Chapter 3
"Don't faint, ickle Potters." Crabbe and Goyle turned and mocked Harry and Rebecca as they made their way off the train. Draco raised an eyebrow, mocking them without words. "Wouldn't want anyone to-" Goyle, who had chosen to continue with their taunts, went silent.
Ron looked over their shoulders to see what the Slytherin boys could have seen to stop so suddenly and turned back to the front. Fred and George looked murderous and they were making their point clear: Harry and Rebecca weren't to be teased.
Rebecca trudged along, looking up from the ground only when a hand entwined itself in hers. Expecting Fred, she managed a little smile. For him, she could have kept it.
"What?" Ron asked, his jaw dropping. "You see it's me and stop smiling? Ouch!"
Rebecca shook her head, taking his hand again. He was only stirring her cauldron, but the fact that she moved to assure him she hadn't meant it calmed Ron's worries. They would be okay, they would always be okay.
Professor McGonagall was in the hallway the students were funnelling into the castle through and she turned Harry and Rebecca's face up to her gently, turning their heads so she could look them over in the light coming from the torch. "Professor Lupin owled. Are you two okay?" She took off, heading down the corridor to her office and pointing for Hermione to follow them as well.
Harry nodded. "We're alright."
"Yeah, better now." Rebecca hoped the lie wasn't as obvious as it felt. She felt like she was still putting things back where they had been, that she was rearranging the jumbled state of her mind.
But this was Rebecca speaking and the lie was incredibly obvious.
McGonagall tutted and shook her head, laying out a pack of biscuits on her desk and waiting until they both took a few before speaking. "I want the both of you to go see Madam Pomfrey before you go to the feast. She'll give you a once over. Caution never goes unneeded."
Harry and Rebecca nodded, the biscuits heavy as bricks in their hands. Everyone kept telling them to eat and it was growing tiresome. They did not want to eat. If anything, they simply wanted to crawl under their blankets and cry.
Harry and Rebecca were excused and Professor McGonagall sighed, taking out a long scroll of parchment. "Alright, Miss Granger. Let's go over this schedule one last time..."
Rebecca and Harry both knew the way to the Hospital Wing, walking along the still-empty corridors without speaking until they reached its familiar door and entered.
"I should have known it would be you two." Madam Pomfrey greeted them drily, pointing to the same bed and having them sit on it side by side. "Though, for once, I don't blame you. Those bloody monsters have no place in a school, a place of learning!"
Madam Pomfrey took their temperatures, cast diagnostic spells, checking their limbs and their hands and making sure they were alright all while muttering along. "...life-sucking, joy-taking creatures with no respect for life or-"
Madam Pomfrey looked at the two of them and sighed, brushing their cheeks gently. "I am sorry, dears. I don't know why things happen the way they do." Madam Pomfrey focused on Rebecca now, asking something further than her question said. "How have you been sleeping?"
Rebecca didn't understand why Madam Pomfrey was asking this, nor why she seemed to not believe her answer. "Fine."
Madam Pomfrey fretted over them a little longer, telling them that they were to not even think about going to the Tower without first going to the feast. "Vegetables, children! They do the body good and I expect you to eat some!"
They had hardly made it to their seats saved for them--Rebecca between Fred and George on one side of the table and Harry between Ron and Hermione on the other--while avoiding the enquiring glances of their friends, before Dumbledore began to speak. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I'd like to say a few words before we all become to befuddled by our excellent feast."
Fred ignored the headmaster entirely, leaning closer to Rebecca's shoulder. "Eight Hufflepuff, nine Ravenclaw, eight Slytherin, and seven Gryffindor."
"The Sorting?" She clarified. "Why-"
"You've tallied the numbers every other year." He felt a little sheepish, she clearly hadn't known that he had known she did that. "I'm sorry you missed it."
Dumbledore looked over the students as he began to speak. "First, I am pleased to welcome Professor R.J. Lupin. He's kindly consented to fill the post Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." Dumbledore waved to the thin, scarred man behind him from the train and the students applauded politely.
Fred couldn't wait any longer and, as the applause died down and Dumbledore went into a tangent on the intricacies of Defence teaching, he leaned forward and down to her shoulder again. "Was the infirmary alright?"
Rebecca hesitated. She wanted to tell him yes, that it had all gone fine. But at the same time, she didn't want to lie to him because not only would he know, he didn't deserve it.
