Chapter 4
"Get up." Narcissa commanded from Draco's doorway. "It's time. I suggest you not 'wonder' anything today--it will not bode well for you."
Draco abandoned his feigned sleep and somehow managed to sit up in bed; a miracle considering his heart was so heavy he wasn't sure he'd be able to lift himself. He sat on the edge of his bed in the privacy he had after his mother left.
Draco's birthday had been weeks before, but the Dark Lord had been called away on urgent business. Today was his return, today was Draco's initiation.
A dark suit had been set out for him by the maid, a suit that Draco pulled on with abandon exactly as a man sentenced to death would have recognised. Draco's life was ending, this was it. For all that damned Hufflepuff boy had spoke about choice--for Rebecca's insistence that nothing was inherently evil--this was his end.
"I could refuse." Draco thought, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked jagged: dark circles under his eyes, hollowed cheeks. "I could say no. He'll kill me, but I wouldn't be one of them." Rage flashed through Draco and he threw his mirror to the side, letting it shatter on the floor. He couldn't stand to see himself shrouded in dark like the rest of them just as he couldn't stand to know that he wouldn't refuse.
As terrified he was of life among monsters, he was more afraid of death. Draco hated his cowardice, but not enough to make himself choose differently.
Draco jerked to a stop at the door, raising a shaky hand to the chain he had permanently disillusioned around his throat. Only he could see it, only he knew it existed--the kindest action anyone had done for him in his entire memory.
The chain snapped as he pulled the necklace off, the charm of his dog falling to the floor where Draco let it. It was the first time since he had gotten it that he took it off, and he didn't look at it as he stepped out of the room. The Draco that loved had to be left behind if the Draco that had the mark was to survive.
Descending the stairs to where the Dark Lord waited, Draco wondered if he had let his soul fall to the ground with his necklace.
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"You will."
"You will."
"You will."
Rebecca shot up in bed, her eyes wide. Ginny didn't wake at the disturbance, long adjusted to the nightly occurrence. Nearly every night since she had first dreamed of the clearing, Rebecca returned. Some nights the dark, dreaded rot seemed to hover at the edges; looming but never actually entering. Watching but not making itself known beyond the prickling at Rebecca's neck and the feeling of being seen.
For the most part, however, Rebecca wandered about the tall grass. Some nights the tree's eyes were open and Rebecca avoided the prying gaze. Other nights the tree was just a tree and Rebecca found herself sitting on its many twisting roots to while away the time until she woke.
More often than not, no matter how well Rebecca stayed out of the tree's sight when the eyes were open, the tree sorted through her mind, her feelings, her thoughts, her self. Looking. Judging. Discerning.
Rebecca slipped out of bed and made her way downstairs before dawn despite the fact that she couldn't even go to the shop to distract herself. The kettle was hot quickly and she took her steaming tea out to the table in the garden--into the cool morning as soon as she was able to escape the house. As the fog over the hills disappeared under the rising sun, she didn't feel as if her own fog were lifting. If anything, she felt as if she were suffocating.
"Up early." Arthur remarked as he took the seat beside her.
"Woke up and couldn't go back to sleep."
Arthur took a sip of his tea, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. "Sleep well?"
Rebecca let out a harsh, knowing laugh. Question under a question, that was. "I didn't see anything."
Arthur didn't believe her. "What are your plans for today?"
Knowing that this was a chance to keep the conversation away from anything having to do with her dream, Rebecca took the diversion. "I think Harry's expecting me at Grimmauld this afternoon."
"Sounds smart." Arthur continued when nothing but silence questioned him. "When was the last time the two of you just chatted? Not at the shop or at a gathered supper, just the two of you."
Rebecca lowered her eyes, feeling guilty despite that not being Arthur's intention. "I've been a little preoccupied." She stood up and went to go back into the house, the peace of the view destroyed beyond repair.
"I know." Arthur stood as she did and laid a hand on her shoulder, not turning her to look at him but keeping her so she heard him. "Family is always there to help, but it's not possible in the dark."
Rebecca nodded once and stepped out of his hold, leaving the tea left in her cup for later and making her way right back into the bed she knew she wouldn't find sleep in. "Help." She practically spat the thought. She was feeling it again, the climbing weight and the lessening of the air. Just under her blankets, Rebecca was drowning. "No one can help when even I don't know what's wrong."
