Potterwatch: 8 June 1998, Mid-Afternoon
There was no static. The signal was not pirated or hidden between airwaves. There was no white noise, no need for a password. Across England, every wizarding radio station suddenly cut out, and was, just as suddenly, replaced with a voice, familiar to some, clearing his throat quietly and then beginning.
“Last night at approximately eleven in the evening, Harry Potter, hero of our wizarding age, gave his life in the final defeat of Lord Voldemort, ending a battle at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry which claimed the lives of far too many.”
There was a pause to let the news sink in. No sounds of celebration, no congratulatory messages, only a grim sort of hope behind the voice as the speaker began again.
“It’s hard to think of what to say now: So many things lost, but the battle won.
There’s a muggle poem, “In Flander’s Field”, from the voices of dead soldiers calling out for their torch to be picked up, for the battle to go on so that they didn’t die in vain. I suspect that there will be a lot of confusion, a lot of regret in the coming weeks and months. If there’s a message to be found in this broadcast, it’s this – Live. Now that we have the chance, now that things have no choice but to change. Live, and forgive, and be happy. “
Another short pause, and then a chorus of quiet voices spoke up, the responding poem like a chant though it was obvious that some of the voices broke away in tears as it went on.
"Rest ye in peace, ye heroes dead The fight that you so bravely led We've taken up. And we will keep True faith with you who lie asleep, With each a cross to mark his bed, And poppies blowing overhead, When once his own life-blood ran red So let your rest be sweet and deep…
Fear not that ye have died for naught; The torch ye threw to us, we caught, Ten million hands will hold it high, And freedom's light shall never die! We've learned the lesson that ye taught."
For a moment afterward, there was nothing but silence across the airwaves. Then, regularly scheduled programming, and the promise of a new world.