Harry blinked as he came to. He was stretched out in Ron's bed, his feet hanging off the end. It was so familiar to wake up in here and yet so odd at the same time, knowing that it was under completely different circumstances and stranger still as he hadn't gotten used to his new body yet.

His hand went up to his face, rubbing his eyes sleepily, he had a feeling he had been out for a long time. He stretched his arm out reaching for his glasses; he blinked when he didn't find them and remembered that he no longer needed them. It would take him a while to get used to that.

He was just about to push himself up out of bed when he heard a scream echo through the house. He was on his feet, tripping over his blankets in seconds as he raced out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

His heart was pounding, fear rushing though him. He wondered what was happening. Had the people at the clinic sold him out? They had told him that no matter who he was, none of his information would be leaked since if anyone found out, it would put them out of business. That had soothed Harry's worries in that moment, but now as he raced through the Weasley's house, he wondered if they had lied. Sold him to Voldemort for the right price and now he had brought trouble down on his friends.

All those crazy thoughts left him as he turned the corner and the scene in front of him unfolded.

Mrs. Weasley was partially lying on the floor to the kitchen, Mr. Weasley had his arms wrapped around her as she shook and cried hysterically.

Harry didn't understand, what could have possibly happened to make Mrs. Weasley react so violently…

Then it hit him as he saw the newspaper lying on the floor beside the couple, he felt like slapping himself but didn't dare. It was a forceful effort to make himself move forward. His muscles felt strained as he bent to pick up the paper.

There were hurried steps behind him and Percy flew into the kitchen "Mother?!" he asked his voice full of concern "What's wrong? What happened?"

Bill was the last into the kitchen, his steps slow, his face drawn, emotionless. He gave Harry a look that said it all. He had been expecting this.

He had prepared himself for this, while Harry had been too naive to even think about the aftermath for anyone but himself. He was unprepared, and shocked by Mrs. Weasley's outburst. Not to mention the guilt he felt swirling around in his chest as he watched Mrs. Weasley cry, a woman who he cared a lot about and thought of as a mother.

He had done this to her, caused her to hurt because he had only cared to think of himself.

Harry felt himself take a step forward towards Mrs. Weasley but stopped when Bill shook his head.

He wanted to apologize, get down on his knees, tell her everything was okay, that he wasn't dead and that she shouldn't cry.

But Bill was right. He couldn't do that. All of what he went though would be for nothing if he did; he had to just let it go. People, his friends and family would hurt for a while but they would get over it and move on eventually.

He had done this for himself and he had to stick it though, even if it hurt.

He brought the paper to him, and looked down at the face he knew all too well looking back at him, solemnly. But he couldn't feel bad, that person, that pale, sickly looking kid was gone. It wasn't him anymore, and people were just going to have to deal with that.

He would have to deal with that.

"Would someone please tell me what's going on?" Percy's voice broke through his racing thoughts and overwhelming emotion. He looked down at the red-head who had a desperate look in his eye, and handed him the paper.

Percy took it, looked at it and stared, almost unseeingly, for a long time. "This can't be…" he said quietly "Harry's dead?"

Harry Potter was dead.

It took Percy saying it out loud to make it stick in his mind. There was no bringing him back, nothing that could save him. He was dead and that was it.

Mrs. Weasley let out another sob, causing Bill to jump into action.

He walked over to her and placed a hand on her arm, trying to lift her "Come on Mum," he said gently "let's get you to the living room, and I'll make you a calming cup of tea."

Mrs. Weasley gulped in her air as she tried to stop herself from crying. She took Bill's arm and struggled to get up.

Simon rushed over, taking her other arm and helping her up all the way. Bill nodded at him and they helped her into the living room and got her sitting down on the couch.

"I'll go get your tea mum," Bill said and tried to pull away but Mrs. Weasley still had a tight grip on his arm.

"I'll do it," Simon said, then before either could protest moved back into the kitchen. Mr. Weasley was now sitting at the dining room table, one hand running through his thin hair, as he stared into nothingness.

Percy was standing stock still in front of the fridge, with the door open. He seemed lost.

Simon gently placed a hand on his shoulder "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

Percy came back to himself, shrugged and closed the door to the fridge "Yeah, just a shock you know?"

