All I Have Left

Chapter Seventy Eight

I woke up on Christmas morning very tired, looking over at Hermione's bed- where she was sleeping, brown hair falling in front of her face neatly- and Ginny's bed- where she was also sleeping, ginger hair covering her face in a rather messy order- and sighed as I got up. 

I was wearing the Slytherin Quidditch team sweater, which I had grown accustomed to wear at night, and a pair of grey sweatpants, my hair pulled back in a braid as I went and slipped some socks on from my trunk. 

I went and looked over at the window, where a thick sheet of white was covering the grass, not a spot of green in sight.

I glanced over at where Hermione and Ginny were sleeping once more, and exhaled; I should wake them up, but they'd be so excited for Christmas...

I hadn't been very... happy, per se, lately. 

What was the point, after all? Voldemort was back, planning to kill all Muggle-borns and Blood-traitors, and if he succeeded, everyone in this house would be dead...

And then I kept thinking of Ronald and Hermione, and I hated myself for thinking it... for being jealous of one of my best friends... and I felt guilty for thinking of such puerile things when Voldemort is out there planning each of our deaths and downfalls right now. 

And after what I heard with the Extendable Ears- what everyone heard, in fact- at St. Mungo's, I felt even guiltier.

I shut my eyes and thought of that day. 

"Okay, go!" Fred had whispered.

We had all then grabbed our Extendable Ears and shoved them under the door as discreetly as we could, holding them up to our ears as we listened to the adults in Mr. Weasley's room.

"... they searched the whole area but they couldn't find the snake anywhere, it seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur." We heard Tonks whisper from the other side of the door anxiously. "But You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"

"I reckon he sent a lookout." Moody growled. "Cause he's not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there the beast would've had more time to look around. So Potter and Knight say they saw it all happen?"

"Yes." Mrs. Weasley had responded uneasily. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for them to see something like this..."

"Yeah, well, there's something funny about those children, we all know that." Moody said.

"There's nothing funny about them!" Mother came to defense, but she had seemed rather unsure about her words. 

"Try and convince yourself all you want, but those children..." Moody trailed off.

"Dumbledore seemed worried about them when I spoke to him this morning." Mrs. Weasley whispered frantically.

"'Course he's worried." Moody snarled impatiently. "These children are seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake-"

"That was only Harry, actually." Tonks chimed in.

"-we're trying to use the excuse that Knight's got Seer problems, but what about Potter? No Seer in him..." Moody had continued as though Tonks hadn't said anything.

"In him, no." Mother started. "In his bloodline, yes."

"Just face it, Sara." Moody growled lowly. "The problem with these children is that they have a connection to You-Know-Who, he's possessing them-"