Living in Hell: Dumbledore's Army
Title: Living in Hell
Characters: Neville L., Michael C., Ginny W., Luna L., Hannah Abbott, Dean T., Seamus F., Ernie M., all the usual suspects
Length: Part 12 of ?
Ratings: T for language and mature themes
Summary: For Kore-of-Myth's "Shuffle" Challenge. The challenge is to put your music player on "shuffle" and write to whatever songs come on, and only for the length of time that the songs are on.
A/N: I own nothing. These are going up unbeta'd.
I.
John Saw That Number
Neko Case
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan
Dean is a million miles away, which is not good, because he’s trying desperately to walk. And walking while completely pissed on Ogden’s Firewhiskey is damn hard.
Seamus is spinning and swirling around. Dean thinks that maybe Seamus shouldn’t have mixed his meads with his firewhiskey . . . especially now that he’s noticing them walking perilously close to a rocky cliff.
“Oi! Dean . . .” Seamus slurs.
Dean snaps his head towards his friend. Seamus has found a large but unsteady boulder on which to stand, perched near the edge.
“Mate, tha’ ain’t a good idea, Y’ll break y’ fuckin’ neck!”
“Fuck off!” Seamus leans over a bit unsteadily and jabs his thumb into his chest. “Y’know how many fucking Death Eaters I’ve fough’ against?” Seamus holds up a bottle of firewhiskey and Dean can’t remember where the hell it came from. “A’ leas’ a hundred!” Seamus takes a large swig and smacks and wipes away at his lips. “A’ leas’ tha’s wha’ it felt like, y’know . . .”
Dean can no longer stand upright, so he crashes to the ground right in front of the boulder. Seamus tosses him the bottle, and because Dean’s not ready to not be drunk, he takes a drink.
Seamus tries to stand upright, but flails as he does so.
“Wh-whoa! Whoa!”
Dean jumps up, ready to catch him if necessary, but Seamus throws himself forward off the rock, landing face-first onto the ground.
“Bloody hell!” Dean shakes his head to clear it and goes to check on his mate. Seamus is laughing, but wiping at his bloody nose. As he lifts his head up, Dean can see blood streaming from it.
“I broke da damn fing-” Seamus is laughing, drunk and humorless.
“Shay, you’re a mess.” Dean tries to rip his shirt to staunch the blood, but it’s no use; his motions are impaired thanks to the liberal amounts of alcohol consumed this evening. But it doesn’t matter, because Seamus is still laughing and letting the blood fall from his nose. He stares ahead of him.
“The things they did-” Seamus is not laughing anymore. “I can still hear little ones screamin’. Ones of us screamin' in pain. Every time I shut m’ eyes.”
Dean swallows and he can feel his eyes well up. “And y’ can’t do a damn thing about it. Y’just watch ‘em die.”
“And Lavender. I wasn’t there to stop ‘im from eatin’ her face.” Seamus shakes his head in his hands.
“And all I could do was watch as they killed Dirk and Ted. All Ted ever talked about was his wife . . . his daughter . . . the grandson that he was waitin’ for.”
“I was gonna marry that girl,” Seamus takes another large swig from the bottle. “And I wanted m’ best mate righ' by m' side-” he hands the bottle to Dean and Dean cannot hold back. He has to drink, because he has to stop feeling right now.
“It’s all fucked, innit?”
Dean looks at Seamus but he has nothing to say.
II.
Things Behind the Sun
Nick Drake
Molly Weasley
She sits on her son’s bed, her hand shaking as it touches the still-made sheets. True, Fred has not slept in this bed for so long, but Molly can smell him in the air. She can shut her eyes, even though they are full of tears, and she can feel her son.
She has to feel him here with her, or else she’ll go insane.
Her thoughts are always the same. She thinks how it should’ve been her who had died. And what a horrible mother she was, for letting her son fight, for letting him die before she did.
It’s because of her that Fred is gone . . . her family is broken . . . that George-
Molly gasps and her entire body’s convulsing in tears that she cannot stop.
She doesn’t know what causes her to look at the floor right at that spot, but Molly sees a small object, a Wheeze that Fred or George had somehow dropped or misplaced.
Slowly, still crying, she stoops and picks up the thing. Molly holds it in the palm of her hand.
It is a Whiz-Bang.
As she looks at it, her tears start to subside. It is ages once she can finally move, and she stands up slowly to go downstairs for some tea to calm her nerves. She puts the Whiz-Bang in the pocket of her apron, thinking that she needs to have it close to her for right now.
III.
Low
Coldplay
Draco Malfoy
It has to be the fiftieth message Pansy has sent him since the end of the battle. It’s starting to reek of bloody desperation. And Draco hates desperation.
