Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.
A/N: My new project. The defeat of Voldemort, in five parts. I think each part probably gets a little more interesting than the last.
This is set in the same universe as 'The Space Between The Stars' - meaning it is OotP compatible.
You don't have to have read 'The Space Between The Stars' to understand this, though it will give it greater depth. However, if you can't be bothered, there is a quick summary of my original characters who you will come across in this story, though they don't play very big roles, at the end of this chapter.
However, if you want to understand some of the plot points - ie. why Sirius is still alive and all when I say this story is OotP compatible - you will have to read 'The Space Between The Stars.'
Obviously I am nicking a lot of stuff from TS Eliot's modernist epic 'The Wasteland.' Read it. It's good. Even if you read it, you won't understand it - no-one really does - but read it anyway.
I'll shut up now.
Oh, reviews are nice. Very nice.
Part I - The Burial Of The Dead
'That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
'Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
'You! hypocrite lecteur!—mon semblable,—mon frère!'
- TS Eliot, The Wasteland, Part I, The Burial Of The Dead
Hogwarts, April 1998
I've always liked the colour black, Sirius thought, but not this time.
Not this time.
This time, it mattered that it was the colour assigned to Voldemort, to the Death Eaters, to death. This time, it mattered that it was the surname of his accursed family. This time, it mattered.
No stars would shine now, and the spaces between would be dull, for the great light was gone. There was no sun. There could be no dawn now.
Dumbledore was dead.
The old man lay on the table in the staffroom, hands folded on his chest in a mockery of peace, his blue eyes shut in mimicry of serenity. But there was blood, blood, so much blood. It had poured in little rivers across his face, his body, but had dried hard, in black lines, like someone had taken to him with a quill and a pot of black ink.
Black.
"Oh no," Sirius murmured. "Merlin help us, no."
"Call the Order of the Phoenix," Severus snapped to no-one in particular. "Call them!"
Sirius felt himself moving away from the table and the clustered staff, away from the memory of lost life. "I'll do it," he heard himself say distantly.
There was a hand on his arm. "No, Sirius," Minerva McGonagall said heavily, "I'll do it. This is... my duty now."
Sirius stood back and let her pass. As his old mentor walked slowly towards the fire, he felt his heart break. What hope could there be now? Dumbledore was dead. McGonagall was Headmistress now... and she was a fine witch, but... Sirius looked and he did not see the fine witch. What he saw was an old woman, bowed with grief, who walked with a limp these days and had a bad heart.
"What... can we do?" he asked faintly. "What is it... that we should do?"
"Mourn," Professor Virdis answered softly from her place beside Severus. "We must grieve."
"We do not have the time to mourn," Severus said sharply. "The students must be made safe. We must prepare for war."
"What kind of war can we make without him?" Professor Flitwick asked softly.
No-one answered.
Silence is not golden, Sirius thought. Silence is black.
Professor McGonagall made her way back to the table. "They're coming," she said heavily.
The room thrummed, and then there were little pops, like popcorn in a pan, as various members of the Order of the Phoenix Portkeyed into the room. Kingsley Shacklebolt, Fred and George Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, Bill Weasley, his wife Helena a second later with her small son Valerius in her arms, Hestia Jones, Alastor Moody, Remus and Aemilia Lupin... more came after them, the pops like gunshots to Sirius's ears, but not enough. They had lost so many. Charlie Weasley would never return to his dragons in Romania, nor Dedalus Diggle to his small shop in Diagon Alley. The death toll was so long. Emmeline Vance, Alicia Spinnet, Aberforth Dumbledore...
Cedric Diggory.
James and Lily Potter.
Regina Lupin.
Albus Dumbledore.
He was dimly aware of the gasps from the Order as the ring of teachers broke and they saw the body, lying ignominiously on the table. Felt their hearts drop as his own had, to crash and shatter on the ground in millions of pieces.
Dumbledore was dead.
Dumbledore was dead.
"What has happened here?"