Simon nodded, his hand gripping Percy's shoulder a little tighter, trying to show him some comfort.

Percy was quiet so Simon moved his hand and turned to the faucet. He looked around for the kettle, not actually knowing where Mrs. Weasley kept it.

He turned as Percy shuffled through one of the cabinet doors and pulled the kettle out, he handed it to Simon.

"Thanks." Simon said, turning on the facet and filling it. Then he pulled his new wand from his back pocket and flicked it to get the stove going. The flame took longer to grow than it normally would have and Simon hoped Percy hadn't noticed.

He moved to put the kettle on the stove.

"I didn't even really know him," came Percy's quiet voice.

Simon tensed, not turning around; he let the other man continue.

"I mean he was my kid-brother's friend, sure the savior of the wizarding world too, but I never took time to really get to know him. I guess I was a bit jealous when I found out Ron was his friend but those were the old days…before working at the ministry and the fallout I had with my family."

His voice got so soft Simon could barely hear him; he was surprised Percy was telling him any of it. He had always been so private, and kept to himself a lot whenever he had been over in the past.

"I just can't believe he is dead. Even though I didn't spend much time with him he was kind of like part of the family. What's mum gonna do…merlin what about Ron? I wonder if he knows yet, this is going to devastate him."

Simon swallowed past the lump in his throat; he could hear the emotion in Percy's voice. He turned to look at him but the other turned away as soon as their eyes met.

Percy shook his head "It's a real loss," he finally said "I should go see…" he trailed off and then never finished as he hurriedly walked out of the kitchen.

Simon now felt even worse, his fists clenched at his sides and he turned to the stove to finish making the tea, hoping to clear his mind while he was at it.

…

Severus didn't want to go with the Headmaster and the Aurors who had come to take them to identify Potter's body, but Dumbledore had specifically asked him too.

He would never admit it but this whole situation was making him sick, ever since he had found out a few hours ago, he felt like he had swallowed a rock that was now sitting uncomfortably in his stomach.

"Why couldn't you bring Minerva?" Severus hissed at the back of Albus' head as they walked down the corridor in the Auror's headquarters, to their morgue.

"She was too upset," Albus said annoyed, "she wouldn't have been any help in this situation. I need your cool head in this Severus."

His tone brooked no argument.

Severus grumbled but didn't protest again. 'Cool head?' He felt anything but cool and calm right now. His mind was screaming at him to turn back and go the other way, he didn't want to see whatever was at the other end of the hall.

They still continued on though.

Finally they were at the door leading to the morgue. Kingsley was ahead of them and he pushed the door open, and younger Auror that Severus didn't know, brought up the rear of their small group.

Without a word they were standing next to a body on a stretcher with a white sheet drawn over it. Severus' palms started to sweat as Kingsley asked the Medi-witch to remove the sheet.

She did so and the weight in Severus' stomach seemed to get heavier, it twisted inside him and it took everything he had not to lean over and vomit.

"Dumbledore, we need you to make the ID, is this the young Mister Potter?" Kingsley's words were harsh to Severus' ears.

Was it Mr. Potter? It was hard to tell. The image he was seeing was so disturbing. It looked like his insides had been sucked out. There were long, swollen blue lines that zigzagged all over the red, puffy skin of his body, like his veins had erupted from his own skin.

It was horrifying; Severus had never seen anything like it. He had no meat left; he looked like a skeleton wearing skin.

"I," Dumbledore began, seeming to choke on his words "yes, I believe that is Mr. Potter"

Severus had no idea how he had known for sure, even he wasn't sure. He guessed a tiny part of him hoped it wasn't Mr. Potter; he'd never liked the boy but he hadn't deserved to die, and not like this. Never like this. What a horrible way to go.

Severus steadied himself "What made those marks?" he asked, managing to keep his voice calm and neutral.

"We don't know," Kingsley admitted, not giving anything else away but when Severus caught his eye, he felt like the man was purposefully leaving something out.

"That will do," Kingsley stated "cover him up Stewart."

The Medi-witch did as she was asked, and then the Auror was leading them back out into the hallway. Severus took one last look at the covered form, a shiver ran down his spine and finally he stepped out of the morgue.

