Lost Memories

lxxv. everything's gone

"Harry?" I said softly.

Harry had been lying on the carpeted floor ever since we came back from the Pensieve. He didn't respond.

"Harry?"

A tear slipped out from his eye, still saving nothing.

"Harry Potter!" I shouted, finally.

Harry looked over to me with a blank face but said nothing.

"We can still defeat Voldemort. I know what you're thinking but—"

"Charlotte, this isn't a game. I'm going to die," Harry stated, sitting up.

"Everyone dies, Harry," I mumbled, not knowing how to comfort him.

"Charlotte," he suddenly got up and grabbed my shoulders, "you have to promise me that you will kill Nagini if I die before we kill it."

"Harry—"

"Charlotte, promise me!"

"I promise!" I shouted and Harry let go of me. It didn't feel right.

"We have to go," Harry muttered and made his way to the door of the headmaster's office.

The castle was empty. It felt ghostly striding through it alone as if everything was dead. The portrait people were still missing from their frames; the whole place was eerily still as if all its remaining lifeblood were concentrated in the Great Hall where the dead and the mourners were crammed.

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak over us as we descended through the floors, at last walking down the marble staircase into the entrance hall. Then Neville nearly walked into us. He was one half of a pair that was carrying a body in from the grounds. I glanced down and felt another dull blow to my stomach: Colin Creevey, though underage, must have sneaked back just as Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle had done. He was tiny in death. I slapped my hand over my mouth and looked up at Harry who was also staring at the body.

In the Great Hall, people were moving around, trying to comfort each other, drinking, kneeling beside the dead, but I could not see any of the people I loved, no hint of Hermione, Ron, Ginny, or any of the other Weasleys, and no Luna. Walking through another corridor, Harry grabbed my arm to stop me from walking.

Looking up at what Harry had seen, I saw Ginny who was crouching over a girl who was whispering for her mother.

"It's all right," Ginny was saying. "It's okay. We're going to get you inside."

"But I want to go home," whispered the girl. "I don't want to fight anymore!"

"I know," said Ginny, and her voice broke. "It's going to be all right."

Ginny was kneeling beside the injured girl now, holding her hand. Harry grabbed my arm and pulled me past Ginny, not wanting to address her. My eyebrows knitted together, confused about the action. Ginny looked around as we passed, as almost as if she knew we had walked by her.

Just before we go outside, Harry stopped and turned to me, "You need to go find Ron and Hermione."

"W-what?"

"I-I need some time on my own," Harry whispered. "C-Can you please just find Ron and Hermione? Make sure t-they're safe and well-taken c-care of—"

"Is this about the prophecy saying you have to die?"

"Lotts, I just— No, I need to think and be by myself for a while before the fight starts. I haven't much time—"

"Okay, Harry," I whispered and wrapped my arms around his body. "I love you very much."