Hi everybody! Here's the next chapter in the story. I hope you enjoy! (Just a warning - this is the first true sad chapter in the story. There are plenty more coming, though.)

(Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.)

Chapter 9

A Suffering Too Terrible to Name

"He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in the cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from."

"Where's Madison?" Molly asked Mackenzie at lunch the next day. It was a Saturday, so there weren't any classes, but lunch was still scheduled for the weekends, and there weren't any Quidditch games or anything to pass the time. It didn't seem that anything out of the ordinary had happened yesterday, other than the Weasley twins' pranks - it had been Friday the Thirteenth, so Molly had been on the lookout.

"I don't know," Mackenzie said. "I haven't seen her all day."

"Well, she has to be around here somewhere," Molly said. She scanned the Hufflepuff table, but saw nothing. The only person she recognized was Stella, who was similarly looking for Madison.

Suddenly, she heard a shriek from the back of the room. The entire group of children turned to see Beatrix, in her Ravenclaw robes, with a pained look on her face.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she said, running towards the teachers' table. "I was just in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room - needed help from Professor Quirrell for something and hadn't seen him here yet - and I saw something you won't believe!"

"What is it, my dear?" Dumbledore said.

Her voice shaking, Beatrix answered.

"It's Madison," she said quietly. "She's dead."

Molly gasped, and the world seemed to slow down. When was the last time she had seen Madison? Had it been at the Quidditch game, when they had cheered on Harry and the Gryffindors together? Had it been during Friday's Herbology class, when Molly had clapped for her when she had answered a question about Devil's Snare perfectly? Had it just been passing her by in the hallways - not even stopping to say hello?

Molly jumped out of her seat and ran out of the Great Hall. The corridors blurred around her as she ran towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Finally, she made it to the door and pushed it open.

There was Madison, pale as snow, lying lifelessly on top of Jonah, who was also pale but not to the extent of Madison. Her eyes were open, but glassy. Opa laid next to them, her amber eyes staring at the ceiling without picking up the slightest detail.

Beatrix was right. Molly had hardly known Madison and had wanted to get to know her better, but now she was lying on the floor of the classroom.

Dead.

Tears welled up in Molly's eyes, and her legs buckled, her body falling to the ground next to Madison's. She heard footsteps behind her, but she didn't care. All that she could think about was her friend - beautiful, kind, smart, gone.

"Madison…" she heard a voice behind her say. Stella's.

The girl knelt by Molly and put her arm around her body. Her hand shook, and Molly could tell that she was crying, too.

"She was just here...I told her not to do that…if I hadn't given her the camera, none of this would've happened…why she went and did that, I'll never understand..."

Molly didn't know what Stella meant, but it was still heartbreaking to hear. The two girls hugged each other and cried together as teachers and students filed in to see the aftermath.

Suddenly, Molly heard a soft gasp from below her. Was she wrong? Was Madison actually alive?

She looked down, not to see Madison miraculously reawaken to cheers and happy tears, but to see Jonah opening his eyes in bewilderment.

"What's going on?" he said, his voice hoarse. "Why are you two crying?"

He tried to sit up before feeling the weight of Madison's body on him. Looking to see her, he screamed and scurried away from her.

"What happened?" he said, a crack in his voice.

"She's…" Molly couldn't bring herself to say the word.

"She's dead," Professor Dumbledore said from behind the trio of children.

"But...how?" Jonah asked.

"I don't know," Dumbledore said. Stella's eyes scanned the room, looking for someone.

"Weren't you there?" Molly asked Jonah.

"I...don't remember…" he said, and Molly could tell he was being honest.

"Let me see your wand," Dumbledore said. Jonah pulled his wand out of his pocket and gave it to the Headmaster, who set it down on a table and touched it with his wand.

"Prior Incantato," Dumbledore said.

Suddenly, a green light spurted out of Jonah's wand, almost hitting Dumbledore in the chest. It flew into the wall and left a scorch mark.

Molly's eyes followed the path of the green light, and then darted upwards. They fell upon Harry, who was standing outside and was staring at the scorch mark on the wall.

"I - I know that spell," he said. "I've never performed it, but I've seen it before."

Dumbledore looked at Harry and sighed. "Of course you've seen it. That's the Killing Curse - it causes instant death to anyone who gets in the way. And it's the last spell that was cast from this wand."

He turned to Jonah.

"Do you remember casting this spell?" he asked.

Jonah shook his head.

"What is the last thing you remember?" Dumbledore asked.

"Uh...I remember Ava telling me about a plan that Madison had, then I went down here to help her. I remember tapping her on the shoulder...and then, not much," Jonah admitted.

"Interesting," Dumbledore mused. "I don't know what happened, but I know this much: Jonah, you are on probation."

Jonah let out what seemed to Molly like a relieved sigh - and Molly was surprised, because it sure looked to her like Jonah was in serious trouble. She remembered what Hermione had told Ron and Harry back in October, just before the troll in the dungeon incident: "I'm leaving before any of you come up with another plan to get us all killed - or worse, expelled." If Jonah could potentially face expulsion, what would happen to him?

"Well, back to lunch!" Dumbledore said to the gathering of children who were peering into the crime scene. "You're probably getting pretty hungry!"

Molly wiped the tracks of tears that ran down her cheeks off of her face and began to run back to her seat, trying not to think about Madison or the Killing Curse or what Stella said. But before she left the room, she noticed a little black box lying on the ground, near Madison's body. A camera.

Molly walked over to the camera, picked it up, and examined it. It didn't look half bad - sure, the lens had a small crack running through it, but nothing that couldn't be replaced over winter vacation, which Molly was planning on taking.

Camera in hand, Molly ran out of the room.

Thanks for reading! Here are this chapter's fun facts:

1) Stella's tearful speech over Madison's body is inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda's verse in "Alabanza" from In the Heights.

2) The chapter title is based on a line in "It's Quiet Uptown."

3) When I was trying to figure out when Madison was going to die, her inspiration suggested looking up when Friday the 13th was in 1991/1992 - and thankfully for me, it was in December, so I could pair it with the twins' snowball prank.

4) One of the reasons that Madison didn't have as much characterization is because her inspiration kept on begging me to put up her death chapter so that she could see what people thought. (Imagine her surprise when there ended up being not a single review!)

Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!