Chapter 24:
Harry would gladly have set out for Godric's Hollow the following day, but Hermione had other ideas. Agreeing with Alicia in the danger aspect of their trip, and believing that Voldemort would expect Harry and Alicia to return to the scene of their parents' deaths, she was determined that they would set off only after they had ensured that they had the best disguises possible. It was therefore a full week later — once they had surreptitiously obtained hairs from innocent Muggles who were Christmas shopping, and had practiced Apparating and Disapparating while underneath the Invisibility Cloak together — that Hermione agreed to make the journey.
They were to Apparate to the village under cover of darkness, so it was late afternoon when they finally swallowed Polyjuice Potion, Harry transforming into a balding, middle-aged Muggle man, Hermione into his small and rather mousy wife and Alicia into another women of similarity they'd taken hairs from. The beaded bag containing half their possessions, the other in Alicia's, hanging from their elbow (apart from the Horcrux, which Harry was wearing around his neck) Hermione's bag tucked into an inside pocket of Hermione's buttoned-up coat. Harry lowered the Invisibility Cloak over them, then they turned into the suffocating darkness once again.
Opening her eyes and standing hand in hand with Harry, they stood in a snowy lane under a dark blue sky, in which the night's first stars were already glimmering feebly. Cottages stood on either side of the narrow road, Christmas decorations twinkling in their windows. A short way ahead of them, a glow of golden streetlights indicated the centre of the village.
"All this snow!" Hermione whispered beneath the cloak. "Why didn't we think of snow? After all our precautions, we'll leave prints! We'll just have to get rid of them — you two go in front, I'll do it —"
Alicia sighed. "Seems like a waste of time." and she yanked up the cloak.
"Alicia!" Hermione gapped.
"No she's right." Harry said. Hermione looked around frightened. "Oh, come on, we don't look like us and there's no one around."
Harry took the Cloak from Alicia and stowed it under his jacket. They made their way forward unhampered, the icy air stinging their faces as they passed more cottages. Alicia looked at the houses, wondering if one of them could be the house Lily and James were once in. She wondered if it'd ever been fixed or if it perhaps stood in ruins in memory. There was also a chance that they wouldn't see the house, after all it once had a Fidelius Charm on it, preventing any from seeing it. Who knew.
The little lane along which they were walking curved to the left and at the heart of the village, a small square was revealed to them.
Strung all around with coloured lights, there was what looked like a war memorial in the middle, partly obscured by a windblown Christmas tree. There were several shops, a post office, a pub, and a little church whose stained-glass windows were glowing jewel-bright across the square.
The snow here had become impacted: It was hard and slippery where people had trodden on it all day. Villagers were crisscrossing in front of them, their figures briefly illuminated by street lamps. They heard a snatch of laughter and pop music as the pub door opened and closed; then they heard a carol start up inside the little church.
"Harry, I think it's Christmas Eve!" said Hermione.
"Is it?"
"I'm sure it is," said Hermione, her eyes upon the church.
"How strange." Alicia whispered "To not be waking up tomorrow with a heap of gifts and a large feast…"
"They… they'll be in there, won't they? Your mum and dad? I can see the graveyard behind it."
Alicia turned around to look at the church and saw through it the headstones of a graveyard. She felt a shiver ran through and instantly was scared. She wanted to see it, but she knew that it would bring up things she'd never had to face before now; all the possibilities that could have happened has Snape never heard that Prophecy, had that prophecy never been made.
Alicia reached for Harry's hand, she could feel he was similar, afraid of what they were likely to see, whether they were really ready to.
Hermione took Harry's hand, likely feeling the same thing and she took the lead for the first time. Halfway across the square, however, she stopped dead.
"Harry, look!"
She was pointing at the war memorial. As they had passed it, it had transformed. Instead of an obelisk covered in names, there was a statue of four people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a kind, pretty face, and both holding a child, a baby boy sitting in his mother's arms, a girl in her father's. Snow lay upon all their heads, like fluffy white caps.
Alicia felt the air rush from her and gratitude filled her completely. Strange, a statue had ben built in their honour, strange to see the four of them together in a way Alicia never had.
"Wow." Alicia whispered and Harry took her hand smiling slightly. She returned it.
