Howl

Draco.

I step away from the looming structure of the cabinet and take a deep breath, as though it physically exerted me to even just look at it.

“Is it done?” I shiver at the cold tone of his voice as Snape weaves his way towards me by the clutter and the forgotten memories in the Room of Requirement. “Have you completed your task?”

“Yes.” I say. I wanted to get out of here before going home for the last meeting until it all happened… I had to warn Lyall to stay safe on the night. I couldn’t have her wandering around as she often does when they came—

“Then you must go.” Snape plants his hand on my shoulder and, despite myself, I tense at the foreign feeling of his big hands on me. Lyall had such delicate hands. “I will be there shortly after.”

I open my mouth to protest but I feel my heart drop to my feet as he gives me a grating look. I know better than to let him know what I was thinking. He probably already knew. I twist on my heel and hastily retreat to Snape’s office where I gather the floor powder and return to hell.

The foyer of my home glares out at me from within the fireplace. I can already hear the voice and I swallow down the urge to go back to Hogwarts. More than anything, I wanted Lyall to be with me. I knew she would hold my hand and capture me with her eyes until everything would be all right. But Lyall could not be here – I wouldn’t allow her to be in the middle of this.

My mother’s soft and sad eyes meet me as I make my way to her side near the end of the table where he sat. I couldn’t force myself to look at anyone but my mother. I didn’t know these people.

“Now,” his voice is a hiss and it slithers down my spine. “Draco and Severus have joined us. I’m assuming everything has gone according to plan.”

We both nod.

“Excellent. There’s one thing left – but you need not worry, Draco.” Something in the devious glint of his eyes tells me that he’s lying, that I have a million reasons to worry about it. I glance to my left to see my mother. “I’ve heard news of a direct descendant of Merlin in the vicinity. Severus was kind enough to bring her here for me to meet. We need her, she’s stronger than any of us could imagine. It doesn’t hurt that she’s a natural killer either, does it?”

There’s a murmur of agreement and a gurgle of confusion around the long, oaken table. I sit tensely and my mother squeezes my hand tentatively. Who were they talking about?

“Wormtail!”

In Pettigrew comes, chains rattling in his bloodied hands and his strained face had more than its fair share of scrapes. Whoever it is, it seems, didn’t come willingly. However, as my eyes are searching for her, instead they fall upon a beautiful, bristling wolf.

I let my thoughts drift to Lyall and I think that she would have loved—

It takes me a moment to piece it all together and my mother works it out at the same time. Despite a scolding look from my father, mother’s mouth opens in a silent scream as her eyes fall upon the bristling creature in front of us.

Snape.

Slowly, I twist from the wolf and turn to glare at Snape who’s regarding me wearily. I think back to earlier when he ushered me away when all I wanted to do was tell Lyall that I loved her and that she should be safe tonight – he knew, he must have known.

I’m out of my seat and running towards her before anyone can tell me otherwise.

“Draco!” My father growls at me and yanks me back by my shirt collar. I hiss insults at him as those around us begin to mutter between themselves. My eyes lock on hers and her bristling stops, while her unsettling eyes flicker to something behind me. “Don’t embarrass us!”

My father pulls me down to my seat and my mother lays a hand on my arm, throwing me a sad smile. I know she loves Lyall, I know this was hard on her too but she couldn’t understand. I was in love with her.

“If we can convince Miss Molviola here to join us then we’d be unstoppable. There’s nothing that could stand in our way.” Voldemort drags a clawed hand down Lyall’s furry back and she lets out an audible whine before snapping at his fingers. He chuckles. “It would help if she could talk, however, so if you could be so kind as to phase back.”

Lyall stares at him as though he’s insane while I struggle against my father’s arms. The Dark Lord turns to me, that horrible glint still present in his eyes, and Lyall looks at me too. I want nothing more than to run out of here with her and never look back but that was a one-way ticket to getting us both killed.

What had she gotten herself into?

“Perhaps Draco could persuade her. I understand they have soft spots for each other.”

I vehemently shake my head. I wasn’t going to ask her to do anything. She wasn’t supposed to live a life like this.

He points his wand at me but before he can utter a single curse, Lyall snaps free of her chains and leaps at him. The weight of her lunge throws him to the ground and I hear his wand clatter to the ground.

Before Lyall can even lock her jaw around his neck and before I can open my mouth to scream her name, a series of stunning spells are cast towards her and her large canine body is thrown against the far wall.

She’s herself before she hits the ground unconscious.

I race towards her – ignoring my parents protests – and skid to a halt by her side. I brush her hair from her face and her eyes flutter open. “Lyall,” I bite back on sobs. I couldn’t show weakness here. “I’m so sorry, Lyall. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

With some help, Lyall groggily made it to her feet but when her ever changing eyes come into focus, she doesn’t meet my eyes, but the eyes of someone on the other side of the room and they settle on a colour or the first time I had laid my gaze upon her when I bumped into her in the train.
Black. Just complete darkness.

“No. No!” her voice is as weak as her knees and I struggle to keep her body upright as everything in her body screams to shut down. “How could you? They killed her!”

I follow her heartbroken gaze and it lands on the man who sits directly across from and to Snape’s right.

He was a tall man and there was emptiness in his eyes that I had seen in my mother’s eyes before. An emptiness that reminded me painfully of death and I wondered often, as I sat across from him, never knowing his name, who he had lost. I turn to Lyall again and I know that she knows this man as though he was an extension of herself—

“Papa.” She cries and looks at him hopelessly, as though she was waiting on him to tell her it was okay and it was all one big joke, they would be going home in the morning and they would never have to go back. “They killed her.”

