Disavowals

Chapter Seventeen - Marcato

Theo shut the door of the practice room carefully behind him, scanning the corridor. No one. Wait - no, it was only Terry. He caught up with her in a few strides.

"What are you doing here by yourself?"

She jumped. "Oh! Theo. I didn't see you."

"Gryffindors. So brave you don't stop to think," Theo said scathingly. "What if it hadn't been me?"

Terry shook her head defiantly. "I would have been fine. I wasn't by myself, Alex was here, but she forgot she hadn't finished her essay and she went back to do it. I don't go places by myself, I'm not stupid you know."

"No, really?"

Terry scowled. "Not funny."

"My apologies." Theo smiled. "You're out late."

She looked at her watch. "I've still got ten minutes before curfew, and I was going back anyway. Why are you going back? Your curfew isn't for ages and ages and ages."

Theo shrugged. "I'm not, I'm going to the library to study. Besides, I wasn't really...I've got a test tomorrow."

"You weren't really what?"

"Playing. I was reading a letter. Not much point in that."

"Lots, if it's from your family. Is your cousin okay? The one whose daughter got killed."

"She's...not as bad as she was." That was putting the best face on it, from the letters he'd got. Jan had not struck him as someone fazed by much, but according to Monique, she was only slowly reassembling the shards of her life. Evan was what was keeping her going.

"Was the letter from her?"

"You're very nosy, you know that?"

"Well, was it?"

"It was from my mother," Theo said, just to shut her up. It worked.

"But your mum's dead!" Terry exclaimed. "What-"

"It was one she left to be sent to me when I was this age. It...I've read it enough times. I should stop."

It was too hard, when he hadn't heard from his father in six months to give up this last, fragile link to his parents. Reading it was chilling and made him feel better, at the same time. She'd been so wrong, and so right, and...it was false hope to cling to a statement of unconditional love when he knew it wouldn't have been true if she'd lived. Would it?

But she hadn't, so it was an anchor.

Let the dead stay dead. This is your life now. You can't get her back.

I can pretend.

"If my mum was dead and I had a letter from her, I'd read it lots too," Terry said stoutly. They'd reached the end of the corridor. "I'll see you 'round. G'night, Theo."

She paused, then tugged on his sleeve, pulling him down for - strangely and touchingly - a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "

"You're going to be okay, aren't you?" she said anxiously. "With your cousins and everything."

Theo wasn't sure what answer to give. Surely Terry didn't need reassurance from him.

"Of course. Are you sure you're going to get back to your common room safely?"

She shrugged his question off. "I'll be fine by myself. I'm not three or anything."

"I don't think so," Theo said firmly, making up his mind, and found himself escorting a second-year Gryffindor back to her common room to make sure she didn't get attacked by any of his Housemates. Which was truly bizarre. Terry insisted he leave her at the end of the corridor - "There isn't anyone hiding behind the statues, and if you see where our common room is they'll kill me."

"Behind the painting of the Fat Lady, I know that, but I'm sure you can walk ten metres by yourself," Theo said, ignoring her outraged gasp at this casual spilling of sacred Gryffindor knowledge. He paused. "At least, I hope you can."

"Oooh, Theo, you..." Theo took the opportune moment to walk away, leaving Terry nicely fuming.

"You are so mean, Theodore Nott!" she called defiantly after him.

"My heart bleeds!" he called over his shoulder. "No, don't poke out your tongue, you're too old to do that!"

Her frustrated hiss was quite audible. He smirked. Teasing Terry wasn't a very nice thing to do, but it was so damn tempting.

*

"Are you still upset about Gabby and all that?" Terry said to Anne one evening in the library. Anne was pretending to do homework, but mostly whispering to her sister. Mai was down the other end of the table, head-down in her books.

No escaping the surveillance.

"Things like that don't just go away, Terry."

"'Cause you don't seem very upset anymore. I mean, that's not bad or anything, you're just normal again. And so is Theo, well, sometimes. Sometimes he sounds upset but it's sort of hard to tell. He's not very normal anyway. But mostly he's being like he usually is."

Not so hard to tell, Anne thought. Theo was still upset. And paranoid. With good reason, of course. She wished this year could...go back to what it had been. Something. Anything. She didn't know how much longer Theo could deal with the mire his life was currently in.

I don't know how much longer I can, sometimes.

"What is he usually like? Sparring with you?"

"Yes." Terry made a face. "He's like Eddie."

