Chapter 10
Molly had everything she thought she could laid out on the table around her. Bandages, healing potions of various types, draughts, her wand. Fleur was by her side, ready to help with whatever was necessary and Molly appreciated knowing that help was nearby should she need it. No one, not a single member of the Order or resident of Shell Cottage, knew what sort of condition Rebecca would be in when returned.
Fred paced up and down the length of the kitchen, keeping his eyes turned towards the wood panels of the floor. He traced their grains and let his mind wander while he did so.
"Fred?" Molly called gently, repeating herself. "Love, we don't know the state of-"
"I'm not leaving." Fred paused and looked to his mother, exhaustion and tension clear as ever. "I'm not."
Remus stayed where he leaned against the door to the garden out front where the others had returned to Malfoy Manor. He wasn't going to get between Fred again, not when so many brawls had broken out through the week. "I think it might-"
"I'm going to be right here, I'm going to help. And if I can't help-" Fred shook his head. "I won't get in the way."
Arthur's head shot up at the crack of a nearby apparation. Sirius and Remus exited the cottage with their wands in front of them, both ready for the worst case scenario.
Harry and Hermione stood against one another, Rebecca limp in Harry's arms. There was so much evidence of violence across her, dried blood from angry cuts, bruises stretching across continents of her body, personified agony. Draco stood between Ron and Dobby, his shirt torn so that the inky darkness across his forearm was on display.
No one moved.
"DO YOU THINK THIS WILL STOP ME?" Voldemort roared in Harry and Rebecca's heads. Through the unconscious fog, Rebecca could see what Harry could--Voldemort cursing Scabior with crucio until he was limp and killed him as final punishment for allowing the two prisoners to escape.
Harry fell to the ground, covering Rebecca the best he could as their minds underwent the strain of intrusion.
"You have only delayed the inevitable. I will have you both."
The others knew when Voldemort retreated because Harry's body straightened and he was able to sit up with Rebecca in his arms still. Hermione murmured in his ear, guiding him back to his feet and into the house where Molly was directing them. Nothing made sense to his ears, not yet. All he could hear was the ringing of Scabior's screams for mercy.
"You, come too!" Molly called to Draco, who had remained by Dobby's side in the garden.
Fred was on the opposite side of Fleur, almost frozen.
"Lie her down." Molly said as she tried not to think about how similar this need to triage an unconscious Rebecca was to the first night she spent in the Burrow. "Fred! Help me help her or-Thank you."
"Her shoulder." Draco limped forward, ignoring the lingering stares and the still held wands of the Order members. "That's the-the first-the longest."
Fred helped sit Rebecca up and held her head still as Fleur cut down the ratty, crusted layers Rebecca wore. Arthur cleared the room of any non-helpers, leaving only Draco and the three travelers in the kitchen.
Molly peeled the layers of cloth back until she found the edge of the wound Draco referred to. When she discovered just how raw and unattended the remnant of Bellatrix's stab was, she took a sharp breath and steeled herself. "Gently, Fred..." Molly had Fred lean her forward slightly more, enough to see the wound under the light entirely. "Infection sanitatem."
Draco let out a breath of relief when the dark, red veins stretching out from the wound retreated. The injury itself may not have closed, not in the slightest, but that was to be expected. Rebecca had been feverish for days and Draco had suspected it was from infection.
Rebecca slunk away as the bandage with the poultice Fleur had prepared at Molly's direction was applied--the only sign of awareness so far.
Fleur moved between Fred and Molly as the two worked in partnership on the most dire of needs. Fleur lessened bruises and closed cuts where she could, leaving behind only faint scars of what had been endured.
"There is nothing more we can do for now." Molly leaned against the table, magically exhausted from the extent of the healing that had been needed. "The sleeping draught, Fleur."
"She-"
"She needs to sleep." Molly shook her head as Fred tried to argue that he could do more. "Proper, restful sleep."
Fred rest the back of Rebecca's head against his shoulder as she was sat back against his chest.
