A/N its a sad one guys, sorry!
Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) Care of Magical Creatures: Assignment 5
Write about a character who's lost a loved one, specifically either a child of someone or a sibling. Your word minimum is 550 and word maximum is 2500.
Word Count is just over 600 (without A/N)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
I can hear screaming but it's not until I realise people staring at me that I realise that it's me screaming.
He looks small, crumpled and bloody, carried in by Oliver Wood and Neville Longbottom.
My brother is dead. Colin is dead.
We shouldn't even be here. We're both underage, but when we heard about the impeding battle we couldn't stay away.
We've been on the run, trying to escape the Snatchers. Just Colin and me, together. It was Colin who took care of me, who made sure that I always had enough to eat, and now all I can do is stare dumbfounded at his broken body as I heave out sobs.
His camera, though dented, still hangs around his neck. It was his most prized possession. I had never been allowed to touch it.
I remember the battle, light flashing everywhere, people frantically rushing around. Colin left me in the Room of Requirement but I snuck out. In all the confusion I disarmed a Death Eater. Id been so proud, so desperate to tell Colin that I'd helped.
None of that matters now.
He's buried at Hogwarts, with all of the other casualties of the war. My parents waited to take him home but this is where he would want to be. I know he'd be so proud that Harry Potter spoke at his funeral.
Colin was my big brother. He was always there for me, telling me all about Hogwarts and looking out for me when I finally came. Now, I will get older while he stays the same, frozen in time forever, like one of his photographs.
I walk around Hogwarts in a fog, barely noticing any of the other mourners. I'm lost deep inside of myself, remembering Colin.
After the funeral I just sit. They can't make me move so eventually they just give me a blanket and some food and leave me alone. I stay with Colin as the sun goes down. The sunset is blood red, fitting for today, the day of death and grief and sorrow. I stay with Colin even after the sun is gone, when the moon comes up and everything is peaceful. In the darkness I rest my head on the cold stone and wrap my arms around the tombstone, praying that wherever he is right now, he can feel it.
I go back to school a few days after Colin's birthday. He would have been seventeen. This year the Hall is quiet. There are less people than before and less carefree jokes being made around the tables. Even many of those who survived last year have not returned. My parents wanted me to stay at home, safe in the muggle world, but I refused. Hogwarts needs to be rebuilt and I want to help. If this is where Colin is then this is where I belong.
Now I work at Hogwarts. I teach charms, took over from Flitwick when he retired. Every day I go to where he is and sit with him. Before breakfast, sometimes for just a couple of minutes, sometimes for almost an hour. I tell him what's happening, how everyone is finally coming together to repair the damage of the war. A tiny part of me believes that he's out there somewhere, listening to me and still looking out for me.
When I die, I want to be buried here, next to Colin. Then maybe someone else will come and watch our stones, and it won't matter where I go, because I'll be with my brother again, I'll be with Colin.
