Chapter 11
The only benefit Rebecca had found to having to wait so long to see Fred again was that the first quidditch match of the season would pass before. Not only had it kept Rebecca occupied, it also guaranteed a happy topic for them to talk about.
Ron entered the Great Hall almost in a mope, despite the fact that his kit was on and his helmet too.
"Good luck, Ron!" Neville wished in passing.
"Yeah, good luck mate!" Nigel and Louis crowed with Emmet between them.
Seamus stood and pecked Dean's cheek before running to Ron's side. "I'm counting on you, okay Ron? I've got two galleons on Gryffindor!"
Ron nodded and tried to chat, but his words were droned out by leers and name-calling from the Slytherin table.
Malfoy's frequent absence hadn't been noticed, but Crabbe and Goyle's especially horrid behaviour had been. With Draco off more hours than not, the two boys had taken to tormenting as many students as they could.
Ron sank into the seat across from Rebecca and Harry with a growing frown.
"Don't come over here all piss-poor." Rebecca grumbled, picking at her muffin. "Got enough of that as it is."
"What's wrong with you? Dinner party not go well?" Ron scooped a single serving of breakfast, uncharacteristic as ever.
"It went fine." Hermione pointed at Ron's plate. "That's hardly enough for you." He added another piece of toast to appease her. "It was boring, actually. Though Harry enjoyed dessert best, I think."
Rebecca took a well-timed study of her muffin, trying to ignore Harry's glare at the two girls at Hermione's jest. Ron, at least, didn't seem to pick up on it.
"Slughorn's having a Christmas do, as well." Hermione turned her page in the Prophet. "We're supposed to bring someone."
Ron scowled and took a bite of his toast. "I expect you'll bring McLaggen. He's in the Slug Club, isn't he?"
Hermione slapped her paper down. "Actually, I was going to ask you!" Rebecca looked between Hermione and Ron curiously before rolling her eyes and stifling a groan.
Lavender approached them, ignoring all but Ron. "Good luck today, Ron. I know you'll be brilliant." She skipped away.
"I'm resigning. After today's match, McLaggen can have my spot."
"The hell you are!" Rebecca snapped. "I'm not letting that sleaze near any of us. Should have heard him talking about the best part about keeping. Dirty bastard likes 'the view.'"
"It's up to him." Harry argued, sliding Ron's goblet closer to him. "Juice?"
"Hello, everyone."
Rebecca startled, only then noticing the lion's-head cladded Luna. "Luna! I'm so sorry, I would have said good morning earlier but-"
"But you didn't notice because you were reading the same letter you have at breakfast all week." Rebecca blushed and put Fred's letter back into her bag. "You look dreadful, Ron." Luna turned to both boys. "Is that why Harry's put something in your cup? Is it a tonic?"
Harry made a production of hiding the little vial he slipped back into his pocket.
"Liquid Luck." Hermione faced Ron. "Don't drink it!"
Ron lifted the cup to his mouth and paused only a moment before drinking it all in one go. Rebecca watched as Ron sat up straighter, colour returning to his face with a grin that spread from ear to ear.
"You could be expelled for that!"
Harry turned away from Hermione to look to Rebecca for backup. "I don't know what she's talking about. Do you, Rebecca?"
Rebecca sighed and shoved the entire muffin into her mouth, mumbling an answer around the crumbs.
Ron stood, waving them to hurry. "Come on, we've got a game to win!"
*******************************************
A game to win they did.
Rebecca and Ginny were tested by the Slytherin chasers violence as soon as the quaffle had been released. Ginny had been checked to the point of multiple fouls and, Rebecca knew well enough as she could feel her own growing already, bruises.
A bludger whizzed past Rebecca's head with inches to spare. She whirled around on her broom and caught sight of the two new Gryffindor beaters chatting as they looped around lazily. "PLAY OR GET OFF THE BLOODY PITCH!!!" Rebecca shouted, flying after them and chasing them into play.
Harry chuckled from his vantage point above; Rebecca's intensity reminded him strongly of Oliver, in the best way.
Luna and Neville were on either side of Hermione who clapped begrudgingly. Rebecca and Ginny were spectacular as always. But Ron? Ron was playing like he never had before. He hadn't let a single shot go through the hoops. He had blocked some upside down, some sideways, caught some, blocked another with the top of his helmet.