"Drink, dear." Molly tilted the vial back and watched as the effects took hold. "Dad's been clearing the bed down here."
Fred nodded and lifted Rebecca with more gentleness than Molly knew anyone could have managed. Harry followed close behind, needing to see her safe.
"Now, you." Molly speaking directly to Draco startled him. "Yes, you."
Draco shook his head. "I can wait, or even can go without." He could see how tired she was, and the adrenaline at being surrounded by people he suspected would rather see him dead, had Draco feeling the least amount of pain he had in days.
"Where does it hurt the most?" Molly ignored his attempt. "We'll start there."
Draco looked down and knew immediately that it would be his rib. The man, the one who asked him the questions, had broken it. He had readjusted his breathing to ease the pain, but there was only so much one could do. He tried to undo the buttons on his shirt, but his hands trembled.
Molly waited a moment before laying her hand on Draco's wrist. He wouldn't be able to get them himself, no matter how much time she gave him. As she helped him out of the shirt, Molly saw the layers of crisscrossed scars that marred his stomach. Thin scars, years old scars.
Molly healed his rib and let him guide her to the most urgent of injuries.
"I can." Draco said as she brought a rag to his arm with the Dark Mark and hesitated. "It won't...it's about intent."
Molly moved her hand forward, cleaning around a burn to heal it. "And do you intend to?"
Draco's head shot up. "No! I-" He paused and felt a deep shame well inside of him at the cruelties he had said about the very family that was now not only giving him refuge, but care. "I wouldn't be here if I intended to."
Molly made it so the burn was much smaller and shallower before moving onto the next hurt. "What are the qualities of Slytherin house?"
Draco stared at her a moment, not understanding the question or its relevance.
"Go on."
"Cunning, ambition, resourcefulness."
Molly brought her wand up to his face and closed the cut under his eye. "Good."
"What did I say?"
"What I hoped you would." Molly took the second sleeping draught and handed it to him. "You need rest, too. Come, I'll show you a room."
At the doorway to one of the many makeshift rooms they had put together in the cottage, Molly patted his back. "Rest, Draco. You're safe here."
And, the strangest thing that occured to Draco before oblivion settled in, he felt that he was.
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"I'll do it." Cedric offered in one of the longer silences that filled the kitchen.
Fred had been beckoned down in the hours Rebecca slept and was still unsure what was being discussed. "You'll do what?"
"A calm, neutral presence is-"
"Neutral?" Fred demanded. "Who the hell said you're neutral?"
Cedric stood up and scoffed. "Relationship, twin, godfather...co-godfather?" He looked at Fred, Harry, Sirius, and Remus in turn.
"Remus works just fine, Cedric. You go on."
Fred turned on Remus in disbelief. "That wasn't-Why shouldn't I be there? I-"
"Have you lost your mind?" Remus asked in a low tone, daring Fred to continue. "You're acting like a madman." He was quiet a moment, trying to keep his emotion from spilling down his cheeks. "You saw the state she was in last night, do you think she needs you acting like this right now?"
"She's going to need everyone calm." Draco shrunk under the eyes of the room landing on him, but he spoke on at Molly's hand brushing against his back. "I don't know how much she's going to share about what happened while we were-while we were there. But none of it was good."
"Why is he here?" Fred turned to Sirius, losing the last shred of patience he had. Rebecca was here, just around the corner, and he wasn't by her side. "He is a-"
"Fred Weasley!" Molly marched in front of him and pulled him down to her level by the ear. "You are acting like an animal!" She dragged him to the back door and tossed him out into the garden. "And animals do not belong in houses!"
"Are you throwing me out the house?" Fred shouted after her as she latched the door. "Are you mad?"
"No, young man, you are." Molly enchanted the door so that she couldn't hear Fred's response and turned to offer the room a curt smile. "Now that that's sorted, who's hungry?"
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Cedric winced as the slamming of a door--not knowing that it was the very door Molly had slammed after putting Fred out--echoed through the cottage. He had just barely settled into the chair beside Rebecca's bed and had hoped for a few minutes to gather his thoughts before anything could wake her.
