AN: So, here we are at last. I don't know why this chapter turned out so short, but it is what it is, but the seventh book will have a few longer chapters from Sian's POV, so keep that in mind. But before I go into this chapter, I just have to say that last chapter, when Sian and Crighton were saying that they weren't ready, that was not referring to Crighton being not ready to die, but was about mother and daughter not being ready to leave each other yet. Also, it is important to note that Sian forgets about the Oracle and the ritual that sends souls to heaven, because she's so filled with pained and is just solely focused on her mother at that part. And another thing I have to add is is that you will not need your tissues for the next chapter, but in two chapters time right until the end you will, so bear that in mind, and you will see the Oracle in a few chapters time. So, bring your tissues, because it's going to get emotional ...

Chapter 30

A Strong Girl With a Frail Heart

SIAN

Sian ran as fast as she could down the spiral staircase, not looking back, for she knew that if she looked back she would want to go back, and Sian knew that her mother would not want her most dearest child - or any of her children, for that matter - to watch her mother die. Yes, Sian knew. How could she not? So she ran, knocking Dani Malty aside in her haste, not caring if Malty saw her feet or aimed a spell at her, and when she got to the bottom of the staircase, Sian turned away from the sounds of the approaching battle and ran on, looking for a classroom to enter - not just for a place to hide, but a room that had a clear view of the Astronomy Tower. She ran on and ran on, until at last she spotted a door on the left, entered the room, took off her Invisibility Cloak, shut the door quietly and looked around.

The room was empty, which was a relief to Sian, for the last person she wanted to run into at that moment was Weeves. She chucked the Cloak down on to the teacher's desk and approached the window, looking up at the Astronomy Tower, and realised that she was directly opposite the Astronomy Tower. Sian stood at the window, ignoring the reddish glare the Death Trail was emitting and simply stood there, watching and waiting ... watching and waiting ...

Minutes passed, and Sian was still watching the Astronomy Tower. Distant screams from the battle, cries and echoing bangs reached her ears, but she ignored them. The only thing that mattered to Sian was her mother, for she knew that every breath her mother took could well be her last; they were limited, after all. Sian kept her gaze focused on the tower, blocking out the world around her, saving her tears, and the only thought she had, which she kept repeating to herself over and over again in her head was: I love you, Ma ... I love you, Ma ... I love you, Ma ...

And then, after what felt like hours (though it would have been no more than about half an hour), the blow came: she saw a flash of green light and the shadow of a body fall from the Tower. Sian had expected this, but that did not stop the image of her mother's body falling through the air any less painful: Sian felt as though she had just been stabbed right through the heart with an extremely sharp blade, and instead of pulling it out, the blade remained stuck, which made the pain that much worse. A scream of pure agony tore through Sian, ripping her poor heart out even more. She stood, staring out of the window, eyes wide in terror, steadying herself with one hand on the wall, and the other clutching her heart, as though trying to remove the blade, but the harder she tried, the deeper the blade went ...

Sian didn't know how long she had been standing there, but a thought then entered her head: she had to get to her mother. So she stepped back to the teacher's desk, picked up the Invisibility Cloak, flung it back over herself and bolted from the room, running as fast as she could to the Entrance Hall, dodging spells, the bodies littered all along the corridors and duelling couples left, right and centre as she went, not even bothering to try and hide her feet or defend herself as she ran. It was only until she reached the corridor leading to the Entrance Hall that a huge blast went off, sending her flying down the stairs. Sian could tell that she was hurt, for everything in her body ached, but she ignored that pain for now: she had to get to her mother. So she slowly got to her feet and, once she had steadied herself, Sian, ignoring how parts of her body were screaming in agony, ran as best she could to the Entrance Hall.

