Chapter 6
"Fred? What is it that you are doing 'ere?" A heavily French-accented voice rang out in the girls' room early the next morning before continuing on her path of destruction consisting of throwing windows open and clapping her hands to rouse all who were asleep.
Fred lifted his head slowly, surprised he had fallen asleep at all. His arm untangled itself from the blankets and he stretched out off the bed so widely that Rebecca slid off of him. Unable to stop in the middle of his stretch, he scrambled as Rebecca slid off of him.
Rebecca's eyes opened just in time to see the floor racing up to meet her.
"I'm so sorry!" Fred cried out, scrambling off the side of the bed to help her up.
Rebecca's hand was all that Fleur saw raise, feeling around for her glasses before sitting up. "Could have been worse." She managed as soon as she caught the breath that had been knocked out of her. "Imagine how that would have turned out on bunk beds."
Fleur crossed her arms, leaning in the doorway. "Bunk beds?" Fleur watched as Fred ran his hands down Rebecca's arms slowly, watching her face for any inkling of pain. Charlie once--what felt like a hundred years ago--had fallen off the bench in the garden and broken his wrist and he hadn't even cried. Fred was afraid that Rebecca did something similar and was hiding it.
Ginny groaned loudly, clearly the one left to answer. "Ze tall beds, bon on top ov ze ozer."
Fleur took the tease with a grace that only made Ginny hate her more. "I am French, not Russian." She only stayed to make sure Rebecca passed Fred's test and then left without another word.
"Would it kill you to be nice?" Rebecca asked, shrugging out from under Fred's hands. "Really, she's not horrible. She's really, really nice once you get to know her."
"No, she's 'orrible."
Fred gave Ginny a very cross look. He hadn't gotten anywhere near enough sleep to deal with her.
Rebecca noticed and took into account that the single bed they had shared was much smaller than the doubles they were used to. "Come now, darling. I'm alright, Ginny's going to apologise, everything's okay."
"I'm going to, am I?"
Fred tried to smile, but he only managed half a frown.
"You are!" Rebecca snapped.
Fred laid his hand on Rebecca's waist, looking her over one more time. "And you're sure you're okay?"
"Perfect." Rebecca laughed. "I needed the exciting wake up!"
Fred finally smiled and kissed her cheek before leaving so that the girls could change freely. Ginny muttered darkly, widening Hermione's eyes with some of the words.
"Oh, stop being bitter." Rebecca tossed over her shoulder, already dressed and doing her final once-over of her side of the room in case she had forgotten anything. "I'll see you downstairs, if you don't insult the steps and end up tripping straight down."
Hermione snorted while Ginny's muttering finally stopped.
"That didn't even make sense." Ginny said after thinking over what Rebecca said again. "And why's she suddenly ready so quickly, hmm?"
"She's always been a morning person." Hermione tried to defend.
"Mhmm." Ginny pursed her lips and tried to think of when would be the best time to fit in her apology before they left. All the same, she didn't think that 'being a morning person' was the only reason Rebecca had gotten ready in a flash.
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"Good morning!" Rebecca called out, moving through the bustling first floor purposefully. There was a returned chorus of good mornings, but she followed the one she had been waiting to see for ages. "You are a horrible writer! You know that? I swear, I'll send five owls before I get a single response!"
"Woah!" Bill caught Fred's cautionary eye down the hall. Bill redirected. "What do you mean? I-" He cleared his throat, Fleur walking past the window. "I write." Bill blushed as Fleur met his eyes briefly in passing.
"I see." Rebecca said, never noticing Bill's original hitch.
"See what?" Bill asked, his cheeks still pink.
Rebecca thought it was strangely funny to see the--Rebecca never would have admitted it to Fred--toughest looking Weasley turning so red because of a girl. "I'm not the only one 'sending owls.'"
Bill grabbed the back of her head and shoved her back towards the kitchen. "Ha ha...go eat breakfast."
Fred followed Bill into the room by the front of the house, as far from the kitchen as they could get. Bill was pacing back and forth by the window, his arms alternating between crossed and fists clenched at his side. "W-Why hadn't anyone written or-"
"About what?" Fred asked testily.
