Broken Mirror
By Aya of the ACLT
Chapter One: Find all the Pieces
Harry stood alone at the small graveyard that had been made on the grounds of Hogwarts. All the people that were always loyal to Dumbledore, all the people that had protected him, and then his cause were buried next to his grave. There own tomb markers not as beautiful as the Headmasters was, but still it gave them justice.
It was a year or so after the death of Voldemort and the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was trying to get back to its old glory. A week before the few students were to come, Headmistress McGonagall had called on a few talented Wizards to fill in the spots that had teachers that were dead. All the other teachers hadn't been scared away by the war, although most of the kids had been.
Harry for Defense Against the Dark Arts, taking a break from his Auror job for just a while. Charlie for Care of Magical Creatures, having come home upon hearing of the death of Ron. Bill for potions, just wanting to get away for a while. There were also new teachers for Arithmancy, History of Magic, and a few others.
This year, seeing as there were dedicatedly fewer students, the Weasley family, and Tonks or a few were allowed to stay there so that they weren't away from the people they loved.
Never the less Harry was standing alone in front of the graves, his eyes glossed over as he read the names noiselessly. "Ronald Weasley. Hermione Granger. Remus Lupin. Rubeus Hagrid. Alastor Moody. Kingsley Shaklebolt. Sirius Black. James Potter. Lily Evans." The list stopped there. Others, such as Peter Pettigrew, the other death eaters, and a few ministry members were stuck out in a different graveyard.
"Only ten people there, and yet the list seems to take forever to read."
Harry quickly spun around and looked up at Bill. He stood right behind Harry, looking down at the grave of Ron's. His face was still scarred up badly. Disfigured to say the least. Back in the summer before the seventh year Remus had told Bill that he should get a white mask that would cover his face and then start calling himself the Phantom of the Order. Then that Christmas Fred and George had presented Bill with the mask. As of yet Bill hadn't worn it, but he had decided, that for classes why not use the mask.
Harry looked away from Bill and back to the graves. "It's all my fault." He muttered.
Bill laughed. The sound sounded very forced as most laughs did at that point in time. "Don't give yourself all the credit Harry. Not every thing is your fault." He replied, trying to give a light spin to it.
Harry shook his head in disbelief. "Have you and Fleur decided on a date?" He said, trying to change the subject.
"Not yet. I want to get this year over with first. See how it goes." He looked down at Harry. "It's hard, with Ron being dead, the Wizarding world so depressed, and well . . . you know."
Harry nodded and crossed his arms. Letting a little silence fall over them. The stood there looking at each other, just thinking.
"At least they died together." Bill commented, gesturing to Hermione and Ron's graves. "I guess it would be really sad if one of them stayed alive."
"Yeah. So the couples are all together." Harry smiled a bit.
"Unless you counted Tonks and Remus as a couple . . . What about you and Ginny, Harry?"
"There's nothing between us, Bill." Harry shrugged. "It's hard. For all of us, and I don't really want to attach myself to any one just yet."
Bill nodded. "I don't agree with you, but still."
"There you two are. We've been looking for you both. Fleur needs to talk to you Bill. And Harry . . . well I want to talk to you. But if you two are busy right now, I can tell Fleur." Ginny said, running up to the two.
Bill and Harry both turned to Ginny, stressed smiles coming onto their faces.
"We aren't talking about anything important. Where's Fleur?"
"In your office." Ginny smiled and Bill walked off. "Harry, are you okay? I mean, I know that's a bit of a stupid question, but are you?"
"Oh I'm just dandy. My best friends are dead, my parents are dead, any one that's ever known my parents is dead, and Dumbledore is dead. I'm surrounded by death. Yeah, I'm fine." Harry replied sarcastically.
Ginny smiled and put her hand on his arm. "You'll be okay Harry. You're a strong man Harry. You can make it through this. I think, what's really bothering you is that you have no closure, and you're blaming your self. You shouldn't do that. It's not your fault and every thing will turn out okay. In the end."
"How do you know?" Harry asked, his face set in a hard line.
"Because you're Harry Potter. You were able to find and destroy six Horcruxes and defeat Voldemort."
"If memory serves me right, you were the one that killed him."
"Yes, but he was weakened, I wouldn't have been able to do it if he hadn't been. Just, Harry, stop blaming yourself." She shrugged and walked away.
Bill walked into his office to find Fleur pacing back and forth, muttering in French.
"What's up?" Bill asked calmly, hanging up his cloak.