Once she got to the Entrance Hall, Sian ran out the front doors, and immediately she headed for the tallest Tower. When she got close enough, she could just see the shadow of a body lying at the bottom of it, and was fortunate that no one had surrounded it yet, for which Sian was grateful, for she wanted to be the first to get to her mother. Sian ran again, throwing the Cloak off of her, not caring where it landed; Sian knew it was silly, but she wanted to look at her mother without anything hiding her from her mother's sight, even though she could no longer see.

When Sian reached her mother's body, she knelt down next to her, looking at her mother, still so beautiful despite the signs of age that were showing. A trickle of blood ran down her mother's cheek, which Sian wiped away gently, before she stroke a few loose strands of hair away from her mother's face, just like her mother had done with her so many times before. After she had done that, Sian looked at her mother's body, really looked at it, and what struck her most was that it looked like her mother was sleeping - and in a way, she was, only this was one sleep she would never wake from, for the sleep of death of irreversible.

And just like that, the tears started to fall from her eyes, as she thought of the eyes that would never again gaze at her with such love and warmth, of the smile that would reassure her and make her pleased to see her mother, of the soft voice that would often give her such wisdom and guidance, as well as love, protection, laughter and comfort - much like her arms did when Sian would run to her mother and be enveloped in them, and the hands that would stroke her hair ... all these things were gone to Sian now, never to be heard or felt again, and all because her mother was dead.

Sian's body shook with the force of her sobs, and she laid her head on her mother's chest, directly over her mother's non-beating heart, and she remained like that for a while, holding her mother's dead body and crying, and she ignored all the yells, shouts and explosions that were going on around her; she honestly hoped that someone would kill her so that she would be with her mother again. She didn't care when she heard footsteps softly approaching, nor did she make any attempt to move: why would she when she had every right to openly grieve over her mother? The only time she moved was when she felt movement next to her, and looking up, Sian saw through blurry eyes that it was Kiara who was holding something silver and shiny. What it was, Sian didn't care; her grief was too great for her to care for anything else much at that moment.

Sian then noticed that Kiara was looking at her, and from what she could make of her face, Sian could see Kiara looking shocked and sad, and she could see why, for Kiara had never seen her in such a state before. Sian knew that she was an ugly crier, but she didn't care. Her dear mother, the woman she looked up to, loved and adored, was gone, and though Sian had her siblings, her father and Kopa, she felt more alone than ever.

Then Chris was there and was speaking to Kiara, and Sian then remembered her other siblings, and suddenly realised that they didn't know that their mother was dead! How could she have been so selfish to allow herself to grieve when, not only did her siblings not know about what happened to their mother, but they weren't grieving either! So Sian reluctantly jumped to her feet and started to make her way back to the castle when a voice stopped her.

"Sian?"

Sian turned back and saw Kiara and Chris both looking concernedly at her. She understood why, but she really wished they would both let her go.

"Where are you going?"

"To see my brothers and sisters, Kiara," Sian said, surprised at how hoarse her voice sounded. "They don't know about ... well ... this." Sian gestured to where her mother lay, not trusting herself to say the words in case she started crying again.

To her relief, Kiara understood, for she smiled gently and said, "Do you want one of us to come with you?"

"No," Sian said immediately, much harsher than she had intended it. So she said, much gently, "No, Kiara. This is something I have to do on my own." And without another word, Sian turned and ran back to the castle, and as she ran she tried to think of how she could delicately tell her siblings the tragic news of their mother's death, but no ideas came to her. She then reminded herself that her siblings were no longer children and that they were becoming young adults, but that did not make her job any less easier.

Before she turned into the Fat Lord's corridor, Sian stopped, steadied herself and wiped her eyes. She knew her face looked a mess, but it was better than having tears streaming down her cheeks, but that did not stop her staying there for several long minutes, trying to pluck up the courage to turn the corridor and go up to the Fat Lord. Finally, when Sian realised that she couldn't stay there any longer, she turned the corner and strode towards the Fat Lord, who studied her closely, much to her annoyance.

"Password?"

Sian hesitated a moment before saying, "Phoenix tears."

The Fat Lord noticed Sian's pause, for he said, "Are you all right?"

