The oak front doors stood open ahead of Harry and Hagrid, 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. Harry's eyes, however, were fixed upon the ground at the foot of the tallest tower. He imagined that he could see a black, huddled mass lying in the grass there, though he was really too far away to see anything of the sort. Even as he stared wordlessly at the place where he thought Dumbledore's body must lie, however, he saw people beginning to move toward it.
"What're they all lookin' at?" said Hagrid, as he and Harry approached the castle front, Fang keeping as close as he could to their ankles. "Wha's that lyin' on the grass?" Hagrid added sharply, heading now toward the foot of the Astronomy Tower, where a small crowd was congregating. "See it, Harry? Right at the foot of the tower? Under where the Mark...blimey...yeh don' think someone got thrown..."
Hagrid fell silent, the thought apparently too horrible to express aloud.
Harry walked alongside him, feeling the aches and pains in his face and his legs where the various hexes of the last half hour had hit him, though in an oddly detached way, as though somebody near him was suffering them. What was real and inescapable was the awful pressing feeling in his chest...
He and Hagrid moved, dreamlike, through the murmuring crowd to the very front, where the dumbstruck students and teachers had left a gap.
"Move! Get out of the way!" A voice called out.
Harry saw the form of Y/n emerging from the crowd, he had clearly been in a fight but he looked relatively alright.
He saw Y/n rush forward and fall to his knees at the sight he knew awaited him. Hagrid let out a moan of pain and shock, but he did not stop, he walked slowly forward until they reached Y/n's side.
The place where Dumbledore lay
Harry crouched down beside Y/n.
Y/n could tell it was Harry that crouched beside him but he didn't utter a word as he just stared at Dumbledore.
'How...how could Dumbledore of fallen?' He wondered.
Dumbledore's eyes were closed, but for the strange angle of his arms and legs, he might have been sleeping. Y/n reached out, and straightened the half-moon spectacles upon the crooked nose, and wiped a trickle of blood from the mouth with his own sleeve. Then he gazed down at the wise old face and tried to absorb the enormous and incomprehensible truth, that never again would Dumbledore speak to him, never again could he help...
"Goodbye sir..." Y/n respectfully said.
The crowd murmured behind Y/n and Harry. After what seemed like a long time, Harry became aware that he was kneeling upon something hard and looked down.
It was the locket he and Dumbledore had managed to steal just that very night. Harry knew, as he picked it up, that there was something wrong with it.
Y/n didn't pay attention it to as he carefully moved Dumbledore's arms and legs to look as if he was resting peacefully. It was all he could do for the man he deeply respected now.
Harry crumpled a piece of parchment he had just taken out of the locket in his hand, and his eyes burned with tears as behind him Fang began to howl.
"C'mere, Harry, Y/n..." Hagrid began.
"No." Y/n heard Harry say.
"You's can' stay here, Harry, Y/n...come on, now..." Hagrid tried again.
"No." Harry said once again not moving at all.
Y/n could feel Hagrid putting his hand on his shoulder now but it was trembling. Then another voice said. "Harry, Y/n come on."
Y/n turned his head to see that the voice belonged to Ginny.
He got to his feet now but Harry remained kneeling until Ginny crouched down and slid her hand into his and finally Harry rose.
Y/n looked up at the sky now, at the dark mark that hung overhead and he drew his wand.
A momentary surge of anger overtook him as he looked at it and suddenly thrust his wand upwards, a beam of light shot from Y/n's wand and connected with the dark mark spreading throughout it before it was finally vanquished.
Y/n kept his wand raised up as other students around him began to raise their wands now the points shining with light towards the sky.
"Come on Y/n." Ginny said quietly.
The three walked through the crowd now as incomprehensible voices battered them, sobs and shouts and wails stabbed the night, but Y/n, Harry and Ginny walked on, back up the steps into the entrance hall. Faces swam on the edges of Y/n's vision, people were peering at him, whispering, wondering, and Gryffindor rubies glistened on the floor like drops of blood as they made their way toward the marble staircase.