Molly climbed the stairs when lunch had come and gone without a peep from her morning-companion. Arthur had mentioned a need to talk later, but Molly had no idea that it had been about Rebecca. "Becs?"
Rebecca stayed under the covers. Even if she wanted to, she wasn't sure she was able to move.
Molly sat herself on the edge of the bed, lifting the blanket to try and find the girl she knew was inside. Then she lifted the second blanket. Then the third. "I know there's someone in this bed!" Molly laughed, finally finding Rebecca. "There you are! Where have you been today? I haven't had a morning along since summer started."
Rebecca shrugged, her face revealing nothing and yet by doing so, revealing all Molly needed to know.
"Really?" Molly's disbelief was more than evident.
"What?" Rebecca asked with a tone too sharp. She bit her tongue and waited for a scolding that never came. Molly sat in silence, well-versed in the art of getting an answer without actually asking a question. "I just-I want to sleep. I want to close my eyes and do whatever it is normal people do. That shouldn't be hard."
"Was it anything-"
"No." Rebecca was tired of the guessing, of the symbolism and the analysing and the general not knowing anything about the stupid tree. "I almost wish it was something specific, then-"
"Don't say that!" Molly clasped her hands to Rebecca's arm tightly, frantically. "Don't even joke!"
Rebecca was frightened by Molly's reaction, frightened to have genuinely scared her. "Okay, I'm sorry." Molly pulled Rebecca into a hug, holding her head against her chest. "I am. Sorry, that is. I'm very sorry."
Molly tightened their embrace. "Don't you ever, ever say that again. Don't you dare even think it."
"Will you be checking?" Rebecca asked as she looked up at Molly, hoping some well-timed humour would fully forgive the entire conversation.
"Checking?"
"My thoughts, of course. To make sure I don't think it."
Molly swatted the back of her head as she stood up, leaving with warnings that the lunch that had been put aside for her had been eyed by Ron.
Rebecca pulled on old clothes: her oldest trousers and her most worn shirt all covered by her oldest, most comfortable--might-have-once-been-Fred's--jumper. The familiarity brought the comfort she was struggling to find as her mind had yet to feel like her own yet.
Some mornings, especially after the tree, Rebecca's head was left feeling like it had after Voldemort had gone through it: sharp, jumbled, foreign.
Jumping off the last step, Rebecca downed the rest of her tea before grabbing the plate saved for her. Biting into it, she realised there was no way she would be able do nothing for the time left until she was to leave for Grimmauld. She needed something to keep her busy, something like a chore. Lunch was never finished quicker.
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"My sweet, sweet goddaughter!" Sirius shouted as the green flash reached out from the main fireplace of the house. "Catch!" He tore into the room and whipped something at Rebecca.
Her hands jerked up just in time, catching the stuffed kneazle before it hit her face. "Sirius?"
"RUN!" Sirius screamed, cackling as Harry sprinted in and barreled into him. Remus jogged into the room after both of them, pacing himself as this had in the past lasted hours.
Rebecca did as she was commanded, taking off around the couch as Harry turned his attention after her. She broke her stride and went the opposite direction, sending Harry stumbling.
"Nice seeing you!" Harry called as he climbed back to his feet and began to chase after her again.
"You too!" Rebecca lunged to the left so that Harry dove in that direction before jumping the couch entirely and tossing the kneazle to Remus.
Remus slumped out of relief. "Thank you! We're done, at last."
"Clearly I didn't go over the rules." Sirius scowled.
"Clearly!" Rebecca laughed, falling onto the couch between Sirius and Harry. "What even is this game--besides utter madness, of course!"
Remus grimaced. "Big dog, little dog."
Sirius laughed all the much harder, losing it completely at Remus' face. "I-" He shook his head, unable to speak for the moment. "I named it!"
Remus stood with a stretch and waved Rebecca to follow him. "Tea? Spot of lunch?"
Rebecca followed Remus and Harry and Sirius' growing shouts to be heard over the other followed them too. "I'll have some tea, if you're making." She glanced over her shoulder where the sources of the noise were. "Are they always this..." Rebecca had to think a moment. "Excited?"
Remus gave her a look. "Excited?" He waved his wand at the kettle on the hob. "Yes, nearly every minute. It's a welcome reprieve though, someone else here to entertain him a bit." Remus reached up into the highest cabinet--one well above Sirius' reach--and pulled out an old, dented biscuit tin filled with a stash of chocolates. "Go on, take one before you talk. I can see there's something, it's spelt across your face."