Draco was right, she might never share what had happened in the week they were captive. But he didn't know that there are other ways that Rebecca could communicate, with a few people at least. Sirius understood that and knew that Rebecca would too. He let an arm rest on the side of her bed, in reach of her hand without instigating the contact.
Cedric couldn't believe how the last few weeks had changed everything. At first, it seemed like the Order had been winning--if that can be said in war. They had disrupted the supplies going to the Death Eater hideouts multiple times and had only lost a handful of scouts in the process. When those hunting for horcruxes ended up at Malfoy Manor, though. That was the beginning of things breaking apart. Now that everyone on their side had been freed, Cedric could only hope that things would calm down.
Rebecca stirred, vaguely aware that she wasn't in the cellar anymore but unsure of where she could be.
"Good morning, we wondered when you'd finally get up." Cedric tried to tease, reaching for some sense of normalcy. "Got things to do, you know."
"My bad." Rebecca's voice was hoarse and she greatly appreciated the cup of tea Cedric held out to her. The warmth filled her up and shook some of the stupor off her thoughts. "Where are we?"
"Shell Cottage." Cedric smiled. "A lot of us are here, have been since the beginning when we had to leave the Burrow."
"A lot?"
"He's here, don't worry." His smile grew. "I wish George would stop making wagers. Why he thought you would want to know where he was instead of Fred first, I'll never know. At this point, I think he likes to lose."
Rebecca tried to laugh and had to hold a hand to her ribs. There. The pain unlocked the door to everything. Cedric saw the change in her face, how the colour seeped away and her eyes grew distant.
"I'm right here." He put his hand closer to her, inviting their mental link.
"You don't want this." Rebecca shook her head. Her shoulder had awoken and throbbed in-time with her heartbeat.
"I'll be the judge of that, I think." Cedric lowered his head to catch her eyes. "Please, let me help you."
Rebecca hesitated, but let her hand rest on top of his gently. Their minds intertwined and Rebecca bridged the gap of the link that was created when she had brought him back to life.
Cedric felt a hurt and pain of magnitudes he ever had before, but underneath there was fear. Fear that revolved around a mountain of a man, a man with the electric stick and knives, fists and tools of agony. Cedric grabbed onto her hand tighter, focusing his mind on thoughts of peace and comfort, trying to bring to mind that she wasn't there any more.
"What about Charlie?" Rebecca asked, seeing in Cedric's memories of the last weeks that Charlie hadn't been there in a while.
"Charlie?" Cedric was surprised. Rebecca was better at navigating the link than he was, but she was also more practiced. "He's due back from a mission any day now."
"Ah, good." Rebecca sat up straighter. The alleviation of the pain--both mental and physical--reminded her of something vitally important. "I need to see Dobby." She went to move her legs off the bed and hesitated only slightly. Molly's healing left her feeling better, but nowhere near unharmed.
"Why don't I go get him? He could come to you!" Cedric offered quickly, not sure if Rebecca was supposed to be getting up.
"No, I'm-" Rebecca caught sight of herself in the mirror and sighed. "Bloody hell." The cut on her face looked exactly as it had after the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Any healing that had happened in the two years since had been completely erased and the scar was reopened into an angry red hook that pulled as she furrowed her brow.
"It's bad arse." Cedric admitted.
Rebecca glanced at him in the mirror, a flicker of amusement appeared. "Well, as long as you think so, Ced."
He helped her into the jumper at the end of the bed and guided her feet into the shoes given to her. "I still think-"
"We're not done." Rebecca braced herself for maneuvering through the house. "We have more to find and the longer we wait, the stronger he gets."
"I know." Cedric held her hand and made her go slower. "But you're not going to be able to get anything done if you rush and hurt yourself further."
Rebecca conceded on that and made an effort to appear cautious.
