Everything Has Changed

Everything Has Changed ~ Chapter 37

The clean-up had already started; with barely anybody going off to sleep first. We were all running on a pure buzz of the fact that the most evil man alive was no longer alive. This time, they made sure of it. Then, they moved his body somewhere else to deal with later.

I was with Emilia, cleaning some rubble from the Entrance Hall. The whole castle was in a state of utter mess. It would take a very long time to get it back to normal.

The escaped students had sent word of the battle everywhere. The witches and wizards who had still been resisting You-Know-Who marched right into the Ministry of Magic and took it back from the Death Eaters. Aurors were sent to Hogwarts to round up the remaining Death Eaters and start chasing the ones who had fled.

Draco’s parents had surrendered. But they had been able to prove their actions by the end of the battle had been supportive of Harry Potter instead, somehow, and were permitted to stay with their son. I hadn’t talked to him since he and his parents were taken for questioning, an hour or so ago, to the Trophy Room. All I knew was from Luna running over and telling me what she’d heard.

My own parents had arrived barely ten minutes ago. Many others had, too, come straight away when they heard what had taken place at Hogwarts. Many parents had immediately taken their children home, but others were staying here.

My parents were one of the latter. The moment I saw them, my heart fell. There they’d been, with even Gran hobbling along, and they saw me and ran to me and hugged me. They fussed over me and raised a ruckus when they saw my wound. Then they asked where Astrea was.

They were in there now. I’d led them wordlessly into the Great Hall, left them to do what they needed to do and went back out to clean. I couldn’t stay while they went through what I had just gone through.

“Do you need to talk?” asked Emilia.

“No.”

“If you change your mind, I’m here for you. Any time.”

“Thanks.”

I became aware of a presence behind me. Draco was there, and his parents a little further behind. “Can we go outside?” he asked. Emilia shot me a look as we left – Mrs Malfoy had started to talk her. I sent her a pleading look.

“You owe me,” she mouthed.

We went out and sat on the steps. “Are you okay? What happened with the Ministry people?” I asked.

“They’ve decided not to arrest us. We still have a trial though. Basically, we were bailed out.”

“By who?”

“Potter.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Never mind me, Eleanor. I saw your family with your sister just now.”

“Yeah. They came quickly.”

Draco leaned back to make himself more comfortable. I followed, but also leaned slightly into him. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

Draco frowned at me. “You’ve just been in a giant battle, you were sliced open and your sister was–” He hesitated. “You can’t be fine.”

“Okay, I’m not,” I admitted. “But I’m getting better. The gaping hole in my side is fixing nicely, thanks to your skilful healing, and I’ve – I don’t know – accepted, I guess, Astrea’s death. I’m still so damn sad I want to curl up and cry and scream forever, but at least now it doesn’t feel like my heart’s being clawed out of my chest. I’m not fine, but I could be much worse. I was much worse.”