Rebecca took the chocolate and let it melt on her tongue, finding no happiness from the taste as the task of sorting her jumbled thoughts and feelings into words took over her every thought. "I was hoping to talk to you and Sirius a moment. It's really strange, stupid really."
Remus took out a third tea cup, pouring the copious sugar and milk Sirius preferred. "Will Harry join us?"
Rebecca looked up into his eyes, lost. "I don't know."
Remus pursed his lips. There was something terrifyingly similar in the face looking up to him for help--and it stretched beyond the scar around her eye and down her cheek. It played into the familiar, that was true, but it was something Remus recognised in Rebecca's eyes that scared him--a need for help but now knowing what or why or even how. "I think he'll join us then." A fourth cup joined the table and Remus put the chocolates closer to Rebecca so she ate another.
The two R's sat in quiet for the few minutes it took Harry and Sirius to collect themselves from the room they were rambunctious-ing in, but eventually they tumbled into the dining room and froze at the mood inside.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked nervously, taking the seat directly across from Rebecca and noting how she wouldn't meet his eyes.
"It's not..." Sirius looked Rebecca over carefully before glancing at Remus who shook his head quickly. "Oh, thank Merlin."
Harry tilted his head back and looked at the men before understanding what the assumption had been. "It's not?"
"No!" Rebecca's face burnt as Harry and Sirius flashed identical expressions of profound relief. "Hell, why is that always the assumption? I'm-We're-Just stop!"
Harry grimaced, remembering what had happened the last time he had tried to make an assumption, a judgement, on any thing or any action between she and Fred. "Sorry, as you were saying."
Remus put a few chocolates in the middle of the table and poured their teas. "Nothing had actually been said yet."
"I have to talk to these two," Rebecca motioned to Remus and Sirius. "You...just listen, I guess." Rebecca waited for Harry to nod before lifting her cup to her mouth and taking a sip. The three others at the table noticed how her hands shook ever so slightly. "I've been..."
Harry shifted in his chair and accidentally made it squeak horribly.
Rebecca looked up at the noise but found her eyes focused on the wall behind Harry instead of daring to look any of them in the eye. "I've been having this dream. For all I can tell, it's not a premonition--my head doesn't hurt when I wake up. It hasn't hurt once and-"
"Once?" Harry interrupted before shaking his head as an apology and to forget his question.
"It's alright, I guess. Maybe I wasn't clear." Rebecca shrugged. "I don't like talking about this. Feels wrong, almost. Like I should just-" Remus laid his hand on her arm, returning her to the point. "Sorry. Yes, not once. It's been happening since summer started, nearly every night."
Harry's face set in a poorly-hidden scowl. He knew somehow that Fred had already been told more than he had.
"I'm in the forest, it's a place I've been before." Remus didn't need any of the background Rebecca had been prepared to offer; he had long been filled in on the story from their first year. "But it's different now. The tree--it's absurd. But that tree's alive." She focused on the table in front of her, tracing the grain of the wood as she heard the lunacy of her words.
"All trees are alive." Harry pointed out, unaware of the immediate eye contact between Sirius and Remus at the mention of a tree deep in the Forbidden Forest.
"No!" Rebecca tightened her hold on the teacup between her hands, feeling like she was losing control, like she had just woken up after the tree had been particularly search-heavy. "This tree--it talks to me. It looks in me."
Sirius set his tea down slowly, very slowly. "In the Forbidden Forest?"
"Yes, down a-"
"A path that only you can see." Sirius finished.
"Yes! You've been there?" Rebecca found herself relieved that they weren't all treating her like the basket-case she felt like. "You can see it too?"
Remus understood where the conversation was going. "Reg-"
"DON'T SAY HIS NAME!" Sirius screamed, slamming his hands on the table before returning to himself and wringing them in front of him as he stood abruptly. He hurried to Remus and bowed his head, shoulders shaking out of shame and hurt. "Remus," Sirius never, ever used Remus' whole name like that. It was always a nickname, a pet name. Not now. "I am so, so sorry. I don't-"
"It's okay." Remus took Sirius' hand in his, keeping it from picking. "I understand."
"Understand what? What am I missing?" Harry leaned forward. "What do you know about this?"
Sirius sat back down and put his head in his hands, taking a moment to collect himself. When he looked at them all again, Harry thought that Sirius looked the oldest he ever had. "That clearing, that tree...I followed my brother there in my seventh year. We--your father, Pe-your father and I--had already become animagi to be with Remu during the full moons. Imagine my surprise to be in the oldest part of the forest and to see Ickle Regs!" He let out a harsh laugh.
