Bones to Bones

Another long and difficult school year had come to an end. Susan had always heard that going to Hogwarts was supposed to be the best years of your life. In many ways, that had proven to be true, but in others, it was a sadly hollow cliché. For all the close friendships, the happy memories that would stay with her all her life, there were the other memories. The memories of that terrible second year, when one of their own was attacked. The memories of last year, when had Cedric lost his life. While the events of this year may not have been as shattering as Cedric's murder, Susan had a bad feeling that they were just the beginning of troubles.

Susan, Hannah and the boys were sitting at the Hufflepuff table, waiting for Professor Dumbledore to begin the Leaving Feast. Most years, he hall was draped in the colors of the house that won the Cup. Last year had been an exception, as the room had been draped in black in memory of Cedric. When Susan had stepped into the hall earlier, she had been shocked to see that this year seemed to be yet another exception. This year, it wasn't the banners of the winning house that decorated the hall, but the banners of all the houses. The Gryffindor Griffin stood next to the Slytherin Serpent, and the Ravenclaw Eagle was next to the Hufflepuff Badger. Susan tried to figure out what that could mean, but she was soon interrupted by the voice of Professor Dumbledore speaking from the head table. When the Headmaster began to speak, every other voice stopped, and every head turned to hear what he had to say.

"Another year has come to an end. Last year, I informed you that Lord Voldemort was back," said the Headmaster, ignoring the shocked murmurs that followed the forbidden name. "Sadly, many chose not to believe this news until the events of the last several weeks. Last year, I said that we were entering dark and difficult days. I could say the same again now. It would not take a master of Divination to see that there will be dark days and dark deeds ahead of us."

"Yet, the greatest danger to us is not in the dark power of Lord Voldemort. Oh, he is powerful and dangerous. He has already shown that in his return. His greatest danger is not in what he may do to us, but what he may bring out of us."

"Yes, we must oppose his darkness, but we cannot oppose darkness with darkness, evil with evil. Just because one opposes Voldemort does not mean that one is fighting for the light. We must remain faithful to what we believe, and what we stand for."

"There is another, closer danger. Right now, Voldemort's most dangerous weapon is at work in this very hall. It is not a curse or a hex, nor is it magic at all. It is an emotion, an emotion that he has gone to great lengths to instill in everyone. Fear. Fear is his greatest weapon. It is a weapon that he uses to keep people from fighting against him, and a weapon that he uses to force others to serve him. It is a weapon that we must counter. We cannot give in to despair. We cannot decide all is lost. It may take years, and countless tears and lives, but we must persevere, we must fight on."

Professor Dumbledore stood silently for a moment, and then raised his goblet and said, "To the Light!" Susan, along with Hannah, Justin and Ernie jumped to her feet and raised her cup, echoing the toast. What shocked Susan was how many were slow to come to their feet. Not just Slytherins as one might expect (though some of them did not stand until they were convinced by an especially foul glare from Professor Snape), but members of every house. The remainder of the Leaving Feast was a quiet, restrained affair. The food was every bit as good as always, but the weight of what they had heard seemed to put everyone into a quiet, somber mood.

The next morning, Susan was sitting in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express along with Hannah, Justin and Ernie. They were chatting, discussing their plans for the summer when they saw Zacharias walk past the cabin, his arm draped over the shoulder of a fourth year Hufflepuff. Try as she might, Susan wasn't able to stop from snorting at the sight.

"What? Jealous Susan?" smirked Justin.

"Oh, yeah, right. I could have had all of that to myself. Whatever will I do now to cure this heartbreak? Seriously though, just what does Illyana see in him? I thought she had better taste than that!"

"Well, maybe we've finally found a real life Huffleduff!" giggled Hannah.

"Hey, what's so funny?" said a muffled voice coming through the door. When Ernie slid the door open, Terry and Anthony stood there. "Mind if we join you?" asked Terry.

"Um, sure," said Justin. "Glad to have you with us, but why aren't you with the other Ravenclaws?"

"Well, we still aren't very popular with most of them," said Anthony darkly.

"Don't tell me that Cho and Marietta are still mad at you?" said Susan, her voice rising.

"No, actually those two are being pretty good about things. It's the others, they keep going on about how we need to stand up for our house and all that," said Terry. "To be entirely honest, it's more pleasant with you than it is with most of them right now."

Susan shook her head and said, "You know, you'd think that would have calmed down by now."

"I think it's the fact that you can see Granger's hex every day in our dormitory. Marietta tries to hide it, but I think all of us have seen the thing at one point or another by now. Rather keeps the blood boiling. I wish she'd tell Madam Pomfrey how to reverse it," said Anthony.

After that, the six of them chatted for awhile, discussing everything from favorite Quidditch teams to their worst ever Bertie Botts experience (Terry won when he described the horseradish bean he'd as a kid). They were about halfway home when Hannah noticed that Harry Potter was walking down the corridor.

"I wonder what happened to him that night?" Hannah mused.

"I don't know, but he certainly looks the worse for wear, doesn't he?" said Justin.

Susan wasn't sure what to say. She'd seen the look on Harry's face a number on times on her father. A look of grief and hollow sadness. A look that spoke of someone nearly overwhelmed by what had overtaken them in life. Susan was still looking through the window in the door when she saw Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle following Harry, digging into their robes for their wands. "They're going to attack him!" said Susan sharply.

