The next seconds felt like an eternity, then everything sped up. Before Charlotte knew it, Harry was chasing Bellatrix who had flown through one of the black doors. Dumbledore vanished as well, hopefully to protect the boy.
« Let's...let's find the others. Neville, were are they all ? » Lupin asked with a painful voice while Moody tended to Tonks, paralyzed on the floor.
« Dey're all back dere. » The broken-nosed teenager answered. « A brain addacked Ron bud I dink he's all righd. And Herbione's unconscious, bud we could feel a bulse. Ginny broke her ankle and Luna god hid, doo. »
« Charlotte, sweetie. » Her godfather finally turned his very pale face towards her. « Can you move ? I'd rather have you come with me. »
She nodded and stood up. Her legs trembled only an instant. Focusing on something else, on helping the rest of the Hogwarts students, was better than staring at the veil kneeled on the cold stones. Still, when they climbed the stairs past the tied Death eaters, something inside her started to simmer.
They indeed found Ron and Hermione passed out in the room Neville led them to, and the two younger girls not knowing what to do to help them. Remus proceeded to remove what looked like a tentacled brain from Ron's body, while Charlotte reversed the spell that had hit Hermione.
« Let's bring them back to Madam Pomfrey, you take Luna and Neville, I got the others. » Lupin indicated.
They grouped as he had asked, the two adults disapparated and they all landed right outside the Hogwarts grounds. Walking up between her wounded friends, the witch tried to ignore that the familiar castle felt like a ghostly scene.
The nursery door was already ajar, so that Charlotte caught sight of the long rows of white beds when they approached. She leaned on the closest wall, surprised by a sudden lack of air.
« Remus, I can't. I can't go in. » She managed to speak.
« Oh, sure, sorry I didn't think about...I got this, just take a breath. » Her godfather replied immediately.
While the six others disappeared into the room, the blond tilted her head and closed her eyes. But she couldn't really stay still. As she paced in the stone corridors and familiar rooms, the feeling that had started to fill her guts earlier at the Ministry - anger - rose. The castle that used to seem soothing felt oppressing, another home she had been ripped of.
« Here you are. » Lupin startled her. « I've left the kids in good hands, and Dumbledore would like to see us. »
« Why ? »
« I don't really know, probably to talk about what happened tonight. » The werewolf was taken aback by her dry tone.
« I already know what happened tonight. I lost my father. » Charlotte replied and again, Remus winced.
In that moment, the fact that he had lost his best friends was obstructed in her mind by her own pain. Either too emotional to talk or sensing that any wise word of comfort would be lost on the her in that moment, the red head simply kept silent and beckoned to follow him to the Headmaster's office anyway.
At the bottom of the spirale staircase, they met Harry who was just getting down. Lupin quickly reduce the distance separating them to hug the teenager. Once they let go of each other, Harry stood there visibly hesitant, with floppy arms and not moving towards his friend.
« Right, don't expect me to hug you. » The blond witch asserted, letting the anger sip out. « Not when you're the reason he's dead. »
He opened his mouth as if to respond, but no argument came out.
« And since I can't see him anymore, I don't want to see you ever again either. »
« Charlotte ! » Remus came out of his surprise to reprimand her. « Go knock on Dumbledore's door, I'll be right behind you. And don't you dare speak to him the way you just did. »
She didn't really dare, but did not become over-indulgent either, listening to the Headmaster's apologies with an impassible face. What good were making apologies now anyway. He only said one odd sentence.
« One last thing miss Black, I think you should keep this ring on your finger at all times. »
After that, despite the tempting thought of killing the vile traitor Kreature, she knew she did not have the strength to go back to Grimmauld Place. Instead she went to crash into her bed in her parents' loft, gesturing away all of their dramatic condolences.
Not that she would have gone, but Auror training was cancelled for some time, while the Ministry tried to repair the damage - material, political and mediatic - of that disastrous night. The young woman went into survival mode again.
After a couple of days, when one of her parents - she didn't really notice which - mentioned the idea of a ceremony, a thought hit her again that she hadn't concretely seen her father die, that there was no body. She became obsessed with the veil and it's meaning.
But after more than a sleepless week of research, there was only one realistic conclusion. Not that she was being very much of that -realistic-, but another hard truth shook her back to her senses : in her desperate fixation, she had let Cedric's death anniversary pass without a single gesture to his memory. So when she finally went to the cemetery, she took two decisions. First, there would be a ceremony for Sirius, because he was irremediably gone. Secondly, this loss was too much, she couldn't face it alone. Time to be only human, she was going to seek psychological help.
YOU ARE READING
Chasing
FanfictionWhen Charlotte transfers from the girls only Beauxbâtons Academy of Magic to Hogwarts, it brings big changes to her life. Not only does she enter at the same time as the famous Harry Potter, but her path will cross those of many interesting characte...