Rebecca was on the edge of her chair. She couldn't believe that not only did they have an idea about where the tree was, they seemed to be believing her. "What happened? Did he ever say anything?"
Sirius crossed his arms and was silent a long time before he could speak again. "I hadn't spoken to him in nearly two years then. I don't know what he was doing there."
"This tree has roots, doesn't it? Spindly roots?" Remus motioned with his hands the shapes he was talking about. "Some are notched?"
"Exactly!" Rebecca cried out. "And the other trees make a circle around it!"
Remus took a sip from his almost-entirely cooled tea, trying to think. "On my nocturnal nights, I can't remember where I go exactly. It's not like I'd popped out on a walk, it's different." Remus chewed at his cheek, feeling like he was nearing a memory but unable to unearth it entirely. "That tree was something we avoided though, I avoided. It was different than the rest around it, it felt different."
"A tree?" Harry echoed, looking at them all with worried eyes. "This is all about a tree? A tree that talks and 'looks at you?' Can we go back to that?"
Sirius tore his eyes from Remus, watching how Rebecca's hands danced along the surface of the table and handle of her teacup--muffled taps coming from ragged, chewed fingernails.
"It tells me that 'I will understand.' That's it." Rebecca shook her head and tried to answer Harry's question better. "It doesn't look at me, it looks in me. It's like it's waiting for me to do something before it will tell me more, I think. It's eyes-"
Harry turned to Sirius, fully convinced Rebecca was having a mental breakdown. "What happened to your brother? Maybe he'll-"
"He's dead." Sirius cut him off. "Not that he would have helped anyway. Ended up a Death Eater just like the rest of them."
Rebecca tried to figure out exactly why she had told them all of this, why she had sullied their afternoon together. "I guess-I...I've told you all of this because I need help." She felt like a weight had been taken off her at their understanding, but that wasn't enough. Not if she was going to not get crushed.
Of course Fred would have tried to have understood too, but he was so busy at the shop and Rebecca wanted things to stay nice and peaceful as long as possible for him.
Harry, remarkably, kept his shock from showing entirely. "She's actually saying she needs help?" The gravity of the situation dawned on him at that exact moment, the moment he understood. "She's scared."
Rebecca fiddled with her cup, not looking at them again.
Sirius took point of the what-next, hoping that the initiative would hurry Remus into forgiving his outburst. It was hard for him to think about Regulus, let alone hear the name out loud. Hearing his brother's name only brought out the never-ending guilt Sirius felt. "If I hadn't left, I could have saved him." Maybe if he hadn't run away to the Potters', if he had stayed and suffered alongside Regulus, maybe he could have kept his brother from joining them. "First thing, sleep." Sirius winced. "Sorry, love, but you're knackered. That's got to be fixed."
"Is it that obvious?" Rebecca asked, feeling a flash of insecurity.
"Not at all, we just know you better." Remus smoothed over and took over the next steps for Sirius who, bless his heart, tried. "You need a course of action. I would find this clearing on a map and start researching in the library."
"Typical Moony!" Sirius said proudly. "Even when we were in school, 'the library' was always his answer!"
"And I was always right!" Remus countered, launching into a brief argument tinged with nostalgia.
Harry's eyes hadn't left Rebecca in too long and she met his when it became too much to ignore. "You could have told me." He said. "You could have told me at any time."
"It's nutters. I-it's just a dream."
"It's clearly not!" Harry shook his head and sighed. He had to ask because he had to know, but he didn't want to know the answer. "Did you?"
"Did I what?" Rebecca asked softly, hardly audible over Sirius and Remus.
"Did you at least tell Fred? Not that I love being out of the loop, but so that someone knew?"
Rebecca looked back to the table. "I told him after the first time."
"Why would you do something so stupid?" Harry asked. Sirius and Remus fell silent at the question.
Rebecca felt angry at first, an all-encompassing rage. Why should Harry judge her response to a problem he couldn't even begin to understand? What made him so worthy of information? But Rebecca's anger faded into an ache that seemed to seep down to her core and she couldn't hold onto anything after that. "I just wanted..."
Harry carried on for her when she failed to finish the statement. "Extra danger? A very short life? A-"
Sirius put his hand on Harry's shoulder, silencing him.
