Vega rubbed her face, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened that night – Dumbledore was gone forever, Bill was seriously hurt and all of the Death Eater had gotten away. And it was all of her fault. She should've insisted that Dumbledore stuck around, she should've stayed behind to help everyone, she should've done more.
The doors of the hospital wing burst open, making them all jump and Vega to instinctually move to Dora as she turned to look at the doors – Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were striding up the ward, Fleur just behind them, her beautiful face terrified at what laid ahead.
"Molly – Arthur –" Professor McGonagall spoke up, jumping up and hurrying to greet the frantic family of the injured. "I am so sorry –"
"Bill," Mrs. Weasley whispered, darting past Professor McGonagall as she caught sight of Bill's mangled face. "Oh, Bill!"
Dora and Lupin had got up hastily and retreated so that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley could get nearer to the bed. Mrs. Weasley bent over her son and pressed her lips to his bloody forehead. Vega held onto Dora's arm as she tried not to look at the distressed.
"You said Greyback attacked him?" Mr. Weasley asked Professor McGonagall distractedly. "But he hadn't transformed? So, what does that mean? What will happen to Bill?"
"We don't yet know," Professor McGonagall said, looking helplessly at Lupin.
"There will probably be some contamination, Arthur," Lupin said. "It is an odd case, possibly unique... we don't know what his behaviour might be like when he awakens..."
Mrs. Weasley took the nasty-smelling ointment from Madam Pomfrey and began dabbing at Bill's wounds. Vega was starting to feel worse about what she had done, feeling like she could've done far more than she had ended up doing – in fact, at the end of the day, she hadn't done anything worthwhile that would help them out in any way.
"And Dumbledore..." Mr. Weasley said. "Minerva, is it true... is he really...?"
As Professor McGonagall nodded, Vega saw something fiery-red move slightly and she turned to look at Ginny. Her slightly narrowed eyes were fixed upon Fleur, who was gazing down at Bill with a inexplicable frozen expression on her face.
However, Vega felt like she could read that unreadable expression – she felt like she would've been the same if something like this had happened to Fred.
It wasn't the question of her boyfriend losing the features of his handsome face, it was coming in terms that the face she loved so much had been hurt so much. Vega didn't want to imagine how Fleur would be feeling, especially since she would hate to project her own thoughts on her. Fleur was surprisingly composed; Vega would've lost it quicker.
"Dumbledore gone," Mr. Weasley whispered but Mrs. Weasley had eyes only for her eldest son; she began to sob, tears falling onto Bill's mutilated face.
"Of course, it doesn't matter how he looks..." Mrs. Weasley wept. "It's not r-really important... but he was a very handsome little b-boy... always very handsome... and he was g-going to be married!"
"And what do you mean by zat?" Fleur spoke up suddenly and loudly, finding her voice to speak. "What do you mean, ''e was going to be married?'"
Mrs. Weasley raised her tear-stained face, looking startled, "Well – only that –"
"You theenk Bill will not wish to marry me anymore?" Fleur demanded with her usual fiery nature. "You theenk, because of these bites, he will not love me?"
"No," Mrs. Weasley replied. "That's not what I –"
"Because 'e will!" Fleur said, drawing herself up to her full height and throwing back her long mane of silver hair. "It would take more zan a werewolf to stop Bill loving me!"
"Well, yes, I'm sure," Mrs. Weasley said. "But I thought perhaps – given how – how he –"
"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" Fleur said, her nostrils flaring. "What do I care how he looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk! All these scars show is zat my husband is brave! And I shall do zat!" She added fiercely, pushing Mrs. Weasley aside and snatching the ointment from her.
Mrs. Weasley fell back against her husband and watched Fleur mopping up Bill's wounds with a most curious expression upon her face. Nobody said anything; Vega did not move either, waiting to see where this would go, and certainly hoped for the better.
"Our Great-Auntie Muriel," Mrs. Weasley said after a long pause. "Has a very beautiful tiara – goblin-made – which I am sure I could persuade her to lend you for the wedding. She is very fond of Bill, you know, and it would look lovely with your hair,"
"Thank you," Fleur said stiffly. "I am sure zat will be lovely,"
And then, Vega did not quite see how it happened, both women were crying and hugging each other. Completely bewildered but still relieved, wondering whether the world had gone mad, Vega turned around: Harry and Ron looked as stunned as she felt and Ginny and Hermione were exchanging startled looks at the change of events.
