Mistake

Mistake

It was unbelievable. It couldn't be true. How could she have done that? She was the one who had everything planned out, who could get on almost any teachers good side by being incredibly sweet. Her life had been perfect.

Hermonie had found her in their bathroom on Christmas morning with a rope around her neck, swinging from a pipe. Her long hair was hanging limply in front of her face when Harry and Ron came to see why Hermonie had screamed. No one had expected it at all.

Three days later as Harry, Hermonie, and Ron sat together in the church, Harry's thoughts went back to the train ride earlier that year. She had been so proud of the prefect badge she wore, a boyfriend on her hip. Seamus had broken up with her two weeks before Christmas. She had been heartbroken. Harry remembered how hard she had cried. All through potions. Professor Snape was furious. He had wanted to send her Madame Pomfrey, but her friends wouldn't let him. Seamus had said she was becoming too close. Too dependent.

The room was filled with flowers, and the scent intermingled with the smell of fresh rain. It smelled clean and hopeful, neither of which Harry felt. It was the end and there was no clean way out of this mess.

"Lavender was a wonderful girl who never allowed any one to see what was bothering her," Professor Dumbledore said to the crowd assembled in the Hogsmead church.

That's what killed her, Harry thought. Hermonie had her head bowed. She looked like Lavender had, lifeless.

"Her heart was always with others...,"

Harry felt numb. This wasn't supposed to happen, not to us, not now.

"I would like you to hear an entry from Lavender's diary now..."

Harry's head snapped up and he looked around in shock. Lavenders diary? Now? It was too soon, too near. No one needed to hear this. What about her parents? Harry looked around. The group gathered around was only students and teachers. And no one else. It looked as if...

Lavender's voice cut through his consciousness. "I wish they would stop fighting. Why can't they stop talking?" Her voice seemed high and unnatural. The yelling in the background became clearer as did Lavender's quiet sobs. Harry realized who was missing. Her parents. There was no family present at all. They were all students or teachers.

A man was speaking. "Why did you have to have her in the first place? We could of gotten rid of her easily then. It's all your fault!"

A woman screamed back, "What! I didn't just go and get myself pregnant, did I? No. You kind of need some help for that don't you!?"

The yells continued as Lavender sobbed helplessly in the background. Harry was angry. How could some one say that about their child! Ron's face was changing colors in rage and Hermonie cried silently. Ron was holding her hand, and Harry rubbed her back as she sobbed. Even Professor Snape, who never let his emotions show, looked unnerved.

The noise stopped, but not before Lavender's parents got a last parting word.

"She was a mistake..." The book snapped shut. Harry looked around. Everyone stared at Dumbledore in shock.

"I don't think it will now surprise any of you that Lavender committed suicide that night," Dumbledore continued, "She was killed by words. Mere words. Words not even backed up by a wand. She said," His hand shook as he took out a folded sheet of parchment, "that she wanted this read at her funeral."

"I'm sorry, to all of you. I don't think I'll see any of you again. But it's better this way, that you don't know what a mistake I am."

"The worst part," Dumbledore said, looking up at the crowd, "is that, we as teachers didn't see it even though we should have. We didn't save her. That was our mistake. Lavender was not a mistake, and neither was her life."


A.N.: Sorry, if I just wrecked your day. I didn't mean to. (Actually, I did. It was the point of the whole fic. Sorry about that. Have some chocolate.) Read and review please.