Elysia Dumbledore [A Harry Potter Fan Fiction]

Chapter Twenty-Six ~ Horcruxes and Prophecies

Heath begins to run, but is held back by his Mother, whose eyes are so filled with tears it's hard to decipher the expression. She simply mouths, 'I love you...' over and over again, watching the life escape her son’s eyes. Drew wipes the blood from his mouth and mouths in reply, "I love you too, Mum."

The bridge falls, so very slowly in to the river, taking whole families with it into the depths of the icy water, taking Drew.

His green-blue eyes seem to connect with mine for a second as he cascades in to the water, and for the first time in months, he smiles.

"Elle? Elle are you okay? Why are you crying, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have forced these on to you..." Neville whispers, wiping the tears gently form my face.

"N-Neville, we need to turn on the news..." I sob, clutching him for support as we hobble back in to the house.

It was midday in the vision… maybe I wasn't too late? As we approach the couch, I see Neville's grandmother’s eyes staring intently at the news, which speaks of the mysterious collapse of an important walking bridge in London.

"D-Drew..." I croak, pointing at the screen.

Neville's eyes widen as he understands what I've said, and the second he does he holds me tighter and takes me away from the television screen, as if it would help. As the days progressed, Neville would come and visit me for hours at a time, feeding me, holding me, and comforting me.

"If... If I had of read those letters sooner, the connection to Drew would have been remade and I could have saved him." I whisper to Neville weakly, staring at the letter of condolence his mother sent me.

"Don't dwell on the past, Elle. Please, we have to go today, back to Hogwarts." Neville replied, his voice soothing as he lifted me up from the bed.

"I don't want to go back... His brother Jim comes to Hogwarts this year." I murmured, rejecting the thought of a boy with Drew's eyes looking up at me, knowing I broke his brothers heart.

"Elle, you've been a ghost since he died. V-Voldemort is rising and you have to be prepared to lose the people you love, don't give up." Neville said firmly, his eyes boring in to mine.

He was right. He was always right, but he was particularly right now. I had been a ghost, not even congratulating him on his fantastic N.E.W.T's in Herbology, or the fact that his spells had been brilliant since his new wand. He'd been living his life for me these past few weeks, and it wasn't fair.

Kissing him softly, I muttered in reply, "I'm sorry... you're right."

He grinned and led me out of the house, informing me that our bags were already at Kings Cross. During the journey over we discussed our subjects for this year. Mine would remain the same, but I'd spend a lot more time on my Charms and Potions, the closest options to healing available.

As we entered London, I shivered at its unrelenting beauty. Dirty, old, clean, new, holding it's very own magic. I retrieved my camera from my bag and snapped a photo of Kings Cross and turned to Neville, grinning with purpose.

"Not another photo, Elle! You've been taking photos of me all summer!" he chuckled, reaching his hands out to snap a photo of me.

"Smile!" he teased, clicking the camera before I could hide my face.

He continued to click on it, making me giggle and struggle to escape the lens as it captured me over and over. Neville furiously shook the photos and continued on in snapping photos until we entered the train station. The last photo he took was of me entering Platform 9 & 3/4, beckoning with my finger for him to follow me.