"You see!"
Vega jumped, for that strained voice had come from right next to her and belonged to her older cousin, who was glaring at Lupin. And Lupin himself looked just as shocked as everyone. It took Vega a second longer to realise that her cousin was talking about –
"She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten!" Dora exclaimed. "She doesn't care!"
"It's different," Lupin said, barely moving his lips and looking suddenly tense. "Bill will not be a full werewolf. The cases are completely –"
"But I don't care either, I don't care!" Dora said, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them, a behaviour unknown to Vega. "I've told you a million times...."
"And I've told you a million times," Lupin said, refusing to meet her eyes, staring at the floor. "That I am too old for you, too poor... too dangerous..."
"I've said all along you're taking a ridiculous line on this, Remus," Mrs. Weasley said over Fleur's shoulder as she patted the girl on the back.
"I am not being ridiculous," Lupin replied steadily. "Tonks deserves somebody young and whole,"
"But she wants you," Mr. Weasley said, with a small smile. "And after all, Remus, young and whole men do not necessarily remain so," He gestured sadly at his son, lying between them.
"This is... not the moment to discuss it," said Lupin, avoiding everybody's eyes as he looked around distractedly to pull the topic away. "Dumbledore is dead..."
"I don't know Professor Dumbledore very well," Vega spoke up. "But from the time I've spent around him, I feel like he would've been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world... It's clear that we need it more than ever now..."
Just as people were turning to look at Vega, the hospital doors opened again and Hagrid walked in. The little of his face that was not obscured by hair or beard was soaking and swollen; he was shaking with tears, a vast, spotted handkerchief in his hand.
"I've... I've done it, Professor," Hagrid choked. "M-moved him. Professor Sprout's got the kids back in bed. Professor Flitwick's lyin' down, but he says he'll be all righ' in a jiffy, an' Professor Slughorn says the Ministry's bin informed,"
"Thank you, Hagrid," Professor McGonagall said, standing up at once and turning to look at the group around Bill's bed. "I shall have to see the Ministry when they get here. Hagrid, please tell the Heads of Houses – Slughorn can represent Slytherin – that I want to see them in my office forthwith. I would like you to join us too,"
As Hagrid nodded, turned, and shuffled out of the room again, she looked down at both Vega and Harry, "Before I meet them, I would like a quick word with you two, Vega and Harry. If you'll come with me..."
Both Vega and Harry moved forward after they had murmured a quick 'See you in a bit' to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, and followed Professor McGonagall back down the ward. Vega quietly looked around the castle as they walked.
The corridors outside were deserted and the only sound was the distant phoenix song.
It took Vega a moment but she quickly realised that Professor McGonagall was not leading them to her office but rather to Dumbledore's, and it dawned upon the girl that now with Dumbledore gone so suddenly, McGonagall was to act as the Headmistress since she had been the Deputy Headmistress previously. It was a strange realisation.
Now, the room behind the gargoyle was now hers.
In silence they ascended the moving spiral staircase and entered the circular office. Vega wasn't sure if there was going to be anything different in the room – would the castle itself mourn? Would the room drape itself in black for the death of a sitting Headmaster?
However, as Vega entered the room after Professor McGonagall, it looked almost exactly as it had done when she, Harry and Dumbledore had left it mere hours previously: the silver instruments whirring and puffing on their spindle legged tables, Gryffindor's sword in its glass case gleaming in the moonlight, the Sorting Hat on a shelf behind the desk, the Fawkes's perch stood empty, he was still crying his lament to the grounds.
And a new portrait had joined the ranks of the dead headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts: Dumbledore was slumbering in a golden frame over the desk, his halfmoon spectacle perched upon his crooked nose, looking peaceful and untroubled.
After glancing once at this portrait, Professor McGonagall made an odd movement as though steeling herself, then rounded the' desk to look at the two teenagers, her face taut and lined.
"Vega, Harry," Professor McGonagall said. "I would like to know what you and Professor Dumbledore were doing this evening when you left the school,"
"We... can't tell you that, Professor," Vega answered. "I'm sorry,"
It was a question that Vega had expected to come at them, and she knew that both her and Harry knew how to answer it. After all, it had been here, in this very room, that Dumbledore had told the pair of them that they were to confide the contents of their lessons to nobody but Ron and Hermione at the most. Vega wanted to abide by that.
"Vega, it might be important," Professor McGonagall said.
