A New Beginning (Harry & Hermione from "Harry Potter")

Dumbledore's Farewell

Dumbledore is dead. He still couldn't believe it. The thought made him more vulnerable and afraid every time he reminded the fact to himself. He remembered what Hermione had told him in his first year at Hogwarts: "As long as Dumbledore is around, Harry, you're safe." He knew he was not safe anymore.

He was going back to the castle from Hagrid's, where the Death Eaters had set on fire. Everything had started to go wrong already.

He had just learned that the Half-Blood Prince was Snape. He still couldn't come over this. For a whole year, he had felt like he had a special connection with the book. But the owner of it was the killer of the man he had respected and trusted the most in his entire life. Snape was a cold-blooded murderer and Harry knew he could not have trusted him all along. It was always Snape, he thought, how could Dumbledore have trusted him?

Suddenly, he saw Ron coming towards him.

"Ron what are you-"

"Professor McGonagall wants to see you," Ron blurted out. "She has something to talk to you about."

They headed back to the castle but to Harry's surprise, directly towards Dumbledore's office. Ron left Harry and Professor McGonagall alone.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry had told everyone in the hospital wing that Dumbledore was dead. Nobody had spoken much after the news. They only were waiting for Bill to wake up, which didn't seem soon enough.

Professor McGonagall broke the silence. "We are having a funeral," she informed them and went out of the hospital wing to inform all the students, the faculty, the ghosts, all the school to go outside, right under the Astronomy Tower.

When Harry and all the others had left the hospital wing, everyone was going down the stairs to gather outside the castle. It could be read from people's faces that they thought something awful had happened.

Harry could hear the lament of Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. Its voice had filled everywhere around the castle. The more he listened to this beautiful lament, the harder it became for him to hold his tears back. It was the eulogy that would bid Dumbledore the most appropriate farewell. Words wouldn't be enough because nobody even knew what to say.

He felt like his soul was sucked up from him as he saw the dead body of Dumbledore on the floor. He had fallen down from the Astronomy Tower after Snape had casted the Unforgivable Killing Curse on him. Nobody had touched his body after he had fallen. He was surrounded by the whole school now, everyone's faces filled with horror. The people were keeping a distance. They were afraid to get close to him. Only Harry was not.

He splitted the crowd and moved along to Dumbledore's dead body. His eyes were closed, which Harry was grateful for, as he couldn't have stood looking into his dead and blank eyes. Next to him was the Horcrux they had found together, the locket. He remembered what Dumbledore had said after they had left the cave. "I am not worried, Harry. I am with you." But he should have been. He should have been worried. Harry couldn't manage to keep him safe. He couldn't protect him from Snape. He could do nothing but stand and watch him die only in a few seconds. He looked at the locket with hatred, and put it into his pocket.

Suddenly, something Sirius had said in his third year at Hogwarts flashed in his mind: "The ones that love us never really leave us, and you can always find them here." He remembered how warm it had felt when Sirius had put his hand on his heart.

Harry placed his hand just over Dumbledore's heart. It was so silent. As he felt the absence of a heartbeat, he started crying very hard. He wanted to scream and shout beyond the limits of his voice.

Hermione was looking at them in the crowd with her eyes full of tears. Ron and she were two of the people who stood the closest to Dumbledore's body in the crowd. She wanted to go to Harry, hug him, let him cry as much as he wanted beside her. She attempted to move forward but Ron pulled her back. He gave her a look saying, "He needs to be alone right now." Hermione knew he was right and didn't move any further. But she knew this was one of the hardest days of Harry's life.

Professor McGonagall raised her wand and pointed it to the sky. The tip of her wand was shining, as if she was sending a lightning signal to the sky that was covered with the Dark Mark. Her signal was meant to bring brightness. Along with her, everybody around raised their wands slowly. Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Hagrid... Everybody. And the Dark Mark slowly faded away while the sky slowly became brighter and brighter, as if the sun was coming out after a really dark night. But it unfortunately wasn't so long after the sky let darkness take over again. It didn't seem like beautiful days were even a little bit close to come.