"Where are we going?" Y/n asked.
"We're going to the hospital wing." said Ginny.
"I'm not hurt." said Harry now.
"It's McGonagall's orders." said Ginny. "Everyone's up there, Ron and Hermione and Lupin and everyone..."
"Hermione is safe?" Y/n asked.
Ginny just nodded and Y/n felt a wave of relief wash over him.
"Ginny, who else is dead?" Harry suddenly asked and Y/n's relief stopped.
"Don't worry, none of us." Ginny said.
"But the Dark Mark...Malfoy said he stepped over a body..." Harry began.
"A body..." Y/n said.
"He stepped over Bill, but it's all right, he's alive." Ginny told them. There was something in her voice, however, that Y/n knew boded ill.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked.
"Of course I'm sure...he's a...a bit of a mess, that's all." Ginny said.
"What happened?" Y/n asked her.
"Greyback attacked him. Madam Pomfrey says he won't...won't look the same anymore..." Ginny's voice trembled a little. "We don't really know what the after-effects will be. I mean, Greyback being a werewolf, but not transformed at the time."
"But the other...there were other bodies on the ground..." Harry started again.
"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that huge blond one was firing off everywhere...Harry, if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us."
This news made Y/n feel slightly cold.
They had reached the hospital wing. Pushing open the doors, Y/n saw Neville lying, apparently asleep, in a bed near the door. Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks, and Lupin were gathered around another bed near the far end of the ward. At the sound of the doors opening, they all looked up.
Hermione was quick to get out of her chair as she ran to Y/n and wrapped her arms around him. Y/n just closed his eyes and held her as close to him as possible.
Lupin moved from his chair too, looking anxious.
"Are you all right, Y/n?" Hermione asked now.
"I am okay...how's Bill?" Y/n asked.
Nobody answered.
Y/n looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw an unrecognizable face lying on Bill's pillow, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque. Madam Pomfrey was dabbing at his wounds with some harsh-smelling green ointment.
"Can't you fix them with a charm or something?" Harry asked the matron looking at Bill himself now.
"No charm will work on these." said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."
"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon." said Ron, who was gazing down into his brother's face as though he could somehow force him to mend just by staring. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a...a real..."
He looked uncertainly at Lupin.
"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf." said Lupin. "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and...and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."
"Dumbledore might know something that'd work, though." Ron said. "Where is he? Bill fought those maniacs on Dumbledore's orders, Dumbledore owes him, he can't leave him in this state..."
At these words, Y/n's hold on Hermione tightened and she immediately knew something was wrong.
"Ron...Dumbledore's dead." said Ginny.
"No!" Lupin looked wildly from Ginny to Y/n and Harry, as though hoping they might contradict her, but when they did not, Lupin collapsed into a chair beside Bill's bed, his hands over his face. Y/n had never seen Lupin lose control before, he felt as though he was intruding upon something private, indecent. He instead buried his face into Hermione's shoulder.
"How did he die?" whispered Tonks. "How did it happen?"
This is what Y/n wanted to know as well.
"Snape killed him." said Harry. "I was there, I saw it. We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was...Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs. He immobilized me, I couldn't do anything, I was under the Invisibility Cloak...and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him..."
Y/n's blood boiled at this news. Hermione's hands gripped the back of Y/n's shirt. Ron groaned. Luna's mouth trembled.
"...more Death Eaters arrived...and then Snape...and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra..." Harry couldn't go on.
Madam Pomfrey burst into tears. Nobody paid her any attention except Ginny, who whispered, "Shh! Listen!"
Gulping, Madam Pomfrey pressed her fingers to her mouth, her eyes wide. Somewhere out in the darkness, a phoenix was singing in a way Y/n had never heard before, a stricken lament of terrible beauty.
"Fawkes..." Y/n said lifting his head now.
