeling.

He had had a lover, before the war, before his father forced him to get the Dark Mark imprinted in his arm. Theodore wondered where Megan could be, if the safehouse he had arranged had proved safe (a box he'd receive three days later with blood splatters would give him the answer), and by the name of the God he never prayed to, Theodore hoped she was well and safe and warm.

" Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.", Lily rose up, and Theodore's wand rose up as well, keeping itself between her baby blue eyes. They were the same colour as Megan's.

This one verse seemed like it was a jab at him, and he'd flinch, were the Dark Lord not watching, were the Inner Circle not watching, were his father not watching. Theodore hoped his mother wasn't watching.

"And lead us not into temptation.", the tip of wand grew hot, the green light on it a lead on what was to come. Lily kept her stare level and angry. "Things could be different."

"They could, but you're an asshole,", Lily replied, baby blue eyes staring at him, full of anger. For a moment, he could see his mother, his little boy self from the past hidden in the closet as his father walked in, screaming about blood purity and faking being pure and lying to him for twenty years. For one brief second, the defiance in Lily's eyes mirrored the defiance in his mother's eyes as she faced the white hot tip of a wand ready to throw an Avada Kedavra. "But deliver us from evil, Theodore Nott. End this already."

Theodore nodded, and the Avada Kedavra that was spoken so softly Theodore himself barely heard over the sound of Lily Moon's body hitting the floor, over the sound of radio static that filled his ears.

"Amen,", Theodore murmured as the Dark Lord congratulated him. Lily Moon's baby blue eyes stared at him, still defiant, even after death, and Theodore wondered if the radio static that covered his world was her screaming at him, or if he was just hearing the ghost sounds of his mother's screams as his father tortured her.

No, that wasn't right. His mother hadn't screamed. His mother had prayed, like Lily Moon had. Yet, as he stared Nagini eating her body, going back to the middle of anonymous ranks - being congratulated by people under masks, politely pretending to not recognize his classmates -, he couldn't help but wonder what good praying did. It hadn't saved his mother, it hadn't saved Lily...

"Our Father, who art in heaven...", Theodore mumbled. The Dark Mark in his arm itched, and he wanted to scratch it out.

It wouldn't save him.