With his arm locked through hers, Cedric could feel the waves of emotions wash over Rebecca. At the bottom of the stairs, around the table, sat Draco and the Weasleys and various Order members. The sight of Draco, awkward but alive, she was relieved. Harry, Ron, and Hermione began to climb to their feet and Cedric could feel the peace beginning to settle more thoroughly inside of Rebecca. Fred, outside the window in the garden, sparked a curiosity inside of her that Cedric marveled at. There was something strange about seeing the movements inside of another's brain.
"Why is he outside?" Rebecca turned and looked to Molly.
"It's a long story." Molly placated without offering any more information.
There was a withheld speed as Rebecca was surrounded, not wanting to scare or injure further, but all who had been without her for the week, who had spent the week contemplating her mortality, needed to embrace her to settle the last of their fears.
Harry pressed his forehead into the side of her head, holding her tighter than he thought he should but unable to lessen his hold. "I am so, so-"
"If you're going to apologise, take it and shove it up your-"
"Rebecca, sweets," Arthur interrupted. "Come sit." He pulled the chair beside Draco out and motioned for her to sit.
"I was looking for Dobby, I need-"
"To sit." Arthur said more firmly. "Dobby is out at the moment anyway. Please."
The kitchen was awash with noise, conversations stacking into a comforting layer of distraction enough that Cedric let go of Rebecca's hand and only remained nearby in case the sound of her thoughts began to overflow.
Fred, having lost most of his rage at the sight of Rebecca out of bed, knocked on the door like a visitor.
Sirius opened it a crack and glanced at him. "Are you done now?"
"I will turn you into dog food if you don't get out of my way." Despite the message, Fred's voice was calm.
"Jokes on you, dog food isn't made out of-"
Fred walked through the opening Sirius made in the door and only stopped when he was in front of Rebecca. He took her hands in his and sank to his knees, staring up at her. Fred couldn't get the words inside of his heart to make their way out, and he hoped she understood everything he was feeling.
Draco looked down at his hands. Even looking at the two of them felt like an intrusion on something deeply private.
"Eat, Draco." Molly motioned for him to return to the table where plates were levitating from the counter. "All of you! There's plenty and I want to see seconds from everyone!" Molly plucked a particularly full plate and pushed it into Remus' hands. "Everyone."
Draco stared down at the plate and fell onto it, unable to muster the manners that had been beaten into him from the moment he could properly hold a fork. His stomach had yet to stop feeling like the food would disappear in a moment, afraid of the pangs of hunger returning.
Fred startled as he was nudged in the back with a chair, but couldn't give Sirius the satisfaction of a response. He had it under him and pushed against Rebecca's without a second thought.
Fred put his arm around Rebecca and let his hand brush against the outside of her arm, images of how the wound on her shoulder had looked the night before.
The food put in front of Rebecca disappeared like Draco's was, and it was replaced just as quickly. Around the downstairs, little groups had begun to form. Luna and Dean sat with Bill and Fleur at the smaller tea table. Bill was enthralled with Luna's homemade jewelry and Dean was asking Fleur questions about the Potterwatch runnings he had missed. Griphook and Ollivander, who had both been in the cellar much longer than the others, remained in their beds upstairs. Molly stood next to Arthur, who was looking out at the biggest collection of their kids and loved ones since the beginning of the safe houses.
Dobby apparated into the hall inside the door Fred had entered through before and the activity in the kitchen faltered as Rebecca pushed to her feet. "Just Rebecca! Dobby is-"
Rebecca got to her knees in front of him and pulled him into her. His head poked out over her shoulder and his eyes filled with tears.
"Dobby left and-"
"And did exactly what you needed to." Rebecca whispered, rubbing his back. "You did exactly what you needed to! If you had stayed a second longer..."
Dobby's hand brushed against the bandage edge on her shoulder. "Dobby said he only meant to maim or seriously injure."
"That you did!" Rebecca laughed and loosened her embrace so he could stand on his own again. "She just didn't listen!" The room laughed.
"She listened when he said he was a free elf!" Draco added. His own laughter trickled away as the eyes of the room fell on him. He had mostly been forgotten until his addition. "Sorry."
