The Other Black - Book 7

Chapter 23 - The Wandmaker

A pained scream left Aurora's lips, in a vague form of Dobby's name... a cry of pain and loss that shredded her vocal cords again. One that while agonizing, was nothing compared to the one she'd let out two years ago.

She could hear sounds but process them. Her thoughts were taken over by a list. Words that repeated themselves in her head.

James. Lily. Sirius. Mad-Eye. Hedwig. Pettigrew. Ted Tonks. Dobby.

"Hermione, where is she?" It was Harry's voice.

"Ron's taken her inside," came Bill's. "She'll be all right."

She felt someone lift her arm around their neck and pull her to her feet.

"What's happened to her?" asked Dean's voice. "She was like this the whole time-"

"I don't know," Harry's voice responded. "I think it might be something to do with seeing herself in that mirror."

"It's a good thing Mum's not here," Bill said. His voice was right by Aurora's ear. He was the one who was holding her upright. The one dragging her towards the cottage across the way. "She'd be so sickened over the state of her."

"Not zat we aren't," said a feminine voice with a strong French accent. "I've never seen her like zis."

"She was horrible before the O.W.Ls in our fifth year," Dean said. "But it wasn't... it wasn't like this."

"Even after Sirius Black died, she could at least walk," Luna said. She sounded saddened.

"I want to do it properly," came Harry's voice. "Not by magic. Have you got a spade?"

The sound of Harry's feet trailed away. Aurora heard the sound of a door opening and felt herself get laid onto a couch.

Aurora was in a weird mood. She wasn't asleep, per say, but she rested. Her eyes were open, she could see people move about, and she could hear people talk, but her mind wasn't processing anything. Bill and Fleur, Fleur mostly, were trying to get her to eat, she could process that much, but Aurora didn't even have the energy to open her mouth.

"Hey, Aura?" came Luna's quiet voice. "Harry, Ron, and Dean are doing a funeral for Dobby. You should come."

Aurora did. Leaning on Luna for support -- she still had very limited energy -- she, Luna, Bill, Fleur, and Hermione (who still seemed somewhat weakened but nothing like Aurora) joined the boys around the hole.

Harry wrapped the elf snuggly in his jacket. Ron sat on the edge of the grave and stripped off his shoes and socks, which he placed on the elf's bare feet. Dean produced a woolen hat, which Harry placed carefully upon Dobby's head, muffling his batlike ears.

"We should close his eyes."

Aurora looked around, somewhat dimly looking at the crow. Bill was wearing a traveling cloak, Fleur a large white apron, from the pocket of which protruded a bottle of what Aurora recognized to be Skele-Gro. Hermione was wrapped in a borrowed dressing gown, pale and unsteady on her feet; Ron put an arm around her when she reached him. Luna, who was huddled in one of Fleur's coats, crouched down and placed her fingers tenderly upon each of the elf's eyelids, sliding them over his glassy stare.

"There," she said softly. "Now he could be sleeping."

Harry placed the elf into the grave, arranged his tiny limbs so that he might have been resting, then climbed out and gazed for the last time upon the little body.

"I think we ought to say something," piped up Luna. "I'll go first, shall I?"

And as everybody looked at her, she addressed the dead elf at the bottom of the grave. "Thank you so much Dobby for rescuing me from that cellar. It's so unfair that you had to die when you were so good and brave. I'll always remember what you did for us. I hope you're happy now."