Having said all she could say, Gwen left Hogwarts the next day. She knew that whether or not she wanted to stay there was of little importance, it was simply the wrong place for her to be. Something in the vision told her that her place would be in France, for just now, for a little while. Ann needed her.
Graves packed up his bags and said goodbye as well. He had no desire to stay at Hogwarts any longer, not without Gwen. He transfigured himself just enough so no one would recognize him until he could learn exactly how to become an animagus. If Gwen could do it, he felt certain that he could as well. Of course he wouldn�t register, so that he could travel with Gwen as an animal, preferably a cat so he would blend in with Lucille, whom he had been caring for in Gwen�s absence.
They moved into a spare room in Ann�s tidy little house, attempting to share the feelings that had passed over them both for the last couple of days.
Gwen could hardly put into words what she had experienced and seen, the tiny glimpse she had of the future seemed like a gigantic puzzle she had to fit together. There was much about her own life intertwined with threads of others� lives and she had to weave them together so that she could see the whole picture. What she had described to Dumbledore had been scraps and pieces of information that didn�t seem unified, but he understood it far better than she supposed. He knew which way the wind was blowing and it was not blowing sweetly.
Graves could only tell her how fearful he felt during the dark time she spent in the infirmary alone, howling on the inside, silent on the surface. He had wanted so desperately to be there with her, but he had suffered the helplessness quietly, in a wooden chair, uncloaked and wearing his pain for all the world to see.
Over the space of two weeks they communicated delicately and as much as they felt they should, which is never nearly enough. Ann avoided these moments they shared with deft ability. She was a witch after all and simply being so had imparted to Ann a kind of empathic ability. She gave them the space they needed and little by little got to know and understand the man who had faked his death, and to better know the girl she called niece.