How long they all stood there, listening, Y/n did not know, nor why it seemed to ease their pain a little to listen to the sound of their mourning, but it felt like a long time later that the hospital door opened again and Professor McGonagall entered the ward. Like all the rest, she bore marks of the recent battle, there were grazes on her face and her robes were ripped.
"Molly and Arthur are on their way." she said, and the spell of the music was broken, everyone roused themselves as though coming out of trances, turning again to look at Bill, or else to rub their own eyes, shake their heads. "Harry, what happened? According to Hagrid you were with Professor Dumbledore when he...when it happened. He says Professor Snape was involved in some..."
"Snape killed Dumbledore." said Harry.
She stared at him for a moment, then swayed alarmingly, Madam Pomfrey, who seemed to have pulled herself together, ran forward, conjuring a chair from thin air, which she pushed under McGonagall.
"Snape." repeated McGonagall faintly, falling into the chair. "We all wondered...but he trusted... always...Snape...I can't believe it..."
"Snape was a highly accomplished Occlumens." said Lupin, his voice uncharacteristically harsh. "We always knew that."
"But Dumbledore swore he was on our side!" whispered Tonks. "I always thought Dumbledore must know something about Snape that we didn't..."
"He always hinted that he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape." muttered Professor McGonagall, now dabbing at the corners of her leaking eyes with a tartan-edged handkerchief. "I mean...with Snape's history...of course people were bound to wonder...but Dumbledore told me explicitly that Snape's repentance was absolutely genuine...wouldn't hear a word against him!"
"I'd love to know what Snape told him to convince him." said Tonks.
"I know." said Harry, and they all turned to look at him. "Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he'd done it, sorry that they were dead."
They all stared at him.
"And Dumbledore believed that?" said Lupin incredulously. "Dumbledore believed Snape was sorry James was dead? Snape hated James..."
"And he didn't think my mother was worth a damn either." said Harry. "because she was Muggle-born...'Mudblood,' he called her..."
Y/n wasn't sure how Harry knew this but he was too dazed and tired to ask.
"This is all my fault." said Professor McGonagall suddenly. She looked disoriented, twisting her wet handkerchief in her hands. "My fault. I sent Filius to fetch Snape tonight, I actually sent for him to come and help us! If I hadn't alerted Snape to what was going on, he might never have joined forces with the Death Eaters. I don't think he knew they were there before Filius told him, I don't think he knew they were coming."
"It isn't your fault, Minerva." said Lupin firmly. "We all wanted more help, we were glad to think Snape was on his way... "
"So when he arrived at the fight, he joined in on the Death Eaters' side?" asked Harry, who wanted every detail of Snape's duplicity and infamy, feverishly collecting more reasons to hate him, to swear vengeance.
"I don't know exactly how it happened." said Professor McGonagall distractedly. "It's all so confusing...Dumbledore had told us that he would be leaving the school for a few hours and that we were to patrol the corridors just in case...Remus, Bill, and Nymphadora were to join us...and so we patrolled. All seemed quiet. Then Mr Weasley came running down the corridor to my office telling me that his sister, Mr Longbottom, Miss Granger, Miss Lovegood and Mr Grindelwald were keeping guard on the seventh floor corridor. Naturally I followed to order them back to their common rooms but before I could Mr Malfoy emerged in the corridor and well we know the rest... Every secret passageway out of the school was covered. We knew nobody could fly in. There were powerful enchantments on every entrance into the castle. I still don't know how the Death Eaters can possibly have entered..."
"I do." said Harry, and he explained, briefly, about the pair of Vanishing Cabinets and the magical pathway they formed. "So they got in through the Room of Requirement."
Almost against his will, he glanced from Ron to Hermione, both of whom looked devastated.
"We messed up, Harry." said Ron bleakly. "We did like you told us, we checked the Marauder's Map and we couldn't see Malfoy on it, so we thought he must be in the Room of Requirement, so me, Y/n, Ginny, and Neville went to keep watch on it...but Malfoy got past us."
