Ternion || Oliver Wood

Chapter 110

Unexpected Visitor

Nobody spoke, nobody moved. I felt as though something inside him was falling, falling through the earth, leaving him forever.

"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort — he can fly — went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and — there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail —"

Bill's voice broke.

"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Remus.

They all stood looking at each other. I couldn't quite comprehend it. Mad Eye dead; it could not be....Mad Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor.

At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence we followed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.

"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning our faces as we entered. "What's happened? Who's —"

"Mad Eye," said Dad. "Dead."

The twins' grin turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad Eye, I knew, his favorite and his protégée at the Ministry of Magic. Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.

Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of firewhiskey and some glasses.

"Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand he sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room of each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. "Mad Eye."

"Mad Eye," we all said and drank.

"Mad Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup.

The firewhiskey seared in my throat. It seemed to burn feeling back into me, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality, firing me with something that was courage.

"So Mundungus disappeared?" said Remus, who had drained his own glass in one.

The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Remus, both wanting him to go on, it seemed to me, and slightly afraid of what we might hear.

"I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here seemed to be expecting us, didn't they? But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be seven Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery. Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."

"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley..."