Well this is the last chapter of Simplicity and I'm really sad to say that. But I still have hopes for the sequel! :)

So for one last time in this story, I would like to thank; xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, L.A.H.H, vampire-angel1996, Kimboolinaa, xXxCastielxXx, MissLorraineScarlet, Annamarie, hardestofhearts, and daisyrose22 for reviewing last chapter! Means the world!

And thank you to all the ones that added this story to their favorites and their alerts. :)

Disclaimer: "If I ruled the world, I'd plant flowers." Hehe, 10 points if you know where that's from. The point is, I'm just a visitor. Please thank JK Rowling for building this world for us to play in!

All lessons were suspended, all examinations postponed. Some students were hurried away from Hogwarts by their parents over the next couple of days-the Patil twins were gone before breckfast on the morning following Dumbledore's death and Zacharias Smith was escorted from the castle by his haughty-looking father. Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused pointblank to accompany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the Entrance Hall which was resolved when she agree that he could remain behind for the funeral.

Some excitement was caused among the younger students, who had never seen it before, when a powder-blue carriage the size of a house, pulled by a dozen giant winged palominos, came soaring out of the sky in the late afternoon before the funeral and landed on the edge of the Forest. Angeline watched from a window as a gigantic and handsome olive-skinned, black-haired woman descended the carriage steps and threw herself into the waiting Hagrid's arms. Meanwhile a delegation of Ministry officials, including the Minster of Magic himself, was being accommodated within the castle.

Angeline was spending a lot of her time alone, away from anyone that wanted to know what she was doing out of bed when it happened. Away from everyone and everything. Well, with the exception with Blaise, she'd sit with him on short occasions, neither ever saying a word before she would get up and go some place else. Usually outdoors, just as she was now. The beautiful weather seemed to mock her. She was miserable and well, she'd much rather the weather matched her mood.

"Cheer up, Jensen," Angeline looked up from her place on the ground at Blaise. He was holding what looked like the Evening Prophet in his hands. "You managed to send one Death Eater to Azkaban, and you still have your health." Angeline looked back out at the lake.

"Yeah, right," she said absently. Blaise sighed and stayed standing.

"Well I tried," he said.

"Thanks," she mumbled as she looked up at him again. "Anything interesting in the Prophet?" she asked. She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to hear.

"Not really. They're still looking for Snape, but no sign of him or..."

"Twenty galleons says he's right under their nose," Angeline said cutting him off. Blaise scoffed.

"Like I would bet against that. The blokes at the Ministry aren't the brightest bunch are they? Besides you still owe me from our last bet," Blaise said. Angeline smiled slightly.

"Should have known better, Zabini," she said.

"I suppose you're right," Blaise sighed for the second time and dropped the Prophet down beside her. "If you're done having a pity party for one, it's time for dinner," Angeline's eyes narrowed slightly before she grabbed the Prophet as she stood up.

"I wasn't having a pity party you prick," She said walking past him, but she didn't miss his smirk.

"Whatever you say, Jensen," He said as he followed behind her.

Angeline rose early to pack the next day; the Hogwarts Express would be leaving an hour after the funeral. Down-stairs he found the mood in the Great Hall subdued. Everybody was wearing their dress robes and no one seemed very hungry. Professor McGonagall had left the throne-like chair in the middle of the staff table empty. Hagrid's chair was deserted too. Angeline thought that perhaps he had not been able to face breakfast; but Snape's place had been unceremoniously filled by Rufus Scrimgeour. The Minster of Magic's yellowish eyes scanned the Hall as though looking for someone, Angeline figured he was looking for Harry Potter. A look at the Gryffindor table showed she was probably right, as Harry avoided looking at the man.

At her own table, it was just as quiet, she supposed maybe her House cared a lot more than they put out. A little ways down from her, Crabbe and Goyle were muttering together. Hulking boys though they were, they looked oddly lonely without the tall, pale figure of Draco Malfoy between them, bossing them around. As much as Angeline tried to keep her thoughts from going to Draco, it seemed inevitable. She was ecstatic to know that he was no murderer after all, but why didn't he just say he didn't do it? Why did he make her believe he did it?

It doesn't matter. He doesn't matter anymore.

But there were still moments when she wondered where he was and if he was all right. If he was alive...

Angeline's thoughts were interrupted by a nudge in her ribs from Blaise. Professor McGonagall had risen to her feet and the mournful hum in the Hall died at once.

"It is nearly time," she said. "Please follow your Head of House out into the ground. Gryffindors, after me."

Slughorn had stood before them as they all lined up in their row, he was wearing magnificent long emerald-green robes embroidered with silver. Looking at the Hufflepuffs, she had never seen Professor Sprout, Head of the Hufflepuffs, looking so clean; there was not a single patch on her hat, and when they reached the Entrance Hall, they found Madam Pince standing beside Filch, she in a thick black veil that fell to her knee, he in an ancient black suit and tie reeking of mothballs.

