I Saw My Lady Weep

Chapter Four: Looks Like It Always Did...

Bill Weasley was silent, watching Harry and Ginny together... "I remember, when she was little, Ginny came up to me once and told me that she knew that I loved my brothers and sister because I gave them all my toys and had to go spend money to get more."

Percy snorted, trying not to laugh. He wasn't quite sure that laughter was appropriate. Out of all of his family, only his mother and his brother George were taking Fred's death as hard as he was. He, too, watched Ginny and Harry reconcile, and it helped lift his spirits, if only somewhat.

The three men sat in silence for several minutes, before Percy spoke up again. "I just remembered a story someone at work told me. A joke. At the time, I didn't think it was all that funny, but now I can't get it out of my head."

Arthur and Bill waited. Then waited a little longer. "Well go on, son... what was the story?" Arthur asked.

Percy never took his eyes from his sister and her boyfriend while he spoke. "This wizard had robbed a jeweler. The Aurors could prove the wizard did it, but they never found the gold and jewels he had stolen. He was convicted anyway and sent to Azkaban for a year. While there, he received a letter from his wife that read, 'Dear husband, I've decided to plant cabbages in the back garden. When would be the best time to plant them?' The wizard sent his wife back a letter that read, 'Darling wife, don't dig in the back garden, because that's where I hid all the treasure I stole.'"

Percy coughed into his fist, then resumed. "A week later he receives another letter from his wife that read, 'Dear husband, you wouldn't believe what happened. No more than a day after I got your note, a team of Aurors came, and they dug up the entire back garden.' So the prisoner wrote another letter back: 'Darling wife... now is the best time to plant the cabbages.'"

Bill and Arthur stared at Percy for a moment, and then both burst out laughing. It was a long laugh, and a good laugh. But best of all it was a healing laugh. They were still laughing when Hermione and Ron entered and walked straight toward Ginny and Harry.

Bill's laugh didn't die down a whit. "Oh my... I wonder what those two could have been doing that caused them to wear the same clothes as yesterday..." He nudged Percy and waggled his eyebrows. Percy merely shook his head.

Arthur looked agog for a moment, then shook his head and kept laughing.

XxxxxxX

Harry looked up as Ron and Hermione approached. He smiled back at Ginny, and then stood to meet the pair. He looked over to where Luna was sitting and made a "this way" gesture with his head. The Ravenclaw girl, who previously had been dutifully standing guard over Harry and Ginny, thus allowing them some privacy in the middle of a crowd, rose to join them.

"Morning, Harry... Ginny... Good morning, Luna." Hermione seemed more relaxed than Harry had seen her in close to a year. It was a good look for her. Ron was rubbing off on her.

Harry remembered, during his fourth year, some people actually bought into the Rita Skeeter-created rubbish that Hermione and he were involved. He shook his head, dismissing the notion. Some people were just blind. Or stupid. Or crazy. Hermione was one of his best friends, and as close to a sister as he'd ever have. But it was clear that Fate or Destiny or whatever intended Ron and Hermione to be together just like they intended Harry and Ginny to be together.

Even so, he couldn't resist taking the piss out of them. "So what have you two been up to?" Harry held up a hand. "You don't have to answer that. I see you made it past Neville and the Royal Guard."

Ron blushed. "Yeah, well... his head was in the right place, anyhow. And Neville swears he didn't see or hear anything going on while he was guarding the door. Said by the time he and the others got there, we were already asleep."

"If it were anyone other than Neville..." Luna added, only increasing Ron's embarrassment. "He's very discreet. And very brave." Luna's smile curled into something entirely different... an expression Harry hadn't seen on her face before. "And I'm guessing that his stamina will be very impressive too."

Everyone stared at her for a moment. "Luna... are you saying that you want to... um... with Neville?" Ginny looked like she was trying not to giggle.

"I think so, yes. It seems appropriate. He has been so heroic, after all. And the other heroes have all been taken." Luna gestured to indicate Harry and Ron. Harry goggled, unable to think anything coherent to use as a response.

Ginny rose to the occasion. She coughed, and then turned to Ron. "Should I even ask what you and Hermione were doing that you had to worry about Neville seeing you doing it?"

