Date: June 9, 2001
Time: 4:30 PM
Place: Spinner's End, upstairs in Mandy's room
Character(s) Involved: June, OPEN to any Spinner's End residents OR visitors (well-meaning or otherwise) who'd like to come find her up there.
Rating: PG to start
(
There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief. ~ Aeschylus )
Comments 11
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"Charlotte..." Her voice was heavy, and her automatic attempt at a smile fell flat. It was too hard to dredge one up. Drawing the pages a little closer to herself, she shook her head slightly. "No, it's all right. I'll... I'll do it. Thanks..."
An awkward silence fell. June stared at the words she'd written, not seeing them, unable to raise her eyes to her friend's. What else was there to say? Mandy was dead. The world had stopped in its tracks. Spinner's End was steeped in shock and grief. And Charlotte was newly married and expecting a baby. She shouldn't be here - it couldn't be good for the baby to be around so much sadness ( ... )
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She tucked Mandy's blanket in closer to June for a moment, thinking about when she had made it, sunny bright colors for a young person. "It won't be the last thing you can do for her, June." she said, quietly, not wanting to minimize her grief.
"This is just the first of many things you will do for her." she assured her, "This is just the first thing that you will do in her honor."
She moved to touch June's hand, "She's still with you."
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Never had he witnessed or experienced a death in a situation where he was not only allowed to grieve, but actually expected to do so.
He neither wanted nor welcomed this 'permission'. He didn't want anyone to see him in a state of weakness. He hated that he had come to such a place that the weakness existedFrom the moment the house-elves arrived, yesterday, Severus had been avoiding all unnecessary sentient-being-contact as much as possible. Remus, he clung to with desperate, miserable intensity in the dark solitude of their own room, late at night, though he hadn't experienced anything which felt like 'restful' slumber or even a few hours of blessed oblivion. What sleep did overtake him was invariably haunted by the continual replay of Mandy's last moments, only his subconscious repeated, over and over, in a voice ( ... )
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Her shy, blushing uncertainty and embarrassment when he'd grilled McLaggen like an over-protective father and then gave her a robe to take for a cover-up since she was going swimming - complete with a contraceptive potion in the pocket. He'd been alarmingly relieved when he'd found it later, when she returned his dressing-gown, completely unused.
Giggles pealed forth from his memory, clear and crisp like a bubbling mountain stream as she pointed with June to the ridiculously purple bow she'd pulled from a package and stuck to the top of his head ( ... )
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"I know. I know, but... what good is any of it? I couldn't..." The words caught in her throat. I couldn't save her. She needed me and all I could do was... watch. No matter that they had done everything they could. No matter that, regardless of how she wracked her brain now, she still couldn't think of a single other thing they could have tried that might have prevented Mandy's death. June believed in the essential fairness of the universe. She believed that there was very little a person couldn't accomplish if they were willing to do whatever it took. No setback that couldn't be overcome with determination.
It wasn't fair that, with so many people doing everything in their power to save Mandy, they should have been so helpless. It wasn't right. She ( ... )
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