[VP] Post-Dumbledore.
Scribbld loads REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY painfully slow for me, so I'm sorry I don't update more. :/
Anyway, here's how my kids are handling Dumbledore's death over at VP:
Lavender: Unsurprisingly, Lavender's a mess. She was never as fond of Dumbledore as the Trio were, but she was a Gryffindor, and she always thought that even though he was a little off his rocker, Dumbledore was a magnificent headmaster. Her parents loved him, and her brother too, which was a huge influence on how she felt towards the Headmaster. I have no idea whether the whole thing with Trelawney almost getting kicked out actually happened in VP-verse, but if it did, Dumbledore comforting and helping her favorite professor would have only solidified just how much he rocked. She's also one of those people that feels things very acutely: when she's mad, she's REALLY MAD, when she's happy, she's REALLY HAPPY, and etc. Mostly with negative emotions. As such, she's been having varying fits of depression and rage, both completely impotent, since the announcement. Things have been thrown across her dorm, and she's probably collasped in a hyperventilating fit after raging at Parvati about why it's not fair, and how Draco should be shot himself, etc. Fortunately, that's only part of the time, and she's used what semblance of repose she has left to try and comfort the younger years, and especially her friends. It's as much for her own sake that she seeks them out, but she's been very much into hugging and cuddling and sitting with people. Her usual core group has probably seen the most of her (Matty, Parvati, Cam, Jack, and likely Daphne too), though she's definitely made an effort to reach out to the Trio--especially Ron--and the younger years. She also hasn't been sleeping well, or very much at all, and spends half the time down in the common room until she just passes out from exhaustion on a couch or chair. She's really, really unsure what to do with herself.
PP: PP is shockingly somber. I hadn't expected him to be so affected, to be honest, but there you have it. The capitals are gone, the supercilious pomposity is gone--he's actually being really responsible and concerned for everyone, even people outside his own house. He thought Dumbledore was an old duffer for the most part, but he couldn't deny the man's ability to govern a school and the longlasting effects he had on it. He never, ever wanted Dumbledore to be killed, no matter his (admittedly waning, in light of recent events) support for Riddle, and the fact that it was done by a Slytherin--by a Slytherin
younger than himself--just shakes PP right down to the core. He still can't quite believe Draco actually did it, and it's making him eye some his housemates askance. Ambition and selfishness are all well and good, but murder is not actually on his list of things to achieve during college. He's staying off the networks for the most part, except to offer condolences and thank-you's to those who put things better than him, and he's spending the majority of his time comforting Daphne and the younger years, and making sure the other Inquisitorial Squad and authority figures have what they need to cope. This is probably the most concerned and level-headed PP will ever be. He deals remarkably well with crisis.
Sadly, and most interestingly, I think this is the event that will actually make it ok in his mind for him to commit murder later. If Dumbledore can be killed by a simple gun, it's hardly a weapon to fear; and as long as he isn't getting his own hands dirty, murder can be just another stepping stone to his eventual rise to power. I am so dead serious when I say he's going to be a crime lord. It's...vaguely terrifying.