He wanted to be gone from there at once. The group was moving too slow. Kinsley and Albus discussing something, though it was clear the Auror was angry and he wasn't giving much away to the Headmaster's imploring questions.

Once they got outside Severus took a deep breath and got a hold of himself.

They spent a few more minutes with Kingsley, then as soon as the Auror was out of sight, Albus picked up his pace and was gliding down the stairs of the building, almost running as he headed down a quiet street.

There he stopped, leaning against a building, a shaky hand rubbing at his face. Severus thew up some privacy spells, acknowledging just how out of character Albus was acting, he had never seen the older man lose his composure like this in public.

"Albus…?" Severus began.

He held up a finger, took a deep breath and then said "This is Voldemort's work, I'm sure of it!"

Severus cringed at the name and then felt like he had been slapped when Albus sneered at him. He had never, ever seen that look on his mentor's face.

"Get over it Severus," he said harshly "this is your fault, if you hadn't pushed the damn boy we wouldn't be here in the first place!"

Severus was shocked, Albus had never spoken to him like that, and in truth he would never allow anyone to speak to him that way without consequence but this was Albus, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

He had already felt guilty, not that he would admit it but those thoughts had already rushed through his head. What if he hadn't pushed the boy so hard, would Potter still be alive?

Albus seemed to pull himself together.

"I've seen those marks before," he said quietly "only once. It was back when Voldemort first came into power. He was searching for ways to become the most powerful dark wizard of all time, and he came across this spell. To rip the magic of another wizard free of their body and then adsorb it into his own."

Severus felt cold at that, like someone had poured a bucket of ice water over his head. Dumbledore had never mentioned this before, he had never heard of anything like it before.

"It caused Voldemort to become very weak, he was out of commission for months. One of our spies brought back this information; they told us he had been holed up in his bedroom for days needing medical assistance. After that he must have come to the conclusion that he could find a better way to become powerful, as the spell had given him the other man's power but had almost rendered him useless too."

Severus shuddered involuntarily.

"Maybe he has figured out another way to do it though, for those marks that were on…" his voice faltered for the first time "on Harry's body, they were the same marks that were on the wizard's body he killed all those years ago. But the rest of it was new; I don't know what alteration to the spell could have caused Harry's body to look so…so emaciated."

Albus turned "We must get back to the castle."

He didn't say another word to Severus, just disappeared as he apparated away.

Severus took a moment before following, he didn't think his stomach could handle being pulled away. It took him a long time to get his thoughts in order, suppressing his guilty feelings for Potter and keeping the nausea at bay, before he too took out his wand and followed Albus back to the castle.

…

Simon was walking outside near the Weasley house, putting his thoughts together. It was just after one pm and the rest of the Weasley's were in the house dealing with their grief.

That was until Bill appeared at his side, a hand running though his long hair.

"How's your mum?" Simon asked.

Bill sighed "She's sleeping right now, thankfully. Really hasn't taken it well."

"I'm sorry," Simon said feeling incredibly guilty.

Bill shook his head "Don't be. It's done now, there's no reason for you to go on feeling full of regret. It was a drastic move, we both knew that but even though it is hard, you know and I do too that deep down it was the right decision."

Simon stared at Bill "You really believe that?"

"I do," Bill said "I might not have before, and I may have been doubtful but how else would we have got you out of the situation you were in. Dumbledore cannot be trusted, and there's no way you could have gone back to your relatives. This was a hard decision but the right one."

A little bit of the guilt lifted at Bill's words. He gave him a small smile, hoping to get across his thanks.

"I just came out because I wanted to tell you that I got a message from Kudzag, the goblins have figured out a solution to the issue of your vaults. They want us at the bank tomorrow morning, as soon as possible."

"Okay thanks," Simon said, then bit his lips "will your mum be okay if you leave?"

Bill looked back at the house "Kudzag promised it will be a quick meeting, an hour tops, then I have the day to spend with my family."

Simon nodded "I really do appreciate all your help Bill."

Bill nodded, giving him a quick pat on the back "I'm glad to be able to help. Now I should get back inside. I was going to make everyone lunch since it's already one. No one else is up to doing anything, not even Percy. He seems just as shaken up as the others, who knew huh?"

Simon shook his head, he surely hadn't expected Percy to act the way he was.

"I'll come in and help you," Simon said "it's the least I can do."