"It is," Harry confirmed. "Very, but he didn't want us to tell anyone,"
Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes at them, "Potter and Miss Lestrange, in the light of Professor Dumbledore's death, I think you must see that the situation has changed somewhat –"
"I don't think so," Harry replied, shrugging. "Professor Dumbledore never told us to stop following his orders if he died,"
"But –" Professor McGonagall started.
"I'm sorry, Professor," Vega interrupted. "But there's something you must know, especially before the Ministry arrives – Madam Rosmerta is under the Imperius Curse. She had been used to help Malfoy and the Death Eaters as that's how both the necklace and the poisoned mead –"
"Rosmerta?" Professor McGonagall asked incredulously, staring at the girl.
But before Professor McGonagall could go on, there was a knock on the door behind them and Professors Sprout, Flitwick, and Slughorn traipsed into the room, followed by Hagrid, who was still weeping copiously, his huge frame trembling with grief.
"Snape!" ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. "Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!"
However, before any of them could respond to this, a sharp voice spoke from high on the wall: A sallow-faced wizard with a short black fringe had just walked back into his empty canvas, "Minerva, the Minister will be here within seconds, he has just Disapparated from the Ministry,"
"Thank you, Everard," Professor McGonagall replied, and she turned quickly to her teachers. "I want to talk about what happens to Hogwarts before he gets here," she said quickly. Personally, I am not convinced that the school should reopen next year. The death of the headmaster at the hands of one of our colleagues is a terrible stain upon Hogwarts's history. It is horrible,"
"I am sure Dumbledore would have wanted the school to remain open," Professor Sprout insisted and Vega quickly agreed with the teacher. "I feel that if a single pupil wants to come, then the school ought to remain open for that pupil,"
"But will we have a single pupil after this?" Slughorn asked, now dabbing his sweating brow with a silken handkerchief. "Parents will want to keep their children at home and I can't say I blame them. Personally, I don't think we're in more danger at Hogwarts than we are anywhere else, but you can't expect mothers to think like that. They'll want to keep their families together, it's only natural,"
"I agree," Professor McGonagall replied. "And in any case, it is not true to say that Dumbledore never envisaged a situation in which Hogwarts might close. When the Chamber of Secrets reopened, he considered the closure of the school – and I must say that Professor Dumbledore's murder is more disturbing to me than the idea of Slytherin's monster living undetected in the bowels of the castle..."
"We must consult the governors," Professor Flitwick spoke up in his squeaky little voice; he had a large bruise on his forehead but seemed otherwise unscathed by his collapse in Snape's office. "We must follow the established procedures. A decision should not be made hastily,"
"Hagrid, you haven't said anything," Professor McGonagall said suddenly. "What are your views, ought Hogwarts to remain open?"
Hagrid, who had been weeping silently into his large, spotted handkerchief throughout this conversation, now raised puffy red eyes and croaked, "I dunno, Professor... that's fer the Heads of House an' the headmistress ter decide..."
"Professor Dumbledore always valued your views," Professor McGonagall told him kindly. "And so do I,"
"Well, I'm stayin," Hagrid, replied fat tears still leaking out of the corners of his eyes and trickling down into his tangled beard. "It's me home, it's bin me home since I was thirteen. An' if there's kids who wan' me ter teach 'em, I'll do it. But... I dunno... Hogwarts without Dumbledore..."
With that, Hagrid gulped and disappeared behind his handkerchief once more, and there was silence. Vega looked toward Harry to see his expression.
"Very well," Professor McGonagall said, glancing out of the window at the grounds, checking to see whether the Minister was yet approaching. "Then I must agree with Filius that the right thing to do is to consult the governors, who will make the final decision. "Now, as to getting students home...there is an argument for doing it sooner rather than later. We could arrange for the Hogwarts Express to come tomorrow if necessary –"
"What about Dumbledore's funeral?" Vega asked, the question stuck on her head.
"Well..." said Professor McGonagall, losing a little of her briskness as her voice shook. "I – I know that it was Dumbledore's wish to be laid to rest here, at Hogwarts –"
"Then that's what'll happen, isn't it?" Harry replied fiercely.
"If the Ministry thinks it appropriate," Professor McGonagall answered. "No other headmaster or headmistress has ever been –"
"No other headmaster or headmistress ever gave more to this school," Hagrid growled.
"Hogwarts should be Dumbledore's final resting place," Professor Flitwick pitched in.
"Absolutely," agreed Professor Sprout.
