The Eye of the Storm

Regroup

After the battle was over and all the Death Eaters were dead, captured or retreated, Grandma forced us all into the hospital wing. Hermione, Ron, Ginny and I were treated in silence. We were all anxiously waiting for Harry. Lupus, Tonks, Luna and Neville were also treated near us. Bill was unconscious. Fenrir had attacked him and Bill had barely survived.

At that moment Harry walked in. I jumped up and hugged him. He sunk into me for a moment, than pulled away.

We both had seen Dumbledore die. We both understood. I stepped away and Hermione ran to Harry and hugged him; Lupin moved forward too, looking anxious.

"Are you all right, Harry?"

"I'm fine. . . . How's Bill?"

Nobody answered. Harry looked over Hermione's shoulder and saw an unrecognizable face lying on Bill's pillow, so badly slashed and ripped that he looked grotesque. Madam Pomfrey was dabbing at his wounds with some harsh-smelling green ointment.

"Can't you fix them with a charm or something?" he asked the matron.

"No charm will work on these," said Madam Pomfrey. "I've tried everything I know, but there is no cure for werewolf bites."

"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon," said Ron, who was gazing down into his brother's face as though he could somehow force him to mend just by staring. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a — a real — ?"

He looked uncertainly at Lupin.

"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf," said Lupin, "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and — and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."

I stared at Bill. That could have been me. That was almost me.

"Dumbledore might know something that'd work, though," Ron said. "Where is he? Bill fought those maniacs on Dumbledore's orders, Dumbledore owes him, he can't leave him in this state —"

"Ron — Dumbledore's dead," I said.

"It's true," said Ginny.

"No!" Lupin looked wildly from Ginny to Harry to me, as though hoping the latter might contradict her, but when Harry did not. Lupin collapsed into a chair beside Bill's bed, his hands over his face.

I sat down next to Lupin and leaned my head on his shoulder. It was the only thing I knew to comfort him.

"How did he die?" whispered Tonks. "How did it happen?"

"Snape killed him," said Harry. "I was there, I saw it. We arrived back on the Astronomy Tower because that's where the Mark was. . . . Dumbledore was ill, he was weak, but I think he realized it was a trap when we heard footsteps running up the stairs. He immobilized me, I couldn't do anything, I was under the Invisibility Cloak — and then Malfoy came through the door and disarmed him —"

Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth and Ron groaned. Luna's mouth trembled. I looked down.

"— more Death Eaters arrived. Kendra was there too. I don't know how she knew to be there. She put up a good fight—then Snape — and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra."

Madam Pomfrey burst into tears. Nobody paid her any attention except Ginny, who whispered, "Shh! Listen!"

Gulping, Madam Pomfrey pressed her fingers to her mouth, her eyes wide. Somewhere out in the darkness, a phoenix was singing.

It was a beautiful, mournful lament. We all stopped and listened. The music burrowed it's way deep into my soul. It found all my sorrows and curled around them like a cold, comforting blanket.