Kapitel 50: Aftermath
Harry shut the door, hearing it click and lock. His office was an absolute mess, but that was okay. He couldn't bear to see anyone else - giving guilt to them they didn't deserve?
This was his to bear alone.
Ginny knocked on the door, dinner in hand, but Harry didn't answer. He didn't have an appetite; not today. Ginny sank down the wall, refusing to let the tears fall.. to no avail.
Losing Hermione had hit hard. Hit home. She wished she'd been more observant, more present for the other Gryffindor girl. How had she let it all slip away? Hermione was gone now, and there was no getting her back. She'd left, slipped through Ginny's fingers like water.
Harry sat, stoic at his desk, letting everything bloom in his head like dark flowers. Losing Hermione, and Ron in a way. The strain this had put on his relationship with Ginny. The way he'd been feeling empty lately.
The guilt he felt on his shoulders, getting heavier with every passing day.
***
Draco grinned into his coffee cup as Hermione smiled happily, humming to herself and muttering little interjections here and there as she pored over papers. The days of the war had passed, and she rested easier, working with Pansy and Astoria, staying on track with her not-for-profit, spending time together.
Pansy had already started to create her fashion line; the back room of her shop (which Draco had visited, once before) was swathed in fabrics and needles. Astoria had been doing some modelling; Hermione had yet to do anything- but she was set to go today, Draco reminded himself.
"Hermione, love, do you want to go for lunch or do you want me to make something?"
"Mmm.. whatever you want."
"I'll make some soup, is that alright?"
"Of course."
The simple recipe only took a thirty minutes, and Hermione set the table with a few waves of her wand. "You're going to Pansy's today, right?"
"Yep. Modelling, although I'm not sure how well I'll do." She stirred the hot soup lazily.
"You'll do wonderfully. How you have doubts, I have no idea."
"It's just... Her stuff is gorgeous, you know?"
"As are you." Draco smirked.
Hermione flushed hard, looking down.
"Such a flatterer."
"Is it flattery if it's the truth?"
"It wouldn't be. But it's not the truth, so it is flattery."
Draco sighed. "Someday, I'll make you see how beautiful you are. Because you absolutely are. And I don't know how you don't see it, but I know I do."
***
"Mkay, now slip this on.." Pansy handed Hermione a dress as Astoria prepared to snap the picture. The setup was absolutely amazing, a snow-white backdrop with crystalline teardrops hanging down from the ceiling, surrounding Hermione like suspended teardrops. Hermione smiled.
"Is this the one that I saw in your sketchbook that I loved?"
"Yep. Now put it on."
Hermione sidled into the dressing room and put it on. It fit like a glove, hugging in all the right spots, and there wasn't a thing wrong with it. Something clicked, and before Hermione could put a filter on her mouth, she blurted out,
"Pans, can I use this as my wedding dress?"
The curtains were yanked aside and Pansy was there, jaw on the floor. "You- you like it that much?"
Hermione smirked. "Of course I do, I wouldn't be asking if I didn't, would I?"
Pansy nodded. "It's just-"
"So can I?"
Pansy nodded. "Of course you can! And if there's anything you wanna change, just tell me."
Hermione glanced at herself, then at the mirror, then back at Pansy again.
"Maybe, uh.. if you're okay with it, changing it to a V-neck instead? Not that deep, just changing where the strap meets the bodice.. and the embroidery?"
Pansy breathed a sigh of relief. "Honestly, thanks. The embroidery would've been a challenge."
Astoria poked her head in. "So are we still taking the picture?"
Pansy shook her head. "I don't want to put this one on the market if it's going to be Hermione's wedding dress."
Hermione shook her head, hair flying. "No, no! I don't want you to lose money by not selling this one!"
Pansy sighed. "It's okay. I've got loads of other things, keep this one." She smiled.
Hermione looked at Pansy before shooing her out and closing the curtain. "If you're sure."
***
Ginny knocked on the office door, dressed in a black dress and boots, her cloak from her last year of school buttoned up at the throat.
"Harry- We've gotta go."
He opened the door, pale and bags under his eyes, cheeks streaked with dry rivers.
"Already?"
"You know you've been in there for a solid eight hours, Harry."
He pushed past her to get to the bedroom, and Ginny resisted the pull to scream and shout in frustration. Every year, she hoped it would be different. That maybe this time Harry wouldn't shut the door in her face, and that he'd hold her close.
For all her independence and stubbornness streaks, she didn't want to have to go through it alone every year.
But it's not like she could leave Harry. She was still in love. It was just hard. Every year, this time of year. And she didn't understand the pain he went through. Losing a brother was one thing; to feel the guilt of responsibility for the deaths of people that you knew and didn't know was a whole other. And so she always reasoned it out, not quite knowing if she should but she did it anyways.
Harry emerged from the bedroom, black suit covered with a cloak.
He spoke abruptly. "Let's go."
Ginny nodded silently. She threw Floo powder into the fireplace, quietly saying "The Burrow" under her breath.
The ash and soot didn't show on her dark clothing, but that was the least of her worries anyways. Her mother's tears were much more frightening; as a young child, Ginny had believed her mother invincible.
Of course, she'd never factored in the death of her brother.
The rain had started to drizzle as they headed out to the cemetery, but Ginny didn't mind. It matched her mood perfectly, and it seemed fitting that the sky, too, was crying today. She kept her head bowed low as they reached the gravestone bearing Fred's name, whispering the same words she wished didn't seem to mean so little.
She knelt down, putting fresh flowers atop the grave, before her tears started to streak her face, mixing with the raindrops that had started to pour from the sky, soaking her hair. Harry pulled her close, shaking, and she knew that he was crying with her; this was the only time of the day that he'd even consent to be around other people.
She knew she was clutching at his cloak so hard it might tear, but in that moment she didn't care. Every time she came here she fell apart. She could feel her heart falling into pieces, to be repaired lightly over the course of a year only to be broken again.
Coupling that with the loss of Hermione was even harder. Usually, her best friend was there to comfort her. This time she was even more alone.
The fine material of Harry's cloak slipped through her fingertips as she fell to the ground on her knees, shaking with sadness. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted it to stop.
Harry sank down beside her, and even though he had been absent all day, leaving her to her thoughts and sorrows, she could hear him whispering an apology in her ear, felt his tears soaking her neck, heard him say
And she knew he would try.
***
~Petition for Breonna Taylor: change.org/p/andy-beshear-justice-for-breonna-taylor (I'm sorry, it won't let me post the link- just copy and paste)
~call/write to government offices:
I am calling/writing on the behalf of Breonna Taylor. We demand that John Mattingly, Detective Brett Hankison and Detective Myles Grove are fired immediately and charged with manslaughter and negligence. We demand that a special prosecutor be appointed to investigate the Louisville police department immediately. We demand justice for Breonna Taylor. You cannot shoot an innocent civilian and call it a 'clerical error'- we will not have it.
-Governor Beshear: (502) 564 2611 // 700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 100, Frankfort, Kentucky, 40601
-District Attorney Tom Wine: (502) 595 2300 // Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, 30th Judicial Circuit, 514 West Liberty Street, Louisville, Kentucky, 40202
-Attorney General Daniel Cameron: (502) 696 5300 // 700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 118, Frankfort, Kentucky, 40601
-Representative John Yarmuth: (202) 225 5401 // Romano Mazzoli Federal Building, 600 Martin Luther King Jr. Place, Suite 216, Louisville, Kentucky, 40202
-Senator Rand Paul: (202) 224 4343 // 1029 State Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 42101
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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Rangliste 
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Stein