Ron laughed uneasily, twice. "No." His face was suddenly completely blank. "No, I don't think you should."

"Likely a good idea, Ronald." Luna was nothing if supportive. "I think the house-elves have finished clearing away most of the debris. And clearing away the bodies, of course. They might be back in the kitchens by now. I wonder if it's possible to get something to eat."

"I was about to ask what happened to everybody who... you know.... I didn't see Professor Lupin or Tonks or F-Fred..." Ron looked around at the Great Hall, spotting his father, Bill, Percy, and the sleeping Fleur, but not his other siblings. "Where's Mum? Or George and Charlie? And who are all these people?"

"Someone from the Ministry supervised the house-elves. They moved V-Voldemort's body and the bodies of the dead Death Eaters somewhere outside the castle." Ginny lost her humor. "I heard from some Auror that they're going to cremate them en masse, seal the ashes into a metal can, weight it down, and drop it into the North Sea. Anyway, they moved all the others... all of us... who fought on our side... out to a tent on the grounds. Mum's out there with George and Charlie's watching over them to make sure they're okay."

"A tent? That's not very respectful. Why didn't they..." Ron was almost snarling.

"None of the classrooms were big enough for all the coffins, except the ones in the dungeons," Luna explained. "And it would have been horrible to put them down there, I think."

"Some of these people are with one department of the Ministry of Magic or the other. Others are parents and siblings of students," Luna continued, intently trying to help. "Of course, some are reporters, though Hagrid did a good job earlier of rushing some of the worst of those from the building. He can be very persuasive when he wants to be, you know."

She brushed her hair back away from her face. "The rest are students. Even though today is a Friday, I don't really think there's going to be much teaching going on. Do you think they're going to cancel class today, Ginny?" Luna thought about it. "The school administration's in such a disarray... Hogwarts will need a new headmaster, of course. Not to mention a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Muggle Studies. Though I hope they get better ones that the Carrows. I don't really think they were qualified to teach at all."

"I'm sure you're right, Luna," Ron agreed. He paused for a moment. "Ginny, I think we should go outside and check on Mum. Maybe check on George as well. Say hi to Charlie... make sure everyone's all right."

"You should do that, Ronald. I need to go and find my father. I know Daddy's around here somewhere... I heard him calling for me earlier. And I really do want to get something to eat. Ta." And with that, Luna disappeared into the crowd.

"Shall we?" Hermione looked the question.

Ron and Ginny both nodded, and together with Harry they headed toward the Entrance Hall and the outside world. As they passed where Arthur, Bill, and Percy sat together, they plainly heard Bill say, laughing, "So the pirate says 'It just goes to show that booty is only shin deep!'"

XxxxxxX

They were on the front lawn when Flitwick came running from the castle, calling out Harry's name. "Mister Potter... Mister Potter.... oh, good morning Mister Weasley, Miss Weasley, Miss Granger. I'm sorry to bother you all." The Charms professor took in the four young people. "Excuse me, Mister Potter, but a Mister Abelard Price, from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement's Criminal Confiscation Bureau wishes to speak to you again. I'm afraid I don't know about what. He's waiting for you in the castle right now."

"Um... thank you for the message, Professor." Harry was nonplussed. He motioned toward the distant tent. "Do you think it could wait, though? We were going down to... "

Flitwick's eyes grew wide. The professor hopped in place and let out an embarrassed squeak. "Oh my... I am very sorry to have bothered you. Please, give my condolences to your family. I'll tell Mister Price he'll just have to wait." Flitwick shook the hands of the young men, and bowed, impressively for someone of his short stature, to the young ladies. He then ran back toward the castle.

The tent was an ivory color, and lacked the flags and pennants that were so common among the other tents Harry had seen wizards use. It was bigger than Harry expected... at least half the length of the Great Hall, and easily as wide. Given the common use of room enlargement charms, the tent's exterior size gave him the chills. He pictured the tent being both larger on the inside than it was on the outside, and all that extra space filled wall-to-wall with coffins holding the bodies of the fallen.