They were heading, as Angeline saw when she stepped out on the stone steps from the front doors, towards the lake. The warmth of the sun caressed her face as they followed Professor McGonagall in silence to the place where hundreds of chairs had been set out in rows. An aisle ran down the center of them, where there was a marble table standing at the front, all chairs facing it. It was the most beautiful summer's day.

An extraordinary assortment of people had already settle into half of the chairs: shabby and smart, old and young. Most Angeline did not recognize, but there were a few that she did, there was Kingsley Shacklebolt, a man her father despised, the real Mad-Eye Moody, Remus Lupin, Mr and Mrs Weasley with their oldest son whom she had just learned was Bill supported by his soon to be wife Fleur Delacour, whom she had spoken to numerous times when she had been in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and just behind them was Fred and George Weasley. Then there was Madame Maxime, who took up two-and-a-half chairs on her own, Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron, the hairy bass player from the Weird Sisters, the driver of the Knight Bus, Madam Malkin from the robe shop in Diagon Alley, and some other people Angeline only knew by sight. The barman of the Hog's Head and the witch who pushed the trolley on the Hogwarts Express. The castle ghosts were there too, barely visible in the bright sunlight, discernible only when they moved, shimmering insubstantially in the gleaming air.

Angeline and Blaise filed into seats at the end of a row beside the lake. People were whispering to each other; it sounded like a breeze in the grass, but the birdsong was louder by far. The crowd continued to swell.

Cornelius Fudge walked past them towards the front rows, his expression miserable, twirling his green bowler hat; Angeline recognized Rita Skeeter, clutching in her hands a notebook, and just beyond her she saw Dolores Umbridge, the worst professor Hogwarts had ever seen, and that was counting Lockhart. He never tried to take over Dumbledore's job. Umbridge wore an unconvincing expression of grief on her toad-like face, a black velvet bow at atop her iron-colored curls.

"Disgusting woman," Angeline snarled. Blaise looked in Umbridge's direction.

"She's ugly and she'll die alone..." Blaise said looking at Angeline. "Do you think it's too late to make it a double funeral?"

"I believe that would be an insult to Professor Dumbledore," Angeline replied facing forward.

The staff were seated at last, Angeline could see Scrimgeour looking grave and dignified in the front row with Professor McGonagall. She wondered whether any of these important people were really sorry that Dumbledore was dead. There was no secret that they didn't like the way Dumbledore ran the school. Her musing were cut short by singing, she turned her head around looking for the source of it. She wasn't the only one, many head were turning, searching, a little alarmed.

But then she saw them, in the clear green sunlit water, inches below the surface, a chorus of merpeople singing in a strange language she did not understand, their pallid faces rippling, their purplish hair flowing all around them. The music made the hair on Angeline's neck stand up and yet it was not unpleasant. It spoke very clearly of loss and despair. As she looked down into the wild faces of the singers she had the feeling that they, at least, were sorry for Dumbledore's passing. Then Blaise nudged her again and she looked round.

Hagrid was walking slowly up the aisle between chairs. He was crying quite silently, his face gleaming with tears, and in his arms, wrapped in purple velvet spangled with golden stars, was what Angeline knew to be Dumbledore's body. Angeline felt her body go cold despite the warmth of the day.

From where they sat they could not see clearly what was happening at the front. Hagrid seemed to have placed the body carefully upon the table. Now he retreated down the aisle blowing his nose with loud trumpeting noises that drew scandalized looks from some. But Angeline didn't care, it was a time for mourning.

The music had stopped and she turned to face the front again.

A little tufty-haired man in plain black robes had got to his feet and stood now in front of Dumbledore's body. Angeline could not hear what he was saying. Odd words floated back to them over hundreds of heads. 'Nobility of spirit'...'intellectual contribution'...greatness of heart'...it did not mean very much to state what people could read about. Why not speak of Dumbledore's eccentricity? Something people knew only if they were in his presence. And at that moment she was reminded of her very first Hogwarts feast and four words played through her head; 'nitwit', 'oddment', 'blubber' and 'tweak', Angeline had to suppress the smile that was making it's way slowly onto her face.

Angeline looked out over the lake as, the merpeople had broken the surface to listen, out toward the Forest the centaurs had come to pay their respects, too.

Angeline suddenly realized just how respected, Dumbledore was, just how important he was to all of them. In her six years of attending the school she had only talked to him once. She had been out of bed back in her first year and she had gotten lost when she had come upon the Headmaster.

When he had saw her, he hadn't been mad instead he smiled and patted her on the head and said with a twinkle in his blue eyes; "Ambition and cunning aren't terrible things if they come in the right amounts, Miss Jensen...Would you care for a lemon drop?"

Angeline shook her head as the little man in black had stopped speaking at last and resumed his seat. Angeline waited for somebody else to get to their feet; she expected speeches, probably from the Minister, but nobody moved.

