Chapter 41 Elation and Heartbreak

Harry did not know how long he sat in the dark clutching Melony's body like that. He startled when he heard several cracking sounds nearby. He heard Grishnack's voice.

"Shacklebolt! Potter! Where are you? Have you left?"

Grishnack lit some lights as Harry called out sadly, "Over here!"

"Melony!" said Grishnack, with as much warmth as Harry had ever heard from him. "Potter, what's happened?"

"Shacklebolt was a traitor, in service to Voldemort. He made to kill me, and she leapt at him … because you ordered her to protect me."

Grishnack told another goblin to get a healer as he checked Melony's eyes.

"She couldn't possibly have survived this, could she?" asked Harry.

"I don't think so. I'm no healer, though. We goblins have developed many methods of dealing with muggle weapons, so if there's any spark left, there's hope."

A healer from another hullabaloo arrived and began examining her. "Keep holding her, boy. I wouldn't have thought it possible. Maybe it's the good medicine of your touch and your tears, but she is alive, though just barely. I have to perform the reversing charm."

Grishnack explained, "One of our tools against muggle weapons – the reversing charm undoes much of the damage done by muggle weapons if it is performed as the weapon is removed."

The healer first gave Melony the goblin version of blood restoration potion. Harry felt a surge in the warm liquid flowing down his arms to his lap. The healer performed an intricate series of hand movements and incantations in a language whose syllables Harry could not even pronounce, but which he recognized as gobbledegook. She grasped the handle of the knife as she continued to incant, and slowly withdrew it. Melony's flesh wriggled around the blade as it was pulled, and she gave a slight shudder. The healer took again her small bottle of blood restorer and put it to Melony's lips. It trickled into her mouth, and within seconds the pale green which Melony had turned was returned to the bullfrog green a goblin should have. Harry's heart leapt with joy and he breathed as deeply as his wounded shoulder would allow.

Melony opened her eyes weakly, looking at Grishnack, and said, "Is he okay? I tried to protect Potter."

Grishnack smiled warmly. "Yes, he is holding you even now. He will be fine, and so will you. You have done very well, Melony. We are proud of you."

"Boy, can you carry her to my clinic?" the healer asked Harry.

"I'm sorry, I can't," said Harry, pulling his robe from across his crushed leg and showing her.

The goblin healer gasped and said to another goblin, "Find him a wizard healer, fast. He is our true friend."

"If the battle is over," said Harry, "my friends Hermione Granger and Marietta Edgecombe should be there – they're healer trainees."

"Yes, the battle is over," said Grishnack, making a gesture to a goblin indicating he should go up to get Hermione and Marietta. "Your friends ended the battle where we could not. They held the enemy in the lobby until we goblins smote them with irresistible force. When the remainder emerged into the sunlight, your friends disabled them all."

Harry smiled. The DA had come through. The goblin healer levitated Melony off of his lap and toward a hullabaloo entrance. Harry watched them until the hullabaloo door was shut. In just a few minutes, the goblin who had gone to get help came clattering down the tracks in a railcar, bringing Hermione and Professor Weasley with him.

"Harry!" said Arthur. "He said you'd been hurt."

"Not enough to get me out of your exam, I'm afraid."

Hermione immediately began checking his leg.

"This is beyond me right now, Harry, but Madam Pomfrey will know what to do."

"There's also this," said Harry, pulling the robe up over his right shoulder. His t-shirt was soaked in blood from his right shoulder wound.

"No!" gasped Hermione and Professor Weasley.

Harry nodded, and then showed them his left hand, sliced to the bone of both his palm and fingers where the blade had pulled through his fist. "I guess this will need some attention, too."

"Madam Pomfrey will be able to fix him up, Hermione?" Arthur asked her.

"Yes, of course. It will take a few days, but we can do it."

"How did you get all these injuries?" asked Arthur.

"Shacklebolt – he was a traitor."

"I'd ask if you're sure, but the proof is right before me."

Harry nodded. "It sounds like the DA did brilliantly. I hope there weren't any casualties," said Harry.

Hermione bit her lip and looked away.

"Oh, no," said Harry. "Who? What happened?"

"Harry, you know the plan was to hold them in the lobby if you beat the heliopaths, so that the goblins could take care of them," began Hermione, "so when Ron, Ernie and Professor Weasley surveyed the area around Gringotts', they were looking for well-protected positions to move our forces to. Ron realized it was going to take time and he noticed a gargoyle above the Gringotts' entrance that was still stable after the front was smashed. He mentioned when he got back to those who had apparated that one of us on that gargoyle could hold them in at least until we could get the others in place. Before Ron could even ask for a volunteer, Marietta said 'I've got it' and disapparated. Then we heard the crack from up there and she gave us a thumbs-up.

"Harry, she was brilliant, stunning everyone that tried to get out of there until we got all our forces in place. She single-handedly kept them from escaping and disapparating until the goblins were practically shoving them out through the door. Then several of them ran out at once and blasted the gargoyle, and she fell with all that stonework. Cho and I tried to levitate her, but with all the debris, all we could catch was stone. The remainder of the army came rushing out and they were caught in a crossfire from the students that would have leveled a mountain. It'll take St. Mungo's months to sort out all the hexes for trials, at least for those who survive. As soon as the firing was over, I ran over to Marietta, but there was nothing I could do."

"Was she crushed?"

"No, she fell on top of the debris. She wasn't gone when I got to her, but …"

"Did she say anything?"

Hermione bit her lip. "Harry, don't …"

"TELL ME!" Harry demanded, his eyes pleading desperately.

"She said to tell you she loved you, and that she had been brave. She … she said 'thanks for the second chance.'"

Harry suddenly got excited, "But if she could say all that, then maybe … Accio wands!"

Both wands flew to his uninjured right hand.

"Harry, don't!" cried Hermione, as he disapparated. She looked around frantically and found the goblin who had brought her in.

"Can you please bring me back up there?"

The goblin took her to the lobby and she picked her way through the debris and bodies to the entrance. She found Harry on the sidewalk amid the debris sitting beside Marietta, his crushed left leg splayed out. He was hugging the limp torso desperately and his shoulders shook, as Marietta's head lolled back on her neck, eyes and mouth wide open. Hermione came up quietly and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Harry, I'm so sorry."

"Hermione," he said through gasps, "do you know what a legilemens sees when he looks into the mind of someone who has just died?"

"No, Harry," answered Hermione quietly.

"Be very glad for that. I couldn't possibly tell you and I love you too much to try."

Harry let Marietta's body slump to the sidewalk. He arranged her arms neatly and closed her mouth and eyes.

"She wanted to leave a beautiful corpse, Hermione. What do you think?"

"There may have been beauty in how she died, Harry, but I can't say that there's really such a thing as a beautiful corpse."

Harry put his face down into his hands. Hermione sat on a low stone next to him and gently stroked his back. He laid his head on her thigh, looking outward at Marietta's body.

"Hermione, I can't cry anymore. I'm all cried out today. Can you do it for me?"

"Yes, Harry," sniffed Hermione, "I can cry for you."