The reality of the tent calmed him down, but not enough. For the rest of his life, the image of an endlessly long tent filled with thousands upon thousands of coffins would feature in his worst nightmares. The fifty he could see were bad enough. Most had groups of people huddled around them, and each had a wreath.

"So many." Hermione had tears in her eyes. "Oh, so many..."

Ron hugged her to him from behind. "We can go the moment you need to." He looked to Harry and Ginny, who agreed. "They're right over there." Ron pointed to where a single white-oak coffin lay on a long table. Molly and George Weasley were both slumped together, with Charlie standing behind them for support.

As he moved to join his adopted family, Harry took note of the other people in the tent. Andromeda Tonks sat between two dark cherry-wood coffins, holding a sleeping infant and weeping silently. A man and a woman, dressed in the black clothing Harry associated with Muggle funerals, puzzled Harry until he saw Dennis Creevey next to them. He spotted Lavender Brown's mother, blank-faced and dry eyed, simply staring at the coffin in front of her. But there were far too many Harry just didn't recognize.

Molly Weasley stood and met the group as they approached. All four were shocked by her appearance. Her hair was unbrushed and tangled, and her face was puffy and pale. It was obvious that she hadn't slept since the morning before. The wild fury that had driven her against Bellatrix Lestrange had vanished into thin air, replaced by heartache and loss. Molly pulled Ron and Hermione into as tight as an embrace as she could muster and just stood there, sobbing. Then it was Ginny and Harry's turn. When it was over, Molly moved back to her seat, pulling Ginny and Hermione with her to help comfort George. Charlie pulled Ron and Harry aside.

"Harry, Ron... thank you for... well... you know. Ending it, finally. Making things safe for everyone. Hermione too, of course. I know she did her part as well." Not knowing what else to do, but feeling that something else must be done, Charlie shook hands with the two younger men awkwardly, in almost a formal fashion, and then hugged both briefly.

"We've sort of been discussing the funeral arrangements for Fred. Mum wants to talk to Dad about it to finalize things, but one thing's already decided. Molly wants her sons to act as pall bearers." He turned to Harry specifically. "All of her sons. Do either of you think you'd not be up to doing that? Would it be too hard for you?"

Molly wanted all her sons and specifically included me, Harry thought to himself. It's not just Arthur, or Ron... it's the entire family... they all see me as one of them.

Of course he'd do it. "Of course," said Harry. "I'd be honored."

XxxxxxX

They remained in the tent for almost an hour, only leaving when Arthur came and convinced Molly and George to come up to the castle and eat something. By then it was deserted of all but the Aurors who stood guard over the fallen.

Harry was surprised to find how hungry he was. Given the emotional currents flowing around him, he had believed he wouldn't be. But once he sat down with his friends and food appeared before him, it was like Harry hadn't eaten for days.

"Well you haven't, have you?" Hermione said when Harry mentioned his hunger. "The last you had a chance to eat was Shell Cottage, before we broke into Gringotts. That was..." she counted in her head, "...about seventy hours or so ago." She reached out with a fork and took several asparagus spears for herself. "It's a surprise you haven't fallen over, Harry."

Harry shrugged in agreement, his mouth too busy with his pork chop to respond.

"Mister Potter... might I join you?" It was McGonagall. When Harry nodded and gestured to the seat next to him, the professor sat and began seeing to her own lunch. "Thank you, Mister Potter. Hello Miss Granger, Mister Weasley, Miss Weasley. I hope you are all well under the circumstances." Minerva McGonagall smiled greetings at the other Weasleys sitting on their far side.

Harry swallowed, took a sip of pumpkin juice, and cleared his throat. "What can I do for you, Professor?"

"Oh, it's all right, Potter. There's nothing I need to discuss with you right now. You can relax and enjoy your meal."

"Are you sure, Professor? You seem troubled." Harry pressed the issue as gently as he could. To Harry, his Transfiguration professor, who had always been to be as solid as oak and as imposing as a lion, suddenly looked old. The late war, especially its final battle, seemed to have driven something out of McGonagall, making her less the bastion of strength she always had been, and more like the elderly woman she actually was.

For the first time, Harry began to wonder just how old Minerva McGonagall really was...