Aria Black and the Battle for Hogwarts

Graveyard

After my fight with Ariel, I go to the Burrow.

Molly, Arthur, and Ginny try to talk to me, but I stalk up the stairs, defeated.

For the next two days, I summon food to my room, and don't talk to anyone. Recent events have me in a funk. Mom's stepmother is a horrible person, Mom's father is an idiot. Mom's half-sister is a cowardly elemental. Everything is messed up! Who am I really? Am I who I think I am?

Someone raps on my door. Molly walks in and sits next to me on the bed.

"Dearie, it's Christmas Eve. Why don't you come down an listen to some Celestina Warbeck with us?" She asks, giving me that motherly look of pity.

Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun.

"Do you want to talk?"

No.

"At least get up and about!" Molly pleads.

I sigh. "I think I'll go visit my parents' grave in Godric's Hollow."

Molly nods, somewhat satisfied with my answer. "When you get back, we'll have cocoa and a Weasley sweater waiting for you."

***

It's snowing in Godric's Hollow. I gaze around, looking for the graveyard. It's behind a church.

The graveyard is big. I catch a glimpse of a couple striding through the tombstones urgently. I hope my Muggle clothes help me blend in here. I'm charmed to have blonde hair and pale skin, so maybe I'm not that easy to recognize.

They couple is stopped on the graves of Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore. Something is up. How do these people know the Dumbledores?

I conjure up a bouquet of flowers and set them on Ariana Dumbledore's grave. The couple looks at me with wide eyes. I avoid their gaze and stand next to the woman, pretending to pay my respects.

While they tense up, neither one of them gives me anything on their identity.

"Merry Christmas." I tell them.

"Merry Christmas!" The woman's voice chirps through her scarf. Where have I heard her voice before?

I turn around in search of my parents' graves. Abbot, Bagshot, Potter! Harry's parents!

JAMES POTTER LILY POTTER

BORN 27 MARCH 1960 BORN 30 JANUARY 1960

DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981 DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. That means people live beyond death. If that's true, Mum, Dad, James, Lily, Dumbledore, and his entire family are together. Safe.

The couple crosses the graveyard warily and stops at the tombstone next to Lily Potter's. I look at them out of the corner of my eye. The grave they are in front of is my mother's!

Then I see the man looking over at me. This is no regular man.

I cry out his name the moment he cries out mine.

"Harry!"

"Aria!"

We embrace each other, and it feels good to know that he's still alive.

I turn to the woman. "Hermione?"

She smiles and hugs me. "Aria, it's so great to see you! How is everything at Hogwarts?"

I sigh. "They are trying to make us think everything is okay, but everyone sees right through it. The Carrows are horrible, brutally punishing brave people who stand up to them. Ginny, Neville and Luna have restarted the DA, and almost all the seventh years are joining-"

"Aria, is Ginny alright?" Harry asks.

I smile slightly. "Yes, Ginny's fine. The Carrows hate her almost as much as they hate you lot. No one has gotten sacked yet- but Hagrid and I are very close. We don't go to any of the Feasts unless Snape makes us. Seamus can't keep his bloody mouth shut so he's beaten a lot. We-"

"Aria, are you standing up for people?" Harry asks.

Anger courses through my very veins. How dare he say that?

"Of course I am, you fool!" I snap. "I just can't get bloody fired!"

Hermione looks horrified at what Harry has said. "Harry, I'm sure she is doing as much as she can! Aria is right, she can't get fired. She needs to be there to give hope to the students of Hogwarts!"

There's silence for a moment until I say coldly, "It was nice seeing you both. I have to look at my mother's grave if you wouldn't mind."

They shuffle away to a few rows ahead.

I kneel down next to the tombstone marked Danielle Lupin. Oh, Mum. Your life was going somewhere with Dad. And then Pettigrew had to screw everything up!

"Hi Mum." I say. "It's me. Everything is going wrong, and I could use some comfort here. Apparently your stepmother is a horrible person, and your dad is an idiot. Ariel is a coward. She's afraid to fight in this war. How can I convince her to fight? She could tip the balance in this war!"

A giant clock chimes, signaling 9:00. Yikes. I conjure up more flowers and lie them on Mum's grave.

Then I stride away, without looking back.

***

The Great Hall is not so great at the Start-of-Term Feast. Snape sits at the Head, the Carrows at his sides. He's taken the liberty of making a seating chart, sticking me by Alecto Carrow and Madam Pince. Pince has never liked me, and she also has never spoken her opinion on Death Eaters at staff meetings. And Alecto takes up an evil smirk where she seems to be imagining torturing innocent children. So my meals are not chatty. At all.

Daphne gives me a sympathetic look.

I roll my eyes, and mouth, 'help me'. She chuckles.

I look at Ginny. Her and Neville are anxiously looking around, more specifically at the Ravenclaw table. Oh, no. I don't see Luna.

When the Feast is over, I corner Ginny in the hallway. "Where the bloody Merlin is she?"

Ginny's eyes are wide. "I don't know! She wasn't on the train! Do you think that the Death Eaters got her?"

I sigh, giving her my answer.

"Oh." She says quietly. "I'll tell Neville."