Chapter 7
The Sinking
Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Lily sought out a lifeboat. It was very difficult to find one; most of them were already gone. They got in the line to board lifeboat number eleven. Harry looked around; the crowd was mostly made up of men. Hermione and Lily climbed into lifeboat. "I'll see you on the rescue ship," Harry said.
"There's room for three men," a crewman said, looking from Harry, Ron, Fred, and George, and back again. Fred and George hesitated, looked sideways at Harry and Ron, and then stepped into the boat. Lily gave Harry a look that told him, she wanted him to get in too, but he shook his head.
"We'll see you on the rescue ship," Harry repeated, Ron nodded.
"Lower away." Harry and Ron stood watching the lifeboat being lowered, and until they could no longer see it. It was now past two in the morning and the tilting of the deck was ever so noticeable.
"Now what?" said Ron, "should we see if there any boats left?"
"I don't think there are." Sure enough Harry was right; he and Ron searched both the port and starboard sides of the ship, without any luck. Harry checked his watch two-fifteen.
"Now what?" Ron asked, for a second time.
"Let's go to the lounge, it is too cold to stay out here," Harry replied. He grasped the door handle, pulled open the door to the Grand staircase. He and Ron walked in. "Do you hear something?" Harry asked.
"Water," Ron muttered. He ran to the side of the railing and looked down. Ron turned, his face white. "Harry, we've got to get off the ship."
"RUN!" Harry hollered. Too late; a wave washed over the dome, shattering the glass, and bringing the water crashing into the room. Harry and Ron were carried away, the door burst open and they landed hard on the deck. Ron got up, looked around, and saw Harry still lying on the deck; a trickle of blood visible under his dark hair and clearly knocked out. Water began to creep up the deck, threatening to pull them into the near freezing sea. Ron pulled Harry's limp body over his shoulder and began the difficult climb up the rising stern. He just reached the end of the ship when he found himself in total darkness, then he heard something that sounded like gunshots. But it wasn't gunshots, the ship was breaking apart. Without warning the stern came crashing back into the sea. Then it was pulled straight up, Ron dangled in the air, one hand on the railing of the ship, one around Harry. He did not know how much longer he could hold on with just one hand. He knew that the sea, now mere meters from him, was just above freezing. Ron's hand slipped from the railing, and they fell. Pain shot through him, and for a minute he thought that he had hit something, but then it subsided and he realized that the shock from hitting the ice- cold water had caused it. Ron surfaced and pulled Harry out from under the sea.
Hermione and Lily were gazing at the now dark Titanic with wide eyes. It was still sinking, though not as fast. Then at two-twenty, by Hermione's watch, the unsinkable R.M.S Titanic disappeared beneath the sea, forever. The people in the lifeboats heard cries of help from those in the water. "We've got to go back!" Hermione called out to the passengers in her boat. "We can't let them drown!"
When no one answered, Lily said, "don't you realize that it is your loved ones out there dying in the freezing water?" Again she got no reply, most just looked up at them, others like Fred and George just sat there in shock, incapable of saying anything.
"I hope Harry and Ron are OK," Hermione said. Lily nodded; Fred and George just turned their miserable faces to look at her. "I'm sure there're fine," she said, though she, as the others knew too, that it was not true. They sat for along time before Hermione decided to try and sleep. Every time she closed her eyes though, she would hear those cries. Would she ever be able to sleep without hearing them again? Hermione closed her eyes and she heard them again, but this time she kept her eyes closed, and eventually they went away as a deep sleep took over.