Anne snorted. "He's nothing like Eddie. For goodness' sake. Where did that come from?"

"I dunno." Terry shrugged, doodling on a spare scrap of parchment. Constellations were forming, unnoticed. "He seems like Eddie to me. Um...sort of...like what he says to me. That kind of thing."

He acts like an older brother, Anne translated, and he teases me like one too.

"That's nice," Anne said aloud. "You two didn't get on very well last year."

"It's not nice." Terry bestowed a disgruntled look upon her. "I don't like being annoyed."

"You like Theo."

"I don't like Theo when he's annoying me." Terry smirked. "Anyway, you're the one who really likes Theo..."

Anne noted with surprise that she did not snap, blush, drop something, or even feel anything past wry amusement. "You'll have to try harder than that, Terry."

Her little sister rolled her eyes. "You are so not fun anymore, Anne."

Anne swatted her lightly on the shoulder. "Uh-huh. Have you thought about what subjects you're doing next year yet?"

Terry leaned back in her chair. "No. See, I asked Theo, and he says I should do Care of Magical Creatures because then something might eat me and we'd all be better off, which is stupid, but I might do it anyway because I like going out doors. And he said I should do Divination because I'd drive Professor Trelawney bats. So I'm definitely not doing that."

"So was there any useful advice in all of this?" Anne leant forward on her elbows. "I like Arithmancy, but I think you'd get sick of all the numbers."

"No way am I doing that." Terry chewed on the end of her quill. "Theo did say that Ancient Runes was fun if you were patient."

Anne grinned. "Cross that off then."

"He also said," Terry continued, "that it was good if you liked languages, and I liked it when we did French at primary school. So maybe. 'Cause the only other thing is Muggle Studies."

"What did Theo say about that?" Anne couldn't help glancing at her watch. She was going to have to get back to her own work very soon. She needed to go over her History of Magic notes.

"He said that I can do Muggle Studies at home, so why bother? Except all of my friends are doing it. And I wouldn't have to work very hard. And it'd be fun to see what other wizards think about Muggles, 'cause Theo doesn't know anything really."

"Well, there's not much point in doing a subject if you know it already..."

"Yeah there is. I can have more time for other stuff."

"Such as..."

"You know, stuff. My friends and music and things. I have a life."

Anne shook her head, sitting upright again. "Okay. So definitely Care of Magical Creatures, and..."

Terry sighed. "I really don't know. I'll ask one of the third years, or something. Anyway, we don't even have to choose 'till next term, and that's not for ages, so it doesn't matter. Maybe Ancient Runes. 'Cept then I'd be doing the same ones as Theo, and that's just wrong."

Anne chuckled. "You'd be doing them for very different reasons, I think. Theo hated Care of Magical Creatures. He failed his OWL."

"Really?" Terry tilted her head. "Huh. Why?"

"I think he decided he was better off studying things that would help him do something, instead of something he hated."

"Eh..." Terry shrugged. "I'd rather study things I liked, too."

"Funny how alike Gryffindors and Slytherins are, in some ways," Anne mused.

"We are not!" Terry straightened indignantly. "Anne, we're not!"

"If you want to believe that." Anne sighed. "Look, Terry, I really do have to study. Quietly."

"Exams are next term, remember?"

"I've got a test next week...a couple, actually. So d'you mind working quietly?"

"I'll go back to the common -"

"No, I think you should stay here until dinner." The library was safe. Madam Pince wasn't going to let anyone disrupt its hallowed precincts.

"You're paranoid," Terry said loftily.

Anne began to sort out her notes. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

"You're weird."

"I suppose so."

Unfortunately, right now paranoia is a survival trait.

Here's to hoping I won't need it.

*

Theo said, afterwards, they should have known better. Anne countered that even Dumbledore couldn't know everything.

Of course not, Theo had said, and Anne was reminded that the dangers to him lay in the fact that the teachers were not omniscient.

But they should have been able to guess, he'd continued.

Hindsight is always perfect, Anne had retorted. Reality's different.

So in reality, the February visit to Hogsmeade was allowed to go ahead, despite the attacks over the holidays. Rumour was rife as to why this was so - Theo had his own private suspicions about Dumbledore's sources - but, apparently, they were safe, escorted by Aurors and teachers both. A daylight attack on Britain's only wizarding village, so close to the impregnable fortress of Hogwarts, was considered unlikely at best.

