Chapter 13
"Get your hands off me, you filthy squib!" Draco tried to tear his arm out of the tight grip it was stuck in--but Filch's gnarled, almost-shackle like hold was unbreakable.
Rebecca rolled her eyes at the stance Nigel had taken, laying her hand on his shoulder and keeping him at her side instead of in front of her where he had been trying to go. "Down boy, down."
Nigel uncrossed his arms, but didn't let his glare directed at Draco fade in the slightest. Nigel didn't need to know whatever had happened between Malfoy and Rebecca, the fact that Harry's treatment of the other boy had gone from schoolground rivalry to blatant hatred was reason enough for Nigel--he had a job to do.
Unknown to Rebecca, Fred had spoken with Nigel one of the many afternoons Nigel had convinced his mother to bring him back. Nigel remembered the conversation fondly.
"Anything new yet?" Nigel hadn't seen any new additions to the shelves after running up and down the aisles masterfully. He had had the layout of the shop memories after his first visit.
"No, not just yet." Fred grinned at the sight of their most enthusiastic customer. "Nothing on the shelves just yet, at least." Fred stepped out from behind the counter and motioned for Nigel to follow him towards the little room at the back of the shop. "I'm glad you came by today. RJ's popped out for something or other and...I wanted to talk to you."
Nigel heard something strange behind Fred's voice and looked at him curiously. "Yeah, whatever you need. Once the Army, always the Army."
"It's not quite like that." Fred sighed and sat on the desk. "George and I won't be returning, not with the shop and all."
"But Rebecca is, right?"
"Yes, of course she is." Fred laughed before growing serious again. "I was hoping you would keep an eye out for her this year, for George and I."
Nigel looked over his shoulder quickly. "She wouldn't like this. She doesn't need anybody 'keeping an eye out.'"
"It's not like that, I know Rebecca's able to take care of herself just fine. It's-Things are changing, Nigel. The world is changing." Fred hoped Nigel didn't see the fear inside of eyes, but the determination Fred tried to hold on to. "I need to know that if push goes to shove, there'll be someone there doing what I would."
Nigel understood, but was still hesitant. "Shouldn't you ask Harry?"
"Why would I go and do something like that?" Fred smiled. "I need someone with red hair. We are the smartest, after all."
Rebecca's hand holding onto Nigel's wrist wrenched him out of his memory. Draco had caught Rebecca's eyes for a brief moment before turning his gaze to the floor. Nigel glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, knowing Fred wouldn't make a scene out of making sure she was okay, but found that her face was entirely blank--emotionless.
"I just discovered this boy luring in an upstairs corridor." Filch spat, holding Draco farther out by grabbing the neck of his shirt. "He claims to have been invited to your party."
Rebecca knew exactly where Draco had been, especially if he had been caught in an upstairs corridor. He had been in the very room she spent more afternoons inside of than not.
"Okay, okay!" Draco tried to pull himself free, panicking at the tightening of his clothes around his neck. "I was gatecrashing. Happy?"
Snape stepped forward from where he was watching the interaction carefully. "I'll escort him out."
Draco's stare up at Snape was filled with such disdain, it was the first hint to Rebecca that there was something off with the entire situation. Draco had had his differences with Snape as much an anyone else had--albeit nowhere near as may as Rebecca or Harry--but Draco was never so clear with his hatred. "Certainly, professor." Even as he spoke, there was a difference: Draco's tone dripped with malice.
"Alright, everyone!" Professor Slughorn waved his arms in the middle of the room. "Carry on, carry on!" The conversations around the room quickly built back up to the dull roar they had been at before the interruption.
Slughorn turned to his side, where Rebecca had last been with Nigel. "Where did she go?"
Nigel whirled around and found that not only was Rebecca not behind him anymore, but she was entirely out of his sight too. Nigel ran a hand through his hair and did the only thing he could think of: cover for her. "Loo. Said she'd be back in a moment though."
