Chapter 21
Fred apparated the two of them just outside of the Burrow and Rebecca looked up at the leaning, creaking house. "Home." Peace filled her at not just the sight of the house itself but the rolling hills, the sky spread as far as you could see. Everything at the Burrow seemed as perfect as ever and Molly was already inside, gesturing for trunks to be brought upstairs and out of walkways before anything else were to happen.
Fred shifted Rebecca's bag to his other shoulder to wave his wand over the line of trunks that spanned nearly as far as the house itself, levitating them all so that each owner could more easily maneuver them. Little did Rebecca know that, as she looked around the environment she had come to love more than any she had ever known, Fred was looking only at her and thinking the very same thing she was. "Home."
Molly and Arthur spoke to each other in the silent communication all adults seemed to know while Fred noticed nothing other than Rebecca. Sirius raised an eyebrow and joined the silent debate, shrugging and making a shooing-away motion towards Fred. Remus patted Sirius' waist and reached for the tea, needing a cup after the afternoon.
Molly sighed and looked to Arthur, letting it be his decision. Arthur smiled and nodded to Sirius, wanting to hear how he would pass along their amended evening plan.
"Fred! Rebecca!" Sirius shouted, scaring Remus into dropping his cup onto the counter noisily. "Get out of here, you're making us all positively sick!"
Rebecca furrowed her brow and looked to Molly and Arthur. She wasn't doing anything and neither was Fred. Molly looked to the clock and laid down their only requirement, "Supper is at six. All three of you had better be here!"
Fred snuck his arm around Rebecca's waist and apparated them away before Rebecca could even thank them. Fred spun her towards him as she stumbled on the stony walkway and covered her eyes, turning her away from the storefront for good measure. The popping of George's arrival sounded out to her right. "Really, Fred? I've seen the sign already!"
Fred had only shaken his head, but then realised that he would have to repeat his disagreement as he blocked her vision. "We've managed to get an awful lot done since then."
"You're going to flip!" George laughed madly and hopped from foot to foot. "C'mon Fred, let's see what she things!"
A long pause passed.
"Can I look?" Rebecca asked when the silence grew too unnerving to not prompt them forward.
"We wanted to see how long it would take you to ask." George jumped back as she flung her arm out in the direction his voice had come from.
"Ready?" Fred asked softly, leaning down beside her ear. Rebecca nodded, afraid that if she spoke her voice would betray the skip of her heart. Fred lowered his hand slowly to reveal the storefront they had painstakingly perfected over the previous few weeks.
The enchanted figure that looked like George and Fred raised the top hat off his head just as Rebecca turned her eyes to the very top of the purple and orange bricked building. "Look, look!" George insisted, pointing up at the hat so she didn't miss it. When the hat lowered and raised, a rabbit was poking its floppy-eared self out.
"That's brill-"
"It's not done!" Fred tilted her chin back up quickly, watching her reaction as the hat raised and lowered again. This time, instead of a rabbit, a head poked down. A head with curly black hair and glasses. Rebecca's jaw dropped and she watched until her representation of their creation disappeared. "Well?" Fred nudged her. "What do you think?"
Rebecca wrapped her arms around both of their necks and brought them to her level, gushing over the attention to detail as she continued to take everything in.
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"It's time, Draco." Lucius voice was commanding; there was no room for negotiation. Draco had only one opportunity for this to go the way he needed it to.
"Father, I was wondering something."
Lucius' eyes flickered down the length of the table. Voldemort himself was seated at the head, watching their interaction carefully. "I don't know what you think you're pulling, but you'd better-" Lucius' muttered threat was cut off by the Dark Lord.
"Lucius," Voldemort scolded. "Let the boy wonder! Wonders are, after all, the makings for greatness." Voldemort leaned forward in his seat, folding his hands on the table in front of him. Draco, unlike near any other boy of his age, did not wither under the piercing gaze of Tom Riddle.
"I was wondering..." Draco steeled himself, praying for success or a quick death if he failed. "I can't take your oath yet. I can't receive my mark."