"F and G?" Ginny called to Rebecca.
Rebecca nodded and held her hand up to the right. Ginny had taken it upon herself to name their most common plays, and the F and G was their favourite.
Rebecca took the quaffle first, zigzagging across the bottom of the pitch before sending the quaffle back to Ginny who cut straight up as Rebecca boxed out the path of those in pursuit. Then, Ginny dodged between the beaters near the hoops and dropped the quaffle like a stone.
Rebecca, following Ginny's path directly below her, plucked the quaffle out of the air and shot forward. The keeper and the chaser who had been following her crashed into each other and ten more points were added to the board for Gryffindor.
The F and G, accurately named, was inspired by how Fred and George had collided into each other during a summer match when Ginny and Rebecca had done the same move.
The crowd expected such greatness from the Gryffindor chasers. Rebecca and Ginny were two of the best. But Ron's sudden and noticeable improvement had the crowd chanting Weasley to a fast beat that followed the players all the way from the pitch to the common room.
Rebecca looked around the celebration sullenly, seeing every instance that proved that Fred and George had not put it together. The Weasley sign between the stairs was off center and crooked, the drink table wasn't organised, and, Rebecca thought this was the biggest insult, the punch hadn't even been spiked.
"At least that I can fix myself."
Nigel watched from the side as Rebecca broke off from the crowd around Ron and surveyed the bottles on the table before picking one up and emptying it into the punch. Then and only then did she spoon herself a cup.
"Something tells me that a prefect's roommate shouldn't have done that." Nigel sang, knowing that Hermione hadn't seen. He had been watching for Rebecca, watching her back.
Rebecca narrowed her eyes at him. "Something tells me that's not a threat someone who knows what I have access to should make." She spooned him out a cup too.
"Not a threat." Nigel grinned, sipping from his drink and trying to not wince. "An observation." He held his cup up to the celebration ahead of them. "Good party?"
Rebecca shrugged, not wanting to bring him down with her. "It's fine."
"But it's not like before." Nigel finished for her.
"No, no it's not." Rebecca tilted her cup to the ceiling and poured herself another before wandering away with a bottle of Wacky Witch all for her. The lightness swirling through her head was playful, comforting almost. She drank deeply from her cup as she continued towards the back of the common room.
"You really, really shouldn't have done it." Hermione argued weakly as Ron flourished under the center of attention. It occurred to her then that this was all he had ever wanted, to be the focus of everyone in the room. Hermione realised that she didn't care about the potion anymore, not really.
"I know. I could have used the Confundus charm to move him about."
Hermione squirmed under Harry's knowing gaze. "That was different. That was tryouts. This was an actual game." Even she heard how weak her justifications sounded, but it was hard to argue against something you no longer had such strong feelings about. Harry reached into the pocket of his shirt and revealed the still-full vial. "You didn't put it in...Ron only thought you did."
Harry nodded and grinned as they both turned back to see where Ron had gone off to.
Lavender reached up and grabbed Ron's hand, pulling him down from the stool he stood on. Lavender and Ron's bodies collided in front of the crowd, a snog ensuing underneath the growing cheers.
Rebecca glanced over her shoulder at the noise and grimaced. She finished her drink and swapped her empty bottle with a full one and went off to exit, tripping out of the portrait hole but leaving all the same.
*******************************************
Harry noticed Hermione was leaving as soon as Ron and Lavender had kissed, though he didn't follow her at first. He wanted her to have a chance to cool off before talking and, Harry pacified himself, he saw the back of Rebecca's head stepping out shortly after Hermione had. They probably wanted privacy for girl-talk, or whatever else it is they did in their free time.
Much to Harry's surprised, when he left the common room to find them, he only had to follow the sound of Rebecca madly giggling.
"H-hArRy!" Rebecca shouted, raising her bottle up to him. She wavered back and forth where she stood, wand in the other hand and surrounded by flitting birds. "You found us!" Rebecca lowered her voice to a loud whisper. "Careful, people will think you're the smart twin."
Hermione wiped at her cheeks, but Harry could still see traces of her crying. "I've been trying to get her to stop, but she won't listen to reason."
