Chapter 6
"I owe you both an apology." Angelina admitted days later. "I shouldn't have been so hard on you, it's just...Oliver was a great captain." She nodded her head slowly, shrugging slightly. "He left behind a lot to step up to." Harry and Rebecca gave a little smile as Angelina reached her arm out to grab Ron as he tried to walk by. "But nothing to fear! Gryffindor's got a new keeper and practise starts next week. I trust there won't be anymore detentions and you'll both be there?"
Rebecca nodded, "There won't be anymore."
Harry finished. "And we'll be there."
Angelina left the fifth years to their conversation, and Rebecca mustered up all the enthusiasm she had. "Congratulations!"
Ron beamed under the praise. "Thanks!" He nudged Hermione. "Tell them, Hermione! Tell them how well you said I did." Hermione rolled her eyes, but began retelling his tryout as requested.
Fred and George pulled Rebecca aside slightly. George waving their sales log happily. "Want to make some rounds?"
The snackboxes had been selling like mad, but the other students made a point of only purchasing through Fred or George. Rebecca had yet to make a single sale at all--it didn't help that the Prophet continued spewing misconstrued facts and blatant lies every day. Just that week, Rebecca had been to blame for three separate robberies, kidnapping, and the always-repeated murder of Jane.
"Maybe," Rebecca offered quietly as Lavender came down the girls' stairs with the last vestiges of Rebecca's bruise on her cheek. "Maybe we could just play a game of Exploding Snap?"
"Of course!" Fred said quickly, hopping on any suggestion of hers that had their trio together. The three disappeared up the stairs, Harry watching them all the while.
"You two in a row or something?" Hermione asked curiously as Ron continued to talk about Quidditch, failing to notice Harry and Hermione's distracted states.
"It's just about time." Harry muttered.
Hermione sighed as Ron grew quiet and they were blanketed in the awkward silence they three couldn't seem to escape. "Your mum, Ron, helped me a lot over the summer." Hermione reached into the bag by her feet and pulled out a large ball of yarn. "She's given me things to get started and I've nearly got enough hats done to start leaving them for the house elves." S.P.E.W. was ever on Hermione's mind.
"You're knitting?" Ron asked in shock. "Hermione! You're fifteen, not fifty!"
"It's a noble craft that provides useable product!" Hermione argued back.
"No!" Ron raised his voice too. "It's what old women do to fill the time!"
Harry didn't join in their argument, staring into the fire. His head was beginning to ache and a line of fire ran through his scar--preempting the horrible, horrible thought of throwing them both off the couch. "What the hell, Harry?" He scolded himself as the pain in his scar faded. "What's wrong with you?"
Upstairs, Fred pulled out the cards and spread them around in between the circle the three of them cross-legged on the floor made. George was trying to make them laugh by only speaking in rhyme, Fred joining seconds later.
Their game--both of words and of cards--continued until Fred said 'orange.'
"Pourange?" George offered, grabbing his next card and jumping as it detonated in his hand. Rebecca and Fred laughed as George's soot-covered face scrunched up. "I better have my eyebrows still." He said crossly as he stood, going to wash his face.
Fred couldn't help but sneak looks of Rebecca's dwindling laugh as they began to clean up the cards.
"Something on me?" Rebecca asked, wiping her face with her sleeve.
"No!" Fred said quickly, caught. "I just-" He looked down at his hands and couldn't help but smile. "I like hearing you laugh again."
Rebecca leaned forward and kissed him quickly.
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They were gliding over the black and white tiled floor again, together. Harry's body jerked in his bed, Rebecca frozen. The only part of her body she could get to move were her fingers gripping her blankets as tightly as she could.
The dream was just like the first, only bits of dark hallways and shelves of crystal balls.
"Come...to...me..." A voice whispered, sounding as if it came from their own mouths--a mouth both Harry and Rebecca were sharing. "Join...me..."
Rebecca's eyes flitted behind her eyelids, their surroundings changing to different views of a single crystal ball on a shelf.
"You will...join...or you will...die." The voice spoke once more, softly but rising to a scream that echoed in their heads. "JOIN!"
Harry shot up in his bed coated in a sweat like he had every time he had had one of the dreams. His roommates had gotten used to the disturbance, Ron the only one to still notice or care. "Mate?" Ron asked nervously.
"Don't." Harry said, standing up and going into the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and laid on the cool floor, finding a peace in the chill. He let his eyes close later.