"Oh no they aren't!" said Ernie, reaching into his robes with his right hand, as his left hand slid the door open. "Come on!"

The six of them piled out of their compartment in a heap and all of them took aim at the backs of the Slytherin trio. Susan had to shove her wand under Justin's arm, and cried out "invertebrae!" The corridor lit up with the light of six hexes flying into the backs of the Slytherins, and suddenly, where Malfoy and company had stood were three large slug-like creatures, still stuffed into their Hogwarts robes. At the far end of the corridor, Harry spun around, his wand in his hand faster than Susan would have believed possible, but he actually managed to smile slightly when he saw what had become of his would be assailants. Susan howled with laughter as the boys cleaned up the mess.

Afterwards, they were all laughing and comparing notes about the hexes they had used. "I used the slime charm!" laughed Hannah. "What about you Susan?"

"Oh, well," said Susan, feeling the blood rush to her cheeks. "I used the Spineless Hex."

"What? Isn't that one really dangerous?" said Hannah.

Ernie laughed and said, "Spineless and slimed! Between the two of you it's no wonder they turned into slugs!"

Hannah still seemed worried, "Do you think they'll be ok?"

"Oh, it'll wear off," said Justin. "If not, it'll just give the healers at St. Mungo's a hobby for the summer."

"Serves them right if it takes all summer to cure them. I owed them that for my cracked rib," said Susan harshly.

Justin and Ernie shared a knowing glance, and then Justin said, "I wondered if it wasn't one of them who did that to you."

"You know," said Ernie in his most pompous voice. "Stopping those three clowns was easy enough, but you heard Professor Dumbledore last night. Things are liable to get even worse from here on out."

"Thanks for ruining the mood Ernie," growled Justin. "So, what's your point?"

"My point is this. We need to be ready to stick together through all of this. No matter how good or how bad it gets, we need to know we can rely on each other."

"We already know that," said Hannah impatiently.

"No, not just the four of us, but the six of us," said Ernie, looking at the Ravenclaws pointedly. "Don't you see? That was why all the house banners were up last night. We all need to work together, and stand together." Ernie then extended his hand to Terry, who reached out to shake it. Nodding, Susan, Hannah, Justin and Anthony all reached out and put their right hands together. "We stand together," they said in unison. Somehow, Susan could sense that there was much more to the pledge they had just made than it seemed. She was filled with profound commitment looking at what was coming in the future.

Things settled down after that on the trip until Cho walked by with Michael Corner. This time, Susan didn't even try to repress her snort. "Sure doesn't take her long does it?"

"Susan, do you have to keep that up? She's not that bad you know," sighed Hannah.

"Oh, come on, you know that Cedric deserved better than that! She's proven that she wasn't worthy of him!"

"What are you so upset about?" asked Terry.

Hannah smirked at Susan, and then changed the topic quickly by asking the Ravenclaw boys what it was like having Professor Flitwick as head of household

The rest of the trip went smoothly, and finally they arrived at King's Cross station. Stepping out of their compartment, Susan looked up at the still dripping Slytherins and waved cheerfully at them. "Have a rotten summer!"

After saying good bye to everyone, Susan lugged her things off the train, looking for her parents. Instead, she was greeted by the beaming face of her aunt.

"Auntie Em!" said Susan, rushing to hug her aunt.

"Your father isn't feeling well today," said Aunt Amelia, "so they asked me to come by and pick you up. I hope you don't mind?"

"Of course I don't mind!" said Susan. After a moment's thought, she asked "Is he all right?"

"Oh yes, he's fine, just a bit under the weather, don't worry," Aunt Amelia assured her.

Looking around at the milling crowd of students and parents, Susan saw Harry pulling his things off the train.

"Auntie, what is it about Harry? Why does everything seem to happen to him?"

"That's a very good question Susan," said Aunt Amelia, also watching Harry. "It may be that he just keeps sticking his nose where it shouldn't, but I don't think that's the case at all. Either, he has the worst luck of any wizard I know, or there's something special about him."

"Something special about him? What do you mean?"

"Susan, sometimes there are people that seem to always be caught up in things. It's as if the very essence of life and magic swirls around them, making them the key to everything."

"Auntie, you sound like a Divination teacher! You always taught me that Divination was nonsense."

"Oh, well, the people that say they can teach it are usually fools Susan, but that doesn't mean that some of it isn't true." Aunt Amelia looked at the group that was marching to join Harry and asked, "Susan, who is the rather shabby looking fellow over there with Potter?"

Susan followed her aunt's glance, and was surprised to see her former Dark Arts teacher. "Oh, that's Professor Lupin! What's he doing here?"

"So, that's Remus Lupin. I've never had the chance to see him before. Very interesting group there; Lupin, Moody, Weasley and Tonks. I wonder..."

"What is that Auntie Em?"

"Oh, it seems that I may not be the only one who thinks that Harry is going to be at the center of things. Anyway Susan, your parents will be worried. Let's go home."

Susan followed her aunt out of the station, but glanced back at Harry and the group around him. She couldn't help but wonder what that was all about. She knew this had been a long year for Harry. This had been a long year for all of them. However, Susan knew that she was stronger for all that had gone on. She could only hope that she was ready for whatever would come.