Arabella Jenks woke with a start, and sat up in her bed breathing hard. Pushing her sheets off, she stood up quickly, only to sit back down just as fast as the world spun around her. Hanging her head between her knees, she worked slowly on evening out her breathing. It was that dream. The same one it always was. Blinking her eyes to clear them, then shaking her head, she tried to banish the images that kept flashing through her mind.
Her a year younger, standing at the end of her driveway. Snow was falling softly around her, as it was the winter break of her second year at Hogwarts. The Weasley's had picked her up at the train station, her parents had arranged this, seeing as though they lived right down the road from each other. They had dropped her off at the end of the driveway, with her luggage, just like she had requested. She had stared at her house with a growing sense of excitement. The closer and closer she got to her house, the more she realized something was off, not quite right. Sudden images flashed through her head. Door hanging partially open, no smoke from the chimney, shades drawn shut. But she had been too excited to register this at the time, pushing the door open and yelling out. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" Standing at the doorway, she was shocked when there was no response from her parents. "Mom? Dad?" She once again had images flash through her head. A cold cup of coffee sitting on the table alongside a half-eaten breakfast, a kettle on the stove whistling with no one shutting it off. She had searched through most of the house when she heard movement from the living room.
More images flashed through her mind, her dad laying on the ground, eyes blank, with a cut on his cheek. Her mother's eyes meeting her, glancing down to where her mother clutched her shirt close, where blood seemed to seep out of her. A voice, her mother's rang through her head, "Arabella, run!" And then another, deeper voice from behind her "Crucio!" An immense feeling of pain rain through her body, and the images stopped, but the voices did not. Her mother screaming, "No! Not my daughter!" A sudden yell of surprise from the man, and the images started again. Arabella saw her mother wrestling with the man over a wand. Her mother screaming, "Run Arabella, I love you, please run!" Somehow she had found enough strength to push herself up and run out of the house. Another image, her looking back at the house, to see a flash of green out the windows, even through the shades. The sound of her sobbing as she ran through the pine trees, and the sound of the man yelling from her house, well behind her. The feeling of the sharp needles scratching her face, she tripped and fell once, quickly pulling herself up and suddenly she had seen the clearing she had been looking for, the Weasley's house.
But when she had reached that opening, she collapsed, all of her energy gone. She had stared up at the house, unable to move, when she heard a voice from inside. "George can you go get some eggs please?" Then another voice responded, "Sure mum." There was some movement by the door, and then one brightly red headed boy walked out of the house, not noticing her. Summoning all of the strength that she had, she tried to say his name, when she finally managed, he jumped, then started towards her with a smile on his face, "Hey Arabella! What are you doing here already…?" Then he was close enough to really see her, to see the blood dripping down her face from where the pine needles had cut her, and from where she must have bitten her lip. His smile froze on his face and he stopped, his eyes widened as they met her and saw the despair. He had suddenly took action, yelling for his parents while running towards her. When reaching her, he scooped her up into his arms bridal style, and started sprinting towards his house. His yelling increased in volume when he heard something crashing through the trees behind him becoming more and more distinct. Luckily his parents has run outside at the sound of his frightened yells and quickly took in the situation. With one quick movement they were in-between the man in the woods and George and Arabella. Mr. Weasley shouted out quickly, "Get Charlie and Bill!" And with that, the door slammed behind George and Arabella and they were in the house. George without hesitation began to sprint up the stairs, and all of the bedroom doors opened with complaints about the noise, but when all eyes met the scene the noise stopped instantly. Bill had immediately sprinted down the stairs, wand at the ready, but Charlie had grabbed onto George whispering under his breath.
"Stay upstairs, block them off, and protect Ginny." With those few words he was gone, and the front door slammed.
For a few seconds all the children remained frozen, then they all flinched as they heard shouts and bangs from outside. George met the eyes of his brothers and sister and said quickly, "Block off the stairs, now!" With that they all set into motion, objects such as desks, chairs, and mattresses were being thrown onto the stairs. Fred though still remained frozen, staring at his brother with a look of shock on his face. George met eyes with him then quickly shook his head and Fred unfroze, joining in with the rest of his siblings. Quickly George moved through the crowd, still cradling Arabella to him. He quickly called out to Ginny who was the only sibling not doing anything, she was crouched down, tears welling up in her eyes. Juggling Arabella quickly he took Ginny's hand and lead her to his and Fred's room. He went to one corner of the room, and pressed on a very specific part of the wallpaper. And just like that a small square of the wall shimmered and disappeared. He reached in shoving boxes of toys and vials away from the opening and said quietly "Ginny everything is going to be okay, I just need you to climb in here for a little bit okay?" Ginny whimpered and quickly disappeared into the hole. Before closing the opening, George went quickly over to his window sill where a softly glowing fairy looking creature was floating in a jar. He picked it up and took it over to Ginny handing it to her and saying to her, "Hey, I'll be back in just a little bit okay? Just sit here and be quiet and look at the pixie okay?" With a silent nod, Ginny grasped onto the jar pulling it into the hole in the wall. George once again pressed on the wallpaper and the opening closed, sealing his little sister away into safety.
