Prompt 87: victim

Summary: The first war claims its final victims 30 years late. (Neville wants to crawl into the pyre between his parents and it is only now, when he's 30 and older by the minute, only now that he recognizes his parents as more than corpses.)

AN: Where have I been? Around. Trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. Writing dirty Supernatural fic. Drooling over Sam Winchester. Questioning my sexuality. You know. The usual.

Disclaimer: Just playing in JKR's sandbox.

Frank dies on a Thursday in October, at three in the afternoon; three hours later, with the son she still doesn't know and the mother-in-law who scares her still, so many years later (though she's not sure why), by her side, Alice follows.

Neville sighs and his Gran pats his shoulder. "Come on, boy," she says (he's still "boy" to her, now, even when he's 30 and a professor and married). "This has been a long time coming."

Augusta isn't cruel. She's nowhere near sympathetic, but she isn't unkind, and her words aren't meant to smart like they do.

Neville knows. He pockets the last of the Droobles wrappers and stands, looking down at the woman—at his mum—who has been nothing more than a name to him for so long.

She looks younger, in death, than she did in life. The torture she endured aged her beyond her 51 years but death erases those lines and, for a moment, she is just Alice, another of Voldemort's many claims on the world.

It's so sad, so pathetic, Frank and his bride side by side in the hospital room. There's an odd sort of peace about them, a quiet sadness, a deep sigh of relief. There is something freeing about death after a life extended by pain; something so easy and quiet and gentle about death when compared to the bright, furious chaos of life.

Their funeral is on the following Tuesday. Neville and Hannah stand side-by-side, a happier ending to a similar tale, and watch as the pyre goes up in flames.

For a moment, Neville wants to crawl into the pyre between his parents and it is only now, when he's 30 and older by the minute, only now that he recognizes his parents as more than corpses.

Thanks, as ever, for reading. xoxo