That was good enough for Anne, who was ambling down - as far as you could amble in a herded bunch of students - with Theo. Anne never missed an opportunity to visit the wizarding village, aware that this was the world she was going to have to live in one day, outside Hogwarts' safe walls. Theo had stated flatly that he was going to go insane if he had to spend one more consecutive day in "this damned castle". The fact that Draco Malfoy had called a Quidditch practice and kept the people Anne was most worried about back at Hogwarts only made it a better idea.

Sergeant Tonks was there again, and Anne took a few minutes to speak to her about Andromache. The Auror gave an odd smirk when introduced to Theo, who identified her after about a minute as "Draco Malfoy's cousin."

"That's right," Tonks said cheerfully. "My mum does really have terrible taste in relatives."

"She can't have had much of a choice," Anne offered.

The Auror smiled wryly. "Yes, but if there are worse sisters she could have picked than Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy, I'd like to know who they are."

Anne winced. "Ah."

"Professor Umbridge," Theo responded. "I'm sure you've heard about her."

"Oh, yes. From a few people." Tonks cocked her head at Theo. "I know who you are, of course. Eric Nott's prodigal son." There was an undercurrent of suppressed...something...in her voice. It was almost as if she knew something about the pair of them that they didn't. Anne wondered what it could possibly be.

"Not the best metaphor," Theo said coolly. "The prodigal son, if I recall, returned home."

The Auror shrugged. "You know what I meant. You're not the first. And you won't be the last, I'd wager."

"Not the first?" Anne asked. "Who was?"

"Kids've disagreed with their parents for ages, but there was my cousin Sirius, and my mum, back in the first war. They both ran away from home."

"So did my aunt," Theo said dryly. "It's not a well-advertised plague."

"No reason for it to be."

Tonks dropped back to speak to Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley, at the back of the group. From the way she greeted them, Anne surmised she knew them well. She wondered where from.

They were almost at the village, now. Strict instructions had been given; they were to reassemble at two o'clock to walk back to the castle together, they were to stay in groups of at least three, and to stick to the main street. Seamus Finnegan and some of the other seventh-year boys had looked disappointed at that last - Anne suspected they'd been planning to sneak off to the Hog's Head. The memory of her New Year's morning headache and the comments of the original DA members who had met there stopped Anne from seeing the enticement of that idea.

Theo was drifting in the direction of Ernie Macmillan and the other Hufflepuffs, so Anne followed him.

"I need to go and get some owl food," Susan Bones was saying. "Could we go to the pet shop first?"

Justin Finch-Fletchley shrugged. "Fine by me."

"Ah, Theo," Ernie said, turning, "We're supposed to stay in groups, you know. Especially people like you."

"I know," Theo replied with a slight smile, "most especially me. Just in case the Dark Lord is hiding in the Three Broomsticks."

"Or in the bookshop," Anne added. "Lots of dark corners. You never know who might be hiding in there."

"I don't know." Susan Bones frowned. "The quill shop looks more dangerous to me."

"Does it really?" said Justin Finch-Fletchley, looking confused, and even more so when the others chuckled. "Oh. Right. Never mind."

Anne was surprised by how easily Theo tagged after the Hufflepuffs. Or maybe that wasn't quite the right word; certainly he wasn't talking as much as they were, he was just there. And so was Anne.

I should recognise the technique, she thought as they made their way down the main street, this is how I am around my dormmates most of the time.

The war came up, as it always did, and Ernie Macmillan was pontificating on how the Ministry should have managed better.

"Careful," Theo put in, "someone might think you wanted to be a politician."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with politics," the other boy protested, "just the politicians we have now. No offence to your aunt, of course, Susan, but people like Fudge and Umbridge, really, it's a disgrace."

"Never mind," Susan Bones said, "you can be Minister for Magic and clean the system up."

"Hmmm." There was a thoughtful look in Ernie's eyes. Anne caught Theo's glance, and they both tried not to grin.

"You're letting loose a monster," Justin said in disgust, "next thing you know -"

"Stop," Theo said harshly. They all halted, three metres from the pet shop door.

"What -"

"I thought I saw - that alley. There. Can you see anyone in it?"

"No." Anne had to stand on tiptoe to see over a group of fourth-years.

"Who did you see?" Susan Bones asked.

"My aunt." Theo's wand had appeared in his hand. "I could be wrong."

"I thought your aunt was -"

"My other aunt," Theo cut Justin off sharply. "The Death Eater?"

