Chapter 5
"What the fuck?"
Rebecca and Hermione left their room together, ignoring the curious looks of Harry and Ron and leading the way to breakfast without a hint of anything having happened the day before. The sentiment, pouring from Rebecca like a gem of inspiration ought have, came with the mail.
"Look at this!" Rebecca demanded, holding it out to Harry and Ron as Hermione sat silently--she had read it with Rebecca. "I-I can't believe this!"
"Buckbeak didn't do anything!" Harry gasped, reading the words of Hagrid's block-like letters around the splotches scarily similar to teardrops. Scarily similar in that these on the letter were massive and Harry had hoped they weren't tears.
Within the letter, Hagrid said that he got a summons from the Ministry late last night about what had happened in class. Draco's father, it seemed, was pushing to have Buckbeak executed.
"We know that." Ron started, angry. "Hagrid knows that. You know why this is happening, we all do." Ron nodded towards the Slytherin table where Malfoy had been greeted like a wounded warrior.
Pansy Parkinson, another Slytherin, spooned his breakfast out and ran her hand over Draco's bandaged arm. "Does it hurt terribly?"
"It comes and it goes." Draco answered. "I consider myself quite lucky. Madam Pomfrey said another minute and I could've lost my arm. I can't possibly do any homework for weeks."
Rebecca looked around their table, needing to show this to Fred and George. She had no ideas, no solutions. All she felt was anger on behalf of the creature who had been scared into lashing out because Draco hadn't listened. But if Fred and George saw it, they could at least be lost together.
"We're going to have to help him then." Hermione could see the grasping on their faces, all three of them. "We're going to have to help Hagrid make a case for Buckbeak."
Ron's outrage faded near instantly and he turned back to his oatmeal as he muttered. "Second bloody week and she's assigning extra homework."
It was instantaneous. Rebecca and Hermione were suddenly talking with one another. Sentences were finished by the other, books referenced partially, quotes from things they'd read shared.
Harry was not able to follow. His eyes wandered around the Great Hall with their nonsensical tangents and ramblings acting as the perfect white noise. At least Defence Against the Dark Arts was next, Professor Lupin seemed the least likely to be evil and considering their last two, that was a necessary requirement.
The unfortunate part of looking forward to Defence, however, was that a double-block of Potions followed it and he hated that his favourite class had to be sullied with Snape.
Harry was distracted from his distraction as he looked to the end of the table and found someone staring at him--One of the Weasley twins. Harry had spent plenty enough time with the Weasleys to know one from the other. And, he had made sure to know how anyway with how much time Rebecca spent with them.
Harry, finding Fred's gaze unwavering, realised he was not staring at him.
Fred was stuck on Rebecca.
Fred was bumped by George who was bumped by Lee who was bumped by another fourth year and caught Harry's eyes for a second before Fred turned his attention to his breakfast and wouldn't look up again.
Harry noticed how red Fred's ears got, but he wasn't sure why.
Why Fred was embarrassed or why he had been staring at Rebecca.
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"Alright, so we have to get word to Hagrid and we have to get to the library and we-Sorry, professor." Rebecca tried to order everything that she needed to do quietly, Professor Lupin giving her an amused smile as she and Hermione were one of the last to quiet down.
"I hope this one's not a nutter like that last." Ron leaned over to Harry to tell him.
Harry wasn't sure. The room was strangely organised, the desks towered up along the far wall by magic--unless Professor Lupin had extending arms underneath his well-worn tweed coat--and there was an old wardrobe in the middle.
"Hello, class!" Professor Lupin was leaning against his desk, standing tall. He looked young, though the faded scars across his face aged him slightly. His arms were crossed slightly, as if he weren't entirely comfortable being in front of the class. "I must assure you that I am, in fact, not a nutter."
Ron simultaneously blushed and paled and Lupin continued on.
"But I am different from other professors in that I don't like to start slow and build up. I like to hit the ground running, so to speak." Standing tall and twirling his wand absently, Lupin nodded to the wardrobe. "Can anyone tell me what a boggart is?"
