LOST ↝ G. WEASLEY [1]

33 | The Last Stand

Joey didn't follow George to the end of the Great Hall. She knew they needed time alone together as a family, so instead she walked over to one side of the room, where a boy stood over the bodies of his sister and her husband, watching them with teary eyes.

"Rowan?" Joey asked in a soft voice, seeing the boy turn around before hugging her tightly, sobs racking through his body.

"S-she wasn't supposed to be here." he cried. "She was supposed to be with my mum and T-Teddy."

"I know," she said, hugging him tighter. "she came running to the Astronomy Tower saying she couldn't just sit back and watch her loved ones die without doing anything about it. She knew she had to fight. She was a fighter."

"T-Teddy's about to grow up without a family." Rowan said, wiping his eyes as his voice cracked, but Joey shook her head.

"No he isn't," she assured him. "he does have a family. He has you, and his grandmother. He has all of us. Teddy Lupin is about to grow up as the most loved child in the entire world, I can promise you that."

"Thank you, Joey," he said, looking past her to where the Weasley family was gathered. "w-who's George carrying?" he asked nervously.

"Fred," she said softly, a tear escaping from her eye as Rowan let in a sharp breath, and she finally turned around to face the destruction around the room.

Bodies were laid out in a line, one by one. To the right of Tonks laid Lavendar Brown, her body mangled as if she'd been attacked by some animal, and on the other side of her lay Parvati Patil, her sister sitting by her side and crying softly. George was finally laying Fred down on one of the cots, Molly leaning over and stroking the boy's hair as the family held onto each other, Percy among them. Tommy and Magnus took sight of Joey and Rowan before running over, capturing their friends in relieved hugs.

"Thank Merlin you two are still here," Tommy said.

"Joey!" a voice yelled, and she turned to see Nicolette, Monty and Arden running into the Great Hall, joining them as the latter pulled Joey into a tight hug.

"I was so worried something had happened to you." Arden said, sniffling before moving onto Rowan.

"Joey, what happened to your shirt?" Monty asked, noticing the tatters from hours before, in the Astronomy Tower.

"Spell hit a wall." Joey explained, glancing over at the torn material before seeing Molly looking in the direction of the kids and waving them over.

"Joey," Molly said, pulling the girl into her tight embrace. "thank heavens you're alright."

"Molly, I'm so sorry," Joey told her, looking to see where George still sat next to Fred.

"You all did the best you could." she said, cupping Joey's face in her hands with a warm smile, though the girl could see the sadness that lay beyond the motherly exterior. "We still have the rest of you."

"Hey guys?" Nicolette asked, pointing to the entrance of the Great Hall where Hermione and Ron were walking in. "Where's Harry?"

"He was with them last we saw." Joey said, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as they reached the rest of the group.

"H-hi Mum," Ron said as soon as he reached Molly.

"Hermione, where's Harry?" Joey asked, causing her to look around nervously.

"He went to the, uh, Forbidden Forest." she explained, looking as if she were near tears. "Said the only way for us to defeat You-Know-Who was for him to sacrifice himself. We need to kill his snake, and then we'll be able to finish this once and for all."