THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

♡

FRED: Wanna hear something shocking?

BRIAR: Always

FRED: Umbridge is so far up Fudge's arse she thinks You-Know-Who isn't back AND! She's trying to steal Dumbledore's job

BRIAR: Shit that's bad

FRED: Apparently she uses Bloodquills in detentions?

BRIAR: Freddie

FRED: Yeah?

BRIAR: What are they

FRED: They're these quills that use the writer's blood for ink

BRIAR: OH, NO

FRED: YEAH!!

BRIAR: Please don't get a detention

FRED: I'm a big boy, Briar

BRIAR: :-(

FRED: :-)

BRIAR: :-(

FRED: :-)

BRIAR: :'-(

FRED: :-*

BRIAR: The fuck is that

FRED: It's meant to be like a kissing face but it's shit

BRIAR: Ohhhh

FRED: Yeahhhhh

FRED: George thinks we're pathetic by the way

BRIAR: Wait I wanna speak to George!!!!

BRIAR: And Lee!!!!!

FRED: Lee isn't in the class

BRIAR: Well why not :-(

FRED: He does Care of Magical Creatures not Charms?

BRIAR: Ohh I forgot you drop subjects

FRED: I forgot you didn't

BRIAR: And I'm loving life because of it

FRED: What are you in now?

BRIAR: Hm well the Beauxbatons uniform

FRED: Briar

BRIAR: All right

BRIAR: ... Save it for later

BRIAR: ;-)

FRED: ... Well yeah

FRED: ;-)

FRED: Update, George thinks we're even worse

BRIAR: Whoops

FRED: So what lesson are you in?

BRIAR: Fine Arts

FRED: Is that the muggle one?

BRIAR: Kinda, yeah... It's like literature and history of art and stuff, but it's mostly focused on muggles that did that stuff

BRIAR: We've got a cover lesson though so it's a little boring

FRED: Ahh ok

BRIAR: Wait but I wanna speak to George!!!! :-(

FRED: Hang on

BRIAR: Thanks baby!!!

GEORGE: Yeah so you're both disgusting??

BRIAR: I'm in a literal lesson watching a muggle documentary about Byron right now, what do you expect from me

GEORGE: Fun

BRIAR: It is when it's Byron!!

GEORGE: So anyway

BRIAR: ... Yes

GEORGE: Are you coming here next Saturday?

BRIAR: I can do?

BRIAR: Most importantly though........ Mia???

GEORGE: What about her???

BRIAR: How ;-) is ;-) she ;-)

GEORGE: Dunno

BRIAR: Ok listen I won't tell ur twin pls tell me do u fancy her yes or no

GEORGE: Fred can literally read this

BRIAR: Well move it so he can't

BRIAR: I wanna know :-((((

GEORGE: Fine

GEORGE: ... Sort of

BRIAR: I KNEW IT

GEORGE: You can see the FUTURE

BRIAR: That is BESIDE the POINT

BRIAR: She's got great taste ha ha ha

GEORGE: Yeah I'd rather not be reminded that you've shagged my twin??

BRIAR: Well what do you want me to say??? Sorry???

GEORGE: Well no, you calm him down

BRIAR: Hang on

BRIAR: You're glad that i've had sex with your brother?

GEORGE: I did not mean that, what the fuck

GEORGE: I mean you're good together as a couple

GEORGE: Can we move back to Mia

BRIAR: Ooooh? So you wanna talk about her??????

GEORGE: Do you, like, see anything happening...?

BRIAR: I can't tell you, it might fuck it up

GEORGE: :-(

BRIAR: But you like Mia!!! Yay!!!!

GEORGE: She's nice

BRIAR: Jesus Christ is that all?

GEORGE: All right well she's pretty fucking fit

BRIAR: I am aware

GEORGE: Also she's SO clever

GEORGE: And she's bloody brilliant at art

GEORGE: Like

GEORGE: Her drawings look so real???

GEORGE: Oh AND a while back she fully argued with Umbridge (the new Defence teacher) and CHRIST

GEORGE: She's just amazing

BRIAR: You're in love :'-)

GEORGE: First of all I'm not

GEORGE: I just fancy her... a lot

BRIAR: God BLESS :'-)

GEORGE: I think Fred wants to speak to you again :-(

BRIAR: What a stalker

GEORGE: I know?

GEORGE: I'll talk to you soon :-(

BRIAR: Pls marry Mia :-(

FRED: Ok first of all??

BRIAR: I love youuuuuuuu

♡

in Briar's eyes — her first order of business, once Madame Maxime was gone, was to reinstate the ABBA statues in the north courtyard. And, since then, everything's been running nice and smoothly. Briar takes care with the new students, checking in on their dorms at least once a week, and starting up a club for older students to act as an older sibling, of sorts, to help out with the younger years. She also starts selling Fred and George's joke products, which puts her in the good books of a ton of students, now that the head girl is over here, ensuring everyone's doing OK, sure, but also, selling Skiving Snackboxes, for those days.

