Nine.
By Heaven's Flying Fish.
o:o:o
Summary: Nine out of twenty-three were still alive – but none are unaffected. Except, perhaps for Aberforth. He's always been a little odd.
Disclaimer: J.K did the characters & the photograph. Now it's my turn.
A/N: This is very odd. I think I may do a piece on Aberforth… he's always amused me. The summary is subject to change. This is NOTHING like I expected it to be. Oh well.
A/N 2: This is post HBP, but referring to a photograph in OotP. For me the page number is 158, but, if you want to find it, it's towards the end of the Woes of Mrs Weasley, chapter nine. At the prefect party thing.
o:o:o
A photograph...
A photograph says a thousand words.
This photograph screams.
It yells in torment.
It cries – harder than Penelope Clearwater cried when tea got dripped on her and her nose went all blotchy.
But, it is silent.
The people in the photograph smile and laugh with one another, but there are secrets buried behind their war-wearied eyes.
Moody… hair not grey, nose intact.
Dumbledore, not aged and not dead.
Dedalus Diggle. He is a man, remembered by Harry when he first entered the Leaky Cauldron. Dedalus bowed to him, once before, in a shop. Though now, when he is shown the picture with the same man on it, he shows no sign of recognition.
Marlene McKinnon, killed two weeks after the photograph was taken. Two weeks. She was happy and smiling. Raising her glass with a nod and a grin, as if she had heard her name. Two weeks was all it took, and her entire family was gone. Wiped out. Disappeared.
Frank and Alice… Neville's parents. Two brave souls. Both tortured to insanity. One who gives her son gum wrappers. And a mother and mother-in-law who insists that she is proud.
More names; Lupin, Emmeline Vance, Benjy Fenwick.
Benjy, of whom they only discovered pieces.
Families gone… Edgar Bones, brother of Amelia Bones, aunt of Susan Bones.
Podmore, lucky – he only looks young. The photograph isn't one he is in so people can use it as a reference. So people can say – Sturgis Podmore, died on this date, died of this cause, died with these people – it's a photo where he is looked at, and people remark on how young he looks. He's a lucky one.
Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Molly Weasley's proud brothers. Dead – but they 'fought like heroes'. That's all that matters.
Another estranged brother – Aberforth. Those inappropriate charms he performed on that goat many, many moons ago had tarnished his reputation, to say the least. Albus, his esteemed brother had always been amused, vaguely, concerned, monumentally, for his brother. But, he didn't defend him in the slightest. He's strange. Odd. Eccentric. Like his brother, but… different some how.
Dorcas Meadowes. She's remembered as the one who Voldemort killed himself. What joy. A cause for celebration. She may have cheered, had she been alive.
Sirius Black. Wow. He had short hair. Understandable why this is so amazing. Imagine. The gaunt, haunted man, a ghost of the man he'd once been – what a shock it would be to see him with short hair. Fascinating. Never mind that he dies.
Then the most important people appeared. Sitting in the back.
James and Lily Potter. Smiling happily, oblivious to what would happen.
Harry was right when he saw this picture.
It's disturbing.
Seeing them, waving happily out of the photograph forever more, not knowing they were doomed…
Because that's what they all are – doomed.
Out of that photo of twenty-three people, only a handful are alive. Moody, Dedalus Diggle, the Longbottoms would have been better off dead and they really were no longer living. Breathing, yes. Living… no. Emmeline, Lupin, Sturgis, Hagrid, Elphias Dodge, Aberforth and, regrettably, Peter Pettigrew. Nine out of twenty-three were still alive – but none are unaffected. Except, perhaps for Aberforth. He's always been a little odd.
Nine.