Across the tower, Rebecca was trapped asleep. She wasn't able to look into the future, but she wasn't able to wake herself either. She and Harry might still be refusing to admit to the other that they knew the dreams were happening again, but neither could deny the other's presence whenever they happened.
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Harry sat in the common room Saturday morning, a blank piece of parchment on the table in front of him and an unmoving quill in his hand. The rest of the common room congregated by the fire opposite the room and the first people to sit with him were Hermione and Rebecca.
"Morning!" Hermione said cheerily, glancing at the parchment. "Writing a letter--to whom?"
Harry's eyes flashed with anger at the prying, but he contained himself and it faded almost instantly. He looked around and answered softly, "Padfoot."
"Why?" Rebecca asked. She was wondering if Harry was going to admit that his scar had been paining him as hers had, if Harry was going to bring up the dreams they were sharing.
"I..." Harry gave in. It had been over two weeks and he missed the two of them telling each other things. Harry was going to be the first to share. "My scar has been bothering me and, I also wanted an update on the Order."
Hermione looked between the two Potters, finding far more to the conversation in the looks they were giving each other. "Your scar has been hurting too, hasn't it?"
Rebecca looked anywhere but Hermione's eyes. "Maybe."
"This is exactly the kind of thing you both should have told us immediately!" Hermione lowered her voice, though she just wanted to scream at the two of them. "But, you can't write to Padfoot. If your owl gets intercepted...it could mean information falling into the wrong hands. What about Dumbledore?"
Harry and Rebecca shook their heads, and Rebecca had an idea that might very well be a solution. "Write your letter, I'll put it in with mine next to Fleur."
Harry scrunched his nose. "I don't need Fleur, though. I want to talk to Si-Padfoot."
Rebecca nodded. "Yes, I know." She forced herself to not call him a name, as if she didn't know who he wanted to write a letter to. "Fleur works with Bill, that's how she got her first letter to me originally. Bill can always bring that to where you want to get it."
Harry put his head back to the parchment and began to write, shielding his words from the girls and tuning out Hermione and Rebecca's ensuing conversation. He focused as he tried to think of how to code the message just in case it was intercepted, not wanting anything to befall Bill or Sirius because of it.
"Padfoot,
I hope you're alright. It's starting to get colder here--Winter is coming. In spite of being back at Hogwarts, it doesn't feel like it normally has. I feel alone, more so than ever, I think. I know you will understand better than anyone.
Even Rebecca and I, we're off balance. She's keeping things from me and we never would have done that before. I've been closing myself off too, though. The Prophet isn't helping. We cancelled our subscription the second we arrived, but ever since we've gotten here they have continued to latch onto her past.
I don't care what they say about me. I wish they'd focus back on me, in fact. I don't think Rebecca is as okay as she is saying, Fred has noticed that she is off too. I think I know what to do about her, and I know you would agree with me. I am going to have to do what she has done for me before who-knows-how-many-times: I need to put her first.
As much as I'm positive you love all this nonsense, I do have a reason for writing. Lightning has been striking near the castle nearly every night, both sides of the tower. We weren't sure if you knew anything about any strange weather that makes its way about or what could cause these lightning bolts.
Harry"
Harry felt better than he had in ages as he finished the letter, resolute in his decision to fix things on a larger scale than he had been with Rebecca. He folded the letter smaller than he would have normally, to make it fit into that which was going to Fleur, and stuck it in his back pocket as he stood. "Would you like to go on a walk?"
Rebecca's face didn't change at the invitation, but she was surprised. "Yes, I think I would."
Hermione smiled at the two of them and shook her head when they both asked if she would like to join them. "You two go on, I've got a problem here to deal with."
"What could you have to deal with this early on a Saturday?" Harry asked, slightly amused.
Hermione glanced over their shoulders where yet another sign for test subjects had appeared. "Rebecca, I suggest you get going before Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum come down. This could get ugly."
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Harry and Rebecca walked slowly, letting their feet decide their path for the most part as Hedwig wasn't due back in the Owlery until later that day.
"Touch of a chill, isn't there?" Harry asked as they left the castle's doors off towards Hagrid's hut.
"Colder than it normally is this time of the year." Rebecca agreed. She was silent until they passed Hagrid's door, the hut on the other side as empty as it had been since the school year had started. She missed him--his classes as well as the conversations they had all gotten used to having with him after lessons were through. "You think he's okay, wherever he is?"
