Chapter sixteen

The next few days at the auror office was quiet, everyone realised that the loss of Colin showed how any one of them could die at any time. Harry went out on assignment with Gabriel, then Claudia and he saw they were finally treating him like they treat everyone else.

On the day of the funeral for young Colin Sefton, all the aurors were meeting at the office. Harry dressed in his full auror dress robes, then pinned his medals to the right side of his chest, then pinned the other awards to the left side of his chest. Harry took a deep breathe, then stared at himself in the mirror and sighed.

'Blimey,' Harry said as he saw all the gold pinned to him. Some round, some in the shape of a phoenix, one with his own image on it. Harry sighed again, then threw his work cloak over himself so no one could see him until the last minute. He left his flat and went to the employee's entrance and made his way up to his office.

'See, I told you all, so ten galleons from all of you,' Ron said.

'What are you on about Ron?'

'You wore a cloak over all your awards so no one would see them. I bet everyone ten galleons you would do that. No one thought you would.'

The other aurors grumbled, then handed Ron the money before Abner turned to Harry.

'I know we shouldn't have bet against Ron, not when it comes to you, he does know you.'

'For a long time as well, so how long before we go?'

'A few minutes, but come on Harry, take it off. We're all wearing ours, like me, my one and only small medal,' Gabriel said.

Harry sighed, then turned his back on everyone before pulling his cloak off.

'He's got a bit of a stoop there, show us Harry.' Claudia said.

Harry sighed again, 'Not one word,' he slowly turned and saw everyone gaping at him.

'Blimey, sixteen, you have sixteen awards. Eight order of merlin: first class, one each of the others, a first class Harry and eight of them,' Abner said, 'What's the others?'

Harry closed his eyes for a minute, then Ron answered for him. 'Order of merlin: first class, one for saving my life, one for saving Ginny's, one for saving my dad, then the other one for killing Voldemort. Order of merlin: second class, order of merlin: third class. Order of Dumbledore, Order of the Phoenix, Order of Potter, those nine are just Harry's. The others are the Order of Merlin: first class for James Potter, Lily Potter, Sirius Black, and Dobby the house elf. Then the other three are Order of the Phoenix for James Potter, Lily Potter and Sirius Black.'

'I don't think I've ever heard of a house elf receiving the Order of Merlin before,' Susie said softly.

'He saved our lives,' Harry said as he sat down at his desk, 'Risk his life for us, saved a couple of friends, Luna Lovegood and Dean Thomas, then Mr. Ollivander, before rescuing me, Hermione and Ron. He was a free elf, so no orders, just did what he wanted, and he wanted to help.'

'He died in Harry's arms, Harry buried him at my brother Bill's place.'

'Did you own him before he was free Harry?' Gabriel asked.

Harry shook his head, 'No, I helped set him free when I was twelve and from then on, he always helped me if he could. He used to belong to the Malfoy's, when old man Malfoy was hurting him, I tricked him into giving Dobby one of my socks. Then he was going to kill me, but Dobby stopped him. I do own a house elf, I don't like the idea of owning them, so I had him stay at Hogwarts to help in the kitchens. I would set him free, but he's really old. So he's happy with the other house elves.'

'Ron mentioned he got the Order of Merlin: first class for saving you, but so did Hermione. But explain the Order of Potter, I noticed Ron's got one as well.'

'Every member of the DA got that, Kingsley came up with the name and never told me. It should have been called the DA award of something like that.'

'You were their leader, so I get why it was named after you. What's the Order of the Phoenix award?' Abner asked.

'Members of the Order of the Phoenix, either alive or dead got one of those. My parents and Sirius were members, like Neville Longbottoms parents, so he has his parent's medals.'

'Yes, Frank and Alice, they were good people, good aurors,' Michael said, 'I see why you were worried Harry, that's quite a sight.'

'At least I don't have to wear them too often.'

'So are we going boss?' Susie asked.

'Just waiting for the minister, he's on his way.'

'I'm here,' Kingsley said as he walked in with four medals pinned to his chest.

'So you were a member of the Order of the Phoenix minister?' Claudia asked.

'Yes, when Albus reformed it when Voldemort came back.'

'So you and Ron were in the order as well, not just the DA?' Abner asked.

'Well sort of, we were with them a lot, but not official members as we were underage. But Kingsley found out we all did a lot without them knowing, so he made us full members and awarded these as well.'

'You all earned it Harry, some of the things you lot did were dangerous and incredible, then add the fact that none of you were fully trained at the time.'

'So what's the last one, the Order of Dumbledore? I noticed Ron, Harry and the minister has that one.'

