Dorcas stood in a dark alley, she had them cornered, bound in ropes with an anti-apparition charm placed upon them because she was going to kill them and she was going to enjoy it. Watching them suffer, watching them know that she would be the last thing they would ever see, not their wives, not their children but her. And she revelled in that. The order didn’t know about this, they would’ve stopped her, told her that she was just like them, just as evil. But Dorcas wasn’t, they killed for no reason, Dorcas had a reason. They were the reason Marlene was dead, they were the reason the light had gone out of her life. She would never love anyone like she loved Marlene McKinnon. She was perfect, beautiful, funny, sweet, manic and most of all she was her’s. So when she killed these two, it wouldn’t be in vain. Oh no, it would all be for Marlene.
She made her way over to them, wand in hand and ripped the masks off their faces. But when Dorcas looked down at them nothing could have possibly prepared her for the terrified faces of Barty Crouch Jr and Evan Rosier looking up at her, their eyes pleading for mercy.
“Fuck. Why’d it have to be you?” She asked them, she wanted to kill them, she really did, because they were part of the reason that Marlene was dead and so they deserved to be dead too but part of her knew she wouldn’t be able to, they had once meant so much to her.
“Cas-” Evan began as Dorcas put her wand to his neck. She wanted them to be scared of her, to fear her. “Cas please. Don’t do this.” he begged.
“Why shouldn’t I?” she shouted at him. “Why shouldn’t I? You’re the reason she’s dead. Because of you the love of my life is dead so why shouldn't you be?”
“We didn’t do it.” Barty screamed at her. “It wasn’t us, please Cas-”
“You don’t get to call me Cas. You lost that privilege years ago.” she said, stone cold.
“Dorcas please, you can’t.” Evan said, he looked at Dorcas, staring into her soul.
“I could kill every last one of you. I know you’ve done worse.” she said, spitting venom because they were at her mercy and with one flick of her wand they could fall to the ground, limp, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. “So don’t you tell me that I can’t kill you.”
“WE’RE YOUR FRIENDS!” Barty shouted at her and one part of Dorcas' mind registered that. The part that longed to be 15 again playing with her friends in the lake at school. But the other part that wanted revenge, that needed cold blooded vengeance didn’t care, for they were like ants under her boots and she could crush them with ease. And after all, death was the only certainty in this life, the only comfort, she was just speeding up the process.
“Correction, you were my friends. Now you're nothing to me.” she said, looking them dead in the eye as she did. Dorcas recognised the hurt they felt by her words, could see it in their eyes but she didn’t care. Why should she? When they were a part of the ones that had taken Marlene away from her they deserved every insult, every injury.
“Dorcas please, don’t kill us. What would Reg say?” Evan said and her blood ran cold because how could they be so cruel as to mention Regulus. Dorcas could feel her temper rising, bursting out of her because how dare they use his name in vain?
“DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT REGGIE!” she screamed at him because the pain was still there. The fact that nobody knew what had happened to him, the unsolved mystery of his demise ever present in her mind. Would she die not knowing how he had died? The fact was that she would never know what had been the cause of Regulus Arcturus Black’s death and while Dorcas had accepted that, she hadn’t made peace with it and didn’t think she ever would.
The last words he had ever said to her plagued her mind, the tone in which he had said it in. Had he known what was going to happen to him? Had he been scared? “Cas,” he had said, a sense of urgency in his voice. “I love you, look after Pands for me.” and with that he squeezed her tight and walked away, not looking back. At the time she had brushed it off but when the paper had come in, that the heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was presumed dead after having been missing for a fortnight, she wondered if his words might have meant more. If he had had some foresight into what would become his fate. Dorcas had done as he had said, looked after Pandora as if her life had depended on it because Pandora needed to be protected, saved from the horrors of the war. It had been part of the reason why she had joined the order, Pandora Lovegood was guaranteed protection and would not be called up to fight like so many others had. She wondered if Barty and Evan had made that same deal from the other side of the war, if they had made deals to save the life of the one person who mattered the most. Dorcas was brought back to the boys that knelt below her, the boys who she had once loved like brothers but that love had been replaced by hatred. And that was final. She looked down at them and said again, in a low and threatening voice, “Don’t you dare talk about Reggie.”
Barty gulped, staring up at her, terrified. “Don’t kill us Dorcas, please. We’ll go and you’ll never see us again. Just don’t kill us.”
She sighed and stared straight at them, looking them in the eyes. “I won’t.” she said finally as Evan exhaled a sigh of relief. “On one condition.”
“What, what is it?” Evan practically shouted at her, his eyes wild. “We’ll do anything.”
“If I die” Dorcas paused not because she was scared of death. No, she would never be scared of it, especially now, when she had her love waiting for her. But because of the uncertainty of when it would happen, it could be two days or twenty years from now and the possibility that she could spend the rest of her life without Marlene terrified her. Dorcas wasn't scared of dying, she was scared of living. But she pressed on because they needed to hear this, she needed them to hear this. “If I die, make sure you look after Pands. I don’t care what you have to do, just protect her and Luna.” She would’ve died to make sure they were both protected, Luna, just a couple months old, deserved to grow up with a mother and Pandora deserved to see her daughter grow up. When Dorcas had visited, she could see the love they shared, the lengths Pandora would go to make sure her daughter was safe. Dorcas had been worried of course, when she had been told they were all so young but Pandora was an amazing mum, sweet and kind. And Dorcas would have done anything for the both of them.
“Lu-luna?” Barty asked, looking at her. “Has she had the baby?”
“Yes. Months ago.” Dorcas could feel the weight of all the conversations they never had hanging in air, the words they had never said to each other.
“Is-” Evan began, “Are they safe? Pands and the baby?” he asked.
“They’re safe. But before I let you go you have to promise me that if I die you’ll keep them safe, that you’ll do anything so that they live.”
“We’ve already made deals! We’ve done everything we could!” Barty shouted. “We wouldn’t risk her or-or Luna.” he finished, his voice shaking, he paused and carried on. “Are they happy?”
“She’s a good mum. And Luna’s beautiful. Looks just like her.” Dorcas said, watching them carefully.
“We’ll make sure she’s safe, don’t worry.” Evan said, “Just let us go.”
Dorcas gave a lazy flick of her wand and the ropes that bound them together fell away and she began to walk away.
“Dorcas?” said Evan.
“Yes?” she said, turning round so that their eyes met.
“We love you.” he stated, his words hanging in the air. And she knew that this would be the last time she would ever see them, this was the end of the line for them. The dreams they had once had with each other turned to dust.
“And I loved you. But I love Marlene more.” she said and with that Dorcas Meadows walked away and vanished into the night.