The crack of Apparition sounded from behind them, and Ernie, who had been looking in that direction, froze.

"My God!"

Theo whirled, but Anne's eyes were held by two figures in dark robes and masks striding from the alleyway.

"Death Eaters!" Theo was yelling. "Get out of here!"

"We have to stop them, there're children here -" Ernie Macmillan was already moving forward, but Anne couldn't as the fourth years began to back away. One of the Death Eaters raised her wand, and green light spun from it to envelop a girl with a Ravenclaw scarf. She fell to the ground, unmoving.

The others ran.

"We need to go, Anne!" Theo was grabbing her by the arm, but the Death Eater's next spell was flung across the street at her. Her shield charm was barely raised in time, thank heaven Theo had given them that moment's warning, and then she was running with Theo, dodging and diving and hurling all the spells she could remember and some she'd forgotten.

The main street of Hogsmeade was a nightmare of duels and students and fear. Here and there Anne saw teachers herding students back to the castle, Aurors battling, students fighting. Most were just running.

A detached part of her noted that there didn't seem to be many Death Eaters, but there were enough. Too many, really. What Hogsmeade residents were about could be seen dashing into shops; one or two stayed to fight. Not many. Not enough.

The panicked flight of people was causing as much damage as the Death Eaters, in some ways. Anne halted for a second to pull up a third-year who had been knocked over. The boy, incredibly, set his jaw and headed the wrong way, but Anne grabbed him, fuelled by adrenaline, and pushed him in the direction of the castle.

"Go, you can't fight them!"

He looked ready to argue, but was sent on his way with a snapped order from Professor McGonagall.

"Miss Fairleigh, Mr. Abercrombie, back to the castle!"

The boy took to his heels then, but Anne had to drop to avoid a hex she barely spotted. A line of pain etched itself across her shoulder, but McGonagall was already moving towards the Death Eater. Anne stumbled to her feet, shaking the wrist that had braced her fall and looking around. Theo was lost in the chaos. Clusters were gathering around the Death Eaters, teachers, Aurors, and, she saw, students. The DA. She realised with a shock dulled by fear that they were almost the only students remaining.

And isn't this the point of all that practice?

She should go, follow Theo's good advice, but she couldn't while her...allies? Comrades? Whatever. While they were still there.

Better do something, then.

The Death Eater was pressing McGonagall back, step by step, so Anne pointed her wand at his back and yelled "Impedimenta!" He was only slowed, not stopped, but it was enough for the Deputy Headmistress to Stun him and frown again at Anne.

"Miss Fairleigh, I said -"

"Sorry, Professor, can't leave yet," Anne said as she dashed behind Terry Boot and Padma Patil, using them as cover, to the golden-skinned girl pressed against the wall of the Three Broomsticks, clutching her arm.

"Mai, you idiot, why are you still here?" she panted. "You're hurt!"

"I can't go out there, not past them, I can't, I can't-" Mai chanted raggedly.
"They're losing, we're winning, look, you can hear them running away!"

Anne could hear the distinctive crack of Disapparition, as Death Eaters gave up the fight. She put her hand on Mai's shoulder.

"We have to get back to Hogwarts, Mai. Where are the others?"

"Gone." Mai let Anne lead her out of the alley, ducking past the last few duels - few, as the Death Eaters realised what the odds against them were.

Mai let out a muffled shriek, and Anne followed her gaze to Michael Corner, lying slumped on the ground. Anthony Goldstein was kneeling beside him, shaking him by the shoulders.

"Michael. Michael! Wake up!"

A tall, black Auror put his hand on Anthony's shoulder. "Let it go, son. There's nothing you can do."

"There's always something. I can always think of something -" Anthony protested, but he let M- let the body go.

Mai was shaking now, sobbing, and Anne put an arm around her, carefully avoiding the broken arm.

"Mai. I'm sorry. We have to go."

She led the other girl away, trying not to look at the corpse of someone she'd seen alive...how long ago? Ten minutes? Half an hour? Anne wasn't sure. If she didn't look, she didn't have to think about it. If she concentrated on keeping Mai upright and moving, she didn't have to think about the other things crowding her mind.

Where's Theo? How are the others? Who else is dead? How was this allowed to happen? That girl I saw fall...she died. Did she?

Where's Theo? Where is he?

There were only a few students trailing back to the castle, hurried along briskly by teachers.
Anne caught up to Luna Lovegood and Colin Creevy.

