THE WEIRDEST DREAM

♡

in her hands, sitting on a stone step. If you walk past her, further up the corridor, you'll find yourself at the hospital wing — where her dad is. Where she had been, a few minutes ago, until she saw at least four heads of ginger hair, and then Harry, and she thought, I'm not fucking dealing with this right now. So she left, walking away from her dad. He didn't know what to do. But he wouldn't, would he? He wasn't around when she was little. He didn't even try and find her when he escaped from Azkaban. He doesn't know how to comfort her...

She desperately hopes that her mum will show up soon. Her dad's face looked grave when Mia asked him where she was, so she worries that she's been roped into the Order. Merlin. Mia hates all of this. Mia hates the fact that her dad is too busy filling the fucking Gryffindors in on what's happened to find his actual child. Mia hates the fact that she was sobbing and the whole Weasley family intruded. Mia hates the fact that she can't find her mum. But, most importantly, Mia hates the fact that her best friend is dead. And she could've stopped it.

So Mia cries into her hands, doubled over. The hallway's gotten dark now, and the candles near her know better than lighting the hallway up for people to see her there, on her own. Although she doubts anyone will walk past, since Dumbledore called for all students to be sent to their dorm rooms, and to stay there until morning... So it's just Mia, on her own, but she supposes she's got to get used to this. It's not like Cedric's going to come back. She has no one.

Mia doesn't know where her mum is, but she knows that something fishy has been going on for the past year — ever since her dad actually showed up (a whole year after he first escaped, bear in mind) and her mum took him to the side, something has been going on. Mia, from her above-average eavesdropping skills, thinks it's got something to do with the fact that her mum was supposed to be a Death Eater, but still. She wants her mum. She wants her mum to hold her, to comfort her, to tell her that everything's going to be OK. Her mum lost all of her friends, all at once; she knows what Mia's going through. Her dad's too worried about Harry to think like that.

She doesn't hear the footsteps coming towards her in the hallway, but she does hear someone clear their throat awkwardly.

And the person speaks.

"Oh," says George. "It's you."

The candles around Mia burn brighter. She feels as if her blood's about to boil, as she turns around to him, standing up, glaring. She isn't having this. Not today. Not when she was told this morning her best friend, her first love, was going to die, and she didn't manage to fucking stop it.

"Are you happy now?" she snaps at him. "He's dead, you don't have to worry about some stupid fucking Quidditch match being lost, God forbid, to Hufflepuff!"

George's eyes widen, taken off-guard.

Quietly, he says, "I'm not..."

But Mia ignores him, as she runs her fingers through her hair, feeling hot tears gather in her eyes again. She wishes he wasn't here. She hates crying in front of people, but in front of someone she dislikes? Someone call Voldemort and get him to kill her, too.

"I should've stopped it," she mutters. "I should've stopped it..."

"By what, fighting off You-Know-Who?" says George.

She doesn't know if that's supposed to be another version of he was killed by You-Know-Who, he couldn't have survived, but it doesn't sit well with her. Who thinks like that, when they're the one grieving? Everyone wishes they could've stopped it... And she could've. She was told what was going to happen. She should've stopped it.

"Piss off," she says to George. She grits her teeth together, to stop herself from crying, but she looks at him, feeling even angrier. "What if it was your brother?"

George frowns. "What?"

"What if it was Fred, out there?" says Mia, narrowing her glassy eyes. She wants to be left alone, but for fuck's sakes, she's sick and fucking tired of this. She doesn't like the Weasley twins because they were dicks to her best friend, and now her best friend's gone and all that's left is them. She's angry. "What if Fred got killed? Or Briar? Or Lee?"

George doesn't reply.

"That's what I thought," says Mia. "You can say your shit about how he stood no chance, but if you were me, you would be thinking the same thing, Weasley."

George looks away for a minute, but then he turns to her, as she starts to walk away, down the steps.

"Hang on."

She turns around. "What?"

"You can tell us apart?" he says.

Fuck.

She feels like she's in fourth year all over again, shit.

Mia turns back around. "Lucky guess."

"Wait," he says.

Mia wants to kill him.

She turns back around, and she crosses her arms. Tears are still gathering in her eyes, and her jaw hurts, she's been gritting her teeth so hard. She wants him to leave her alone... She wants to be left alone. Her best friend is dead. Can't she have some space?

George frowns. "I don't like you, but I'm sorry for what happened..." he says, slowly, as if thinking the wrong word will get him killed... It might, considering that time Mia got so angry Zacharias Smith's hair caught on fire... George's hair is already fucking orange, they wouldn't even notice the flames until his brain was melted. "I don't know what I'd do if one of my friends died..."

Mia can't even reply; tears fall down her face and she doesn't just burst into tears, she fully bursts into sobs. Both of her cheeks are completely wet, as she furiously tries to wipe her tears away, but there's no use. An entire waterfall of tears runs down her cheeks, falling off onto the floor.

