This Is Where
52. Bad
"Are you okay?" Parvati whispered.
Lavender nodded silently. Her face was ashen and her eyes surprisingly dry. Parvati wondered if Lavender even had any tears left to cry, if she'd cried out all her tears over the year. But maybe she was just trying not to dwell.
They were sitting with almost all the rest of Gryffindor House in the common room. Funny how in times of panic or doubt they all gathered together for solidarity. She liked to think that the other houses were gathered in their own common rooms, that the teachers were all together, that the portraits were holding vigil, that the ghosts had come together to grieve. She felt like even the castle itself was mourning the death of Albus Dumbledore.
There was a tapping at the window. Parvati turned to see that an owl was waiting outside. She recognized it as her parents' owl and was filled with dread as she got up to receive it.
"What is it?" Lavender asked.
"It's from my parents, forwarded by Padma," Parvati replied, scanning over it as the owl perched itself on top of the notice board. "They're coming in the morning to take us home."
"But...but you can't!" Lavender said in hushed exclamation.
"I don't think we can dissuade them this time," Parvati said sadly. She sat back down and put an arm around Lavender's shoulders.
"What about the funeral?" she asked quietly.
"I'll be sorry to miss it," Parvati replied. "You'll have to tell me all about it when you write me this summer."
Lavender stared out the window. "Things just got really bad, didn't they?"
"Yeah, Lav, I think they did."
Parvati's eyes got dark as she looked out over the familiar faces of her housemates. She wondered how many of them would return next year. She wondered how many of them she'd never see again.
She wondered if any of them would die.
Parvati shivered.
The phoenix stopped singing.
