twenty four the end of all things

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MAYBE IT'S A PATHETIC THING TO say, but George still can't shake the thought of one girl. They weren't even really together, and yet, here he is months later, sitting in an Order meeting (something he campaigned to be involved in the summer before), ignoring everything everyone's saying, because his mind won't leave Mia Black.

He's sitting next to his twin at Grimmauld Place's kitchen table, the two of them having closed the shop early for this meeting. It's been pretty successful, since they opened a couple of months ago; already, the two of them have been able to afford a whole new wardrobe of suits, something Briar gushes about (ew) everytime she sees Fred. George looks down at his dark-purple trousers, and wonders if Mia would like them. He's even wearing a muggle band t-shirt, something he thinks she'd like. Merlin, this is what he means! He's a disgrace to wizardkind.

And then, there's a crack.

"DAD! THEY'VE GOT SIRIUS—!"

The kitchen door slams open, Briar standing in the threshold, out-of-breath. She's got a cut on her face, blood around her mouth. Her dad has already grabbed his chair for her, George and Fred crossing the room without another word. George frowns, putting his hand on his best friend's shoulder. His brother, her boyfriend, kneels beside her.

But Sirius frowns.

"What happened?" says Remus.

"Oh, I was kidnapped but — Sirius, I had a vision, Harry thinks you've been kidnapped by Death Eaters," says Briar. "I was taken because they thought I'd get in the way, like last year..." She looks back at Sirius, confused. "Why didn't they take you?"

"Maybe they weren't planning on taking him," says her dad. "Briar, you said that Harry said this, in the vision?"

Briar nods. "Y-Yeah..."

And then, Snape appears, looking graver than ever.

"Potter said that—" And then he sees Sirius. "Oh."

Briar frowns. "I don't get it..."

"It's a trick," says Moody, suddenly. "They're after Potter."

When are they not?

"I don't know where, though," says Briar.

Remus frowns. "Briar, you need to rest..."

Briar frowns. "Well, I wanna help."

"You've done enough," says Remus. "Briar—"

"I'm fine," says Briar, and she stands up, but she starts to sway. She sits back down. "I'm fine, Dad. Everything is fine."

Remus looks at the twins. "Fred, George, can you look after Briar?"

But, just as he asks, George glances over at Snape talking to Sirius and Emilia. "I suppose you should know, your daughter was with Potter when I—"

George feels his stomach plummet.

"Mia's part of this?" he says. "I'm going!"

"No, you are not!" his mum protests.

But George doesn't care. "I'll do what I want!"

"Well, what, if it's Harry, then it's Ron too!" says Fred. "Maybe Ginny, too!"

"Our friends are in trouble!" says George. He means Mia — he knows everyone knows he's only thinking about her, but he doesn't care. He isn't sitting around another minute, if she's somewhere in danger. "Do you think we're gonna sit back?"

"You said we could be in the Order now!" says Fred.

"Woah, woah, woah, how come I'm not in the Order?" says Briar, turning to Remus.

Remus sighs. "Because they left school before you—"

"So I'm in the Order now?" says Briar.

Remus frowns. "N—"

"Brilliant, so, us three in the Order" — Briar motions to herself and the twins, "— are gonna go and help our friends, because obviously that's the right thing to do—!"

"Now!" says Moody, banging an ashtray on the table. George glares at him. "What we're not going to  do is allow children to dictate this meeting!" He glares at George, Fred, and Briar. "You three! I want you out of the room!"

All three of them don't argue. George doesn't care about any of this shit, their only map to Mia is Briar's visions, and he's still got that.

They go upstairs into the drawing room, and the second the door closes, George's grumbling turns into full-blown pacing.

"I'm not having this," says George.

Fred crosses his arms. "Ron and Ginny—"

"And Mia!" says George.

"All right, bloody hell," says Fred, under his breath.

George stops in his tracks, about to fight his own twin. "Oh, you can't talk!" he snaps. Fred doesn't say anything; instead, George turns to Briar. "Do you think you could figure out where they are?"

"I can try," says Briar. "But I had a vision earlier..." She catches Fred's gaze, and quickly looks away. George doesn't think anything of it. They've always had their own language. "... So I'll need a crystal ball, or something..."

