The Unknown of the Order (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Beautiful, Little Fools

They were seated around a campfire in a large cavern. Somebody had pitched the tents and set up the protective enchantments, but Sarah remembered none of it, only Dumbledore's bloodstained body as she stared into the fire. 

"I told you to go home," hissed Talbott, disturbing the peace of their collective misery. 

"And I told you you, 'no,'" said Penny. 

"Sophie--"

"Is safe with my sister."

"What if we'd both been killed? I'm not having my child grow up without both her parents!"

"And I'm not having her grow up in a world where muggles, her family, are hunted down and killed for sport! Not if I can do anything about it."

Silence. 

"It's not like it matters much now anyway, does it?" asked Tulip, the fire dancing in her brown eyes. "You-Know-Who's won."

Eight pairs of eyes slowly fell upon Sarah. She almost smirked, realizing they were expecting her to make some heroic speech, as she'd done each time they'd faced impossible odds inside a Cursed Vault. But words seemed to have left her, as the life had left Dumbledore's body. 

"That doesn't sound like the words of the infamous vigilante," she said at last to Tulip. 

Tulip smiled grimly. "The Vigilante's dead. Didn't you see the Prophet? As soon as I stopped dumping Death Eaters at the minister's doorstep, they printed some cock-and-bull story about the heroic Aurors cornering me. Apparently, I put up such a fight that I had to be taken down."

Another string of silence. 

"My brother is alive," said Elena quietly. 

"Did you see him?" asked Barnaby. 

"No, but Amycus Carrow recognized me. Just before I cursed him, he yelled, 'Its that Andrel girl. Won't your brother be proud to know what you're up to these days.'"

"So, he's back with the Death Eaters?" 

"I suppose he is."

"Are you going to go after him?" asked Jacob. 

Elena shook her head in uncertainty. "He's the only family I have left," was all she said. 

"You have us," said Barnaby. "We're your family now."

Elena nodded, but she stared into the fire, and Sarah knew was certain her thoughts rested on one thing. 

Sarah looked at Jacob. "I don't suppose you can do for Dumbledore whatever you did to yourself."

It was the first time she'd spoken to him since she'd declared he was no longer her brother. 

He shook his head. "It has to be done in advance. And the kind of magic you'd need...Dumbledore would never..."

Sarah nodded. She understood. She'd seen Jacob's lifeless body that night in R's headquarters. She'd felt his cold, stiff hands, seen eyes glassy and devoid of soul. No magic could reawaken the dead. No good magic, anyway. Whatever Jacob had done to be sitting here now, Dumbledore never would have done it. No, Dumbledore was at peace, blissfully free of all the people who depended on him. 

Unable to stand the suffocating weight that hung around them all, Sarah stood and retreated to the back of the cavern, away from the warmth and light of the fire. 

Dumbledore gone. She'd accepted it now, but she still couldn't understand it. How could it be? Which of the Death Eaters had been able to best him? How could any of them still be alive if Dumbledore, so much more powerful and wise then they, was not?