"What's up? What's up! That's all you have to say! I can not believe you Bill! You're supposed to love me! You're supposed to care about me! You don't, you're too stuck up on every thing else! You're avoiding me!" Fleur screamed the moment that 'up' came out of Bill's mouth.
Bill backed up against the door. "I'm not avoiding you Fleur, I'm just busy."
"Busy doing what Bill? Having an affair! Falling out of love with me! I want to know what's going on!"
Bill shook his head. "I can't believe this Fleur! I'm not having an affair! Even if I wanted to there's no one I could have an affair with!"
"So you don't love me any more?"
"What? I never said that Fleur!"
"But you didn't not say it!"
Bill shook his head and walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him and storming off.
"Whoa, Bill, what's going on?" Charlie asked, stopping in the middle of the hall and grabbing onto Bill's arm to stop his wild escape.
"Fleur's being a complete idiot." Bill muttered. Charlie laughed and with out any answer started to pull Bill down to the kitchen.
They got to the kitchen; Charlie tickled the pear, and then sat Bill down next to Fred. George was sitting on the other side of the table, and Charlie sat next to him. There were three cups of fire whiskey on the table. And the moment that Bill sat down one of the house elves put a cup in front of him. Which Bill quickly took and started to drink it.
"Well what's wrong with Bill?" Fred asked with a laugh.
"Fleur's mad at him."
"Of course, woman."
"Can't live with them and . . . well I could live with out them." George laughed.
"Only because you've never had a serious relationship." Charlie commented.
"Oh and you have? The only person in this room that has is Bill." Fred said.
"She accused me of cheating on her and not loving her any more." Bill said once he was done with the drink. "This whole post war thing is stupid. Every one's mad at ever one else."
Fred and George laughed. "I think she's pregnant." Fred answered.
"She couldn't be. It would show by now." Bill replied.
"You mean you two haven't done any thing for a while?" Charlie asked.
"We haven't even slept in the same bed."
"No wonder she's mad at you Bill. Come on, no action in bed. That poor girl. I'd gladly take your place if you want me too." Fred laughed.
"Fred this isn't funny." Bill sighed.
Fed shrugged and took some sips of the drink in front of him. "Well nothing's funny any more. So we've got to make some thing funny."
"Yeah, like the one time that McGonagall fell and her robe went over her head and . . ." George stopped when Charlie and Bill started to glare at him. "Well it wasn't my fault." He said innocently.
Fred laughed. "Maybe we should just turn into the pathetic boring people every one else has turned into." He said to George.
"Don't do that. Just learn when to make fun and when not to." Bill shrugged. "Or get some girl friends that will actually like your sense of humor."
"A lot of girls like us Bill. It's just a matter of time that one of us actually likes them back." George replied.
Charlie laughed. "Well at least they know it's their faults."
"Which is very reassuring, I'm sure." Bill answered in monotone. "But at the moment the only guy in this room that was actually able to fall in love and be loved back needs help."
Fred and George shrugged in unison and Charlie just shook his head. "Well I don't know how to help you chum. I mean Fleur isn't the type of girl that will let jealousy just float away on a bubble. Actually I think she's the type of girl that clings onto jealousy as much as she can." Charlie said.
"Her next move will probable be to start flirting with some one else to make you jealous then." George looked at Fred and Charlie.
"And be all means she'll pick some one like Charlie or me, or George, maybe even a teacher although I don't think there are any young teachers left."
"What about the two for History of Magic and Arithmancy?" Charlie asked.
"They're our age, I think. But both of them are women, so unless Fleur is a Lesbian, which I doubt, she's not going to go off flirting with the two."
"Guys can we get back to the point?" Bill sighed.
"What was the point?" George asked.
"My fiancé is mad at me and I don't know what to do."
"That's the point? That's a stupid point. We should make a new point. Like, your fiancé thinks your having an affair with . . ."
"Tonks, and she's all super jealous. Although that wouldn't work because Tonks is all . . . really depressed."
"So the real point is that your fiancée, future wife, is going to cheat on you to make you jealous." Charlie concluded.
"So what should I do?"
"Beat her too it?" Fred offered. "Go cheat on her before she can cheat on you."
"FRED! That's not a solution. That'll just make it all worse!" Charlie sighed and put his head in his hands. "I just had to have brothers like you."
"Hey it's not our fault. Blame Mom and Dad. They were the one's that had us and raised us." George said.
There was a silence for a while. The only sound of the house elves cooking and cleaned and walking around them.
