A/N: Just a small drabble.

"Oh, this is so horrible and yet.. I just-"

"Yes, it is simply dreadful news."

"But what can be done, sir?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid."

He's afraid, too. He's very afraid. The whispered, anxious voices traveled to him as though they were the screamed words of a very distant Howler. He stayed still, stoically still. He'd learned at a young ago how to deal with loss.

"But certainly with something so tragic-"

"Nothing can be done, my dear."

Nothing could be done; the man was correct. Nothing would ever make these circumstances seem any less than dreadful. Nothing could repair the damage: not even the good that came of it. Nothing would be the same.

"Everyone's talking.. Will The Boy know?"

"Yes, when the time is right."

Yes, he would know. He would carry the knowledge around for the rest of his life, as would everyone else. Everyone knows, how could he not?

"And..well,.."

"Yes..?"

"..and the others, do they know yet?"

The others. The words made him sick. The others implied the ones left. The others meant the two not responsible or lost. Though, he certainly felt lost.

"Ah, yes. They know."

Yes, they did know. They always had believed they knew it all. Sometimes, he understood now, they didn't.

"How is the family holding up, sir?"

"Hardly any family left to hold up, I'm very sad to say."

Very sad, indeed. The family, he realized, was affected by these times as harshly as others had been, maybe more so. His family had just suffered a loss, too; he supposed families never band out like he believed they would.

"..can The Boy stay here?"

"No, he will fair better away from here, I do think."

He thinks so, too. The Boy is young: He wouldn't understand. He doesn't understand.

"Yes, yes.. I agree."

"Anything else, my dear?"

"No, I just- but, oh, this is so senseless! Why Lily and James?"

He had to remember to take a breath. He knew. He knew, and yet, he wanted to know, too. A deep weight dropped to his stomach, and his eyes burned with unshed tears. Why Lily and James? Why Harry? Why Sirius? Why now? And why did tragedies always seem to follow him?