Defend

Chapter Thirty-Eight What now?

We all stand for a moment in shock. Hagrid tries to get Harry to leave, but he refuses. I feel Ginny's presence leave me and I edge closer to Hermione. She pulls me into a hug.

Ginny walks forward and grabs Harry's hand, pulling him away from Dumbledore's body. She is taking him to the Hospital Wing on McGonagall's orders; all the people involved in the fight are already there.

Hermione takes my hand. We walk to the hospital wing too, to sustain any injuries we got in battle.

"Hermione..." She's always been like my older sister, but this question worries me.

"Yes?"

"Who died? Draco says he stepped over someone's body from the Order."

"No one's dead. It was Ron's older brother Bill, but he's alive," she reassures me. I exhale in relief.

"Bill was attacked by Greyback, though, and Madam Pomfrey has informed us that he might not look the same and they're not sure what the after-effects will be," she adds. "Neville and Flitwick are also injured, and one of the Death Eaters got hit by one of the Killing Curses flying around. I think without the luck potion one of us would be dead."

"I think you're right. If Ginny didn't have excellent timing I'd probably be lying unconscious at the top of the hill while Draco walked away."

"He tried to hurt you?" Hermione looks irritated.

"No, no! It's a long story and I'll tell you later."

We arrive at the wing and everyone is gathered around Bill's bed. Madam Pomfrey can't mend the wounds with traditional magic.

"While Bill won't be a full werewolf, the wounds are unlikely to heal fully, and Bill might end up with some wolfish characteristics," Remus tells us, having been bit by Greyback himself, although at a much younger age.

Ron suggests that Dumbledore might be able to do something, that he couldn't leave Bill in this state.

I freeze up and Ginny looks at him with heartbroken eyes. "Ron," she whispers. "Dumbledore is dead."

Remus goes into a panic, collapsing into a nearby chair, head in his hands. Harry explains how Dumbledore died, and Madam Pomfrey begins to cry.

"Shut it, don't you hear that?" Ginny cuts her off—we can hear a phoenix song in the distance, mourning. We listen to the beautiful song for what seems like hours until eventually McGonagall shows up and asks Harry to explain what happened.

"Snape killed him, Professor," he says. Madam Pomfrey has to conjure a chair quickly beneath McGonagall because her and Tonks are having a hard time with it, insisting that Dumbledore made it seem like he had an extra secret reason why he truly trusted Snape.

McGonagall insists it was her fault for having Flitwick alert Snape to the battle. Harry asks if Snape joined the Death Eaters then, but no one seems certain of the flow of events.

"Professor, it's not your fault," I assure McGonagall, placing my hand gently on her arm.

She holds onto my hand for comfort and I stand next to her.

McGonagall tells him that Dumbledore told them to patrol while he was away and everything was quiet at first. When she mentions not understanding how the Death Eaters got in, Harry explains about the vanishing Cabinet. Ron tells Harry he messed everything up.

"Ginny, Neville, and I were watching the Room of Requirement, but Malfoy came out with the Hand of Glory, which only gives light to the person carrying it. When Malfoy spotted us, he used Fred and George's Peruvian Instant Darkness powder to blind them, and got all the Death Eaters past them. We found Lupin and the rest shortly after and told them what happened, then they found the Death Eaters rushing toward the Astronomy Tower. One of them broke off to cast the Dark Mark, but didn't want to wait alone, so he came back downstairs and was hit by a Killing Curse that was meant for Lupin."