"I just wanted to be normal." Rebecca whispered, suddenly feeling as stupid as Harry said she had been. She was complaining in front of a werewolf and an ex-convict. "This was stupid, I'm sorry."
Harry but his cheek sharply, managing to keep himself from shouting his response just barely. "We're not normal and we never will be. Doesn't excuse stupidity."
Remus gave Harry a shake of his head, telling him that that was far enough. "I think what Harry means is that-"
"He's right." Rebecca sat back in her chair, her shoulders slumped. "I thought it would go away if I didn't talk about it."
Sirius nicked a chocolate before Remus pulled it back from him. "Everything I'm about to say, I'm only doing because I want you to be aware. Not afraid, aware."
Rebecca nodded, a pit forming in her stomach at his daunting tone.
"Regulus..." Sirius closed his eyes at the word. He hadn't said his brothers name as much as he had that day than he had in ten years. "Our mother was not a soft woman. She had rules and expected them to be followed. When we were kids, I did my best to shield him. I took the blame where I could, covered up what I couldn't. I took the punishment and if he messed up, I messed up bigger."
Remus listened carefully. Between Sirius' time at Azkaban and a general tendency to avoid such heavy, depressing conversation when they were boys, Remus didn't know all that much about Regulus from Sirius' view. Remus only knew what he had gathered and come to know from their own, sparse interactions from Hogwarts.
Harry wondered if Rebecca was hearing the similarity between Sirius' protecting of Regulus and her own actions towards others.
"When I was sixteen, as I've told you both, I left. I went to-to a safe place and left him behind." Sirius shook his head. "He had already made his alliance clear, but if I'd stayed-"
"She would have killed you." Remus said curtly. Hearing Sirius talk about the life he had lived with the Blacks, the years Remus and James had watched Sirius return to school from the holidays bruised and broken, only relit his old flame of protectiveness.
"If I'd stayed," Sirius continued as if Remus hadn't spoken, but he reached a hand out to hold onto Remus. "Maybe he wouldn't have turned." Sirius began to speak quicker now, his words pouring out. "He took the mark our seventh year, the year the war had really begun to turn for the worst. There were killings, the Dark Mark showed in the sky nightly, Voldemort was nearing his peak. That was when I saw him in the Forest near the tree. He was showing the tree his arm--his mark--and shouting about it being done."
"The mark?" Rebecca clarified.
Sirius nodded.
"So we get back to school, find the tree, and burn it to the ground!"
Remus stretched his arms out and put one around both Harry and Rebecca, still keeping his hand in Sirius'. "No. We need to be smart. Not angry or worried, but smart."
Sirius agreed. "And I want you to stay away from that tree. Do you hear me? If I catch a whisper, a single word about you two going off into the Forest, I will pull you out of Hogwarts before you can say 'whoops." They both nodded. Serious-Sirius was not someone they had had much time with and not someone they wanted to go against. "If you need answers, you ask the library. Moony's right."
"What happened to him?" Rebecca asked, needing to know.
"No one is entirely sure." Sirius furrowed his brow. "It's not like the Death Eater's arguments with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Annoyed were announced in the Prophet."
Harry sighed. "Okay, okay. Then besides the extra research, that only leaves sleep."
"Pads, remember the prank from fourth year?"
"We were awfully busy that year, you'll have to be-Oh! That one?"
"Yes, with the-"
"-the charm and the-"
"-and the tie and the-"
Sirius and Remus fired back and forth for nearly a minute, leaving Harry and Rebecca to wait for them to finish and fill them in. "They do this a lot." Harry warned.
"It's nice." Rebecca winced as Sirius began to shout he was getting so excited.
Remus and Sirius turned back to Harry and Rebecca in unison, pulling their wands out. "We need your necklace."
Rebecca's hand flew to it, toying with the golden chain between her fingers as she had a hundred times before. "You're not going to-"
"We're not asking." Sirius said harshly before changing his tone at Remus' look. "It will be fine. I promise."
Rebecca unclasped it and let it fall into the palm of her hand. She held it a moment longer, feeling like she was handing the world into Sirius' outstretched hand. When she gave it to them, Sirius and Remus ran out of the room talking over one another again.
"Shop still doing well?" Harry asked, not wanting to sit in silence and trying to make up for his earlier role in the conversation.
"You were there yesterday." Rebecca answered. "But yes, it's doing better than well. Perfect really."
"You don't sound like it."
