Black Envelopes

Dumbledore's eyes had lost their twinkle. During the feast he sat there watching the small number of new students be sorted with a sad smile on his face. I have never seen him look so sad, it scared me. He was the one person we could look to. He was our guide, our friend, someone who we could trust, someone to help us. But the twinkle had gone and he looked old and weary.

At the beginning of this year 2 Gryffindors, 1 Slytherin 1 Hufflepuff and 2 Ravenclaws were sorted meaning the whole of the year was a grand total of six new students. In addition to this only half of the school had returned to Hogwarts after the confirmation of Voldemort's return.

The next morning I came down to breakfast, everyone ate quietly; the air was thick with sadness. The morning post had brought pain and suffering. Every house table had at least two black envelopes. The students who received these envelopes sat still and in shock, silent tears pouring down their faces.

When I came down for breakfast the next morning many of the students who had received these envelopes were not present. The headmaster explained that these black envelopes enclosed the worst thing a student at Hogwarts could get. A death letter. These letters contained the regret of the Ministry of Magic in having to inform the recipient that one of their loved ones had died.

Over the next few weeks many of the students left, a few at a time. By the time Halloween had come there was Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Ginny and three other Gryffindors, two of whom were the new first years and me at the Gryffindor table. There were five Ravenclaws and seven Hufflepuffs. At the Slytherin table sat Malfoy, a first year, a third year and a fifth year. This is what our Hogwarts had been reduced to, twenty-five students with five teachers; Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Hagrid and Flitwick. Snape had been missing since the end of sixth year and the rest had either died in battle, or not come back at the beginning of the year.

Madame Pomfrey stayed and was kept busy many of the Order dropped in with wounds and in need of medical assistance.

Well all stayed in our dorms to begin with. Then one night Ginny, Rachael, Timothy and Joan, who were all in separate dormitories, came in to the one I was on my own in. I was asleep and woke up when they knocked, the door opened. I shivered and felt really cold. Ginny screamed loudly pointing to something behind me. I turned to see a cloaked figure. Ginny cast "Expelliarmus", knocking the figure backwards and we all ran. Harry, having heard the screams rushed in. It turned out the black cloaked figure was a dementor.

Though Harry dealt with it, I was very nervous about sleeping in my room and so were the others, so we all took sleeping bags and moved into the common room. All ten of us huddled together near the fire. Rachael, who was in third year and Timothy and Joan, who were the two new first years were kept close to Harry, Ron and I so we could protect them.

A week after the dementor's attack something worse happened. At about one o clock in the morning there was some kind of explosion down in the dungeons. Some flying debris had hit the youngest member of the Slytherin house, Janet. Draco Malfoy had run in to save the unconscious witch and in doing so managed to get the girl out but to be knocked out himself. The people on watch duty (who happened to be Harry and Ernie Macmillan) rescued him.

He suffered minor injuries but this scared the teachers and students to death so we all stayed in the Great Hall. There were so little of us that we had all our classes in the Great hall as well.

That was three weeks ago. More people have left. Three I think is the exact number. The black envelopes keep coming. At least one a day now. I worry, for my friends, my family, my loved ones.

And now I sit. I watch the envelopes get dropped all along the one table in the great hall. I watch Luna open hers, her face grief stricken, I watch a black owl with three envelopes attached swoop to our end of the table. One is dropped opposite of me, one to the side and then one is dropped on my plate.

I open it, my heart thudding. I drop it once I have read the terrible news enclosed. The pain flows over me and the tears fall. The loss clenches my heart. My parents, my loving, kind parents, are dead. Because they are…were Muggles.

Ron grips my hand and kisses me. I pull Joan, the little first year, to sit on my lap as she cries. Her parents are dead too. Ron puts one arm around her, kisses her cheek and keeps hold of my hand.

I look across to see a stricken looking Malfoy, tears silently falling down his pale face. Harry is next to him and all of a sudden wraps his arms around Malfoy, trying to soothe him. His hand smoothing down Draco's hair. He gently kisses his forehead and wipes away the tears. Draco turns and buries himself in Harry's shoulder, holding on to him tightly. There in the midst of pain is something else, love.

Snape has been found dead. This causes pain for all of us. Our strong teacher, our Potions Professor has fallen, protecting the few good things in his life, protecting his school, his godson and his pupils.

Only a few months have passed since the beginning of term and it has all changed. But we must draw close what we have; we must love each other despite our faults. For this is all we have. And the black envelopes will keep coming until the day Harry kills Lord Voldemort.

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