"Ab-you know damn well what! How-What even happened?" Bill snapped. "When did-"
"June." Fred walked up to Bill. "And you're not going to say a single word about it. At least not to her."
Something inside of Bill roared up at the idea of being told what to do by his younger brother, but there was also something fragile behind Fred's eyes that made Bill pause and think. What would the letter Bill have wanted even have said? 'Hey, just reaching out to let you know Rebecca got into a fight and now looks like a pirate. How's the weather?' Bill took a slow breath. "You're right."
"I'm...right?"
"You're right." Bill laid his hand on Fred's shoulder. "And I'm certain you have been handled it better than I ever could have."
Fred's resolve nearly broke right there. Rebecca's scar hadn't been the first time that Fred felt like he had failed her, but it was the most obvious reminder. He had worked so hard, so, so hard, to make sure she never felt any less beautiful because of it because Fred really had come to find it just that--as beautiful as the rest of her. "Thank you."
"Any time." Bill pulled Fred into a tight hug. "She's still out of your league."
"Yeah, I know." Fred laid his head on Bill's shoulder. "But Fleur is wildly out of yours."
"Who is that again?" Bill tried to ask, his voice cracking like he was a schoolboy.
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"You've got your trunk?"
"Fred, it's in your hand."
Fred looked down at her minimised trunk and nodded. "Well that's very smart." He turned his attention back to her. "Wand?"
"Book for-"
"I've got everything!" Rebecca laughed and gestured to the empty kitchen. "We've got to go!"
Fred sighed and took her hand in his. "Yes, yes we do." Neither of them moved. Rebecca tilted her head and looked up at him while Fred pulled her against him, kissing her as long as he dared. Any moment, someone could apparate back from King's Cross to see what was taking them so long.
"Fred?" Rebecca asked.
"Yes, love?"
"Can you maybe not owl Dumbledore?" Fred chewed the inside of his lip, that had been his plan. "Or McGonagall?" Rebecca added after thinking about it a moment longer. "At least not every day?"
Fred sighed. "If you insist."
Rebecca held his hand tightly as the kitchen of their home turned into the surroundings of Platform 9 3/4's. "But you'll owl me, right?"
"So much Darcy will get sick of the trip."
Rebecca gave him a final hug before moving along to Molly and Arthur, hugging and kissing them goodbye. Then, she went to join the others where they would walk to the entrance to the train.
Ron held Rebecca's hood over his shoulder so she could walk backwards and still be with them. She waved madly to those they were leaving, going so far as to blow kisses with a theatricality that made the Weasleys--and accompanying Delacour--laugh.
Bill put his arm around Fred's shoulder when the students were out of sight. "You okay, mate?"
Fred nodded, not saying anything. The train blew its whistle and the doors closed, a familiar face appearing in the window with a smile. Fred ran forward, following the train as it slowly began to move. "In your trunk," Fred said. "It's from George and I. A little help from Sirius and Remus, too."
"What-"
"Cause some trouble for those of us who aren't there."
Rebecca grinned, curiosity entirely piqued. "I will?"
"You will." Fred glanced ahead where the platform ended. "I love you."
"I love you, too!"
Fred let go of her hand and slowed to a walk, eventually stopping and watching the train as it disappeared from sight. Soon it would be barreling along on its way to the Hogsmeade station and then she-
"C'mon sweets," Molly said softly, patting his back. "Let's have a cup of tea before you go to the shop. George insisted."
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"Sorry about that." Rebecca at least looked sheepish to her and Harry's compartment mates: Neville and Luna, though they only laughed away the notion of apologising.
"What was that at the end?" Harry asked, even he finding the goodbye humorous. "Something about your trunk?"
"Eavesdropping, Harry?" Rebecca teased.
Luna's head raised from her copy of the Quibbler, not seeming to notice that it was upside down. "You were quite loud."
This sent all four of them into giggles for a little before Luna turned back to her magazine, Neville back to his book, and Rebecca moved to take her jacket off. "You're hot?" Harry couldn't believe it, even he thought that the compartment had a chill.