Harry thought it over before answering, knowing she would be able to tell if he was lying to pacify her. "I do. I really do."
Rebecca sighed and walked on, nearing the edge of the lake. "That's good enough for me then."
Harry stopped and turned towards the forest, keeping his eyes ahead of him. "What happened this week?"
Rebecca stepped towards the forest with him. "I don't know." She began to walk forward, the path worn due to classes of Magical Creatures trekking this way often. "Maybe this has just been us getting back into the swing of things or-I'm not sure. Umbitch doesn't help though; foul, miserable pink toad."
Harry walked closer beside her, agreeing entirely with her description of the pink hell they had come to know their professor to be. "I know. But-" Harry worried he was going to far, but had to speak honestly. "I also think part of this, understandably, had been the Prophet."
Rebecca's face shut off, she felt it slide on. "It's not. It doesn't matter what they publish, they're all liars."
Harry pushed on. "You're right, but wrong too." He sighed, nothing was coming out as he meant it to. "I mean, they are lies but they matter because they're upsetting you?"
Rebecca glanced at him, amused at how he tripped over himself. "It's alright."
"It's not alright," Harry shook his head. "Just like it wasn't alright when I called you names. You're not an idiot. The Prophet, that's where the idiots are."
"I know." Rebecca grabbed Harry's hand. "Thank you."
"They are rather dull, aren't they?" Luna called out from the clearing ahead, her voice lofty and dream-like as ever. "I never read the Prophet, not since they put out an issue a few years ago 'disproving' nargles. Haven't read them since."
Rebecca and Harry stepped into the next clearing to find the strange Ravenclaw from the cart barefoot and petting one of the skele-horses from the ride.
"What?" Harry asked, realising too late that Luna was adding to their conversation.
Rebecca was too distracted by Luna's bare feet to comment any further on the previous topic. "What are you doing all the way out here? Barefot, at that--aren't you cold?" Rebecca shrugged off her coat instantly, her jumper underneath more than sufficient for the walk back to the castle.
"A bit." Luna didn't look away from the face of the creature as Rebecca placed her coat around her shoulders. "All of my shoes have mysteriously disappeared." Luna turned to Rebecca and leaned closer, whispering to share a secret. "I suspect nargles are behind it."
Harry and Rebecca watched as the horse-creature shook his shoulders, unfurling its wings slightly. Then, it walked away.
"What are they?" Harry asked curiously.
"They're called thestrals." Luna answered. She could sense that the question had been burning in Rebecca as well, though the older girl wouldn't ask. "They're quite gentle, really. People just avoid them because they're a bit..."
Rebecca smiled as a baby thestral popped its little head over the crest of the hill ahead, sliding on the freshly-fallen leaves to scamper towards them. "Different?" Rebecca offered. "Why can only some of us see them?"
Something had relaxed in Rebecca, Luna could see it as clear as she could see a lot of things. "They can only be seen by people who have seen death up close." (Note: I have changed this slightly. Technically, it's any who have seen death but if Rebecca 'died' at the second task, everyone watching would be able to see thestrals. That is why I have amended this.)
Rebecca's heart froze in her chest as she realised exactly where Fred would have seen death, at the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry was disturbed by the turn the conversation had taken, as if Rebecca needed any invitation to darker thoughts after everything that had been dragged up. In his desperation to bring the subject away, he turned to Luna. "So, you've seen known someone who's died then?"
Luna answered without pause, not bothered by the intrusive question. "My mum. She was quite an extraordinary witch, but she did like to experiment. One day, one of her spells went badly wrong. I was nine."
"I'm sorry." Rebecca said honestly. There wasn't a right age to lose a parent, but nine was certainly too young.
Luna straightened her shoulders. "I get very sad about it sometimes, but I've got dad. We both believe you, by the way." Harry and Rebecca's eyes widened at the explanation that followed. "We both believe the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back and that Harry fought in him the tournament, and that the Ministry and the Prophet are conspiring against you two and Dumbledore." Luna glanced at Rebecca. "But I don't believe that you collapsed from stress when he and Cedric returned, after the wall had been put up and taken down between the pitch and the watchers. I'm not sure why, but I know it isn't true."
Rebecca steered the conversation away, once again wondering how much more Luna noticed than she let on. "You two are about the only ones who believe us then."
