~ Astoria's Poem ~

I had such a fright upon seeing that clown.
How I wish that they would not make me frown.
The experience makes the atmosphere tragic.
Please make me feel better and use a little magic.

~ by animebabe55

Several wonderful people offered up takes on the poem Astoria gives to Narcissa at the Easter Ball. Most were in the reviews so you can read them there but animebabe55 sent hers via PM and I asked her if I might share it and she graciously granted me permission to do so.

~ FAQs ~

A handful of questions get asked over and over again and I'm going to be very pathetic and simply put the answers to them here.

What does 'FL+AB' mean?

Neville carves his parents initials in the 'Bellatrix' tree so 'Frank Longbottom + Alice [some maiden name that starts with B]'. Alice Longbottom does not have a canonical maiden name.

What does Hermione whisper to Dumbledore?

She tells him what she intends to do but that both he and Harry Potter have to die for the plan to work.

Is Harry still alive?

No. Lord Voldemort incinerated his body. Harry is not just tired out following a long squawk. He has expired. He is no more. He is bereft of life. He is, if you'll forgive me, an ex-parrot.

What are the trees?

They represent all the people Hermione and Neville killed. If there was a known wand wood for a character, I used that so Dumbledore is represented by an elder tree, Bellatrix by a walnut tree and Tom Riddle by a yew tree. The trees twining around each other represent the Carrow twins and the tree twining around nothing represents Fred, the single deceased twin; the ash tree represents Fenrir as ash trees are connected to werewolves in folklore.

Are you going to do a sequel?

Probably not, no. I won't swear my brain will never spit out a random one-shot in this universe but certainly no more giant epics.