"Don't be, dear." Molly walked behind him and ran her fingers through the top of his hair. Without the slicked back look he had been forced to assume, he looked younger than the others had ever seen him. With the same look on his face that Harry and Rebecca had both shown in the past--one that revealed the newness of parental concern or care, he looked younger still. "Are you still hungry?"
Draco shook his head, looking up at her. Molly didn't see the Death Eater he was supposed to be, but the lost child he was. "No, thank you." He turned his eyes back to the table. "I-everything was perfect. Thank you. For the food and...not making me leave." A 'yet' seemed to dangle in the air.
Arthur shook his head and chuckled, stopping behind Fred and Rebecca's chair. "We Weasleys seem to collect the wandering."
With hunger satiated, Molly sent the returned to sit and rest. "Healing requires stillness, no matter how hard." She eyed Rebecca as she said that, but Rebecca didn't need the reminding. No magic could have gotten rid of all of her injuries and they pained her still. She was tired and wanted to be still.
George, Cedric, and Sirius went off to prepare for Potterwatch, Remus and Arthur coordinated supply drop offs to other safe houses, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione filed into the living room behind Fred, Rebecca, and Draco to rest in the collection of couches and chairs.
Rebecca laid her head against Fred's chest, her arms around him tightly with her eyes closed.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione spoke amongst themselves quietly while Draco busied himself with studying his surroundings. Everything was so different than Malfoy Manor and there were so many photos of laughter and joy. Moving testaments of the family's love for each other filled frame after frame.
"Did you-" Fred laughed softly. "Did you get my letter?"
"Yes." Rebecca listened to his heart, letting the sound of it fill her. "It was perfect."
"You noticed the hand writing, right? It was very nice."
"I did notice." She opened her eyes at the feeling of someone staring and caught Harry who looked away and blushed softly. His eyes gravitated back towards her in the minutes after. He couldn't stop reminding himself that she was there, actually there.
Ron and Hermione had begun to speak quietly between the two of them as Harry was dragged into his thoughts. Hermione shook her head and pulled her sleeve further down. Draco tried not to listen to what they were saying, but he was growing anxious. There must have been a catch or a trick coming, no family just got along as this one seemed to.
"No one will see it, it's not-" Hermione was cut off by Ron.
"We will go to every library." Ron laid his hand on Hermione's wrist. "Every single one and we will find a-"
"You don't need to." Draco said, without thinking it through. He was trying something new, as he had before when he helped them leave the cellar. "The, uh, word. That's what you're talking about, right?"
Hermione nodded, but Ron reacted more angrily. "Nosing in, Malfoy?"
Draco shook his head, not rising to the fight. "No, well...maybe a little."
Rebecca watched what was happening, as was Fred.
"I think I could get rid of it." Draco said carefully.
"It's a magic blade, numbskull." Ron grit his teeth and spoke less antagonistically at the warning squeeze of Hermione's hand on his arm. "The cut, it can't just be healed."
"There is a way. It's very, very old. Centuries old. It was lost when the first library burnt." Draco held his hand out for the wand on the table behind him, but Ron only stared at him. "I tried to find a way to remove my-" Draco shook his head, refocusing himself. "I wanted it off. I never wanted it in the first place." He glanced at Hermione's arm, "I can do something about that though."
Hermione reached behind Ron's back to grab his wand and held it out to Draco. Remus watched from the doorway, his own wand in hand. This would be the boy's chance to show whose side he was really on, all without knowing it. Hermione rolled up her sleeve and held it out to Draco. The cuts were red and bright and angry. It was true, as with Rebecca's shoulder. Magic injuries could not be healed like regularly-obtained ones.
Draco held the end of Ron's wand to her arm and drew a rune. "Cicatricem habens deleo."
Hermione's arm itched terribly for a moment, but when the feeling faded so had her scar to a miraculous degree. The words were an opaque, milky colour that could only be seen if you knew where to look and if the light was shining a certain way. "Thank you, Draco." Hermione couldn't tear her eyes away from her arm. "You-"
"You saved me a lot of time in libraries." Ron admitted, regretting how he had spoken before. He held his hand out to the blond boy. "I'm-" Ron paused, deciding on what he wanted to say. "I'm sorry that it didn't work on yours."