Luckily the ancient and most noble house of Black is fucking weird, and there's one in the cabinet, which Briar holds onto. She sits down, trying her best to focus. George ends up looking away, his impatience making him even more agitated. He looks outside of the window, trying to give Briar the space to figure out where they need to go. He watches a girl outside with dark-brown hair walk past, and desperately wishes it was Mia.

"She'll be fine," says Fred, quietly.

George turns to face his brother. He glances behind him at Briar, who's eyes have gone bright-white, her pupils rolling to the back of the head like they always do, when she's having a vision. It used to freak him out, when he'd glance over in lessons and she'd look possessed, but he's used to it now. Seeing her like that now makes him feel relieved.

"I bet she thought that about Cedric, last year," George mutters.

Fred shakes his head. "Come off it," he says. "Mia's going to be fine... You know, if you're this choked up about it, maybe you should speak to her after this is over..."

No, George thinks. Yeah, he's upset about this, and he wants to pick up Mia in his arms and whisk her away from all of this, but that's beside the point. They stopped speaking because Mia wasn't ready for anything. A near-death experience isn't going to fix that, is it? She's not ready. He isn't forcing it.

Briar snaps back into reality, saving George from that uncomfortable conversation about his feelings. "I know where to go," she says. "Or... I know how to get there."

George nods. "Then, let's go."

Briar holds both of their hands, after checking she's got her wand back.

"Wait, Briar," says Fred. "Why are your lips red?"

"Oh, I bit Bellatrix," says Briar, and she Apparates them into the Ministry.

George doesn't even care about the reasoning behind that. His mind is on one thing, and one thing only: Mia.

They appear in the Ministry, in a dark room George has never heard of before. They're on the stairs, lit up by an eerie light coming from an archway at the top of the steps.

Fred goes, "You bit—?"

"Yes, I bit Bellatrix," Briar says quietly, in case anyone else is in the room. "Because I needed a way to distract her to escape and obviously the hag doesn't realise that a werewolf bite is fine, albeit kinky, when a werewolf isn't a werewolf."

George looks at her oddly. "... Let's... find the others."

Finding the others proves a lot easier than expected, because a series of crashes and screeched spells come from a doorway, at the bottom of the stairs. The three of them exchange a glance, before Briar grabs Fred and George's hands, and Apparates them elsewhere.

They Apparate into a dark room, the glow of a green tank creating light. Briar's brows furrow; George spots his little brother and sister at the same time as Fred, and they both run towards them. Harry's crouched next to Ron, holding a crystal ball in his hands.

"Why do you have...?"

"It's about me!" says Harry. "And Voldemort! They're after it!"

George looks at his little sister, who's been hit by a Stunning spell. Next to her, Ron looks just as injured. Fred attempts to pick up Ron, and George gets a hold of Ginny. As he does, someone else appears next to him.

"I'm so sorry, it happened before I could react, I tried to move her out of the way—"

He looks at Mia, who looks like she's been crying. George feels relief wash over him, seeing her finally. And how unbothered she is by everything else — she isn't focusing on the Death Eaters chasing them, her own life in danger. She's thinking about his little sister, a girl she barely even knows...

He loves her, so much.

"It's—It's not your fault," he says, softly.

They stare at each other for a minute. If it was any other time, George would say how happy he is to see her, how he's so thankful she's okay. But, Mia turns away, looking over at the door, her focus on getting out.

"You need to get her and Ron home," says Mia.

George goes, "I know." He looks at Fred. "We need to go."

Fred quickly checks Briar's fine, before he and his twin stand up, holding their younger siblings. Mia watches him quietly, and George says to her, "I'll come straight back for you."

But Mia frowns. "... Why?"

"Because—?"

"They killed my best friend, no," says Mia, already getting to her feet.

What is his deal? she thinks, moving away from them all. She's spent the past few hours fighting these bastards off, why would she leave now? Who's going to stop it, if they all give up and flee? There's still Death Eaters here, the people behind Cedric's death are running around, still hurting children. She isn't leaving until these kids — children younger than her, all injured — are safe.

"There's offices this way," says Briar. "We can get to the fireplaces, then the Floo Network."

"I'll hold them off," says Mia.

George's head whips around. "No you won't—"

"You weren't even there when Umbridge went psycho, you can't talk!" she shouts back at him. She turns to Harry. "You need to go, now!"