It’s why he can barely look at his parents these days. His mother had got the family a reprieve from the Ministry. But what she had had to do to earn the reprieve, Draco would’ve rather remained in the Room of Requirement and let Fiendfyre burn him to ashes.
His mother had given in to Potter.
Potter.
It always comes back to that little, insignificant shit.
Narcissa had sold out the Malfoys to Potter’s cause. True, it had been to make sure Draco was alive, and he had been grateful for that. His mother had had such little faith in his perseverance that she betrayed the family and fell into line with the one person in the world Draco loathed. And to stay out of Azkaban, his dear father had named names and incriminated a long list of Death Eaters and the wizards who had helped them. As well as allowing the Ministry full access to Malfoy Manor.
It’s enough to make Draco retch.
He looks around the shell the Manor is today. If it wasn’t the Death Eaters breaking and stealing their possessions, it was the Ministry, confiscating their treasures, their belongings, until they were left with nothing but their resentments and regrets.
And Pansy wonders why he never writes.
IV.
Suicide Blonde
INXS
Pansy Parkinson and Dean Thomas
There is so much violence in their sex. Pansy could give a fuck, though. She doesn’t care that there is nothing but slamming against walls, biting, sucking, and thrusting without the slightest bit of affection.
They don’t do it in their beds. And they never linger until the morning. But lately, she’s lingers a little longer after he’s fallen asleep. For one time, when she had fallen asleep herself, she was woken up by shouting and kicking.
It was Dean, in the throes of a horrible dream.
She had almost hit him back, wanting to hurt him for hurting her, but there was something in his face, in the way his body tensed and his hands balled up on his sheets that made her pause. Instead - and to this day, she won’t tell anyone why she’d done such a stupid thing - she had put her hand on chest, her palm flat, and her other hand on his sweating forehead.
“Shhh.” She had whispered and Dean had calmed down, his hand finding hers on his chest.
She does this now, and Dean is asleep, but holding her hand on his chest, and she whispers to him to soothe him. A part of her sees Dean as she’s doing this for him, but another part sees Draco’s face and body on his.
V.
House by the Sea
Iron & Wine
Ernie Macmillan and Zacharias Smith
He knocks on the door, afraid that his sweaty palms might mess the ink up on the parchment that he’s holding. It’s been ages since Ernie had visited Smith’s sprawling estate, but he is not here today for a social visit nor for himself.
He’s here for her.
He looks down at the parchment, growing a little damp as he continues to hold it-
Their house-elf, Blinky, leads him upstairs to Zacharias’ room. They shake hands awkwardly, and Ernie feels his arm stiffen as he takes his hand because as soon as there’s contact, he sees Zacharias fleeing the Great Hall, pushing his way towards the front of the queue, running over the younger students, trying to get who - the - hell - knows - where.
Zacharias knows this. They weren’t Housemates for seven years for nothing. He pulls himself up to his full height and he flashes his most arrogant glare at Ernie.
“Say it. I know you want to.”
There’s a lot Ernie wants to say to him, because Zacharias was his friend, but his friend didn’t join the D.A. and he didn’t fight alongside him and-
He jabs the letter at Zacharias, his hand balled up, practically punching him. “Here.” Ernie’s chin quivers. When all Zacharias can do is raise his eyebrow at him, he continues. “It’s,” he chokes on his next words, “from Susan.”
Slowly, he starts to see Zacharias break.
VI.
Everything’s Not Lost
Coldplay
Molly Weasley
She had been touching the Whiz-Bang in the pocket of her apron for a week. She would feel for it as she cooked, as she cleaned, as she tended the garden. She would place it in front of her as she sat at the dinner table, drinking her tea. She would look at it, sometimes not blinking, sometimes unable to stop crying.
However, after one week, after the sun goes down, Molly feels another feeling come over her.
Calm.
Peaceful.
Hopeful.
She looks outside the window and she sees the light is ideal. Molly steps out onto the backyard and stands as far away from the house as possible.
She touches her wand to the wick. “Incendio.” The wick sparks in the night, looking like a wild firefly.
Molly takes a breath and, with all the force of everything inside her, she throws it into the air. It flies into the night, and goes black-
Molly waits.
And suddenly, an explosion . . . and another. Colors and petal-like sparks fill the night sky and she cannot tear her eyes away from the fiery spectacle. Her eyes water but she is smiling as she watches the Whiz-Bang fill the dark sky.
Molly feels a hand on her shoulder. She jumps up surprised, as she thought she was alone, but when an arm goes around her, she knows just who it is.
“Mum? D-did you do that?”
She looks at him, patting his wet cheek with her hand and crying in earnest, but she never stops smiling. She nods and she pulls George into her warm embrace.