Draco glanced at it, still uncomfortable with it being so open. He had torn his sleeves for bandages in their week of captivity. "Me too."
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Fred doted on Rebecca. She napped on and off through the afternoon before he roused her for a loud, happy dinner. When the time came to settle for the night, Fred brought her to his room. He had recently swapped with Cedric so that he and George could share. The new room had originally been a storage room, but with so many people in the cottage, they made do with what they had.
Fred pulled an extra blanket down from the shelf above and laid it out on the ground next to the bed.
"What are you doing?" Rebecca yawned, keeping her glasses on for the time being.
"I don't want to hit something in the night, or reopen one of-"
"Get into bed, Fred." Rebecca laid on her side to keep any extra pressure from her shoulder and gave him a look. "It's not up for discussion."
Fred climbed up into bed. "Well, if you put it that way." He reached for her glasses and she shook her head softly.
"I want to look at you."
Fred gave her a cheesy grin before putting his head on the pillow next to her.
"You know I got new specs?"
"No!" Fred tilted his head to see the arms of them. "They look the same."
"The lenses aren't, darling."
Fred put his head back to the pillow. "And do you find me heart-stoppingly dashing? Simply too much for you to handle? Faint-worthy?"
Rebecca laughed softly and sighed. "No...you don't look different. You look sharper." Rebecca brought her hand up to his cheek and traced it gently as she spoke. "I didn't realise that you have a little pout to your lips, or that your nose goes like this." She brought her fingers over the bridge of his nose. "I also didn't know your eyelashes are quite so long."
Fred caught her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the back of her fingers. "Come now, you'll send me into a blush and then have to laugh at me."
Rebecca slid her glasses off, though not before taking another look at him. He took them carefully and reached over her to pull the lamp's chain. Light from the hall shone under the door and the window above their heads let in enough light that they could still see each other. Fred remained on the very edge of the mattress, irritatingly.
"I'm not going to shatter." Rebecca whispered, reaching her hand out into the distance he'd put between them.
"I don't want to hurt you." Fred whispered back.
"Please, Fred." Rebecca laid her hand on his chest. "Please just sleep with me like we always have."
He pushed himself towards the middle of the bed and brought her into his chest. Fred slipped his arm under her pillow and found himself face to face with her in the darkness.
"You're going to go again, aren't you." Fred didn't ask. "When the others go, you'll go too."
"Why do we have to talk about this tonight?" Rebecca frowned. "Can't we deal with the future when it comes?"
Fred held his lips to her forehead a moment before nodding. "I can't-I wish you could feel how," Fred took a sharp breath. "I want you to know how I-"
"I do." Rebecca closed her eyes and left a small peck at the juncture of his torso and neck. "I know how you feel. You don't have to tell me." They lay in silence, enjoying each other's presence until they drifted to sleep.
Nightmares followed Rebecca, forcing her to relive ever painstakingly horrid moment from the cellar. Fred was woken by her murmuring and tried to calm her before she woke herself. Though the night sky outside was lightening, they had nowhere dire to be the next day and rest was most important.
Slowly, she stilled and Fred lie with his thoughts a while longer.
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"How long do you think, mum?" Ron asked Molly in the kitchen. He had offered to help while Luna and Hermione talked in the garden. Since he could still see Hermione through the window, it didn't really feel like he had left her side. "How long does Rebecca need?"
"There isn't a calendar, sweets." Molly gestured to the pot in need of filling and put Ron to work.
On the opposite side of the garden, well away from Hermione and Luna, Draco sat on the wall with his back to the house. The ocean was untameable and wild, crashing into the cliffs below and churning up foam as the tide came in, but it was also restricted to where it always had been.
Harry took a seat next to Draco and watched the sea for a while, not addressing him immediately.
"I'm not going to betray you." Draco said after the silence between them had stretched into minutes. "I made my decision and I hope I made it clearly. I'm not going to betray you."