And she doesn't know how the next part happens — but one second, Mia wants to throttle George fucking Weasley, and the next, her face is buried into his chest as she cries... And he doesn't hug her. Not like Cedric used to. But he puts his arms around her, awkwardly, like he has to. It feels as if... he's holding her? Like he's holding something made of china. Mia thinks, what the fuck.

After a while she steps away from him, and wipes her cheeks with the back of her jumper. She looks up at George, narrowing her eyes.

"Don't you dare tell anyone..."

"Like I'd want to...?"

♡

BRIAR RUBS HER EYES, DECIDING now's not the time to worry about mascara smearing. George walks back into the hospital wing, looking slightly dazed. Fred, who's been sitting next to Briar on one bed ever since she arrived, frowns at his twin. "I thought you were gonna get a jumper?" he says.

George frowns, looking lost in thought, as he sits down. "I got sidetracked."

Briar technically has a bed in the hospital wing, but she feels fine, so she sits cross-legged on top of the duvet, so that the twins can sit next to her. She's meant to sleep here, she knows that, but for now she's fine. And when she's told to rest, she'll make sure that Fleur stays with her. Mrs Weasley's standing in the centre of the room, looking incredibly worried. Briar sits with her hands in her lap, until Fred holds onto one of them... She guesses he's not pissed off anymore.

Dumbledore's standing there, too, speaking to the adults. Briar listens in, a sense of dread growing in her stomach. For the first time it's setting in for her, that Voldemort's returned. She feels scared.

Halfway through he addresses someone called Atticus, and Briar realises that, behind a curtain, Holly's asleep, bandages covering up her left leg. Atticus, Holly's dad, begins to speak to Dumbledore. Briar's surprised.

"A Malfoy's left the Death Eaters?" says Fred, quietly to Briar and George.

"I don't believe this," says George.

The door bursts open with Madame Maxime; Maxime, speaking in frantic French, walks straight to Briar, who quickly gets to her feet and into the middle of the room, so there's enough space for them to talk. She pulls Briar into a very awkward-feeling hug, but Briar knows that her headmistress means it. Maxime looks down at her. "What you did was very stupid... but very brave, and I cannot criticise you for that," she says, in French. Briar's glad; she'd rather not her friends listen in to her headmistress sort of telling her off? Sort of just calling her stupid? Whatever. "You have the qualities I admire, Briar... I am very proud of you."

"But I didn't stop anything," says Briar.

"But you tried," says Maxime. "And I believe you stood up for yourself?" Briar nods. She feels her cheeks burning red. "That is just as important..." Maxime looks behind Briar, to where Remus is standing, speaking to Sirius. "Now, can I finally meet your father?"

"Oh, yeah, sure..." she says, and she steps to the side, before looking at her dad. "Uh, Dad?"

Remus turns to her, and as he does, Maxime begins to speak.

Briar walks away. She catches her godfather's eye and she smiles weakly.

The door bursts open again, and a flurry of light blue rushes through the hospital wing. Briar feels her heart warm — she hasn't felt this happy to see Fleur. She begins to smile, properly this time.

Fleur rushes past Bill, who she knocks without realising, and she throws herself onto Briar. Fleur wraps her arms around Briar, hugging her tightly. "Briar!" she says, in French. "It was so awful in there... But it must've been worse for you! Are you OK? Are you hurt? I am not leaving your side from now on — I can't believe you knew what was going to happen!"

"I'm fine, Fleur... I'll tell you everything later, but, more importantly," says Briar, and she frowns. "Are you OK? Harry said the maze was terrible, and that you were almost taken, and that Viktor had Imperius on him... Fleur, are you sure you're feeling OK?"

"I'll be fine," says Fleur.

Over Fleur's shoulder, Briar catches a glance at Bill, who doesn't have a hand on the arm that was pushed — probably to stop the twins from teasing him — but he's looking at Fleur... And Briar begins to have her usual vision... Oh?

Dumbledore leaves after a while, and Mrs Weasley turns to the rest of them. Harry's sitting on the bed next to Briar, meaning all of the Weasleys, and Hermione and Ron, are sitting around, together. She smiles weakly at Harry. "Try and think about something else for a while..." she says, and as she says this, Mia walks into the room. Sirius opens his arms to hug her, but she crosses her arms. "Think about what you're going to buy with your winnings!"

"I don't want that gold," says Harry. "It should've been Cedric's."

Briar looks up, and sees Mia walk out of the room again. Already Briar pulls away from Fleur, and says to her, "We should go after her." Fleur nods without a second thought, and Briar quickly tells her dad where they're going, before the two of them leave the hospital wing together, lightly holding each other's hands.

When they get outside Livvy appears, looking out-of-breath. Briar frowns.

"I've only just managed to sneak past every teacher they've got on watch," he tells her. "Jesus, Briar, are you OK?"

"I'm fine," says Briar. "Holly's in there. So's Dad."

Livvy looks as if he's been slapped across the face, as he nods, and walks past them, into the hospital wing.

Briar and Fleur find Mia, sitting on her own in a hallway, and the two of them sit either side of her. Mia wipes her face quickly, but her eyes are still glassy and red, and grey marks around her eyes show her mascara's ran.