Harry was trapped between Luna and Hermione, both of which noticed how he had stared after the door Draco and Snape had exited moments earlier. "Don't even think about it." Hermione warned. "You don't need to cause any trouble. It'll find us anyway."
Harry relaxed as he saw Rebecca slip out the very door he wanted to. "You're right, Hermione." No matter what happened, Harry would know what the Slytherins spoke about later.
"Thank you!" Hermione glowed at such an easily earned admittance. "I tend to be, if you two would listen to me more often."
Outside, in the corridor adjacent to the one Draco and Snape were in, Rebecca had her back against the wall and her ears strained to catch their every word.
"Maybe I did hex that Bell girl. Maybe I didn't. What's it to you?" Draco's voice was flat, cruel and Rebecca's hand shot to her mouth. Katie had nearly died!
There was a scuff and then a catter and Rebecca thought that Snape would have been holding Draco up against the wall. She considered peering around the corner to chek, but didn't want to risk being caught before they were through talking. Rebecca needed to know now--she needed to know if Draco really was a Death Eater.
"I swore to protect you. I made the Unbreakable Vow."
Draco's responding words carried clearly through the empty hall. "I don't need protection. I was chosen for this. Out of all the others, me." There was a long pause. "And I won't fail him."
Rebecca heart felt like it was crawling into her throat. There was so much running through her mind. She knew what it felt like to be chosen for something you wanted nothing do with, she knew what it was like to be pressured by things and forces you had nothing to do with. But she couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Draco was actively doing whatever Voldemort had commanded him to.
"You're afraid, Draco." Snape's words drew Rebecca out of her downward-spiral. "You attempt to conceal it, but it's obvious. Let me assist you."
"No!" Draco couldn't hid all of the pain from his voice. He had to do this exactly as he was, alone. "I was chosen."
Stepping back into the party she hoped no one had noticed her absence in, Rebecca's mind was still a mess. It stayed that way until she, Nigel, Harry, and Hermione returned to the common room that night.
"Ready for Christmas?" Nigel asked, still trying to dray Rebecca out of the distracted state she had been in through the end of the party.
Realising they would be on the train going their separate ways before she knew it, Rebecca shoved her concern low enough to be present. "I'm sorry. I've been a horrible date, haven't I?"
Nigel grinned. "Considering you're taken already, I wasn't expecting much. Hope I was satisfactory?"
Rebecca punched his shoulder. She didn't know when he had grown up so much. "You've been brilliant, as you are. The flower was a nice touch." Rebecca wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him tightly, Nigel returned the favour by leaning down and wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Before letting him go, Rebecca turned her head and kissed his cheek. "Have a happy Christmas, Nigel."
Nigel righted himself as a blush spread across his cheeks. "You too."
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"He said 'Unbreakable Vow?'" Ron asked in the train compartment he, Harry, and Rebecca shared and ignored the fact that Rebecca rolled her eyes at his repeated question. "You're positive?"
Rebecca had her back to the window and her feet up on the bench towards the spot she insist remain empty in case Hermione joined them. By facing away from the window, Rebecca had hoped the snow falling and joining the already blanketed landscape wouldn't add to the chill that already crept into the train. "Yes, I'm sure. Why?"
Ron leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knee. "You can't break an Unbreakable Vow." Harry glanced at Ron from beside him, finishing the rest of his apple pasty but not enjoying it as he had been--something about Ron's tone was dark.
"I worked that part out myself, funnily enough." Rebecca quipped, much to Harry's chagrin. Hermione had told Rebecca to be nice so that the holidays went well, but then when she and Rebecca were walking past Ron and Lavender on the platform--Lavender had actually turned to Ron and asked if Molly wasn't able to let out the seams in clothes. Hermione had to pull her away from the situation before it could really grow, especially since Rebecca's clothes simply fit her. They weren't too big or too small, her jumper was that which she always wore and her shoes were the same trainers, too.
