black and white ✰ g.w.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The morning of Dumbledore's funeral, Olivia just finished getting ready in the bathroom and exited to see Fred and George waiting for her in the kitchen of their flat.

"About time," Fred muttered jokingly.

"Shut it, Fred," George said before looking to Olivia. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Olivia sighed, genuinely not looking forward to attending the funeral.

The last and only funeral she had ever attended was that of her great aunt Kathryn and great uncle Abraxas, who had passed away within days of each other. The entirety of her family had been there, including, obviously, the Malfoys. It had been a very awkward, tense, and emotional few hours from what she remembered (she had only been 9 years old at the time) and if Dumbledore's funeral had any chance of being anything like that, she did not want to go. But she had to pay her respects to the man, and she wanted to talk to her cousins sooner rather than later.

The trio Apparated from Diagon Alley to Hogsmeade, where they walked the rest of the way to the Hogwarts grounds. When they arrived, there were already a lot of guests there, but the Hogwarts students and staff weren't outside yet. While they waited, they found Bill and Fleur and spoke to them for a bit.

In the few minutes between the arrival of the Hogwarts students and the official start of the funeral itself, Olivia, Faustus, Evelyn, Fraser, and Duncan were able to talk amongst themselves.

"So you all fought that night?" Olivia asked the four of them.

"Of course we did," Faustus confirmed. "We weren't about to sit back and allow the Death Eaters to run rampant in our school."

"We could've used more people from the other Houses though," Fraser said bitterly. "We nearly lost."

"They were just scared, I expect," Duncan reasoned. "That Lestrange woman is scary enough, but the whole lot of them..." He visibly shivered.

"That's not an excuse. It's not like those of us that did fight were particularly looking forward to it."

"I would assume a lot of them were probably sleeping, too. It was really late, after all."

"None of the fifth-years were," Evelyn said. "Before Luna, Ginny, and I left the library with Bella, practically our whole year was in there, and the fight started not long after."

"Same with the seventh-years," Faustus added.

"See? They all could have come, at least, but they didn't," Fraser said.

"Fraser, I understand where you're coming from, I really do," Olivia said, "but you can't hold this against them. You can't blame someone for not wanting to risk their life. I'm sure if they knew it was going to go that badly, a lot more would have joined you to help out."

"Exactly," Duncan agreed.

"Besides, I'm pretty sure most of the members don't check their coins every night," Evelyn pointed out, smirking slightly at the boys.

"Well," Faustus began, shrugging, "I knew that if they needed to contact members from other Houses, that would be the way they would do it. You never know anymore, what with the war and all."

The funeral began not long later. Olivia sat with Fred, George, Oliver, and Catrina. As expected, the majority of the attendees were emotional, especially as Hagrid was carrying Dumbledore's body, which was wrapped in purple velvet with gold stars, through the aisle between the rows of chairs and up to the white table. The whole thing was just very uncomfortable for Olivia and Oliver, who shifted awkwardly in their seats often throughout the ceremony and were glad when it was over.

Once Albus Dumbledore had been laid to rest and his funeral had concluded, the guests, of course, began to leave. The parents and older family members of the Hogwarts students ended up staying behind a bit longer to speak to them, but the conversations were kept brief because the students would be arriving at Kings Cross Station in just a few hours time.

Faustus's graduation would be taking place in an hour. Olivia's plan was to attend that, and then go to the Village to spend some time with her family.

While walking from the Hogwarts grounds, Olivia was shocked and, quite frankly, angered to see Dolores Umbridge among the crowd. After exchanging a grin with Fred and George, the three of them mimicked the sound of hooves hitting the ground, scaring the evil woman and causing her to look around in fear, leading the three to snigger.

"Looks like she is your daughter after all," Jade said to Catrina after watching the encounter.

.｡❅*⋆⍋*∞*｡*∞*⍋⋆*❅｡.

Olivia stood with her family and the families of the other graduating seventh-years on the platform at Hogsmeade Station, watching as the seventh-years floated slowly towards them in the enchanted boats. She could see Faustus in a boat with Rosalia, and could tell, even from that distance, that the students in their year were a lot less emotional about leaving Hogwarts than the students in her year had been. She didn't blame them; Hogwarts was a lot worse off now than it had been a year previously.

However, this didn't prevent the parents from being emotional about their children graduating. Helena specifically was sniffling as she watched her grandson, who she had raised since he was just two months old, leave the school for the last time as a student.

Much like how Catrina had pulled Olivia into a hug as soon as she reached the platform a year earlier, Helena did the same to Faustus.

Once the older adults in the family had finished with congratulating Faustus, Olivia approached him.

"I really thought no one could have a worse end to their schooling than I did," she told him. "Yet here you are, graduating right after the headmaster was murdered on school grounds."

"Yeah," Faustus chuckled. "It just seems to keep getting worse and worse, and it always involves someone dying. I'd be lying if I said I weren't concerned for this time next year."

"You should've been born earlier so you could've graduated with me."

"Earlier? Liv, my mum was only 17 when I was born, I don't think me being born earlier would've been very good for her. No, what I should have done was taken a leaf from Fred and George's book and dropped out."

"Don't let Grandma and Grandpa hear you say that."

The families allowed the seventh-years to say goodbye to each other for possibly the last time in a very long time before they all gradually began to Disapparate from the platform. The Wood family all reappeared in the Village, deep down afraid for what was to come, but would not show it.

[word count: 1121]
[written: 10/21/20]
[published: 10/21/20]