"I supposed that's how he wants you to feel." Luna reached into the bag at her side, the bag partially covered by Rebecca's coat. She pulled out an apple and rolled it to another baby thestral that appeared over the hill. "If I was You-Know-Who, I'd want you to feel cut off from everyone else. If it's just the two of you, you're not as much of a threat."
Rebecca was silent as Luna and Harry exchanged meaningless chatter on the way back to the castle, feeling that something was building inside of her until it had to come out or she would burst. "I didn't kill her, the woman the Prophet's been saying I did." Rebecca thought that Harry would know that, but she wanted Luna to understand. "I was in a car accident with her. I wasn't a teenager with her, I was a child. A very young child--the accident was when I was six."
Luna caught Rebecca's eyes, staring with an aloof alertness. "Does it sadden you? Being called a murderer?"
Rebecca was stunned by the question and Harry held his breath, fearing violence. "No, I don't think it does." Rebecca looked away, focusing ahead of them. The wetness forming at the corner of her eyes could have been mistaken for an effect of the wind, but Harry knew better. "I just wish they had left her alone. Jane never should have been touched, never disturbed."
Luna walked alongside Harry and Rebecca until they reached the corridor to the Owlery. "Well, you two have letters to send and I should be going. Have to find the nargles, after all."
"We haven't said anything about letters." Harry said, tilting his head slightly.
"You both have a letter in your back pockets, I noticed when I was walking behind you. Only reason to carry a sealed envelope is to send it or to wait to respond, but I've seen you open your letters in the Great Hall and neither of you are able to open one without tearing it to pieces." Luna smiled. "Good day!" She walked away without another word.
"It's frightening how much she notices while seeming so..." Harry trailed off as they began to climb the stairs.
"Day-dreamy?" Rebecca offered.
"Exactly." Harry smiled and grabbed the door to the main room, the hoots of owls filling the air.
"Harry! Rebecca!" Cho greeted them warmly, walking towards them. "How are you?"
Harry glanced at Rebecca before answering honestly. "Better than we have been. You?"
"I'm good, I'm good."
Rebecca wasn't sure what to talk about as she had never really past pleasantries with Cho before. "Have you seen Cedric?"
Cho's face fell slightly. "Cedric's asked to spend some time apart, that he's not able to commit himself entirely."
Harry forced his elation away and tried to sound concerned. "Really?"
Rebecca rolled her eyes at his poorly hidden feelings. "That's too bad, Cho. I'm sorry."
"I'm okay, actually." Cho shrugged. "I'm surprised he said something and didn't just lead things on endlessly."
Rebecca smiled and faced Hedwig, patting her snowy white head gently. "He's a surprising bloke."
Harry started talking to Cho while Rebecca fastened their letters to Hedwig's leg and realised that there was another opportunity to do something good that morning. "We have a question for you, if you don't mind Cho."
"We do?" Rebecca asked, turning back to them as Hedwig took off.
"What's happened to Luna's shoes?" Harry was glad that Rebecca immediately nodded.
"'Nargles' again?" Cho said with a sigh. "It's this group, they think they're funny, but they're not. Just cruel, the lot of them."
"You know who it is though?" Rebecca asked.
Cho nodded. "They don't even try to hide it!"
Rebecca smirked. "I've got some sweets you can pass on to them. That is, if you think they're really being cruel."
Cho grinned--everyone had heard the whispers about the sweets, and everyone had heard that they were being made by two Weasleys and a Potter that lived with them. "I do think so."
The girls quickly coordinated a time the next day they would be able to swap, Cho insisting that Rebecca take a book in return. "I'll look through my library--I'm sure I've got something that will suit you!"
Their conversation was halted when the door to the Owlery was thrown open with enough force to send owls into a frenzy, Filch barging in shouting. "Potter! Where's the order?!"
Harry's stomach dropped. "What?"
"The dung bomb order! There's been a tip that you're up here placing an order for dung bombs!" Filch eyed them all carefully.
Cho looked at Filch with the same level of incredulity that Rebecca was. "They sent a letter, not an order?"
Filch narrowed his eyes on Rebecca and Harry. "Letter? To who?"
"Is our mail now a public affair?" Rebecca asked angrily.
"Watch your tone, girl."
Harry crossed her arms in front of him. "You can't very well inspect it after it's sent, now can you?"
"Listen here, you're talking yourselves right back into deten-"
An idea blossomed in Rebecca's head and words began to poor out of her mouth. "It was me, I needed to write to Mrs Weasley. It was urgent."
