A/N: In case it isn't clear, the italics is Colin talking to Dennis after Colin's first year at Hogwarts, and the other stuff is Dennis after the Battle of Hogwarts. Written for MysteriousMissSirius's Forgotten Characters Challenge.
"Everything at Hogwarts is so incredible! Just wait until you get there – and don't worry, I know you will, you just have to be a wizard!"
Dennis Creevey knows that his brother is dead. He had seen his brother's body with all of the rest of the dead members of Dumbledore's Army and the Order. Neither of them should have been there, but the sixth-year boy had insisted on coming back to fight and the fourth-year wasn't going anywhere without his brother.
"There's this humongous room where the ceiling looks like the sky! You eat there with the other people in your house. You'll be a Gryffindor, of course – like me!"
The four tables of the Great Hall are pushed to the side, replaced with rows upon rows of bodies; one side for the Order of the Phoenix and the DA, one side for the Death Eaters. A small crowd of read-heads surround Fred Weasley's lifeless body, but right next to him, Colin's body is alone. Dennis had already paid his respects to his brother and didn't want to linger. They have no family here since they were Muggle-borns, and most of Colin's sixth year friends had left as they were supposed to.
"Hogwarts is a castle, and it's absolutely enormous! I mean, there's seven floors and the dungeon, and then there's all of these secret passages, and most of them are behind paintings! And the people in the paintings move!"
The large castle gives Dennis more than enough places to be alone. He ducks into deserted corridors, slipping into empty classrooms whenever somebody happens to walk by. He doesn't want anybody to tell him how sorry they are for his loss, because how can they be sorry when it's not their fault?
"There are tons of cool places outside the castle, too. There's Hagrid's hut – Hagrid's the gamekeeper – and there's a forest, but nobody's allowed in there."
The forest, or what Dennis can see of it from a fourth floor window, is burning. Some are trying to put it out, and they almost have the flames under control. Hagrid's hut roasts in the blaze as well, but the gamekeeper and his large dog are nowhere to be seen.
"And Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts – the famous Harry Potter! He's a Gryffindor, too."
Yes, everybody is talking about how Harry is the savior, how he killed Voldemort, and some of the other things going around are more rumor than fact. When you're talking about somebody famous, there are always rumors, lies, and half-truths. Who is unconditionally praising the others who had fought and died? Nobody, Colin's heroics remain unsung.
"But why am I just telling you all of this? I have pictures! And they move, just like the paintings! Here, let me go get my camera…"
Dennis's wandering takes him to that fateful corridor on the sixth floor where some unknown Death Eater's Killing Curse took Colin's life away so quickly. The fact that Colin's death was painless is no comfort to Dennis. The fact that he went down fighting doesn't matter. All that Dennis can think about is that his brother is gone.
There is a large pile of rubble near where Colin's body was found. Dennis starts to dig through it. He's not quite sure what he expects to find, but if he doesn't occupy himself, he's going to end up going back to the Great Hall, and that's the last thing that he wants.
Finally, Dennis's searching fingers touch something other than cold stone. Something…Dennis can't tell what it is, but he pulls it out of the rubble anyway. It's coated in dust and silt, and Dennis brushes these off to reveal something familiar.
Dennis is, in fact, alone. Someone else, if they were there, might ask Dennis why he is crying.
He would say that he isn't crying. He hadn't cried before, why should he be crying now? He wasn't the type to cry. He would insist that some of the excessive silt got into his eye and he was trying to get it out. His shoulders are only shaking because it's a bit cold with one of the walls missing.
Dennis Creevey would always insist that he had most certainly not been crying as he crouched there, rocking back and forth, his dead brother's camera clutched in his arms.