Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock
To the right of her, a grey clock ticked on and on. It was a dreary grey that surrounded the clock, its lettering in a fancy scripture. The face was a light grey, the color of ashes. The wood surrounding it was a black grey mixture, the one of charcoal. And Minerva McGonagall had been staring it with unshedded tears in her emerald green eyes for about five minutes. The minute hand slowly turned to 6:09, and she realized she had to get up and leave her classroom. Because today was the day she had hoped never to endure, never to go through. Today was the funeral of Albus Dumbledore.
She slowly got up from the uncomfortable position in her chair. Her chair it seemed, creaked in protest. Stay here, it called to her. Stay here so you can proceed to wallow in mourning. She wouldn't allow herself to do that however. Being the Gryffindor she was, she wanted to walk down the halls, continue to work, continue to scold the students in the corridors who were misbehaving. She wanted to walk through life with a fight in her. And she had to try to honour Albus, and to do so she wouldn't allow herself to collapse in a heap of sobs, or contemplate ending her own life because he was gone. Her heart screamed at her to just stop moving and let her emotions take over her for a change. But she knew if she stopped and fell down, she wouldn't be able to get back up. She wouldn't be able to teach, she wouldn't be able to move without the loss of the only person she loved. She knew that he wouldn't have wanted her to stop her own life to mourn for him. But for him she would have done anything. Her relationship with Albus wasn't a romantic affair, but a solid platonic friendship she could never replace. And even while she knew of his sexuality, his preference in people when it came to romance, she gave love to him. Unrequited love, that she felt he had quite deserved.
And so she walked. Minerva's steps were soft and empty of emotion as she forced her stern facade on. She had to do it for him, to ensure herself that by using a facade she would continue on in life. Her feet began carrying her however, down a familiar path she never wanted to go through. It was the path to the Headmaster's office.
As she got closer, they started to fall. Tears. One by one they began to sail down her cheeks and hit the floor, creating tiny puddles that reflected her saddening frown, her dull green eyes, her pale face. Her body began to wrack with sobs with each further, but they would only come out as whispers. The defiance she had while she was crying was astounding, but the inevitable happened. The facade she was carrying completely broke falling to pieces, and with it she fell. Right in front of the gargoyle statue leading to his office.
Her back curved as she hit the stone cold wall,and sliding to the floor Minerva's sob sounded fully, her eyes letting waves of tears fall. Her hands came up, to cup her face as she cried. And suddenly someone else was crying. She hadn't a clue who, just closing her eyes to the world, wanting everything to stop. But the mourning wouldn't stop for a while, and the feeling of death that lingered on the walls and in the rooms, wouldn't fade away for years.
She finally lifted her hands away from her face, determined to snap or lash out at whoever wanted to help her. Help her with her trouble, and her own mess of emotions when they should only focus on them. But seeing a familiar red phoenix sitting next to her, his feathers soaked in tears as he leaned in towards her, made her falter in her emotions. Her breathing was slow, no longer as hysterical as it was moments previously. Seeing Fawkes made a new emotion appear inside her, one of comfort. She reached out slowly to him, and Fawkes allowed her to hug to him. They both still cried, but unnoticed to Minerva, was that Fawkes's tears were landing on her chest. They sank through her clothing and began to heal her wounded heart.
I do not own Harry Potter. This was for the Miserable Melodies Challenge, and I used the soundtrack A Window to the Past from Prisoner of Azkaban. Reviews are always appreciated :)