Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 53 ⚡️

"We saw it happen," Harry told him.

"Yeh couldn' have," Hagrid responded.

"We saw it, Hagrid," Harry repeated.

But Hagrid shook his head; his expression was disbelieving but sympathetic, and Vega knew that Hagrid thought they had sustained a blow to the head, that they were confused, perhaps by the aftereffects of a jinx or just disillusioned into thinking so...

"What musta happened was, Dumbledore musta told Snape ter go with them Death Eaters," Hagrid said confidently. "I suppose he's gotta keep his cover. Look, let's get yeh back up ter the school. Come on..."

Neither Vega nor Harry attempted to argue or explain.

Vega was still shaking uncontrollably – Hagrid would find out soon enough, too soon... and she would also find out soon enough before she could make herself believe other way.

As they directed their steps back toward the castle, Vega saw that many of its windows were lit now. He could imagine, clearly, the scenes inside as people moved from room to room, telling each other that Death Eaters had got in, that the Mark was shining over Hogwarts, that somebody must have been killed – but who else could be killed?

The oak front doors stood open ahead of them, light flooding out onto the drive and the lawn. Slowly, uncertainly, dressing-gowned people were creeping down the steps, looking around nervously for some sign of the Death Eaters who had fled into the night.

Vega's eyes, however, were fixed upon the ground at the foot of the tallest tower.

And as she walked, Vega imagined that she could see a black, huddled mass lying in the grass there, though she was really too far away to see anything of the sort. Even as she stared wordlessly at the place where she thought Dumbledore's body must lie, however, she saw people beginning to move toward it, and she didn't want to comprehend it.

"What're they all lookin' at?" Hagrid said, as he, Vega and Harry approached the castle front, Fang keeping as close as he could to their ankles.

There was no response.

"Wha's tha', lyin' on the grass?" Hagrid asked sharply, heading now Vega the foot of the Astronomy Tower, where a small crowd was congregating. "See it? Righ' at the foot o' the tower? Under where the Mark... blimey... yeh don' think someone got thrown –?"

Hagrid fell silent, the thought apparently too horrible to express aloud. Vega walked alongside him and Harry, quiet as she tried to not further the ache in her face and legs from the various hexes she had suffered. She felt, however, oddly detached from these pains, as though somebody near her was suffering them rather than herself.

What was real and inescapable was the awful pressing feeling in her chest.

Vega, Harry and Hagrid moved, dream-like, through the murmuring crowd to the very front, where the dumbstruck students and teachers had left a gap. She heard Hagrid's moan of pain and shock, but she did not stop and neither did Harry.

They walked slowly forward until they reached the place where Dumbledore lay and crouched down beside him. She had known there was no hope from the moment that the full Body-Bind Curse Dumbledore had placed upon them lifted, known that it could have happened only because its caster was dead, but there was still no preparation for seeing him here, spread-eagled, broken: the greatest wizard Vega had ever, or would ever, meet.

Dumbledore's eyes were closed; but for the strange angle of his arms and legs, he might have been sleeping. As Harry stopped, Vega reached forward and straightened the half-moon spectacles upon the crooked nose, and wiped a trickle of blood from the mouth with her own sleeve.