CHAP 6: Fasting/Feasting

He was exhausted. Every thrust ahead was painful. He was losing height. Desperately he tried to concentrate, his lips tried to chant the mantra but the words would not come. He should not have tried this but what was the alternative. Disapparation? But he would have surely splinched himself and then who would have put him right? He might have turned into a cripple. The thought left him shuddering and he realized with a shock that he was plummeting down. What if the muggles were to make him out? Taking a deep breath he stopped his sharp descent. He really wasn't in a fit shape to try this, Nagini's venom was in his veins. Merlin knew why he was still alive. Dumbledore hadn't said anything about that. His eyes scanned the distance, where were those chimneys that no longer spiraled smoke? Mute witnesses to decay and desolation. A hot searing pain went through his body. And then he was hurtling down…

Sitting comfortably by her father, Luna looked round the great hall. All around her, people were talking, chatting in groups. The hall was abuzz with laughter and conversation though of course there were also the occasional sniffles. She looked sideways at her father who was busy scribbling on paper. Thanks Merlin, Azkaban had left no noticeable effect on father. She had seen the insanity and wildness in the eyes of Bellatrix and Lucius Malfoy while in the dungeons of the Malfoy manor. The Dementors destroyed your equilibrium. As she watched, her father plucked a hair and transfigured into a sheet of parchment, his quill writing like mad all the time. She peered over and read what he had written:

…to everyone's amazement and horror, Dumbledore took the kneeling wizard by the shoulders and made him rise.

"You won. I bow to you," said Riddle looking squarely in Dumbledore's face.

"No Tom, not me but love, goodness, and light have won." Dumbledore's voice, soft and gentle, as though speaking to an errant child rather than to the most feared dark wizard of our times. Then he bent down and picked up Riddle's wand and handed it over to him as the whole hall alternatively gasped and gagged.

Gasped and gagged, Luna could hardly control the laughter bubbling within her. It had been incredible, the way Professor Dumbledore had not only forgiven Voldemort but also shielded him and his Death-Eaters from the anger of the crowd. She peered once again, and yes, her father had written that speech down as the wizards clamoured for the blood of Voldemort and his followers:

"Do you think it is the death of Tom and his followers that you want? Will putting them to death satisfy you? But why this thirst for revenge? Whose death will you be avenging? Haven't your loved ones come back to you? Are they not standing next to you? Even those whom you had lost in the first war? Do you think there is no purpose behind it? Will you let blood flow on this happiness of yours? Wizardkind has been given a golden chance to forgive, forget, and move on in harmony and in love. Do you want to destroy this unique and priceless chance because you could not let go of your grudges…"

Not perhaps the most impressive speech ever, Luna thought but definitely effective. Everybody had sort of mumbled assent and if on cue tables full of fragrantly steaming dishes had appeared in front of them.

"Eat and enjoy," Dumbledore's voice had filled the air, "discussions can be held later. The wards have been put round Hogwarts, nobody can now leave this place without having his fill." With this he had led a bewildered looking Voldemort to the tables.

She took out a pair of special glasses from the pocket of her robes. There at the head of the table she could see the professor talking to the wizards round him. She could make the leonean mane of Rufus Scrimgeour; the dark, intense face of Kingsley Shakelbolt; the teacher of transfiguration Professor McGonagall; and the DADA professor of her third year, the one who had a magical eye. He seemed most agitated as he kept on gesturing with his fork towards Voldemort who still had a bewildered look about him.

Thanks Merlin, not only were there no muggles in the street he crashed into but it was one near to his home. However he had definitely broken something. Every step that he took was immensely painful. But the healing charms could wait till he reached home. Home, a small wry smile came on his face. Never had he called the place at Spinner's End home with such feeling. Never had he desired to be within it with such longing. When had it ever felt like a home? The image of his father and mother engaged in a slanging match rose before his eyes as he himself cowered behind the door. For a brief moment, he had thought Hogwarts to be his home, before Lily went away and he himself became a pawn in a game. The pain flamed in his body so much that he faltered and almost fell. Silly dreams. Lily as the professor of Potions, he as the DADA one, sharing and making a home in Hogwarts. Like all dreams to crush under Lily's well-shod feet as she took the vows with Potter.

