Thanks to Mystery-Immortal for the review.
Chapter 77:
Professor McGonagall sent urgent letters to each of the Gryffindor's parents. Within an hour parents were arriving to see their children. Ignatius and Lucretia were the first to arrive. They ran to their daughter's bedside, "what happened?" Lucretia demanded with tears in her eyes.
"There was an attack. You should be incredibly proud of your daughter,"
Professor McGonagall explained, tears in her own eyes.
Dorea practically ran into the hospital wing moments later, "James!"
Professor McGonagall explained what had happened to Mrs Potter, "and how is Sirius? Where is he?"
"Over here – I can show you him," McGonagall sighed, "they still look pretty bad."
Dorea grabbed the boy's hand, "I wish his mother cared."
McGonagall nodded sympathetically.
The other parents soon arrived. They sat by their children's bedsides waiting for them to wake. An hour later the doors banged open and in walked Orion Black. "Where is my son?" He asked.
"Over this way sir," McGonagall replied, shocked at the sight of the man.
Orion frowned at the sight of his son, "What happened?" He briefly looked at Mrs Potter who was still holding his son's hand, doing the job his wife should be doing, if she cared, he thought.
"The death eaters attacked the school tonight. They used one of the students as bait and Sirius and James went to the rescue…"
"Bloody hero complex," Orion groaned.
"He was very brave. The problem is that the death eater who attacked him was his cousin Bellatrix."
"Bloody hell – that's going to annoy Walburga."
"Does it matter?" Mrs Potter blurted out angrily, "Orion, she doesn't care. She's not here. She's no more a mother to this boy than I am to McGonagall here."
Orion frowned, hearing truth in his cousin's words, "there's nothing I can do about that. She is my wife."
"And he is your son!"
"I know that," Orion frowned. "But this changes things… not for me… but for Walburga this says that he has in actual fact put his views before his family. He fought his blood – she won't accept that and there is nothing I can do to make her." There was emotion in the father's voice. "I have to go."
"You're not staying?" Dorea demanded angrily.
"I can't – I just needed to know he was ok," Orion frowned before leaving them speechless.
Charlus wanted nothing more than to sit in the hospital wing with his son and his wife but he had work to do. He accompanied Dumbledore to interrogate Snape. He told them everything without much encouragement. When he was finished they sent him to join his friends in the charm classroom turned prision. "What are we going to do with them, Dumbledore?"
"I don't know," Dumbledore replied. "On one side, I really can't risk the safety of my other students."
"But you don't want them in Azkaban either," Charlus replied.
"They need a chance to change," Dumbledore replied.
"Detention doesn't seem to work," Charlus commented.
"If the governors agree we will accept them back but I vote we scare them a bit… give them all trials at the ministry…"
"A sort of worst case scenario sort of thing," Charlus smiled, "tie them up in the dungeons? The full works?"
"Why not," Dumbledore frowned. "If we're going to scare them we might as well terrorfy them."
Charlus laughed, "I'd be tempted to make them spend their summer in Azkaban…"
"That's not that bad an idea… not Azkaban but they could stay here over the summer – pay off their debt to the school for keeping them on."
Charlus nodded, "it's a plan."
All of the Gryffindors stayed in the hospital wing for a week. Even Mary chose to sleep there. Not wanting to be the only on in the girls' dorm room. Frank barely left the hospital wing either. He sat besides Alice's bed day and night. Frank and Mary only left for classes. The friends seemed to recover well. After a week, Pomfrey was ready to allow Kate to return to the main school. Mary was going to look after her so she had nothing to worry about.
James had refused to speak to anyone. He had sat quietly in his bed with the curtains wrapped around it – completely ignoring the rest of the world. Dorea was coming to visit every day and she was the only one who could get anything out of him but he barely said anything and it was always about Holly. Exactly a week after the incident Mr and Mrs Kilmont came in to see James. They sat by his bed and smiled at the young boy that their daughter had died saving.
"I'm so sorry," James cried; tears falling down his cheeks and into his hands. Mrs Kilmont stood to her feet and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm so sorry. I should never have gone to the astronomy tower…" He sobbed, "She shouldn't have died… it should have been me."
"No dear – it should never have been you," Mrs Kilmont cried. "My baby girl died protecting someone who she wanted to protect. Do you not know how special that makes you? How much you meant to her? Never appologise for the fact that my daughter cared enough to die for you."
"But she shouldn't have had to," James sighed.
"No – but we shouldn't be at war and yet I'm very sorry to say we verymuchso nearly are. We shouldn't die or get sick or hurt… you shouldn't be able to cry the way you are… in a perfect world none of this would happen… a teenage boy, no older than thirteen wouldn't need to dark wizard… James – this is not your fault."
"But I… I moved… I got distracted…" He looked over at Lily. She was watching him.
Mrs Kilmont looked at the girl in the bed next to him, "Yes you got distracted… darling we all do. You merely wanted to do what my daughter did. You wanted to protect someone you care about even at the expense of your own life. Believe me I understand… you have nothing to be sorry for. In fact, I'd be proud of what you did… if my son did that at your age, I'd be overwhelmed with pride. You are a very special boy… you love and it causes you to do slightly wreckless things… but it also makes you worth saving. I'm proud of my baby girl because… because of her you are alive."
This chapter made me cry :*( Please review...
Next Chapter(s)...
1. Recovering the H.W.
2. The Daily Prophet
3. Something terrible
4. End of year feast/ exams