The phone rang. I was having breakfast at home, and I ran over to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Is that Cho Chang?" said the voice on the other end of the line. The person had obviously been crying.

"Yes, yes it is," I replied.

"This is Linda Wood, Oliver's sister. I...Well...Have you heard?"

"No...heard about what?" Why would Oliver's sister be calling me?

There was a temporary silence.

"The funeral is at Thegen Drive. Oliver...Oliver would have wanted you to come," Linda said finally.

"Whose funeral?" I had an ominous feeling.

"Oliver's. He...He's dead. He's dead, Cho." Linda Wood broke down.

The receiver dropped from my hands, and clattered onto the ground. Emotions came rushing in.

"Cho? What's wrong?" my father asked.

I shook my hand, a signal that everything was fine. But everything was far from fine.

Oliver...dead? It couldn't be... It didn't make sense. How would somebody working in the Department of Magical Sports and Games die so abruptly? It must be some joke. Some elaborate, and stupid joke.

I picked up the dropped receiver and put it to my ear.

"Are you still there?" I asked.

"Yes. Cho...you have to come," she said.

"Is this some sort of joke? How would someone working in the Department of Magical Sports and Games just die like that?" I said.

"A joke? How would I joke about my brother's death? And...we all found out that he wasn't working in that Department as he told us," she answered.

"Then...what was he working as?" I said, even though I had guessed the answer already.

"An Auror."

**

The funeral. I stood there, not knowing what to think.

He was an Auror. One of those who defy the Dark Lord. One of those who would die any moment, and every living second is borrowed. Every living minute is one minute closer to death.

Some priest stood there, talking about Oliver and how good Oliver was... But that priest didn't even know Oliver well enough to say these. A good son, a good brother...and a wonderful person. Oliver was so much more. He was a blessing to everyone who knew him, someone who would touch your life the moment he entered it.

We were allowed to go near his coffin.

"Is it too late now to tell you that I love you?" I whispered to his lifeless body. I already knew that it was. I reached out and touched his face. He still felt so...alive. One could almost believe he wasn't dead yet. Almost.

Tears, drops of emotion, rolled off my cheeks. How could I not cry? He was so much more to me than Cedric was...and I never got a chance to let him know that. The last time I saw him, I even pretended not to care about him.

Why didn't you tell me, Oliver? Why didn't you even say anything about it? Why did you hide everything inside you? If I had understood everything that you were going through, I would have treated you so much better.

I would have loved you more.

Suddenly, they said that it was time to put the coffin into the ground. No! Not yet...not so soon. I reached out, in a crazed attempt to stop the burial. I wasn't the only one. His family members were also feeling the same way.

"Oliver...!" I cried, in agony.

Harry Potter and Fred Weasley held me back, each holding one of my arms.

Harry pulled me into his arms, and pressed my face against his torso.

"If it hurts, don't look," he said softly, choking with emotion.

"Let me go, Harry...let me go," I said, trying in vain to push him away. "I can't let them do this to Oliver. I can't let them bury him. I can't let them pretend he's dead. Let me go..."

"He IS dead, Cho," he said.

I stopped struggling and let the hard fact sink in.

Oliver Wood was dead. And he had left me behind.

-The End-