| I command my forces to retreat immediatelyDispose of your dead with dignity
"I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to youYou have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourselfI shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden ForestIf, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommencesThis time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me
Both Ron and Hermione shook their heads frantically, looking at Harry
"Don't listen to him," said Ron
"It'll be all right," said Hermione wildly"Let's - let's get back to the castle, if he's gone to the forest we'll need to think of a new plan - "
She glanced at Snape's body, then hurried back to the tunnel entranceHarry gathered up the Invisibility Cloak, then looked down at SnapeHe did not know what to feel, except shock at the way Snape had been killed, and the reason for which it had been done\a133
They crawled back through the tunnel, none of them talking, and Harry wondered whether Ron and Hermione could still hear Voldemort ringing in their heads as he could
\iYou have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourselfI shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest\a133One hour\a133\i
Small bundles seemed to litter the lawn at the front of the castle (?)It could only be an hour or so from dawn, yet it was wholesale gucci messenger bag pitch-blackThe three of them hurried toward the stone stepsA lone dog, the size of a small boat, lay abandoned in front of themThere was no other sign of Grawp or of his attacker
The castle was unnaturally silentThere were no flashes of light now, no bangs or screams or shoutsThe flagstones of the deserted entrance hall were stained with bloodEmeralds were still scattered all over the floor, along with pieces of marble and splintered woodPart of the banisters had been blown away
"Where is everyone?" whispered Hermione
Ron led the way to the Great HallHarry stopped in the doorway
The House tables were gone and the room was crowdedThe survivors stood in groups, their arms around each other's necksThe injured were being treated upon the raised platform by Madam Pomfrey and a group of helpersFirenze was amongst the injured; his flank poured blood and he shook where he lay, unable to stand
The dead lay in a row in the middle of the HallHarry could not see Fred's body, because his family surrounded himGeorge was kneeling at his head; MrsWeasley was lying across Fred's chest, her body shakingWeasley stroking her hair while tears cascaded down his cheeks
Without a word to Harry, Ron and Hermione walked awayHarry saw Hermione approach Ginny, whose face was swollen and blotchy, and hug herRon joined Bill, Fleur, and Percy, who flung an arm around Ron's shouldersAs Ginny and Hermione moved closer to the rest of the family, Harry had a clear view of the bodies pink gucci watch lying next to FredRemus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling
The Great Hall seemed to fly away, become smaller, shrink, as Harry reeled backward from the doorwayHe could not draw breathHe could not bear to look at any of the other bodies, to see who else had died for himHe could not bear to join the Weasleys, could not look into their eyes, when if he had given himself up in the first place, Fred might never have died\a133
He turned away and ran up the marble staircaseLupin, Tonks\a133 He yearned not to feel\a133 He wished he could rip out his heart, his innards, everything that was screaming inside him\a133
The castle was completely empty; even the ghosts seemed to have joined the mass mourning in the Great HallHarry ran without stopping, clutching the crystal flask of Snape's last thoughts, and he did not slow down until he reached the stone gargoyle guarding the headmaster's office
"Password?"
"Dumbledore!" said Harry without thinking, because it was he whom he yearned to see, and to his surprise the gargoyle slid aside revealing the spiral staircase behind
But when Harry burst into the circular office he found a changeThe portraits that hung all around the walls were emptyNot a single headmaster or headmistress remained to see him; all, it seemed, had flitted away, charging through the paintings that lined the castle so that they could have a clear view of what was going prada backpacks on
Harry glanced hopelessly at Dumbledore's deserted frame, which hung directly behind the headmaster's chair, then turned his back on itThe stone Pensieve lay in the cabinet where it had always beenHarry heaved it onto the desk and poured Snape's memories into the wide basin with its runic markings around the edgeTo escape into someone else's head would be a blessed relief\a133 Nothing that even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughtsThe memories swirled, silver white and strange,
and without hesitating, with a feeling of reckless abandonment, as though this would assuage his torturing grief, Harry dived
He fell headlong into sunlight, and his feet found warm groundWhen he straightened up, he saw that he was in a nearly deserted playgroundA single huge chimney dominated the distant skylineTwo girls were swinging backward and forward, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushesHis black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt
Harry moved closer to the boySnape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringyThere was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister
"Lily, don't do it!" shrieked the elder of the two
But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and chanel bag small flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly
"Mummy told you not to!"
Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips
"Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"
"But I'm fine," said Lily, still giggling
Petunia glanced aroundThe playground was deserted apart from themselves and, though the girls did not know it, SnapeLily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind which Snape lurkedPetunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapprovalLily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palmThe flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster
"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia
"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground
"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it"How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Snape could no longer contain himself, but had jumped out from behind the bushesPetunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where fake tiffany heart drop earrings she |
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