Chapter Thirty-Three: The Beginning
Ron had never been so happy to enter one of the castle bathrooms. Fawkes nibbled at his fingers, chirping contently from his makeshift nest inside the sorting hat. James held the sword for Ron. There was a hiss, and the sound of heavy stones closing behind them. Ron turned to see the bathroom sink lift back out from the ground at Harry's feet.
James was holding a ripped piece of Lily's cloak over his injured eye. ("Honestly, its not sanitary …" she'd tried to argue with him on the way back up). As soon as the sink slid into place, Lily stepped forward and waived her wand, a fiery red rune appeared, burning Ron's eyes as if he'd stared straight into the sun. He blinked, trying to shake the rune out of his vision.
"You're sure this will hold?" James asked, looking between the three of them for an answer.
"Positive," Harry said quietly. "No one else can open it … and I don't …" he trailed off, staring at the small carved serpent in the sink.
"You can't hear him anymore, can you?" Ron asked, and Harry shook his head.
"Its quiet, I don't know. I've never been just me before …"
"Oh, sweetheart its—" Lily moved to comfort him, but he quickly withdrew away from her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"You weren't there," he hissed. "You don't get to just show up after fifteen years and—"
There were footsteps running down the hallway, in an instant Ron had his wand out and pointed towards the door. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and knew the other three had done the same thing.
Sirius and Lupin burst through the door, their wand arms raised. Lupin let out a strangled cry the moment he saw the four of them. Ron dropped his wand, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Lily do the same. But James stared at his two best friends in the world, and refused to drop his guard.
"You're all alive," Sirius said in a hushed voice, immediately dropping his stance. "But—Riddle fled then?"
"What was the last thing Albus said to us before he was captured?" James asked, taking slow steps in front of Lily and Harry. Sirius blinked, he looked down at his feet for a moment and smiled.
"I'm off to the sweet shop; would you care for anything?" Sirius said, he laughed for a moment. "Lying old bastard never actually told us what he was up to when he went to London ... guess I know why now. " James smiled for a moment, and lowered his wand.
"Prongs, your eye—" Lupin began.
"Its fine," James waived him off. "Riddle can have it."
"Right," Lupin cleared his throat. "It's good to see you ... all of you …" he added, nodding towards Lily and Harry.
"We've got a couple of hospital beds set up in the Great Hall right now," Sirius continued. "Most of the remaining Death Eaters fled, we couldn't figure out why. We thought you were—"
Sirius's voice waivered, he blinked.
"We thought you were all dead." Lupin said after a moment. "We were going to cause a cave-in."
"It's their marks," Ron pointed out, he'd spent the better part of four school years thinking Snape just had a terrible red tattoo he was embarrassed to show. "They fade once v-Voldemort loses his power."
Harry immediately lifted his left sleeve to examine his arm. Ron felt like he'd been punched in the gut; the mark had turned an angry red, a permanent reminder of Ron's failure.
"Is there any way to remove it?" Harry asked quietly, James took his arm and began muttering healing spells under his breath. It didn't change anything.
"Curse scars are difficult," Lily gently lowered James's wand arm. "But we can keep looking." She added quickly.
"He's really gone then," Sirius looked like he could have summoned a hundred patronuses, he leaned into Lupin, and gave his husband a kiss. "It meant something, Reg …"
"Is the whole castle secured?" James asked. To Ron, he looked like a walking corpse. James's remaining eye held a vacant look to it, as if he hadn't ever left the pyre.
"We're safe, Prongs."
James nodded curtly, but Ron knew he didn't believe Lupin. He was not the trusting person Ron met when he first stepped through the mirror.
"Good, can you take Ron to medical?" James looked to Sirius. "I'm in no mood to be around a bunch of people."
"Of course we can." Lupin patted Ron on the back. On the way out of the bathroom Ron heard him murmur, "good luck," to James.
The portraits in the Headmaster's office were doing a very poor job of pretending to sleep.
Out of his good eye, James saw Phineas Nigellus squint at the three of them, before he promptly snapped his eyes shut again and let out a loud fake snore. He supposed there would be an adjustment period, he could still hear Lily working on the left side of his face even though she appeared like a faint blob with red hair.
Harry had curled up in one of the plush armchairs near the fireplace. For a moment, James thought he'd actually managed to fall asleep, but he could see Harry watching the two of them. Lily placed a bandage over James's left eye.
"Sorry about the stickiness, I placed murlap cream on it to help with swelling." Lily apologized.
"It's fine," James sat up, his neck sore from leaning and two sleepless nights in a dungeon. He put his glasses back on, and made a mental note to take the left lens out. His head was swirling with a thousand different thing he thought he'd never get the chance to say. Lily placed her hand on his arm. She gave James a small nod, they'd both been thinking the same thing.
But what if he wants to talk about Pete, or tries to apologize for breaking into the castle—James realized he'd been staring too long, he got up and moved to the chair facing his only child. Harry kept watching him the entire time, keeping very still as if he expected them to attack.
"That was a brave thing that you did today," James broke their silence. "I just … I want you to know I'm proud of you, both of us are." James nodded towards Lily.
"I don't want to talk about it," Harry muttered.
"That's alright," James said. "Do you need anything, or," he coughed awkwardly, "is your scar okay? Ron said it hurts sometimes."
Harry looked up at him in surprise, as if he hadn't expected the question.
"I'm fine," he said finally. "Just tired, that's all …"
"Yeah, kind of hard with one hundred nosy portraits," James forced a chuckle. "Phineas, is everything all clear at your other portrait?"
