"Professor," Briar panted as she skidded to a halt in the doorframe of the hospital wing. Neville was right behind her, but once Briar had pulled herself back into a standing position in the common room, her panicked pace was nearly impossible to match as she practically flew through the corridors.

Professor McGonagall turned at the sound and frowned when she saw who had just entered the room. Briar's stomach dropped at the sight. Why was she frowning? Was that a look of pity? Briar couldn't stand pity, especially not now, especially not when her world was crumbling, and she desperately needed someone to tell her that everything was alright. Someone had to just tell her that her fears were mistaken. The boy had been exaggerating, or maybe his fears over Dumbledore's death had just struck a nerve in Briar's traumatized mind that made her jump to untrue conclusions.

Oh God, she wished one of those options were true.

They had to be. She needed them to be.

Truthfully, Briar didn't know how she would survive it if Professor McGonagall confirmed her worst fears in that moment.

Briar didn't move from her place as Professor McGonagall took a few uncertain steps forward. She looked at Briar's terrified face and slowly explained, "Miss Black, Dumbledore has been killed, and-"

"Is my dad okay?" interrupted Briar. She didn't mean to seem rude, but Dumbledore's death wasn't her main concern. Her dad's current state was all she could focus on, and until she learned of how he was doing, she couldn't even think about Dumbledore.

Professor McGonagall paced forward a few steps and suggested, "Would you like to take a seat?"

Briar shook her head and asserted, "No. I just want to know what's happened."

The Gryffindor Professor nodded her head slowly and sighed, "Dearie, your father has been attacked in your home. He was able to get away with your house elf, but they had to go into hiding for safety, so you cannot go home this summer."

"So, he's okay?" confirmed Briar with her heart pounding in her chest. She needed to hear those words. She needed those exact words, so that she could breathe again.

"Yes. Sirius Black is injured but alright. Your house elf is in worse shape than he is, I believe. She protected Mr. Black quite fearlessly, but they are both alive, m'dear," Professor McGonagall explained.

At these words, Briar collapsed into Neville's side at the sudden loss of all of her tension and adrenaline. Her body had relaxed considerably, and now she wished she had sat down in one of the hospital chairs.

In the silence that followed, Neville whimpered, "And Dumbledore...? What happened?"

Professor McGonagall grew stiff, and her voice came out thickly as she murmured, "Mr. Potter said that Professor Snape killed him, but we have yet to confirm this to be true."

"I believe him," Briar asserted with a black eyebrow raised challengingly.

"Me too," quipped Neville in a firm voice from beside Briar.

Both of them were scared and exhausted about the horrifying revelations that had just been revealed to them, but they knew that Harry wouldn't have lied about this. Harry hadn't been believed before, and that led to unnecessary death. This time, Neville and Briar both planned to ensure that Potter was believed and supported.

It was about time that they fought back.

—

Neville and Briar had been staying with Gran that summer, but they were leaving so often that it felt as thought they weren't living there at all. They were doing a lot of underground work as tensions soared, and the danger seemed to weigh down on them from all sides. They were doing their part to get prepared for the war though, and both were prepared to do anything they had to to help the cause.

The two of them didn't learn of the attack at Bill and Fleur's wedding until a couple days after, when they returned to Gran's for the first time in a number of days. That's also when they learned of several death eaters breaking out of Azkaban. No one would tell Briar if Gideon Davies was amongst those who escaped, so she knew that this meant that he was. Briar was a bit nervous at the thought of this, but she was stronger now. She was better, and she was mostly healed from what had happened. Her pulse may have quickened, but she didn't lose control this time.

It was just yesterday now that they learned of the attack, and Neville was fast asleep in his bed beside her. She hadn't been able to fall asleep as her mind was racing with plans of what they needed to accomplish the next day and how they could try to reach out to the trio. In this thoughtful state, she heard an owl fluttering against the bedroom window, and she tensed.

Who would be sending an owl at this time of night?

Briar moved slowly to get out of the bed without waking Neville. He needed his rest; he hadn't been getting enough sleep lately since they'd been so busy, and this worried her. She hated seeing him so tired and worn out. She hated that he was starting to have bags under his eyes that matched hers, and she hated it when he refused to sleep, despite his eyes drifting shut involuntarily on the nights they weren't here.

Her footsteps fell lightly on the ground, and she slightly grinned to herself that Neville's soft breaths on the other side of the room had remained constant.

She slowly cracked the window open and removed the letter from the owl's side before shooing it off. In the moonlight falling in through their window, Briar tugged the letter open and began to read it.

Only a few words in though, and her stomach had turned to ice.

Briar Davies,

You must come home at once. I am free now, and we must finish our conversation from before.

I know you will likely just try to ignore this or run away, but if you do, this is my promise to you that I will not stop until that worthless Gryffindor twit you care for is lying motionless on the ground before you.

Come home at once, or you will pay the consequences.

Your Father

Briar pressed the back of her hand to her mouth as her cries began to intensify in her chest. Gideon was out of Azkaban, and he wanted her. He wanted to kill her as he planned to before.

She had no desire to go, but she knew that it was either her or Neville, and she wasn't like her "father"; she wouldn't let her love die because she was too afraid to.

Through her tears, she stumbled to the dresser and placed the letter on top as she grabbed a change of clothes and her shoes. She staggered out of the room and into the bathroom. She avoided her face in the mirror because she didn't want to see the misery she would find there. She pulled on her mother's sweater and her favorite jeans.

This would be the outfit she'd die in.

———