Narcissa stood up, clutching the edge of the table tightly. "He knows not what he says, my lord! H-he must be feverish--that's it! Taken by illness!"
Voldemort silenced Narcissa's desperate pleas with a raised hand as he stood and stalked around the table slowly. His long, flowing black robes trailed behind him like ink in water. "Explain yourself, boy. Quickly before I take offence at your lack of enthusiasm."
Draco looked into the snake-like irises of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, feeling as if he had locked eyes with the world's most dangerous predator after shutting the door behind him. "I'm not yet sixteen, my lord. Still just a child, a boy." Draco waited, letting his first remark sit a moment. "If we wait until my birthday, I join the ranks a man."
Voldemort stared at Draco, searching for any falsehood. "Lucius?" Voldemort whirled away from Draco and tapped the end of his wand to the palm of his other hand. "You did well raising this one. I agree--we postpone until the day after he turns sixteen."
Narcissa and Lucius sat in their seats with hearts heavy with fear and racing in rage. Their son had disagreed with them in their home--argued with their decision--in front of Voldemort, no less!
"That's bought me a few weeks." Draco thought to himself, wondering why his success tasted so sour. He had thought that death had been the worst of both options, but his body told him he felt otherwise. "I find a way out by then or...or I am one of them."
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"It's five past!" Rebecca shouted, trying to stand up from the bottom shelf she had been tidying and thumping the back of her head on the shelf above. The Exploding-Elephants had finally been organised besides the Flying-Foxes, but they were late. "Bloody hell, GEORGE!"
George jumped from where he had been flipping through a magazine under the guise of supervising. "Why are you shouting my name like it's my fault? Can't you tell time?"
Rebecca hurried out of the aisle she had been in, rubbing the back of her head with a scowl. "You were keeping an eye on the time!"
Fred climbed down from the ladder he'd been up on, wiping his hands on his trousers as he looked at Rebecca carefully. "Was that your head that banged the shelf?"
"No, it was my elbow and I'm just holding my head for the fun of it." Rebecca winced as soon as the words left her mouth. She softened her tone. "I didn't mean that."
Fred raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm very sure. I'm sorry." Rebecca sighed and slid her wand off the counter she leaned against, no point in racing back as they were already late. "I didn't want them to think we won't follow the rules."
"Rules?" George snorted. "What are you, five?"
Fred gave George a look over Rebecca's head that ended his brother's teasing and held his hand out for Rebecca to take. "Don't worry, I'll explain what happened." Fred gave her a little smile he meant to be reassuring, relieved at how the tension by her eyes lessened. "Besides, if they try to stop you from coming, I'll bring you anyway."
Sirius was seated on a chair just inside the door, his arms crossed with a cup of tea held tightly in one hand. "Do you know how late you are? How worried we've been?"
"I can explain." Fred began, looking over his shoulder as George arrived. "It was all his fault!"
Sirius tutted and began a lengthy discussion on punctuality with George while Rebecca followed Fred into the house and into the kitchen. There, Fred pointed at the stool behind the counter for Rebecca to sit and eased his way around Molly's pre-dinner dance of madness.
"What's that for?" Molly demanded, seeing the familiar ice-in-a-towel that usually ended up being needed after a brawl. "Who won?"
"The shelf." Rebecca grumbled.
"And the tardiness?"
"We just lost track of time." Fred explained, looking away from Rebecca only when she held the ice to the back of her head. "And by 'we,' I mean George."
Molly gave them an mhmm and said nothing else on the subject. Fred, unoccupied in the kitchen, was quickly put to work. "Bring those outside, will you?" Molly gestured to the stack of plates on the counter.
"Outside?" Fred looked out the window at the table that stretched across the garden.
"Did you see all the people here? Unless people sit on laps, it's outside!" Molly shooed him out of her way.
Fred gave Rebecca a cheeky grin at the door. "Sitting on laps?"
Rebecca's face burnt a terrible red as he disappeared from sight but certainly not from her thoughts.
Tonks slipped out the back door after Fred, neither Rebecca, Molly, or himself having noticed how she'd been waiting on the stairs for Sirius to return so she could scare him. "Oi! Greenbean!"