Then several people screamed. Bright, white flames had erupted around Dumbledore's body and the table upon which it lay; higher and higher they rose obscuring the body. White smoke spiraled into the air and made strange shapes; Angeline thought for one heart-stopping moment, that she saw a phoenix fly joyfully into the blue, but next second the fire had vanished. In its place was a white marble tomb encasing Dumbledore's body and the table on which he had rested.

There were a few cried of shock as a shower of arrows soared through the air, but they fell far short of the crowd. It was, Angeline knew, the centaurs' tribute; she saw them turn tail and disappear back into the cool trees. Likewise the merpeople sank slowly back into the green water and were lost from view.

Angeline looked around at her fellow schoolmates, all of which looked as though the world was some how less bright, even Pansy Parkinson looked as though she had a soul after all. People were beginning to stand and conversation was starting to grow louder as they started to disperse across the grounds.

Standing herself, Angeline walked to the edge of the Great Lake, the soft waves hitting the shoreline.

"Kind of strange don't you think?" Angeline asked as Blaise came to stand beside her.

"What is?" He asked.

"Everything," she said.

"That was very specific, Jensen," Blaise said sarcastically kicking at a rock. Angeline rolled her eyes and looked up at him.

"It's just that I never knew I would be standing here...at the funeral of our Headmaster because—" Angeline cut herself off short.

"Your boyfriend was a slime ball Death Eater?" Blaise suggested.

"Malfoy isn't my boyfriend," Angeline snapped.

"Well, obviously not anymore," Blaise said. Angeline glared at him.

"Malfoy is not my boyfriend nor was he ever," Angeline said. "We weren't even friends," she added quietly.

"That's because you were more than friends," Blaise stated as though it was fact. Angeline ran a hand through her hair out of frustration. Blaise was so infuriating.

"Whatever," She finally said. "My point is we've never had a normal year at Hogwarts..."

"That is the normal when you think about it," Blaise responded. "First year, Potter and company saves some stone. Second year, Potter battles a basilisk. Our third year, Sirius Black enters the castle. Fourth year, the death of Cedric Diggory. Last year, complete anarchy if you ask me. And now, this year. On second thought, maybe our problem is Potter..."

Angeline shrugged. "He could have something to do with it. At least we've never had a boring year."

"Think the school will open in the fall?" Blaise asked suddenly. Angeline looked at him curiously.

"Probably," she said. "Hogwarts is one school to be reckoned with...But we'll have to get through the summer first."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Blaise asked. "You've got a target on your back. I don't even know why I bother speaking to you. Blood traitor and all." Angeline shrugged. She'd thought about packing all her things and running away, but to her running away wasn't an option anymore. So she was going to do the only thing she could do.

"Annoy my parents naturally," she said. "My presence alone will do most of the work."

"Well," Blaise said looking out at the Lake. "You have fun with that," Blaise said.

"I plan to," Angeline said with a small smirk. "We should probably get going, wouldn't want to miss the train home." Angeline turned to head toward the gates and make the walk to the Hogsmeade Train station. But she didn't get far.

"Angeline," Blaise called. Turning around to look at him, Blaise pulled something from his pocket and threw it at her as he said, "Catch." Snatching the glittering necklace out of the air, Angeline stared at the pendant necklace she had yanked from her neck only a few days ago. A necklace she didn't want. Not now. Not ever. "You'll regret not having that one day," he said as he walked past her. "Enjoy your holiday," he called back to her.

Angeline watched, Blaise walk away for a moment before she looked back down at the necklace in her hand. Turning the pendent a few times in her hands she was tempted to walk back toward the lake and throw it in, but she couldn't get herself to do it.

Instead she stuffed it into her pocket. She'd never use it to speak to Draco, but she'd keep it, because there was still this small part of her that believed in him...no matter how much she stated she hated him...maybe one day she'll be able to speak to him again. Maybe one day she'd understand him, but today wouldn't be that day.

Oh my Rowling!

It's the end of this chapter! And the end of this story! Can you believe it? I surely can't.

There wasn't any Draco POV in this, but I felt like it would be repetition of the one shot I wrote called I'm Too Young. Don't fret though, first chapter of the sequel belongs to our favorite Blonde. :)

Anyway! I cannot thank you all enough on how wonderful you all are! I want to thank you all for standing by me! Without your support this story really couldn't have happened. :) I have two things waiting for you, if you visit my profile you will find a link to the banner to the sequel and the link to the trailer. They will be labeled as Clandestine. I hope you all like them!

So without further ado, I leave you. But before I do, I must ask you one last time (until the sequel that is), would you mind leaving me a review?

All of you take care! I'll miss Simplicity, but I'm excited about Clandestine! :)

Until then!

Stay wonderful. Stay awesome. Stay...you. :)

Much love,
TwistedRaver ^_^