A/N: A bit more of the PG-13 rating comes in, as Stormy breaks out the curse words. Otherwise sappy tragedy. But what did you expect?
Additional Disclaimer: The "Remember Cedric Diggory" speech is reprinted here in part. I don't claim ownership in any way of this quote, which belongs exclusively to JK Rowling.
The survivors, their minds numb, never remembered much of the journey to Hogwarts. It was nothing, really, for Zephyr's powerful wings, but it was only reflex that kept her in the air, only pretense that kept the others holding on. That which they had seen and lost was not yet real for them.
For them, the world simply skipped from the cool night air with the landscape below them to Dumbledore's office, with the pictures of sleeping previous headmasters and strange instruments and the phoenix softly dozing in one corner. He came to meet them, and though it was late at night, none of them could even think about sleep. The headmaster's sad, liquid eyes took it all in, no longer possessing their usual merry glint.
"What a tragedy has played out in our midst," he said softly, after they had somehow managed to pour out the whole story. "You, who were vulnerable to it, could not be warned. I daresay that without your help Morgana would have failed, alone and ineffectual, a needless death."
He sighed. "Still a needless death, but with at least a purpose. She died to save the world from its own folly, in underestimating Silas Atalasa. Perhaps it might have been different... if Sirius Black... no matter. The world is enough to ponder without what-ifs. I wish that I could comfort you more."
They stared back at him, yet not at him. They still searched for something, something gone away.
Fawkes the phoenix, in his corner, opened an eye and looked at them. Dumbledore caught the gaze of his pet, and smiled slightly. "Yet, perhaps one day, Morgana may rise from the ashes, like the phoenix she loved."
And at last the tears came.
The last night of the Easter Holidays they spent grieving.
Cassiopeia flopped down upon her bed in her (mercifully empty, except for Stormy) Slytherin dormitory. She stared at the ceiling the same way that she could not know Morgana had, her tears noiselessly sliding down her cheeks until she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
As Stormy walked into her room, white flashed in the corner of her eye. It was a note Morgana had written her once. Suddenly, the full force of what had happened hit her. "Holy fucking shit!" she murmured fiercely, sitting down hard on the nearest bed. She couldn't say the rest: Morgana is dead.
On the edge of the forest, in the dark of night, Kiri, wanting to mutilate something, took out all her anger on a tree. As the torn and ashy ruins of the wood hit the ground, she sunk to her knees. "Today sucks," she whispered, crying long into tomorrow morning.
Deep in thought and pain, Uric lay, the pain not of his now-set ankle, but of his heart. He knew now, too late, that he had loved her. He'd never be able to tell Morgana. But he couldn't forget her. He felt, instinctively, that this pain would always be as fresh as it was tonight, never to fade with time. No mourning could bring her back... but he must mourn anyway.
Circe had thought that she was beyond tears. But the hot, bitter drops slipped unwillingly from her eyes. She couldn't stop remembering all the times she'd had with her now gone best friend. In a sudden fit of anger at the world for causing her so much pain, she all but tore the orb Morgana had given her from her neck. In her grief-dulled panic she might have smashed it, but now, the first time she had touched the orb itself, she felt something. Cupping it in both hands, she was astonished to see an image of Morgana, obviously looking in the mirror, and heard a voice intone, Welcome to my memories. Pulling her mind back in shock, she nearly dropped the orb again.
A Memory Orb, akin to the Pensieve. Not only were they valuable, they were extremely hard to make... but they could preserve a legacy if the enchantment to bring them to life was done correctly. As this one would... leaving the thoughts and experiences of Morgana Smith behind long after she was gone. And Circe had been trusted with this....
Just relax. Tentatively, she reached out... and found the whole story, from the point of view of its central character.
And when, as the sun peeked over the horizon and chased away the night, she finished seeing what the orb had to show, she vowed to tell this story. The world would remember. Morgana had not died in vain.
Dumbledore told them that, at least for a while, the death of Morgana could not be public. He knew that something waited in the wings, and he sensed that, if he revealed it now, she would have truly died in vain. Her remembrance would be lost in the events yet to come.
Perhaps it was hardest on her friends, this way, but they had to be strong. The time was not yet right.
In this secrecy they were helped by the fact that Morgana had not been popular in the sense that she had many who would miss her. In fact, most of those that mattered already knew. Perhaps Professor Vector noticed the absence of her star pupil, but she never got around to asking what had happened. Morgana had been like that in a way: people only noticed her if they were forced to, or if they had a great deal of empathy.
And the weeks passed.
In the aftermath of the fateful third task of the Triwizard Tournament, and the death of Cedric Diggory, no one really noticed if two Ravenclaw, two Slytherin, and a Gryffindor fourth years went around more red-eyed than they should have been at the loss of the Hufflepuff seventh year. But in a way, they were glad of the public mourning. It gave them a chance to outpour their grief out of secret.
"Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should some when you have the make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
Dumbledore's voice echoed around the Great Hall.
In the almost total silence that followed, Uric's voice was very obvious as he said a single word.
"Remember."
His boyish voice cracked slightly towards the end. There was so much pain in that one word that no one knew quite what to say. Several Gryffindors giggled nervously, as if wondering how a Ravenclaw fourth year so removed from Cedric could feel so badly.
But as for Circe, Kiri, Cassiopeia, and Stormy, they knew why he was so mournful. There were not one, but two students missing.
Many people would never notice Morgana's absence. But for the ones who had known her, there would be no forgetting.
