The dust eventually settled on the castles sandstone slabs on the Great Hall. It was 11 o'clock and most of the witches and wizards had left with their loved ones to carry of the celebrations either in Hogsmead or at home. Only a few stayed behind to help start the big clean up of Hogwarts.

The grounds were littered with rubble: stones, wood, flesh. It was going to take an army to repair the damage that had been made during the Battle of Hogwarts. Groups of wizards could been see all around Hogwarts shifting rocks to the side and repairing walls with a flick of their wands.

As Lorie Dergance sat on the edge of one of the school dinner tables, she took in the scene in front of her. There were empty goblets left where people had finished a glass of butterbeer and headed home. Blood still smeared the floor when bleeding individuals had once lain. There were blankets, itchy and stained carelessly tossed on top of one another. She really ought to be helping, she thought, but she just couldn't find it in herself to move.

The sound of footsteps awoke her from her thoughts. As she turned her head, her eyes met with the blooded, cut up face of Neville Longbottom. His clothes were ripped and tatty. His grandmother would have to through them away, they were beyond repair.

"How are you feeling, Lors?" he asked softly, joining Lorie on the table. "How's your wrist?"

Lorie looked down at her left wrist which was wrapped pathetically in a white cloth. "It's ok, Madam Pomfrey fixed it up pretty good." She looked back at Neville, his lips twisted into a weak smile. "I still can't believe this has all happened."

Neville sighed and looked out of the broken Great Hall windows out into the cloudless blue sky. "But it's over. It's all over." He placed his arm over Lorie's shoulders, pulling her close to him in a one armed hug. "We can go on living our lives normally." He gave her shoulders a little squeeze.

She snuggled into her friend's neck, breathing heavily, feeling something warm and real against her cheek. "How can our lives ever be the same after what we've seen last night?"

After that they sat there in silence, holding one another. People still moved around the castle fixing what needed to be fixed and sometimes coming across a fallen solider, their faces still and resting. Mr Filch, with his loyal cat trailing behind him, shuffled into the Great Hall to collect the dirty blankets. He looked at Neville and Lorie huddled together and sighed. Mrs Norris slinked in and out of his legs as he shuffled off again, mumbling under his breath.

1st May 1998, 8:15am

The Gryffindor girl dormitory was empty. The beds were all neatly bed, the curtains were open to reveal a dark rainy sky outside and there was an eerie silence running throughout the Gryffindor common room. As Lorie stood in front of the full length mirror, staring at her own white, blank face, her ears seemed to zone in on the only noise in the whole castle: the constant dripping of a tap in the girls' bathroom.

Her grey eyes looked tired, wore out. She could easily count the number of hours she had had of sleep over the last 3 days on one hand. As Head Girl, Lorie had responsibilities. These days they tended to be hugging crying first years who had just returned from detention with the Carrow twins. A number of them would have visible cuts and bruises along their arms and across the backs of their necks. Punishment at Hogwarts had gotten extreme.

Shaking her brown hair back, Lorie exhaled and turned towards to exit of the girl dorms. She quickly made her way into the main area of the Gryffindor Common room which was pretty much deserted. Only a few students stayed in their dorms now, most of the students went to the Room of Requirements to say with Neville and other various Hogwarts student. Some of them had stopped going to classes. The teachers didn't seem to notice and even if they did they wouldn't dare do anything about it. If the students stayed away, it'd mean less of a beating.

Even the Great Hall was empty. As Lorie passed all the tables she noticed that the Slytherin table was the most full, all the other houses could have sat on one table and there still would have been space for others. Even the teachers' table wasn't full. Once again, Snape wasn't sat eating breakfast. He hadn't been seen in the Great Hall for over a week now, students had started to wonder what had happened to him and if You-Know-Who was to blame.

Lorie ate her cereal in silence. No one spoke to eat other in fear of being cursed. Breakfast was always uneventful, Snape had stopped all owl post from reaching the castle in case families sent any sort of weapon to their children. Lorie often felt very lonely and isolated from the rest of the world, she had no idea what was going on outside and whether it had gotten worse since Christmas. But of course it had because You-Know-Who was in control of everything. People were dying every day, it was only a matter of time until the war came to Hogwarts.

"Lorie?" asked a voice behind her. She dropped her spoon with a loud clang and turned in her seat. Seamus Finnigan was standing there, looking just as tired as her but with a dark purple bruise under his left eye.

"Seamus," Lorie breathed. "You scarred me." As he took a seat next to her at the table, Lorie looked around to see if anyone was watching them. All heads were facing down, into their bowls. "What are you doing here?"

He laughed, an odd sound to be hearing at Hogwarts "I do still go to this school, Lors." He grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and took a large bite. "How are things out here?"

She picked up her spoon again and poked at her soggy cereal. "Oh, you know. The usual crap. First years seem to be the Carrows' target this week. I've had four of them in tears this week over detentions and punishments they're getting." She pushed her bowl away. "It makes me sick."

"It's not much better everywhere else. Last night, several Ravenclaw second years and Hufflepuff forth years came to the RoR for shelter. Neville's really taking good care of us all," he said, taking another bite out of his apple. "You really should join us."

Lorie shook her head. "I can't, I have a job to do even if it does been battling with these stupid new school rules. If only Harry..." Lorie trailed off. She hadn't seen Harry, Ron or Hermione since Bill and Fleur Weasley's wedding back in the summer.

Seamus cleared his throat. "I'm sure they're doing all they can to stop all this. To stop him." At that moment, Seamus stood up and stretched. "I didn't come here to eat, I actually came to tell you that Nev wanted to have a word with you later on. You know where he'll be. See you later, Lorie. Be careful." He turned and walked out of the Great Hall before Lorie could reply.