The Sunrise of My Heart

When I reached the bottom of the stone pit, what I saw did not give me much hope. Neville and harry were the only Hogwarts students that I could see, and Neville's face was covered in blood. A Death Eater attacked Harry, grabbing him by the throat and trying to grab the prophecy. I started to attack the man, but Neville came out of nowhere and stabbed him in the eyes with a wand. I smiled, mentally cheering Neville on, and then rushed to his and Harry's side.
"Harry!" I said, relieved that he at least still had to the prophecy.
"Tarantallegra!" a Death Eater, Dolohov I realized, shouted. Neville's legs began convulsing uncontrollably, twitching and dancing around. He fell onto the floor, unable to stand while his legs were jerking.
I swore, still too far away from them to help. I aimed my wand at the Death Eater, but another one got in my way. I started to duel with him, but Remus was suddenly there, smiling at me briefly as he dueled with the man.
"Hey!" I mock yelled. "That was my fight!"
"Go help Harry," he said without looking at me.
I nodded and ran to Harry's side, finally reaching him just after he had petrified Dolohov. "Come on, Harry, we need to get out of here! Where are the others?"
"They're all down. We're the only ones left."
"By that, you don't mean they died, right?!"
"No, I think they're still alive," he said.
"Not really reassuring, but it's better than a definite yes, I suppose."
"Help me walk Neville out of here," he said, hoisting Neville up. I followed suit and we began dragging Neville up the stone steps since he couldn't walk on his own.
Lucius showed up out of nowhere, grabbing me by my hair and throwing me backwards. I yelped in pain, glaring at his long hair and wanting to do the same thing to him. I was distracted from my angry musing when I moved my wrist and cried out in pain again. Evidently using it to catch my fall had been a bad idea. I gave it a tentative wiggle and hissed in pain. It was sprained, at the very least. Thankfully, it was my left hand, so I could still write and duel properly.
Malfoy went flying past me, shot back by a spell of Harry's. I grinned at Harry and stood up, running back to his side to help with Neville again. Before I got there, Neville's robes ripped, and the prophecy that had been safely sitting in his pocket shot out and shattered on the step close to me.
"Dubbledore!" Neville suddenly yelled.
"What?" Harry and I asked in unison as I finally made my way back to them.
"DUBBLEDORE!"
Harry and I turned to look where Neville was pointing, and I immediately felt like doing a happy dance. Dumbledore stood in the doorway above us, his wand raised, his face set in an expression of fury.
"Ha! They're in for it now!" I said cheerfully. We were no longer trying to leave. Instead, we watched as Dumbledore sped down the stone steps. His presence alone was enough to make every person in the room stop fighting. Everyone except for two people, who were currently engaged in a duel. Sirius and Bellatrix.
I willed them to stop fighting, an uneasy feeling growing in my stomach, but they were oblivious to the rest of the room.
"Come on, you can do better than that!" Sirius taunted Bellatrix when her spell missed him. The second spell hit him right in the chest. He was still smiling slightly, but his eyes were widened in shock. Everything seemed to slow down and I watched, horrified, as Sirius slowly and gracefully fell back towards the archway behind him. Instead of falling through the veil in the archway, he seemed to fall into it, disappearing from sight.
Suddenly, time was no longer slowed down. I was screaming, I knew I was, but I couldn't hear myself. I'm not even sure what I was screaming, if it was his name or just a long, continuous shriek of horror and disbelief. When my lungs failed me and would no longer scream, I lurched towards the archway, unaware that I was crying.
"Riley!" someone said, but I hardly heard them. I had to get to the veil, I had to bring Sirius back. I was seized from behind before I could reach the archway, and whoever had grabbed me turned me around and crushed me to them in a tight hug.
"Let me go!" I said, pushing weakly against their hold.
"I'm sorry, Riley," Kingsley said, tightening his grip on me. "I can't let you go. If you go into the archway, you won't come back out."