"Reas-raisin?!" Rebecca grinned cheekily, still teetering back and forth as if the ground were moving beneath her feet. "Raisins are old, wrinkly grapes. Dumbledore's wrinkly." Her face grew very serious, her head shaking in disbelief at her discovery. "Dumbly's a raisin."
Harry chuckled at sat on the step beside Hermione, taking a drink from the bottle she offered to him. Harry grimaced and set it back down with only slightly less than the minimal that was inside. "What is that? It's awful."
Hermione gestured to the second bottle that Rebecca was dancing back and forth with. "Her leftovers."
"And the birds?" Harry looked up at them and how they flew around Rebecca's head lightly, carelessly.
"Charmed, Rebecca insisted." Hermione furrowed her brow, not liking not understanding something--especially when it came to Rebecca. "She kept saying something about needing a bird with her."
"A magpie?" Harry continued after Hermione nodded. "His patronus." There was only one 'he' Harry could be talking about.
Hermione frowned and focused on their drunk friend. "It doesn't seem fair, does it? They're apart and...and we're..." Hermione shook the stall from her. "How does it feel, Harry, to see Ginny with Anthony?"
"We're not-"
"I know." Hermione rolled her eyes and wiped at her cheek again. "You look at her the very same way Rebecca does Fred."
Rebecca stumbled and hit the corner with her shoulder. "I'm sorry! Oh, you're a wall." Rebecca snorted and took another drink. "Talking to a wall. Still tal-talking to a wall!" Footsteps came down the hall towards them and Ron appeared with Lavender hanging off his arm. Rebecca let out a gag. "Fuck, I knew something stunk like a-"
"I think this room is taken." Lavender interrupted before trying to hurry Ron off.
Harry sighed and rest his chin on his hand, curious how Rebecca would have ended what she had begun.
Ron looked pat Rebecca, worried about her state but more so as to why Hermione and Harry were sitting in the corridor and not enjoying the party. "What's with the birds?"
Hermione stood up and squared her shoulders. "Oppugno." The birds abandoned the air around Rebecca and lined up before soaring in a straight line at Ron. He took a few quick steps back, dodging back and forth as the birds struck the wall and poofed back into the leaves Hermione had charmed them from.
Rebecca tripped over her own feet and air, but she eventually made it back to Harry and Hermione. Hermione was now sitting beside Harry again, crying into his shoulder as he held her close. "It feels like this." Harry admitted quietly.
Rebecca dropped to the floor in front of them and took the last of her drink before letting the bottle clank to the ground. "D-don't worries. It's not all it's cracked up to-" Her words were slurred and her head waved from side to side as she tried to word herself. Rebecca closed her eyes a moment before her head dipped forward and she woke herself back up to attention.
Harry reached for her wand, but Rebecca pulled her hand out of his reach.
"No!" Rebecca closed her eyes again. She was thinking about Fred and how much she missed him and how much better the evening--every evening--would have been with him there. How much better she was when he was there. "Infunde." She touched her wand to the stone floor in front of her and just like before, the picture spread out from her wand and filled in the space she had filled with the image Rebecca held closely to her heart.
It was Fred how she saw him every time she laid her head against his chest, how he looked down at her with his hair falling ever so slightly. In this memory, Fred's lips were starting to lift in a grin and happiness exuded in every length of the image.
Rebecca laid back on the stone and knocked the empty bottle to the ground.
Hermione and Harry stood up minutes later, once Hermione was through crying, to step over the rendering she had made and pull her up to her feet between them. Her wand was still loosely in her hand and clattered to the floor where Harry scooped it up and stuck it in his back pocket.
Hermione and Harry worked together to lead her back up to the common room, finding the task much harder than it needed to be with her constant arguing.
"Not done." Rebecca would mutter before trying to step a different direction herself. "Still-still a party!"
"That's enough of a party for tonight." Harry said softly. "Let's go on up to bed, yeah?"
"N'okay."
"C'mon Becs," Hermione added just as kindly. "Let's head up. Want a nap?"
Rebecca's head bobbed lower, a slow breath of agreement leaving her. "Nap'll work...like naps."
Harry and Hermione smiled to each other and the Fat Lady opened the door with minimal judgement or delay; she had seen quite a few intoxicated students in her years.
The common room was emptier than it had been, though the banner was still crooked.