"Have you seen Theo - Theodore?" she asked them. "Was he -"

Colin began to nod. "I saw him, he's fine, are you all right?"

"Mostly." Her shoulder was bleeding, she knew, and there were more scrapes and bruises than she cared to think about, but she wasn't badly hurt.

"Oh, Theodore Nott," Luna said suddenly. "He was helping Ernie Macmillan walk. I think Ernie twisted his ankle. I thought it was very kind of him, you know, I don't think many of the Slytherins would help other people. Or perhaps they would, and we don't give them the chance. What do you think, Anne?"

Anne blinked. "I. Ah. Umm..." She thought for a few seconds. "No. No, I think Slytherins are pretty selfish, in general."

"Of course," muttered Mai, tight-lipped with pain.

"That is odd, you know. Don't you know better than thinking everyone in a House is the same? You do go out with a Slytherin, after all."

Anne shrugged. "And the Slytherin I know has his good points, but he isn't the most generous, selfless person in the world. Ambition doesn't, uh, select for selflessness, I suppose."

"You could be right," Luna said vaguely. Anne shook her head mentally. Some people were just...strange. Not that Luna wasn't nice, or anything.

Just...strange.

They were drawing close to Hogwarts, now. Mai was no longer crying, but gasping occasionally in a hysterical way.

"We're almost there, Mai," Anne told her soothingly. Keep Mai going. That was it. Then when they got there she could...

What do I do?

Find Theo, of course.

Then?

Scream. Cry. Run away. Hide under the bed. Lock my family safe in Hogwarts and never let them go...

How long does luck last?

*

They put the wounded into categories. That chilled Theo the most, that you could separate them into the ones who didn't need help right now, the ones who needed help soon, and the ones who might die without help. So close. That could have been him clutching a gashed arm, or Anne with half her scalp burnt off, or Terry Boots lying motionless on a stretcher, being taken to the large fireplaces in the Great Hall and then by Floo to St. Mungo's. Anne's sister Terry, as a second year, was safe in her common room, probably chafing at the restriction. Anne was sitting on the steps talking to a shocked Mai, whose broken arm did not merit immediate attention. After being separated from Anne, Theo had found himself, once the battle ended, helping Ernie Macmillan to walk along with Justin Finch-Fletchley. The Hufflepuff Prefect had done nothing worse than wrench his ankle, so he was very far down the list for attention. Theo himself was bruised and battered, but that counted as uninjured, here. Madam Pomfrey and some of the teachers were here, there, and everywhere, but there were too many injured.

Justin and Theo lowered Ernie carefully to a seat on the stairs. That was the "injured, but not badly," designated area.

Ernie winced. "Ow. Thanks, chaps."

"No problem," Justin said cheerfully. Theo just shrugged.

"This is not good, not at all." Ernie frowned at the entrance hall, full of students. The chaos was being whittled down only slowly. "Most inefficient."

"Reckon they're doing their best." Justin sat down beside him. "We were lucky."

"We were," Theo echoed softly, still standing. "Look over there."

"Wha-" The two Hufflepuffs followed his gaze to a cloth-covered stretcher vanishing down the corridor that led to the dungeons. Another one was following.

"Damn. Damn." Justin looked shell-shocked.

"You didn't see any of them?" Ernie sounded grim, and that was out of character. Theo stared after the...the stretchers.

"I thought we all made it back," Justin whispered. "I thought we were all okay..."

"We made it back. Some of us just made it back on our shields," Theo told him with black humour. "I...saw a couple of...I saw some of the bodies."

"Good thing they're getting them out of the way." Ernie nodded to himself. "Don't want to panic people. We all need to keep calm. Very important, right now."

You didn't see any of them? Theo remembered.

"Who, Ernie?"

There was a pause. "Michael Corner. Rose Zeller, one of our third years. Tracey Davis. I saw her...I saw that. I don't know about any others."

Justin swore again. Theo did, too, under his breath. Another one of the DA.

We need everyone we've got.

It was amusing, in a way, that that thought should come before he thought of Tracey. He'd taken her to the Yule Ball in a fourth year that seemed like lifetimes ago. She'd ostracised him this year as harshly as the others, pure Slytherin, not willing to throw in her lot with a lost cause. He didn't blame her, in a distant way; he would have done the same, if it had been anyone else. He couldn't say he'd given her two thoughts for a very long time.

Could have been worse. Could have been much worse.

What an epitaph to get. "Sorry, Tracey, but it could have been worse."

