Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 57: Everything Has Changed

Shaye could feel the eyes on her as she moved through the halls toward the Great Hall. The school was holding a memorial service for Cedric and although she and Harry knew that it would be yet another excuse for the other students to stare and whisper about them behind their backs, they also knew that they couldn't miss it. 

In a way, they were responsible for Cedric's death . . . and that thought had haunted them every minute of every day since the third task. If Voldemort hadn't have been so determined to kill them, then the Triwizard tournament would have been just that and Cedric probably would have won. He would have gone back home after the year was over with his winnings and his father and lived to see the rest of his life. Instead, however, he was just a stark reminder of the danger that came with opposing the Dark Lord.

All anyone would remember him for—except those few who truly knew him—was a lesson learned. An example. A warning.

Shaye shook that thought from her head as she entered the Great Hall and noticed that the tables were gone and in their place were rows and rows of benches; like pews in a church. All colour had been stripped away and where the house banners of the winners of the House Cup usually draped from the ceiling, black banners with the Hogwarts logo replaced them. At the front of the room, where the teacher's table usually sat, Dumbledore's golden throne sat by itself. Even the throne seemed to shine less.

As she made her way toward the front of the room, the many Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauzbatons students eyeing her as she passed, she sat down at one of the benches beside Harry, Ron and Hermione and hung her head. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mattias sitting with Krum and his other friends on the other side of the room. Then, in the very first row, she spotted two heads of shoulder-length ginger hair. George turned around to look at her when Lee tapped him on the shoulder. The two made eye contact. George smiled. Shaye couldn't even do that.

Shaye thought about when she had kissed George. It seemed so long ago, like a different lifetime. She remembered being happy for a split second in that moment. She wondered if she would ever be happy again. What if one person could only take so much pain and grief? What happens then?

Shaye thought about having to explain everything to the people around her. Explain what had happened. Explain how she was feeling. Just the thought of it was exhausting.

Shaye thought about having to explain Lorelei to George. He knew the basics like everyone else did, but he didn't know what she, Harry, Ron and Hermione knew. Lorelei had always been an anomaly; a challenge to understand. 

Suddenly, flashes of her first year at Hogwarts flashed through Shaye's head. She thought about when she had looked into the Mirror of Erised and seen only herself, Harry and Quirrell; but Quirrell had stood out, almost shining. It was then that she put two and two together. The thing she wanted most in the world was to find her sister, and what she hadn't known then was that the person who knew what had happened to her was right there beside her on the back of Quirrell's head. She thought about when Voldemort had told her about her sister's disappearance. He hadn't just known about it, he was responsible for it. 

In a flash of memories, pieces were fitting together that at one point had seemed to be from completely different puzzles. There was no Lorelei and the Lost Wanderer. Lorelei was the Lost Wanderer. Shaye's father had been killed doing the same thing Shaye was doing . . . trying to discover the truth.

But there was just one thing that didn't make sense. It was clear that Voldemort wanted Shaye to believe her sister was dead, but if Lorelei's secrets had truly died with her, then why was he so threatened by the actions of a 14-year-old girl?

Before Shaye had the opportunity to think any harder on the matter, Dumbledore entered the Hall and stepped up to his throne. As he sat, the room fell silent as the many gathered students and teachers waited for him to speak.