Fred whirled back at the name, his eyes wide. "Who told you about that?" He demanded, moving the pile of plates of Tonks' reach until she answered.
"Who told me about-What are you on about? You're tall and this big around?" Tonks made an o with her fingers and shook her head at him. "Don't change the conversation."
"Were we having one?" Fred teased as he set the plates down and began laying spots. "I didn't know."
"We are now." Tonks gave him a look. "What was that? Back there in the kitchen?"
"Stalking me? I'll have to find you a bell."
"It's hardly stalking if--I don't know--I had been sitting right bloody there!" Tonks laid down the last plate from her half of the stack. "You ought to watch yourself; that was rougeish."
Fred looked at the woman for a long moment, not sure what she was saying but almost positive he wouldn't like it. "What do you mean?"
"You're a seventeen year old boy. She's got two more years of school, minimum if she actually looks into professorship which-"
"She was talking about being a professor?" Fred interjected, not at all displeased by the idea. He thought she made a wonderful teacher.
"She wrote to me about it, I assumed you knew." Tonks pointed at him and returned to the subject matter. "Besides the point! You and double-trouble are young and now you're out in the real world, on your own. Don't string along things from the past if you plan on following the first lead that's shown."
Fred closed the distance between them in three long strides, his face swirling with equal fury and disbelief. "Who do you think you are?" He fought to keep his voice low, not wanting anyone in the kitchen to even know what she had dared to suggest. "I would wait my entire life for her if that's what it took. I don't 'follow leads.' I haven't and I won't."
Tonks didn't waver under his fury. "Are you sure though? That's the real question: are you sure?"
Fred's hands trembled at his side. What he wanted more than anything was to wrap them around her neck and squeeze until she stopped talking. "She is my reason." Fred's tone was dangerous and the vein on the side of his neck pulsed. "When we think about why we have to win, why he has to be beaten, she is my reason." Fred scoffed. "And that is reason to be sure enough."
Tonks looked at him a long moment and found nothing but truth behind his anger. "Okay."
"That's it? 'Okay?" Fred's heart hurt at just the idea of hurting Rebecca and he felt like he was owed a reason for such a horrid topic. "What brought this on? I've never, ever acted like I would do anything but care for her."
Tonks looked away from the boy--the man, really--in front of her and focused out over the fields and hills. "It's started just as it did before, Fred." She sighed. "You can't remember last time, you were just a tot." Tonks met Fred's eyes again and hoped he saw how she didn't actually intend to have upset him as she had. "The world is going to become a dark and dangerous place; especially for the two of them. There's not going to be any extra room in her for heartbreak."
Fred tilted his head at Tonks admission, her fragility. The questions had only come from a place of caring. "There will never be any."
Tonks went to the plates he had 'set' and righted them so none were askew. "I still think you're too tall."
Fred grumbled back into the kitchen after a pleasant-enough storm away. His muttering ended only when Molly held a spoon up at him threateningly. "Stop that this instant!" She turned back to the pot and began muttering exactly as she had just told him to stop. "Coming in my kitchen like that...no manners..."
Rebecca slid the stool beside her out as Fred drooped next to her, his usual sunshine darkened. "Are you okay?"
Fred frowned and shook his head on her shoulder. "That woman manages to stir up trouble everywhere she goes."
"Tonks?" Rebecca laughed and set the ice on the counter. She brought her hand to his forehead and combed his hair back gently. "There are quite a few people who would say the same about us." Fred didn't say a word, only closed his eyes as Rebecca continued to brush her fingers through his hair. "Do you want to know what I think is really the issue between you two?"
Fred nodded, opening his eyes and looking up at her before distracting himself by just how close he was to her. How, despite all the smells of dinner, the only thing that mattered to him was the smell of her shampoo. "I always want to hear what you're thinking." He had thought that, but was so busy drinking the sight of her in he hadn't been able to keep it in his head.
Rebecca smiled at how embarrassed he was by his own words. "I think you two are exactly alike."
