Shades of Green
They should have expected it. After all that had happened, they should have expected it. Harry should have expected it. After all, what better way could the Death Eaters have made their point, proclaimed their message of total intolerance to muggles, muggle-borns and the slightest taint of muggle-ways? Hit a muggle-school? Well, that would cause anger, resentment, sympathy for muggles, but no fear amongst the only people that counted: the wizarding community. Hit out at Hogwarts yet again? No, too many good, solid, influential pure-blood families would be furious that their own precious offspring had been put at risk. Hit a mud-blood's family? Too little impact, too few people concerned, not enough fear in the wizarding world. Now he thought about it, Harry knew that he should have expected just exactly this, but he honestly never had. Too late now, of course. No good, now. Nothing to be done, not even damage-control. Always too bloody late.
Hermione was having trouble processing the information. She kept going over and over the details with the sternly sympathetic ministry official who had been sent to tell her. "What time was… did they… how long?" she quavered, confused, trying to get the facts straight. "The attack commenced at about nine-thirty yesterday evening, Miss Granger, and we think that it will all have been over a little before ten. Now, I know that this must be difficult for you, but…"
"Wait," Hermione interrupted, "how… how do you know how long it took? I mean, nobody saw or heard anything did they? It could have taken hours…"
"Miss Granger, we've gone into the magics very thoroughly, I assure you. The circumagere charm alone would indicate…" Hermione listened as the official, Miss…Peritus, was it, droned on almost soothingly about the various branches of investigative magic that had been employed on the case. She had a sudden mad feeling that she ought to remember this, ought to be taking notes. She had to get all the facts straight. If she could do that, if she could only understand it all, it would be alright. It would turn out that everyone else had just been stupid, like they always were, and had misunderstood, and it wasn't really true. Of course they were being stupid: Ron wasn't dead, they just hadn't been thinking, hadn't got the facts straight. Ron couldn't be dead, because… because… if Ron had really been dead, then how could Hermione possibly be sitting in her own kitchen with a cup of cocoa having a chat about investigative magic? How could Hermione possibly be thinking about notes? That wasn't logical, it didn't make sense. She needed…
Miss Peritus didn't know what to do when the child suddenly burst into tears, so she conjured a handkerchief, called the girl's parents, and apparated away to give the family some privacy. Beneath her official manner, she was moved and shaken. It was such a tragedy.
Just a taster, I'll carry on if anyone thinks its worth me bothering. It isn't going to be angsty throughout. xxx Medb