"Fred'n George would never." Rebecca laughed. "Topped and turvy!" She used her hand around around Harry's neck to try and gesture towards it, but only ended up hitting him on the side of the head.
"Yes, yes. We know." Hermione paused at the bottom of the stairs as Harry did, finding an issue with their plan as he couldn't get up the stairs.
"I can take it from here." Ginny said, bending down to look at Rebecca's face.
Harry stepped away without really looking at Ginny, her arm replacing his to support half of Rebecca. Harry paused in front of Rebecca and brushed the hair away from her face, tracing over the scar around her eye before leaking a kiss on her forehead. "Sleep well." Harry stopped in front of Hermione and left a peck on the top of her head as well. "You too."
Hermione stepped forward with Ginny and didn't say anything, unable to word her appreciation with company. Rebecca's feet felt heavier and heavier, her body growing more and more tired as they made it down the hall to their room.
Once inside, Hermione and Ginny laid Rebecca onto her bed before Ginny untied her shoes and slipped them off. Hermione removed Rebecca's glasses and covered her the best she could.
"So." Ginny sighed, looking over their now snoozing mate. "This is new?"
*******************************************
While Rebecca was in bed sleeping off the copious amount of alcohol, the castle was awash with motion and movement.
Lavender had dragged Ron off to the stairway leading up to the Astronomy Tower where they had interrupted an entwined Seamus and Dean with equal mussed hair and lack of breath. The running in of the two paired couples kept either from reaching the top where a single student was.
At the top, Draco had his elbows against the railing as he looked out over the night-covered surroundings. The stars were dimmed by the clouds that slunk across the sky slowly, propelled forward by the wind that kissed his cheeks as it blew past. It played along his arms and slipped through his clothes, chilling him to shivers.
But as cold as he got, he couldn't get himself to move.
"I could do it. I could do it right now and save them--save myself."
Draco turned his attention to the ground, dizzying himself at the sheer distance down. He laughed once, a sad, defeated sound.
"But that would require strength."
Draco wiped his face angrily, trying to turn his sadness to anger and failing.
"And I'm just a coward."
*******************************************
Rebecca opened her eyes the next morning and was surprised to find her bedroom around her. She didn't remember getting into bed. In fact, as she found her mouth to be drier than sand, she realised that she couldn't remember anything after talking to Nigel by the table of drinks. Her head didn't hurt, but it did feel like it was filled with fluff--like there was something slowing down the thoughts she managed and making it hard to see them clearly.
Making her way to a slouched sit, Rebecca groped for her glasses and found Ginny and Hermione staring at her. "What?"
"How do you feel?" Hermione asked with a mixture of tease and concern.
Rebecca thought a moment. "Thirsty."
"Thirsty?" Ginny laughed. "You drank enough for the entire house last night; you would have out-drank Bill!"
Rebecca had heard stories of Bill's beverage-related mishaps and could feel the embarrassment creeping across her face. "Really?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes, really. Hop to. The common room needs to be cleaned and you're in charge." Rebecca looked to Hermione for more explanation. "Rebecca, Nigel was tripping over himself up the stairs and singing about a 'black-haired pirate' spiking the punch."
"I do have a twin." Rebecca defended weakly as she stepped into the bathroom. "It might not have been me." Hermione ignored her and continued to get ready for the day. "Alright, alright. Does cleaning the common room mean I don't get the scolding?"
Hermione didn't say anything once again.
"Never mind."
*******************************************
"...and worst of all, you were entirely embarrassing!" Rebecca looked up as she put the last of the bottles into the bin under her arm, working around the common room. Harry's cheeks were red and he had his hands on his hips with such sass, even Dumbledore would have been impressed. "Now, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Rebecca stared at Harry a long moment before raising the wand he had given back to her earlier to scratch the side of her head. Harry's eyes widened, but he stood his ground. "I would have to say," Rebecca paused. "Well, you're in my way. That's what I'd say."
Harry stepped to the side so that she could put the bin back where it belonged. Hermione and Ginny were standing at the portrait hole together, both having watched from their vantage point on the side as Harry's lecture had gone on and on.
"Breakfast?" Rebecca asked over her shoulder, no hint of malice or discontent. "Or would that be too embarrassing for you?" The night before had been cathartic. Everything within her had been numbed for a short while and the result was such a reprieve that not even Harry's scolding could diminish it.
