Dark Side

An Explosion of Stars

Harry

We stood there, for who knows how long, probably only seconds, but it felt like so much longer. Fred Weasley couldn't be dead. He would pop back up any second, laughing, "You should've seen the looks on your faces!" He should get up, make fun of George's missing ear, how discheveled they all looked. He needed to come back, making us laugh to distract us, remind us there was good in this world, keep us from falling to despair.

But that was gone now. There was no hope left, or so it seemed. I couldn't think of a world without Fred, I tried, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the concept. It isn't a concept anymore. I knew coming into this that many of my friends and loved ones would likely die, I thought I was prepared for that, but now that it had actually happened, I couldn't believe it.

A body fell past the hole in the side of the building, whether it was friend or foe, I did not know. Curses flew past us and hit the walls, causing more dust and rock to rain down on us.

"Get down!" Draco yelled, pulling me to the floor behind a chunk of wall. He was the only one still sensible, only one who could still think about the battle. The rest of us were numb.

Draco raised his wand and cast a charm at the gaping hole through which curses were flying, I don't know what it was, he always used non-verbal spells. I guessed it was some version of a shield charm, creating a translucent barrier between them and the outside. Under normal circumstances I would be impressed with his spellwork, and Hermione would probably be asking a ton of questions, but we all just didn't care.

Draco stood up, speaking in his ever-calm voice. "We need to go. That charm won't last forever. People are gathering in the Great Hall, tending to wounds, laying out the dead. We need to go." His words were forceful, not giving them a chance to disagree, but also gentle and caring at the same time.

They all stood up, walking to stand beside me, backs agaist the remaining wall, facing Fred.

Draco picked his way carefully through the rubble, bending down over Fred and gently closing his eyes. He stood up again, raising his wand, and Fred's body floated up beside him. Then we all walked, following Draco like lost sheep, down the stairs, and into the Great Hall.

Whispers errupted when we walked in, some of us limping, covered in blood and dust, tears cutting tracks through the grime on our faces.

"Who's that floating beside Draco?"

"Oh god, it's Fred."

Draco walked past them, to an open space in the line of bodies lined up along the floor. There were more than I had expected, and I followed Draco as he walked, scanning the faces as I passed.

Some I didn't know, maybe family members of students, maybe just wizards who had sided with their cause, each face pricked my heart as I walked past.

Then there were the ones I did know. I saw Lavender Brown, deep gashes covering her body, killed by Greyback. Colin Creevy, stayed back even though he was underage, eager to fight. He was to young to deserve this. None of them deserved this. Each face was a stab in my heart, and when I thought it could get no worse, that I couldn't possibly feel more pain than I already had, I saw the next two faces.

Remus and Tonks. laid beside each other, arms fallen out to their sides, hands almost touching. Their newborn boy at home, no idea that he had just lost both parents. All I could think about was Tonks and the ridiculous noses she would show us at the dining table in Grimmauld place, Remus teaching me how to cast a patronus, the last of my father's friends, dead.

I forced myself to keep moving, to tear my eyes away. Instead I watched Draco in front of me. He had stopped walking, Slowly lowering Fred until he lay gently on the cold stone floor.