Harry Potter's funeral is a small affair, Damian makes sure of it. Select few are invited but all who were invited come. He stands at the back and doesn't let himself cry, because for all the world knows, the brothers died at odds. Technically, they did, Damian knows, and he can't explain the overpowering sadness that floods him, that is flooding him and he feels wil always be flooding him, except that Harry Potter is dead and Voldemort is dead and two such different people should not have to have died at the same time.

Ginny Weasley spits at him, loathes him, but he can't bring himself to care. He doesn't like her either, Harry went down to save her brother, and they all know he wasn't really doing it for Ron as much as he was for her. They play the blame game, bouncing back and forth in hate filled glances. So he sits in his brother's funeral, and doesn't cry, and doesn't let himself look at his mother or father because he knows they shouldn't be there and he knows that they, like he, has no right to cry, but they're crying anyway and he knows that Harry would hatehatehate it and because of that he hatehatehates it too.

At the end of the service, no one approaches the Potters, no "I'm sorry for your loss" or "He will be in our hearts." Because the good thing about the people at the funeral is that they know that the Potter's aren't the family really, the people who came were the people who Harry loved, and they are more family to the dead boy then the picturesque group crying in the corner.

Afterwards, Dumbledore calls Damian into his office and asks what happened. He explains, in excruciating detail who the hero of his story was and Dumbledore polishes his glasses and looks wise and sad but Damian can't help but realise that Fawks is a Phoenix and Phoenix tears can heal anything, even a basilisk wound, so he asks why, asks why the bird didn't heal his brother who he doesn't know but he knows is dead, and the old man, for Damian finally sees that Dumbledore is an old man, says that Phoenix's can only cure those pure of heart and perhaps his brother wasn't the glowing character Damian believed him to be, and he nods and agrees, smiles and leaves, but inside he is bleached out and white and feels like he can finally taste the chemicals that have been forced down his throat for as long as he can remember.

He sleeps, but he doesn't sleep anymore, because there is a sound coming from the walls, and it sounds like the Basilisk but he knows the basilisk is dead because he finished it off, and the sound is calling to him. He's not sure if it's real but it says Harry's name and it says his name and he knows that Harry's dead and if the voice is real he doesn't want to face it alone. So he lets the insomnia claim him, till his eyes are pink and the bags take up his face, and his hair was pretty but now its gross.

Romilda comes to see him and he likes it a lot but he's not ready for it, and she's like fresh air, all sharp angles and insults without any spite, he relishes it, but she can't stay because she has a life and he used to be part of it but now he's a mess and he can hear the walls taking to him and his hands glow red in the night and he can't just 'take a nap' because that's what Harry said and Harry's dead.

He begins to read his nights away, muggle fantasy, it grips him for a while and then he remembers what his brother said, he liked computer games and muggle music. He wants a computer to try both. His parents look at him worriedly and try councelling but it fails and he hates it and he hates them and they'll do anything, even buy him a computer to get him to smile or just show some sign of life, so he listens to muggle music and he wishes he knew what type Harry liked but then he realises that he quite likes heavy stuff with screaming and guitars and he thinks Harry probably liked it too because it's so hectic and crazy like Harry. He finds out what games Harry likes and they make him laugh because they aren't the kind of games that are 'hardcore' and the fact that his brother had a club penguin account pushes him over the edge and he makes one too just because, and there's this other game, called Poptropica and he shows it to Neville and it makes him cry because at one point there is a three headed dog and you have to play music to get past it and Neville cries and laughs and mutters, so thats how he knew... And he doesn't understand but it makes him laugh because of course Harry would come into contact with a three headed dog at somepoint because it's Harry.

Then she arrives. Luna Lovegood. She comes in and he's seen her around but he doesn't really talk to her, and the soft look in her eyes is gone, and her voice isn't at all dreamy, it's hard as she tells him to get up, because if he's scared she'll go down with him because she's seen it, whatever that means, and he doesn't know why he obeys, and goes down to the chamber with her, but he does and she looks at him and she tells him that she knows how this will play out and hoping is the right thing to do, and he doesn't know what she's talking about but once he enters the chamber he does because he remembers where Harry died and the bloody stain is still there, on the floor, but the dead basilisk is gone, and there are footprints walking away from where Harry was. The girl nods at him and he's angry, because he saw Harry's dead body, and he saw him buried and he says that but she just looks at him and looks at him and tells him that he's wrong because Harry doesn't play by the books and there's nothing he can do now but he needs to stop wasting away because Harry will be back, she's seen it, and when he is he'll need their help.

He doesn't know why, but he believes her, and he nods and agrees and the night time whispering goes away most of the time and when it is there it's soothing and he sleeps to it. He starts to do things again and train, and eat and sleep and train and start all over again because his brother will be back and Damian will make everything up to him. He isn't ill anymore but he isn't the same and he still likes some of the same things but he likes other things too and he likes different people and he's a different person but he's not.

His brother would return and he'd be ready.

TBC

Ummm... Trust me, I didn't mean for it to go this dark. I'd originally been planning this story as something moree upifting but after going over it again I couldn't see it as anything else :) Hope you like,

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