"He came out of the Room on his own, clutching that awful shriveled arm..." Ginny said.
"His Hand of Glory." said Ron. "Gives light only to the holder, remember?"
"Anyway." Ginny went on. "He must have been checking whether the coast was clear to let the Death Eaters out, because the moment he saw us he threw something on the ground and it all went pitch-black..."
"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder." said Ron bitterly. "Fred and George's. I'm going to be having a word with them about who they let buy their products."
"We tried everything, Lumos, Incendio." said Ginny. "Nothing would penetrate the darkness, all we could do was grope our way out of the corridor again, and meanwhile we could hear people rushing past us. Obviously Malfoy could see because of that hand thing and was guiding them, but Y/n warned us not to use any curses or anything in case we hit each other, and by the time we'd reached a corridor that was light, they'd gone."
"Luckily." said Lupin hoarsely. "Ron, Ginny, and Neville ran into us almost immediately and told us what had happened. We found the Death Eaters minutes later, heading in the direction of the Astronomy Tower. Malfoy obviously hadn't expected more people to be on the watch, he seemed to have exhausted his supply of Darkness Powder. We had just started to give chase after them when..."
"Atticus, Ivan and Priscilla ambushed us from behind." Y/n finished for him. "Ron and I only just about missed being hit by a killing curse."
"They were here tonight?" Harry asked.
Y/n nodded. "I stayed behind alone to hold them off while the others went on ahead."
As we chased the others a fight broke out, they scattered and we gave chase. One of them, Gibbon, broke away and headed up the tower stairs..." Lupin picked up from where Y/n had left them.
"To set off the Mark?" asked Harry.
"He must have done, yes, they must have arranged that before they left the Room of Requirement." said Lupin. "But I don't think Gibbon liked the idea of waiting up there alone for Dumbledore, because he came running back downstairs to rejoin the fight and was hit by a Killing Curse that just missed me."
"So if Ron and Y/n were watching the Room of Requirement with Ginny and Neville." said Harry, turning to Hermione who was still holding on to Y/n looking devastated. "Were you..."
"Outside Snape's office, yes." whispered Hermione, her eyes sparkling with tears. "Y/n sent me there with Luna. We hung around for ages outside it and nothing happened...we didn't know what was going on upstairs, Y/n had taken the map...it was nearly midnight when Professor Flitwick came sprinting down into the dungeons. He was shouting about Death Eaters in the castle, I don't think he really registered that Luna and I were there at all, he just burst his way into Snape's office and we heard him saying that Snape had to go back with him and help and then we heard a loud thump and Snape came hurtling out of his room and he saw us and...and..."
"What happened?" Y/n asked her.
"I was so stupid!" said Hermione in a high-pitched whisper. "He said Professor Flitwick had collapsed and that we should go and take care of him while he...while he went to help fight the Death Eaters..."
She buried her face into Y/n's chest with shame and continued to talk, so that her voice was muffled. "We went into his office to see if we could help Professor Flitwick and found him unconscious on the floor...and oh, it's so obvious now, Snape must have Stupefied Flitwick, but we didn't realize, we just let Snape go!"
Y/n just raised one of his hands to the back of Hermione's head now holding it gently against him.
"It's not your fault." said Lupin firmly. "Hermione, had you not obeyed Snape and got out of the way, he probably would have killed you and Luna."
Y/n just held Hermione as he felt her tears begin to fall on his chest now. She still blamed herself but all he could think about was how he could have lost Hermione tonight.
"So then he came upstairs." said Harry. "And he found the place where you were all fighting..."