Hermione was the only one to raise her hand. "A shape-shifter that takes the form of your biggest fear."
"And what does it look like?" Lupin asked, hiding a little smile. Rebecca raised her hand this time, remembering a footnote. "Yes?"
"No one knows. No one is fearless so no one has ever seen a boggart unshaped."
Lupin grinned, nodding. "Ten points to Gryffindor, excellent job girls. They are entirely correct. Inside this wardrobe is a boggart and it will take the shape of your fears. Does anyone know fears greatest enemy? No?" He walked slowly in front of the wardrobe, teaching like a conversation. "Laughter."
Rebecca, as well as the rest of the class, was entirely enthralled in Professor Lupin.
"When I open this wardrobe and your boggart takes form, you're going to stand tall and steadfast, raise your wand, and cast Riddikulus. But there is a catch, you have to make your fear funny. The incantation alone is not enough. Neville? Will you join me a moment?"
Neville nodded, gulping. "O-okay."
"It's alright, don't be nervous." Lupin knelt down a little, catching the nervous boy's eyes and reassuring him. "What frightens you most of all?" Neville murmured an answer under his breath. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Professor Snape."
The class laughed, though there was a smattering of understanding in quite a few of them.
Lupin nodded, "Yes, Professor Snape--Frightens all.--I believe you live with your grandmother, right?"
"Y-yes, but I don't want the boggart to turn into her either!"
"No, it won't." Lupin smiled again. "I want you to picture her clothes, only her clothes, clearly in your mind. When I open the wardrobe, here's what I want you to do..." Professor Lupin relayed his instructions privately to Neville, leaving Rebecca and Hermione to whisper again.
"I like him, don't you?" Hermione started, wondering what Rebecca thought so far.
"I do." But there was a snag, a catch in Rebecca. "I think there's something-"
"Ready class?" Lupin clapped his hands, turning to them expectantly. They all stood more attentively and waited. "Okay Neville, it's all up to you."
Waving his wand, Lupin opened the wardrobe.
Neville was right, out came Snape in all his towering, intimidating self. Neville forced his hand steady, imagining his grandmother's worst outfit. "Riddikulus!"
The boggart was knocked back a step, now wearing a horrid hat with a vulture on it and a scarf that had once been an animal. In his hands, a red handbag. Neville had mastered the boggart.
"Wonderful, Neville! Wonderful!" Lupin clapped the boy on the shoulder, nudging him towards the back. "Form a line, everyone!"
Rebecca and Hermione were still together, entirely by chance. The other students were in such a rush to go first, Harry and Ron were pushed in separate directions with Harry towards the back congratulating Neville and Ron near the front, being forced ahead by Parvati.
"I want everyone to picture what they fear the very most and make it funny!" Lupin turned and moved the needle onto the record player on his desk, music filling the room. "Concentrate, Ron!"
Parvati won, forcing Ron forward a step. The boggart flickered a moment, then took form. A spider rivaling Aragog in size. Ron let out a whimper and Rebecca felt her first real flicker of uncertainty at this exercise.
"Wand at the ready, Ron. You can do it." Lupin watched as Ron fumbled for his wand, casting the charm. "Yes!" The spider was less terrifying when wearing rollerblades and unable to stand.
A python, a clown, a doctor, eventually it was Hermione's turn. The boggart took a moment to take Hermione's fear, appearing as Professor McGonagall. "Miss Granger, I regret to inform you that you have failed. Failed Potions. Failed Transfiguration. Failed Charms. Failed-"
"Riddikulus!"
Professor McGonagall disappeared and a sheep wearing a sweater appeared. "Why is this funny?" Rebecca asked as Hermione went to go to the back of the line.
"It's a wool sweater." Hermione explained, only she and Professor Lupin laughing with full-appreciation of the joke.