'The ones that believed Albus and followed his orders even after he died. I admit I didn't like the fact that he gave Harry a job but refused to tell the rest of the order. But after we all found out what Harry's job was, we understood why it had to be kept quiet.'

'If we're ready then, we'll head down and before you think about it Harry, no cloak.'

Harry sighed, 'He's getting to know me isn't he Ron?'

'Yes, he is, so show them off Harry, you deserve them mate.'

The group of aurors followed the minister and Michael down through the ministry and into the atrium. Everyone stopped and stared, but they nodded giving the aurors and small bow because they all knew what was happening, they were burying one of their own. A few flashes from a camera went off as a photographer took some pictures of Harry with all his awards until Kingsley stepped in front him then pulled his wand. He nodded then hurried away before the aurors and minister all headed out.

Michael, Abner, Gabriel, Claudia, Susie, Ron and Harry surrounded the coffin that held Colin Sefton and floated him to the cemetery. The minister levitated the coffin so it stayed floating then conducted the service of the young auror that gave his life to help make their world safe. When Kingsley finished talking, Michael stepped over and laid Colin's auror robes over the coffin, then pinned the Order of Merlin: second class to Colin's mother's chest, then stood with the aurors who all raised their wands then stood there with their wands in the air as the coffin slowly lowered into the ground. Then every auror pointed their wands at the dirt until it landed over the coffin, filling the hole before the minister charmed the area until grass and a headstone appeared. Michael led his aurors over to the parents and sister of their fallen colleague, bowed to them before slowly leaving the family to grieve.

The rest of the day at the auror office was quiet. Even though they all knew they had things to do, Michael wanted them to take the rest of the day and talk about what they knew about Colin, what he was like, how they got on, anything they could think of. So that's what they did, they all either sat at their desk or leant against them and spoke about their fallen colleague. But they also talked about how it could be one of them at any time. The death of Colin hit the hardest though as it was the first time the group of aurors lost someone they knew and worked with, a colleague and friend.

Harry noticed Susie was quiet, 'You really should go home and rest Susie, it's been a hard day on you.'

'It's not that Harry, yeah I'm a little sore, but nothing over the top. It's losing Colin has made me realise how easy it could have been me, you, any of us. I know I said I want to have fun, which I still do once I start to cope with this. But I've also started thinking about my future, you know, marriage and kids. I don't want to regret leaving it too late and I know I would. I've got time so I'm not talking about now and I'd have to find someone as well. But it really hits home how close any of us are to dying.'

'Yes it does. I've noticed all of you have had this same look, Ron and I don't. Everyone knows I've lost people I care about, Ron lost his brother. But we both lost a lot of friends as well. So to us and I know this sounds terrible, but we're used to it, all of you aren't, especially someone you're close to.'

'Harry's right Susie, it's not a nice thing to say, but we are used to people dying around us, people we know and were close to, people we loved. An old girlfriend of mine at Hogwarts was killed that night. After we broke up we never spoke for ages, but we did finally put that aside and became friends. I saw my brother Fred die, Harry of course saw his godfather, Cedric and Dumbledore die, he saw Fred as well. So to us, we got so used to seeing death, so much so that it becomes second nature to live with.

'The first time it happens, you do start to question yourself, your life, how you might want to be remembered, do you want a family, do you want to start that sooner than later. Everything comes into question. But one thing Harry told Hermione and I after the battle, don't do anything serious for a long time because it was our emotions that were leading us right then. We had to wait until we were thinking straight and wait to know in our hearts what we wanted and we had to do it for the right reasons, not because we were afraid we might die or someone else we care about dies. So I give you the same advice, take your time, get yourself together, learn to live with the loss of a friend before you consider doing anything serious. Because doing it now you could end up making your life worse because you're not thinking straight.'

'It's hard to believe you two who are still young compared to me, you can sound so much older and wiser. But then you think of everything you went through, more than most and like the minister said, you were young and not trained or of age. It was the time you grew up in, the worst time our world has ever seen. So that advice Harry is the best for everyone here right now. So let's head home and think about our lives. Never forget Colin, but know what he was doing was right, just like we are.'

First Michael left, then slowly all the other aurors left. Harry watched Susie leave and knew she just needed time. Not just in herself, but time to fully heal. Harry had seen it many times and everyone just need to come to terms with their loss of a friend but also come to terms with the fact it could be anyone of them at any time. So Harry never went straight home, he kept his cloak over himself, he ate early then went to the Hogshead. Aberforth saw the look on Harry's face, so the two men went into the flat at the back, they had a drink and talked. Talked about young Colin, talked about another life lost due to followers of Voldemort and both men wondered when it would be over, and when their world would finally be safe.