Lavender just wanted to rile Rebecca up.
"Try to have a good holiday." Hermione's warning echoed in Rebecca's mind and forcer her to repeat herself with a softer tone. "What's so special about an Unbreakable Vow, aside from the fact that it can't be broken?"
"You don't understand." Ron paled as he looked at the closed compartment door and Lavender had appeared to watch him. "Bloody hell." He whispered under his breath.
Lavender exhaled onto the glass of the door before tracing her finger in a large heart that she promptly filled with "R+L" and then surrounded with x's. "I miss you." She mouthed, leaving a final breath over the drawing to extend its life.
Harry spent the time through the awkward interaction wiping his hands on his trousers while Rebecca stared with a twist of disgust across her lips. When Lavender finally left, Rebecca turned to Ron. "Lovely."
Ron's face took on a strange mix of emotions; Rebecca wasn't sure if there was more happiness or fear. "All she wants to do is snog me. My lips are getting chapped, look!"
Harry laughed while Rebecca leaned farther away from Ron. "I'll take your word for it!"
Hermione paused at the door, her hand resting on the handle a moment before noticing the still-present work of 'art.' Rebecca grimaced and tried to motion towards the seat she had saved, but Hermione gave her a subtle shake of her head before continuing farther down the train.
Ron looked at his hands and said nothing. Rebecca sat up straight and stood, stretching all the way into a licorice wand from Harry's pile of sweets. She hadn't been expecting the usual chocolate wand exchange, not with the newest revelation and the incident in the Room of Requirement, but there was a feeling of loss that snuck over her at the end of their tradition.
"So what happens?" Harry asked quickly, not liking the two of them filled with such sadness. "What happens if you break and Unbreakable Vow?"
Ron's answer came after a moment of hesitation, not because he had to think about it but because he didn't want to give words to such darkness so close to Christmas. "You die."
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Rebecca excused herself from their compartment well before they were set to arrive, wanting to make her stops and be waiting by the exit before they approached Platform 9 3/4s. First thing she wanted to do was hunt down Nigel, Louis, and Yara. Luckily, finding one usually meant finding the others.
All three students were elated to see Rebecca, even more so when she revealed the three envelopes from her pocket. "Christmas presents are meant to be opened on Christmas." Rebecca warned as Louis lifted the flap slightly. "I would wait, if I were you."
"Wicked." Nigel knew he wouldn't be able to make it all the way to Christmas, even if just to find out what trap the envelope held. Rebecca patted his head before stepping out of their compartment, not needing to thank him again for Slughorn's party.
Still wandering down the length of the train, Rebecca eventually found Ginny sitting with Hermione, Luna, and Neville. Rebecca, seeing who was inside, opened the door without warning.
"Bloody hell! Ever hear of knocking first?" Ginny snapped.
"Yes?" Rebecca's confusion was evident.
"You should try it sometime!" Ginny left without another word.
Rebecca's mouth hung open in shock to Hermione. "The hell's this all about?"
Hermione stood up and hugged Rebecca tightly, wishing her a happy Christmas before anything else. "Anthony's been hunting her down the entire ride, not exactly catching the hint that she doesn't want to spend every waking second with him."
"Always something." Rebecca sighed before checking the time and leaving back to the hallway. "I would like to know how this train can't go any faster!"
The first year at the door stepped to the side slightly, allowing Rebecca a momentary glimpse out into the station. Rebecca reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears, closing her eyes for a beat or two of her racing heart.
"Ready?" Hermione couldn't help but feel happy for Rebecca. It had run a number on them all having no contact with their family, but Fred's lack of arrival had worried Hermione and Harry far more than they let on. They both had decided that Rebecca couldn't detect any doubt in them; her best friend and her brother. Hermione and Harry needed to stand as a united front.