Fred saw all this turmoil go across her face and he gave her a smile empty of all happiness, opting instead to set two more bricks of chocolate onto she and Harry's plates.
Later, a long time later, Rebecca would think to wonder about where he had gotten the chocolate and why he hadn't just eaten it himself. But for that night, she only looked down as Dumbledore continued to speak.
"Now then, our Care for Magical Creatures professor for many, many years has decided to retire in order to spend more time with his remaining limbs. I am delighted to announce that his place will be taken by none other than our very own Rubeus Hagrid!"
The applause picked up again, louder than it had for Professor Lupin. Harry and Rebecca forced themselves to their feet--despite the fact that it took far more effort than they thought they had--and applauded loudly.
Other throughout the hall, those who had been helped by and befriended by Hagrid, stood and the applause made Hagrid wipe his eyes.
"There, I know you're alright." Fred murmured quietly, keeping his attention forward.
"Finally," Dumbledore's immediate presson let Rebecca think about what Fred had said without needing to respond. "On a more disquieting note, at the request of the Ministry of Magic, we will be host to the dementors of Azkaban until further notice--Until Sirius Black is found."
"The dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds. Whilst I've been assured that their presence will not disrupt our daily routines, a word of caution. Dementors are vicious creatures. They will not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one in their way. I must warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. The nature of the dementor is not one that forgives."
Fred himself swore he felt a glimmer of that icy, desperate coldness from when the dementor passed he and George's compartment. He couldn't imagine what Rebecca and Harry were feeling when it had gone after them. That's how he rationalised the discrete way he caught Rebecca's hand and held it on the bench between them.
"But this is where I remind you that happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." Dumbledore bowed his head and let the feast appear. He had said his piece.
"Go on then." Hermione commanded, scooping Harry and Rebecca's plates up to a Ron-worthy amount. "You're going to eat and eat well."
"You sound just like Madam Pomfrey." Harry couldn't help a small smile, picking up his fork to eat some of the monstrous quantity in front of him.
Rebecca did too, give a small smile and make an attempt at the food piled in front of her.
But not before Fred gave her hand a parting squeeze.
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"Percy's being a prat as always." Ron muttered, falling into step beside Rebecca. "Dirty bastard wouldn't give me the password."
"He's not supposed to until the first years get up there." Rebecca intoned, answering as she was supposed to.
"He should make an exception." Ron countered, digging into his pocket and pulling out an apple. "You didn't clear your plate."
"Hermione put enough food on that plate to feed an army."
Ron didn't lower his outstretched hand, losing the humour on his face. "Please just take it, at least?"
Rebecca did, if only so he would stop looking at her like that. Their care was quickly growing overwhelming, smashing, suffocating. It sparked a panic inside her, a panic that forced her heart beat up into her ears and her stomach into her throat.
Everything just felt too much.
The students around them were too loud and the lights were too bright and everything was just too much.
Hermione took the apple, linking her arm through Rebecca's and marching forward. "We'll see you all before bed, we're going to get a head start on unpacking."
"A headstart-Why don't you just magic it?" George called after the retreating figures of the three girls, looking to Harry and Ron with a flicker of amusement. "We're not doing it by hand, are we? Thank Merlin."
"You're our third roommate now!" Hermione gasped, looking to Ginny almost accusatorily as what had only been she and Rebecca's room the years before came into view. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't know!" Ginny laughed, letting herself into what would be her new room. McGonagall had had reservations at rooming a second year with two third years, but after thinking it over, it was best for Ginny to have a comfort of home in the wake of returning after the Chamber.
Rebecca had been fairly quiet up the stairs, focusing instead on not doing something rash in the name of a moment's peace. "I'm just going to..."
"Of course, we'll be right out here." Hermione smiled, waving a hand over her stack of books startlingly too tall. "You know I like to organise by hand, not by wand."
Rebecca nodded, closing the bathroom door without turning on the lights. The window let in enough from what was left from the evening sky and it didn't matter anyway. Rebecca left her glasses on the counter and put her back to the bathtub, her forehead resting on her knees.
The dementor left her so uneasy, so wrong.
And it had only taken-what, a few seconds? Less than a minute?
She felt as if her foundations had been demolished, as if the things she stood on as a person had been knocked askew and she was balancing precariously on the lip of something dark and horrible--Something she didn't want to know what would do to her.