Every so often, Fred manages to visit, either during a Hogsmeade weekend, or sneaking out of the Hogwarts grounds through one of the passageways — not every weekend is a Hogsmeade weekend, but for Beauxbatons, you can visit the town whenever, as long as you sign in and out, and are back for curfew and lessons. And Briar shows Fred around, holding his hand and walking him through the small French streets, as the autumn leaves fall to the floor... And then, as autumn became winter, through streets with light dustings of frost covering the pathways...

And then everything stops.

It's the last day of term, tomorrow being the "going home day," when Briar wakes up from a vision. At first she thinks it's one from the full moon, and then she thinks that it's the vision, but then remembers she's still got one hundred and eighty-one days until that one graces her mind; she wakes up with a gasp, and she wakes Luli up, who sits next to her and holds her hand. She's used to full moons, bless, but not visions.

Briar sees a snake, who's dark-green scales reflect into an emerald, when it hits the sparse light it's under. She sees the snake's mouth widen, fangs as sharp as her own on a full moon appear, and they shoot forwards, sinking into someone's skin. She hears a scream, and the vision presents itself to her, clear as day — the serpent hunts the father of seven.

"Oh, fuck," says Briar, and she can still see the vision unfolding, but she forces herself up, rubbing her eyes to make the vision go away. "I need to help — Luli, I need to get to Maxime's office, I need to use the Floo Network to warn them..."

"You can't tell me, right?" says Luli, frowning.

Briar shakes her head. "But I need to help, I need to—"

And then Briar gets incredibly dizzy, and almost falls over.

This is the annoying part of visions. She could save lives, sure, but the second she has the knowledge to help someone, her body gives in. But Briar won't let it. She feels like her body's close to giving up on her, on collapsing in the middle of their dorm room, straight onto Sergeant the German shepherd — but, just like the vision about Cedric, she feels an overwhelming urge to fight against any tiredness, and stop the vision.

So Briar says: "I need to get to Maxime's office."

And Luli says: "I know a shortcut."

So the two girls run through the halls, awaking the portraits and the statues and the ghosts. Briar tries to ignore the grumbles, and she skids around the corner. She'll break into Maxime's office, she's done it before, and she'll find a way to warn them — she can't let this happen, she knows what it's like to have a dead parent, there's no way she's letting this happen to her best friends...

The door to Maxime's office opens straightaway, and Briar frowns. She holds onto Luli's hand, to stop her new friend from moving forwards, in case it's anyone playing tricks on them, and Maxime steps out in front of them.

"I didn't realise you were back," says Briar, frowning.

Maxime looks at both of them, confused. "Only for a couple nights..." she says, and her brows furrow. "Briar, what are you doing, dragging Luli out of bed?"

"I had a vision," says Briar.

Maxime nods. "What about?"

"Mr Weasley," says Briar, and she lets go of Luli's hand, feeling frustrated. "Please, miss, I need to warn someone—"

She slips past Maxime to get into her office, and she stops in her tracks. Dumbledore's sitting next to the fire, unbothered.

Briar frowns. "Uh, hi...?"

Dumbledore smiles warmly. "Hello, Briar."

Briar glances at Luli, who's been let into the office, too. The two girls exchange a look of, what the fuck is going on?

"Uh..." says Briar, and she shakes her head. "I had a vision, Madame Maxime. You-Know-Who's snake is going to attack Mr Weasley — he was in a dark room — that's all I know. "She closes her eyes, to try and think of anything else, and she opens them, turning to Maxime. "Madame Maxime, do you have a crystal ball, maybe? I can look into the future again, I can figure out what's going to happen—"

This is when Briar realises she's crying.

Dumbledore looks rather grave. "I must go, Madame Maxime."

Madame Maxime nods.

Briar's eyes widen, and she jumps forwards.

"Why?" she says. "What do you mean, what's happening—?"

But her inner eye already answers her question:

"It's about to happen," she says aloud.

Dumbledore doesn't nod, because he doesn't know for certain, but he quickly leaves the office. Briar looks across at Maxime, at a loss for words.

Briar collapses into one of the chairs, her face in her hands. What if Dumbledore doesn't get there on time? What if Mr Weasley is killed by the snake? It's not like they had a week's warning — it's happening now, minutes after she had the vision, that's not enough time for them to do anything to stop the vision from happening. Briar feels nothing but guilt. She could've had this vision hours ago. Days or weeks or months, even. Fred and George could be fatherless because of this. And she could've stopped it, if she had any grip on how her fucking inner eye works...

"Briar," says Maxime. "What did you see?"

And so she explains. She blurts out information she had forgotten, stuff she didn't realise she knew, like how Mr Weasley was in an underground part of the Ministry trying to find information for the Order (Luli looks super confused when this is brought up) and she talks and talks and talks until she feels sleepy again. Maxime nods, crossing her arms.

"I think it is best, Briar, for you to go to bed," she says. "You've done all you can, and that was more than enough."

"But what if—?"

He's dead, Briar wants to say, but she's interrupted.

"If I find anything out, I will let you know," says Maxime. "In the morning, come straight here — Luli, you too — and we will organise what we're doing. But until then, you both need to sleep."