"We were in trouble, we were losing." said Tonks in a low voice. "Gibbon was down, but the rest of the Death Eaters seemed ready to fight to the death. Neville had been hurt, Bill had been savaged by Greyback...it was all dark...curses flying everywhere... We could only hear Y/n's battle nearby, the Malfoy boy had vanished, he must have slipped past, up the stairs...then more of them ran after him, but one of them blocked the stairs behind them with some kind of curse. Neville ran at it and got thrown up into the air."
"None of us could break through." said Ron. "And that massive Death Eater was still firing off jinxes all over the place, they were bouncing off the walls and barely missing us..."
"And then Snape was there." said Tonks. "And then he wasn't..."
"I saw him running toward us, but that huge Death Eater's jinx just missed me right afterward and I ducked and lost track of things." said Ginny.
"I saw him run straight through the cursed barrier as though it wasn't there." said Lupin. "I tried to follow him, but was thrown back just like Neville..."
"He must have known a spell we didn't." whispered McGonagall. "After all...he was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher...I just assumed that he was in a hurry to chase after the Death Eaters who'd escaped up to the tower."
"He was." said Harry savagely. "But to help them, not to stop them...and I'll bet you had to have a Dark Mark to get through that barrier...so what happened when he came back down?"
"Well, the big Death Eater had just fired off a hex that caused half the ceiling to fall in, and also broke the curse blocking the stairs." said Lupin. "We all ran forward, those of us who were still standing anyway...and then Snape and the boy emerged out of the dust...obviously, none of us attacked them..."
"We just let them pass." said Tonks in a hollow voice. "We thought they were being chased by the Death Eaters...and next thing, the other Death Eaters and Greyback were back and we were fighting again. I thought I heard Snape shout something, but I don't know what..."
"He shouted, 'It's over.'" said Harry. "He'd done what he'd meant to do."
They all fell silent. Fawkes's lament was still echoing over the dark grounds outside. As the music reverberated upon the air.
"I failed to do what I was supposed to." Y/n let out quietly now and the others looked at him but only Harry, Ron and Hermione knew what he was talking about.
"I had a chance to put an end to Atticus there and then. But I hesitated and destroyed the ceiling to cut us off. The three of them escaped after that." Y/n recounted what he had gone through. "But looking back now, I should not have hesitated. I should have done what I needed to...I should have killed Atticus."
Hermione's grip tightened again as the others gasped.
"Did you say...kill Grindelwald?" Professor McGonagall asked shocked and Y/n turned his head to look at her and the other members of the order who looked to be uncomfortable. He knew they probably imagined he was just angry and saying this in the moment but it couldn't be further from the truth. All he felt right now was sadness.
"Yes..." Y/n said now. "Not long before he..." But Y/n had to stop himself. Dumbledore's death was still too raw to say his demise so calmly yet and he could tell the others were still just as grief stricken. After composing himself he started again. "Professor Dumbledore told me recently of a prophecy concerning Atticus and myself. One that says...I...have to kill Atticus."
"That you have to kill him?" Lupin asked and Y/n just slowly nodded.
"But this can't be true. Professor Dumbledore would never wish for you to have to do such a thing. You and Atticus are still just boys..." Professor McGonagall said in disbelief at such a thing.
"It's true." Harry said now and they looked at him. "I was with Y/n that night when Dumbledore told him. Y/n has to kill Atticus."
"But...to ask a boy too..." Professor McGonagall stammered. It felt like too heavy a burden to ask of Y/n.
"It is okay Professor. After tonight, I understand now that I do not have any other choice." Y/n told her quietly not wanting to discuss the matter any further.
Professor McGonagall just stared at Y/n with a great amount of pity as did the others in the room.
The doors of the hospital wing burst open, making them all jump. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were striding up the ward, Fleur just behind them, her beautiful face terrified.
"Molly...Arthur..." said Professor McGonagall, jumping up and hurrying to greet them. "I am so sorry..."
"Bill." whispered Mrs. Weasley, darting past Professor McGonagall as she caught sight of Bill's mangled face. "Oh, Bill!"
Lupin and Tonks 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.