"A little." Rebecca pulled her head out from the neck, her glasses going with it and moving to fall on the floor if Harry hadn't known this would happen as it usually did. "Stress, wasn't quite sure we would be on time there."
"What took you so long?" Harry shook his head as soon as the question left his mouth. "On second thought, I'll just be happy you got here."
"Wise choice."
Harry glanced out at the hall and then returned his eyes there as Ginny walked by with some other fifth year girls. His heart skipped a beat, her red hair seeming even more vibrant against the dark colour of her jumper. Ginny caught his eyes, but looked away quickly.
Rebecca eyes flitted from Ginny, now passing out of sight, to Harry who was now slightly flushed. Harry busied himself with cleaning his glasses. In the compartment across the way, Dean locked eyes with Rebecca and pointed at Harry before down the hall where Ginny had gone.
Dean was clearly asking if something was between the two of them.
Rebecca shrugged and returned Seamus' wave as the Irish boy leaned forward from underneath Dean's arm.
"Glad to know you to get along now." Harry grumbled, watching the end of the interaction.
"Funny, don't remember asking your thoughts on the subject." Rebecca answered sweetly before opening the Quibbler issue Luna had given her.
Neville laughed before falling silent at Harry's glare.
"I'm only saying," Harry said harshly. "Last year, the year before that, probably the year before that, he wasn't exactly kind to you. You do remember when he knocked your hand so you hit the desk and bruised half your face?"
"And I'm only saying," Rebecca countered, not looking up from her page. "That what's in the past is in the past. He's being nice now."
Harry sighed and laid out across the bench, putting his head in her lap between her and what she was reading so she couldn't ignore him. "Becksie?" He called sweetly, trying to tell her that if he had upset her, it was unintentional.
Rebecca snorted and looked down at him, resting her arm around him and reading around his hair. "Be quiet until the sweet lady comes."
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Luna left the compartment about an hour and a half into their journey. When she had picked up her bag of Quibbler issues to be given out, Neville trailed after her with offers of carrying them so she didn't have to.
The two sleeping Potters were left behind to snooze.
"You're wrong, utterly wrong!" Hermione didn't know anyone was sleeping inside, but neither Rebecca or Harry were as she and Ron came in.
"Ask them, they'll agree with me!" Ron countered. Rebecca wiped at the drool down her cheek before Ron could say anything on it.
While Rebecca continued to de-nap herself, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and stretching, Harry spoke for the both of them. "Ask us what?"
"Hermione thinks its not suspicious that Draco didn't show up for the prefect meeting." Ron explained.
"No! That's not what I said at all!" Hermione huffed, rolling her eyes at Ron's explanation. "What I said was that just because he didn't show up doesn't mean he's a Death Eater."
Harry jumped to his feet, not wanting what he was about to say to be heard by anyone passing. He made sure the compartment door was closed entirely before returning to his seat and speaking lowly. "But we can't forget about Borgin and Burke's! That had to have been a ceremony, an initiation!"
"Stop it." Rebecca shook her head.
"It's happened." Harry said surely, almost more-surely because of Rebecca's disagreement. "He's one of them."
"His father is a Death Eater." Ron added. "It only makes sense."
"And your father is an expert on Muggle artifacts, hardly explains your marks in Muggle Studies." Hermione argued.
Ron narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to say something he would surely regret later.
"We saw it with our own eyes!" Harry steered them back to the discussion, his tone near deparate. "In-"
"We don't know what we saw." Rebecca spoke as surely as Harry had before, an air of finality about her. Hermione nodded, believing they didn't know anything for certain just yet.
Harry looked at Rebecca a long, tense moment before standing and grabbing a bundle from his bag above their heads. "I need some air."
Rebecca sighed as he left, sinking lower into her seat.
"Any sweets, dears?"
That got Rebecca sitting more attentively, much to Ron's sniggering. He asked for a few things ahead of Rebecca. Someone--he entirely suspected George the night before--had to have snuck a few coins into his pockets.
Rebecca pinched him so he would hurry out of the way when she was done while Hermione looked up from her book at the yelp he gave. Licorice, chocolates, some things for later, Rebecca was feeling desperately in need of some sweets after stress.
