𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 •°𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴

[71]

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

That night they went back to the common room as soon as they were dismissed. Nico dragged Sara after him to the boys' dorm, not stopping to answer any of the other's questions or argue with Dean and Seamus. They both needed sleep and to get away from their nightmare of a life, even if it was for a few hours.

All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed. Some students were hurried away from Hogwarts by their parents over the next couple of days--the Patil twins were gone before breakfast on the morning following Dumbledore's death and Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father. Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused point-blank to accompany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the Entrance Hall which was resolved when she agreed that he could remain behind for the funeral.

Some excitement was caused among the younger students, who had never seen it before, when a powder-blue carriage the size of a house, pulled by a dozen giant winged palominos, came soaring out of the sky in the late afternoon before the funeral and landed on the edge of the Forest. Sara watched from a window as a gigantic and handsome olive-skinned, black-haired woman descended the carriage steps and threw herself into the waiting Hagrid's arms. Meanwhile a delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minister for Magic himself, was being accommodated within the castle.

Sara and Nico had found out about the whole R. A. B. thing later on from Harry and the others. It was kind of weird, everything that was happening and the fact that someone else had been searching for a horcrux. They didn't know if that someone was still alive nor that any of the other horcruxes had been destroyed.

They were scheduled to leave immediately after Dumbledore's funeral. The remaining days they still waited for it, Sara felt a big sadness drop into the pit of her stomach. She was almost sure that she wouldn't be coming back to the place she had been calling home ever since her first year at Hogwarts; and the castle seemed to know that too.

The funeral had been packed with people, Ministry officials or just wizards that came to pay their respects to Dumbledore. Even nature seemed to cry and so the Centauruses came to pay their respects for the late Headmaster along with the merpeople. Sara kept her tears in, Nico's holding her hand the whole time as the ceremony took place. They felt destroyed, they felt empty.

Everything that has happened and was happening was just a way to remind them that darker times were coming, than maybe in a few months war would break out and that they would be caught in it.

Children caught in a stupid mess, that's what they were.

Sara thought about her parents, they also had to go through all of that, dying like heros, protecting what was dear to them until the very end.

The redhead looked around and she saw their faces; Nico, her beloved, his expression empty and his eyes devoid of that light they usually carried, Harry, her brother, who looked like he was about to make a big decision regarding their situation, Ginny and Hermione, girls that were like sisters to her, crying and then there was Ron, looking defeated. Lupin and Tonks chose not to attend the funeral and Sara missed her godfather dearly.

She didn't want to lose anyone else, she had a mission, something left by Dumbledore only for her to do.

Sara had to die and that thought scared her, but she wasn't ready to give up everything quite yet.

She clutched the letter from Dumbledore that she had started to carry with her anywhere, that piece of paper was going to decide most of her fate.

The redhead sighed.

Will she know when it was the time to open it?

-

"What did Scrimgeour want?" Hermione whispered as she, Sara, Nico and Ron caught up to Harry after the funeral.

"Same as he wanted at Christmas," shrugged Harry. "Wanted me to give him inside information on Dumbledore and be the Ministry's new poster boy. "

Ron seemed to struggle with himself for a moment, then he said loudly to his brother, "Look, let me go back and hit Percy!"

"No," Hermione said firmly and grabbed his arm before Nico could do anything.

"It'll make me feel better!"

Sara, Nico and Harry laughed. Even Hermione grinned a little, though her smile faded as she looked up at the castle.

"I can't bear the idea that we might never come back. " she said softly. "How can Hogwarts close?"

"Maybe it won't," said Ron. "We're not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Everywhere's the same now. I'd even say Hogwarts is safer, there are more wizards inside to defend the place. What d'you reckon, Harry?"

"I'm not coming back even if it does reopen," said Harry.

Ron gaped at him, but Sara said sadly, "I knew you were going to say that. But then what will we do?"

"We're going back to the Dursleys' once more, because Dumbledore wanted me to," said Harry. "But it'll be a short visit, and then I'll be gone for good. "

"But where will you go if you don't come back to school?" Hermione asked.

"I thought I might go back to Godric's Hollow," Harry muttered. Sara sighed. "For me, it started there, all of it. I've just got a feeling I need to go there. And I can visit my parents' graves, I'd like that."

"I'm coming with you, Harry," Sara whispered, putting a hand on her brother's shoulder.

"It would be too dangerous for you."

"You're not the only one who has a mission from Dumbledore, I need to fulfill mine as well."

"And then what?" said Ron, too impatient to wait for the twins to finish bickering.

"Then I've got to track down the rest of the Horcruxes, haven't I?" said Harry, his eyes upon Dumbledore's white tomb. "That's what he wanted me to do, that's why he told me all about them. If Dumbledore was right-and I'm sure he was-there are still four of them out there. I've got to find them and destroy them and then I've got to go after the seventh bit of Voldemort's soul, the bit that's still in his body, and I'm the one who's going to kill him. And if I meet Severus Snape along the way," he added, "so much the better for me, so much the worse for him. "

There was a long silence. The crowd had almost dispersed now, the stragglers giving the monumental figure of Grawp a wide berth as he cuddled Hagrid, whose howls of grief were still echoing across the water.

"We'll be there, Harry," said Ron.

"What?"

"At your aunt and uncle's house," Nico continued. "And then we'll go with you, wherever you and Sara are going."

"No-" said Harry quickly.

"You said to us once before," said Hermione quietly, "that there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"

"We're with you whatever happens," said Ron. "But, mate, you two are going to have to come round mum's and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow. "

"Why?"

"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"

"Yeah, we shouldn't miss that, Harry," Sara whispered, a little smile appearing on her face.

It was decided, they were going on this adventure together, ready to bring everything back to normal. Sara took Nico's hand and he chuckled lightly, kissing her knuckles. They would do it together, whether Harry would argue with her on staying home or not, they were going and they weren't coming back until everything was good again.

But until then, they still had the afternoon and a ride back to enjoy each other's company.

THE END OF THE THIRD PART.