Filch glared on. "What's so urgent you had to send it off this early on a Saturday?"
Rebecca looked to the ground, mind racing but hoping she came off as embarrassed. "It's sort of a private issue."
"What?" Filch asked, not understanding.
Rebecca sighed and had to focus on keeping her composure as she saw that Cho was just barely managing to not laugh at what she thought Rebecca was going to say. "Menstruation is a complicated subject and I felt more comfortable talking to her instead of Madam Pomfrey." Rebecca furrowed her brow, looking confused. "But, if you feel knowledgeable enough in anatomy, I can ask you my questions about-"
"That's enough!" Filch shouted, slapping his hands to his ears as if he were hearing a curse. He backed out of the room and ran down the stairs as quickly as he had climbed them. Mrs Norris gave the three kids a hiss before sauntering after her owner.
Harry and Rebecca laughed together loudly with Cho as their fear dissolved into relief. When a Ravenclaw appeared in the doorway, she glanced between Cho and the twins carefully before hurrying forward and speaking to Cho quietly.
Cho shook her head. "I've got to go." She walked with the other girl to the exit and turned around, waving goodbye. "It was good to talk with you both!"
"Are you able to walk to breakfast?" Harry asked, trying to act serious again. "Or are your issues holding you back?"
Rebecca laughed again. "You should be on your knees thanking me! I could have said you had to write to Arthur for any number of male issues, but I figured you wouldn't appreciate that in front of Cho."
Harry's voice jumped an octave in the stairwell. "What?"
Rebecca rolled her eyes and waved him along to hurry up. "Let's just get to breakfast. I think we need to see our friends."
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"Do you ever stop eating?" Hermione asked, eyeing Ron with repulsion evident--a repulsion Ginny copied identically. When all of them were exceptionally worried about Harry and Rebecca, Ron was shoveling his fourth sausage in his mouth while idly reading through a pamphlet.
"I'm hungry?" Ron said, confused by both of the girls were looking at him like that. "Rebecca, Harry!" Ron sat up straighter as the two walked towards them. Harry and Rebecca hadn't willingly joined any of them for a meal all year.
Hermione gave them both a small smile, feeling that something had changed. "Good walk?"
Harry glanced at Rebecca and nodded. "Can we join you?" He moved to sit down beside Hermione, but voices raising outside of the Great Hall made him halt.
"Pardon me professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?" Umbridge's voice pierced the air, McGonagall being chased by the pink woman up the stairs she had been marching astride.
"I am merely requesting," McGonagall stared down from a step above at the already-shorter woman, "That when it comes to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practises!"
Fred and George had entered the Great Hall and found all of the tables they and their friends called theirs empty, and then heard shouting from outside. Both looked at each other with paling faces before hurrying out. Luckily, the shouts weren't directed at any of those very friends that they couldn't find and they stood beside Hermione and Ron behind Harry and Rebecca.
"Silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, Minerva." Umbridge stepped up a step, trying to minimise the difference between them.
McGonagall stepped up again, keeping that distance. "Not at all, Dolores. Merely you medieval methods."
Umbridge scoffed. "I'm sorry, dear. But to question my practises is to question the Ministry, and by extension, the Minister himself. I am a tolerant woman, but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty."
McGonagall took a step down, a step closer to her students. "Disloyalty." She echoed, in awe at the audacity of this woman.
Umbridge turned and addressed the group that had formed. "Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared. Cornelius will want to take immediate action." Her eyes settled on Rebecca, and then Harry, before she walked away.
McGonagall didn't waste a moment after Umbridge left them, she walked down the stairs and held her hands out towards Harry and Rebecca without saying a word. Both lowered their eyes and offered their scabbed hands. McGonagall--one who prided herself with control in all situations--gasped at the sight.
"We made a healing salve." Hermione offered, her voice slowly trailing away at the look McGonagall gave her.
McGonagall turned and looked over the group, pausing on Fred and George before she spoke again. "I expected more from you two." McGonagall shook her head, "I should have been alerted the very first night, certainly not a week later by a concerned classmate!"
McGonagall released Rebecca and Harry's hands and looked at them disappointedly before turning and leaving them in the hall. Fred moved instantly, standing in front of Rebecca as McGonagall had been seconds before but with none of the judgement and anger. "You forgot this upstairs." Fred said quietly, taking the tin he had made for her out of his pocket and handing it to her.
