For El's (D-eadLovers) challenge on the Bellatrix Lestrange: The Dark Lord's Most Faithful forum. Her challenge was to talk about death whether it was a character thinking about it or explain how they feel about it if it were a third party's death. I chose Hermione Granger and was greatly inspired by the illustrations of the Danse de macabre. If you're interested in seeing the manuscripts, please feel free to go to my LJ where I'll post up the links/discussions about them.
The story isn't 900 words so I'll write out another story surrounding a Harry Potter character and death.
Thanks goes to El for making such a wonderful and inspiring challenge!
Hermione found that she was both fascinated and frightened by the pictures in the book that she was reading and though she couldn't understand one word of what was written in the book itself, the pictures spoke volumes to her as she gently leafed through the old manuscript. Thanks to the frequent visits she and her parents took to various parts of France, she knew that the book was titled "Dance of Death"; still that had not prepared Hermione for the vivid imagery that awaited her when she first opened the book. Though, the book was written in some form of Old French that would have to be translated into the modern dialect for her to understand, the pictures within the book were enough for Hermione to comprehend what each page was about.
She discovered as she turned the pages of the old and worn out book, that the skeletons that were holding onto the clothing of the living or else holding some part of the living's body was none other than Death itself. Entranced, if not a little horrified at this discovery, she went back to the beginning of the book and began to look over the pictures again. This time, more slowly and allowing more thought as she went through each page.
Hermione's sharp mind quickly picked out the true meaning behind each picture that she looked at, from the four skeletons playing instruments to the pages that depicted living or decaying bodies and Death holding onto them without a care in the world. The artist of the drawings was depicting death as a constant companion to the living, unseen by the masses but always there with them, holding onto them all with unseen and barely felt hands as it waited to be united with the person it clung to.
However, that wasn't all that the artist was trying to portray. Hermione discovered that there was something else hidden in the pictures that she went through with her keen eyes and ready mind, she found that there was more to the drawings than Death being a friend to those who breathed and moved. She realised that the artist was telling those who looked real hard at the images he drew, that Death didn't care about who you were in life and that titles didn't matter to him; on the contrary, he welcomed everybody from the kings to the common people and treated everybody the same.
She paused at the picture of a woman holding hands with Death and remembered another book that she had read when she was younger, before Hogwarts. One that her mother and father claimed would give her nightmares when she read it and looked at the pictures. Of course Hermione found that the images of a decomposing skeleton walking alongside a woman caused some nightmares but when she thought about that image and compared it to the ones that were in the book she was currently reading, she found that it spoke the truth.
Surely, death wasn't something to be frightened of was it? Especially when you considered the fact that death was always around you and was that constant companion that walked alongside you. So why was it that so many people were afraid of dying? Would they be so terrified of death if they saw this old book or the paintings of others who personified it?
She bit her lip as she pondered these questions, she went back to the book that was sitting in her lap and gazed at the pictures again. What was so terrifying about something that was with you constantly? Was it the fact that one couldn't see death coming? Or did it have something to do with the idea that once death claims you that there was nothing more?
Hermione did not have the answers to these questions, nor did she think that these answers would come to her for awhile. She was sure of two things though; one, when it came to her own death, she would embrace it like an old friend and move on to whatever came next. She considered it the next big adventure after all the ones in life were finished and she would be eager to find out what happened when you were dead.
The second, she would focus on living right now and not be scared to die because if you were scared of something that is bound to happen to you eventually, it takes away from living life to the fullest.
With this thought in mind and with one last look at the page she was on with the four skeletons dancing around each other, Hermione closed the book and went out of her dormitory in search of Harry and Ron.