Book Two: Snape's Memories

Chapter Eighteen

Harry hadn't slept well. Tim's early morning night terror had them both up at a ghastly hour. With some gentle Legillimancy, Harry was able to get the boy calmed and back to sleep.

After some attempt to turn over and go back to sleep, Harry just gave up in favor of taking a long shower.

He stared at himself in the glass, noting the dark circles and the grey hairs that were starting to show in the black. He pulled one out of the crown of his head, "You'll snatch yourself bald doing that, mate." said his reflection rudely.

Sad thing was, the reflection was likely right. He wondered if he should ask Ginny about spells to color his hair back to black, or should he just get used to the grey?

By the time he walked down to the kitchen, Ginny was up and drinking her coffee, in her dressing gown. Her back was to the door as she pored over some parchment. "Hey, Ginny," Harry said as he came in the door. Ginny didn't like being snuck up on anymore than Harry did.

"Good morning." Ginny replied absently.

Harry leaned over her back to kiss her neck and look at what she was reading. It was the list the undertaker's had sent of service options.

Ginny rested her hand on Harry's face for a moment, "What time d'you think we should have the burial?" she asked.

Harry sighed, "The vicar said noon worked for him."

"Mm." replied Ginny noting it down, "They want to know if we want the hearse pulled by thestrals."

"Oh, Merlin, no." said Harry sitting down beside her and pulling his own coffee cup over, "They do realize that the burial is at a Muggle cemetary, right? They can give us a car."

The funeral was being handled by Nekroun and Cenotaph, who handled most of the wizard funerals in London, except for those families who preferred to do it themselves. Harry had been rather impressed at how easily they had handled the muggle relations when picking up Mary's body from the coroner, but apparently this was a normal happening for them. Wizards and muggles were all alike in death, they said

"Shall we do the lunch at the Leaky Cauldron? I can owl Bert to reserve the big private dining room."

"Why not here?" asked Harry. The Leaky Cauldron seemed a bit public for this.

"Because we don't have enough room." said Ginny firmly.

"Oh, come on." said Harry, "The four of us and Ron and Hermione?"

Ginny gave him an impatient look, "And Mum and Dad. The boys. George and Lee. Percy and Pansy. Bill and Fleur. That's ten there. Rose, Hugo and Eleanor. Another three. Dudley and Phillip. That's fifteen, nineteen altogether. Mr. Clark makes it an easy twenty. Victoire and Teddy are still away, but Andromeda should get an invite. I don't know if she'll want to come, she'd been having some trouble with her knee...And then Charlie and..."

"All right, all right," laughed Harry, "Enough. Do you want to frighten the poor little thing to death? I thought we were going to take this slowly."

Ginny said very seriously, "Listen Harry," she said, "I think its important that Tim knows he's got a big family. That we're all here for him. At a time like this...Well, its more important than ever that he knows he's not alone."

"I suppose." Harry wasn't convinced, though.

Ginny sighed at the look on Harry's face, "If Tim starts to get overwhelmed, we can just leave. That's rather more difficult if we're here. Another reason to have it at the Leaky Cauldron."

Harry nodded, reluctantly.

For a few minutes they drank their coffee in silence.

"And then, I just keep thinking about poor Mary." said Ginny quietly, "If anyone deserves a proper funeral, its her."