"DEATH"

DEATH: demise; Lorelei Black ran like hell while dodging the different spells the deatheaters thew her way, this was definitely not something she planned to do as a fresh adult who's just finished school, but then again when has life ever let anything she does go according to the plan, it's sickening, she thinks. "Levicorpus!" she screamed out, the deatheater floated up in the air until with a simple wave of her wand she threw him on the shelf, shattering a lot of orbs and breaking the shelf itself.

"Avada—" The deatheater started but before he could finish the spell Lorelei yelled out stupefy, she let out a breath of relief — she'd almost died.

"Sectumsempra!" Lorelei yelled out, she didn't know what the spell meant, or what it did for the fact, for all she knew it could be a spell for throwing confetti, she just remembers her aunt mentioning it once or twice while she told them her stories from Hogwarts as a seventeen year old troublemaker, she also remembers her aunt warning her from using that spell since she'd been a victim of it herself because of Snivellus, but Lorelei didn't exactly care right now.

Lorelei gasped as she watched the deatheater fall to the floor as he bled out, she certainly didn't mean for that to happen...what if she kil—

"Run!" Birdie grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her trance, the two of them hid behind the desks.

"Birdie, I have to go back— what if that man dies because of me? I can't—" Lorelei started but Birdie gave her a hard look.

"Let him." she said harshly, "It was either him or you, El, and I'd much rather it be someone who's supporting that freak"

"I can't have blood on my hands!" Lorelei told her, and against her better judgement she went there and she remembered the counter-spell, muttering it and then immediately regretting doing so because she had been in direct sight of the death eaters once again.

Suddenly something hit her back of the head, she reached her hand out to the place where she felt something oozing down — she raised her hand up to her eyes — blood.

Yeah, she deserved this for being an idiot and going back, but it was better than being a murderer.

The last thing she saw was Bellatrix Lestrange and her crazy creepy eyes.

Lorelei woke up soon after, it was like her brain knew this was no time to be asleep, even if it was an involuntary action, she tried to move but her aunt held her back. Lorelei felt weak, she could barely move, but she had to help her friends — she couldn't find any one of them besides Harry and Neville. Neville.

Bellatrix.

Alice and Frank Longbottom.

"Hand over the prophecy, Potter" Bellatrix said, "Or the boy suffers"

"DON'D GIB IT TO THEM HARRY!" Neville yelled out, Lorelei clenched her jaw. She knew what she had to do.

"Oh, go ahead" she muttered, "You think anyone cares about him? He's always tagging along because he's so desperately trying to fit in, so go ahead, torture him, see if me or Harry give a shit" Lorelei said, she looked her aunt straight in eyes as she said this.

"Very well then" Bellatrix looked at Neville and then Lorelei, "You said it yourself, he's not valuable enough to be leverage — how about you instead?" she laughed, "Crucio!"

The pain was sudden and all at once, she felt like she was being carved from the inside and out, like someone was scraping her heart, her lungs and her skin with knives and doing it repeatedly, it was worse than any pain she'd ever felt — her mind found it's way back to the rabbit at Durmstrang, ironic, isn't it? Maybe this was the way the rabbit's ghost took it's revenge.

"Cru—"

"Don't you dare finish that spell, Bella!" Lorelei heard a voice, or maybe she's thinking she did — she's far too tired, she feels the world around her go black again, she shakes her head — not again, not now.

"LORELEI!" She felt someone grab her, she couldn't make out the voice very well, but she heard someone else too, someone familiar, "Bubbles, it's me. Come on, don't slip away, you've got to stay awake." she knew that voice, it was him, it was George, slowly she felt herself coming back, and when she opened her eyes his chocolate brown ones stared back at her.

"You look ugly" Lorelei croaked out.

"Shut up" George muttered, he grabbed her tight as he pulled her into his chest — she noticed they were in a corner now, and the deatheaters were finally outnumbered, her aunt Sirene had a look of pure rage on her face.

"Merlin, let me breathe" she said jokingly, but his hold only got tighter, she wrapped his arms around him too. It was nice.

"Guys, loving the moment, but we're in the middle of something here!" Regan exclaimed as she yelled out a protection charm.

"Help me up, will you?" Lorelei said to George and he frowned.