Harry kept his eyes level with the horizon. "Good."
"Yeah."
Harry furrowed his brow as some pieces of the past fell into place. "It was you who did the chocolate wand thing, wasn't it? On the train?"
"I didn't know she hadn't told you." Draco grimaced. "That was me, until I buggered it. I tried to keep her away. I-" He chewed at his cheek.
Harry pulled a chocolate wand out of his coat pocket. He had asked Remus for it earlier and Remus had been more than happy to oblige. "Give this to her then, and the ring." Harry met Draco's eye as he stood up. "Do it in front of Fred."
"I will. Thank you. This is-this could start. Fixing things." Draco frowned. "Did she tell you she gave me her ring?"
Harry stared at Draco a long moment. "You notice things like that when you think you've lost someone forever, again."
When Harry turned to go, Draco found that he had to say something. "The day in the toilets, with the broken pipe and...and everything." He sighed. "I wanted you to hit me with something like that, something that would-It doesn't matter. It's all-"
"It's in the past? You want me to not think of the past for the future?"
Draco nodded, relieved that Harry seemed to understand.
"No." Harry grabbed Draco's forearm and held it tightly. "We have to remember what's happened. What you did in the cellar, being there and...and keeping her alive. I'll never forget."
Draco shook his head. "I only did what you would have done, were you there."
When Harry and Draco went back into the house, Sirius and Rebecca laughed intermittently without saying a word aloud. Their hands rest alongside each other's, occasionally separating and bumping back when there was something else to say or show mentally.
"It's some mind thing, isn't it?" Draco asked. Sirius and Rebecca pulled their hands to themselves, feeling as though they were caught with biscuits before tea. "I didn't mean to say something wrong...I saw you and Digg-"
George cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.
"Cedric," Draco corrected and continued. "I saw you and Cedric once in a corridor, in fifth year."
"Did you bring us the root we needed?" Fred interrupted. "For the salve?"
Draco nodded, but didn't elaborate anything related to the subject.
Rebecca smiled up at him. "Something like that--a mind thing."
Draco settled into the seat across from Sirius, Rebecca, and Fred. Cedric and George watched from the doorway, curious as to what was going on. "I have some things to return. I'm sorry it's taken me as long as it had." He set the ring in the middle of the table, equidistant between himself and the people who had let him into their safe house. Alongside of it, he set the chocolate wand.
Things left unanswered for years began to climb to the top of Fred's thoughts, but new questions came too. Why did he have Rebecca's ring? Why would she have taken it off? It had been so bad in that cellar, the circumstances so dire, his it's-never-too-late Rebecca had prepared for the end. Fred closed his eyes and held his forehead to her temple, reminding himself that she was here and safe.
When Fred sat up, he looked at the boy across the table and studied him as if it were the first time he were seeing him. Draco wasn't as pinched as Fred had always made him in his mind, but that could be because he wasn't surrounded by people he was being someone else for. "Thank you, Draco."
Molly and Ron began to set bowls on the table, and Draco stood to help in the task. He had never done this, never set food before someone else. But he was surprised to find that it wasn't the servants' work he had always been told it was, it was an act of care.
Draco wished he could go back in time as he ate the soup. He wished he could go back and change some of the things he had said and the things he had done.
"I'll wash up, please?" Rebecca smiled at Molly, cheekily.
Molly wanted to argue against it. But the truth of it was, Rebecca's colour looked better than it had and Molly knew that Rebecca's asking was more of a formality. "I will never understand you."
Rebecca and Fred began to gather empty bowls, and when Rebecca got Molly's she left a kiss on her cheek. "I would hate for you to be bored."
Fred stood at the side of the sink with a little smile dancing around the corner's of his mouth.
"Are you going to dry?"
He tossed the towel he was holding up in the air and caught it on his head. "That's my job, isn't it?"
The pair moved in a way that startled Harry. He looked at them and saw them as they were, but shadows of them having done the same thing years earlier as children and how they would always do this further into adulthood. He saw the stages of them superimposed one onto the other: young, now, old.