"We wanted to see if you're OK..."

♡

AT THE END OF THE YEAR, everything is still quiet. The whole school seems to be in shock still. Because who would've thought this could happen? Cedric Diggory was dead and Voldemort's back. Everyone's scared about the latter, you can tell. When people joke with their friends, they'll laugh and quietly, they'll tell their friends how much they love them. Loud noises make people jump and reach for wands. Everyone acts as if they're living in a war — but they are now, aren't they?

Holly leaves school a month early. Atticus has left the Death Eaters, and they're classing it as for her safety, to go now, but Briar thinks she just wants to leave. Briar understands. Mia's managed to do the same, only for different circumstances.

It's the second to last day when Briar's sitting in The Three Broomsticks with her dad. It's the weekend, and everyone's going home on the Monday, but the two school-free days are there for people to pack their things. Briar's talked to Maxime, and she's allowed to go home on the Hogwarts Express; she thinks Fleur's going to come with her, though, but that's mostly because they don't leave each other's side anymore.

Or at least they haven't been — but this afternoon, Briar wants to talk to her dad, without her godfather or anyone else there. She wants to speak to him, on her own, about what she saw all those months ago.

"Has everything been all right, then?" says Remus.

Briar nods. Her brows furrow slightly, feeling a little awkward about bringing this up. She didn't really realise how weird it sounded — "Hey, Dad, so you think you killed someone? What happened?" — until she sat down here, trying to find the right words to say it.

"Um, I wanted to talk to you about something," she tells him, and her dad nods. She looks away from him, as she tries to word this in the best way possible. "A few months ago, Maxime taught me how to look into the past, um, instead of the future... And I saw you. And I wanted to ask..." She lowers a voice, in case her dad doesn't want anyone near to overhear this. "What happened with that girl? Emily Murphy?"

"Oh," says Remus, and he smiles awkwardly. "I haven't heard that name in years."

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine—"

"No, it's all right," he says. He shuffles in his seat, sitting up straighter. He looks directly at her, rather than how she couldn't meet his gaze. He doesn't look upset by it, which Briar thinks is positive? "I didn't hurt her. It turned out that she got caught up with the wrong crowd, and they tried to make it look like a werewolf attack, so it wouldn't get traced back to them... I don't know for certain — I think Laurel realised, but whoever did it would've gotten away with it, anyway... By that point, at least, I think the person who did it, well, she was too high up in the Ministry. No one would be able to touch her, even if Laurel tried."

Briar leans forward across the table. "Who do you think...?"

"You know her daughter."

Briar thinks. High up in the Ministry?

She remembers the Quidditch World Cup, specifically the top box that they sat in, and her eyes widen.

"Holly's mum?"

Remus nods.

Briar tries to imagine it: a girl that resembles Holly, the kid that's best friends with her baby brother, the kid that her other brother fancies the pants out of, killing someone — and not just that, covering it up, and getting away with that? Briar feels her stomach turn. Holly, her baby brother's best friend, grew up with a mother like that...?

She sits back in her chair. "Shit."

"'Course, it might not be the case," says Remus.

Briar raises an eyebrow. "But you think it is."

Remus nods. "Emily was never actually nice, I think Laurel just felt bad, because they had shared a dorm for so many years," he says.

"Oh," says Briar.

"Now, not to change the subject, but — have you had any thoughts about your birthday present?"

A grin spreads across Briar's face. "Well..."

♡

IT'S STILL LIGHT OUTSIDE, when Briar leaves the hall, having had dinner. Fred had turned to Briar during dinner, though, and had asked if they could speak in private. Which has led to now.

It begins to dawn on her, as they walk towards the school grounds, that it's been a year since all of this kicked off: since Briar realised she fancied Fred, since Briar told her dad that she's a werewolf too. Isn't that weird? All of this only happened over a year... A year ago she was still living with her grandparents. Weird.

They end up next to the lake, and Briar raises an eyebrow at him. To be fair, they haven't properly spoken still, since everything happened. They held hands in the hospital wing, but that was it. But, then, Briar hasn't been seen without Fleur for the past month, giving no chance to actually speak to her privately.

"So why did you want to talk?" she asks, and she glances at the lake, eyeing it nervously. Suddenly she has a dislike for large bodies of water. "Unless you wanted to show me the lake I almost died in, which is odd...?"

Fred shakes his head. "Nah, you wouldn't have died in it."

Briar raises an eyebrow. "Were the mermaids and the large body of water not real, then?"

"No..." he begins, and he shrugs, looking sheepish. "I would've gotten you."

Briar looks up at him, and smiles softly. "Aw."

"Look, I'm sorry for getting pissed off at you..." says Fred. So this is what this is about. Briar forgot they had a fight. She's just gotten used to them not really speaking, to not really knowing if they were going out or now. "I think it's just I could see you were worried and I wanted to help you..."

"I'm sorry for having a go at you. I'm so sorry for everything..." says Briar, and she takes hold of his hands. "I've put you through so much shit, Freddie, and you still look at me like I'm golden."