"And for-"
"Yes!" Rebecca laughed, counting out the rest for the chocolate wand. "I nearly forgot!"
The trolley lady smiled. It brought her great joy to remember the handful of exchanges that took place each trip between different students. "I didn't."
"Who is it?" Ron asked like he had every train ride.
"Not you." Rebecca answered and took a massive bite of a licorice wand before giving him a sweet smile.
"I bloody well know it's not me."
At the other end of the train, the trolley lady had to push her cart through a dense, slowly dissipating black fog.
"What is this?" Draco's voice cut through the shadow. "Blaise?
"It's probably just some first years messing around." Pansy deflected, worried. Draco hadn't been himself in ages, years maybe, but he was especially not himself after coming back from his parents this summer. "Come sit back down?"
Draco did as she had asked, sensing the sadness behind her words and hating that that was the best he could do to alleviate it. "Hogwarts." He spat out the words, doing as he had been instructed to--schooled to. Draco knew that there would be painful repercussions if he didn't and there were eyes and ears everywhere. "What a pathetic excuse for a school. I'd pitch myself right off the Astronomy Tower if I had to continue another two years."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Pansy asked, undertones ever-present.
"Let's just say I don't think you'll see me wasting time in Charms next year." Draco lightened his tone as much as he dared with others in the compartment. Pansy could be difficult, but she was one of his longest friends. Blaise snorted, not unused to Draco's anti-Hogwarts speech. "Amused, Blaise? We'll see who's laughing in the end."
Above them, where he had climbed in the shadows of the Peruvian Instant-Darkness, Harry listened to their every word under the cover of the Invisibility Cloak.
"Sweets for anyone?" The trolley lady asked at the door, taking a chocolate wand and laying it on the table in front of Draco as tradition required. "Will you be sending one back?"
Draco wanted to so, so badly. For all he knew, it could be the last time he ever did. But anything other than blatant hatred of the Potters had been explicitly forbidden. "Yes, the same." He reached into the front of his suit for the change. One more time wouldn't hurt anyone and it would give him a semblance of closure, he hoped at least.
Pansy glowered in her seat. For being Draco's friend, she knew he had enough secrets for the world. But the one that irritated her the most was whoever he sent the blasted chocolate wand to every train ride and it was one he was most adamant about even giving a hint.
Most of all, Pansy realised, she hated the stupid smile that played across his face just after the trolley lady left.
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Rebecca was laying across the entirety of the bench, her hands folded behind her head. Her eyes were closed and she hummed softly a tune she remembered Fred having stuck in his head a while ago. Harry hadn't returned yet, but she wasn't overly worried about it. He must have run into Nigel somewhere and was probably getting a run down of everything the now-fourth year had done over the summer.
However, as afternoon turned into evening and the sun began to set below the almost-Scottish horizon, Rebecca became more concerned. The trolley lady had returned with the chocolate wand from Draco hours earlier and she toyed with the wrapping.
"He's fine." Hermione grabbed the chocolate bar out of her hands and stuck in the top of Rebecca's backpack. As the train jerked to a stop, Hermione tidied Rebecca's worried, ragged-appearance. Straightening her outer robe, handing her her bag, Hermione tried to do what she knew Rebecca would have--and had--done for them all in the past.
"Probably waiting for us on the platform." Ron added, swinging his bag over one shoulder. He wasn't anywhere near as worried as Rebecca, but he was getting there.
Rebecca followed them towards the exit of the train, glancing behind her anxiously.
Draco shooed his housemates out of their compartment, telling them that he was going to join them later. He waited until he was the last person in their car over all and shut the door before going back to where they had all been sitting--where he had seen the bag overhead shift without anyone touching it.
"Mummy died before she taught you it was rude to eavesdrop, Potter?" Draco waved his wand where he thought the listener had been, casting the full body-bind jinx. "Petrificus totalus!"
