As Lavender Brown's body lay amongst the ruins of what was once her home, she watched a family grieve the loss of one of their own, wondering why fate had so cruelly dealt them such cards. From a young age, all she wanted was to love and be loved in...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
»»» THE moment in which Mary nodded replayed like a broken record.Lavender struggled to keep calm. The sharp ringing intensified. It pierced her ears and shot into her brain as if a million nails were scratching the edge of her skull. All the while, she was acutely aware of her oblivious partner who was still blissfully ignorant.
Lavender dragged her gaze towards Fred and studied him. What did this mean for him? If she was being stalked by a supernatural wizard, where did that leave him? They were in this together, she had to believe that. But there was no room for additional characters in the tale that Mary spoke of.
Acutely aware of her heartbeat, her eyes drifted towards the cards on the table. They locked onto the painted Enchantress who stared back with a steely glare, one that was frighteningly similar to her own. She shifted in her seat as she looked at the baby below, one that she now understood to be her.
Well, you always wanted to be special, a voice whispered in her mind. Instinctively, she shut her eyes and balled her hands tightly on her lap. This wasn't what she wanted. None of it was. Perhaps at one dark point in her life, she had considered giving up. Yet this was nothing like the darkness she was promised. Instead, they were trapped in some sort of nightmare, one that starred her.
Inhaling deeply, she opened her eyes, widening them when she saw both Fred and Mary were staring at her.
"Par-pardon?" Lavender stammered, suddenly finding that her throat was far too scratchy to entertain a proper conversation.
"I asked if you recognise your stalker here," Fred repeated, a frown etched on his forehead. It took her a moment to understand the question, but once she did, she let out a breathy laugh and shook her head.
"He hasn't ever looked the same. It's like he's taking another person's body whilst talking to me," she explained, resisting the urge to shudder. He had also promised that eventually she would agree to his terms, something she didn't understand at the time. It wasn't difficult to remember the way his face had twisted into a sneer when he ridiculed her. Her eyes glazed over as she stared at a crack on the table. Even in this strange limbo, she had still found a way to focus the spotlight on her and her alone.
"How do we defeat him?" Fred asked, giving one final look at Lavender, whose bottom lip had a small quiver to it. He wished he could take her away and protect her from everything. Though Mary's tale was creepy, it clearly had a larger effect on his ghostly companion. Not that he could blame her; out of the two, she had multiple encounters with this demonic stalker. "How do we get rid of him?"
"You can't," Mary admitted into the silence. She pressed her fingers together and pursed her lips, gaze darting between the two, before landing on Fred. "It's impossible. The Enchantress managed to contain them both, but it came at a huge cost. This magic, Old Magic, it isn't like the type you learn at Hogwarts. For these people, magic always comes at a price," Mary continued as she collected the cards once again.