He did not know who had spoken. Aemilia, perhaps, or Helena. He could only feel the tears begin to trickle down his face as McGonagall told, in halting words, the story of the last, glorious moments of Albus Dumbledore.
April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land...
The Death Eaters at the gates. The wards buckling, crackling. Dumbledore touching his arm.
"Stay here. You must guard the children. Guard Harry. I will go down to them."
The last words he had ever spoken to him.
Herding all the students of Hogwarts into the Room of Requirement. He needed a safe place to hide them, safe from Voldemort, and the room provided. The teachers were supposed to stay outside to guard them, but Sirius and Severus had shared a glance and known that they could not.
The steps of Hogwarts, then, watching, powerless. Two dark haired men, seemingly carved on granite, the witnesses.
Alone Dumbledore fought them, knowing he could not win, knowing there were too many, knowing that only Harry Potter could defeat what Tom Riddle had become, and yet fighting anyway. A true Gryffindor.
To the end.
They had been routed. Hogwarts was safe, but... at a terrible price.
Dumbledore was dead.
What branches grow out of this stony rubbish?
"What can we do?" Molly Weasley asked in a small voice. "What is there that can be done?"
"We must take the children to safety," Severus said sharply.
"We have done it."
A new voice now. Sirius looked up.
"Harry?"
§ § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § §
They all looked so... despondent. Harry clenched his teeth and wrapped his hand round his wand tighter. He knew he would grieve for Dumbledore, would cry for him - one day.
But now, he was not sad. He was angry.
How dare Voldemort kill Dumbledore? How dare he?
"We have done it," he repeated. "The students - most of them, anyway - are safe."
He stepped further into the room, and they followed him. His pupils, his soldiers, his friends, his family.
Dumbledore's Army. Every single member.
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
"And we are here to fight."
§ § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § § §
REVIEW!
A summary of my original characters. They're not very important to the plot, but have some background anyway. When I set them all out like this they do sound like I've had a bit of a Mary Sue fest, but they're all very different characters who are drawn very differently and are very, very far from perfect. The Space Between The Stars is, I believe, testimony to that.
Aemilia Lupin (nee Fudge) - Cornelius Fudge's daughter, she is a lawyer and she had him impeached in the course of The Space Between The Stars. The Wizengamot elected her Hogwarts sweetheart Remus Lupin in his place, upon which occasion he promptly proposed to her. They got married sometime between the end of The Space Between The Stars (ie. beginning of Harry's sixth year) and now (April of Harry's seventh year)
Helena Weasley (nee Seraphim) - The High Priestess of the Arachniae (a religious order devoted to the goddess Arachne, virtually wiped out by Voldemort in the summer between Harry's fifth and sixth years), she had a brief dalliance with Severus Snape during The Space Between The Stars, which resulted in her falling pregnant. However, she married Bill Weasley (Case #2 of Hogwarts Sweetheart Syndrome) and her son with Snape, Valerius, has also taken his name.
Regina Lupin - Remus's younger sister. A year below the Marauders and Co. at Hogwarts, she was brilliant at Potions and often worked outside of normal classes with Snape, who liked her very much. Unfortunately, Sirius also 'liked her very much', which is another reason why Sirius and Severus hated each other (they have a reconciliation of sorts at the end of The Space Between The Stars). Like Helena, she was one of the Arachniae, though not High Priestess. Before her year in seclusion at Telae Domus (the stronghold of the Arachniae) she slept with Sirius and in March of 1980 gave birth to a daughter, Psyche. However, her criminally insane mother Arethusa wanted some of the secrets of the Arachniae and when Regina refused, pushed her through the veil (yes, that veil) and left Psyche on the doorstep of a Muggle family with a new name - Hermione.
Niamh Virdis - Only mentioned right at the end of The Space Between The Stars. Hogwarts' new Ancient Runes teacher (Sirius is the Defence Against The Dark Arts professor), she may or may not have something going on with Snape.
So. Review.
If you haven't reviewed The Space Between The Stars and its one-shot companion Jerusalem, review them too.
Review, and Part II will come faster.