Hey guys! Sorry it took so long for me to update, I've no excuse, I've just been REALLY lazy. K, so here's the 3rd Chapter. But, first, I've been getting quite a good amount of reply's saying that the whole "switching points of view" thing was getting confusing. So, from now on, each chapter will be on only one of their (Harry or Ginny's) points of view. I may change it sometimes in the middle of the a chapter if I absolutely think it's necessary.
After everyone had arrived safely back home, arrangements were made for Fred, Tonks, and Lupin's funeral.
Ginny:
I walked into the funeral parlor, Harry by my side. My head was down. Hermione stood on my other side, tears running down her face as she held Ron's hand so hard he had a pained expression on his face, though she didn't notice, and I wasn't sure if that was from her hand or grief anyway.
After all, we were at a funeral for our brother and two of our very good friends.
The funeral procession for Lupin, Tonks, and Fred was remarkably long- there were thousands of people. Almost all the Hogwarts students and teachers for Lupin and Fred, lots of Aurors who had known Tonks, the entire Order of the Phoenix, of course, and various other neighbors and friends of all three of the deceased people.
The chapel in the parlor was huge, and held about five thousand people. Everyone fit, with a couple thousand seats to spare.
I looked around. There was no lighting except for many elegant red candles nestled in strips of evergreen draped around the chapel. It was only the beginning of June, and the day was unseasonably hot, but the church's stone walls and lack of lighting kept it damp and cool.
The funeral parlor was near Hogsmeade, and it was run by a witch, so the evergreens were floating, and the black, gold-trimmed drapes on the pulpits had magically been embroidered with the words "R.I.P. Fred Weasley" on one and "R.I.P. Remus and Nymphadora Lupin" on the other.
Because the procession had gone through many Muggle areas, everyone had been asked to wear Muggle clothes. It wasn't a catastrophe like it had been at the Quidditch World Cup, because everyone had only taken the trouble to get the basics- a plain black dress or tuxedo.
All the men looked the same, each wearing their generic black tuxedos, but the women each wore something different. I had a short-sleeved, black silk V-neck on with my finest pearls and the front of my hair pulled back into a second layer which I had tied magically with a black silk ribbon that matched my dress, which was paired with peep-toed heels. My mother was in a ever-so-slight scoop neck with her hair in a magicked bun with a large hinged clip, dabbing a pristine handkerchief to her eyes as she stumbled along in pointed stiletto heels. Hermione wore a velvet dress with triangular, low straps, up-the-leg strappy sandals, and a necklace with large black pearls. Her hair, which had been straightened, then crimped, fell neatly but unintentionally around her shoulders.
The entire scene was beautiful and tragic, but that didn't matter in the slightest.
We were at the front. The coffins were open, and we reached them all too soon. I looked in at Fred.
Fred still had a sort of half-smile on his face. In his coffin had been placed George's ear, several items from the joke shop, and a portrait of all of us kids, my parents, Harry, Hermione, and Fleur, which had been taken at the wedding.
I then moved on to Tonks.
In addition to a certificate she had gotten when she became an Auror, there was a portrait of her and Remus at their wedding, smiling and waving in their everyday clothes, as well as one of Tonks throwing her head back and laughing and Remus grinned and played around with Teddy at home, which must have been very recent, as Teddy, being carried in by a sobbing Andromeda Tonks, was still young enough that no one had tried to put him in black, and he had no idea what was going on at only three weeks. But he could tell that no one was about to play with him, that everyone's faces were wet when he tried to play with them, and maybe even that Mummy and Daddy were gone, though not that they weren't coming back. He didn't look very happy, his bottom lip quivering.
Glancing at him, a single tear fell onto the paper as I put my letter in Tonks' coffin, along with a pink rose the color of her hair.
We moved along to Remus' coffin, and Harry made a strangled sort of sound, wiping his eyes and coughing, but not crying.
I gazed into Remus' coffin. Next to his body were a picture of Sirius, James, and him (Pettigrew must have taken the picture, which was obviously why it had been chosen) as well as a photo of him and Tonks kissing (I have no idea when that was, but it's likely it was at their wedding), one of them (Tonks flaunting a large belly) and my mother in the Burrow sitting room sometime during my school year, and one of Teddy sleeping in his crib. He had not been a material person or very socially accepted, so his was the emptiest coffin, holding no status symbols. He had been a simple person, and there was nothing to give him for tribute that he would value. Only love.
We filed past the coffins and waited to be hugged and kissed and murmured apologies to by everyone who walked by. Harry and Hermione walked down the row, silently kissing everyone and taking their seats in the first row, waiting for us to come into the pew as well, maintaining a respectful but (on Hermione's part) tearful silence.
At first it was all right- solemnly greeting Order members and kids like Luna and Neville who I knew. But then there were the Ministry people who were just there because they felt like they were obligated because of Tonks. They didn't care, they didn't want to be here, and it showed. And it was those people who just ruined our day of true, quiet mourning and sharing real, consoling memories of Tonks, Remus, and Fred.
