Being Different Year 6
The Funeral

In the morning, Sirius, Remus and Tonks had to go back home. Teddy needed looking after, and they still needed to contact the rest of the Order about Dumbledore’s death.

Classes had been cancelled for the days leading up to the funeral. Only about six people in the world knew that Dumbledore hadn’t died from natural causes, and none of them had the motive to let everyone else know any the wiser. As Dumbledore had died from natural causes, the Ministry were allowing the school to be kept open.

A week after the death of Dumbledore then there was a huge funeral, people had been arriving in Hogsmeade all week wanting to pay their last respects.

Anne woke up on the day of the funeral, she hadn’t slept much since she had discovered Dumbledore dead at his desk. The most sleep she had had all week was when Remus had made her take some dreamless sleep on the night of the death.

Irwin had tried helping her sleep but her nightmares were even more frequent and usually included Dumbledore’s dead body.

She stole out of bed at five o’clock in the morning, trying not to wake up Irwin who was sleeping in the bed next to her.

Anne grabbed a set of clean school robes, a clean towel and her wash robes and headed off to the Prefects bathroom. One bath and hair wash, Anne felt much better and more refreshed, she pulled on her uniform including her jumper and grey wool tights, it was going be to a cold day today and the funeral was going to be outside.

She cast a hair drying charm on her hair and headed back to the dorm and then plaited her waist length into one long plait all the way down her back, it was still only a quarter to six and Irwin was still fast asleep.

“Come here Di,” muttered Anne softly making space for her cat.

Anne pulled her knees into her chest and Diana lay down between Anne and Irwin on the bed, Diana lay her of her little white socks out all over the bed as she fell asleep.

Anne watched out the window as the sun slowly rose in the sky, it had been snowing again and the world outside was like a white blanket had been thrown over it.

“Annie?” whispered Irwin, “you awake?”

“Hmmm,” she muttered staring out the window.

“Its not even seven o’clock yet and you’re fully dressed,” he yawned.

“You do know the funeral’s not until eleven o’clock?”

Anne nodded slightly not looking away from the window.

“I’d best go get up,” he whispered not wanting to wake up the other three girls in the dorm.

“I love you Annie,” he muttered kissing her on top of the head.

Anne picked a book up from her bedside table and headed down to the Common Room to head sitting in front of the fire.

She found herself picking up an old familiar and picked up her collected works of Shakespeare and opened it to a random section. She was half way through reading Troius and Cressida when she noticed she wasn’t the only person up this early.

“Hi Anne,” muttered Morgana, not wanting to disturb Anne from her book.

“Morning Morgana, whats up?” asked Anne.

“Do you know if Julian’s coming today?” asked Morgana.

“Of course, he’s in the Order of course he’s coming.”

“I haven’t seen him in nearly three years,” she mumbled pulling at a strand of her dark hair.

“Are your family coming?”

“No,” said Morgana shaking her head frantically, “Dad hated Dumbledore, I think he’s actually glad that he’s dead.”

“Oh, don’t think I feel the same way!” Morgana said quickly, “I just know that Dad always used to complain about him and how much better off the school would be without him.”

“Anne,” said Morgana nervously, “is there going to be another war?”

“Its already started,” said Anne, “it started nearly two years ago with the death of Cedric Diggory, people have only just started to realise it since last June though.”

“I mean like a proper war, with people dying and people taking sides.”

“People already have died,” Anne pointed out, “Emmeline Vance, Cedric, Amelia Bones, that’s just a few, countless muggles.”

“Why are asking me all this?”

“I’m worried that my Dad’s not got the same values as Julian,” she muttered.

“Are you trying to tell me that you think your Dad is a supporter of You Know Who?” breathed Anne.

“Well he’s certainly not on the other side,” whispered Morgana after checking no one else was in the room, “and he’s always had a lot of fishy contacts.”

“What I’m trying to ask is do you think You Know Who is going to take over?”

“Well it’s more of a question of when than if now that Dumbledore’s dead,” Anne sighed.

“I thought as much,” nodded Morgana.

“You two ok?” asked Irwin coming down the stairs in a clean pair of robes.

“Fine,” beamed Anne, “just girl talk.”

“Uggh,” groaned Irwin, “I’m glad I missed that then.”

Most people went down for a late breakfast and then headed out to the grounds opposite the lake for the funeral. It was freezing cold as it was mid-February and it had snowed the night before so the ground was covered in snow.

Anthony and Anne had to help sort out the younger students, making sure their ties were done up properly and trying to get them to behave as much they possibly could. They need a thousand chairs just for the students but there must have been an extra five hundred chairs out by the great lake.

All the Weasleys including Fleur had come to pay their respects to Dumbledore. Towards the front of the crowd, Remus, Sirius, and Julian were all sat wearing dark dress robes, Tonks had her natural hair colour in a plait was wearing a black dress and was holding baby Teddy who was now nearly one. The Scamanders had also come even Averett and Aislyyn

Once her and Anthony had got all the first and second years settled then they went to go sit with Irwin and Persephone who had been saving them seats.

“You ok Annie?” whispered Irwin as she sat down.

Anne nodded uncertainly and took hold of Irwin’s hand.

Irwin clenched Anne’s hand in such a firm grip when the delegation of witches and wizards from the ministry arrived. Minister Scrimgeour himself was there along with Dolores Umbridge who was not today wearing her usual pink, and the missing Weasley, Percy who was clearly trying to look at anyone apart from where his family were sat.

The funeral itself was fairly normal apart from when the centaurs paid their last respects by aiming flaming arrows at Dumbledores corpse which burst into flames and magically transformed into a white coffin.

“Come on Annie,” muttered Irwin at the end of the funeral, “its freezing let’s get you inside.”

“How you holding up?” asked Remus coming over to talk to them with Teddy bundled up in his cloak.

“I’m ok,” muttered Anne pulling at the end of her plait before heading back inside.

Irwin chased after her and Remus was left standing watching them fade into the distance as they ran inside.