Fred glanced down at her lips before burying his head into the crook of her neck. "Never mind, I take it back."
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Dinner was, surrounded by their friends and family, a happy occasion filled with laughter. But, as the plates were sent back to the kitchen on their own, Rebecca couldn't help the pang of guilt that echoed across her chest.
"I'm certain he's alright." Fred said softly, putting his cup back on the table and leaving his hand on her wrist. Rebecca didn't say anything, but looked to him with confusion clear. "You have a look, love. You were thinking about Harry."
Rebecca turned her arm so he was holding her hand. "I might have been."
How could she not have? Sirius had his chair right up against Remus' so they were sat beside each other in every sense of the word. Tonks and Ron were talking about the last match of the Chudley Cannons. Arthur was smiling and telling Molly about a new Muggle-contraption he'd gotten hold of. George was talking to Ginny quietly and rapidly about something he clearly didn't want known to the rest of the table.
And Fred...Fred was reading her every emotion and thought with apparent ease.
"He'll call tomorrow I bet, just to check in." Fred gave her a crooked smile. "And then you'll see."
"Then I'll see what?"
Fred's nose crinkled slightly at her as he gave her a face. "Then you'll see that I know everything!"
Rebecca's laugh drew the attention of the few kids still around the table, the adults having already begun to make their way inside.
Fred's jaw dropped. "You don't believe me?"
"Of course I do!" The efficacy of her statement was lessened by the fact that she couldn't stop laughing as she stood.
"Your tone says otherwise." Fred said, trailing behind her. Rebecca turned and stopped before he noticed, leaving him to walk directly into her. "Careful!" Fred chuckled, catching her by the arm before she fell right over.
Rebecca looked up at him and found her smile fading for a look more serious. "You're right tonight, I'll give you that."
"Good. I couldn't be know everything all the time anyway." Fred leaned down and kissed her briefly. "That's your job." He linked their hands together and lifted her hand above her head so she spun in front of him before stepping into the house. "I forgot to tell you something, RJ. You have an appointment tomorrow."
"An appointment?" Rebecca echoed. "Tomorrow? Where?"
George smirked and stepped out of the sitting room where Sirius' joke was escaping loudly. "The appointment is at Madam Malkin's and that's all you're going to be told. Right Fred?" Fred mimed zipping his lips shut. "Speaking of--nearly ready to go? We've got a busy day tomorrow."
Fred sighed and turned his back to George. "One moment and then I will be." George turned and ran up the stairs to their old room, wanting to grab something before returning to their flat. "I hate to leave you so early."
Rebecca put her arms around his back, leaning her head against his chest. "It's really not that early, I'll be turning in soon too. Besides, we've got things to get done tomorrow."
Fred treasured how her green eyes lit with excitement at the prospect of final preparations for their big opening. "You could always come with me, you know."
Rebecca put her head back against his heart. "We talked about that, I think I should stay here for now."
Fred laughed and Rebecca heard the sound grow inside of him and then trickle out of his smile. "I think that's probably best." The stairs began to sound George's descent. Fred lowered his head to kiss her again, pausing before meeting her lips with a final jest. "I don't know how much sleep I would be able to get if you were beside me tonight."
Rebecca stayed where she had been as Fred followed George towards the door, routine having them head to the exit to exit. She was breathless at his cheek and struck by Fred's closeness, his words, and the ferocity of his kiss.
Remus wandered into the kitchen a few minutes later, noting how though Rebecca wiped the counter carefully, she seemed planets away. "Rebecca?"
Rebecca jumped, entirely unaware he had even entered. "Goodness, sorry professor! You scared the h-you scared me!"
Remus gave her a knowing look; he remembered many, many instances where Lily's mouth had gotten her into trouble in their youth. "Wipe that counter much longer and there'll be a trench." Rebecca stopped suddenly, not even remembering beginning. "And I'm afraid you really must find something else to call me. I haven't been your professor for quite some time now and you can't exactly call me 'professor' all summer."
"Mr Lupin?" Rebecca offered. Remus gave her a sharp look. "No, not that."
