Chapter 36

The Horrible News

Shortly after, Harry and Ginny joined us.

"Who else is dead?" he asked.
"None of us," Ginny reassured him.

"But there were other bodies on the ground," he said.

"Neville's in the hospital wing, but Madam Pomfrey thinks he'll make a full recovery…a couple Deatheaters dead though. And some Ravenclaw girl's dead, unfortunately,"

"Not Karina?" Harry said sharply.

"No," I said, "I'm here, and alright,"

"I suppose that's good,"

"Who's dead?' I asked.

"Mirabella Crenshaw," The hospital door opened and in came Professor McGonagall.

"You're sure Professor?' I asked. She nodded.

"Miss Crenshaw has already left us tonight," Tears rolled down my cheeks. How could she die? She was one of my best friends. Mirabella…

"There, there," Ginny hugged me and I sobbed into her shoulder.

"Molly and Arthur are on their way," McGonagall said.

"Snape killed Dumbledore," Harry said. I froze.

"What?" Everyone stared. Madam Pomfrey conjured a chair out of thin air and Professor McGonagall fell into it.

"Snape," she repeated, "We all wondered…but he trusted…always…Snape…I can't believe it!"

"Snape was a highly accomplished Occulmens," Lupin said, "We always knew that,"

"but Dumbledore swore he was on our side," whispered Tonks, "I always thought that Dumbledore knew something about Shape that we didn't,"

"He always hinted he had an iron-clad reason for trusting Snape," McGonagall muttered, "I mean…with Snape's history…of course, people were bound to wonder…but Dumbledore told me that Snape's repentance was genuine…wouldn't hear a word against him,"

"I'd love to know what Snape told him to convince him,' Tonks said.

"I know' Harry said suddenly, "Snape passed Voldemort the information that made Voldemort hunt down my Mum and dad. Then Snape told Dumbledore that he hadn't realized what he was doing, he was really sorry he did it, sorry they were dead…"

"And Dumbledore believed that?' said Lupin, "Dumbledore believed that he was sorry James was dead? Dumbledore hated James,"

"And he didn't think my mother was worth a damn either,' Harry said, "because she was muggle born…'Mudblood' he called her,"

"this is all my fault,' Professor McGonagall said, "I sent Filius to go get Snape tonight. I actually sent him to come and help us,"

"It isn't your fault Minerva," Lupin said, "we were glad to know that Snape was coming with help. No one knew it was going to result in this

"So when he arrived at the fight, he joined the Death eater's side?'

"I don't know what exactly happened. It's all so confusing…Dumbledore had told us he would be leaving the school for a couple hours and that we were to patrol the corridors just in case…Remus, Bill and Nymphadora were to join us. And so we patrolled. All seemed quiet. Every secret passage way to the school was covered. We knew nobody could fly in. There were very powerful enchantments at every entrance into the castle. I still don't know how the death eaters possibly can have entered,"

"I do," Harry said. Harry explained briefly about a pair of vanishing cabinets. "So they got in through the room of requirement,"

"I messed up Harry," Ron said bleakly," We checked the Marauder's Map and couldn't find Malfoy so we though he might be in the room of requirement. We went to guard it but Malfoy got passed us.

"He came out of the room clutching that shriveled arm," Ginny said.

"His hand of glory," Ron said, "gives light to only the holder,"

"Then everything went black," Ginny continued.

"Peruvian instant darkness powder," Ron muttered, "Fred and George's. I'm going to have a word with them about who they sell their products to,"

"We tried everything, Lumos, Incendio," said Ginny, "but nothing could penetrate the darkness; all we could do was grope our way out of the corridor to the next hallway where there was light. Meanwhile we could hear people rushing past us. Obviously Malfoy could see because his hand of glory was guiding him, but we didn't dare use any curses in case we hit each other and by the time we reached light, he was gone,"

"Luckily," Lupin said hoarsely," they met up with us and told us what happened. We found the death eaters minutes later heading off to the Astronomy tower to set off the dark mark,"

"So if Ron was watching the room of requirement, you must have been,"

"Outside Snape's office," I ended.

"We hung around there for ages," Hermione said, "it was nearly midnight when Flitwick came running down shouting about death eaters in the castle. He went into Snape's office and we heard a loud thump. The next thing we knew was that Snape was running out of the office shouting that Flitwick collapsed and that we should take care of him," Hermione looked horrified with herself for a second.

"It's so obvious now," she muttered, "Snape must have stupefied Flitwick, but we didn't realize it Harry. We just let Snape go!"

"It's not your fault Hermione," Lupin said, "if you hadn't let Snape pass, he may have killed you, Karina and Luna,"
"Then we were fighting upstairs," Tonks continued, "Snape ran past but we assumed he was going to fight the Death Eaters,"

"And then he shouted something," Lupin said.

"He shouted 'it's over'," I answered.

At that moment, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came in, along with Fleur.

"Molly, Arthur," Professor McGonagall jumped up to go greet them, "I'm sorry,"

"Bill," whispered Mrs. Weasley., "Oh Bill!" Mrs. Weasley pressed her lips to her son's bloody forehead.

"You said Greyback attacked him?" Mr. Weasley asked, "But he hadn't transformed? So what does that mean? What will happen to Bill?"

"I don't know," Professor McGonagall said, looking helplessly at Lupin.

"We don't know. We won't know until he wakes up,"

"And Dumbledore? Minerva, is it true? Is he really…" Professor McGonagall nodded and Mrs. Weasley broke into sobs.

"Well I'm going to head to bed," I said, "I need to lie down," They nodded and I left.

As soon as I got into the hall, I cried like crazy. I headed to the common room and almost the whole 2nd year dorm was in the common room mourning Mirabella's death. I joined them and we cried all night, falling asleep on the common room couches.