Forgotten Girl

All That's Left

They moved the body of Voldemort away from the rest, and McGonagall replaced the House tables. Harry collapsed beside Luna as Lilli sat across from them. She looked at him with concern, seeing again the dark circles under his eyes and the gaunt look on his face.

"I'd want some peace and quiet, if it were me," Luna remarked, eyes following an invisible quarry.

"I'd love some," Harry replied.

"I'll distract them all," she said. "Use your Cloak."

Before anyone could say anything, Luna turned and exclaimed, "Ooh, look! A Blibbering Humdinger!" Harry slipped under the cloak as Lilli stifled a laugh. She felt a hand settle on her shoulder for a moment before it disappeared.

"Are you doing alright, Luna?" Lilli asked her friend, scanning the blonde for injuries.

"I'm fine, Elliana," Luna grasped her hand over the table, "Are you?"

"I don't know," Lilli said simply, a tear falling down her face, "Yesterday I was on a plane, about to see my family for the first time in almost a year, and now half of them are dead."

Luna switched sides, leaning her shoulder against Lilli. She reciprocated, her head resting against Luna's. Tears tracked steady trails down her face, falling like rain on their intertwined hands. 

"Did you know Nargles hate sadness?" Luna said, "They'd much prefer to feed on the happy. Blibbering Humdingers like sadness though. it's why there's so many here."

She giggled wetly, wiping away tears as she listened to her friend. It seemed Luna still knew how to distract her when she got too into her thoughts. 

Dean and Seamus came over, their arms wrapped around each other, though Seamus's arm was in a sling. They smiled at the girls, Dean raising an eyebrow at their hands. Lilli just shrugged.

"How many?" Seamus asked, glancing toward the rows of dead heroes.

"Fifty-five, I think, from our side." Lilli straightened, rubbing tired eyes, "Thirty-four were Hogwarts students." She remembered the little boy, the one she'd promised to keep his sister safe. 

"Either of you seen Katie Bell? Alive?" A sense of dread deepened in her stomach. How was she going to explain to a first-year that his sister was dead?

"She's over with Angelina," Dean said, nodding behind her, "Fred's death hit them both hard."

Lilli looked, seeing not the girls, but George making his way over. She went to her friend, burying her face in his shirt. George squeezed her, hiding his tear-stained face in her hair.

"I... I don't think he's dead," he whispered, his voice barely audible, "I know he isn't dead. But they don't believe me."

"Want me to see?" Lilli asked, stepping back. Hope flared in his eyes, and she tucked her arm around his waist as they found their way through the people. The Weasleys let them through, although she could feel Percy and Ron's suspicious gaze.

Fred lay, still and silent, with the ghost of a laugh on his face. She saw what George meant; he wasn't nearly as pale as someone should be, after being dead for hours. Lilli knelt, holding two fingers to his neck and two to his wrist. At first, she felt nothing, not even the whisper of a pulse... Then... there.

Bum... bum... bum...

Slower than the drip of a sink, but it was there. Lilli glanced up at George, eyes wide, "There's a pulse."

A hush fell over them all. The Weasleys stared at the redheaded Potter. Then a burst of movement and sound as they hugged each other and sobbed. She squeaked when not only George but Molly too, hugged her.