And all the others did was care, that was the hardest part for her.
The dementor had only reminded her how alone she had been, how alone she could be.
"Hey, can I come in?" Ginny knocked on the door quietly, as if Hermione--who had her back to the door--wouldn't have heard. When no answer came, Ginny cracked the door open and stuck her head in. "Rebecca?"
Rebecca nodded, keeping her head to her knees and feeling Ginny join her on the floor. Ginny put an arm around Rebecca, leaning her head against her shoulder. "I'm sorry I wasn't there."
"No." Rebecca lifted her head, meeting Ginny's eyes. "No, you can't."
"I can." Ginny was surprised as she was still sometimes to see Rebecca without her glasses. Without them, when the world was fuzzy and partially out of focus, Rebecca's distance seemed less. Rebecca seemed younger, more fragile. "I can be sorry because if I had been there I would have torn it's sheets to shreds."
Rebecca's dam broke, leaving Ginny to wonder what exactly had pushed her over the edge. Rebecca took a long time to piece herself back into a not-crying person, her cheeks lines with the tracks of tears that were still being added to as she began to apologise. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"
"If I can't be sorry I wasn't there to kick arse, you can't be sorry for crying." Ginny pulled Rebecca closer, closing her eyes as she hugged her.
"I couldn't do anything." Rebecca whispered. "All of a sudden it was cold and grey and I was gone."
"Gone?"
"Me." Rebecca looked up as Hermione appeared in the doorway. "Me, I was gone. Everything from before was back and all from now was gone."
"But we're right here." Hermione said, a sad smile playing at her lips. "And we always will be. This you isn't going anywhere."
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Across the tower, Harry absently fiddled with one of the tassels to the curtains around his bed. He wasn't suffering from the internal crisis Rebecca was, but he did feel a certain degree of shame to have fainted.
Malfoy knowing about it certainly didn't help.
"You lot gone down to say goodnight?" Fred asked, peering in from the doorway.
"Not yet." Ron answered, yawning as he left the bathroom with wet hair dripping on his pajamas.
"Ever heard of a towel?" George called, rolling his eyes as Fred started walking towards the common room. "Are you waiting for the rest of us or just going off on your own?"
Fred didn't even give George a look over his shoulder, instead continuing on. He knew that if he gave George's dramatic-flair attention, he'd never get downstairs. And to never get downstairs meant he'd never say goodnight and that was simply not going to work.
"Merlin, guess I'll just follow along." George muttered, looking Fred over out of the corner of his eye as they turned the corner to go down the stairs. "You know they're going to be alright, right?"
"What?" Fred asked, stopping.
George looked behind them, making sure Harry and Ron hadn't caught up with them yet. "Harry and Rebecca. They're going to be fine."
"How do you know?" Fred didn't ask petulantly or angrily. He wanted to know how his brother could have such certainty.
"Because they have to be." George shrugged. "When they lived thirteen years ago, when they were separated, wherever she was before and with how the aunt and uncle treated him, they have to be fine."
"But why do they have to?" Fred shook his head, ashamed to find that he felt himself growing very upset. "Why does it have to be them? Why can't they just catch a bloody break?"
"I don't know, Freddie." George put his arm around Fred's waist and continued their descent. "Let's say goodnight and get on up to bed ourselves, class starts early tomorrow."
"Do you really think it?" Hermione's hair caught Fred's attention at the other end of the common room, she, Ginny, and Rebecca sitting in a half-circle of chairs with their schedules between them. "Truly?" Fred needed a final reassurance before he was to join them, before he was to see Rebecca withdrawn again.
"Yes, I do." George wanted to tease, wanted to rib. This was passing friendship caring, passing the threshold of mates-caring-about-mates. But George would wait. At this rate, he'd have plenty of time for teasing. "Hello, flobberworms."
"Nice." Fred pulled himself out of George's arm, sitting on the arm of Rebecca's chair. "How're we looking? Good layout for term?"
Rebecca shrugged, pointing out a few things. "Double Potions two times a week, sure to be fun. But we start with Divination tomorrow and I think that could be interesting."
"Ah yes, such a worthy use of magic." Hermione scowled. "What a requirement, really."
Fred grinned, lowering his voice to keep Hermione's attention off of him. "It's alright. Nice to drink tea for classwork at least."