Remus took a chocolate bar out of his pocket and handed her a segment, sticking one of his own in his mouth. "Have you considered 'Remus?' I do have an inclination to respond to that one as it's, you know, my name."
Both of them laughed a moment.
"It's hard to imagine calling you Remus. You were our professor--one of my favourites at that! Remus just seems so..." She struggled for the right word. "Friendly?"
"Pity, I thought we were friends." Remus' grin stopped Rebecca from further explanation. "I understand. A nickname then, something. 'Professor' makes me feel old."
This only made them laugh harder. "Okay, okay," Rebecca paused, coming up with an answer after a moment. "How about Rems?" She shook her head to another brick of chocolate. "Young enough?"
"That's perfect." Remus was glad she hadn't offered up Moony. Her hair, her eyes, the mischievous turn of her mouth...no. It would have been too much like James and Lily were with him once more. "Now, to more important matters, why are you in here sculpting the counter?"
Rebecca shrugged. "Thinking."
"Hmmm." Remus looked down at her. "'Thinking.'"
"Yes, thinking." Rebecca latched onto a facet other than Fred's parting to divulge. "Fred and George said something about an appointment tomorrow at Madam Malkin's and I shouldn't duck out so soon after getting to finally help. I've spent weeks puttering around school useless only to go for robes? That's mental!"
Sirius wandered in, in search of Remus originally but grateful to get to see Rebecca a little longer. "You have not been 'puttering around useless.'" He chimed in, catching the end of their conversation. "Harry mentioned how much time you've been spending in the library."
Rebecca averted her eyes, not wanting them to see any half-truth to pursue further. "I like to say I'm well-read. Can't do that unless you read."
Sirius snorted. "Merling, they were right! You couldn't lie if you'd been paid to."
Rebecca rolled her eyes. "I could for a lolly." She said nothing else on the previous topic and let Sirius begin to ask questions about what sorts of pranks they would have for him to purchase on Friday, luckily for Rebecca.
Truth of the matter was, she had spent every extra minute the last weeks of term in the library. She had been researching anything and everything she could on prophecies and, usually under the Invisibility Cloak in the dark of night, how one could increase their magic in the forbidden section.
Whenever the guilt had climbed up inside of her at such deception, or shame at such wrongdoing, she reasoned with herself. "No matter what happens...Harry and I will need to be stronger. To fight-" Sirius and Remus sensed a part of her still far away, but they had no idea what she was thinking. "To fight or to bring back the dead."
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"What in Merlin's beard did you say to her before we left?" George asked as he and Fred appeared in the living room of their flat. "She was redder than a tomato!"
"More red." Fred corrected, going into the kitchen and putting the kettle on. "It would be 'more red.'"
George scoffed and put his cup on the counter next to Fred's. "You think grammar will distract me? C'mon, spill!"
"If I wanted you to know, I would have told you, wouldn't I?"
George raised his hands, chuckling. "Touché, cheeky bastard." George pointed to the kettle as it began to whistle, grinning at his own wit. "Whatever it was, sure boiled her kettle!"
Fred's hand's jerked, sloshing water over the edge of his mug. He looked at George with a frightening expression.
"Kidding, I'm kidding. Fred? Fred, please don't look at me like that." George backed out of the kitchen slowly. "Fred! I'm your twin!"
"Good." Fred put the kettle down and faced George straight on. "That means no one will forget what you looked like."
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Harry was in his bed, a book in front of him though his eyes only focused on the dark night's sky outside his window. The Dursleys had fed him the same dinner they had and he hadn't been insulted once--instead, they hardly said a word if he was in the room at all. He sighed and turned the page despite the fact that he hadn't even glimpsed at the words.
Hedwig let out a little hoot in the corner, sensing his loneliness.
"I'm alright." Harry's voice seemed far too loud for his room, the room that seemed so much bigger without Rebecca on the top bunk humming, or tapping obnoxiously, or otherwise annoying him.