"How's Harry doing?" Charlie asked after a while.
"Bad. It's like every one that he ever was close to is dead and he blames himself." Bill answered, swishing around the contents of his cup.
"That's stupid. It's not his fault. If any thing it's Trelawney's." Fred said.
"What about Voldemort?" Charlie asked.
"He's dead by hand of our little sister." George said. "Can't blame him."
"Professor Snape?"
"He's dying. And he helped out Harry. I mean, with out him Harry would have been dead at the beginning. And with out Ginny there then Harry would be dead. So really there's no one to blame but Harry or the one that initially made this whole thing happen. Stupid isn't it?"
"Yeah, really fun." Bill said with a roll of his eyes.
"Come on Bill. It's not that bad. She's just jumpy like every one else in our world. Now that the war is over no one trusts themselves any more. Every one is so paranoid and they have a right to be." Fred shrugged. "So just give it time. Give her a little space, just not too much that it seems like you're avoiding her. Let her see that you still love her." He shrugged again.
"Of course, you shouldn't take advice from us because we've never been in love." George added.
"Guys, I'm going to check on mom. Don't do any thing crazy." Charlie stood up, taking him cup with him and walked out of the kitchen.
"Minerva are you sure you want to go this. There aren't as many kids. We'll have about 30 per year, and about 100 for the first years. Which is good in the first years, but most of the people that are coming back are scared to death and are only coming because they need this education to be able to protect them selves. Every one thinks that a new war is going to come around the moment that every thing gets back to normal." Flitwick said.
Minerva and Flitwick were sitting in Minerva's office talking about the new school year. Some people were against getting the school back together so soon, and other's really wanted to see it happen.
"Flitwick if we don't start it now then people will never see that the world can be put back together with out a new war breaking out."
"But can't we wait, at least a year before we do that. It's been less then a summer that the war ended, people are still scared of saying his name. We should wait until next year."
"No, we should start now. We can't wait a year, we have to do it now. Flitwick if you don't agree with me that's okay, but I am the headmistress now and we are going to get back up and running now. You can't change my mind."
She sat down and looked down at the papers she had been working on. The lists of all the students that were too attend Hogwarts that year and then the basic schedules. She was finishing up the final touched of the school year before it started.
Flitwick sighed and muttered a 'as you wish' then left the room. Soon after he left the door opened again.
"You think of another agreement?" Minerva asked, not looking up from her papers.
"Seeing as I have nothing to argue again, I would have to answer a no to that." The new Arithmancy teacher, Opal Vallreal, replied in her little Luxembourgish accent.
"Oh I'm sorry Opal, I thought you were Flitwick."
"Obviously." She smiled. A real smile, which made her seem like the only person that could actually do that. "So you wanted to talk to me headmistress? Hopefully you don't want to fire me already."
"No, No." Minerva put away her papers and looked up at Opal with a stressed smile. "As you very well know Britain just got out of a war. . ."
"Yes it was all over Luxembourg news, actually all news. No one really expected you guys to survive. But anyway, go on."
"Well most of the parents and students are very jumpy and suspicious. So I would like to warn you against any, um . . . Weird, or creepy teaching methods."
"So in other words be very professional for this first year and then if you decide to keep me around then I can go back to being less professional." Opal smiled.
"Yes, that's precisely what I mean." Minerva nodded and stood up.
"Would you like me to pass this to Professor Sinclair?"
"Oh no, I already told Alice. Now, you will probably have a surprisingly small class, seeing how Arithmancy normally doesn't get too many students in the first place, so I'm not as worried about you doing any thing too bad. It might freak people out a bit at how happy you are, though."
"Happy? I'm not happy; I'm just joyous that I've got a job really. I'll try not to be happy if that's what you wish." Opal replied with a large smile.
"No no. It'll be okay. Just don't break into Luxembourgish in the middle of class. Now that you can tell Alice. Tell her not to break out into Slovenian in the middle of class."
"I will be sure to that that. Thank you so very much Minerva, it's so nice to have a job. And here! At Hogwarts, the best school of Wizardry. It's amazing."
Minerva nodded and dismissed Opal. Once she left Minerva sat back down and sighed. "If only every one had her enthusiasm and love. This will be a very interesting year."
"You'll be okay Minerva. You are capable of this." The all too familiar voice of Albus Dumbledore said from the portrait behind Minerva.
She jumped out the voice and quickly gathered her self again, but made sure not to look at the portrait behind her. "I hope you're right."