"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." said Professor McGonagall, looking helplessly at Lupin.
"There will probably be some contamination, Arthur." said Lupin. "It is an odd case, possibly unique...we don't know what his behavior might be like when he awakens..."
Mrs. Weasley took the nasty-smelling ointment from Madam Pomfrey and began dabbing at Bill's wounds.
"And Dumbledore..." said Mr. Weasley. "Minerva, is it true ...is he really...?"
As Professor McGonagall nodded, Harry felt Ginny move beside him and looked at her. Her slightly narrowed eyes were fixed upon Fleur, who was gazing down at Bill with a frozen expression on her face.
"Dumbledore gone..." whispered Mr. Weasley, 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...it's not r-really important... but he was a very handsome little b.bo...always very handsome...and he was g-going to be married!"
"And what do you mean by zat?" said Fleur suddenly and loudly. "What do you mean, 'he 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?" demanded Fleur. "You theenk, because of these bites, he will not love me?"
"No, that's not what I..."
"Because 'e will!" said Fleur, 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." said Mrs. Weasley, "but I thought perhaps...given how...how he..."
"You thought I would not weesh to marry him? Or per'aps, you hoped?" said Fleur, 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, Y/n did not dare move. Like everybody else, he was waiting for the explosion.
"Our Great-Auntie Muriel." said Mrs. Weasley 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." said Fleur stiffly. "I am sure zat will be lovely."
And then, Harry did not quite see how it happened, both women were crying and hugging each other. Completely bewildered, wondering whether the world had gone mad, he turned around, Ron looked as stunned as he felt and Ginny and Hermione were exchanging startled looks.
"You see!" said a strained voice. Tonks was glaring at Lupin. "She still wants to marry him, even though he's been bitten! She doesn't care!"
"It's different." said Lupin, 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!" said Tonks, seizing the front of Lupin's robes and shaking them. "I've told you a million times..."
And the meaning of Tonks's Patronus and her mouse-colored hair, and the reason she had come running to find Dumbledore when she had heard a rumor someone had been attacked by Greyback, that Harry had told them about all suddenly became clear to Y/n.
"And I've told you a million times." said Lupin, 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." said Mrs. Weasley over Fleur's shoulder as she patted her on the back.
"I am not being ridiculous." said Lupin steadily. "Tonks deserves somebody young and whole."
"Yes you are." Y/n spoke up. "Given the dangers we have and are going to be subjected to in our daily lives those reasons are not valid. You both clearly have a deep care for one another and with the uncertainty of the world ahead of us you should savour every moment you can with someone you love. Of all the mentors in my life, you Professor are the one I wish I could call my father." Y/n said a little embarrassed at revealing how much he looked up to Lupin. "To hear you try to find reasons not be happy...it upsets me."
"Y/n is right, Tonks wants you," said Mr. Weasley, 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. "Dumbledore is dead...."
"Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world." said Professor McGonagall curtly, just as 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." he 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." said Professor McGonagall, 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 at Y/n and Harry. "Before I meet them I would like a quick word with you, Harry, Y/n. If you'll come with me..."
Harry stood up, murmured "See you in a bit" to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.
"Wait for me in our dorm." Y/n said to Hermione and he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Hermione just nodded.
Both Y/n and Harry followed Professor McGonagall back down the ward. The corridors outside were deserted and the only sound was the distant phoenix song. It was several minutes before Y/n became aware that they were not heading for Professor McGonagall's office, but for Dumbledore's, and another few seconds before he realized that of course, she had been Deputy Headmistress...now he supposed she was now Headmistress...so the room behind the gargoyle was now hers.
In silence they ascended the moving spiral staircase and entered the circular office. Harry did not know what he had expected, that the room would be draped in black, perhaps, or even that Dumbledore's body might be lying there. In fact, it looked almost exactly as it had done when he 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 half-moon 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 Y/n and Harry, her face taut and lined.