"I'll stay, too," says Holly, shrugging. "I can do Crucio."

A grin spreads across Mia's face. "Sweet."

The others leave — Briar, running with Harry and Neville and the prophecy down the hallway, George and Fred home to return shortly. Mia looks across at Holly, who looks far more prepared than Mia will ever be. Holly must've noticed this, because Holly smiles softly at her.

"You're pissed off, right?" she says.

"Yeah," says Mia.

"Good," says Holly. "Every bit of anger you've had for these people this past year — use it. I don't care how — pull an Emilia Salvatore if you want — but that's what stops them. Having something you care about, something you want to fight for. They don't have that."

Mia doesn't want to think about how a fifteen-year-old has already reached that kind of conclusion, but she keeps the thought in mind. She thinks of her own mum, how when she was her age, she let her emotional powers take over, and that's what saved her from her evil godfather. Mia feels her hands burning, the brain tanks around her starting to shake.

Bellatrix appears first, who's gaze falls straight onto Mia.

"Little Mia Black," says Bellatrix.

But every angry thought Mia's felt the past year washes away, terror taking over. The brain tank next to her continues to shake, Mia's heart pounding in her chest. She's forgotten every spell she's learnt the past year, she tries to think of something, anything—

"Crucio!"

Bellatrix writhes onto the floor, screeching in pain. Mia looks over, stunned, at Holly, who's hidden herself in the shadows, keeping herself protected against her relatives' friends. But, in her distraction, Mia looks down and sees Bellatrix's hand, clawing itself around Mia's ankle. She screams and jumps backwards, the brain tanks next to Mia exploding. Glass shatters everywhere, the water throwing Mia into a desk drawer, hitting her head. She looks over at Holly, glass covering her arms. Mia tries to reach out, to help, but her head is pounding, painful...

And then, everything goes black...

... The next thing she knows, the room is quiet. Holly has disappeared. Mia slowly climbs to her feet, the room spinning still. She can hear screaming and shouting and spells thrown around rooms somewhere near her. Mia finds her wand, and takes a breath.

"MIA! MIA!"

George bolts into the room, skidding to a halt when he sees her. Mia looks at him, the two frozen for a moment; Mia feels relief wash over her entire body, her heart doubling, as if coming back to life for the first time in a year. She thinks about last year, how he's the one that found her after Cedric died, how he's been there for her ever since, how he's looked after her again and again. They're not even talking, and yet, here he is, running through a death trap to find her. This is what was meant to happen. She was never supposed to end up with Cedric, with anyone else. For the first time in her life, she can see it clearly. George is it for her. George is the boy she loves...

She loves George.

She doesn't think twice, before running into his arms. Their lips collide with a ferocity Mia's never felt before. She loves him, she loves him, she loves him.

He holds her in his arms, tightly, and he pulls away, to look at her.

"Are you okay? What happened—Your head, it's bleeding, what—?"

"I'm okay, I'm okay," she says. "What's happened?"

"The Order's here, me and Fred got them, but I wasn't doing anything else before finding you—"

"I love you," she blurts out.

George opens his mouth to reply, but there's an explosion behind them, almost blinding Mia. She squeezes her eyes shut to refresh them quickly, already thinking about her parents, about her friends out there.

"C'mon," says Mia, taking George's hand.

"Mia," George doesn't move, stopping Mia in her tracks. She looks back at him, confused. "I love you, too."

Mia feels her heart swelling. "Well, that's going to mean nothing if we're dead!"

The two break into a run, sprinting down the hallway towards the explosions of spells. Mia skids to a halt, the hallway opening up into a massive hall, a staircase spiralling around the walls, leading up to the exit. There's Death Eaters and Order members everywhere, a great blue arch in the middle of the room.

Mia and George exchange a glance, before splitting off. Mia spots a Death Eater duelling Archie on the staircase; she disarms the Death Eater, flames curling around their legs as they fall off the stairs. Archie runs down to her, the two fighting back-to-back against two Death Eaters that look suspiciously like an older Crabbe and Goyle.

"Did you think this was gonna happen?" says Archie, shouting over the noise. "When we became friends this year?"

"Oh, yeah," says Mia, rolling her eyes. "Because this was at the top of my wishlist for sixth year—!"