Rebecca smiled, looking up at him. In that moment--the first time anything had passed through the blank, guarded expression that frighteningly reminded the others of when they had first met her--Fred did believe that they would be fine in the end.
"Did you hear me?" She asked, catching his attention again. "I said that's what I thought about it too, tea for classwork."
"Oh, yes. Sorry. Mind wandered." Fred pointed back to her schedule. "And then in the afternoon you'll get to meet Professor Hagrid!"
"I'm excited for his hour." Rebecca sighed, sitting back. "About earlier...I'm sorry."
"What on Earth are you sorry for?" Fred demanded, the two of them in a world of their own. Ron and Harry had joined them all downstairs and had quickly found themselves in a battle of for and against Divination requirement. George was entirely for, saying a nap hour was necessary while Hermione was against.
With Harry and Ron's attention taken, Ginny acting as their referee, Rebecca answered honestly. "For fainting, for one. For," She paused, struggling to describe it. "Withdrawing, I guess, through dinner. I'm-"
"Please don't say you're sorry, not again." Fred met her eyes, the most serious he had looked in ages. The most serious he had looked through their holiday, through the summer. "You're going to be fine."
Rebecca turned back to her schedule, the hot pricking of tears forcing her eyes downward. He had to do this, had to say just what worked.
And she wasn't sure if she minded.
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Professor Trelawney was...strange. Rebecca's verdict was made more and more clear with every passing second as she and Hermione settled into their table and the start of their first class of third year grew closer and closer.
Trelawney's eyes were magnified behind her glasses, to the point where her eyes appeared far larger than they could have possibly been. When she spoke, it was with long pauses that left you thinking she was done only for her to continue on. Her hair stuck out in a massive cloud of frizz around her head.
Strange, Rebecca decided, was an adequate description.
In the corner or the room was a desk and a chair on the ceiling, shelves around and under it filled to the brim. Books on every topic related to divination, talismans, crystal balls. The room was full.
When the tolling of the hour rang out, the door closed and Professor Trelawney addressed the class. "In this...room. You shall explore the noble art of Divination. In this...room, you shall discover if you possess...the sight!"
"Oh bloody hell." Hermione looked sheepish as Rebecca's jaw-dropped. "What? You're not thinking it?"
"We shall...cast ourselves into the future!"
"Why does she pause like that?" Hermione demanded. "It can't be for dramatic effect, it's between words!"
"I can't hear you, I'm listening." Rebecca's retort ended this bout of Hermione's verbal complaining, though Hermione still sat with a poorly-masked scowl.
"This term, we will be focusing on Tasseomancy--The art of reading tea leaves." Nobody moved until Professor Trelawney raised her voice and everyone jumped. "So go on! Drink up!"
Rebecca lifted her cup and drank with a little difficulty. Hermione looked so angry and to see your best friend drinking tea, for school work at that, angrily? Hilarious.
"Are you laughing at me?" Hermione demanded, setting her drink down. "Are you really laughing-Harry, she's laughing at me."
"Of course she isn't, Hermione." Harry looked over his shoulder, raising his teacup to Hermione. "Happy third year, I hope this is the hardest work we do all day."
"Alas, you have not started the work!" Professor Trelawney smiled at them, making her way around the class as the students drank the tea down to the leaves. "When you and your partner are done, pick up the cup of the one opposite you. The truth lies buried, waiting to be read! You must open your mind...to the beyond!"
"What a load of rubbish." Hermione muttered, raising her hands in defeat as Rebecca sighed. "Go on then, let me 'read your future.'"
"I'll be happy even if you only read my tea leaves, thank you." Rebecca took Hermione's and turned the cup to the light, glancing at the textbook page in front of her a few times while Hermione looked at hers. "I think I can give it a whirl, if you're interested in this 'rubbish.'"
"Fine." Rebecca waited a moment, turning in her seat to show Hermione what she was talking about. "I think this bit up here, the little half-moon? I think this means you're going to be working into the night, at least that you'll be tired." Hermione rolled her eyes, though she still listened as Rebecca continued. "But then this little thing looks like a shoe, doesn't it? That means you're going to do a lot of traveling."
Hermione looked to the textbook quickly, feigning she was rechecking something. "Well, for you. This bit in the middle-No. Well, this along the edge...If I had to say, you're going to..."