Harry rolled his eyes and followed her out of the portrait hole. Ron was still in bed, hiding from the light of day.
"Damn!" Rebecca rushed to the side of the corridor outside the entrance to the common room, crouching down next to the rendering she had done the night before. "You couldn't have preempted your thrashing with this? How many bloody people have walked by?"
"It's not like it's a secret," Hermione crossed her arms. "You and Fred."
"I'm also not some love-sick fool incapable of a little distance." Rebecca snapped, tapping her wand to her leg as she tried to think of a solution. "Bombarda contineb-"
"That will be enough." Professor McGonagall's voice ended Rebecca's spell before it could finish. "I'm shocked; you normally schedule your school desecration for after lunch." McGonagall looked down at the edge of the rendering peeking out from underneath Rebecca's shoes and robes. "Step back, please."
"Professor, that's not necessary. I-"
"Step back." Rebecca did as she was commanded and looked down. "I see." McGonagall could hardly believe the detail, the life in the memory.
"It was my fault, professor." Ginny had found the perfect excuse and felt no qualms at lying for Rebecca. "Late night technique question, you know."
McGonagall turned towards Hermione and pursed her lips at the obvious cover. "It is the duty of the prefect to keep all evening debauchery within the bounds of the common room, Miss Granger. Remember that next time." She returned her attention to the image. "I will handle this."
Rebecca wished it hadn't been as hard as it was for her to look away from the picture of Fred. "I'm sorry."
"For?" McGonagall waited for the others to move farther along on their way to breakfast before speaking so only Rebecca could hear. "I wish to see you after classes today, my office."
*******************************************
Care for Magical Creatures was a lonely experience in her sixth year, Rebecca found. No one else had continued on with it. Ron and Harry because they didn't want a class they didn't love to take time away from their other classes and Hermione because Arithmancy was only offered at the same time.
But, most of all, it was because she hadn't realised how little time she spent away from both the other three and Fred and George. There were students she knew in class. Hannah Abbott was still taking the course, as waere Neville and Luna--though Luna usually ended up observing the creature of the week with an intensity that didn't allow conversation.
"You mind?" Neville asked, motioning to the tree stump next to Rebecca. "Luna's...luna-ing."
Rebecca glanced ahead at how Luna was sitting cross-legged in front of the kneazle with books spread in a circle around her where she had moved other stump-seats. "I don't mind anyway." Rebecca turned the page in her textbook and told herself that she would go back and actually look at more than the illustrations even though she had no intention of doing so.
"Saw that on the floor this morning." Neville peeked at Rebecca out of the corner of his eyes, keeping his head turned towards his book. "How do you do it?"
"Was my lesson that unmemorable?" Rebecca offered him a small smile before shrugging. "I don't know. Not sure if you heard Harry of not, but I did 'over-indulge as he put it. Probably just thought it was a good idea at the time."
"I couldn't have not heard him." Neville chuckled before asking again. "No, I mean how do you put your memories out like that. I tried after class that year, there was always something off with mine. Your memories come out exactly as they were."
"Before Hogwarts," Rebecca said softly, not wanting the other students to hear but wanting Neville to have a piece of herself as he had given her with the information about his parents' fate. "I didn't know about magic. It was something that existed in stories or for little kids to pretend would everything or hope it could make people forget things." Her voice grew taut at the end. She had spent far too many years wishing to magically escape her childhood. "Then I get here, find a brother, learn about these things we can do and that--taking our memories--that has been the most mental thing."
Neville met her eyes and found they were darkened by something he couldn't place.
"Not the fact that Voldemort tried to kill us...has tried to kill us each year...but that we have a way to make our memories last forever." Rebecca sighed. "Stupid, I know."
"It's not stupid. Really, it's not."
Rebecca closed the book on her lap and stared ahead. "Feels it though. Doesn't matter how much you remember something if it's not there."
Neville went quiet for a moment. "That's why we remember things though, so that we have it when it's gone."
Rebecca chewed on the inside of her lip as she mulled over what he said. "That makes sense."
Luna dropped onto the ground in front of them both, her bag once again overflowing with her books. The snow poofed around her with the force of her landing and Neville laughed. "Finally done." Luna breathed a sigh of relief.
