The Other Black Book 6

Chapter 24 - The Phoenix Lament

"C'mere, Harry . . ."

"No."

"Yeh can' stay here, Harry. . . . Come on, now. . . ."

"No."

"Aura, yeh have to move..."

"But I don't want to," Aurora heard herself respond.

"Yeh have to."

Aurora didn't want to move. She wanted to lie there, on the ground, beside Dumbledore. She wanted to wither away, to rid the world of herself... to rid the world of this girl who continually failed to use this cursed gift to help others.

Another voice told Harry to get up, as a silent hand pulled Aurora to her feet. Aurora let it, because the hand was firm but gentle. A guiding hand, urging her off the grass.

"Get up, Aura," said the hand's voice. "We're meeting the others in the hospital wing."

Up ahead, she heard Ginny tell Harry the same thing.

"Ginny, who else is dead?" Harry asked.

"Don't worry, none of us."

"But the Dark Mark — Malfoy said he stepped over a body —"

"He stepped over Bill, but it's all right, he's alive."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure . . . he's a — a bit of a mess, that's all. Greyback attacked him. Madam Pomfrey says he won't — won't look the same anymore. . . ." Ginny's voice trembled a little. "We don't really know what the aftereffects will be — I mean, Greyback being a werewolf, but not transformed at the time."

"But the others . . . There were other bodies on the ground. . . ."

"Neville and Professor Flitwick are both hurt, but Madam Pomfrey says they'll be all right. And a Death Eater's dead, he got hit by a Killing Curse that huge blond one was firing off everywhere — Harry, if we hadn't had your Felix potion, I think we'd all have been killed, but everything seemed to just miss us —"

They had reached the hospital wing. Pushing open the doors, Aurora saw Neville lying, apparently asleep, in a bed near the door. Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks, and Lupin were gathered around another bed near the far end of the ward. At the sound of the doors opening, they all looked up. Hermione ran to Harry and hugged him; Lupin moved forward too, looking anxious.

"Are you all right, Harry?"

"I'm fine. . . . How's Bill?"

"What about you, Aura?" Lupin asked. "Elara?"

"We're fine," Elara said, the gentle voice behind Aurora. "She's a bit shaken up though."

No one said anything about the fact that Aurora hadn't covered the scars. Aurora just didn't have the energy.

"But how's Bill?" Elara asked.

Nobody answered. Aurora looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw an unrecognizable face lying on Bill's pillow, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque. Madam Pomfrey was dabbing at his wounds with some harsh-smelling green ointment.

"Can't you fix them with a charm or something?" Harry asked the matron.

"No charm will work on these," said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."

"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon," said Ron, who was gazing down into his brother's face as though he could somehow force him to mend just by staring. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a — a real — ?"