TW AND CW: violence, fighting, blood, death

Ana almost choked on her water.

Arnie thumped her on her back. "You ok?"

Ana glared at him. "No, I'm not ok! You tell me you'll stay safe, and you go and get a job at the Ministry?"

"Are you my mother?" Arnie said jokingly. "Look, Ana, I can take care of myself. I'll be fine."

Ana stabbed at her mac 'n' cheese with unwonted venom. "Dad, I'm not going to risk losing another person so close to me-"

The doorbell rang.

Arnie pushed back his chair and headed down the flight of stairs to the door. Ana stayed seated at the dining table.

She heard the door swing open. "Hello, there!" Arnie's cheerful voice said. "Farrow Gray? From the Department of Magical Games and Sports, right?"

A deep chuckle sounded. Ana shivered. Something was wrong.

"May I come in, Arnie?" said the deep voice. "It's a cold night, and the Death Eaters have burnt down my house."

Arnie gasped, and the door creaked open. "Please, please, come on in, have dinner with us."

A man stepped inside and climbed up the stairs, a sinister look in his eyes that Ana did not like. He had tousled blond hair that instantly reminded Ana of Peter, and blue eyes.

Gray looked directly into Ana's eyes, and grinned. It was certainly not a warm welcome, however.

Ana nervously clasped her hands around the compass necklace her mother had given to her. 

Arnie turned around just a split second to make sure that he had locked the door, and Ana barely anticipated Gray's next move. As soon as Gray whipped out his wand, Ana mirrored his actions and pushed back her chair.

All of this happened in barely a split second, and Gray managed to yell, "SECTUMSEMPRA!" before Ana hit him with a Blasting Curse.

A/n: Let's pretend that Sectumsempra was a curse even before Snape invented it, ok? Cool? We're cool here? Ok. Back to the story.

Arnie was blasted into the living room, and Gray was flung to the floor, face matted with blood.

Ana ran to the living room, where Arnie lay, doubled over, coughing up blood.

Before she could make sure he was ok, however, Gray stumbled into the living room and leered at Ana.

Ana raised her wand and stepped protectively in front of Arnie. "Gray- hah! Fenrir Greyback, isn't it? One of Voldy Moldy's cronies, are you?" She knew she shouldn't have made him angrier, but it felt good to trashtalk him like that, after he had hurt her father.

Greyback raised his wand, but thankfully for Ana, he was seemingly not adept at nonverbal spells. "EXPULSO!" Greyback yelled.

"PROTEGO!" Ana roared, as a bright orange shield swirled around her. "Confringo! Bombarda! Diffindo! Descendo!" She yelled spell after spell, never giving Greyback even a second to gather himself as fire blasted into his face, cuts and bruises splattered his arms, and he was repeatedly bashed into the ground.

Ana stopped, just for a second, to catch her breath.

And in that moment, Greyback raised his wand and shouted, "AVADA KEDAVR-!"

"STUPEFY!" Ana bellowed, and Greyback crashed to the ground, Stunned. She crept closer to him, and whispered, "Petrificus Totalus!" and he was frozen, no longer able to move.

For one of her final spells that day, she chose Obliviate.

Ana kneeled, and muttered the spell. Greyback would never remember this fight, and he would return to Voldemort confused and discombobulated.

Greyback's eyes finally went glassy and white, which meant her spell had worked. Next, she cast "Rennervate" on him, which made Greyback stir feebly and threw him out of the window with absolutely no mercy.

They were on the 4th story of the house, by the way.

She desperately hoped that Greyback would not live to tell the tale, but right now, she had bigger problems. She didn't recognize the curse that Greyback had placed on her father, but she had to try to help.

Ana rushed over to his side, where Arnie was covered in enormous cuts that were leaking blood everywhere. The white carpet was now stained a blood red.

Ana hopelessly pulled a bottle of Dittany out of her pocket and dabbed it onto her father's cuts with a cotton pad, but no matter how much the Dittany sewed the skin back together, the curse always seemed to open the wounds again and again.

"No," Ana whispered, her hands shaking, face streaked with grimy tears. "No, no, there has to be a way..."

Arnie shuddered and took a shaky breath, as more of his blood was leached from him. "I-I'll say hello to M-Mum for y-you, o-ok?"

Ana grasped her father's hand, desperately trying to stop the blood from flowing so quickly. "No- no, Dad, don't go-"

But Arnie's last drop of blood dripped out as he sighed out his last breath, with a small smile etched onto his face.

Ana could have sworn she saw his lips move slightly and say the words, "Alwena..." but she didn't think on it. 

Instead, Ana held her father's hand and cried like she had never cried before.

Because Arnie Loughty, a brave man who had endured suffering and loss, was gone.

Ana shakily held up her wand and whispered, "Lumos".

It didn't matter what would come next, not anymore. 

She tried her best to hold the spell, to honor her father in the way he deserved to be honored.

And finally, the light of her wand flickered out.

And so did a light inside of her.

He served a small part in this story, but he suffered so much and did so many things for his family.

To Arnie Loughty, a man with a heart of gold and an unwavering loyalty to those he held closest to his heart.

-J.W.