A/N: This is for the prompt 'funeral' in the minor character bootcamp.
Walburga Black thought of herself as a strong woman, but the past six months had tested her strength in ways that she had never thought possible.
It had all started six months ago when her brother, Cygnus, had unexpectedly died. It had been a shock for the whole family as he had showed no sign of illness, nor had he been in any situation in which could have caused him enough stress or injury for it to happen.
She had been the main person to sort out the details of his funeral leaving his widow and one of his daughters to grieve. Her other niece, Bellatrix, had helped out as much as she could. The girl had hardened since she had entered the Dark Lords service and was able to make decisions without the pain of loss clouding them.
Walburga, although proud of her niece, was slightly disturbed at the disconnected way that she was behaving. It was not normal not to show any kind of emotion in this type of situation.
The funeral went without a hitch and Walburga returned home, and back to the same old routine her life had been once before.
Disaster had struck only three months later. Her baby boy, Regulus, had disappeared and no one knew where he was.
"Where could he be?" she said as she sobbed into her pillow.
She had almost been harassing other families that she knew were supporters of the Dark Lord but none had known what had happened to him. Bellatrix had not heard anything either which led Walburga to her breaking point. She was put on bed rest and plenty of potions until she was relatively better a month later.
The family held a small memorial service for him as they did not have his body, and once again Walburga left the graveyard and returned home.
Two months later she was back again burying her beloved Orion.
It seems that losing Regulus had taken much more of a toll on him than anyone had known and that coupled with both his wife's and his own failing health led him to his grave.
Walburga had decided to place him next to their son and hoped that they would be a comfort to each other in the afterlife.
It took someone strong to get through things like this and after getting through her brother death and her son's disappearance, she hoped that she could withstand her husband's death as well.
Walburga knew that no one would blame her for becoming a shell of the person she once was, but she was determined not to let life get the better of her.