Company

This is just an idea that came from one of those GOF still photos that didn’t make it into the movie. It’s very short and I was just trying to convey the feeling of the photo if that makes sense. It has not been betaed so any problems are my doing. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: Not mine

The hall had been quiet for some time now. Shadows appeared from the tall windows and the hard wooden chairs were making their presence known but she still sat there. Dumbledore’s speech, eulogy really, was resonating in the empty recess. The other students had all filed out quietly and respectfully, but they stayed. He sat as straight and alert as he had when they first arrived, she didn’t think he had even blinked but logically knew that wasn’t possible. At some point during the service she had dropped her head to his shoulder. To let him know she was there she had told herself but it was mostly for her own comfort. She hadn’t moved from that spot since. She had realized that her grief was not over their fellow classmate. As tragic and shocking as his death had been she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried, force herself to feel more for him than the one she rested on. Her grief instead was focused on the one beside her. Knowing how close she had come to sitting at his service. Knowing that the lump of fear in her throat that should have gone away but hadn’t. Knowing that everything had changed and for once she didn’t have the answers.

Slowly under her cheek she felt his arm shift. His hand moved over to cover hers where it rested in her lap. It was freezing she noticed and enfolded it with her own. He hadn’t realized how late it had become. He knew she had stayed, knew before she did that she would. She probably thought he had been ruminating this entire time on the events of the last few days. He couldn’t. Strangely enough he was just being. Lost in his own mind in a great pit. He was rather grateful, guilty but grateful. He knew he would have to think about what had happened and what would but right now the blankness was welcoming. He sat still a while longer being quiet with her, thankful they could be this way without words.

They both knew when the time was right. He gave her hand a slight squeeze and stood. She followed easily no trace of the stiffness they should have felt. Still connected they left the hall, the din of the other students reaching their ears. They walked to a window that over looked the courtyard and watched. Knowing they would be expected they let go and finally looked at each other, exchanging small smiles and deeper unspoken promises of hope.