"C'mon," said Harry, when he had looked his fill, and they turned again toward the church. The singing grew louder as they approached the church. Alicia was reminded of the castle, Peeves singing rude versions of Christmas carols and the twelve Christmas Trees Hagrid pulled in to decorate the Great Hall. It was the first Christmas in six years she hadn't celebrated surrounded by people, whether at Hogwarts or with the Weasley's. It was strange now. This was also the first year she wouldn't receive a sweater from Mrs Weasley. She remembered her last Christmas, huddled up in the Weasley's living room on Christmas eve, sitting with Fred, him playing with her hair. It only made her miss him more.
There was a kissing gate at the entrance to the graveyard. Hermione pushed it open as quietly as possible and they edged through it. On either side of the slippery path to the church doors, the snow lay deep and untouched. They moved off through the snow, carving deep trenches behind them as they walked around the building, keeping to the shadows beneath the brilliant windows.
Behind the church, row upon row of snowy tombstones protruded from a blanket of pale blue that was flecked with dazzling red, gold, and green wherever the reflections from the stained glass hit the snow.
Harry moved them over to the nearest grave and read the name engraved on the stone.
"Look at this, it's an Abbott, could be some long-lost relation of Hannah's!"
"Keep your voice down," Hermione begged him.
They split apart and the three moved through the graveyard, going deeper and deeper, gouging dark tracks into the snow behind them, stooping to peer at the words on old headstones, every now and then squinting into the surrounding darkness to make absolutely sure that they were unaccompanied.
"Harry, Alicia, here!"
Alicia was the furthest into the graveyard and moved back quickly after Harry, who was two rows of tombstones away from her.
"Is it — ?" he asked
"No, but look!"
She pointed to the dark stone. The twins stooped down and saw, upon the frozen, lichen-spotted granite, the words KENDRA DUMBLEDORE and, a short way below her dates of birth and death, AND HER DAUGHTER ARIANA. There was also a quotation:
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
So Rita Skeeter and Muriel had got some of their facts right. The Dumbledore family had indeed lived here, and part of it had died here. Alicia thought the words were definitely fitting for something Dumbledore would write, at least the Albus Dumbledore she knew. But it troubled her that Dumbledore had never mentioned the connection they had. Godric's Hollow held sadness for her and Harry as well as Dumbledore and Abeforth. Perhaps it was because it never came up, there never seemed a time to discuss Dumbledore, Alicia and Harry were always the ones who needed to be cared for. It was not really something to just bring upon, Dumbledore had always been careful about what the twins knew and if it was the right time after all.
" 'Where your treasure is, there will your heard be also.' " Harry read, "What does that mean?"
"You really are not my brother Harry." Alicia whispered "Dumbledore clearly treasured his family more than anything, and that meant his heart was forever with them, whether they were with him or not." she said.
"Are you sure he never mentioned — ?" Hermione began.
"No," said Harry curtly, then, "let's keep looking," and he turned away. Hermione and Alicia shared a look.
"It didn't make him any better about Dumbledore never telling him anything." Alicia whispered. Hermione took her hand.
"And you?"
"I wish we'd spoken of him for once, what made him the man he became… instead of always about us." she whispered and she began to move through the gravestones together. Alicia looked at some and Hermione at others before the bushy haired girl stopped.
"Here!" cried Hermione again a few moments later and Alicia looked at her and then at stone.
"Hermione, that says Pevrell?" she said slightly annoyed as her heart had given a leap at her call.
"Oh no, sorry! I thought it said Potter."
She was rubbing at a crumbling, mossy stone regardless as she gazed down at it, a little frown on her face.
"What's wrong?" Alicia asked.
"Harry, come back a moment." Hermione said, clearly wanting to tell them both.
"What?"
"Look at this!"
The grave was extremely old, weathered so that the name could hardly be made out. Hermione showed a symbol beneath it.
"Harry, that's the mark in the book!"
The stone was so worn that it was hard to make out what was engraved there, though there did seem to be a triangular mark beneath the nearly illegible name.
"Yeah… it could be…"
Hermione lit her wand and pointed it at the name on the headstone.
"It says Ig — Ignotus, I think…"
"I'm going to keep looking for my parents, all right?" Harry told her, a slight edge to his voice, and he set off again, leaving her crouched beside the old grave.
