Courage

-95-

Book: Courage
Chapter 95
Word Count: 3067

A/N: This one's a little bit shorter but it's officially the end of the Half-Blood-Prince

All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed. Some students were hurried away from Hogwarts by their parents over the next couple of days — the Patil twins were gone before breakfast on the morning following Dumbledore's death and Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father. Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused point-blank to accompany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the Entrance Hall which was resolved when she agreed that he could remain behind for the funeral. She had difficulty in finding a bed in Hogsmeade, for wizards and witches were pouring into the village, preparing to pay their last respects to Dumbledore.

Some excitement was caused among the younger students, who had never seen it before, when a powder-blue carriage the size of a house, pulled by a dozen giant winged palominos, came soaring out of the sky in the late afternoon before the funeral and landed on the edge of the Forest. Layla watched from a window as a gigantic and handsome olive-skinned, black-haired woman descended the carriage steps and threw herself into the waiting Hagrid's arms. Meanwhile a delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minister for Magic himself, was being accommodated within the castle.

Harry, Layla, Ron, and Hermione were spending all of their time together. The beautiful weather seemed to mock them.

They visited the hospital wing twice a day: Neville had been discharged, but Bill remained under Madam Pomfrey's care. His scars were as bad as ever; in truth, he now bore a distinct resemblance to Mad-Eye Moody, though thankfully with both eyes and legs, but in personality he seemed just the same as ever. All that appeared to have changed was that he now had a great liking for very rare steaks.

"...so eet ees lucky 'e is marrying me," said Fleur happily, plumping up Bill's pillows, "because ze British overcook their meat, I 'ave always said this."

Harry, Layla, Ron and Hermione sat beside the open window of the Gryffindor common room, looking out over the twilit grounds,

"Anyone else we know died?" Ron asked Hermione, who was perusing the Evening Prophet.
Hermione winced at the forced toughness in his voice.

"No," she said reprovingly, folding up the newspaper. "They're still looking for Snape, but no sign..."

"Of course there isn't," said Harry. "They won't find Snape till they find Voldemort, and seeing as they've never managed to do that in all this time..."

Hermione leaned forwards towards Harry with a most Hermione-ish look on her face.

"Harry, I found something out this morning, in the library..."

"R.A.B.?" said Harry, sitting up straight.

There was a note inside the horcrux locket that turned out to be a fake that someone, R.A.B, had planted while he was trying to destroy the real horcrux.

"No," Hermione said sadly, "I've been trying, Harry, but I haven't found anything... there are a couple of reasonably well-known wizards with those initials — Rosalind Antigone Bungs... Rupert 'Axebanger' Brookstanton... but they don't seem to fit at all. Judging by that note, the person who stole the Horcrux knew Voldemort, and I can't find a shred of evidence that Bungs or Axebanger ever had anything to do with him... no, actually, it's about... well, Snape." She looked nervous even saying the name again.

"What about him?" asked Harry heavily, slumping back in his chair.

"Well, it's just that I was sort of right about the Half-Blood Prince business," she said tentatively.