"Done what exactly?" Rebecca tightened the scarf Molly had given her for Christmas the year before around her neck. "And aren't you cold?"
"I've planned my essay and yes, very."
The clock up at the castle chimed, signifying the end of Hagrid's class and the end of Rebecca's classes for the day. "Let's head on up then." Rebecca pulled Luna to her feet. "Don't know why you'd sit in the snow."
Luna laughed and tapped her wand to her trousers so that the snow fell off. Rebecca walked with the two of them, listening as they joked and got along. Neville nudged Rebecca when he smiled and mentioned how he missed the Army.
"Yes, I do too." Luna pulled her bag farther up on her shoulder. "It was nice having friends."
"Luna!" Rebecca gasped, hoping Luna hadn't taken her quiet lately for dislike. "We are friends."
Luna looked at Rebecca a moment, startling clarity and intensity behind eyes usually far away. "I know what you did for me last year, you know."
"Then you know that we certainly are friends." Rebecca gave them both brief hugs and separated down the corridor towards McGonagall's office.
"What did she do for you?" Neville asked once Rebecca was gone and out of sight. Maybe Rebecca hadn't elaborated because she didn't want to remember.
"My belongings..." A frown threatened to cross Luna's face. "Sometimes some of the other Ravenclaws like to take my things and hide them. They don't like that I disagree with how they measure knowledge." The threat of a frown passed and Neville found Luna smiling like usual. "I think that wanting to learn is what is most important, more so than perfecting skills."
Neville smiled back. "I agree. But what does that have to do with Re-Oh, never mind. I can only imagine." Rebecca did not tolerate threats to people she cared about. Neville scratched the back of his neck, trying to be brave. "Do you want to-maybe, if you don't have anything else to do right now-stop by the greenhouse with me? I've got a Siberian Snow Orchid ready to bloom any day now."
Luna's smile grew. "My favourite of the Siberians."
*******************************************
"Tea?" McGonagall poured a cup for Rebecca without waiting for an answer. "Biscuit?"
"How many detentions?" Rebecca asked, holding her hands around the steaming tea and ignoring the biscuit for the time being. "For last night, I mean."
"None." McGonagall sipped her tea delicately before setting it back on its saucer. At the continued silence, Rebecca nibbled at the biscuit to avoid asking another question. "I am concerned about you." It's not like Rebecca was a stranger to detentions, not with the pranks she had been responsible for through the term so far.
"Did Harry ask you to do this?"
McGonagall ignored the question, though she wouldn't have answered it anyway. "Albus spoke to me about your last conversation. He was worried that you might have taken his swift dismissal as a-"
"Of course not." Rebecca shook her head. "He looked ill, that had nothing to do with anything." Rebecca brought her cup to her lips just so she had something to do, something to keep from shrinking under McGonagall's silent gaze. "Mostly nothing. I don't want to talk about it."
"I'm afraid you have no choice in the matter." McGonagall replaced Rebecca's finished biscuit with another. "Your behaviour is entirely out of character and too many people are concerned for you to be childishly insolent and 'not want to talk about it.'"
Rebecca scowled. "I'm just coming to terms with something."
McGonagall sat back farther in her chair, clearly listening and waiting for more.
"The Woolstone's Wood prophecy, I know how it ends." Rebecca's next words echoed through the emptiness filling her chest. "'A loss one cannot comprehend.' That's my family--that's Harry, the-"
"That is farce!" McGonagall interrupted sharply, still trying to return her heart to where it belonged instead of her throat where it had lept. "That prophecy has been said to belong to more witches and wizards over our history than any other because it is not true--it will never come to fruition."
"Professor, we know each other well enough to be honest." Rebecca kept her eyes turnt down. "Too much of it lines up with me; with things I've done." Rebecca stood, but still didn't meet McGonagall's eyes. "It's okay, I'm okay--I will be at least. I'm getting there." She closed her eyes. "Maybe...maybe I could have a hug though."
Minerva stood and wrapped Rebecca into a hug rivalling Molly's greatest, holding a hand to the back of the child's head that filled Minerva with flashes of her students' lost and a separate pain at the trials ahead.
"Professor?" Rebecca didn't move to leave the embrace, but she did look up at last. "I won't let anything happen to them. That is something I will not do."