"Let's try not to side track him again." Alicia said and she continued along the line.
She recognised some surnames from Hogwarts, some dated back years where the family had likely died out, or at least moved away. She wondered if she'd had wizarding friends here as a child if she'd grown up here… what a weird concept that'd have been…
The darkness and the silence seemed to become, all of a sudden, much deeper. Alicia looked up as the carols finished and the chatter and flurry of churchgoers faded away as they made their way back into the square. Somebody inside the church had just turned off the lights.
Alicia continued along, lighting her wand to read the names before she glanced at one and came to an abrupt halt. She turned her head back and crouched before it, raising her wand. It'd caught her eye, not because what was written, but because of the shiny white marble in which the headstones had been made out of. It reminded her instantly of Dumbledore's tomb, incidentally only being two rows away from the Dumbledore women. Because of the marble, the headstones were not worn like some of the stones and the engraving on it stood out that one didn't need to be close to read it.
JAMES POTTER
BORN 27 MARCH 1960
DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981
and beside it;
LILY POTTER
BORN 30 JANUARY 1960
DIED 31 OCTOBER 1981
And below both was written;
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
Alicia found it a strange slogan… she'd come to believe, what with Sirius and Dumbledore talking to her about it, that death was not the end, and so it didn't need destroying… but perhaps by death not being the end, it was destroying death… Alicia liked the idea of 'beating' death, she wondered if that would have been a better word.
Hermione came up behind her as she noticed the girl kneeling before the headstone and she turned for Harry at once.
"Harry, they're here… right here."
He came hurrying along before he stood behind Alicia with Hermione.
" 'The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death'… Isn't that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?"
"It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry," said Hermione, her voice gentle. "It means… you know… living beyond death. Living after death."
"It would have been written perhaps as 'The last Enemy that shall be beaten, is death." Alicia whispered. "Living beyond death, it seems more like you're beating it, rather than destroying…" Destroying just sounded… forceful, over extreme.
Harry started crying behind Alicia as she stared at the words, taking them in. Lily had been born almost exactly two months before her father. Fifty-six days exactly. Fifty-seven if 1960 had been a leap year. She wondered if Lily was the type to use that fact, amused by it, Alicia would definitely have done so, pushing her command above by being the older and wiser one.
"It means… you know… living beyond death. Living after death."
She wondered were souls did go afterwards, could they really be all together somewhere, Lily, James, Sirius, Dumbledore… was there a nest of souls, of loved ones, waiting for when one's time in this world was up? She could imagine them, all together, Dumbledore telling Lily and James about their brave and talented son, their brilliant and skilful daughter. How proud he was and how proud they should be, that they were not wasting the change their parents had given them. She wondered if he told them what'd happened in the last year, whether Sirius had laughed at some of the stories, whether Lily had nodded, proud of her children. Would Dumbledore tell her of her sister and brother-in-law's treatment of their son? How would she feel of such?
Alicia didn't realise she'd started crying as she imagined them all together, talking about the bravery and brilliance of the twins, the stubbornness they held and their tempers, their skilful quidditch skills. She would have much preferred it if they were all here for them to discuss it together. For James to have bought Harry his Nimbus two-thousand instead of McGonagall, and Lily to gush at Alicia, wanting details about her and Fred. How would she have reacted when Fred presented her with a ring? Would she have gasped like Mrs Weasley or squealed in a fashion that was unexpected of her?
And the idea that that couldn't happen, suddenly broke Alicia, in a way she's never thought of before. The ideas had never even crossed her mind until this moment, all the things she was missing out on, and could never truly have.
Hermione kneeled down beside her as Alicia buried her face in her hands and cried, her tears staring her cheeks. The bushy haired girl placed an arm around Alicia, raising her other in which she held her wand. She moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them, sitting on the snow and leaning against the grave stone. Harry kneeled as well and he pulled Alicia into him, wrapping his arms around her and she leaned her forehead on his collar bone for a moment as Hermione rubbed her back.
Eventually she took a few breaths and as she stood, so did the other two. Harry wrapped an arm around both girls' shoulders and them around his waist before they turned in silence and walked away through the snow, past Dumbledore's mother and sister, back toward the dark church and the out-of-sight kissing gate.