Rebecca waited for the sheep to turn into her fear, her stomach falling with every passing millisecond. What if her fear was horrible? What if her fear was before?
Remus glanced between the delaying boggart and the girl, wondering.
The boggart eventually took shape, looking like Harry but different. Hard and cold, no love at all as he stared down at Rebecca. "How could you?"
And then it changed. Molly and Arthur looked down at her. "We were wrong, you'll have to go."
Fred and George. "We don't ever want to see you again, not after you-"
"Riddikulus!" Rebecca cast, unable to hear whatever they would say. The boggart put Fred and George into tutus and the class laughed, chalking whatever had happened to Potter-peculiarities.
The next student went up and that was that.
Or so Rebecca thought. "That was quite a fear." Remus noted, kneeling down onto one knee in front of her. "Are you alright?"
"Why was mine like that? I'm afraid of water, not that. I-Ron's was spiders and Hermione's failing."
"Fears are not always what we're afraid of." He sighed. "I think, in my unprofessional professional opinion, that you're fear shows how deeply you love. Anyone can be afraid of failure and spiders, but fearing hurting or losing the ones we love? That's fear itself and yet, it is also love."
Rebecca nodded, understanding what he was saying. Harry had students ahead of him and Hermione and Ron were glancing between whoever was going at the moment and Rebecca and Professor Lupin. Checking his time piece, Lupin clicked his tongue as he thought. "Why don't you go on a few minutes early. I expect another go round will be for naught, you were able to diminish that boggart on your first cast."
"Are you sure, professor?" Rebecca really, really didn't want to go again and she had the undeniable urge to move. "Thank you."
Hermione and Ron tried to speak over the other, asking if she was okay and what had happened. Rebecca was able to get through them that she was fine and excused, that she needed to make a stop before Potions. Turning back before she left, Rebecca hugged them both tightly. Leaving a peck on both their cheeks, she asked them to make sure Harry knew she'd sit with him at Potions and she was gone.
Rebecca walked through the halls first, but then she jogged and eventually couldn't keep herself from running. Left. Right. Straight. Up a floor. Down a corridor.
Soon, Rebecca was paused at the end of the Transfiguration hallway where she only stood a moment before the bells tolled through the castle and the class was released. Moving out from behind the suit of armour she'd leaned behind at familiar voices, Rebecca wrapped her arms around Fred and George tightly.
"Fred, is it your birthday?"
"I don't think so George. Is it yours?"
Rebecca laughed, holding them tighter a moment. "You two are mental. I never saw you at breakfast and...well, I wanted to see you."
"Not planning on going anywhere, are you?" George teased.
"Not today." Rebecca looked over their shoulders, wondering if going the longer way with less people would be better to get to Potions without being late. "I'll see you lot later, alright? I've got to fill you in but I've got Potions next."
"Go on then, don't want to be late." Fred smiled, stepping away from George so she had a path through. "Have fun?"
"In Potions?" Rebecca made a face before laughing and hurrying to class.
Waving even though her back was to them, Fred turned back to find Lee and George giving him solicitous, cheeky looks. "What?"
"Nothing." George rolled his eyes. "Come on, lover boy."
"L-lover boy?" Fred's voice cracked. "What are you talking about?"
"You and Rebecca?" Lee asked, his tone making it clear that it was obvious.
"That's our sister!"
George shook his head, looking at Fred with his disappointment clear. "No, no it's not. Ginny's our sister, we share our blood and our parents. Rebecca? Rebecca has the Weasley name for guardianship and she shares our home." George continued walking with his arm around Fred's shoulders, ignoring how red Fred's face had gotten at the truth. "Merlin, I hope you get that through your thick skull. All you ever do is talk about her."
Lee snorted and tried to mimic Fred's voice. "'Have you guys seen RJ? ' 'This prank needs to wait for RJ, she'd like this one.' 'RJ go up to bed already?'"
Fred pushed himself out from under George's arm, stalking ahead of the two of them angrily.