Rebecca opened her mouth to answer at the exact moment the train doors hissed and opened. Hermione grinned and pushed Rebecca forward so that she was the first to hit the ground, and hit the ground running Rebecca did.
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Fred had spent the hour before the train was scheduled to arrive pacing back and forth, bouncing from foot to foot, generally driving George and Cedric batty. They had told him there was no point in getting there early, that he would only end up feeling as if he were waiting longer, but Fred refused to listen.
It had been days since Fred had said a word to Molly--the holder of nearly all his blame for not letting him go to the tunnel on the night he was supposed to.
Fred knew he could have gone if he wanted to, he was an adult by law. But the consequences were too great. Molly had laid down the ultimatum that if Fred were to go to the castle after being told no ttol, he would be forbidden from seeing Rebecca over the holidays. Molly went as far as to threaten to send him to Aunt Muriel's.
So Fred didn't go. Instead, he had given Molly the cold shoulder. By the time train rolled in, Fred's nerves felt like short-circuited bundles of electricity; his body seemed to hum in anticipation.
And yet, Fred couldn't help but smile as Rebecca tore off the train. She was turned away from him at first, searching the crowd for any face that looked familiar. Behind George and Cedric, Molly and Arthur apparated with Bill and Fleur seconds behind.
Rebecca found Fred across the platform. She noticed his hair was messy and his eyes were ringed by shadows that told her he hadn't been sleeping well, if at all. It didn't matter what she thought of felt at the sight of him, her body launched into motion as his did. They ran until they hit each other, a tangle of wrapping arms around the other so tightly it hurt even though they couldn't loosen their hold.
Fred cupped the side of Rebecca's face and kissed her desperately before burying his face into her neck and holding her against him.
Fleur glanced up at Bill, a smile playing on her lips.
"Pourquoi sourire?" Bill asked with a roll of his eyes. Try as Fleur had to learn English, Bill had tried French. One of them was clearly more successful than the other.
"I smile..." Fleur wrapped her hand in his, thinking and continuing unsurely. "I smile because this is right."
Bill nodded, knowing what she meant.
"Let's get them all out of here." Arthur looked over the quickly filling platform uneasily. As the others doled out minors, Arthur moved forward and laid a hand on Fred's shoulder. "Later, son. Get back first."
Fred reached out for Rebecca's hand, scanning her face as he did so. "Ready?"
There was an undertone to his question, but Rebecca nodded all the same. She was ready to be home.
Fred opted for them to appear outside the front door, wanting to try and warn her. "There's something you have to know."
"Why you didn't get to the tunnel?" Rebecca saw the flash of anger inside of him and took his hands in hers again. "I'm glad you didn't."
"What?"
"You didn't go because there was trouble, right?" Rebecca squeezed her hands around his. "Then by not going, you kept yourself--and I would imagine--everyone else, safe." An icy wind blew over them. "Can we go in? I can handle it, whatever it is."
Fred opened the door and stepped inside first, turning the light on so that the downstairs was illuminated more clearly.
The air inside of Rebecca's lungs left and refused to return, and Fred standing at her side was all that kept her on her feet. She had expected something, but not htis.
There, in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen, were Sirius and Remus.
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The Burrow dissolved into immediate madness; Rebecca and Harry swapped their usual roles, too. Harry was loudly demanding answers, statuses of health, while Rebecca held onto Sirius and Remus tightly.
Taking care not to touch skin, Sirius rubbed her back slowly while Remus held the back of her head. Fred lingered near them both, not paying the lunacy around them any mind but worrying about the uncharacteristic silence coming from Rebecca.
"QUIET!" Arthur finally shouted, his face reddening. "If you'd all be quiet for a moment, we could calmly discuss what's happened."
Harry and Ron followed the oldest Weasley into the dining room where Harry took a seat on the other side of Sirius, Rebecca on the other side of Remus. Fred slipped into the chair beside her, but only out of habit--Rebecca still had yet to see anyone besides the bruised, scabbed men who had been gone for months.