Harry's limps straightened before his body was paralysed and he flew off the rack on to the floor of the train painfully. Draco yanked the cloak off him and sneered down at him although he was flooded with relief that Rebecca hadn't been with him too. It was easier for Draco to hate Harry, something that he had always explained away by the kindnesses Rebecca had shown him over the years.
"Oh right, forgot she was dead before you stopped drooling." Draco took a breath before kicking Harry in the face, finding little pleasure in the action of complete domination over his sworn enemy. Too many times had he been paralysed with magic for his own punishments, being on the other side was sickening.
Especially sickening when, due to Harry and Rebecca's reports of seeing Lucius alongside Voldemort at the Ministry, a string of Azkaban sentencings had been made. Because of Lucius' sentencing, Draco had spent less time with a black eye in the time that he had been home since as long as he could remember.
Harry's nose exploded in pain and his body remained frozen.
Draco put the cloak back over him, tinged with guilt when he imagined Rebecca waiting in the Great Hall for her brother who wouldn't be coming. "Enjoy your trip back to London." Draco closed the train behind him.
(Note: Although I mentioned it in an earlier segment [I think, at least], it's important to me to clarify that there is zero evidence in the canonical books that Draco was abused or neglected in any way. For the sake of my storyline now and of the future, I decided to follow the idea that he was.)
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"I forgot my jumper!" Rebecca stepped away from Hermione and Ron as they took seats on a carriage. "I'll meet you at supper!"
Ron stood to get off with her but wasn't able to as the carriage pulled away. "You've got the damn thing on!"
Rebecca glanced down at herself as she jogged back to the platform, cursing herself for the stupid mistake. She threw the door open and broke into a run down the length of the train. Rebecca was looking for any sign, any at all, that would lead her to wherever Harry had ended up.
Near the end of the train, her foot caught on something in the middle of the aisle, something that sent her sprawling. Her hands broke her fall but were burned raw as she slid forward, pain shooting up her arms.
Rebecca crawled back quickly, groping the floor for whatever large mass had tripped her. She searched all the faster as the train's brakes released with a loud hiss. Rebecca had to get Harry and get them both off the train or they were going right back to where they had started their journey.
Something silky caught between her fingers and she pulled on it roughly. Harry, bleeding from a crooked nose and wide-eyed, had been underneath the cloak.
"Finite!" Rebecca ended any hexes or jinxes that had been put on him and Harry sat up quickly.
"Rebe-"
"Yeah, yeah. Later!" She pulled him up by the sleeve, ignoring his groans of protest. "The train's leaving any second!"
Harry limped behind her. Every inch of his side was sore from how he had crashed to the ground and his nose throbbed with every beat of his heart. Rebecca waited for him at the door off the train she had forced open, shoving him out the door before jumping out too. Harry had made it onto the end of the platform at Hogsmeade, but Rebecca had not.
She cursed every second she had to untangle herself from the shrubbery and every second afterward until she climbed back up and was next to Harry.
"What would I do without you?" Harry hoped she heard how serious he was but also to distract her long enough to pick the leaf out of her hair.
Rebecca sighed and looked at him, reaching for her wand. "Stay ugly? I can fix that."
"Are you sure?"
"How hard can it be?" Rebecca began to wave her wand just as Harry opened his mouth to tell her that he would just wait for Madam Pomfrey. "Episkey!"
Harry wondered if the crunch of his nose straightening had been loud enough for Rebecca to hear, but a fresh wave of blood washed down his face and he couldn't ask. "Thanks." He managed, spitting out what made its way into his mouth.
"You're welcome. Does it hurt?" Rebecca watched as Harry nodded and bunched the front of his shirt up against the blood. "Good. That's what you get for leaving on a mission without telling me."
"I went to listen to Malfoy, you wouldn't-"
"Don't tell me what I would or wouldn't!" Rebecca snapped, beginning their long walk along the carriage path to the castle's gate. "I would have gone with you anyway." She said quietly after a moment.
Harry walked in silence until he knew he found the exact words he wanted. "I'm sorry. I won't go off like that again."
Rebecca eyed him carefully, making sure she could take his word for it. "Good. Though, if you make a habit out of making us late for dinner, you won't even have the chance to." She sighed. "Did you at least learn anything?"