"Oh Freddie!" Lee cried out in a falsetto, swooning towards George.
"Oh Rebecca!" George cried out, catching Lee.
Fred whirled back around at their loudness, making sure no one was paying them any attention. "Shut it!" Fred never spoke to his friends like that, not when they were just teasing.
George and Lee raised their eyebrows at the outburst, walking quietly until they began to snigger. They said nothing more, walking behind the scowling Fred.
But Lee couldn't help it and he caught George's eyes, mouthing what they were both thinking. "He never even denied it!"
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Rebecca entered the Potions classroom seconds before Snape did, taking her seat next to Harry just as he waved his wand so the windows slammed shut and they were shrouded in shadows. "This year is not going to be easy like last year."
"Last year was easy?" Ron whispered.
"In fact, this year you're going to need to start trying. You weren't last year, were you?" Snape smirked as he looked out over them all. "I'm sorry to tell you that if you were, you are not going to succeed this year. Especially not when you need to pass your end of year examinations in order to continue your studies."
Snape narrowed his eyes at Rebecca and Harry. "No exceptions."
Harry ignored Snape's jest, waiting until he turned his back to the board to write out the lesson to whisper to Rebecca. "I didn't get to go against the boggart."
"What?" Rebecca asked, confused. "Why not?"
"Lupin didn't want Voldemort in front of the class."
"Why'd I get to do it then?" Rebecca shook her head, "There must have been another reason."
Harry waited, finding that it was hard to continue. "Maybe he thought I couldn't do it."
Rebecca reached her hand to his knee, not daring to do anything more comforting in Snape's dungeons. "That's not it at all--I think you know that though."
Harry snuck a cheeky grin. "Maybe, but it sure feels good hearing you say it."
Rebecca went to quip back, but ducked her head to her parchment and feigned diligent note-taking as Snape turned around. Rebecca didn't react as something hit the back of her head, waiting until Snape wasn't looking again to reach down and grab it.
Unballing the paper, there was an enchanted albeit crude drawing of Rebecca and Harry lying on the ground with a dementor flying about the top of the page. Rebecca turned in her chair to see who had thrown it as Harry took it from her to see for himself.
Draco was sitting between Crabbe and Goyle boredly while Crabbe and Goyle wiped tears of restrained laughter from their cheeks.
Harry recrumpled the drawing and put it on the desk between them. Rebecca would deal with it.
And deal with it, she did.
Rebecca picked the ball of paper off the desk and tossed it up in an arch, catching it with a well placed, whispered transfiguration charm. The ball of paper transfigured into a wasp and flew directly at the boys who had thrown it.
Snape turned back around at the subsequent shouting, but Rebecca and Harry were busy writing down the step he had just finished.
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"We have to go to Hagrid's." Rebecca said, motioning for the others to eat quickly. "Tonight, he needs to know that we're going to help him."
That was the plan, at least. Fred, George, and Lee slid into the bench across from Rebecca and began to speak just as Harry's attention was called to Seamus down the bench a ways.
"What was up with this afternoon, basket-case?" George started. "We don't see you for a day and we're bombarded in the corridor?"
Rebecca didn't think, not for a second, that she may have upset them when she stopped by. But George's crossed arms and cross tone and Fred's irritation made her think otherwise. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bombard, I just had the opportunity."
"Well you should be." George broke and he and Lee laughed loudly. Rebecca realised that they were joking, but this didn't explain Fred's apparent upsetness.
Leaning down and lowering her voice, Rebecca made eye contact. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm fine." He snapped, looking away from her quickly.
Rebecca's head moved back slightly in shock. "Well, that's a lie. Don't you always tell me not to try if it's so obvious? Don't be a prat without cause and certainly don't lie about." Rebecca put her utensils onto her plate, rolling her eyes. "You could have just said you didn't want to talk. Would have been better than being an arse."
Rebecca leaned over Harry, catching the rest of those going down to Hagrid's attention. "I've got to post a letter before, I'll meet you at the gate though."