Briar frowns. "But—"

"Miss Crouch," says Maxime, warningly.

Briar sighs. "OK."

The whole walk back to their room, Briar keeps on telling Luli, "There is no way I'm gonna sleep," and Luli, in her sweet way, tries to say that it would be good if she got some rest. But she doesn't get it. There's nothing like the awful dread, of knowing that you knew this thing in the future, this thing that would hurt someone and everyone that loves them — and you can't stop it from happening. Briar can't shake the feeling that this happened with Cedric, too, and that time she literally told someone else, she was so desperate... Shit, she never thought of it like that... She shouldn't have told Mia that... Fuck...

She can't shake the thought that if Mr Weasley is dead, then what will happen to the Weasleys? They'll all be crushed. She loves them all, truly, but she can't help but worry about the twins... She doesn't know how they'd react. It crushes her, to think of them grieving for their dad...

She drifts off eventually, or at least she thinks, because surely, she couldn't have been lying there, worrying, for that long. When Briar wakes up (one hundred and eight days) she checks the parchment, but it's blank, and Briar understands. Fred's got a lot on his plate, he doesn't have enough time to write to her, and she's fine with that.

But she writes to him, I hope everything's okay. Please please please tell me how you're doing. I love you lots xxx

She gets changed into her light blue jeans, and her Beauxbatons hoodie, zipped halfway, so you can still see her white t-shirt underneath. She'll wear a coat, whatever, but this is comfortable. Luli smiles weakly at her, lazily plaiting her hair, so it looks nice despite the minimal effort. Apparently they're on the same wave length today.

Madame Maxime has breakfast delivered to her office, and Briar and Luli eat some of the pain au chocolats, as Madame Maxime explains that Mr Weasley is fine. Luli puts her hand on Briar's and squeezes it, because it's the news they all wanted. Briar feels relieved, but still, she can't help but feel bad. She knows the twins act as if they're too cool, but she knows, they would've been getting so worked up about this. Briar knows how much Fred and George love their family, even if neither of them would admit it. She can practically feel how upset they must've been, until they found out their dad was okay... And it crushes Briar, knowing how they must've felt, knowing she couldn't help them.

The train is scheduled to leave at twelve, and due to safety, Briar isn't allowed to take the easy route and take the Floo Network home; if the British Ministry caught wind, they might wonder why Briar's the only one allowed to do so, and it could start a trail towards the Order. So, Briar plonks herself on a seat on the Beauxbatons train, alongside Luli and Chloé and Verity.

"Mr Weasley's fine," says Briar, having explained the ordeal to Chloé and Verity. Both of them nod; Briar sighs. "I really hope they're all OK, though..."

Luli grimaces. "It's shit, seeing your parent like that," she says. Briar remembers the times Luli's talked about her mother, how the full moon would leave her injured.

Briar rests her head against the window. "It is..."

They talk every so often the whole train journey; when they get to Paris, Chloé, Verity, and Luli hug Briar goodbye, all three being picked up by their respective parents at the Paris station. Luli lives in the country, but her mother's picking her up, she tells them all. They all seem excited to go home for Christmas — which Briar is, but that excitement's been clouded over by something else.

Briar finds Livvy and they sit together, both of them a little shaken from the news about Mr Weasley. She tells him about the vision, because they haven't seen each other since the day before, and they quietly agree upon the fact that they'll go straight to Grimmauld Place, when they get into London. Neither of them know if their dad's already planning to do that, but regardless, they're going there, straight away. Livvy hasn't spoken to any of the Wealseys, but he's talked to Holly, who got there around lunchtime. Apparently they're all fine... Livvy also lets slip that Harry and Holly kissed under the mistletoe, in the Dumbledore's Army classroom, but Briar swears she won't say a word to anyone else.

They arrive in Kings Cross, and they find their dad, waiting for them, in his usual old tweed. He looks more tired than usual.

"Dad, we wanna—"

"We're going to have dinner with the Weasleys, if that's OK," says Remus, and Livvy and Briar exchange a look. All right then.

"Are they OK?" says Briar, to Remus.

Remus nods. "A little worked up, but they're fine."

"Fred and George — are they—?"

"They're fine, Briar," says Remus. "Are you OK? After that vision?"

"What? Oh — oh, yeah, I'm fine..."

She's been so worried about the twins, she forgot she had a vision.

Twenty minutes pass and her dad's sent their trunks back home, so they can go straight form the train station to Grimmauld Place. They arrived into the station at a different time to the Hogwarts Express, since their journey's a little longer, so the station's not as busy as it used to be, when Briar got back for Christmas.

Merlin. That feels like a lifetime away. Back when her grandparents were alive and she lived with them, she remembers how her grandpa would make an effort to finish work early that day — he only did this twice a year, both times when they arrived back in London. And Briar and Livvy understood, that there was a reason her grandpa had to work a little late over Christmas and start early, so he never saw them leave on the first of September, but if anything, Briar preferred it, the fact that he made an effort to greet them home.