Harry shrugged. "He hates Hogwarts and doesn't expect it to be the same next year."
Rebecca let out a laugh that reached up the already-darkening trees. "With us here? No year is ever the same anyway!"
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"About time!" Professor Flitwick looked relieved to see them, but he scolded them all the same. "I've been looking all over you two. Names?"
"Professor, you've known us for five years." Rebecca objected confused.
"No exceptions, I'm sorry." His eyes returned the long roll of parchment in his hand, looking for her name after she gave it.
Harry listened to their conversation with half of his attention, looking ahead to the strange people looking through every trunk and backpack on its way into the castle. "Who are all of these people?" Draco could be seen just barely at the front of the line, his belongings being searched.
"Aurors, for security." Flitwick crossed Harry off next, ignoring the fact that his shirt had blood down the front of it. Sometimes, he had found, it was better not to ask a Potter twin a question. The Charms professor allowed them to enter before returning to his post at the gate.
Snape appeared at Draco's side, insisting that the auror allow him to bring in Lucius' staff. Narcissa had insisted Draco bring it to Hogwarts with him, as a reminder of his duties and the consequences for failing in them.
"Nice face, Potter." Goyle crowed from beside Draco, catching sight of the smeared, messied Harry.
"You think?" Rebecca called back, bringing her hand to her cheek as if he had been complimenting her instead of trying to insult Harry.
Snape grabbed the boy's shoulder and led him away, scolding him the lot of them for being so behind in the procession of students making their way to the Great Hall for the welcome feast.
Harry turned to her, embarrassed. "How do I look?"
Rebecca glanced at him and kept her face as plain as possible, hiding her reaction from him. She undid her tie and wet it with a quick spell before motioning for him to bend down to her. "You look just fine, don't listen to that-" Rebecca bit her words back, focusing only on cleaning him the best she could.
"Well?" Harry asked, holding his hand to her face as she had to taunt Goyle.
"Perfectly ordinary."
"Brilliant." Harry nodded once, almost ready to face what was ahead of them. "That's ordinary as in ordinarily-stunning, right?"
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"Don't worry!" Ron grumbled at Hermione, taking another bite from his heaping bowl of pudding. "They'll be here any minute!"
Ginny turned from her brother to Hermione, in awe that someone could exude such little concern.
Hermione stared at him for a moment before raising the book she held against her chest and beating him with every word. "Will-you-stop-eating?!" She let the book fall, sitting up straighter. "Your best friends are missing." Hermione had hardly been able to stomach dinner, let alone dessert. Rebecca was sure to have found her way into trouble by now, especially-
"Well, you're here." Ron retorted, taking another bite. He looked away from Hermione's eyes, realising what he had said. Behind her, just over her shoulder, the subjects of his beating could be seen. "Turn around, you lunatic!"
Harry and Rebecca filed into the Great Hall--Rebecca looking over the tables eagerly while Harry was much more somber.
"He's covered in blood again." Ginny shook her head. "Why's one of them always covered in blood?"
"Looks like it's his own this time, if that helps?" Ron took a final bite before grabbing two plates and layering them with dinner remnants.
Hermione leaned over the table, lowering her voice to a dangerous-hiss. "Where have you been? What's happened to his face?" She froze, looking Rebecca over. "Where. Is. Your. Tie?"
Rebecca picked up a piece of bread from the plate Ron set in front of her, taking a massive bite so that she could blame her full mouth for not answering.
Harry rolled his eyes, hating tha the had to be the one to answer but knowing it was fair considering he was the reason they were delayed. "Later."
"Did I miss the song?" Rebecca asked, gazing up at the professors' dais and not finding the Sorting Hat.
Ron nodded, pointing at her with his spoon. "Yeah, it urged us all to be brave and strong in these troubled times. Easy for a bloody hat to say, isn't it?"
Rebecca went back to eating her dinner in an incredibly Ron-like way, only slowing twice. Once, when Ginny had taken the bloody tie from Harry's nose to wipe at a stray spattering Rebecca had missed. Hermione caught Rebecca's eye and raised an eyebrow before returning to her scolding. The second pause was when Dumbledore began to speak at his podium.
