Death… it connects people.
He didn't realise that until that day.
It was a sorrowful, eye-opening experience, one that he didn't want to live through again.
'That's just wishful thinking,' he thought, knowing that there would be plenty of other funerals to attend.
And he would have to attend to a lot of them, whether it'd be his friends' parents dying, or even the friends themselves…
'Is this something people wish for? To die before their loved ones did.
Was that not selfish though?
'It probably is.'
And then there was the family of the deceased one…
How could one begin to express how sorry they felt for the now broken people who still lived?
Definitely not by saying something as simple as 'My condolences', right?
What good could some fancy words do for a person in such pain?
'So what should I do? I can't even look straight at their faces, it makes me want to cry. Should I look then, regardless of whether I cry?'
'I don't know what to do…'
In the end, the young man simply paid his respects during the ceremony and kept an eye on his friends…
He also, for the first time in a long while, prayed that there was an afterlife.
After the body was buried, the young man took a long walk, heading to the family's house.
'Should I go? I probably won't know anyone in there except the family... I can't not go though,' he pondered while on his walk.
He concluded that he simply had to at least pass by—it was his responsibility to do so—and pay his respects personally, even if they were quick.
And that was exactly what he did.
He passed by people he didn't know and entered the house.
The young man immediately noticed his friend's mum and went to hug her, before moving away, leaving her with her relatives.
He then moved to walk upstairs and stumbled upon his friend's brother while climbing the stairs.
He didn't know what to say.
The person in front of him looked so close and yet so far away from him.
The young man did all he could…
He climbed another step and hugged the other boy, because there were simply no words that could express his feelings, the empathy and sadness he felt for him.
After a short while, they broke the hug and proceeded to have a small, and understandably awkward small talk.
The young man departed shortly after, leaving the other boy alongside his family, not knowing if the other boy understood how he felt.
.
After reading this small chapter, I'd guess you are confused, and rightly so.
To make this short, my best friend's father suddenly died the day I wrote this chapter (not published).
It was the first funeral I've ever attended and as you can see, it had an impact on me.
There are some inconsistencies with the people in the chapter because I wrote about what really happened to me that day, not Harry.
I tried leaving the details off and making the interpretation ambiguous so that it could be mistaken for Harry's point of view after Ron's death.
I know it's not perfect, but if you don't think too much about it, I'd say it gets the job done.
Now that is probably 'unprofessional' and possibly not right, but oh well.
I felt like writing this and I did.
That's all.
For all it's worth, I'm sorry if you didn't like the chapter.