The Last Goodbye

We materialised through the barrier around The Burrow and we dropped to the ground. My body morphed back into my regular self, Harry's clothing more baggy than the clothing I would usually wear. I staggered a little after getting off the broom, but Tonks wasn't there to hold me up this time.

"Remus!" She cried and she ran into his arms. I tried to walk but fell to the ground in a heap, to exhausted to move.

"Hayley!" Fred shouted and he fell beside me. "Are you alright?"

"'M fine." I mumbled. "Just exhausted. Don't wanna... don't wanna get up." I felt Fred's hands fumbling under my back and knees and he lifted me up.

"Stunned one of the death eaters, straight in the head!" Tonks said excitedly. "When you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom, it's so hard! And she fought off You-Know-Who all by herself!"

"I wouldn't say-" I began.

"You did?" Fred asked, gazing down at me.

"Not really... I didn't... he left for someone else..." I breathed. "Where... where's George?" No one answered. Everyone looked down awkwardly. "Where is he, Fred?" I demanded, but he still didn't answer. I rolled out of Fred's arms and felt a burst of adrenaline, worrying about George's safety. I stumbled inside and George lay on a couch, his head covered in blood. I fell beside him, my hand on his face. "Georgie, what happened? Please talk to me." Fred appeared at my side.

"He lost an ear." Fred whispered.

"I can see that." I panted sarcastically, my adrenaline disappearing now that I could see he was going to be okay.

"Snape." George said. "Cursed it off." I leaned closer to look at the empty hole where his ear used to be.

"That cockroach." I hissed, brushing my finger carefully near the hole and the blood.

I leaned back against the table, getting more and more exhausted by the minute. I heard a thestral outside but I wanted to keep by George's side. Bill and Fleur and some others entered, their faces crestfallen.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked, scanning their faces. "What happened? Who's-?"

"Mad-Eye." Mr. Weasley said. "Dead." I gasped.

Mad-Eye dead, it couldn't be... Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor. I almost fell into Fred's arms in both shock and exhaustion. I began silently crying into his chest, but it could be because I was so tired and frustrated.

"Here." Bill said, and with a wave of his wand he sent glasses soaring through the room to each of us, holding the fourteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye."

"Mad-Eye." We echoed and drank.

"Mad-Eye." Hagrid echoed, a little late, with a hiccough.

The Firewhisky seared in my throat for a moment, then relaxed. I was fairly good at taking back drinks. It seemed to burn the feeling back into me, dispelling the numbness and sense of unreality firing me with something that was like courage.