Cedric grazed his hand against Rebecca's arm as he and George went to leave. "You have a watcher."
Rebecca peeked over her shoulder and Harry jolted, pretending to have been paying attention to Ron the entire time. She laughed and turned the water off, putting her back to the counter. Rebecca snapped the chocolate wand Draco had given her in half and gave it to him. "Trolley lady's on holiday."
Draco picked it up with a smile. "Shame."
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Sirius and Remus were sitting with Harry outside as evening changed to night. "Someone's quiet this evening." Remus stated, much to the chagrin of Sirius. "What?"
"He wants to ask how you're doing, Harry." Sirius whispered as if Remus couldn't hear him.
Remus muttered about getting there, wanting to take his time and that he was just preempting it with an observation.
"I'm fine." Harry chuckled. "Just thinking about something."
"Care to share?" Sirius put his arm around Harry. "You've got a genius here. And Remu, too."
This made all three of them laugh until Harry shook his head. "You don't want to hear about it, might be better if you don't."
"I think we're past that." Remus studied the stars over the ocean. "Everything considered and all."
Harry mulled it over and decided to share his ponderings. "We need to break into Gringotts."
Sirius let out a bray of laughter that caused him lean forward and apologise between guffaws. "I'm sorry-" He laughed a moment longer. "I was thinking about what you lot could possibly do after everything! What's the most impossible!"
Harry looked at Remus before joining in Sirius' hysterical laughter, all three of their voices carrying up to the window above Fred and Rebecca.
"No." Fred murmured.
Rebecca didn't open her eyes, close to sleep against his chest. "'No,' what?"
"No," Fred brought his hands up so that they were playing with the ends of her hair that remained short due to their travel-trims. "There isn't a single laugh as magical as yours."
Rebecca smiled and moved closer against him. "You haven't-"
"I don't have to hear every laugh to have a proper opinion." Fred gave her a cheeky wink as she lifted her head.
Rebecca pulled the blanket up over them and gave him a small smile. "Good night."
"Good night, love."
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"And does it still hurt?" Molly asked days later. Fred had been sent from the room, Molly explaining that she needed honesty she wouldn't get with his company.
Rebecca shook her head, but winced as Molly brushed against the boundary of the wound on her shoulder. "It doesn't, not really."
"Leaving before you're ready could be just as bad as-
"As what? Letting You-Know-Who get stronger?" Rebecca waited a moment. "He still hasn't figured out what we're doing, a miracle in itself. There isn't time to waste."
Molly put a jar into Rebecca's hand. "That's what I've been putting on it, bandages changed morning and night when more of the salve goes on." Rebecca slipped her arms back in her shirt, ignoring the look on Molly's face. "I think you should wait, or even stay."
"No." Rebecca answered instantly. "Just like I've told Fred, like I've told Harry, and dad, and everyone else, I am not staying behind while they go on because of a cut."
"It was worse than that and you know it!" Molly cried out, following Rebecca to the door. "It was a stab wound, you-" Molly grabbed Rebecca's wrist and turned her back to her. "Do you promise that you would tell someone if something was too hard? If you hurt badly enough that you needed to stop?"
Rebecca hated seeing the tears glossing over Molly's eyes. Rebecca wasn't angry at the offer to stay, she was angry that she wanted to take it. But she knew that she couldn't. What if they were caught? What if one of the others...died? Rebecca could never live with herself if she wasn't there if that happened. "I promise I will. I swear."
Molly pulled Rebecca into a hug and held her tightly before kissing her forehead and doing as Harry had asked. He had caught Molly earlier in the morning, knowing that she planned on checking on Rebecca. If Molly thought that Rebecca would be okay, if she really, truly believed that she could continue, Harry would be upstairs waiting to talk to Griphook. If Molly thought Rebecca couldn't, she wasn't to say anything.
"Harry's upstairs." Molly said softly, feeling as if she were passing a sentence of punishment. "If you're going on, he's asked for you to meet him up there."
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