"Can I assist, child?" Professor Trelawney held her hand out for Rebecca's cup, peering into it attentively. "This is a complicated fortune, complicated indeed. I see many overlapping lines, many, many."
"What does that mean?" Rebecca asked, not seeing anything in the text that would direct meaning.
"Well, it could mean that you're future has many paths or that you're future is still forming." Professor Trelawney paused, thinking something over and speaking quietly--mostly to herself. "It could mean you will waver many others, if this is to be a lifeline..."
"There, your future." Hermione set the cup down and wrote out what Trelawney had said into their notes of the day.
"You!" The class jumped again, not use to such outbursts from their professor. "You, boy!" Neville looked around him, making sure Trelawney was talking to him. "Is your grandmother well?"
"I-I think so?" Neville gulped, the tea so much less enjoyable as he wondered about his grandmother.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Trelawney reached out to Parvati, Neville's tablemate. "Give me the cup." Trelawney turned this way and that, making a face. "Pity."
Neville scooped it back up, looking at the leaves and seeing nothing other than dregs. Rebecca frowned, shaking her head as Neville was clearly upset by the 'prediction.' Hers was a not-answer, Neville's was far worse.
"What's Harry got?" Rebecca asked, leaning forward. Maybe his would be a good one, someone had to get a good one between them all.
Ron nodded, clearing his throat. "There's this bit, a wonky cross. That's trials and suffering. Then there's this bit that's a bowler hat, that's clearly the Ministry."
"Is that in the-" Hermione was wholly ignored by Ron.
"And then there's this bit, like an acorn. That's 'an unexpected windfall of riches.'" Ron turned the cup, still continuing even as Trelawney returned to them. "And then this last little part looks like the sun and that's happiness."
"So he's going to suffer, work at the Ministry, make money, and be happy?" Rebecca clarified. "Or do I have the order wrong?"
"Look, I'm just reading what's in the cup." Ron snapped, handing it up to her. "You give it a try then, see what you get."
"No need, I will." Professor Trelawney had the cup in hand and her magnified-eyes pointed to it instantly. She gasped, nearly shouted, and threw the cup back onto the table with a loud clank. "You are wrong, Weasley." She took a step away from the boys' table like Harry's cup would explode.
"What does it-erm, say then?" Ron was quieter than he had been and far from confrontational.
"The falcon, an enemy. The club, an attack. The skull, danger in your path." Trelawney covered her face with her hands. "And the Grim!"
"The grin? What's the grin?" Seamus shouted from the other side of the class, confused.
"Not the grin. The Grim, you idiot." Bem rolled his eyes, reading from his textbook. "Taking form of a giant spectral dog, it's among the darkest omens of our world." Bem didn't want to continue, not with every eye of the room on his and Rebecca's scarily obvious. "It's an omen...of death."
Rebecca dropped the teacup she had been holding, sending tea and dregs and glass sprawling on the floor. Hermione's future lay fractured and Rebecca sat frozen a moment longer.
The bell rang and, in an instant, Professor Trelawney uncovered her face and stood tall. Making her way back to her desk as if nothing had happened, as if she hadn't just predicted the death of the-boy-who-lived, she wished those passing her a good day.
"Don't worry about it, it's just-"
"Don't tell me not to worry about it!" Rebecca stood up in an instant, sending the glass on she and Hermione's table clinking. "An omen of death is worth worrying about!"
Rebecca grabbed Harry roughly, pulling him to his feet and then out of the classroom as Ron and Hermione stayed together.
"I really thought I saw a bowler hat." Ron offered quietly, feeling partially to blame for the mess.
"I did, too." Hermione lied. Neither of them noticed Rebecca's backpack left under her chair.
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"I saw the dog, after I left."
"I know, Harry." Rebecca hadn't loosened her grip on him, weaving through the students who didn't have the sense to get out of her way. With the look on her face, there wasn't many of them.
Harry realised they were moving at the strange tone of her voice, looking around the corridor. "We don't have Transfiguration until tomorrow."
Rebecca stopped in front of McGonagall's office, knocking quickly and loudly. When no answer came, Rebecca knocked again.
Professor McGonagall opened the door. "What requires such urgency that one is not able to cross-Potter?" McGonagall sighed, stepping to the side and motioning for them to enter. Waving her wand, a plate of biscuits appeared. "Have a biscuit and tell me what's happened."