Rebecca remembered how the morning had gone with Harry, how the world had been made more clear and more sensical as soon as they had let each other in. Rebecca undid the top of the tin and held it back out to Fred, looking up at him and hoping her face was saying everything she couldn't get her mouth to.
Fred nodded once, and took a dab of the salve to the back of her hand as gingerly as he could.
"Breakfast?" George asked them all, herding them back into the Great Hall. "I'm positively famished."
"Me too!" Ron agreed.
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"RJ?" Fred called from the opposite end of the couch they were on. Their backs faced the arms and their legs were tangled in the others across the middle.
"Yeah?" Rebecca asked, not looking up from the book she had open against her knees as she had opted to take the afternoon to catch up on some of the homework that she had fallen behind on during the week.
"It's four." Rebecca cursed and looked at the clock, finding that Fred was entirely correct. "We could always stay. It's not like Harry and George can't handle it." Ron had been asking them all for days to head to the pitch with him so that he could get some extra keeping practise in.
"We said we would go though." Rebecca's fingers drummed on the cover of her book. "I don't want Ron to think we're bailing."
Fred smiled at the normalcy of their conversation, how brilliant it felt to be there with her. "Oi! Ron?!"
"What?" Ron answered, running down the stairs with George and Harry right behind him.
"Two's more than enough to practise with, yeah?"
Ron nodded, a little relieved honestly. Rebecca was a chaser, a good one at that. At least with George and Harry trying to score, Ron would feel that he had a shot. "Of course! Just a little warm up anyway."
Rebecca waved as they congregated around the couch before leaving. "Thank you!"
Fred smirked and looked at Ron with a troublesome look in his eyes. "You probably don't want a seasoned scorer like her shooting on you just yet."
Ron, who would never admit that he had just been thinking the same thing, responded. "Shut up."
The three boys ran to the portrait hole, Hermione and Ginny chasing after them. Fred and Rebecca remained on the couch as they were: Rebecca working and Fred alternating between observing Rebecca and pretending to read his textbook.
"Do you want to work upstairs?" Fred after he read the chapter's title for the third time and still didn't understand. "Too many distractions down here."
Rebecca looked around slowly. They were two of the handful of students in the common room. "Erm, yeah? Sure, if it's too...distracting down here?"
Fred thought that upstairs he would be able to better focus, since his desk was so much more studious than the couch, but he was wrong. Rebecca had her back to his head board and had continued to focus in the breathtakingly way she had downstairs. Fred soon abandoned the pretense of reading and simply studied her.
"Fred?" Rebecca said confused. "You're staring again."
"Am not." Fred's head whipped back to his book, but it gravitated back to her in seconds.
"Fred!" Rebecca laughed, saving her page and turning to look at him. "I can't think with you staring at me!"
"I can't think with you sitting right there!" Fred countered, joining her on his bed. "And that's entirely your fault."
"Then I guess there will be no thinking." Rebecca closed her eyes as Fred wrapped his arms around her, his heartbeat filling her ears. "I'm glad you and George made it out of Hermione's scolding unscathed."
Fred shuddered. "We almost didn't. She can be so scary, you're just lucky she warned you beforehand."
"I can only imagine." Rebecca giggled. "So no more fliers?"
"No more testing." Fred smiled. "But we don't really need the advertisement any more. Word of mouth is taking off. We have enough stock aside we should be okay for a while."
"And we are okay." Rebecca said quietly. "And I know you won't let me-"
"So don't." Fred said, kissing the top of her head. "I don't want to hear the s-word." Fred was quiet a moment before taking advantage of the privacy they had. "I actually had something I wanted to say to you."
"Yeah?" Rebecca asked, looking up at him.
Fred nodded and continued on. "Thank you for telling me about the story behind the horse and all, but you didn't need to. You don't have to tell me anything, you don't owe anyone an explanation or anything. I wanted to make sure I didn't pressure you."
"No!" Rebecca said quickly, sitting up. "No, of course not!"
"Okay, okay." Fred nudged Rebecca back down beside him and felt her body relax slowly.
"I wanted-" A lump in Rebecca's throat forced her to stop and try again. "I wanted to tell someone about...Jane." Fred stayed quiet, knowing that Rebecca would speak when she knew what she wanted to say. "Her hair was light--very light and straight as a pin."
Fred ran his hand up and down Rebecca's back idly, listening carefully.