Rebecca looked at him, a ghost of a smile toying at her lips. "How observant of you. Not entirely characteristic."
Harry frowned. "I can be observant when I want to. You're changing the subject."
"I've been forbidden to work the next two weeks." Rebecca admitted sadly. "I got away with going in every day, but now I'm paying for it."
"I think Molly just wants you to take a break." Harry winced. "You look exhausted."
"Being tormented by a tree isn't exactly conducive to a full eight-hours, is it?" Rebecca turned her attention to her lap. "I'm sorry. That was harsh."
"Why don't you see if you can stay over tonight? Rems put in a telephone, you can just call back and ask." Harry had an idea, one that he was certain would get him brother-of-the-year. Maybe even of the century!
Rebecca looked over where Remus and Sirius had disappeared. "I don't know."
"They'll love it, don't worry. Plus, Ginny will probably appreciate the quiet night."
Rebecca's attention shot to Harry. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Harry blushed, he wasn't supposed to have mentioned that. "She had owled me earlier this summer to see if there was a way to..."
"A way to what?"
"Just call and ask, I'll be right back." Harry stood up and pointed down the hall towards the kitchen where Rebecca could find the phone. Harry poked his head in the study where Sirius and Remus were bent over the necklace, flipping through books beside. "I have a question."
*******************************************
"Oh!" Rebecca blinked as dinner was put in front of them. "You weren't joking."
"Why would I joke about cake for dinner?" Sirius scoffed and looked to Remus. "Who does she think I am?"
Remus put a plate in the middle of the table with a collection of fruits. "For those who want a modicum of nutrition."
Rebecca chose some fruit and ate her cake with a gusto that felt strangely comforting. Her necklace had been returned with its locket entirely unscathed earlier with a brief explanation that it should expel outside forces--and then dealing with a very angry Harry that this had never been offered against Voldemort, to which Remus had to explain that it wouldn't have worked that way--then they had played cards, put a movie on, sat down to a wizard's board game that left them all shouting with laughter.
All in all, it was one of the laziest, most fun afternoons Rebecca had had in ages. If Fred had been beside her all day, she would have had to ask herself if she'd fallen into an alternate, perfect dimension.
Plates magically taken care of and the evening nearing an end, Rebecca found herself yawning more and more.
"You can head up now, if you want." Remus offered gently, seeing how she was already tired and then worn out from their day.
"Head up?" Rebecca rubbed her eyes from behind her glasses. "I haven't been gone long enough to forget that my room's just down the hall."
Sirius nudged Harry, "Go on then."
"Thought you'd want to sleep in a room with a better view." Harry smiled.
"The top?" Rebecca guessed, confused a moment. "What's going on?"
Neither Sirius nor Remus said anything, and Harry only shrugged and answered cryptically. "Maybe you should go look."
Rebecca paused in the hallway, passing on her good nights that were returned immediately. Sirius then tagged on warnings about illicit activities, but Remus covered his husband's mouth with something--Rebecca had already gone down the hall enough so that she couldn't quite tell what. But, with how her mind was racing over possibilities, she probably wouldn't have been able to tell even if she had still been in the doorway watching.
The door to the spiral staircase was wide open, an instant sign that someone had recently gone up. Peering up the middle, Rebecca saw a smiling face disappear seconds too late to escape sight. "Fred?"
"Who?" Fred called back down, not showing himself again.
Rebecca hurried up the stairs, a smile spread from ear to ear. She paused at the entrance to the room with a wall of windows, finding her bed--the bed from her room downstairs--now in the middle of the floor.
Fred was sat on the edge of the bed with his suit wrinkled and tie loosened. "Hey, stranger."
Rebecca rushed across the room and threw her arms around him, pushing him back so that she was buried in his side laying on the bed.
"Woah there!" Fred laughed. "Careful, I'll start to think you like me!"
"How was the shop? Busy with everyone doing their school shopping? How's George? Ced?"
Fred kissed her to end the barrage of questions. "Everything's well and fine, just as they were yesterday. How are you?"
"Harry told you everything, didn't he?"
"You never mentioned that the dream had continued." Fred caressed Rebecca's cheek, keeping her from looking away as she had gone to. "I would have listened, I would have tried to help."
"I know."
Fred ran his finger down her scar before cupping her hands in his. "Why then? Why did I only just hear about this and hear it through Harry?"
