Prisoners of Azkaban, Probationary Diaries August 2009, Prisoners #19-09-1979 and #09-01-1960
oooOooo
August 22, 2009
————I don't want to write today.
Not because of the pain, but because it hurts.
I understand now why Severus didn't want me to go. Why Padma and Parvati were reluctant to oblige me.
When Fawkes created Dumbledore's tomb, he created a white mausoleum with a colonnade at the front. Four columns, one for each House. Each base and capital adorned with the symbols of that House. Badger, lion, raven, snake.
Now—twelve years or 145 months or nearly 631 weeks or 4,415 days or around 105,960 hours after his death, only one broken column and a heap of rubble remains.
I could still make out the animal at the base of that one column. Its head has been blasted off, but its small paws and fat tail still wrap around the ruined pillar faithfully. The white marble of the shattered shaft is covered in graffiti, most of them green Vs in circles.
Voldemort's victory?
Voldemort victorious?
That he
[Here the quill drops to the next line, the writing is messy, the writer's hand must have been shaking.]
…only two small letters. One. Two. Breathe in. Breathe out. One. Two. Live—
[Again the quill slips. The next letters are larger, printed, clearly written very slowly, painstakingly.]
in the end…that doesn't seem to matter when I look at the remnants of Albus' grave.
—Padma took me to Hogwarts today.
Alecto went to London for the weekend. Apart from her, none of the staff who'd object to my presence are currently in residence. But since term starts on September 7, they will be back soon. This was my only chance to see Hogwarts again for a long time.
Of Hagrid's hut nothing remains.
The Quidditch pitch has been renovated. It is much larger than I remember it, the décor green and white and silver.
The Deputy Headmistress lives in splendour in what was the Gryffindor tower, eleven years or almost 136 months or 590 weeks or 4,130 days ago.
I only cried in the library.
Padma and I had tea in her office on the fifth floor. She has a beautiful view of the lake; with omnioculars you can even see our cottage.
She finally relented and went over my list with me.
The only names I included erroneously were Severus, Draco, and Minerva.
But there are seven names I missed, people I knew well enough that I would have wanted to remember them. I assume I could have included them by distinguishing between bottom and ceiling corners. Or—
But that is not necessary anymore. I've written them all down now, on the final pages of this diary. In alphabetical order.
—Padma was not pleased when I told her of my meeting with Madam Agan and of my visits with Minerva McGonagall.
"You don't know what you're doing," she told me. "You have no idea. Stay away from Agan."
But she promised to assist me concerning Minerva.
Minerva has been placed under life-long house-arrest. The DMLE is in charge of her affairs. To be appointed her assistant, I have to be approved by the department.
Severus came home with a huge pot of Bouillabaisse tonight. He refused to talk about work.
That means it's not going well.
oooOooo
A/N: Many thanks to Ayerf for looking this over.
Further notes:
# Dumbledore's tomb. I choose to interpret the scene in chapter thirty, "The White Tomb" in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" as actually *being* Fawkes: "Bright, white flames had erupted ... White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: Harry thought, for one heart-stopping moment, that he saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire had vanished. In its place was a white
marble tomb ..."
# Wikipedia has a great entry with a gorgeous picture for Bouillabaisse.
# DMLE is still the acronym for Department of Magical Law Enforcement.