"I was so young, there's not a lot I remember about her." Rebecca's mind was filled with memories swirling to and fro. "She had a rocking chair that she would sit me on her lap every day, to watch the cars go past or she'd read to me."
"Those sound like good memories." Fred felt more hiding behind her words, a darkness that would follow that light, but let those secrets lie untouched.
"She'd always sing 'You are my Sunshine' before bed." Rebecca said with an air of finality. There would be nothing else she shared, not today.
"Love?" Fred held Rebecca tighter. "I love you."
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When Monday arrived at last, Rebecca was swept into cheerful chatter between Hermione and Ginny as they made their way down the stairs. She and Harry had been spared the horrid dreams two nights in a row, a gift that had both Potters in positively peppy moods.
"Good morning!" Rebecca called loudly from between Fred and George where she had gotten without either noticing.
George narrowed his eyes at her, holding his hand to his chest. She had made them both jump. "What's wrong with you? You don't act like this before breakfast, especially not on a Monday." Fred, loving her enthusiasm, only smiled and raised an eyebrow to reinforce George's questioning.
"It's a sunny day out, homework's all done, quidditch starts soon..." Rebecca linked her hand in Fred's and was the first of their group to step out of the portrait hole. "Let's get on!"
Her attitude was contagious and Fred caught it quickly, skipping alongside her and twirling her about down the corridors to the Great Hall where, when they finally made it, the two sat identically out of breath and red-cheeked. Harry and Ron sided their breakfast with jests at the two of them and were still making fun as the owls began delivering the mail.
A letter dropped in front of Rebecca and Ron. Rebecca tore hers open as per usual, leaving a mangled envelope in her wake. Pleased to find that the letter from Fleur actually contained a response from her, an additional message had been put inside. "Study session tonight by the fire, midnight." She whispered to Harry and Hermione before realising that Ron hadn't down anything but frown at his letter. "You alright?"
Ron's face hardened. "Percy. Don't know what this git's got to say now though." Ron read the letter slowly, his eyes glancing at Rebecca after he folded it back up and put it face down on the table.
"What?" Rebecca asked. There was something in Ron's eyes when he had looked at her that she had never seen before, something she couldn't place. It resembled pity, but Rebecca knew that Ron wouldn't dare. Hurt on behalf of, Rebecca would realise later. "What is it?"
"I don't want you to read this." Ron said quietly.
Fred motioned for Ron to hand the letter over to him. Fred tilted it away from Rebecca as he read, and she saw that the paper crinkled along the edge as Fred's hold grew tighter. Both brothers shared a long look, but Fred eventually placed the letter down in the middle of the table. "It has to be her choice, Ron."
Rebecca looked at the letter and then back to Fred. The others were, thankfully, pretending to return to their pre-mail conversations. "What do you think?"
Fred's face said nothing, he couldn't let her decision accidentally be his own. "I think that whatever you choose, we will deal with it together."
Rebecca sighed and picked the letter up, unfolding it and focusing on the words with an ominous feeling filling her stomach.
"Ronald,
It is I, your elder brother. I heard that you've made prefect--Congratulations are in need! I'm proud to see you following in my footsteps and not the delinquent path Fred and George have paved for you. But, I don't write only to offer praise. No, unfortunately advice comes as well.
Distance yourself from the Potters. Harry and Rebecca, alike. I know it will seem difficult now, and I know you won't understand--but they're going to bring nothing but bad things. As more and more of their pasts come to light, you're going to get dragged into the shadows with them. It's upsetting, but I want what is best for you.
One day you, and mother, and father, and everyone else, you will all see how Dumbledore has deceived you and you will apologise. I await this eagerly, so that we can all be together again. With what is announced in today's Prophet, this day will come even sooner.
Percy."
Rebecca read it and then read it again, feeling an anger inside of her wanting to rise up and fill in the spaces where hurt was forming. She took a deep breath and replaced the letter to its spot on the table. "Percy's confused. He's-he's just confused. Are you going to do as he wants, Ron?"
Ron looked at her as if she had asked him if he would be joining a hunger strike. "No!"
"Then there's nothing to worry about." Rebecca reached forward and took a piece of toast.
Hermione, overwhelmed with pride at Rebecca's restraint, reread the cover article of the Prophet in horror. "That's not entirely true..."
"What now?" Harry asked, disappointed. Apparently nothing in their lives would ever be simple.
"Dolores Umbridge Appointed Hogwarts' High Inquisitor," Hermione began to read. "The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her own teach post, and we are delighted to say that she has accepted." Hermione looked up from the paper, through reading the article's introduction to them.