Characters: Neville L., Michael C., Ginny W., Luna L., Hannah Abbott, Dean T., Seamus F., Ernie M., all the usual suspects
Length: Part 12 of ?
Ratings: T for language and mature themes
Summary: For Kore-of-Myth's "Shuffle" Challenge. The challenge is to put your music player on "shuffle" and write to whatever songs come on, and only for the length of time that the songs are on.
A/N: I own nothing. These are going up unbeta'd.
I.
John Saw That Number
Neko Case
Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan
Dean is a million miles away, which is not good, because he’s trying desperately to walk. And walking while completely pissed on Ogden’s Firewhiskey is damn hard.
Seamus is spinning and swirling around. Dean thinks that maybe Seamus shouldn’t have mixed his meads with his firewhiskey . . . especially now that he’s noticing them walking perilously close to a rocky cliff.
“Oi! Dean . . .” Seamus slurs.
Dean snaps his head towards his friend. Seamus has found a large but unsteady boulder on which to stand, perched near the edge.
“Mate, tha’ ain’t a good idea, Y’ll break y’ fuckin’ neck!”
“Fuck off!” Seamus leans over a bit unsteadily and jabs his thumb into his chest. “Y’know how many fucking Death Eaters I’ve fough’ against?” Seamus holds up a bottle of firewhiskey and Dean can’t remember where the hell it came from. “A’ leas’ a hundred!” Seamus takes a large swig and smacks and wipes away at his lips. “A’ leas’ tha’s wha’ it felt like, y’know . . .”
Dean can no longer stand upright, so he crashes to the ground right in front of the boulder. Seamus tosses him the bottle, and because Dean’s not ready to not be drunk, he takes a drink.
Seamus tries to stand upright, but flails as he does so.
“Wh-whoa! Whoa!”
Dean jumps up, ready to catch him if necessary, but Seamus throws himself forward off the rock, landing face-first onto the ground.
“Bloody hell!” Dean shakes his head to clear it and goes to check on his mate. Seamus is laughing, but wiping at his bloody nose. As he lifts his head up, Dean can see blood streaming from it.
“I broke da damn fing-” Seamus is laughing, drunk and humorless.
“Shay, you’re a mess.” Dean tries to rip his shirt to staunch the blood, but it’s no use; his motions are impaired thanks to the liberal amounts of alcohol consumed this evening. But it doesn’t matter, because Seamus is still laughing and letting the blood fall from his nose. He stares ahead of him.
“The things they did-” Seamus is not laughing anymore. “I can still hear little ones screamin’. Ones of us screamin' in pain. Every time I shut m’ eyes.”
Dean swallows and he can feel his eyes well up. “And y’ can’t do a damn thing about it. Y’just watch ‘em die.”
“And Lavender. I wasn’t there to stop ‘im from eatin’ her face.” Seamus shakes his head in his hands.
“And all I could do was watch as they killed Dirk and Ted. All Ted ever talked about was his wife . . . his daughter . . . the grandson that he was waitin’ for.”
“I was gonna marry that girl,” Seamus takes another large swig from the bottle. “And I wanted m’ best mate righ' by m' side-” he hands the bottle to Dean and Dean cannot hold back. He has to drink, because he has to stop feeling right now.
“It’s all fucked, innit?”
Dean looks at Seamus but he has nothing to say.
II.
Things Behind the Sun
Nick Drake
Molly Weasley
She sits on her son’s bed, her hand shaking as it touches the still-made sheets. True, Fred has not slept in this bed for so long, but Molly can smell him in the air. She can shut her eyes, even though they are full of tears, and she can feel her son.
She has to feel him here with her, or else she’ll go insane.
Her thoughts are always the same. She thinks how it should’ve been her who had died. And what a horrible mother she was, for letting her son fight, for letting him die before she did.
It’s because of her that Fred is gone . . . her family is broken . . . that George-
Molly gasps and her entire body’s convulsing in tears that she cannot stop.
She doesn’t know what causes her to look at the floor right at that spot, but Molly sees a small object, a Wheeze that Fred or George had somehow dropped or misplaced.
Slowly, still crying, she stoops and picks up the thing. Molly holds it in the palm of her hand.
It is a Whiz-Bang.
As she looks at it, her tears start to subside. It is ages once she can finally move, and she stands up slowly to go downstairs for some tea to calm her nerves. She puts the Whiz-Bang in the pocket of her apron, thinking that she needs to have it close to her for right now.
III.
Low
Coldplay
Draco Malfoy
It has to be the fiftieth message Pansy has sent him since the end of the battle. It’s starting to reek of bloody desperation. And Draco hates desperation.
