Don't Think I Can Fight This Anymore

Dear Mom,

First of all, don’t be upset. We both know that my leaving is for the best. Honestly, if Dad’s going to be so stupid about the whole thing I don’t want to see him either. I’ve still got my apartment in England so it’s not like I don’t have anywhere to go. I have a few friends there and Ian showed some interest in going back with me. So, don’t worry. I won’t be alone, and I’m sure I can find a way to make myself useful.

Second of all, will you stop worrying about Danny? He’s posted in Korea. I know on the news it seems like World War Three will break out any day now but I’m sure it’s more of a will-they/won’t-they situation. And he can take care of himself. Really.

Go ahead and throw out all my things that are still at the house. I have everything I need. I promise to keep writing.

Much Love,
Evelyn

May 2, 1998

A group of eight soared across the glassy lake, looking at the dark castle as they approached. The battle had already begun. They each had a patronus to keep the lurking dementors at bay. A small labrador sat at the end of Second Lieutenant Evelyn Finch’s broom, heckles raised. They slowed as they reached the shore.

“Alright.” Captain Ian Forest said as they surveyed the scene in front of them. Though he was a Captain, the unit called him Sarge. It had been his ranking when they all first met. “Shacklebolt wants them captured alive, if you can help it.”

“Yes, sir.”

Henry James III, better known as Trip, cracked his knuckles and neck.

“Keep them away from the Potter boy.”

“Yes sir.

Healer Frank Jones checked the medical kit in his lap yet again.

“Draw their attention as much as you can. Our lives are worth less than civilians.”

“Great talk, Sarge.” Evelyn drawled as Kevin Hayes chuckled. “No wonder they keep giving you these promotions.”

“Is that a goddamn giant?” Tess Burke screeched before Ian could tell Evelyn off.

“Move!” Ian yelled.

They shot forward on their brooms, emitting a war cry. Fighters on the grounds looked up in wonder. Who were they?

As soon as they got close, the giant noticed them and swung his club down. The unit scattered. With a wild yell, Tess and Colin Grahm shot inside through a broken window. Evelyn and Trip followed Ian straight up the walls of the castle to the tallest tower. The others swooped along the sides of the building, looking for entrance.

“Don’t hex them!” a woman’s voice shouted as Evelyn got closer to the top of the tower. “Don’t hex them! They’re friendly!”

Evelyn floated alongside Ian and looked down at the ragtag group of fighters. Trip was already getting off his broom and shaking hands.

“Where do you need us?” Ian asked.

A loud bang emitted downstairs as the main doors opened.

“Anywhere.” Minerva McGonagall replied.

“Permission to kick Death Eater ass, sir.” Evelyn mocked.

Ian rolled his eyes. “Granted.”

Evelyn cackled and shot forward through an open door, then down the spiral steps. Luckily they ended before she could get dizzy. She flew through the open door.

“Stupefy!” she screamed at a hooded face.

As the Death Eater fell, he dropped a bottle which shattered. Orange mist poured across the floor.

“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Evelyn muttered, willing her broom to speed up again. She spotted someone standing in the middle of the hall, unmoving. He knew he wouldn’t have time to get out before the mist poisoned his lungs. Evelyn wrenched the broom around. “SHIT!”

As she sped by, Evelyn reached out and grabbed the front of his robes, pulling him across her lap.

“Left!” he screamed. “Through the tapestry!”

Evelyn banged a hard left and flew into a hidden passageway. Leaning across her, the man sealed the tapestry behind them. Evelyn let out a whoop of delight as they broke free of the passage and into a normal corridor again. She slowed down and let him off.

“Thanks.” he said.

“No problem.”

“Who are you?”

“Second Lieutenant Evelyn Finch, 445th Wizarding, Canadian Army.” She grinned at his shock. “We’re here to help. And you?”

“George Weasley. Order of the Phoenix.” he added as an afterthought.

Suddenly, the whole building shook with an explosion. Evelyn was thrown off her boom and onto the floor next to George. She quickly got back to her feet. George was looking down the corridor as if he had heard someone shout his name.

“Well, George.” Evelyn said, helping him up. She ditched her broom. “Let’s go raise hell.”

~*~

Evelyn dropped Frank’s hand and stood, looking around the large roomy hall. The injured were still being tended to, but most people had cleared out. A tiny professor was walking around and levitating bodies into a side room, out of the way. The 445th Wizarding was still surrounding their fallen comrade.

“Come on.” Colin was saying to Tess. “We’ve got to...he would want…”

But he couldn’t finish any of his sentences. Frank was the youngest of all of them. He had finished only a year of healer training before joining the unit and being shipped off to England. Quinn stared at his friend and spoke to Trip, who was coaxing words out of him.

“He was helping this girl. She had been bitten by that rabid animal, Greyback. I got hit by a body bind and then this guy just...he was built like a hockey enforcer...he crucio-ed him and...and...Frankie screamed and screamed and I couldn’t...I couldn’t move and he…”

Evelyn looked a few spaces over to where her new friend George still sat over the body of his twin brother. She walked over and crouched next to him. “Come on, George.”

“How can I?”

Evelyn bit her lip, mastering her own grief.

“Something tells me they’re going to need us.”