George shook his head slowly. "Things are going to start changing very, very quickly."
They all agreed silently, wondering just how quickly.
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"Psst!" Sirius hissed through the fire. Those in the 'emergency study session' crouched down to hear the words coming from the embers.
"Si-" Harry began, forgetting himself in his excitement and relief at seeing their godfather.
"No! Don't say any names, you never know who's listening." Sirius' scolding was lightened by his smile that grew as he looked over them all. "I'm happy to see you all well. It seems much longer than it has been."
"What's been going on?" Rebecca asked quickly, Fred's hand tightening around hers. "Why haven't we heard from anyone?"
Sirius sighed heavily. One of the hardest losses so far at Grimmauld Place had been Molly and Arthur's inability to respond to their children's letters. "The Ministry's locking down every form of communication to stop the spread of information on his return. We can't risk sending anything out." Sirius smiled ruefully. "I've got my own task force now, named after me and all!"
Rebecca was relieved to find that Sirius at least had kept his sense of humour.
"Now," Sirius furrowed his brow. "What's this about a pink toad?"
Harry explained, shooting a look at Rebecca. "It's the undersecretary from our trial, they've made her the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor and now-"
"The High Inquisitor. Educational Decree number 23." Sirius finished, remembering the article clearly.
"Yes!" Rebecca said, shushed by Ron at her volume. She continued quieter. "We're not learning any spells though. It's all theory and bullshite!"
Sirius frowned and was quiet a moment, thinking. "That's Fudge's doing. He's keeping Dumbledore from raising an army and marching on the Ministry."
"That's absurd!" Ron's mouth hung open. "Why would Dumbledore need an army?"
"Fudge is narrowing his focus on anything to distract from the signs Voldemort is back. Anything, no matter how absurd. When's your first Hogsmeade trip? I'll try and go on a picnic."
Harry shook his head. "It's too risky. You just said the Ministry is locking down and you've got a task force after you!"
Sirius glanced at Rebecca, hoping she would side with him. He was disappointed. "Harry's right, too risky."
"Damn!" Sirius smiled after a moment. "At least the two of you have some sense. I'll owl when it's safe to meet like this again, okay?"
Fred leaned closer to the fire. "Can you tell mum and dad that we're thinking about them? Since they can't owl or anything."
"I will. Don't think for a second they're not thinking of you lot, too." Sirius grew somber as he reached one of the last topics they had to discuss. "This lightning you write about Harry, do the two strikes happen at the same time?"
Harry looked at Rebecca before answering. "They do."
"How do you know?" Hermione asked, filled with curiosity. "The erm-lightning strikes only happen at night while you're sleeping."
"The lightning can tell." Rebecca answered, looking to Sirius for help. He was all they could ask.
"This is certainly a strange weather occurrence. I'll ask Moony, if you don't mind." Both Harry and Rebecca shook their heads, not minding in the slightest. "He'll be happy to have something to do other than putt around with me all day. That toad who's raising so much hell in the castle is doing so outside, too. She's put anti-werewolf legislation out, as well as new regulations on the employment of half-breeds."
"What the hell?" Harry demanded, outraged. "Why aren't people fighting against this?"
"People are, Harry." Sirius sighed. "The Ministry's a big obstacle, but there are those who have sided against it."
"Is she a Death Eater?" Rebecca asked. "Umbridge, I mean."
"No, she isn't. Unfortunately, bigotry and hate aren't restricted to Death Eaters." Sirius glanced over his shoulder, turning back to the fire and speaking quicker. "I may or may not have been explicitly forbidden from responding to you. I will owl soon. Children," He looked at them all carefully, seeing them as the grown ups they were becoming. "Fudge is going to do whatever he can to get Dumbledore out of Hogwarts. Remember who is on your side."
Sirius' face retreated, those in the common room soon looking at the same dying embers that had been there before the conversation. Harry stared at the flames longer while the others slowly got to their feet.
"I know, darling." Rebecca whispered, her arms wrapped around his neck as he held her tightly. "Christmas will be here soon enough and we'll see everyone."
Fred nodded into her neck before pulling his head back and pecking her good night. As good nights were exchanged, Harry was pulled to his feet by Ron. Rebecca and Ginny pondered over everything they had heard while Hermione stuck a few homemade hats under the couch cushions with the help of George.
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