"If the funeral is going to be held here," Vega said. "The students shouldn't be sent home until it has concluded," She looked away. "Wouldn't they want to say their –" She swallowed. "... goodbyes?"
"Well said," squeaked Professor Flitwick. "Well said indeed! Our students should pay tribute, it is fitting. We can arrange transport home afterward,"
"Seconded," barked Professor Sprout.
"I suppose... yes..." agreed Slughorn in a rather agitated voice, while Hagrid let out a strangled sob of assent and Vega was relieved at the consensus.
"He's coming," Professor McGonagall spoke suddenly, gazing down into the grounds. "The Minister...and by the looks of it. he's brought a delegation..."
"Can we leave, Professor?" said Harry at once and Vega nodded – neither of them had any desire at all to see, or be interrogated by, Rufus Scrimgeour tonight.
"You may," Professor McGonagall confirmed. "And quickly,"
Professor McGonagall strode toward the door and held it open for them. Vega and Harry themselves sped down the spiral staircase and off along the deserted corridor; they had left the Invisibility Cloak at the top of the Astronomy Tower, but it did not matter.
There was nobody in the corridors to see the two teenagers pass, not even Filch, Mrs. Norris, or Peeves. They did not meet another soul until they turned into the passage leading to the Gryffindor common room where they met with the first sound.
"Is it true?" whispered the Fat Lady as the two Gryffindors approached her portrait for admittance. "It is really true? Dumbledore – dead?"
"I'm sorry," Vega apologised. "But it's... true,"
The Fat Lady let out a wail and, without waiting for the password, swung forward to admit the pair. As Vega had suspected it would be, the common room was jam-packed. The room fell silent as she and Harry climbed through the portrait hole. She saw Dean and Seamus sitting in a group nearby: This meant that the dormitory must be empty, or nearly so.
Without speaking to anybody, without making eye contact at all, Vega followed Harry straight across the room and through the door to the boys' dormitories. As she had expected, Ron was waiting for the pair of them, still fully dressed, sitting on his bed.
Harry sat down on his own four-poster while Vega took a rest against the wall next to the door and for a moment, they simply stared at each other.
"They're talking about closing the school," Harry revealed, breaking the silence.
"Lupin said they would," Ron replied, nodding
There was a pause.
"So?" Ron said in a very low voice, as though he thought the furniture might be listening in as he looked at Vega and Harry. "Did you find one? Did you get it? A – a Horcrux?"
Both Vega and Harry shook their heads in unison – all that had taken place around that black lake seemed like an old nightmare now; had it really happened, and only hours ago.
"You didn't get it?" Ron asked, looking crestfallen. "It wasn't there?"
"No," Harry answered. "Someone had already taken it and left a fake in its place,"
"Already taken –?" Ron repeated, bewildered.
Wordlessly, Vega pulled the fake locket from her pocket, opened it, and passed it to Ron. The entire full story could wait. It did not matter tonight. Nothing mattered except the end, the end of their pointless adventure, the end of Dumbledore's life...
"R.A.B.," Ron whispered. "But who was that?"
"Dunno," Harry replied, lying back on his bed fully clothed and staring blankly upwards.
Vega remained standing in the middle of the room, her head turned to look outside the window to her right, staring at the lightening skies, her body tense.
For the first time in her life, Vega found her head completely vacant. Her body felt empty like it had never done before. She had always been a curious person but today, she felt absolutely no curiosity at all about R.A.B. She doubted that she would ever feel curious again.
All her curiosity had died hours ago. There was nothing in her anymore. As she stood there, staring outside, Vega became aware suddenly that the grounds were silent.
Fawkes had stopped singing.
And Vega knew, without knowing how she knew it, that the phoenix had gone, had left Hogwarts for good, just as Dumbledore had left the school, had left the world... had left Vega, like everyone...
Yet still, there were brief moments when Vega felt like she was still holding Dumbledore's weight up on her shoulder that she had carried him. It was starting to weigh down heavier and heavier on her, making her legs shake, threatening to give out.
There was a warm feeling spreading her, and for a moment, Vega felt like she was going to lose it again when she realised it was arising from her ring.
The sheer pressure on her body lifted and everything let go, making Vega collapse to her knees. And the last thing she felt, very vividly still in her solid form, was her head hit against the wooden floor. She heard Harry and Ron calling her name, and she saw their faces swimming over her but she allowed herself to roll into her subconscious to put an end to the day.
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