"Harry." she said, "I would like to know what you and Professor Dumbledore were doing this evening when you left the school."
"I can't tell you that, Professor." said Harry. Y/n had expected the question and Harry's answer. After all it had been here, in this very room, that Dumbledore had told Harry and himself that they were to confide the contents of their lessons to nobody but Ron and Hermione.
"Harry, it might be important." said Professor McGonagall.
"It is." said Harry. "Very, but he didn't want me to tell anyone."
Professor McGonagall glared at him.
"Potter..." Y/n registered the renewed use of Harry's surname. "In the light of Professor Dumbledore's death, I think you must see that the situation has changed somewhat..."
"I don't think so." said Harry, shrugging. "Professor Dumbledore never told me to stop following his orders if he died."
"But..."
"There's one thing you should know before the Ministry gets here, though. Madam Rosmerta's under the Imperius Curse, she was helping Malfoy and the Death Eaters, that's how the necklace and the poisoned mead."
"Rosmerta?" said Professor McGonagall incredulously, but before she 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!"
But 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." said Professor McGonagall, 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' history. It is horrible."
"I am sure Dumbledore would have wanted the school to remain open." said Professor Sprout. "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?" said Slughorn, 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." said Professor McGonagall. "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." said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. Y/n saw 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." said Professor McGonagall. "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." said Professor McGonagall kindly. "And so do I."
"Well, I'm stayin," said Hagrid, 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..." He gulped and disappeared behind his handkerchief once more, and there was silence.
"Grindelwald, Your views?" Professor McGonagall asked next.
"Mine Professor?" Y/n asked surprised. "But I am a student surely I have no say in the matter?"
"You are only a student for a few more weeks. Given how talented you are I suspect you will have passed your N.E.W.T's with little trouble. If Hogwarts were to remain open you wished to stay as a teaching assistant did you not, in your pursuit of teaching? As a potential member of staff I would like to hear your thoughts." McGonagall explained.
Y/n had not even thought of this. His mind was still going over the battle with Atticus and Dumbledore's death. What did he think was best? After a few moments of thinking he had his answer.
"Hogwarts should remain open." Y/n said. "It is more than just a school to us students, it becomes our home." He nodded to Hagrid as an indicator. "The future looks uncertain for now and having some stability could bring some much-needed relief to some of the students. In the face of this dark day bonds stronger than before will be made, Dumbledore once said 'We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.'"
"Very well." said Professor McGonagall, 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?" said Harry, speaking at last.
"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?" said Harry fiercely.
"If the Ministry thinks it appropriate." said Professor McGonagall. "No other headmaster or headmistress has ever been..."
"No other headmaster or headmistress ever gave more to this school." growled Hagrid.
"Hogwarts should be Dumbledore's final resting place." said Professor Flitwick.
"Absolutely." said Professor Sprout.
"If that is the case." said Y/n. "Then I feel you should not send the students home, not until the funeral is over. They will wish to say their 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..." said Slughorn in a rather agitated voice, while Hagrid let out a strangled sob of assent.
"He's coming." said Professor McGonagall suddenly, gazing down into the grounds. "The Minister...and by the looks of it. He's brought a delegation..."
"Can Y/n and I leave, Professor?" said Harry at once.
He had no desire at all to see, or be interrogated by, Rufus Scrimgeour tonight.
"You may." said Professor McGonagall. "And quickly."
She strode toward the door and held it open for them. Harry and Y/n sped down the spiral staircase and off along the deserted corridor, Harry had left his Invisibility Cloak at the top of the Astronomy Tower, but it did not matter, there was nobody in the corridors to see them pass, not even Filch, Mrs. Norris, or Peeves. They did not meet another soul until he turned into the passage leading to the Gryffindor common room.
"Is it true?" whispered the Fat Lady as he approached her. "It is really true? Dumbledore...dead?"
"Yes." said Harry.
She let out a wail and, without waiting for the password, swung forward to admit them.