"I'm done too!" Hermione stood quickly, grabbing her letter home from the top of her bag. "Been needing to send one back to my parents."
Ginny snorted and winked at Fred, raising her glass to him as Hermione and Rebecca disappeared into the rest of the castle. "Great job, Fred! Really, excellent work."
Fred sighed deeply, holding the bridge of his nose a moment before looking to Ginny tiredly. "Great job doing what exactly?"
"Being a right prat." Ginny feigned seriousness. "That is what you were going for, wasn't it?"
Fred stood up and left the Great Hall without dinner. He'd lost his appetite.
Harry sensed the tension leaving with Fred, but he and Ron were too busy jamming rolls into their pockets to eat on the way down to Hagrid's hut. Rebecca and Hermione both, when running with an idea, usually ended up running as well.
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"Everything alright? I saw that back there." Hermione held her letter at her side as she and Rebecca climbed the flights of stairs up to the Owlery. "Seemed tense."
"Just a stick up Fred's arse." Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"Any idea about what?" Hermione asked curiously.
"No." Rebecca sighed. "Hiya, Hedwig!" Rebecca pet the owl a moment, glancing over her shoulder to where Hermione looked like she wanted to say something. "What?"
"Nothing." Hermione thanked the school owl for taking the letter and waited for Rebecca to say goodbye to Hedwig. "Ready to get to Hagrid's?"
"Yes, though I'm certain he's not going to be happy. We're not supposed to be leaving the castle unless it's for class."
Hermione didn't like that she was reminded of this, but Hagrid and Buckbeak needed them more than a rule. That's what she was telling herself anyway.
Harry and Ron were waiting for Rebecca and Hermione, which was strange. The girls were almost always waiting for them, never the other way around.
"It's about time, isn't it?" Ron crowed, relishing the idea of holding this over their heads for eternity. "We've been waiting for hours!"
"Maybe two minutes?" Harry corrected, waving his hand back and forth. "Minute and a half?"
"Hey!" Fred ran out of the castle, seeing them. "Can I-Could I borrow Rebecca a moment?"
"I was going to-"
"Sure." Harry answered, checking the time. "It's alright, you go on and we'll tell you everything he says. We don't want to overwhelm him, honestly. You and Hermione get...into your research descriptions."
Rebecca frowned. "No, it's okay. I want to go down so Hagrid knows we're going to help him."
Hermione smiled, holding her hand out for the list of texts that could help them. "I'll make sure he knows."
"Why do we have to-" Ron stopped talking as Harry elbowed him in the side, hard. "Fine."
"Okay." Rebecca said uncertainly. "I'll see you all before bed then?"
"Yeah, before bed." Harry said happily, waving as she and Fred walked away. "What the hell, Ron? You saw that fight starting at dinner."
"So?" Ron asked, following Hermione who was leading the way down the path. "What's their little row got to do with anything? She could still help!"
Hermione looked back at Harry and rolled her eyes. "Because, Ronald."
"Because why?" Ron nearly whinged.
"Because, Ron." Harry said matter-of-factly. That was all that was said on the subject.
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Rebecca waited for Fred to say something. The two of them walked a strange route, Fred taking them on the longest, most out-of-the-way route back to the tower.
"I'm sorry for snapping at you." Fred said at last, just when the silence seemed to grow so taut it would surely snap. "At supper, I mean."
"You don't usually make a habit of it." Rebecca said drily. "Apology accepted." Rebecca didn't say anything else, continuing their way to bed.
"You're not going to ask why?" Fred asked curiously.
"No, it's not any of my business. You don't owe me an explanation just as I don't owe you one." Rebecca looked at him warily. "The point was not to be an arse, not with the Buckbeak shite piling."
"Do I want to know?" Fred asked with a grimace. Shite had more than one meaning, after all.
