Sara's adventure -Part II contd...

Seven of them seated in the table looked at each other unsmilingly. Before Alisis could open his mouth, two short skinny figures appeared through the doorway.

“Elves?” I was shocked.

“Aw, yes. They are Rosie and Pinky. They would help you out in this house while you are here. The delicious food we had some time back were their specialities.”

“What??? Elves are slaves yet?” I turned to Hermoine questioningly. She smiled before she could answer. “No Sara, you are mistaken. Elves are no longer slaves to wizards and witches. They have been given freedom. A law has been passed to protect the interests of elves and any wizard or witch harming or enslaving the elves would be punished. Elves and wizards live in peace now. Rosie and Pinky have offered voluntarily to help you out.”

I understood that she was right as I saw them neatly dressed in short skirts and blouses. They smiled at me, instead of bowing their heads to the wizards in the room.

“Hi, Rosie, Hi Pinky, Thank you.” I gave them a warm smile.

They nodded their heads in acknowledgement before they left the room quietly.

“You have done a great job, Hermoine. You must have struggled a lot to free those poor creatures.”

“Not exactly, Sara. People’s mindset changed a lot after the Battle of Hogwarts. You know how wizards, witches, children, old, elves, goblins, hippogriffs, thestrals, centaurs and every other magical creature joined hands in bringing down Voldemort and his death eaters. Wizards could not have won over the dark lord without the other magical creatures’ help and that fall of the dark forces brought about the change in minds of wizards and paved the way to treat other creatures alike with love and care.”

“Still, you must have played a very important role in enforcing the law to protect their interests. Guess, Harry and Ron would have stood beside you as always. Where is Ron? I have not met him yet.”

The room went silent. No one spoke. I looked at Harry, and then at Hermoine. I was taken aback on seeing her. Tears flowed out of her eyes. She started sobbing, and quickly ran out of the room. I turned to Harry, “What happened, Harry? Did I ask something wrong? Did I hurt her? “

Harry twisted in his seat uncomfortably and he turned to face me. He seemed to reliving a painful moment of his life, before he opened his mouth.

“Ron.. Ron is not here”

“Oh! Oh, where has he gone? But why did Hermoine cry? What’s wrong, Harry?”

“He is no more…..”

“What????”

Harry nodded his head quietly.

“He is not alive, is that what you meant, Harry?”

“Yes.”

I stared at them as I understood Hermoine’s pain on my question. I looked at Harry expecting him to say that he didn’t mean what I had understood. But he remained silent looking at me. Though his eyes were on me, it seemed as if he was recollecting the moment when he lost his best friend of life.

“But how…..?” I whispered.

“He died a gallant death.” Harry’s voice came out proudly. “He sacrificed his own life for saving innocent lives from an evil wizard.”

I gaped at him speechless, wanting him to tell me the entire story.

He understood and went on. “He killed Finnacle Lestrange. He fought with one of the darkest, most cruel wizard after Voldemort’s time. He slayed that monster who was killing innocent muggles for the sake of fun. He destroyed his entire army of ten death eaters before his breath was silenced by Fectis Lestrange, before I could shield him from the advancing death spell, before Hermoine could come running to protect him…….. “

His voice trailed away.

I could feel tears hiding Harry from my view. I could visualize Ron falling, falling amongst ten dead evil ones, could see Hermoine running to save him from his fall, could imagine Harry killing Fectis the very same moment to revenge, Yet. It was all over. Ron is dead. Ronald Weasley is dead.

Tears dropped from my eyes. Alisis, sitting beside me brought his hand forward and caught my tears.

“This is why we need you, Sara. “