"Sirius and Remus were off for the Order, searching for something that could change the tide of the war." Arthur's explanation was halted as Sirius raised a hand lightly off the table.
"The Death Eaters are looking for it too." The side of Sirius' face towards Rebecca was a frightening shade of purple, and the little that could be seen poking out of the end of his sleeve showed a wrist just as scratched and cut as the rest of him. "Whatever it is." He sat back in his chair with a hand reaching up to hold his side as his ribs cried out at projecting his voice the little bit needed to be heard by all at the table.
"They didn't fail to leave a trap." Remus laid a hand on Sirius' leg and spoke for him. "That's where we've been."
"How did you get out?" Harry asked. "Where were you?"
"That was the trap, we were nowhere." Remus explained that the they had been trapped somewhere constantly changing its location. "That's why it took so long for the Order to find us; as soon as they had a trail, we were somewhere else entirely."
Rebecca tightened her hands into fists, fingernails cutting into palms painfully. Sirius and Remus had been gone for so long, hurting for so long and even now, and she hadn't even known.
Molly spoke in the silence that followed the agreed upon story of half-truths. "As for the post, the Ministry is scanning every owl that goes through now."
"And the Ministry?" Rebecca knew that her anger was misplaced, but she was angry all the same. "Are they his now? Voldemort's?"
Silence was the only answer offered, but it was an answer of itself.
"That's enough for now!" Molly clapped her hands and began a round of the table to inspect each child. "We are here, we are together, and we are going to eat!"
"Molly, please." Sirius held a hand to his stomach. "No more food." Nervous laughter spread, Sirius' complaints bringing the focus away from the precious topic and he and Remus' battered appearances.
"Not a word, Mister!" Molly paused behind Fred, her hand on going to his shoulder. Fred pushed his chair out and wrapped her in his arms, all that appeared around him being Molly's arms one second behind and then holding him just as tightly. "Trunks up and hands washed before supper!" Molly's voice was thick, and Harry and Rebecca pretended they couldn't see the dampness of her eyes.
Fred and George levitated the trunks so that their owners only had to guide them where they needed to go. Rebecca reached inside of hers to slip the shrunken trunks into her pocket to show after dinner, and then she looked over her shoulder where Fred lingered in the doorway. "You coming or not?"
Fred wanted nothing more than to hold her, but worried that there she needed space for the storm raging inside of her. Fred climbed into her bed slowly around her, pulling her back against his chest and wrapping his arms around her as completely as he could. "I wanted to go. I fought to go."
"I know." Rebecca rearranged herself so that she was facing Fred. He closed his eyes and laid his forehead on hers. "I would have, too."
"Oh no." Fred managed a little smile. "You would have gotten there no matter what."
"Let's not argue." Rebecca leaned her head back and pulled him into a kiss as desperate as she had wanted to kiss him since they saw each other last.
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Fred and Rebecca didn't leave each other's side a moment. Not through dinner, not through clean up, not as the adults settled in the living room around them. They were inseparable, and they loved every second of it.
Fred laughed as she told him how the new beaters hardly knew how to swing a bat, he frowned as he told her how he and George had hit a dry spell for ideas. "I wouldn't worry about that." Rebecca said ominously before glancing towards the hall.
Fred stood up and grabbed her hand, sending George a look across the living room that made him and Cedric follow after them.
Harry had his back to the couch, seated on the floor in front so that he had Sirius over one shoulder and Remus over the other. Harry couldn't help but smile as they left. He thought it was funny, in hindsight, to think about some of the rows he had made between he and Rebecca over Fred. Now, seeing how much less she was when they were apart--Harry would be fine if they were never separate again.
Molly shook her head as the four of them clomped up the stairs noisily, knowing exactly what they were disappearing to discuss. Seeing Fred out of the clouds that had followed him around though, it left her equally as sentimental as Harry was.
