The Last Lieutenant

The Funeral

"You better get going."

Audra jumps at Bill's voice.  Without anywhere else to go, she had spent the night in the Hospital Wing.  She had wanted to get a room in Hogsmeade, but Rosmerta was still getting over being confunded and she didn't think it was right to go knocking on the door of the Hog's Head when Aberforth's brother had just been killed.  So she stayed.

"I'm not going."  She had meant to.  Audra had gotten dressed for it, even, borrowing a dress from one of the Slytherin fifth years that used to try and hang out with her and Emmeline all the time.  Before, that girl had worshipped the ground she walked on.  Now, she looked at her like she was something that had gotten stuck on the bottom of her shoe.  "I wanted to, but.." She shook her head and winces at the pain that starts shooting down her spine.  "Can't."

She had been able to do a lot of things over these past months, but being able to watch a man she should have been able to protect get laid to rest was not one of them.  Audra never wanted to be a coward, but it seems that when it comes to the more important things, that's all she is.

"I get it."  Bill settles back down onto the cushions with a wince.  Audra brings over the bottle of potion that Madam Pomfrey had left and pours him a glass, but he just waves it away.  "I don't want that."

"It'll help with the pain."

"Doesn't hurt that bad."

"You're a liar."  She sets the glass down and throws herself into one of the chairs by his bedside.  Audra thinks it is the one that Mrs. Weasley set vigil in the whole night before.  "But I guess it's your choice."

"Yes."  He watches her for a moment and then let's his eyes close.   He had done nothing but sleep since they first brought him up here.  Audra couldn't tell if he was really that tired or if the medicine keeps dragging him back under.  "I suppose it is."

She goes to the Astronomy Tower instead.

It had been Hermione's idea, that she and Harry go back there at least once, to look where it happened straight in the face.  Prove to themselves that they were not afraid, make it seem a little less evil.  Audra's not sure that she meant so soon, but she never did do things at the pace of normal people.

His wand had been laying right here after Draco threw it to the floor, She thinks, tracing through the night with her mind.  Draco came first, and Bellatrix second, and I was standing right here beside Emmeline when Snape burst through those doors.  Remember, you thought he was here to make everything better?

She can see it, like it was happening right in front of her all over again.  The way that Dumbledore had slumped against the wall and slid a few inches downwards because his legs could not hold him up anymore.  How pale Draco's face had been in the moonlight, the way that Fenrir's breath was hot on the back of Audra's neck.  How terrified Emmeline had been even though she tried to hide it.  And then the way that Snape had blasted the doors open, illuminated there by the dying light of his own spells, dark eyes flashing at the scene in front of him.

Severus, please, he had said, and Audra can hear those words ringing in her head, does not think that she can get rid of them for as long as she lives, but then there's another voice, much louder and a lot more real.

"Hey."  It makes her whirl around, reaching automatically for a wand that would not be there.  Fred raises both his hands in the air, a sign of surrender, and smiles at her.  "Hermione told me that I might find you here."