“Don’t lie to me,” he howled at her and pushed himself back on his chair until they were both standing weakly. “You killed her, Lyall. It was your fault.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Lyall stood defiantly and my mother gripped my shirtsleeve and pulled me away from her. I didn’t not object and watch along with everyone else. “I didn’t do anything, papa. It wasn’t—”

“They came for you! YOU!” her father makes his way around all of us until he stands before us. “If you were never born, if there was never a prophecy then-then she would still be alive.”

“Prophecy?!” Lyall screeches. “You think they killed her because of some stupid prophecy?! They killed her because she loved me. We didn’t want this, you pulled us into it. You called them that night, you wanted to give me up!”

“It’s your destiny!” her father advances closer to her and tightly grips her upper arms tightly. “I was so proud. My daughter! Can you imagine?”

Lyall doesn’t reply to him but wrenches herself from his grasp and stumbles backwards away from him.

“Just do as they say, Lyall.” Her father says this slowly. I know Lyall won’t do as she’s told and that terrifies me to no limits. “Then everything will be fine.”

“Nothing will everything be fine again.” Lyall shakes her head and tears spill from her eyes. I want to go to her. “You ruined everything.”

“I DID IT ALL FOR YOU!”

“She’s dead and it’s your entire fault. You’re alone because you were too selfish to be happy with us.” Lyall takes a few more unsteady steps away and, as the final tear slithers down her pale skin, something in her father snaps.

“Fine,” his whole demeanour changes and he’s no longer the howling man who screamed in her face but a cold, calculated man who knows he’s not getting out of this alive but that doesn’t mean he can’t put on a good show. “I did kill her. Or, I allowed her to be killed, but Lyall, you forget… Who killed those that came for you?”

"Mitä on tekeillä, isä?"

A small boy stands at the doorway, rubbing his eyes and yawning. He looks no older than 10. It pains me to look at him, standing there in his innocence.

"Baile."

Lyall takes a few steps towards him as the boy’s face is flooded with relief as he takes one glance at his father before sprinting towards Lyall.

Lyall catches him in his arm and buries her face in his hair. Baile grips tightly on to her, his knees beginning to shake as his chest heaves. I hear them murmuring in Finnish but I don’t try to listen to them.

“Avada Kedavra!”

I clench my teeth and close my eyes as the flash of green invades my vision. I don’t think much about it. The Dark Lord was always killing people with a seconds warning.

This time, though, when I open my eyes it isn’t some nobody Death Eater who pissed him off one too many times, or a Muggle studies teacher or a muggle witch or wizard.

When I open my eyes, I see Lyall screaming and hunching over the fallen body of her little brother as The Dark Lord makes his way towards them.

“Bring him back!” Lord Voldemort snaps at her and points his wand roughly into the nape of her neck. “We all know who you’re capable of, Lyall, bring him back.”

“I’m not… I’m not… strong enough. I can’t do it. I can’t.” Lyall continues to cry in the little chest of Baile and I swallow back on my own tears. “I wasn’t-I can’t—Please Baile.”

“Do it!”

Lyall manages to bring her head up to look at him hopelessly. Nodding erratically, she places her shaking hands on his chest and pushes gently.

All around me, people gasp as a witch blue light emanates from the palms of her hands and sinks into Baile’s lifeless body. My eyes widen as I lean forward and see the slight rise and fall in his chest, the rosy color returning to his chest and his fingers twitching.

Just when his eyes flutter open, he speaks and smiles. “Lyall… I can-I can see her. I can see her.”

But Lyall can’t go on any longer but she’s so close and he’s so alive but she can’t do it. Her shaking shoulders sink and the light dies from her hands as the light dies from Baile’s eyes.

I watch in pain as more tears leak from Lyall’s eyes and she pushes herself back from his body and covers her mouth with her hand as though she can catch any sob or scream that dared to escape.

Lyall had no family left and I couldn’t help but feel like it was all my fault.

“Ly…” I whisper her name softly but she still hears me like I knew she would. Her eyes aren’t flashing beautifully anymore. Instead they are dark and I worry that I’ll never see their bright colours anymore. For that, I resent her father, I resent my life and I resent him. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

Her father was standing with his arms crossed across his chest while he stared at the lifeless body of his youngest child with nothing but indifference in his eyes. Lyall seen it too.

Her flat palm snaps out towards him as she grits her teeth in concentration. Voldemort cackles and claps his hand as those around me chuckle but Lyall isn’t laughing. Her father screeches and writhes before he falls to the ground, his bones arching in unnatural ways.

This isn’t her.

“Lyall!” I break free of my mother’s gasp because Lyall needs me now more than ever. Funny, I think, because it is always me who needs her. “Stop it, Lyall. This isn’t you! This isn’t who you are.”

Her eyes flicker towards me. Her hand falls. His screaming stops. Everything stops in that moment. I see in her eyes that she doesn’t know how this happened. I see that she would do anything just to have Baile running towards her once more, to give him a proper goodbye.

“There’s nothing left for you to do, Lyall.” I brush her messy hair back from her damp face gently while she clings to my very word and touch and it’s like I’m the only who can save her right now. “Don’t lose yourself.”

“He was so excited,” Lyall whispers to me but it’s like she’s whispering – and looking – straight through me. “He wanted to go to school with me. He was looking forward… He’ll never get to…”

She collapses into my chest and all I can do is hold her.