Harry looked at the calendar, wishing the date had miraculously changed since the last time he had looked at it. "Two week and six days." He patted the side of the top bunk as he stood and went to his dresser, looking at his photos for comfort. Harry laid a hand under the photo of his parents and one under the photo of the entire Weasley group when they had gone to Egypt summers earlier.
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Across the country, Draco's mind was racing as fast as his heart was pounding. Bellatrix had him cornered in one of the many, many corridors of Malfoy Manor. "You're telling me that what I saw...didn't happen?" She asked, her wand twitching in her hand dangerously.
Draco shook his head quickly, his back hitting the wall as he ran out of space to backup further. "I didn't see it, so how could I know what you saw?" Draco turned his head as Bellatrix held his wand to the base of his neck. "All I said was that nothing comes back from the dead, magic or not."
Bellatrix took a sharp breath and held her wand tighter against his neck. "Say it again, boy."
Draco wanted to, he really did, but his mouth remained closed and he couldn't gather enough strength to repeat himself. He wasn't brave and he hated himself entirely for it.
"That's what I thought." Bellatrix leaned closer to his ear, whispering slowly and carefully so her words were entirely understood. "In three week you will join us, the Dark Lord's force. You will fight against the impure, against the blood traitors."
Bellatrix took a step back, grinning with a mad light in her eyes. "You will fight for the death of the Potters."
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Molly watched as Arthur paced at the foot of their bed. "Oh, this is all my fault. No!" Arthur whirled towards Molly, pointing as he continued to walk back and forth. "No, it's your fault!"
Molly looked over the top of her reading glasses, turning her book over so it rest on her legs. "Excuse me?"
"If you hadn't made me talk to them--that blasted talk--they'd live their lives like monks!"
Molly took her glasses off and put her placeholder back in her book, clearly she was done for the night. "Arthur, the reason we talk to our children-" She held a hand up and corrected herself. "The reason we educate our children is because we never got that. We both agreed before Bill had even been born." She gave him a sad smile. "Monks? They would have grown up no matter what?"
Arthur stooped, putting his hand to his brow. "You saw them tonight, didn't you? And then after he had gone? She was visibly lessened. Oh..." Arthur groaned and shook his head. "We're too young to be grandparents."
"Artie?" Molly patted the bed beside her and Arthur sat sadly. "They're growing up. We can't stop it, we can't slow it. All we can do is make sure that they're prepared." She laughed, his worries so Arthur. "And we're not going to be grandparents!"
"How can you know?"
Molly said nothing and waited for Arthur to regain his sense.
"There must be a spell." He stood up again and began to pace once more. "We'll turn Fred, George, and Ron back into the little monsters that drove us up the walls and stick Rebecca and Ginny up a tower somewhere. We'll solve all our problems in one fell swoop!"
"There isn't a way, dearest." Molly knew Arthur was a worrier, she had since she'd fallen in love with him. This was far from the first cliff she'd talked him down from and far from the last. "And besides, time ages all."
Arthur gave her an incredulous look. "Well, not all." He leaned over and kissed her.
Molly laughed against his lips, holding him back as he tried to follow her when she leaned away. "How can you fault our boys and then say things like that?"
Arthur lifted his head slightly. "So you are blaming it on me?"
Molly held her hand to his cheek. "Do you remember how you convinced me go to Hogsmeade with you?"
Arthur chuckled, lowering his head into the crook of her neck. "Oh no, please no. Save me."
"I don't know, do you deserve mercy after pulling me from my book?"
"The boy dies." Arthur grumbled against her neck.
Molly lifted his head in surprise. "You didn't?!"
Arthur nodded sadly. "I did. I'm saving you, let the characters live happily in your memory. You don't want to ready such an ending."
Molly let her head fall back onto the bed with a sigh, busying her fingers in Arthur's hair. "I thought that would be coming. One of them, at least, was going to die. Which one...I hadn't decided that yet."
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That's Dark! It was really hard to decide where to cut the ties between year five and six, but I think everything in the next few chapters of All I Ask of You are leading more into Half-Blood Prince story lines so this is a good spot.
The next will be Fractured and should be up on my profile in the next few days
<3