Rebecca was silent, knowing he wouldn't like her reason and not wanting to have him upset with her--not when she was so tired and just wanted to be held. "Do we have to?"
Fred surveyed her face. "Of course not. I'm not going to make you tell me. But-" He turned on his side and sat so his back was to the headboard, pulling her up next to him. "You need to know that I need to know, for the future. I can't-" Fred shook his head, rearranging them once more so that Rebecca was across his lap and he could have her entirely in his arms. "I can't walk about, toiling in the shop and owling you and missing you, thinking about you, and-" He forgot where he had been going when he started to speak and had to round back. "While we're apart, I have to know."
Rebecca closed her eyes and rested her head against his collarbone, laying her hand against his chest. She could feel his warmth reaching her through his layers and, faintly, she could find his heartbeat under her palm. Even though she didn't want to share it, Fred deserved her reasoning. "I wanted it to seem normal for a while, with us."
Fred's head went back as a loud, hearty laugh escaped him.
Rebecca blushed, certain she'd said something wrong. "I don't see how it's funny."
"Normal?" Fred repeated, having to wipe a tear from his cheek. "Us? Love, we've been anything but normal from the very start."
"What do you mean?"
Fred stared into her eyes, a seriousness taking his tone but not replacing the happiness from his face. "Rebecca, you started off as a rumour--I literally told George that you were Harry Potter's lost twin as a joke when you'd first been found. You walked right into our lives; right into my life. I don't even have to mention what you came from, but you've shown yourself to be the most beautiful." He pecked her forehead. "Kind," Peck. "Smart," Peck. She couldn't help but smile. "Most mental person in the world. Nowhere in any of that is normal."
It was Rebecca's turn to laugh at what Fred hadn't intended to be funny. "Save the rest of that, how am I mental?"
Fred pulled her closer with one arm and used the other to gesture over himself. "You're all of those things and so much more, you you've picked a school-abandoning, N.E.W.T-less, prank maker. Mental, I tell you."
Rebecca lifted herself from his arms, not willing to listen to such nonsense. "Don't say that!" She put herself on her knees so that she looked down at him. "You're not-That's not all you are!"
Fred gazed up at her, seeing a light he recognised behind her eyes igniting. She was as passionate as she was when leading the D.A.
"You helped the younger students just as much as I did last year. You may not have finished school, but you were bloody brilliant while you were there. You're not a 'prank maker,' you're a prank master. We have literally created things that no one else could have imagined. You have a damn tributorial swamp!"
Fred grabbed her wrists from where she had laid them on his chest, bringing her down so that her face was inches from him. "Careful, love."
"Don't degrade yourself." Rebecca moved out of his grasp again, keeping herself on top of him. "And I didn't choose you."
"No?" Fred glanced down at how she had him pinned. "This sort of seems like you have."
"'Choose' makes it seem like there was a choice involved and I don't think there was."
Fred grimaced. "Oh no, you've officially made me sound like a creep."
Rebecca bent down and kissed the bottom of his neck, slowly making her way up to his ear. A gasp escaped him as she her teeth gazed against the soft spot his pounding heart could be felt. "I think we were meant to be, choice be damned." She placed a hand on either side of his head, her hanging down while her glasses slid down her nose the perfect way he found so endearingly attractive. "Cheesy as it is, I can't imagine anyone else. I might have been made for you."
Fred groaned and put his hands against her back, rolling forward so that he was on top of her instead. He balanced his weight off of her and put his elbows down on either side of her, kissing the corner of her mouth gently. "You think you were made for me?" He whispered.
Rebecca nodded once, slipping her hands under his untucked shirt to feel his skin without a barrier between them.
"No, love." Fred ran his eyes over her face. "I was made for you."
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"That was big of you." Remus congratulated as he and Sirius tucked Harry in as they had every night they had had the opportunity. "Inviting him over."
Harry scowled. "I know."
Sirius ruffled Harry's already-messy hair. "It was very kind of you, too."
"I knew it was what would make her happiest." Harry's voice betrayed his sadness. After all, he had a lot to be sad about. Fred had known his sister longer than he had. Now, at least, Harry thought he would have Rebecca to himself at school since-"What is wrong with you?!"
Remus gave Harry a knowing look and patted Sirius' back, nodding his head towards the door so he could speak to Harry alone.
Sirius looked like he wanted to argue, but decided not to. Something in Remus' face told him it wouldn't be wise. "Secrets don't make friends, Remus."