"First, let me introduce the newest member of our staff, Horace Slughorn." Slughorn stood from his seat, waving out at the students politely. "Professor Slughorn has agreed to resume his post as Potions Master." The hall clapped happily, realising that this meant that Snape wouldn't be the monster in the dungeons anymore.
Rebecca sat up with a jolt, realising something else. "Oh no."
"Meanwhile, the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts will be taken by our own Professor Snape." The applause was far less than before, the Slytherin table and a sprinkling of polite students across the hall. "Now, as you know, each and every one of you was searched upon your arrival here tonight. And you have a right to know why."
Dumbledore's voice was grave. "Once there was a young man who, like you, sat in this very hall, walked this castle's corridors, slept under its roof." Harry and Rebecca remained stoic under the gravitating eyes of other students towards them. "He seemed to all the world a student like any other. His name? Tom Riddle."
Ginny paled and turned her eyes down to her empty plate. Harry grabbed her arm quickly, squeezing her tightly to remind her that she wasn't under him anymore. Rebecca patted Harry's leg, grateful that he had the sense to offer support.
"Today, of course, he's known all over the world by another name. Which is why, as I stand looking out upon you all tonight, I'm reminded of a sobering fact: every day, every hour, this very minute perhaps, dark forces attempt to penetrate this castle's walls." Dumbledore found Harry and Rebecca in the crowd. He started with Harry, but his eyes seemed to bore especially into Rebecca. "But in the end, the greatest weapon is you. Something to think about."
Then, he announced that it was time for them all to return to their quarters.
Rebecca stood up with the others slowly, trying to eat a few more bites. Ron offered his opinion on the speech. "That's a cheerful end to a night, yeah?"
Hermione ignored him, grabbing the back of Rebecca's collar so she had to walk beside her and Ron as the two prefects started the tour for the first years. "This, newly-appointed Gryffindors, is the perfect example of what you're not to do..."
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"I cannot believe you paraded me about like that." Rebecca scoffed, discarding her layers the second they three were back in their dormitory so that she ended in her trousers and oxford shirt. "Marching me around like a spectacle!" Rebecca couldn't stay serious all the way through though and ended up laughing as she flipped the levers of her trunk. "You scared the piss out of them with your talk of detention."
Hermione grabbed her pajamas and giggled. "Maybe you'll learn to follow the rules this year then."
Rebecca stuff had shifted as it had been gone through, but there was the little parcel Fred had told her about on top. Checking that Ginny had her back turned and Hermione wasn't looking, Rebecca stuck the trunk and the Marauders' Map into her back pocket. "F-forgot Harry wanted to ask me something?
Ginny waited until she left to roll her eyes.
Rebecca tapped her wand to her leg absent-mindedly, busy hoping that if Ron and Harry were upstairs like they said they would be so she could make an easy escape out of the common room. Privacy was hard to come by, but she knew the perfect place.
The corridors were empty, aside from the occasional wandering auror and she evaded them easily with the maps assistance. The familiar tapestry with dancing trolls was an old friend across the entrance to the Room of Requirement.
"Privacy, light, and parchment for a letter please." Rebecca asked of the stones.
A door slowly grew in front of her, aged wood crossed with metal ornamentation. The knob was the same dark metal and opened for her when she reached for it. "That's new?" She said aloud, no one around to hear.
The room was large and circular in shape. Grey stones paved the walls up to a high ceiling, almost giving the feeling that the room was the top of a tower not unlike Gryffindor's. There were boards and chalk around the room, torches along side so that nowhere was shrouded in darkness. There was a lantern aflame in the very center of the room, the desk that took the focal point of Rebecca's looking.
It was large, large enough to have been a dinner table but with desk toppings. In front of the chair there was an inkwell and a quill alongside a stack of parchment and envelopes.
Rebecca set the map on the desk and fished the parcel out of her pocket. Opening the paper, she found a note and a shrunken trunk. "Engorgio!" The trunk grew to a normal size, the latches popping open when it stopped. Rebecca opened it excitedly, wondering what could be inside to help her 'cause trouble.'