It seemed like days and days before everyone had been greeted by "the family" and taken their seats in the chapel. I'm not sure exactly how long it took, but it was hours and hours, truthfully.
We finally sat down, my arm aching from handshakes, my cheeks wet from kisses instead of tears, and my back aching from Hagrid's huge bear hug. I sat down next to Harry and put my head on his shoulder, letting my tears drip onto his shoulders and shirt. He didn't mind, but put his arm around me and stayed still and solemn as we waited for the service to begin.
It sunset by the time the organ preludes began. They played songs I wasn't very familiar with for most of the time, but they also played "Amazing Grace" and a couple of famous concertos. I couldn't name them or tell you who wrote them, but I recognized them.
The atmosphere in the chapel was very subdued, especially up front where the people who actually cared were sitting. There was a slight murmuring coming from the back of the church, where uncaring, insensitive people discussed business deals, the reception that would come afterward, and what time they would get back to the office.
"Please be seated and silent," said the priest.
There was instant silence and he cleared his throat before continuing.
"We are here to pay our respects to the deceased and the grieving," he said.
Just like with most funerals, the speech that followed was not personal or worth paying attention to. It didn't capture Lupin, Tonks, or Fred- and how could it? We were here to pay respect to the dead, as the priest had reminded us all, yet the speech seemed unfitting and disrespectful. It almost seemed as though thinking you can fit the essence of a person into a single speech- such a small amount of words, compared to the complexity of the person- was extremely disrespectful.
"Nothing is forever …" droned the priest.
It was all so … generic. So impersonal, so cold, so formal. So irrelevant.
The service was an hour long, which seemed like ages, and then we all got up, sticking close to each other and comforting each other by the touch of a familiar and understanding person.
We headed into a big hall for a noisy reception. The hall had a high ceiling, was painted with shining gold and silver designs on white walls and amazingly complex paintings on the ceiling. The hall had an enormous buffet table that stretched the entire length of one side of the room, manned by uniformed attendants in addition to wonderfully crafted tables and chairs with gold cushions, all of which were works of art in themselves. You could tell it was Andromeda who had paid for most the affair, and not my family, upon her firm insistence.
Many people came up to give their "sincerest condolences" again, but it didn't mean anything more the second time around. It was getting bothersome. If they didn't want to be here, they didn't have to try to make up for it with obviously forced apologies. I think some of the people who were telling us that they were so very sorry didn't even know our names or how we were related to Fred, Tonks, or Lupin. They were just going by our red hair and jumping on the bandwagon, checking whose hand everyone else was shaking, whose eyes were filled with tears.
The reception was a banquet with stuffy, rich foods like fish with mushroom filling and vegetables I had never even seen before. I just had some of the dishes from the first course- a salad and horrible dandelion wine. Later, this course was followed by the main course (the fish and overly gourmet foods), then dessert- puddings, trifles, pies, and scrumptious-looking various other foods made of chocolates and creams.
Trifle is my absolute favorite food, but even that didn't help on such a dreadful day.
Our table, which was faced horizontally at the head of the hall, while all of the others were pointed towards ours, was near silent, except for the occasional "Sorry" if we bumped into someone as we ate or "Excuse me" if we got up to get more food or use the bathroom.
The banquet took a while, but it did eventually have to end. We all exited the hall into a corridor that led to a side door, which we all walked through to get back to the procession of cars.
My family, Harry, and Hermione were at the head of the procession in a long black limousine, which normally would have been an experience I would never forget because of the sheer amount of luxury the car provided, but which I would now not be quick to forget for much less positive reasons, which would leave limos with much more negative connotations for me personally.
I sighed and stared moodily out the window at the tauntingly sunny day. We drove through a small town first, which was oddly storybook-village-like, then through open countryside, watching forests in the distance, and purple snow-capped mountains even further on, which looked tall enough to touch the baby blue sky and the high, wispy, fair-weather clouds that hung so far off in the sky.
In a few hours, we arrived at home. The procession had broken up as people had gone their separate ways, back to their homes, and their families … their whole, complete families.
The driver came and opened up the door unnecessarily for my family (including Harry and Hermione).
Without a word, we all entered the house. Hermione followed me into my room, taking out her wand to fetch her sleep clothes from her suitcase, shutting the door behind her as Ron and Harry passed quietly, headed up to Ron's room for a good, long, hopefully nightmareless and undisturbed sleep.
I got into my pajamas too, and then Hermione climbed into the cot we had brought in. I climbed into my bed across the room.
"Goodnight, Ginny," she murmured, rolling over under her sheets.
"'Night, Hermione. Sleep tight," I answered. Then, as an afterthought, "Thanks for being here for Ron and me."
It must have been the largest amount of words I had spoken all day.
So, what do you think? Tell me what you liked and didn't and keep on sending in with new ideas for what should happen next! I need ideas!!
Au Revoire,
Sunset47