"Please, I've given you the password," Sian said desperately. "Just ... just let me in."

The Fat Lord looked at Sian, concerned, but complied. Sian saw that the common room was packed, which didn't surprise her in the slightest; the ensuing battle that occurred below must have woken everyone in the castle and made them all want to see and to help. As Sian passed the whispering and muttering people in the common room, she saw the people that mattered to her most in the world sitting by the fire: Beth, Kestrel, Merida, Joe, Jack, Ben and Dave, and as she looked at them all, completely oblivious to the heartbreaking event that had happened, Sian wondered, yet again, how she would approach them. She didn't want to do it, of course she didn't, but what choice did she have? But before she could move, Merida had noticed her.

"Sian!" she called, and the other siblings turned their heads too, looking at Sian curiously. "What are you doing here? We thought you'd be with Kiara."

Sian was grateful that Merida had called her, for it gave Sian a good place to start before she came to the tough stuff, so she walked towards her siblings, smiled slightly and said, "I will be in a minute, but first there's something I have to tell you all first, though ... something important ..."

As she looked at her siblings, Sian realised that she didn't know how to tell them that their mother had died, but the longer she remained silent, the more concerned her siblings became. At last, Merida said, "Sian, what's happened? And why are you all bloody?"

Sian took a deep breath and said, trying to keep her tears at bay, "Listen, we must be brave ... and we must be strong ... for a tragedy has struck our family tonight ..."

Sian saw her siblings look even more worried at those words, and as they all looked at each other, she struggled even more to keep her tears at bay; she didn't care that the whisperers around them had stopped whispering and were looking at them; her siblings were all that mattered right now.

And speaking of Sian's brothers and sisters, they all started talking at once.

"Tragedy? What tragedy?"

"What's happened, Sian? You're scaring us!"

"Has someone died?"

At the word 'died', Sian knew that she could not keep this to herself any more; she could feel herself cracking the longer she stood there, silent. So, taking a deep breath, she said, "Our mother ... can be Headmistress of this school no longer."

Sian watched as the meaning of these words settled into her siblings' minds, and saw many emotions cross their faces, mainly those of anger, sadness and shock. Sian still heard nothing around her, but she remained focused on the people before her. When the others in the common room started speaking again, they could say all they wanted for all she cared, for it was her brothers and sisters that were most important to her; and as she caught sight of Merida, shaking her head as tears started to fall, Sian finally cracked. Tears spilling down her own cheeks, Sian opened her arms and Merida ran at once, both sisters holding each other, finding comfort and support, however small, in each other as they cried.

"She's dead, guys," Sian muttered, so softly that she wasn't sure if her siblings heard her. Then she said a little louder, "Our mother's DEAD!" And then, all the bent-up emotion Sian felt inside of her unleashed itself in a scream of anguish that for anyone hearing it would feel like they had just been kicked in the guts. Sian then felt her other siblings surround her, giving Sian comfort as well as receiving it. After a while, they all let go of each other, drying their eyes as best they could.

"Sian?" Kestrel then asked, her voice a soothing balm to them all. "Do Dad and Chris and Chrissie know?"

"Chris does," Sian said, her voice hoarse again, "but as for Dad and Chrissie, I don't know. But I'm going to find out now. Will you all be all right without me for a bit?" When her brothers and sisters nodded, Sian shot them a small smile and, ignoring the pitying and sad looks from the people around her who moved apart as she walked to the portrait hole, Sian left the common room.

As she went down to the hospital wing, Sian thought about how her father would face her. Would he be a loving father, or would he hate her forever and blame her for her mother's death, even though he knew that she was going to die? Sian hoped he wouldn't, for she had already lost one parent that night; she didn't think her poor heart could handle it if she lost another. But she had not more time to think on this, for the door of the hospital wing was in sight. Taking a deep breath, Sian walked to the door and marched in, ready to face whatever reaction her father was going to give her ...