"Sirius," I whimpered softly. He was never coming back out. He was dead. I sobbed into Kingsley's robes, clinging tightly to him as if I would fall apart if I let go. Finally, I let go and pulled back. Kingsley let me go, convinced I would no longer try to dive into the veil after Sirius.He gave me one last comforting squeeze to the shoulder before rushing over to Bellatrix, continuing Sirius's duel.
I slowly made my way over to Neville, Harry, and Remus, my breaths coming out in shaky little gasps. When Remus saw me, he immediately wrapped an arm around my shoulders and held me close. I smiled weakly at him before looking at Neville and vaguely noticing that his legs were no longer jerking. Remus must have lifted the curse.
There was a loud bang and a yell from behind us. I spun around and saw Kingsley hit the ground, yelling in pain. Bellatrix took off, running up the stairs to an open door. Harry took off after her, so I ran to Kingsley's side. I whimpered in fear, hoping he wasn't dead. He grimaced in pain but still managed to give my hand a comforting pat. "The prophecy?" he asked, wincing in pain as he did.
I shook my head. "It got smashed. But the Death Eaters don't know that. Kingsley, don't die," I said, my voice breaking and sounding very childlike.
"I'll be okay," he said. "Go make sure everyone else if fine."
I sniffled and nodded, getting up and going back to Neville and Remus. "Where are the others, Neville? We have to get to them and make sure they're okay."
Neville nodded and stood up, leading me and Remus behind him.
"You always were so strong, Riley," Remus said softly to me. "Strong enough to do what you had to, even when you wanted to do nothing more than cry for a thousand years. You proved it when your father died, and you're proving it again now."
"It's a trait I learned form an old friend," I said, smiling sadly at him. "Even though he bore a terrible curse, he was strong enough to try and make sure the people he cared about were happy."
He smiled at me again, and then Neville pointed at a group of people in the brain room. Luna was on the floor, groaning; Ginny was sitting down and gently cradling one of her ankles; Ron was giggling feebly and had painful looking marks on his arms and neck; Hermione was unconscious and appeared to have been that way for some time.
"Riley, where you crying?" Ginny asked, looking concerned. "Where did Lupin come from?"
"Sirius... Siri--" I swallowed before continuing. "Sirius is dead. Bellatrix killed him."
"We were alerted to what was going on, so we came here," Remus answered Ginny's second question. "Now tell me what happened to all of you." He knelt down by them, checking their injuries tenderly.
I turned away, going into a different room so I could cry in private. I wasn't a big fan of public scenes of emotion, so I cast a Silencing Charm before dissolving into a sobbing heap on the floor, my body shaking with the force of my cries. Sirius, daring, sweet, stupid Sirius was dead. Before long, Remus came and found me, scooping me up into a tight hug like I was a toddler and he was my father. I kept my eyes closed, not paying attention when we were all transported back to Hogwarts. We were in the Hospital Wing, where Madame Pomfrey was fussing over us. I still didn't open my eyes. I couldn't bring myself to face the reality of a world where Sirius was dead. I laid in my hospital bed, clinging tightly to the sheets. I heard footsteps approach and heard Ginny speak.
"Riley?" she asked softly. I could hear pain in her words, so I finally opened my eyes and moved over, making room for her to crawl into the bed by my side. "I'm sorry, Riley," she said softly. "I know how much he meant to you. It's unfair that important people in your life are always snatched away."
I sighed softly, staying quiet for a long time before I finally answered her. "At least I haven't lost everyone," I said in a quiet voice. "I still have my mom and Remus and everyone here. But Sirius was..." I trailed off, not even sure what to say.
"I know," she whispered sadly. "I wasn't as close to him as you were, but I still cared about him. He was a great man."
We laid in silence again, both of us staring at the ceiling, watching as light slowly crept across it with the rising of the sun. With the rising of the new day, I closed my eyes on the events of that night. I hoped that for a few hours, I would be able to forget what had happened. Curling close to each other like children in need of support, Ginny and I fell asleep as the dawn bloomed deceptively bright, as if no horrible events had just unfolded before my eyes mere hours before.