Who'd be in Slytherin?

Susan Bones was crossing the floor towards them, swiping blood out of her eyes from a cut. Theo saw Anne, past her, rise from her seat; he nodded briefly to the Hufflepuff boys and headed towards her.

"Is Ernie Macmillan all right?" she asked, as people brushed and hurried past them. "He looked -"

"No, fine, it was just a sprain. Your friend Mai?"

Anne shook her head. "She'll be all right. It's not a compound break, or anything, but it looks like the lines are clearing, so she'll get it looked at soon. Sarah's sitting with her now. Did you see..."

"They must have set up a morgue in the dungeons. They're taking them down there."

Anne brushed her hair back, biting her lip. "I saw someone die, Theo."

"Oh." He stood there, feeling suddenly inadequate. "You'll be seeing the Thestrals, now, then."

Of all the stupid things to say,...

"I don't know who it was." Her hand had dropped to hand by her side, so he reached for it, uncertainly; she clung on. "When they first attacked, when you were all looking the other way. Someone young. She didn't look much older than Terry. A Ravenclaw, I think. Just a girl..."

"Michael Corner was killed. And a third year from your House, too. Rose something."

"I heard." Anne looked towards the passage where those stretches had disappeared. "It's getting too close, Theo."

"It was too close months ago."

A dark-haired girl in the "immediate attention" section caught his eye. A blue-and-bronze scarf still trailed from her neck; her arm was opened in a deep gash from elbow to wrist. Madam Pomfrey was muttering over it. The girl - no, it was Celia. She lifted her head to show a face white with pain.

"That's not supposed to happen," Anne said beside him. It was hard to hear her over the noise.

"Not...she should be safe."

"It was probably an accident." Theo tried not to sound bitter.

"They should look after their own." Anne's forehead was creased with anger, not puzzlement. "That's not right!"

"What do you expect from Death Eaters?" It surprised Theo, to be honest, but not as much as it once might have. He knew how loyalties could shift. "Just another frightened girl in Hogwarts uniform. They can't recognise everyone."

"Most of...of your class weren't there," Anne said slowly. "They were warned?"

Madam Pomfrey was clearly telling Celia to look away from the wound, and her gaze landed on Theo. Even through the pain, anger was visible. Almost hatred.

"They must have been," he replied, wrenching his eyes back to Anne. "But I know Celia, and she's curious enough to have gone anyway."

"She must have been." Anne stepped aside to let a couple of Gryffindors pass. "I'd be...she will be mad at you. You're the...you're on the wrong side, and you're unhurt, or close enough, and she..."

"Celia never did like traitors," Theo said softly. It was strange how Anne flinched from the word and he didn't anymore. Hufflepuff loyalties, perhaps. Betrayal was anathema to them, and they were the ones who'd befriended him. Very strange.

"Quiet," called McGonagall from near the doorway. It took a few seconds for the voices to die down. Theo and Anne turned to look at her. The Deputy Headmistress looked tired. Bone tired.

"I note," she began, "that many of you are not in need of medical attention. Everyone who is not is to go to their common rooms immediately. Your Head of House will be along in a few minutes to speak with you about safety restrictions and...other such things. Please do not linger in the corridors."

"What about them?" came a voice from closer to the front. Theo could see, with his higher vantage point, heads turning to the speaker. Zacharias Smith. It would be. His arm was outstretched in the direction of the corridor down which those covered stretchers had gone.

"Are you going to tell us who's dead, Professor?"

Voices rose in a worried hum, louder this time. Evidently some of the students sitting down or to the other side of the Entrance Hall had not know.

"Quiet, please!" McGonagall said severely. She pursed her lips, evidently considering what to say. "This was to be announced by your Heads of House, but as the subject has been raised..." Her voice grew duller. "There are four confirmed casualties at this point. Mr. Michael Corner, Miss Rose Zeller, Miss Orla Quirke, and Miss Tracey Davis. Any other friends or family missing from your common rooms will be either here, or in...in certain cases, at St. Mungo's. Back to your common rooms, now, unless you're injured."

Anne gave Theo a quick nod and headed back through the crowd. Theo saw her emerge near the stairs, say a few words to Mai, and disappear towards her common room. He glanced back over his shoulder to see that Justin Finch-Fletchley and Susan Bones were also moving, and started scooting around the outside of the crowd towards his common room. Down the same corridor as the corpses.

What a pleasant thought.