Promise to the Past | 🐾 ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀs ✓

Epilogue I: Defying Fates

 ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶«̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ・☽ ༓ ☾・  ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶ ̶̶̶ ̶»̶ ̶̶̶ ̶ ̶  ̶̶̶̶

-- 1 HOUR AFTER THE FINAL BATTLE 

He sat beside her cot amongst the chaos in the Order's makeshift hospital run by their healers in training, his face buried in his hands, elbows propped upon his knees.  

She'd been out cold since the end of the battle. 

He should've been faster. He was her bloody partner- he was supposed to have her back! But in the chaos of rounding up all the Death Eaters who were attempting to flee, one rouge hex had hit her right in the back. He barely managed to catch her before she hit the floor. 

"Alright, Gideon?" A gentle voice asked carefully, a hand coming to rest on his shoulder. 

He pulled his head up, throwing a wane smile towards Hermione. He shrugged. 

"I'm sure she'll be okay," Hermione assured readily. "Lily would be doing a lot more right now if she weren't- they've been friends since Hogwarts."  

"Sometimes I wonder if this is the other shoe dropping." His voice was gruff and scratchy. 

"Pardon?" 

"I mean, we were both supposed to be dead. In your original time." Gideon droned in a macabre tone, his eyes glazed as if he were lost in his own mind. "I was so anxious this entire time. Every time you managed to save someone else, I always wondered whether magic would demand its original balance at one point." 

"Me too," Hermione admitted. "Dangerous things happen to wizards who mess with time." 

"Oh, snap out of it, you two," Lily reprimanded sharply, shuffling her way towards the prone form of Marlene. "I told you, Gideon, she's only knocked out. She'll wake up when her body's ready." 

Lily began fiddling with a vial of potion, pouring out a small amount into a cup. 

"What's that?" Gideon demanded nervously. "I thought you said she was fine." 

"She is fine," Lily rolled her eyes. "But like the rest of us, she's tired and drained. It's just a replenishing potion." 

"Like electrolyte drinks?" Hermione asked curiously. 

"Exactly," Lily grinned. "Or multivitamins." 

Gideon looked between the two of them, completely lost. 

"It's a muggle thing," Hermione and Lily both parroted simultaneously before laughing softly. 

Lily was just about to tip the potion down her friend's throat when Marlene's eyes fluttered open. 

"Lils?" She groaned, motion slowly coming back to her limbs. 

"Oh good, you're awake!" Lily exclaimed, placing the untouched potion on the bedside table. "Not that I was worried. If anything, I'd rather you got a few more hours of rest. But someone was working himself into a right state fretting about you."

Marlene's groggy eyes cleared as she glanced towards to foot of her cot. She was surprised to see a haggard Gideon Prewett waiting dutifully beside her bed. She was equally as surprised to see Hermione Dumbledore beside him. 

"I'm alright," she said slowly, her bearings coming back to her. She sat up gingerly, accepting Lily's help when she offered. 

Gideon stared at her, his eyes intense yet child-like at the same time. She wondered if he thought she was a bloody unicorn with the way he was gaping at her. Instead, Marlene turned her head to the more composed of her two visitors.