He allowed her to take his arm and pull him up. Ian looked at his second in command with interest as Trip gently picked Frank up and manually carried him over to the other fallen fighters. When she looked up, her aquamarine eyes were hard like crystals. They had been for over a year now.

“Permission to speak freely, sir.” she said as she supported the redhead.

“Granted.”

“I will kill every last one of them. And I don’t give a damn what the Brits have got to say about it.”

“Something’s happening.” Tess said as the high cold voice rang through the halls again.

People were running towards the door in the Entrance hall. George saw one of his redheaded siblings pass by holding hands with a brunette and ran after them. Trip came back over, his jaw set.

Ian looked the unit over. Quinn had a dead look in his eyes and Colin was limping but refusing treatment. Tess was unmarked but was shaky from a Cruciartis curse. Kevin had a bandage around his middle. Evelyn had a long scratch on her arm and Trip had half his hair burnt off.

But they all had one last fight in them.

“I don’t care how you do it.” Ian said softly. “Facilius descendus averno.”

There was a roar of rebellion outside, and without a thought Evelyn turned and ran out the door, her own wild cry joining in the din. The rest of the 445th ran behind her, screaming even as the silencing charm was cast over them.

They ran outside just in time to see a seventeen year old run out into the middle of the lawn just to be slammed into it. Evelyn watched the tall pale figure step over another body on the grass. The Potter boy.

A ragged old hat soared out of the castle and onto the head of the kid who had charged. Suddenly people screamed as the hat burst into flames - and several things happened very quickly.

At the gates of the school there was a roar as even more people flooded the grounds. Centaurs and thestrals and even a hippogriff emerged from the forest. The hat fell off the kid and he pulled a glimmering sword from its depths, then swung. The head of an enormous snake spiraled up into the sky. All hell broke loose.

In all of that, the Potter boy disappeared.

“YOU!” Quinn Tracy screamed, running at the line of Death Eaters. “YOU’LL PAY FOR FRANK!”

“TRACY!” Evelyn bellowed as he narrowly avoided the clumsy step of a giant.

“Let him go, Finch!” Trip yelled, dodging a bolt of purple light. “He’s got to!”

Evelyn was standing too close to the doors of the castle. With wild creatures fighting outside, the humans were running in. She was swept along in the rush. Doors burst open and tiny house elves spilled across the floor, screaming obscenities in their high pitched voices.

A heavyset man charged at Evelyn and she whipped her wand through the air. He bellowed in pain as a cut appeared across his face, twenty daggers flew through the air towards her. She raised her shield just in time.

“Expelliarmus!” the Death Eater shouted.

Not expecting to be disarmed as opposed to cursed, Evelyn’s wand flew out of her hand.

“Avada Kedavra!”

Evelyn moved like in a dance. She bent low to dodge the curse, turning as she went. As she came back up, her leg shot out and kicked the Death Eater in the chest.

“Stupify!”

The Death Eater fell and Evelyn looked up to see a man with overgrown red hair. Their eyes locked and she nodded in thanks. She followed the crowd pushing into the Great Hall, stooping to retrieve her wand from the Death Eater. She screamed a curse at the thickset witch Trip was deuling and she fell, surprise flitting across her face.

Evelyn started working her way around the room, helping students and civilians take down any Death Eaters still standing. Everyone’s attention focused on two duels in the center of the room.

A roar like a bomb as Bellatrix Lestrange fell to a red haired woman. Evelyn found herself standing next to Ian as Voldemort turned his wand onto the red head. Without a thought, they both started to charge forward to block the woman with their bodies. Their lives were worth less than civilians -

“Protego!”

The Potter boy reappeared and there were cries of relief from across the room. Evelyn and Ian stopped short and watched as the red eyes and the green locked, and the two started to circle each other. They spoke, and Evelyn was somehow reminded of a child. Voldemort’s followers had all been taken down, his every defense crumbled. But he refused to see that he’d lost.

The sun burst into the room and the moment had come. The whole world held its breath.

“Avada Kadavra!”

“Expelliarmus!”

The spells collided in midair and gold light flashed through the room. Voldemort’s wand flew into the air and he fell back, his mouth open in a silent scream. He seemed smaller in death.

There was a moment of silence, and the whole room rushed forward to touch the boy who lived twice.

Evelyn took deep breaths as Ian put an arm around her, steadying her. It was over. It was all over. She caught sight of Tess crying tears of joy in Colin’s arms. Trip was conjuring a chair and pushing Quinn into it, whose hands were covered in blood. Kevin ran over and caught Evelyn in a tight hug.

Someone moved Voldemort’s body into a tiny chamber. Fifty-four people, including Frankie Jones and the girl he tried to save, had died protecting the castle.

Four large tables and food were produced, and the Canadians sat together eating and talking quietly. Before leaving to take over duties as Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt stopped and thanked each of them. Harry Potter was dragged over by George Weasley, and they each shook hands with him. He expressed his sincerest regret at the death of Frank Jones. He didn’t even know the Canadians had been there at all.

Evelyn hugged George tightly before letting him return to his family, feeling somehow close to him after meeting him hours before.

“We should go.” Ian said quietly. “There’s still work to be done, and we should get a few hours of sleep before that.”

As one, the 445th stood and moved off to collect Frank’s body. They would return home the way they came, as a unit. A family.