Fred and George gathered up the random collection of things from the middle of their room and tossed them into a pile to the side, ignoring the eye rolls from Cedric and Rebecca at the 'cleaning.'
Cedric scooted his hand so that it brushed against Rebecca's. "I'm glad you're back."
"Nowhere near as much as I am." Rebecca gave him a glimpse into her elation and tried to restrain enough of it so that he wasn't entirely overwhelmed.
"I don't think anyone could be!" Cedric laughed and moved his hand away.
"Are you showing us something or are we going to sit and wait all day?" George asked, jumping onto his bed and laying on it so that he could lay his head on Cedric's shoulder where he and Rebecca sat on the floor.
"Are you going to grow these or are we going to look at two shrunken trunks all day?" Rebecca returned the very sass she had been given, gesturing to the trunks in her hand.
Fred held his wand over one and then the other after they were laid in the now-cleared floor in the center of their room. George muttered something to Cedric that made him turn his head and kiss George's forehead with a smile.
"Now, a warning-" George groaned loudly at the interruption. "Everything's been tested, but most still needs a good name." Rebecca shrugged sheepishly. "Seems I lose my touch without you lot."
Fred crossed his legs and sat beside the trunk Rebecca moved to, watching how she came to life as she took things out and showed them off. She spread things out as she sorted them, explaining what each did in a conversation that went much longer than any of them originally thought; though, the attention of the room never wavered.
"This here? A favourite of Nigel's already." Rebecca held the little bird to her lips deviously. "Say, George. Still feeling cheeky?"
George jumped up. He knew the glint in her eyes all too well. "Rebecca, Becs, RJ...let's not be hasty now. All in good fun, yeah?"
Rebecca nodded her head to the door. "I'll give you five seconds."
Fred eyed the little metal shape quizzically.
"Five! Four! Three!" George's footsteps echoed down the stairs. "I have a feeling you'll like this one, darling." Rebecca whispered George's name and tossed the shiny metal bird-ball into the hall where it skittered noisily.
"Wotcher!" Tonks' shout made the three of them hurry faster down the stairs. "George," She scolded. "You'll kill someone barrelling around like that!"
Rebecca paused at the bottom of the stairs, Tonks pulling her into a hug. "Ah, you're here already. I take it you're what he's running from?"
Rebecca's denial was weak, but it didn't help her case that she couldn't stop smiling. "Oh no, not me."
"Whatever it is, I want one." Tonks held her hand out expectantly. "Black turned my hair red and I haven't gotten him back last week."
They all moved to the back door as they talked to watch how George sprinted around the snowy garden in strange shapes to deter whatever was chasing him. "What's wrong with red hair?" Rebecca asked. "Couldn't you turn it right back?"
"Not trying to hurt my feelings now, are you?" Fred gave Tonks a wry smile before turning back to Rebecca. "Love, what exactly does this do?"
"It's a surprise." Rebecca pulled one out of the pouch and handed it to Tonks.
"Thank you!" Tonks rolled her eyes up at Fred. "And yes, I did turn it right back. It's the principle."
Cedric followed Tonks away, the Hufflepuffs had found camaraderie in the house full of Gryffindors and Cedric knew this wouldn't be the first prank to chase after George during the holidays.
George stopped and stood in the snow, resigning himself to whatever fate awaited him. "DAMN!" He shouted, jumping and stopping his feet until whatever had latched onto his toes released him.
"Toe biting?" Fred laughed and leaned against the doorframe as George bent to the ground to make a snowball. "That's a new one." Fred waved his wand lazily so that the snowball George launched at them hit an invisible barrier a few feet ahead.
George scowled and hurried back to the house as Molly scolded him for going out without shoes on.
Rebecca stood between Fred's legs and leaned back against him, looking up at him and smiling as his arms looped around her and rest against the small of her back.
Both Fred and Rebecca thought the same thing. "I'm home."
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