What Voldemort Left Behind

Chapter 46 - Back to the Burrow

AUTHORS NOTE: I'm sorry if there's any mistakes in this or if it's not right, i don't think this chapter is right and i feel like i should make it sadder but i don't know how to fix it so i'm just posting because otherwise i won't 😂. This chapter was longer than i thought it was so maybe it might turn out better than i thought too. The scene between Lily and Hugo on their own was basically taken from my own experience at a wake a couple of days before a funeral so it's more personal but there's a magical spin on it. The character of Lucy is slightly based around my own cousin 😂. I wish this was more sad but honestly as a teenager at a house after someone dies was mostly watching other people talk and cry so i tried to make it realistic but as you can probably tell, i love writing a sad story

Lily stood in the Headmistress's office, she hugged her older brother as they cried, she kept replaying in her mind her mother's voice telling her that her Granny had died last night, she didn't know what to do. Granny was always the one to be there for her through all of Mum and Dad's struggles, she would tell them stories and hug them and make them soup and chocolate fudge brownies. Every second another thought cut into her; no more Christmas sweaters, hot chocolate before bed, sitting beside the self-playing piano and teaching her your favorite Muggle songs. Lily held onto her grief-stricken brother because she could see he was ready to break something in his anger, there were a lot of odd looking breakable items on spindly tables that she wasn't sure could be repaired. She glanced around the room through teary eyes, her mother was comforting Albus, Rose and Hugo were talking to their parents, the whole family in tears, McGonagall had left to give some privacy, but her dad was standing frozen.
He wasn't crying, he stared straight ahead, blank and unfocused eyes, he looked a mess. Her brothers and cousins looked too upset to notice anything, but Lily had always had a knack for noticing things that other people didn't. Her thoughts were coming really fast but she couldn't focus on anything. Her mind began to stray towards the least important parts, she began to imagine what was going to happen now, they'd have to plan a funeral, she thought miserably, where they would bury her body and then she'd never come back, ever, she'd be with the first James and Lily, the grandparents Lily never met.

She'd only been to one funeral before in her life and it was for a man who had grown to become like another grandfather to her. Dad had taken Lily and her brothers one day on a visit expected of him as the "Chosen One", to see Horace Slughorn, an old teacher who had fought in the war, helping her dad when he was defeating Voldemort. Horace admired him greatly but the feeling wasn't exactly returned, however he also took a shine to Lily, she loved the old man who had begged to babysit her younger self. He was eager to assist her with practicing Quidditch and magic, secretly teaching her some new spells and potions. He would reward her for her talents in something he called "crystallized pineapples" which tasted very nice and Lily was almost sick on a few occasions when Horace fed her too many of the sweets. He had died shortly after her sixth birthday, just before Lily learned her Patronus charm which Lily was very disappointed about, she had always wanted Horace to see her do it. Dad accompanied her to the funeral where hundreds of witches and wizards paid their respects and a fair amount of them fawned over Lily who was left very confused why she was handed so many treats afterwards, people practically lined up to offer her a traybake and flowers which Lily didn't understand since it wasn't her funeral, it took her a few years to realize what a funeral meant, that he wasn't there. Horace's friends and admirers loved Lily, this was her first memory of being famous, before, she and her siblings had often been shielded from it.

Her thoughts drifted back to her granny as she was reminded of her baking and her cooking... She would always offer seconds and thirds to everyone, particularly Lily's dad who for some reason she loved to take care of more than the rest of the family. Uncle Ron always laughed about it, Lily wanted those family dinners back again, it didn't make sense the thought of never hearing her grandmother tell another story, that they wouldn't walk into the Burrow's kitchen and smell fifteen dinner options for the five people coming. Who would fuss if someone flew too high in the meadow outside? Mum and Dad wouldn't, they'd be flying even more dangerously. Who'd be there with a hug and some distractions when Mum and Dad got weird again? Kreacher wouldn't, he'd be too worried. Granny and Grandad made life normal, no matter what was going on at home, they'd be at the Burrow and it would always be the same, some knitting or gnoming or cooking and then someone else would arrive with another problem, whenever Uncle George couldn't get a product to work, they could while away a few hours experimenting, then the problem would be solved. Grandad would still be at the Burrow but it wouldn't be the same, it was supposed to be Granny and Grandad Weasley, it wasn't right otherwise. She remembered her grandmother saying goodbye at the train station, she felt awfully guilty for the three of them complaining that all the family came to see them off, now Granny was dead and Dad was dying, the goodbye now seemed so inadequate. That car ride there was exactly how she wanted her family to be, apart from her Grandad nearly crashing the car into a lamppost, but the whole journey felt so much like she was a part of a regular boring magical family where parents weren't suffering from past trauma, where she could go to Hogwarts without death threats hanging over her head, being Harry Potter's daughter meant she had to be careful for her entire life. Her Granny's death meant one less person they were allowed to spend time with.