It’s why he can barely look at his parents these days. His mother had got the family a reprieve from the Ministry. But what she had had to do to earn the reprieve, Draco would’ve rather remained in the Room of Requirement and let Fiendfyre burn him to ashes.
His mother had given in to Potter.
Potter.
It always comes back to that little, insignificant shit.
Narcissa had sold out the Malfoys to Potter’s cause. True, it had been to make sure Draco was alive, and he had been grateful for that. His mother had had such little faith in his perseverance that she betrayed the family and fell into line with the one person in the world Draco loathed. And to stay out of Azkaban, his dear father had named names and incriminated a long list of Death Eaters and the wizards who had helped them. As well as allowing the Ministry full access to Malfoy Manor.
It’s enough to make Draco retch.
He looks around the shell the Manor is today. If it wasn’t the Death Eaters breaking and stealing their possessions, it was the Ministry, confiscating their treasures, their belongings, until they were left with nothing but their resentments and regrets.
And Pansy wonders why he never writes.
IV.
Suicide Blonde
INXS
Pansy Parkinson and Dean Thomas
There is so much violence in their sex. Pansy could give a fuck, though. She doesn’t care that there is nothing but slamming against walls, biting, sucking, and thrusting without the slightest bit of affection.
They don’t do it in their beds. And they never linger until the morning. But lately, she’s lingers a little longer after he’s fallen asleep. For one time, when she had fallen asleep herself, she was woken up by shouting and kicking.
It was Dean, in the throes of a horrible dream.
She had almost hit him back, wanting to hurt him for hurting her, but there was something in his face, in the way his body tensed and his hands balled up on his sheets that made her pause. Instead - and to this day, she won’t tell anyone why she’d done such a stupid thing - she had put her hand on chest, her palm flat, and her other hand on his sweating forehead.
“Shhh.” She had whispered and Dean had calmed down, his hand finding hers on his chest.
She does this now, and Dean is asleep, but holding her hand on his chest, and she whispers to him to soothe him. A part of her sees Dean as she’s doing this for him, but another part sees Draco’s face and body on his.
V.
House by the Sea
Iron & Wine
Ernie Macmillan and Zacharias Smith
He knocks on the door, afraid that his sweaty palms might mess the ink up on the parchment that he’s holding. It’s been ages since Ernie had visited Smith’s sprawling estate, but he is not here today for a social visit nor for himself.
He’s here for her.
He looks down at the parchment, growing a little damp as he continues to hold it-
Their house-elf, Blinky, leads him upstairs to Zacharias’ room. They shake hands awkwardly, and Ernie feels his arm stiffen as he takes his hand because as soon as there’s contact, he sees Zacharias fleeing the Great Hall, pushing his way towards the front of the queue, running over the younger students, trying to get who - the - hell - knows - where.
Zacharias knows this. They weren’t Housemates for seven years for nothing. He pulls himself up to his full height and he flashes his most arrogant glare at Ernie.
“Say it. I know you want to.”
There’s a lot Ernie wants to say to him, because Zacharias was his friend, but his friend didn’t join the D.A. and he didn’t fight alongside him and-
He jabs the letter at Zacharias, his hand balled up, practically punching him. “Here.” Ernie’s chin quivers. When all Zacharias can do is raise his eyebrow at him, he continues. “It’s,” he chokes on his next words, “from Susan.”
Slowly, he starts to see Zacharias break.
VI.
Everything’s Not Lost
Coldplay
Molly Weasley
She had been touching the Whiz-Bang in the pocket of her apron for a week. She would feel for it as she cooked, as she cleaned, as she tended the garden. She would place it in front of her as she sat at the dinner table, drinking her tea. She would look at it, sometimes not blinking, sometimes unable to stop crying.
However, after one week, after the sun goes down, Molly feels another feeling come over her.
Calm.
Peaceful.
Hopeful.
She looks outside the window and she sees the light is ideal. Molly steps out onto the backyard and stands as far away from the house as possible.
She touches her wand to the wick. “Incendio.” The wick sparks in the night, looking like a wild firefly.
Molly takes a breath and, with all the force of everything inside her, she throws it into the air. It flies into the night, and goes black-
Molly waits.
And suddenly, an explosion . . . and another. Colors and petal-like sparks fill the night sky and she cannot tear her eyes away from the fiery spectacle. Her eyes water but she is smiling as she watches the Whiz-Bang fill the dark sky.
Molly feels a hand on her shoulder. She jumps up surprised, as she thought she was alone, but when an arm goes around her, she knows just who it is.
“Mum? D-did you do that?”
She looks at him, patting his wet cheek with her hand and crying in earnest, but she never stops smiling. She nods and she pulls George into her warm embrace.