"He's to be tried for execution." Rebecca said quietly. The words themselves were hard and seemed to require extra attention to leave her mouth. She had yet to let the depth of her upsetness reach because Hermione was already upset. Rebecca showing that she was too was only going to add to the trouble, not fix any. "Because he attacked Malfoy because Malfoy didn't follow the instructions. They want to kill him."
"We won't let them." Fred said instantly. "You and Hermione, you have a plan, don't you?"
Rebecca sighed. "The plan is to make a case. Research in the library, try to find people who can speak on behalf of hippogriffs, things like that. It's not much and it's vague-"
"But you have two more helpers." Fred said with a certainty that startled Rebecca. "George and I, we'll help with whatever we can."
"You will?" Rebecca asked, now she was the curious one.
"Of course we will." Fred gave her a little smile. "Without being arses."
"That would be nice." Rebecca bumped into him, smiling back at him. "I'm glad then. I feel like we're going to need-Oh my..." Rebecca stopped, stunned.
Fred's face dropped and he grabbed her wrist, yanking her at his side and looking around the top of the stairs quickly. He was surveying, watching for any movement whatsoever. None came. Only the light flying of the tatters of the Fat Lady's portrait in the drafty castle. Peering over the edge of the stairs, his grip still tight on Rebecca's arm, Fred was the one to call for help. "We need Professor McGonagall, quickly!"
George was at the bottom and heard his twin's tone, the panic underneath. Commanding a lower year off to get their head of house, George ran up the stairs and had his wand in hand before he had even fully comprehended what this meant.
Sirius Black had been in the castle.
Sirius Black had come to Hogwarts.
Sirius Black had tried to get to Harry and Rebecca and he had nearly succeeded.
George and Fred only put away their wands when Professor McGonagall appeared with a trickling of scared Gryffindors behind her. "Did you three see anyone in the Tower?"
"I only just-" George's explanation was interrupted.
"No, professor." Fred looked over her shoulder. "Professor, they're...listening."
Professor McGonagall glanced at them, the wide-eyed first years, and nodded. "To the Great Hall, all of you."
"Minerva, they've found her." Dumbledore spoke gravely, his eyes flitting over Fred, Rebecca, and George slowly. "She was in the Ravenclaw Wing, it was whom we thought." Looking directly at Rebecca, Dumbledore's voice was gentle. "Have you seen your brother, Rebecca?"
"No, professor." Rebecca's mind began to run wild with the possibilities. Harry and Ron and Hermione murdered and left at the edge of the forest, left alone too long to be brought back if she could even do that to people. Rebecca alone, friendless and empty. Rebecca, eternally left as if there was a dementor over her shoulder.
"I'm sure they're fine." Fred murmured, leading her into the throng of students heading to the Great Hall. "They'll get to the Hall eventually."
The Great Hall had been transformed with row after row after row of cots with pillows and blankets aplenty. The enchanted ceiling above them shined with just enough light to sleep with, the torches still burning until every student had been given a bed.
Rebecca sat on the edge of hers, not noticing the silent conversation Fred and George were having as they waited for the others to appear.
Teachers patrolled, settling arguments where they arose and making sure the students were alright.
"They probably just got caught up talking to Hagrid." George offered after Fred gave him a glare and a nod towards Rebecca. "There they are!"
Rebecca stood up, Harry wrapping his arms around her and holding the back of her head tightly.
"I thought-"
"I know."
Hermione and Ron were looked over by Fred and George, hugged and guided towards one of the spare beds they had saved quickly as the teachers began to insist students return to sleep.
"I grabbed you an extra." Fred said quietly, not wanting anyone else to hear. "In case, you know."
Rebecca spread it out, setting her glasses under her cot. "Thanks, Fred. For everything."
"What are friends for?" Fred laid back and let the stars mock him. He had no idea where that had come from.
But Rebecca wasn't thinking about it, not really. She was too busy trying to figure out how she knew that Fred had most certainly used this blanket.
Then she was too busy trying to forget. It smelled like him.
And Rebecca had recognised it.
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