Towers - Fred Weasley

42

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EBONY WAS URGED SAFELY BACK INSIDE THE CASTLE BY PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL. She had brought her to Dumbledore's office instead of the Greenhouse where Amos is currently at. When the door opens, she sees Harry but also another figure stand there. 

"Ebony--"

"He's dead." She says, breaking down in tears again. "He's gone. I will never see him again!" Sirius walks forward and wraps his arms around her. "He's dead." She clutches onto his shirt, she tries her best not to lose her breath like she had before but it's incredibly hard.

"If I thought I could help you," Dumbledore says gently, "by putting you into an enchanted sleep, and allowing you to postpone the moment when you would have to think about what has happened tonight, I would do it. But I know better. Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you. I ask you to demonstrate your courage one more time. I ask you to tell us what happened." 

Ebony tries to ignore the conversation that's going on with Harry but she's unable to block it all out. The voices are the only sounds in the room, after all. 

Harry took a deep breath, and began to tell them. As he spoke, visions of everything that had passed that night seemed to rise before his eyes; he saw the sparkling surface of the Potion which had revived Voldemort; he saw the Death Eaters Apparating between the graves around them; he saw Cedric's body, lying on the ground beside the Cup.

When Harry told of Wormtail piercing his arm with the dagger, however, Sirius let out a vehement exclamation; and Dumbledore stood up so quickly that Harry started. Dumbledore walked around the desk and told Harry to stretch out his arm. Harry showed them both the place where his robes were torn, and the cut beneath them.

"He said my blood would make him stronger than if he'd used someone else's," Harry told Dumbledore. "He said the protection my – my mother left in me – he'd have it, too. And he was right – he could touch me without hurting himself, he touched my face."

"I can't." Ebony whispers, finally giving up and walking backwards. "I'm sorry, I just--" She looks down. "I can't hear it anymore." She turns around and rushes outside the doorway. She runs down the spiral staircase and crawls into one of the secret passage ways she knows of. 

She pulls her legs to her chest and closes her eyes, she wants to be strong, to be able to get through this without crying, to show everyone that she's brave but she can't. The pain cuts much deeper than she had wanted to ever experience. This doesn't compare with losing Claudia.

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FRED HAS REJOINED HIS FAMILY IN THE GREAT HALL. Everyone has questions about what had happened or feel bad for the Diggory-family. Fred stares at the flames of a candle in front of him, wondering what Ebony is going through right now. 

"The poor girl." He hears his mother say. "First she lost her mother figure and now she also lost her brother." George appears next to Fred and places a hand on his shoulder to remind him he's there to talk to. 

"Boys." Professor McGonagall says, joining the family.

"How is she?" Fred asks, turning to face her but her worried look shows enough. "What?"

"She left Dumbledore's office about two hours ago and no one has seen her since." Minerva replies, her voice is laced with worry. "I want you two to use your tricks and find her."