 Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?
The longer Ash sat there, the worse her condition got. It worried her. What if she didn't wake up? (She would wake up, but she didn't know that.) What if she died of exhaustion or something? What if she got hit with another crucio? What if she got hit with a killing curse? What if what if what if... No. It was no use worrying. She would sit here and wait. For whatever was going to happen next. Actually, what happened next was a miracle. A patronus came. Or she thought she saw one, anyway. From her slumped and barely conscious form, it was kinda hard to understand what was going on. But apparently, Rosier was dead and the kids had won. The hoods were running. Ash laughed, shakily. Painfully. Hollowly. "Good riddance to him." And she smiled, brightly, for real. Because they had won, no matter what the cost was. And... Rosier was dead! That was more than she could have hoped for. She was not just indifferent to his death. She enjoyed it. He was a horrible person and she was happy that he died. There. Even as she was slipping in and out of consciousness, Ash could feel joy. It might be a kind of sick joy, a joy that someone is dead, but it was still joy. And Ash rather thought she deserved to be happy. If Rosier dying was going to make her happy and fixed and okay and able to move on, then let him die.
Ash could barely keep her eyes open. She was exhausted, more than she had ever been.
A song played in her mind. Night before dawn, it was called. Who was the artist? She couldn't remember. Something about derivatives, or housecats. Whatever. It was about a revolution. Not a real one, a video game one. She hadn't heard it in a while. But it seemed weirdly fitting.
Ash smiled again. She was not in a good state by any means, what with the crucio and the sensory overload and the being stuck in a mirror, but she was happy for once in her life.
Thank goodness, universe. Thank you for giving this to me. Just one time, a miracle. |