"Hm?" Phineas put on a good show of pretending to wake back up. "Oh, not a peep since the aurors rudely burned a hole in the canvas of my dear great-niece. Not that I'll miss Walpurga's charms—"
"Would you mind checking anyways?" Lily asked. The portrait sighed, muttering under his breath about property damages. Several other paintings also seemed to get the gist, and stepped out of their frames.
"You were right earlier, Harry," Lily leaned on the arm of James's chair. "I wasn't there to protect you, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about losing you." She was squeezing tightly to James's hand; he could feel her shaking. "Neither of us got to be there, love, but we want to. Will you let us try?"
Harry did not respond; James could see he was shaking slightly. He burrowed further into the chair, and let out a choked sob. James immediately knelt over by his chair; Lily followed him. Harry hesitated for a moment, before reaching back. James did not know how long the three of them stayed there, holding on to each other like lifelines. He closed his eye; they should have had years together. But for the first time in weeks, James relaxed, there would be enough time to fix this. For now, it was enough that they were safe. James looked back at his son, painfully aware that this was the first time Harry was choosing to be close to him.
"Okay," Harry finally broke the silence.
Ron followed Sirius and Lupin back down the hallway towards the Great Hall. His thoughts felt fuzzy, like the moments before falling asleep. Fawkes nipped at Ron's hand and jolted him back into his body, Lupin patted him on the back.
"Hermione and Draco are helping with some of the fallen," Lupin said. "They gathered up some of the mirror shards, maybe we can repair it once things die down."
"Where is Crouch?" Ron asked, the adrenaline that had kept him going in the Chamber finally waning.
"He's secure in the dungeons," Sirius gave Ron a sympathetic look. "He can't hurt anyone anymore."
"He deserves to die." Ron felt the words burst from his mouth before he could stop them. His brother's killer didn't deserve the comfort of a cell. "After—after everything he's done—"
"He'll get his trial once the Order is fully reconvened," Lupin explained. "You said it yourself, Ron. We're not Death Eaters, no one person gets to decide who lives and dies."
"And some of the lower ranks we can trade for Order members locked in Azkaban." Sirus pointed out.
"But we won," Ron said in confusion. "Why would they still have the ministry?" Both Sirius and Lupin smiled sadly. Ron felt a prick of anger, they were still treating him like a child …
"Eight years is a long time, Ron. There will be a power struggle in Riddle's absence, but there are plenty of high-ranking Death Eaters that got away. We can't count on them surrendering."
"We can't find Rodolphus Lestrange on the map," Sirius sighed. "Slimy git's probably happy to have the ministry all to himself."
Lupin opened the doors to the Great Hall. Inside, Ron saw dozens of rows of medical cots, several wizards made their ways down the rows. Hermione was following Madame Pomfrey with a tray of healing potions towards Professor Snape. She caught Ron's eye from across the hall and gave him a smile. Near where the old Gryffindor table used to stand, Ron saw Draco Malfoy help cover a body before Hagrid gently lifted it off the ground. Ron wondered if it was Bill …
They put the lost outside in the hallway, Ron heard a man cry out in anguish. He'd just stepped out to identify one of the bodies. Ron felt an emptiness settle inside of him. True, the family he'd known as his life was unharmed (at least to his knowledge), but they would never know what became of him. With Bill, there had been some comfort in the knowledge that he was not alone.
Lupin performed a couple healing spells, before looking cautiously over his shoulder. He took out a piece of chocolate from his coat, and broke off a piece for Ron. It felt like ages since he'd seen anything sweet.
"My favorite medicine," he gave Ron a wink. "Eat it quickly, there isn't enough for everyone."
Ron let it melt in his mouth, holding on to every second that he didn't have to think about the wide unknown in front of him. Eventually, Hermione sat down with him. Ron was relieved to see that, other than a few scratches and bruises, she looked unharmed. Lupin spoke to another member of the Order, the man's face lit up in a smile, and he quickly spoke to another person. News of Riddle's downfall spread through the Great Hall like a ripple, Ron closed his eyes. It was the first time he'd felt relaxed in weeks, but he was in no mood to celebrate.
"I'm sorry about your brother," Hermione said. Ron did not speak, he knew Bill was dead, but he didn't want to say it out loud yet. Something about that felt too final to him.
"Can I show you something?" Hermione asked quietly. Ron nodded, a dull pulse beating in his head. Hermione took his hand and led him out into the hallway. Ron felt his throat tighten, there was too much death. He could almost feel it reaching for him. Several families were hunched over their loved ones, beyond them Ron could see a faint yellow glow.
"Over the years we've lost so many that it's become hard to recover bodies," Hermione explained, stopping in front of a tall corpse, a bit of red hair poked out from under Bill's shroud. "We've created somewhat of our own tradition," she drew her wand in the air and two wax candles appeared in midair. Hermione handed one to Ron. She placed her own wand over the wick of the candle and whispered;
"From the ashes, we rise."
The flame flickered in front of them, Hermione helped guide Ron's hand over the wick, he felt his wand shaking in his grip.
"Incendio," Ron murmured, lighting the second candle. The lump in his throat was nearly unbearable. Hermione waived her wand a second time and both candles hovered over the body. Ron looked around and realized that other families were doing the same thing.
"You're not alone here," Hermione reached her arm around to give Ron a hug. He knew that, but it didn't change the fact that he was never going to go home again. For now, it was enough to share her warmth.
A/N: I'd originally planned to just make this an extra-long last chapter, but it felt disingenuous to just knock everything out with one punch, so I split it.
