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  ely for kd of loophole, way that dubledore would e back he felt his pocket for the ld cha of the fake horcrux, which he now carried with hi everywhere, not as a talisan, but as a reder of what it had st and what reaed still to do
  harry rose early to pack the next day the hogwarts express would be leavg an hour after the funeral down-stairs he found the ood the great hall subdued every-body was wearg their dress robes and no one seed very hungry profesr cgonagall had left the thronelike chair the iddle of the staff table epty hagrid39s chair was des-erted too: harry thought thai perhaps he had not been able to face
  eakfast but snape39s pce had been uncereonioly filled by ruf scriour harry avoided his yellowish eyes as they scanned the hall harry had the unfortable feelg that scriour was lookg for hi aong scriour39s entoura harry spotted the red hair and horn-rid gsses of percy weasley ron gave no sign that he was aware of percy, apart fro stabbg pieces of kipper with unwonted veno
  over at the slyther table crabbe and goyle were utter-
  g tother hulkg boys though they were, they looked
  oddly lonely without the tall, pale figure of alfoy beeen
  the, bossg the around harry had not spared alfoy
  uch thought his aniosity was all for snape, but he had
  not fotten the fear alfoy39s voice on that tower , nor
  the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other death
  eaters arrived harry did not believe that alfoy would have
  killed dubledore he despised alfoy still for his fatu-
  ation with the dark arts, but now the tiest drop of pity
  gled with his dislike where, harry wondered, was alfoy
  now, and what was voldeort akg hi do under threat of
  killg hi and his parents? ? ???
  harry39s thoughts were terrupted by a nud the ribs fro gny profesr cgonagall had risen to her feet and the ournful hu the hall died away at once
  39it is nearly ti,39 she said 39please follow your heads of hoe out to the grounds gryffdors, after 39
  they filed out fro behd their benches near silence harry glipsed sghorn at the head of the slyther n, wearg agnificent long erald-green robes e
  oidered with silver he had never seen profesr sprout, head of the hufflepuffs, lookg clean there was not a sgle patch on her hat, and when they reached the entrance hall, they found ada pce standg beside filch, she a thick bck veil that fell to her knees, he an ancient bck suit and tie reek-g of othbails
  they were headg, as harry saw when he stepped out on to the stone steps fro the front doors, towards the ke the warth of the sun caressed his face as they followed profesr cgonagall silence to the pce where hundreds of chairs had been set out rows an aisle ran down the centre of the: there was a arble table standg at the front, all chairs facg it it was the ost beautiful sur39s day
  an extraordary asrtnt of people had already settled to half of the chairs: shabby and sart, old and young ost harry did not regnise, but there were a few that he did, cdg bers of the order of the phoenix: kgsley shacklebolt, ad-eye oody, tonks, her hair iraculoly returned to vividest pk, re p, with who she seed to be holdg hands, r and rs weasley, bill sup-ported by fleur and followed by fred and e, who were wearg jackets of bck dragonsk then there was ada axi, who took up o-and-a-half chairs on her own, to, the ndlord of the leaky cauldron, arabel , harry39s sib neighbour, the hairy bass pyer fro the
  wizardg group the weird bisters, hrnie frang, dnver ol the knight b, ada alk, of the robe shop diagon alley, and people who harry rely knew by sight, such as the baran of the hog39s head and the witch who phed the trolley on the hogwarts express the castle ghosts were there too, barely visible the
  ight sunlight, discernible only when they oved, shirg substantially the gleag air
  harry, ron, herione and gny filed to seats at the end of a row beside the ke people were whisperg to each other it unded like a
  eeze the grass, but the birdng was louder by far the crowd ntued to swell with a great rh of affection for both of the, harry saw neville beg helped to a seat by na they alone of all the da had responded to herione39s suons the night that dubledore had died, and harry knew why: they were the ones who had issed the da ost probably the ones who had checked their s regurly the hope that there would be another etg
  rneli fud walked past the towards the fr