A Trio of Serpents

Part 61

I've kinda given up on titles, but you're free to make suggestions.

Summary: Harry muses over the Half-Blood Prince; a chair gets abused; the summer is very tense

Even before Harry opened his eyes, he knew he had not been dreaming. Albus Dumbledore was dead. And Snape was the perpetrator.

"So Snape was the Prince?" said Ron, gazing at the cover without really seeing it.

"Apparently so."

Ron's face twisted with fury and he began cursing Snape in a way that made Harry's outburst in third year look tame.

As Ron continued to spew angry vitriol, Harry's mind drifted to Malfoy. Had he been about to kill Dumbledore before Snape stepped in? It made sense to Harry; Malfoy was many things, but a murderer wasn't something Harry would have associated with him. Then again, using a torture curse was also something Harry hadn't thought Malfoy would be capable of doing.

"Did you have any other visions?" He hated asking, especially given the circumstances, but he needed to know.

Ron paused mid-rant. "Not a thing. Unless..."

Harry turned to face him. "Unless?"

"I heard screaming."

"Oh." He tried not to let his disappointment show. There was bound to be a lot of screaming in the next months.

Afte the funeral, Harry was Apparated home directly, not even catching a glimpse of the train. Sirius said nothing as he carried Harry's trunk inside the cottage for him, which Harry was grateful for. He knew he would have to say something sooner or later, but right now was not the time.

Remus was in the kitchen with Tonks. Despite the dark cloud hanging over his head, Harry couldn't stop himself from smiling a little at their closeness. Nor could he stop the small laugh when Tonks rushed over, knocking over a chair.

"Harry! Guess what?"

"You're gonna pick up that chair?"

"Hilarious. No, my fiancé will."

"Fiancé? You mean...?" That's when Harry saw the ring. "Congratulations!" He threw his arms around Remus, who had indeed been in the process of picking up the chair. It clattered back onto the floor as he returned the hug. Tonks tripped over it as she moved in to join them.

Sirius stooped down to grab the chair, only to be grabbed and brought into the hug as well. Once more, the chair hit the floor.

The summer, unfortunately, held very few truly happy moments like this. After Remus and Tonks were married, in which only Harry and Sirius were present, Tonks was still out for her Auror duties and came back with grim news more often than pleasant ones.

"There's whispers Greyback is on the move," she said, her hair the same mousy brown as when Remus was avoiding her.

Remus' hand gave a small spasm, but his expression was otherwise the same. "What for?"

"Moody thinks he's turning more children. Or killing them. Gives their parents something to worry about."

Fear trickled up Harry's spine. "Well, that's certainly effective."

"The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore," Harry read aloud. He scoffed. "Replace Dumbledore's name with literally anyone else's and it wouldn't sound any more or less impressive."

"The Life and Lies of Azure," said Sirius, glancing at the plush snake. She laid on the counter, unaware of her surroundings.

"See? I'm not the only one who's horrible at naming things." Harry tossed the newspaper article aside and leaned back. "Has Hermione written back?" He had been keeping in touch with his friends even more than he normally would, dreading the moment when one of them abruptly stopped responding. So far, Hermione was taking the longest.