I have supped full with horror.
Jun. 25th, 2006 05:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wand_waversFor a moment, the briefest of moments, Hogwarts is silent. It's the silence of surprise, of blank shock; even as deep below the castle, a wizard perhaps more powerful than any other in the building raised his hands and prepared to fell them, Voldemort's Inferi crumpled lifeless to the ground, every one. No wizard did that - nor any magic worked by an Old One - and for a moment, the briefest of moments, the fighting stutters to a halt as the combatants stare at the fallen bodies.
The silence of surprise, of blank shock, and - as something tenses in the air - the silence of a great, indrawn breath.
And then -
The explosion is bigger than it should be, bigger than it was ever supposed to be, and only in the furthest, deepest places of the castle will it not be heard.
The silence of surprise, of blank shock, and - as something tenses in the air - the silence of a great, indrawn breath.
And then -
The explosion is bigger than it should be, bigger than it was ever supposed to be, and only in the furthest, deepest places of the castle will it not be heard.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-02 05:48 am (UTC)People could breathe again, and that meant they could react.
All over the world, fireworks were shot up into the air and it seemed that stars rained down from the sky.
***
"--and in other news, Stan, people all over Britain have been witnessing owls everywhere--flying overhead, perched on cars--experts say they haven't seen such strange migration patterns in the local birds since July, seventeen years ago. Currently, ornithologists are trying to discern what's causing this strange pattern of upheaval--"
***
Muggles felt the strange unexplainable dread they'd been feeling slip away. Strangely-clothed figures roamed the streets, talking in excited, hushed voices. Champagne bottles appeared from nowhere, and corks were popped.
"--He's gone..."
"--You-Know-Oo's dead, heard it with me own two ears--"
"--Done for good this time, I heard. Done for good--"
"--Heard Harry Potter was in the thick of it, no surprise there--
"--So many at the Ministry, good Lord those are some brave folks, and others too, who knows how many died--"
"--We're free! Hear that Hydrangea? Free! They got rid of 'im! Got rid of him at last!"
***
Not everyone celebrated though. Some received the news that their sons or daughters were dead. That their brothers or sisters were never coming home.
Some, like seventeen-year-old Lee Jordan, wandered the battlefield, grimy and gouged from the fight, to look for people they'd never see again. Lee came to the spot he had last seen two red-headed young men clinging from a broom, and found a smoking crater.
He picked up the tattered, burnt remains of a Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes brand Ever-expanding sack from the edge, then dropped to his knees, silent. As he wondered how he would ever be able to run the shop he knew that they'd left him all by himself, he buried his face in his hands.
***
In the end, however, the words that so many thought and said were passed along, like the light of a candle, from one hand to the next--a small, warm bit of joy that grew brighter and brighter:
We don't have to be afraid anymore. We don't have to be afraid.