Luna shifted her glance, wizards both Dark and Light were gathered round the various tables. Her glance fell at two in a corner, an elder wizard was glaring at a younger one who was trembling all over. She had seen the elder one somewhere but could not quite recall. An elf was latched on to the younger one, holding him tightly and shielding him it seemed from the wrath of the other. Bemused, Luna turned her glance to look at the right side. She almost blanched. The Slytherin goon Goyle was leaning forward and asking a question right in the face of the other one, Crabbe, who for his part looked totally disoriented. Two men who could only have been their fathers were sitting close to them. She shuddered just a little remembering what these two had done under the Carrows to the students at Hogwarts this year. Where was their leader, that ghost like Malfoy? She gave another involuntary shudder as she remembered her days in the dungeons of the manor.

The next moment her eyes lit up. A little further on Cho was holding on to the arms of a boy as if she would never let go. The boy seemed embarrassed yet was comforting the crying Cho. She had seen Cho crying so many times since the tri-wizard tournament. So Diggory was back. It was wonderful, Luna had always felt awful for Cho and thought that she deserved more sympathy than she had got from Harry. But now Cho would not be lonely any longer. She did not know how all this had happened but she was so very-very glad about it. A fuzzy kind of warmth settled in her stomach.

A hand, ice-cold, clutched his insides. First the burning sensation, now this ice cold one. He stopped dead, unable to put his next foot forward. Come on, he urged himself, it is only a couple of steps away. But his traitorous feet refused to move. Come on, he bit his lower lip, but the cold would not go away. He started shivering. What if anybody came this way and saw him in this petrified state? The image of Lily melting in the arms of her husband and son started playing repeatedly in his mind. Merlin, why had he thought of those dreams with Lily? The two of them making new potions working side by side in the laboratory; discussing books while sitting in their study while a fire blazed in the background; he himself inventing new hexes and curses while Lily scolded him for being so juvenile; Lily in the kitchen preparing a new dish while he laid down the table…his legs were trembling so much now that he could stand no longer. Such commonplace dreams and even these could not come true…. Just a couple of steps more. Mustering all his strength, he put one foot forward.

Flushed with happiness, Luna let her eyes wander more. Something silver glinted. She peered at that man with the silver arm, the one who had come to the Malfoy dungeons. He was shuddering violently. Tears were running thickly down his face. She did not like to see grown men cry, so she shifted her eyes. Two blonde pigtails seemed to be making a flurry of a movement. Her senior from Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbot, was clutching the hands of a woman while all the while her head bobbed up and down. The warm feeling grew within her. So Hannah had got back her mother. Suddenly an idea shook her up. What about her own mother? Will she also come back? "Dad do you think…"

His feet carried him forward. He was standing in front of the door. A spell and the door opened. With a cry, he lurched forward and fell through the doorway. The door clicked shut behind him. He had come away from them all. The world did not matter to him anymore.

Luna's question never got completed. Dumbledore suddenly stood up and the hall became silent as he detailed a plan about a project for the erstwhile (Luna noticed the special emphasis he put on this word) Death-Eaters, some sort of a voluntary community service that would help them in getting rid of their prejudices and help them make a clean start. Dumbledore's voice full of passion carried over to them all, "This project will be…"

"FOR THE GREATER COMMON GOOD.?!"

As one man, all the wizards turned towards the entrance where an old wizard, wizened with age, stood. His gaze, sardonic and bemused, concentrated solely on Dumbledore. In the hush that fell over the hall, Luna felt a chill slip down her spine. For the third time that day, Luna shuddered…

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A/N: This chapter took longer than I either anticipated or wanted. Actually another story- idea kind of took hold of me. It is a Draco-centric fic, where Draco is released after a decade in Azkaban and then encounters Harry. It is titled A Life Lived Vicariously and I have posted the first chapter. Unlike this fic, it is rated M. Now I hope to write the 2 fics simultaneously.

I need your help regarding a couple of points.

What month is it when Harry defeats Voldemort?

Have the students like Dean, Seamus, etc. taken their seven year NEWTS?

Did Draco have the death mark or not?

Those of you who are reading this fic, plz do answer. From the next chap this story gains momentum.