The two of them end up parting ways, Mia holding her own against another Death Eater. She's edging closer to the archway, trying to keep her distance in case it's something bad. Halfway up the stairs, her mum is duelling against Lucius Malfoy; her dad, on the other hand, is closer to her, defending Harry. She looks around, as someone else notices her.

"Not you again," someone sneers.

Mia's heart stops.

Bellatrix moves through the fighting, her gaze focused on her cousin's daughter, her eyes narrow like an animal watching its prey. In a panic, Mia shouts, "DAD!"

But, Mia's shouting makes Emilia look up — just in time to miss Lucius' final curse.

A green light casts over the stairs, Emilia's body falling backwards.

Mia stumbles. Bellatrix looks at her — at the young girl she should care about, they're family — but quickly turns her gaze away. Mia follows Bellatrix's gaze, to Sirius, standing, frozen, next to the archway. Mia turns around, as Bellatrix raises her hand. Before Mia can stop it, Bellatrix shouts the same curse that killed Mia's mother, the green light stabbing Sirius in the chest.

Everything slows down. Mia falls to the floor, watching her dad's dead body fall into the archway, disappearing. She looks over at her mum's dead body, lying on the floor metres away from her. Bellatrix's cackle rings through Mia's ears. The room is filling with water, with the tears Mia can't cry just yet, as she watches Bellatrix move past her, running gleefully up the stairs. Mia feels her entire body go numb, her blood boiling. I'm going to kill her.

And she means it.

Mia rises to her feet, feeling as though her vision has gone red. She runs after Bellatrix, any Death Eater attempting to get in between them erupting into flames. Mia doesn't even see herself running up the stairs, feeling as if she's floating up and up, towards the woman that killed her father.

"HEY!" Mia shouts at Bellatrix, reaching the top of the stairs.

Bellatrix turns around, grinning.

"Does Baby Emilia already miss her parents? Her ickle best friend? I can let you see the Diggory boy, if you'd like—"

Fire combusts onto Bellatrix's dress, quickly curling up towards her torso. Bellatrix screams in shock, letting go of her wand — which Mia grabs and snaps, throwing off the stairs. Bellatrix stumbles backwards, the fire about to reach her heart—

"Mia!" George grabs a hold of her. "What are you doing?"

"She killed my dad!" says Mia, snatching her hands away from him. "She killed my dad, she deserves to die! I want her dead, I want Malfoy dead, I want Voldemort dead — I have no one because of them—!"

"They're going to kill you!" he shouts.

"Not if I get there first—!"

But George grabs onto her. Before Mia can argue, she's Apparated somewhere else. It's somewhere in the countryside, and she figures it's the Weasley house. She throws herself away from George, wanting to scream.

"What did you do?" she snaps. "I wanted her to hurt, I wanted them all..."

She stumbles, breaking into violent sobs. George catches her, and she tries to push him away, before the uncontrollable crying becomes too much for her, finally collapsing into his chest.

Her mum's dead. Her dad's dead. Her entire family's history — one of the most prestigious surnames amongst British wizards, destroyed at its own hand. Bellatrix Lestrange, nee Black, killing Sirius, her sister's husband Lucius killing Emilia.

The ancient and most noble house of Black is as dead as Mia's parents, who she doesn't stop crying about for hours and hours. Her heart feels shattered, her entire life in ruins. She has no family, no parents. What does she do? They had a house — two, with Grimmauld Place. Are they hers now? How is she supposed to return to school next year, with the weight of her entire family's lineage on her shoulders?

Slowly, as the night trudges into the morning, Mia's crying stops. Her heart doesn't mend, but instead, it hardens.

Mia Black loves many things. Renaissance paintings, the muggle movie Pulp Fiction (have you seen a narrative timeline so fucked up?), and George Weasley, but none of that matters anymore.

No — she has a job to do now. The Death Eaters have destroyed her family, and there's no one left to avenge it. Mia needs to improve her defensive magic, her duelling, everything to help her fight those monsters that tore her apart. And, one day, Mia will find herself in front of them again, and she'll not only kill them, but she'll win.

After all, she is the most noble.

one more chapter then this is over!!! (the chapter is also ready and done it'll be up soon i promise) xxx