"You're not going anywhere"

"Fine, then I'll use the wall as support instead" she rolled her eyes, and got up, her feet felt wobbly, but she could fall down and die some other day — not now.

"What are you doing?!" her mother exclaimed, Neveah Ross's dark brown eyes were wide as moon as she stared at her daughter with a look of pure horror etched on her face, "George, god damn it, I gave you one job!"

"It's not my fault your daughter is stubborn as hell!" George retorted.

Lorelei rolled her eyes before passing her mother a smile of appreciation, she couldn't wait to go home and get a cup of hot chocolate and apologize to her mother, she didn't want to waste another second.

"Dad!" Lorelei yelled out as she joined her father near the veil, she looked angry, and for a fleeting second Sirius looked terrified of his daughter, "What the hell are you doing here? What part of stay at home and out of trouble did you not understand?!"

"I couldn't let them fight alo— stupefy!" Sirius dodged a spell, Lorelei sent one towards the deatheater who's spell Sirius had dodged, "—alone, I had to do something!"

"Sirius!" Neveah yelled out, "On your left!" she told him and Sirius turned around dodging the spell.

The mother joined the two at the veil, the three fought alongside each other, Lorelei hated to admit it but it felt like dueling came naturally to her, who knows,
maybe she'll make a living out of it someday.

"Oh, come on!" Sirius yelled out at his cousin, "You can do better than that!"

"Why would you say that—" Lorelei barely got to finish her sentence before a green spark made it's way out of Bella's wand, Lorelei's eyes widened, but Sirius didn't seem to register what had happened.

And then...

It was like time slowed down, Lorelei Black caught her mother's eyes. She saw her smile. She saw her raise her hands. She saw her place them on Sirius's shoulders. She saw her push Lorelei and her father out of the way. She saw the way the smile was frozen on her face. She saw the way she reached out her hand to her. She saw her disappear into the veil. She saw it all.

Lorelei wishes she had more time, she wishes she could've told her mother she loved her before she'd done that, but death doesn't wait for anyone, so why would it for her?

Lorelei Black had just lost her mother again, but this time — she knew she wasn't coming back.

"No!" Sirius's voice, she could tell, but she couldn't move — she stayed on the ground her palms supporting her as she continued to stare at the veil, "Neveah, no!"

Sirene turned around with a confused look, she looked at her brother and then her niece, "What happened? Lorelei, did something happen to you? Are you o—"

"I need to go" Lorelei said, she pulled herself off the group, she kept walking towards the veil but her father held her back, "Dad, let me go, she's in there." she said in a calm voice but when Sirius did not budge she raised it, "Let me go! She's in there! Dad, let me go! I WANNA GO!" she thrashed around in his arms, as tears fell down her cheeks.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

She was going to apologize.

She was going to—

"Let me go, damn it!" She tried to free herself but Sirius held on tighter, "Let me go, she's in there all alone, I gotta go! Let me go! Daddy, please let me go" Lorelei lost the feeling of her legs as she collapsed on the floor, loud sobs racking her chest as she struggled to breathe.

Sirene couldn't find it in herself to move forward, what did she have to offer? Her niece just lost her mother.

"Lorelei, honey..." Sirius started but Lorelei distanced herself from him with sharp movements.

"Get away from me!" she screamed, "Don't touch me!" she exclaimed once again as she sat on the ground sobbing, she felt someone put their hand on her shoulders, but she didn't care — it was Birdie. Birdie pulled Lorelei into a tight hug as the tears soaked her shirt.

George and Fred couldn't do anything but watch them, George knew at this moment Lorelei needed Birdie more than anything in the world.

Andrew found Sirene, Regan sat down on the floor — her back against the wall. Harry and Neville sat down on the bench. Hope found her father. Sirius stood alone, watching his daughter break down, but he couldn't do a thing — he didn't want to make it worse.

Harry had a short amount of time to know the woman, but Neveah Ross had wormed her way into everyone's life in an attempt to fix the mistakes of her past.

Lorelei Black had nothing but a lifetime of guilt and grief now.

This wasn't how it was meant to happen.

She was supposed to apologize.

me protecting the canon characters from all the trauma and then handing it to my ocs 😭