Remus shook his head to alleviate the worry that flitted across Harry's face. "He's only playing, know that." Remus moved to where Sirius had been alongside Harry's bed and pulled the boy's blankets higher. "I tend to know when someone is...internally turmoiled." Harry didn't say anything, well-aware of Remus particular gift in the are. "I know what it's like to feel like the second choice."
"It's not that obvious, is it?" Harry asked.
"No, you're quite good at hiding it. Now, it wouldn't kill you to show her how to tell a fib sometime, but that's your own business." Harry told Remus that not only had he, but so had all of their friends. Remus continued, filing away his curiosity. "I just want you to keep in mind that this will be a hard year for you all. From what I've heard, she and the Weasleys were inseparable."
Harry nodded. No matter the many Weasleys at Hogwarts, it was obvious Remus was talking about Fred and George in the troublesome-trio they made with Rebecca the past five years. "I know--that's the worst part. I know that she's going to be missing them and I still..."
"Feel jealous?" Remus smiled. "Might as well admit it. It's hard, but doable. I was you in this situation, you know? Your father and Sirius...connected at the bloody hip." A sadness visibly covered Remus as he remembered the nights he had spent bitter, the days he had been angry. "I would do anything to take that back and be the fo-the three of us again."
Harry crinkled his nose at the word. "Jealous."
"Good on you." Remus managed a smile and left a kiss on Harry's forehead. "Keep in mind that as jealous as you are, she will feel worse."
Harry thanked Remus for staying and talking to him, telling him what he had. "I wish summer never had to end. These last few weeks with you two." Harry wiped at his face, ashamed to find tears formed and falling at the thought that he would shortly be leaving the greatest, happiest home he had ever been in. "They've been some of the best in my life."
Remus laughed a Sirius-worthy laugh and hugged Harry tightly. "Come now, don't miss what you still have. I've got to go, who knows what he's gotten into." Remus stopped at the door and turned the big light off. "Good night, Harry. Sleep well."
Harry lifted his head off the pillow, deciding to do something he had never done before for an adult. "Is Sirius out there?"
"Oh yeah, nearly died of boredom but still here." Sirius made his way back to his feet with a groan, appearing beside Remus in Harry's doorway.
"I just-" Harry steeled himself. His stomach felt like it was full of stones. "I love you both."
Remus had a hand against Sirius' back and tightened at Harry's words.
Sirius' heart soared and he was the only one of the two who was capable of words. "We love you, too." Both men would be adding this memory to their Patronus' compilations. The door was eased shut and both men silently celebrated in the hall.
*******************************************
Fred's shirt had been removed in the beginning of their snogging and it lay on the floor beside Rebecca's. Her back was against his chest and she was entangled in his arms. His fingers brushed against the strap of her bra in a rhythmic, soothing pattern.
Rebecca had her eyes closed, but she wasn't aiming for sleep yet. She was working on a map in her mind; a map of every way her body fit against Fred's. He had his knees bent and they fit in just under her thighs. Her back curved up along his stomach and her head was propped on his arm as he had it bent to hold his head above hers.
While Rebecca was focused entirely on how he felt against her, Fred was looking and taking in every detail of her he could to memory: the slight upturn of her nose at the end, the way the scar around her eye had smoothed but there was a slight, slight raise at the end on her cheek. The way her jaw ended and tapered into a perfectly kissable dip.
Fred lowered his face closer, holding his lips to the very spot on her neck he had been focusing on. "You're so beautiful." Then he had more to memorise as the blush rose on her cheeks.
Rebecca turned so that she was facing him, holding a hand to his chest as she tended--and liked--to do. "I love you."
Fred pulled the blanket up over them both before sliding her glasses off and setting them on the table beside the bed. "I love you, too." Fred whispered as the light dimmed as he intended. Wandless magic wasn't his strongest suit, but he could get away with it doing exactly what he wanted occasionally.
Rebecca's mind seemed to hum in contentment at his words and a warmth settled over her. This, being in his arms and with him as they were together, left her at such a drastically different peace than she had started the day in.
"Sleep well, love." Fred brushed her hair away from her cheek where it had fallen, tracing his fingers across her skin like you would a flower petal. Rebecca's eyes opened shortly after, just wanting to look at him. "It's a little hard to sleep with your eyes open."
"I might wake you up." Rebecca tried to warn. "Talking or moving, I'm not sure-"
"Rebecca?"
"Okay! Going to sleep."
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