The Potter Twins and the Half-Blood Prince {6}

28. The Dawn Will Come

"Bear your blade and raise it high. Stand your ground, the dawn will come. The night is long and the path is dark, look to the sky for one day soon the dawn will come" - The Dawn Will Come, Dragon Age: Inquisition

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

Some excitement is caused among the younger students, who have never seen it before when a powder-blue carriage the size of a house, pulled by a dozen giant winged palominos, come soaring out of the sky in the late afternoon before the funeral and land on the edge of the forest. I watch from a window as gigantic and handsome olive-skinned, black-haired woman descends the carriage steps and throws herself into the waiting arms of Hagrid. Meanwhile, a delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minister of Magic himself, are being accommodated within the castle. Harry and I are diligently avoiding contact with any of them; I'm sure that sooner or later, we will be asked again to account for Dumbledore's last excursion from Hogwarts.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and I are spending all of our time together. The beautiful weather seems to mock us; I can imagine how it would be if none of us had happened, and we had had this time together at the very end of the year, Draco still at the school, the pressure of homework lifted...hour by hour I think of him, of how close he had been switching sides before the other Death Eaters arrived. But then I think of all the bad things he did; cursing Katie, poisoning Ron, trying to seduce me to his side...his words from the tower haunt my dreams, "We couldn't rely on the Imperius Curse again -- we knew she'd be able to throw it off. But that Mudblood Granger ruined our chances when she woke Haylee up from that dream." Would he have tried to curse me had he not known I could throw the Imperius Curse off? Worse yet, would he have continued trying to seduce me to his side? All I know is that every warning ever given to me about him turned out to be true, and I only hope that we don't cross paths in this war again, for I don't know what I'd do.

We visit the hospital wing twice a day; Neville has been discharged, but Bill and Riley remain, the latter yet to wake up from his induced slumber. Bill's scars are as bad as ever - in truth, he now bears a distinct resemblance to Mad-Eye Moody, though thankfully with both eyes and legs -- but in personality, he seems just the same as ever. All that appears to have changed is that he now has a great liking for very rare steaks.

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

"I suppose I'm just going to have to accept that he really is going to marry her," Ginny sighs later that evening, as she, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I sit beside the open window of the Gryffindor common room, looking out over the twilt grounds.

"She's not that bad," says Harry. "Ugly though," he adds hastily, as Ginny raises her eyebrows, and she lets out a reluctant giggle.

"Well, I suppose if Mum can stand it, I can."

"Anyone else we know died?" Ron asks Hermione, who is perusing the Evening Prophet.

Hermione winces at the forced toughness of his voice. "No," she says reprovingly, folding up the newspaper. "They're still looking for Snape but no sign..."