"It seems like every one's avoiding me now a days. You won't look at me, every one seems to never come in here, and if they do they don't look at me. Only those two new teachers will do so."
"It's because you supposed to be dead Albus. It's hard to hear and see the person that had caused so much grief in every one's life. We all miss you." Minerva said, trying her best to pull back the tears.
Dumbledore seemed to only nod in response and then sat back in the portrait and left the woman alone.
"Thank you Albus." Minerva whispered, then got back to the paper work in front of her.
Molly lay in her bed, sick with the flu and refusing to let any one fix her up. In truth she just wanted to get a break from having to see people, see the pain in their faces. No one smiled, no real smiles, and no one laughed. Or at least the laugh was always so strange and different from what she was use to.
Not only that, but Molly's son was dead. To loose a child was a fate worse than death. But it seemed that every person in Molly's family had some thing happen to them in that time. Arthur was stuck with the job of Minister of Magic, in a time when every one hated the ministry. Bill had been attacked by the werewolf and his face was disfigured. Charlie was forced to come home and leave the place that he knew. Percy was in hiding in fear of his life. Fred and George had to close down their store because of bad business. And Ginny couldn't perform magic because of a broken heart and that the unforgivable curse took a lot from her.
Molly herself was broken hearted and hadn't done much of any thing since Ron died. She wouldn't eat too much, maybe only some water but nothing else to drink. And she wouldn't do magic unless absolutely necessary. Arthur was worried for his wife, he wanted her to get back, but that wouldn't work. No one could make her feel better.
The clock that used to be in the Burrow was right next to the bed that Molly was sleeping in, and every two moments she would look at it to make sure every one was okay. It was nerve wracking that any one of them could die at any moment, even now that the war was over.
Arthur seemed to always be at work, having to clean up what the ministry had done was hard work. Many times he would come home late at night, or not even come home at all. There fore, since the kids mostly had thinks to do, and Molly refused to have a house elf take care of her since they were bad company, one of the new teacher's daughters, who was actually in her seventh year that year, yet it was her first year here at Hogwarts. Molly found her nice company, since she had no part to do of the war she seemed so innocent, and her little Slovenian accent was just so adorable.
There was a little knock on the door and then the girl walked in. She was petite for her age, very cute.
"Hello Ava." Molly greeted.
"Hello Mrs. Weasley. Are you feeling any better?" Ava asked, putting down a try of soup and a glass of water on the bed next to Molly.
"A little. How are every one?"
"Truthfully I can't see many people where I work around. Mr. Potter was headed out to the grounds earlier today when I was weeding the garden around the little hut. And when I was heading back I saw your son Bill heading out to Mr. Potter."
Molly nodded and started to drink some of the water. "Thank you Ava."
"No worry. I hope you feel better and get out of bed soon. I must still take you up on the offer of going to town with you to shop. I have never shopped at Britain before." Ava smiled and walked out of the room, being sure to shut the door quietly behind her.
"Patetičen dama." She muttered as she walked out of the room that Molly and Arthur Weasley were staying in.
"What'd you say?" Charlie asked, turning a corner into the hallway.
"Poor woman." Ava answered.
"Who?" He nodded, walking up to Ava, with his cup of fire whiskey in his hand. "My mother?"
"Da, your mother. She has the looks of a woman that has lost every thing." Ava answered looking up at Charlie was a little smile.
"Yes. Well she has lost a son." Charlie said.
"Nak. No. She has not only lost your brother. But all of you. I think." Ava shrugged. "At least it is what she believes. It shows in her eyes."
"Eyes are the window to the soul. Right?" He shook his head and offered Ava a sip of fire whiskey, which she turned down.
"I believe." She sighed and leaned again the wall. "War is hard. I feel to be imposing on you all. I do not share your pain. I am out of place."
"I think people like it though. Mom does at least. You are one of the few people that seem to be able to laugh any more." He leaned against the opposite wall. "You lost your father, right?"
"Da."
Charlie nodded and looked at the door that Ava had just come out of. "How's she doing?"
"Mrs. Weasley? She is better. I believe it is only her own mind keeping her back now. She will be fine soon." Ava nodded and stood up. "I will see you later?"
"Of course. I am after all one of your teachers." Charlie nodded and walked the opposite way of Ava.
AN: Well here's the first chapter. Please read and review. All you have to say is "I like your story enough to review." Copy and paste, it's not too hard, and I'm sure there's some one that likes it enough to review.