Where the Road Ends

Author's Note: This is the result of a picture challenge. I won't post the picture here, but the prompt was: CLIFFS.

It was like jumping off a cliff. You didn't know where you would end up.

We knew it was stupid, wandering about without thinking, but I didn't know the road would end at a cliff. And behind us were Death Eaters.

Who would've known?

Frank was valiant, bellowing at them and pointing his wand at them. I followed suit. Even if we were at the end of the road, it would make sense to fight. There could be a chance of escaping the edge of the cliff.

"Where is the Dark Lord?" one of them shrieked. "Where is he?"

I bit my lip. "How are we to know?"

"Liar!"

Then came the curses. They stung. All the sparks of the Cruciatus Curse roared through our veins. It hurt. They were driving us to the end of the cliff mercilessly, asking for information that we were pondering over ourselves. And it was painful. The torture. The laughter. Watching Frank suffer.

I refused to let them see me sob though. I didn't shed a single tear even though the pain was excruciating, something that made me want to tear my skin into strips. It was painful. Oh so painful...

I was so close to the edge and there wasn't a way out. We were surrounded by the Death Eaters with the end of the road behind us. I didn't know what would be at the end. I didn't want to find out.

But someone pushed me in.

Bellatrix Lestrange. She pushed me in with her endless curses.

So I fell.

At the end was the sea. It was gentle, but far away from things from the cliff. There wasn't a way to connect. I could only rely on memories that my fleeting mind still held. Sometimes I would laugh because the fishes would tickle my feet. The sea was different from anything that was over the cliff.

Yet I couldn't go back.

I remember Neville sometimes coming to meet me. He wasn't swimming, but he was on a boat. He would say hi. He would stare at me. I wanted him to swim with me, but I knew he couldn't.

He hadn't jumped off the cliff.

You have to jump off the cliff to swim. That's the only way. The only way to swim is to jump.