"Oh!" Her surprise echoed around the room. "What in the-" Rebecca sifted through the top layer of the completely filled trunk. There were potion makings and ingredients of every sort they had at the store, along with anything she could possibly need to send batches back to the shop or to work on imperfected prototypes sent to her.
Near the middle, under a heaping bag of dried frog eyes, Rebecca found a leather bound book with a pen attached to the string that tied it closed. She undid the knot easily, spinning the pen between her fingers as she opened the cover.
For the trouble we cause together and apart. --Fred
That was cheesy. Ew. Keep track of your ideas and send prototypes! --George
I don't know what to say that they haven't, but I MISS YOU!!! --Ced
Rebecca clicked the pen and scribbled onto the first page the idea that was just beginning. Once getting enough of its premise down to not forget, she began on the letter that she wanted to send off first thing the next morning so it could get to the shop before the next night.
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"And where were you?" Ginny asked from her bed.
Hermione didn't say a word, but she did turn from her desk so that Rebecca knew Hermione was asking too.
"I got lost." Rebecca lied.
"Lost?" Ginny repeated. It was a better lie than most Rebecca had ever offered, but still not great. "Where?"
"Well if I knew where I was, then I wouldn't have been lost."
Ginny threw a pillow at her, laughing as it struck the back of Rebecca's head with a muffled thump.
Hermione picked up the pile of letters and moved between Rebecca and Ginny to end the fight before it could really begin, accidentally moving the subject away from Rebecca's previous whereabouts. "Times tables came!"
Rebecca tore into hers, skimming it before holding it so Hermione could see. "Same as yours?"
"Mostly. I'm not taking Magical Creatures--I've got Ancient Runes then."
"But everything else?"
Hermione smiled at Rebecca's growing grin. "Yes, everything else." Rebecca raised her arms above her head and let out a whoop. "Although..."
Rebecca's celebration ended, Hermione was too hesitant for anything but bad news to come. "Although what?"
Ginny got off her bed, standing next to Hermione in case this was the bad news she and Hermione had thought it was. "A letter came."
"Oh, you could have opened it." Rebecca lifted the wax seal of Dumbledore. "I wouldn't have wanted to wait either, especially from him." Rebecca skipped over the greeting to get straight to the body of the correspondence and read it once, then twice. Handing it up to the impatiently waiting Ginny and Hermione, Rebecca shrugged. "Just says Harry and I re to report to him evenings periodically throughout the year for 'private lessons.'"
"On?"
Rebecca shrugged again, turning her back so that she was facing her still-full trunk of belongings. "Wouldn't have killed him to say what the lessons are on, but he didn't so I'm not sure. Could always be worse."
"How could it be worse?" Hermione asked, handing Rebecca back the letter. "This is sixth year, we need all the time we'll have to revise and study and-"
"Could have been early morning meetings." Rebecca interrupted before Hermione got too far ahead of herself. Ginny laughed with Rebecca, at least.
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"Dumbledore wants to meet with you two for 'private lessons?'" Ron asked incredulously. He was lounged out across his bed, his stuff already thrown into his drawers or tossed onto his shelves.
"Yeah, he does." Harry answered without paying Ron much attention. Harry was taking a more careful approach to unpacking his things from Remus' impeccable order and distracted with wonders if Sirius and Remus had ever made it back home.
"I'm sure it'll be alright." Ron noticed Harry's absence and thought it was because of the lessons. "Rebecca will keep everything in line, of course."
Harry nodded and picked his times table off the desk, looking over it again. He couldn't help but settle on the open block he and Ron had while the girls were in Potions.
"And don't even worry about tomorrow morning!" Ron said in a rush. "Figure we'll wake up in time for breakfast, give some first years wrong directions--I've been wanting to do that ever since we got turned around for Transfiguration. Maybe we'll head up to the kitchens after that and see if they'll give us some lunch early! That'd be great, right? We could also..."
Harry sat back on his bed and slowly found himself infected with Ron's enthusiasm. He might not be able to be an auror, but at least he had a friend.
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<3