a n c h o r

t w e n t y o n e

"What makes you think he fell in love with me?"

"I find myself looking at the photograph, admiring her smile yet wondering if I was right to send her back to those who make her happy when she's only caused me pain," Draco read out loud. "We will surely meet again, both in the correct time, and I will be sure to express my regrets wholeheartedly. Alexandra River will never love again."

"He sent me back so I'd be happy," Alexandra said quietly to herself.

"Are you?" Draco asked.

"Happy?" Alexandra asked. Draco nodded. "Of course. I've got Harry, Hermione, the Weasleys, you-"

"I've done nothing but cause you pain."

"Oh, don't throw yourself a pity party," Alexandra whined. "You're here, fighting with me now, and that's all that matters to me in the end."

"You're sure you'd rather not be with the Weasley?" He asked, smiling slightly.

"Well, he does tell me he loves me more than you do," she joked, laughing when she noticed him frown and blush. "I'm only screwing with you. Let's go. I think I know what I've got to do."

"You have fought valiantly," Voldemort's voice rang once more. Draco protectively pulled Alexandra towards himself, staring off out the window as the dark wizard's voice continued. "Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery."

"Is he regarding himself in the third person?" Alexandra asked, making Draco chuckle behind her. The moment quickly ended when the cold voice spoke again.

"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead, treat your injured. Harry Potter, I now speak directly to you," Voldemort continued, sending chills down Alexandra's spine as he explained how he would enter the battle himself if Harry didn't surrender within the hour. Then, his voice faded away into the darkness of the night.

"Your friends," Draco stated. "You should go make sure they're alright."

"You're coming with me," she told him, not giving him the chance to refuse. "Let's go, then."

He was uncomfortable, not feeling right about approaching her friends when he's been nothing but awful to them, but he followed her anyway.

They both walked through the Great Hall, making their way to the Weasley family on the other side but not being able to take their eyes off of the bodies that lied before them. Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey...

"Oh, no," Alexandra frowned, noticing Tonks and Lupin lying beside each other. Her heart broke for them and their child who would now have to grow up without parents.

"You're alright," Hermione said, running towards Alexandra and embracing her. Ron followed, but Harry had already left. Ron looked at Draco, deciding not to make a snide remark and instead holding his hand out. They shook hands, and nothing needed to be said.

Alexandra looked over Hermione's shoulder, and noticed a body still lying limp outside of the castle. She thought it was another student and was quick to look, but she would be met with someone else.

"Dad," she said quietly, kneeling beside the man. She would never know that, in the midst of the battle, his memories of her were restored. She would never know that he died fighting against his own as he searched high and low for the daughter he would never see again. She would never know that her mother died as well, punished in response to her reluctance of fighting in a battle full of innocent children. She would never know that with her mother died a sister.

Alexandra heard what sounded like echoes of laughing, causing her to look towards the forest in the distance. She saw an army marching towards her, suddenly stopping in their tracks. She noticed Hagrid, towering over everyone as he held someone in his hands. That was the moment she realized Harry was missing.

"Harry Potter is dead," she heard, keeping her stare forward as she looked for any sign that the body in Hagrid's hands wasn't Harry's. "He was killed as he ran away, trying to save his own life as you sacrificed yours."

"You liar!" Alexandra yelled, gaining everyone's attention. Voldemort paused for a moment, hearing her familiar voice echo quietly throughout the cold air between them.

"The battle is won," he continued. "There must be no more war. If anyone is to resist, they will be slaughtered along with every member of their family. Come out of the castle, kneel before me, and you shall be spared."

Alexandra watched as they began moving once more, inching closer and closer to the castle as others joined her outside. When the army finally approached, Alexandra's confidence had fallen through the floor. Harry was dead.

"Harry," she gasped, looking at yet another scene she's seen before. The only difference was that she couldn't avoid this one. She felt guilty, never stopping to think that she could've saved Harry.

"Love could not save him," Voldemort smiled, looking Alexandra directly in her tear-filled eyes. He laughed, watching as he thought he successfully ripped every last ounce of hope out of her heart once and for all. "Love is weakness."

Alexandra held her head high, refusing to accept defeat. As her friends cried for Harry, she walked closer to the man. So close that she could feel his breath on her skin.

"You're wrong," she told him, using every ounce of strength left in her to finally stand up for herself. He laughed again, and his army laughed with him. The laughing suddenly stopped when Voldemort wrapped his hand around the girl's neck as he did the first night they met. He was surprised, though, when he felt the same sensation; the burning sensation he had almost forgotten about. It ran through his hand, but faded quickly as let go of her. He decided, then, to resort to a less physical form of torture. One that wouldn't torture him as well.

"Crucio!"

Alexandra felt a force push her backwards, but she did not feel the pain he intended to inflict on her. Upon hearing the curse that drove his parents into madness, Neville charged at the man who casted it. He unfortunately didn't make it far before he was sent to the ground in pain.

Voldemort was beginning to panic, having felt the burning sensation he hasn't felt in decades and suddenly losing his ability to hurt the girl. Once again, love protected her. But whose? Harry Potter was dead.

Little did he know that Harry's love wasn't the only love protecting the girl. Love from Draco, each Weasley, Hermione, her classmates, and her professors protected her now more than ever, and she was untouchable. It hadn't protected her before because she hadn't truly believed she was loved, and she never truly understood it, until now. Now, fighting beside everyone, she finally knew what love felt like. It wasn't the feeling of butterflies when Draco kissed her, or the happiness she felt when she laughed with her friends. It was the unmistakable feeling of pride she felt when she stood beside each one of them, and the unbreakable bonds they shared.

Voldemort froze Neville in his spot and silenced the crowd behind him, attempting and failing once again to torture the girl. She stood her ground, a smirk growing on her face when she noticed the fear in Voldemort's eyes.

"I suppose love is more powerful than we once thought."