CHAPTER TWO

MOLLY WEASLEY WAS CRYING AS SHE STOOD

IN FRONT OF ME IN THE LIVING ROOM.

"I shouldn't have left him alone!"she wailed, covering her face in her hands. "Harry, I'm so sorry, dear! If only I had made him go to the shops with me or sent an Elf, maybe nothing would have happened to him."

It had been presumably several hours since Tom's body would be removed from the house. I warned the forensics team that if even a single eyelash had been taken from his body, there would be hell to pay.

I've heard the stories. Of people removing hearts or brains during autopsies to steal them or perform other rituals like bringing back people from their eternal slumber to turn them into an Inferius.

I couldn't allow something like that to happen to Tom. Never. And everyone knew better than to lie to me. Even if I'm shitty at Occlumency—If I may blow my own horn—I am quite formidable in Legilimency.

All of our friends were collected in the living room with me, a sober silence only broken by the slight random sniffles coming from various people.

"N-No, it wasn't your fault, Molly. You couldn't have done anything,"Bellatrix replied quietly.

"If anyone is at fault here really, all of us should be blamed. We didn't do enough to make sure Tom was alright,"Hermione said with a shrug. She rested her head on her husband, Blaise's shoulder.

I bristled slightly at that. How could she imply such a thing?

"I didn't do enough?" I asked coolly, my face blank as I leant back on the plush armchair by the fireplace. Another memory of Tom that makes my heart clench painfully. He used to love reading by the fire with Nagini by his feet.

Everyone traded fearful glances before all eyes started darting in between Hermione and I.

"I...I didn't mean it like that, Harry! Honestly..."she spluttered, trying to save face.

"Then tell us, O Almighty Granger, what exactly did you mean?"Draco asked from his place in a dark corner. Only everything from the collarbone down could be seen, but you didn't need to see his face was set in a sneer.

Hermione clicked her tongue at Draco before rolling her eyes.

"What I meant was that...Well...Harry...You seem to be a little...oblivious towards other people. You didn't notice until later that Tom wasn't alright—,"she slowly said, careful to pick which words she'd use.

"Oh, as if YOU were very observant,"Ginny hissed. "Unbelievable! Harry didn't do anything. No one knew what would have happened today. No. One."

Astoria held down her wife in her seat, preventing Ginny from standing up to give Hermione a piece of her mind.

"Okay, there's no need to be so mean to her—,"Blaise snapped, draping an arm around Hermione.

"If she says Harry isn't observant, then why didn't she tell us what was going on if she knew?"Narcissa asked.

"I'm not saying that I knew!"Hermione retorted.

"Then why say others didn't?"Bellatrix attacked next.

"I-I—"

"You do not know! Why must you say something like zat if someone iz clearly 'urting?"Fleur asked, her once barely noticeable French accent coming back in full force.

"Alright. That is enough fighting for today, the children are upstairs. Do you really want them to wake up?"I asked quietly, effectively silencing everyone.

I sighed. "I'm going to bed," I added after several beats. "I've had a ridiculously long day and I need to see to the arrangements for Tom's f-funeral."

"Goodnight, Harry..."Luna responded absently, her piercing blue orbs seeming to stare into my soul.

I stood up and offered the eccentric woman a weak smile. "Goodnight, Lulu."

~0~

It's nearly three and I couldn't sleep.

I was in one of our extra rooms that we used just in case one of Tom's little experiments go haywire and trash part of the Manor.

I was sitting up cross legged in our king sized four poster bed, the nearly transparent green curtains undrawn. I wore a random white shirt with black boxers as I was too lazy to look for an actual pyjama set to wear.

I could feel the rims of my rounded glasses slipping off my face slowly as I bent my head down, watching a video from our last vacation on my iPhone.

We had decided to travel around the world once more to celebrate our twentieth anniversary and we had a weird little theme. 'Around the world in 80 days'. Tom had begged me to do it. I was worried that we might miss some work but the clever thing managed to...convince me that I deserved a break from the Ministry.

"Oh Merlin, Tom! Why must you be so morbid?" I asked in the video, aiming the camera at him. Tom was busy attempting to take a selfie by a body in Japan's infamous 'Suicide Forest'. That place had given me the creeps.

Tom laughed back at me, striking a silly pose. "What? Isn't it another reason why you love me, Harry?"

I could hear myself chuckling. "Yes, silly Tomcat. That's another reason why I love you."

The video decided to pause on its own for some reason. Every time I tried to press play, it would refuse to continue, always stuck on that particular frame.

But the more I looked at the screen, the more strange the scene behind us looked—well, more than it did anyway, what with the numerous dead bodies around us—There was someone standing a far distance behind us, hidden partly behind the trees.

It was wearing a weird black robe or suit without a tie, it's head covered by a strange looking top hat, it's face blurred...

Something prickled the back of by neck slightly, and I rubbed it to soothe the pain somewhat. It kept on growing the longer I stared at the picture of the mysterious figure.

It got too unbearable until I looked up. And what I found made the my breath catch in my chest.

It was Tom, staring at me from the end of the bed like a spooky motherfucker.

~0~

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