After the End

The wand is bright. It is very, very bright, and she can only see colors. Bright colors superimposed on black. And a voice says, "Susan, open your eyes." And another voice says, "She's asleep." And another voice says, "She's unconscious." And the first voice says, "Susan, can you hear me? Susan, open your eyes."

She opens her eyes.

Outside the window, it's raining, and she thinks, the curtains are wrong. Wrong for home and wrong for school. Except that I'm not in school anymore. Or am I? I don't think I took my NEWTs. I don't remember taking my NEWTs.

She's staring at a Healer, a short, stout, red-haired little witch in lime-green robes, who is poking a very bright wand in her eyes.

So it must be St. Mungo's.

A good thing, too. Because she doesn't feel good. Her head hurts, and her vision is blurry, and even though she can see red hair and green robes, she wonders if she is blind. She is very glad to be in St. Mungo's.

The Healer says, "Follow the light."

Susan says, "Do you think I'll be blind?"

Her mother pats her hand.

And all of a sudden she thinks, she was pregnant. I always thought it was a photograph. My mother was pregnant, and she went to my Uncle Edgar's house. One fire and five dead bodies, and she screamed. She screamed and screamed, and she was pregnant, and the baby was me, and that's why I remember something that happened before I was born.

If I had been pregnant when—

Well, I wasn't.

Thank God.

And her mother takes her hand, and she says, "I like your boyfriend."

And Susan thinks, boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend. At least I don't think so. But I'm very confused. I'm remembering things that I shouldn't remember, things that happened before I was born, and I can't remember things that happened this year, or that should have happened this year, like whether or not I took my NEWTs.

Aloud, she says, "Why is it daylight?"

Her mother says, "It's eleven o'clock in the morning."

Susan thinks for a minute. She says, "Tuesday?"

Her mother holds her hand. She says, "Wednesday. It's Wednesday, dear. You slept for a long time." She picks up a little plant from the night table and she says, "He left you this."

Susan looks at it. It is a small gray cactus covered with boils. It is unattractive, but it has an amazing defensive mechanism. She has seen plants like this before.

She has a pretty good idea, who might have left her this.

Even though she's having trouble remembering a lot of other things.

Aloud, she says, "Is Voldemort gone?"

Tell me please, tell me please, tell me please that Voldemort's dead. Tell me I don't have to fight anymore. Tell me I won't have to wake up again in St. Mungo's with my head hurting and my vision blurred, remembering things that happened before I was born and wondering if I'll be blind.

Her father shudders. She has never heard her father say the name. And she realizes now, her father has never heard her say the name. It was only after she started fighting him that she started saying the name. Her mother says, quietly, "yes." Yes, he's gone. But her father just shudders, because he's never said the name, and he's never heard her say the name, and he's practically the last Bones in the world. And Susan realizes, all of a sudden, if she's counting right, that she and her father are the only two Boneses who have survived Lord Voldemort.

She is the very last Bones in the world.

And if the wizarding world had had an aristocracy, the Boneses would have been it. The citations, the decorations.

The graves.

So that's what she's got now, graves. Graves, and a handful of OWLs, because as she wakes up, she's starting to feel pretty sure that she didn't take her NEWTs. She would probably remember it, if she had taken her NEWTs.

She did take her OWLs. She remembers that.

The door opens, and Neville walks in. He is three inches taller than he was last week. Well, he probably isn't, but he looks like he is, if you're lying in a bed in St. Mungo's and your head hurts and your vision is blurred and you're wondering if you're going to be blind.

And she thinks, Neville, you're walking.

He walks right up to the bed. He hands her another potted plant, and this one is pretty. He says, "Susan, you're awake." He sounds happy and surprised.

And she thinks, Neville, you're talking.

Neville, why are you walking? Neville, why are you talking? We thought you were the most incompetent—well, very, very sweet. Everyone likes Neville, and he's always been a very good sport. But Neville, why are you walking, Neville, why are you talking, Neville, why are you coming to visit me in St. Mungo's when I'm pretty sure that everyone else who was there last night (Monday night? Sunday night?)—well, I'm pretty sure that everyone else who was there is checked into St. Mungo's too. Or is contributing to the fact that I am now the very last Bones in the world.

But in spite of this worrisome situation (and she's getting more worried every minute, as she starts to wake up), Neville is walking and talking and coming to visit her in St. Mungo's.

And Neville was there.

Aloud, she says, "Neville, why are you wearing a suit?"

And he says, "Hannah and Ernie are getting married this afternoon." And he says, "It's quick, but it's time." And he says, "It's awkward, but you don't postpone a wedding." And he says, "Didn't you know?"

Well, no, I didn't.

Well, of course I did. I knew the morning after Albus Dumbledore died, when I saw Hannah on the floor of the Hufflepuff common room, poking Ernie and prodding him and kicking him and cuddling him, and telling him he had to stand up and be a prefect. And I really, really didn't understand why Ernie ever tried to say he loved me, when he was so obviously—but I didn't think about it much, because I had other things on my mind, the morning after Albus Dumbledore died.

But now that you mention it, I don't think they ever actually told me. No. Which is not to say I blame them. Even though Hannah is my best friend. Because even though I was technically still at Hogwarts last year, I wasn't really around much.

And Hannah always had to pretend she didn't notice I was disappearing.

Aloud, she says, "Neville, do you remember if I took my NEWTs?"

He looks embarrassed and he kicks the floor. He says quietly, "No, Susan, I don't think you did."

And then he grins. He says, "I didn't take them either."

So I guess we'll both be taking them next year.

And maybe by then I'll have a boyfriend.