☄︎ ⋆·˚ ⋆ *. ⇒ 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞
𝐏𝐘𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀
Athena Sinistra has learnt to understand broken promises. Her life became a fiction of war rather than love and she let her grief control her. After ten years she's found herself again but know...
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EVERYONE WALKED OUT oftheschooltogether. Students, none of them talking as they looked around knowingly. Slughorn led the Slytherins wearing magnificent long emerald-green robes embroidered with silver.
Aurora walked beside her sister. She was up and moving now but still wasn't herself. Apparently she was always cold. Her skin had a bluish tint and her eyes didn't hold the same life they once had. Madame Pomfrey said it would pass. Athena felt there would be lasting damage.
Professor Sprout had never looked so smart; there was not a single patch on her hat, and when they reached the Entrance Hall, they found Madam Pince standing beside Filch, she in a thick black veil that fell to her knees, he in an ancient black suit and tie reeking of mothballs.
They were to meet the others outside. The rest of the order. It was a nice day for it. The sun was shining down on the stretches of grounds and the sky was a clear blue. Sure there were clouds but they added to the idyllic imagery of it all rather than covering up the beauty of something so serene.
They were heading towards the lake. The warmth of the sun caressed her face as she held onto her sisters arm in silence to the place where hundreds of chairs had been set out in rows. An aisle ran down the centre of them: there was a marble table standing at the front, all chairs facing it. It was the most beautiful summer's day.
An extraordinary assortment of people had already settled into half of the chairs: shabby and smart, old and young. Most Athena did not recognise, but there were a few that he did, including members of the Order of the Phoenix: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink, Hazel Hartland, Remus Lupin, Dominique Livverson, Mr and Mrs Weasley, Bill supported by Fleur and Elle Lupin followed by Fred and George, who were wearing jackets of black dragonskin.
Then there was Madame Maxime, who took up two-and-a-half chairs on her own, Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron, Arabella Figg, the hairy bass player from the wizarding group the Weird bisters, Ernie Prang, driver of the Knight Bus, Madam Malkin, of the robe shop in Diagon Alley and the witch who pushed the trolley on the Hogwarts Express. The castle ghosts were there too, barely visible in the bright sunlight, discernible only when they moved, shimmering insubstantially in the gleaming air.
Remus had left a seat for Athena beside him. They hadn't a chance to properly talk since the hospital wing. Athena had been too busy worrying about her sister and the students. Aurora found her seat next to Dominique who took her hand immediately. Everyone looked so sad and for once Athena wished she could feel it. She felt almost villainous feeling no grief whatsoever. It wasn't like her but she had no pity for the man who had fallen.
People were whispering to each other; it sounded like a breeze in the grass, but the birdsong was louder by far. The crowd continued to swell.
Cornelius Fudge walked past them towards the front rows, his expression miserable, twirling his green bowler hat as usual; Athena next recognised Rita Skeeter, who, she was infuriated to see, had a notebook clutched in her red-taloned hand; and then, with a worse jolt of fury, Dolores Umbridge, an unconvincing expression of grief upon her toadlike face, a black velvet bow set atop her iron-coloured curls. At the sight of the centaur Firenze, who was standing like a sentinel near the water's edge, she gave a start and scurried hastily into a seat a good distance away.