"Tell her, Harry." Rebecca was not hungry, far from it. But she took a biscuit and ate a bite so that she had a reason not to repeat the prediction. She continued to eat the biscuit, having to pick up another as Harry meandered his way through the recap of Divination.
"And then she said she saw the Grim, an omen of death." Harry paused, his face pale. "In my cup."
Professor McGonagall sighed, leaning forward in her seat. "Yes, I'm afraid this has happened in the past."
"Students' deaths have been predicted?" Rebecca clarified. How had this school stayed open as long as it had, she wondered.
"No, no." McGonagall shook her head. "Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year, every year, since she first arrived. Not a single one of them has died yet. It seems to be her favourite way to start the year."
Harry glanced at Rebecca, wondering if he should ask about the dog he had seen.
But there was no need. Rebecca was already asking. "Harry saw a dog. A big, black, shadowy dog the night he left the Dursleys. It was tucked away in the bushes and disappeared when the bus arrived. Couldn't that be the Grim?"
"It very well could have been a stray." McGonagall rationalised gently. "Or a trick of the night, a shadow. Any number of non-death related things." McGonagall could see how distraught the two of them were left at the idea of harm coming to the other and it touched her heart and her grief.
Harry and Rebecca Potter should love each other because they were taught about love from their parents, not because they were taught by the cruelties of the world how valuable love is.
"You're going to take this note to Hagrid, it will excuse your tardiness. Children," McGonagall looked from one pair of bespectacled green eyes to the other, exuding tender care. "Do not fret with naught to fret about. Remember this."
Rebecca and Harry nodded, thanking her for the biscuits. Really though, they were thanking her for calming their fears. Whether they knew it or not, that was what they were doing.
"Damn!" Rebecca breathed, looking Harry over as they made their way slowly back the way they had come to get to Care for Magical Creatures, albeit late. "I left my bloody bag in Divination."
"It's right on the way." Harry said calmly, trying to infect her with not-stressing over it.
"Stay here." Rebecca said, pointing at the corner of the corridor below and the long, spiral staircase that had been so much fun to climb earlier. Now there was no fun to be had, only dread at the idea of the strange woman at the top.
"Stay here? What am I--A dog?"
"No." Rebecca bit back a snarky response, aiming for calm instead. "You've already been given a premonition of death today, figured one's enough."
"I'll-" Harry sighed. "I'll wait here." Rebecca had turned and was already taking the stairs two at a time.
While Harry sat on the bottom stair and pondered over the turn of the morning, Rebecca reached the ajar Divination door. She knocked and didn't hear a response.
"As if strange wasn't enough." Rebecca muttered, poking her head into the door. "Hello? Professor? I forgot my bag." Entering the classroom, the fullness was less fun when you were the only one surrounded by it.
Rebecca's bag was right where she left it, beside the shattered teacup. Not wanting to spend any time more than necessary in there, Rebecca turned back to the door and found herself face to face with Trelawney.
Rebecca's heart skipped a beat and she found her arms grabbed by Trelawney tightly. Trelawney was looking at her, but not seeing her. Her eyes seemed cloudy, almost. Distant for sure.
"The one who gives life's counterpart is meant to take it...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...Marked as equals, the power remains unknown to the Marker...In the middle of a fissure, one party must die...Neither can live while the other survives."
"What?"
Trelawney jolted, her eyes clearing and a sheepish smile crossing her face. "I'm sorry, dear. I seem to have dozed away a moment. Got your bag, no?"
"What was that?!" Rebecca asked again. "With the voice and the words and the riddley-poem thing?!"
Professor Trelawney took a step back, as if she might catch whatever had Rebecca speaking nonsense. "Are you alright? Did you bump your head?"
Rebecca shook her head, stepping around the professor who had done nothing but shake things up for the morning. The words were still echoing around her head and something was growing underneath the not-understanding.
Rebecca was afraid. A murdered, dementors, a death omen, and now whatever this was?
"Got your bag alright?" Harry asked, springing to his feet when she got back down to him.
"Yeah." Rebecca pulled the bag tighter against her, holding onto the strap tightly. "Let's get on then, Hagrid's waiting."
The walk to Hagrid's was a silent one because, despite the fact that Rebecca knew Harry wanted to talk in the way he would look at her intermittently, she couldn't do it.
Not when "neither can live while the other survives" was ricocheting in her thoughts.
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