McGonagall wished she could see into the mind looking up at her, to try and figure out what she was thinking and to offer as much strength as possible despite the fact that McGonagall didn't understand Rebecca's intentions with the statement.
Something settled inside of Rebecca during the hug, a resignation that brought with it peace. Rebecca realised she would bring about the end of ends; she would finish the prophecy and she would do what was needed of her as Wilhomena said.
But, when the time came and the cost would need to be paid, Rebecca would lay down her life before anything anything happened to those she loved.
*******************************************
"I didn't mean to get you in trouble!" Harry pounced the second Rebecca entered the common room. "I swear! I-"
"I'm not in trouble!" Rebecca shook her head and laughed--a real laugh the others hadn't heard in too long. "She must have decided against any detention since you scolded me so well this morning."
Harry gave her a sheepish smile and brought her over to where Hermione and he had been sitting.
"How about a game of chess?" Rebecca offered, not sure where the suggestion bubbled up from inside of her.
Harry turned and ran to the cabinet so he could have the game in hand and in the process of being set up before she could change her mind. Hermione glanced over the edge of her book at Rebecca curiously. "Chess? Are you feeling ill?"
"Ill? No." Rebecca sat in front of the fire opposite Harry and the board. "Mental? Probably."
Harry turned the board back and forth, it wouldn't lie flat and the pieces kept sliding as he set them down.
"Ginny?" Rebecca mouthed to Hermione, not seeing the object of the question anywhere in the common room.
Hermione shook her head and motioned out the portrait hole. Rebecca frowned, Ginny had to be out with Anthony. It wasn't that Rebecca had a problem with Anthony, not at all. There wasn't anything to have an issue with. Anthony was wholly and entirely boring. He didn't have a hobby, didn't have any interests, nor any preferences. He simply existed and Rebecca knew that Ginny deserved more.
"What is the matter-" Rebecca reached forward and unstuck the sweet wrapper from the edge of the board so that it would sit flat at last and Harry could continue with his setting up. "Thank you."
As soon as he was done, harry moved his first piece two spaces.
Rebecca looked over the figures and pointed to the strange tower. "How does this one move again?"
Harry explained slowly, not unkindly. He loved wizard's chess; the strategy of it, the trying to plan a defence for each and every one of your opponent's potential moves. But, most of all, he loved Rebecca.
Harry was worried about how she was getting on without Fred and George. Not because he didn't think she could handle a slight separation, that was the least of his concerns. No, Harry was worried because he had seen how close the three of them were. Rebecca wasn't just without Fred, she was without two of her best friends.
Harry and Rebecca, they studied together. They ate together. They managed quidditch together. But Harry had watched her disappear into the Room of Requirement on the map for hours at a time and he had spent more and more time pouring over the Half-Blood Prince's notes and the books Rebecca had given them.
Essentially, Harry realised, he was afraid they were growing apart. He had never had a sister before, he didn't know if this was something that happened no matter what or if he could stop it. Harry had considered asking Ron once, but didn't feel that he could. Harry also didn't want to give life to his greatest fear by speaking it; that Rebecca would realise he was nothing special and that she was better off just-
"Checkmate?" Rebecca asked, the game having continued through Harry's thinking. She gestured from her piece to Harry's trapped one. "Hermione, that's a checkmate, isn't it?"
Hermione sat forward to see the board and nodded. "I'm afraid it is, Harry."
Harry turned is head up to Rebecca with a smile growing by the second. "Congratulations!" He held his hand out over the board.
Rebecca went to shake it, but paused. "You didn't let me win, did you?" She wouldn't shake it until he had said he hadn't.
Harry looked at her and felt he was seeing Rebecca in a new light. The fact that she had integrity enough to not accept a win unless she earned it cementing this new, more-mature view. It occurred to him that Rebecca looked like an adult. Of course there were the traces of childhood--the carefree shrugging off of Hermione's homework reminder, the wicked grin as she tossed a small pouch to Nigel--but there was something else to her now too: A cloud that hung over her and cast a shadow of age and hidden thoughts.
Hermione nudged Harry's elbow after he had sat beside her in silence a worrying amount of time. "Feeling retrospective?"
Harry nodded, the word encapsulating his feelings perfectly. "Something like that."
*******************************************
<3