He stopped for a quick moment, trying to catch his breath and sort out his thoughts. Then he moved out of his bedroom, out into the hallway where the stairs were no longer visible and there was a solid wall of assorted furniture. All of the siblings were silent now, listening to the sounds of bangs and shouting coming from outside. When Arabella heard this she clung even tighter to George. He remembered quickly the cuts and scrapes on her face and said quietly, "Someone go grab the First-Aid please." Ron was off like a shot going to a closet and digging through it while George went into the bathroom. He tried to gently set Arabella down on the counter, but she was clinging to him too tightly for him to do so. "Arabella, can you let go please so I can take care of your cuts?" When there was no movement, he whispered in her ear "Bells?" He knew for a fact that her mom's pet name for her would work, and sure enough her arms relaxed, sliding from around his neck to slump down at her sides. He propped her up against the mirror, and looked her over. Her eyes were empty and dull, and blood trickled down her face and matted up her hair.
Ron rushed in the bathroom, handing him the magical First-Aid kit, and then instantly began to pester him. "Is she okay? What's wrong? What's…"
In a sharp tone George cut him off. "Ron I know she's your friend but now is not really a good time." Ron shut his mouth with a quick snap and backed out of the room, all while keeping an eye on Arabella. George had just started to rummage around in the First-Aid kit when Percy barged his way into the bathroom.
"What's going on?" He demanded.
"Percy! Not now! I don't know and I'm trying to help Arabella!" This was by far the sharpest and most serious tone any of the Weasley children had ever heard from George and they immediately all were quite. He took a washcloth and began softly sponging the blood off of her face. He had placed quick healing band aids on as many of the cuts as he could, and as he did this Fred began cleaning the blood from her hair as gently as he could. Ron had also crept up and laced his hand with hers. She still sat there, blank faced, but once George finished taking care of her injuries, and leaned back, her eyes flickered up to his. George could tell instantly there was something wrong, and suddenly her eyes welled up with tears and a huge sob wracked her entire body. She slumped forward and George wrapped his arms around her, Fred followed his lead and the girl sobbed into their shoulders. The rest from there was always a blur for Arabella. The man had apparated away, and had escaped, the rest of the memories were being questioned by people from the ministry of magic, and the constant stream of tears down her face. She had eventually fallen asleep with Mrs. Weasley stroking her hair, and her feet draped across George's lap, because he had not left her side since the events.
This was always where she woke up, every single night she had to relive this. The loss and death of her parents, every night. She finally was able to sit up, and she pushed her hair back roughly. The shadow in the bed over to the right sat up and said groggily "Bella?"
Arabella winced and said quietly "Hey Hermione, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."
Hermione stretched, groaned and then spoke "Its okay, that dream again?"
"Every night." Replied Arabella with a sigh.
"You know, you can go. I won't tell on you, and you laying here till I fall back asleep and then sneaking out is pointless." As Hermione spoke Arabella flushed, glad that it was still dark in the room.
"Thanks 'Mione." She managed to stutter out. Her friend mumbled something sleepily and lay back with a whoosh onto her bed. Arabella then set into motion, grabbing her comforter and wrapping it around herself. She walked as quietly as she could past all of the other beds till she reached the door. She quietly slipped out of the door labeled 3rd Years and walked quickly down the cold stone stairs, as soon as she reached the bottom, she jumped quickly to bury her toes in the thick carpet of the common room. Making sure there was no one in the room, except for a completely asleep Neville sprawled across a few books about herbology lightly snoring, she quickly sprinted across the room and up the other set of stairs, moving as quickly as she could to stop from her toes getting cold.
At this speed she very quickly reached the door that said 5th years, she pushed it open and had to stifle a giggle at the sight that met her eyes. Clothes lay all over, as did feathers, and dangling from the heater at the center of the room was a toilet seat. Being very careful not to step on anything, she made her way towards the bed to the right of the large bay window. When she reached it, she had to fight back another giggle, a tall lanky boy lay across the bed, one arm hanging off and both legs sticking straight off of the bed. She removed one arm with a slight struggle from her bundle of blankets, and reached out, poking the boy in the stomach. The boy groaned slightly and said still mostly asleep "No Fred, I don't want to go dye Ron's hair pink, just let me sleep." Arabella giggle under her breath and at that George's eyes snapped open. He took in her appearance quickly and said quietly "The dream?"
Arabella grimaced and said "The dream." George sighed and sat up on the bed, patting the spot now empty space on his bed.
"Come on you blanket burrito." She stuck her tongue out but crawled up onto the bed. George laid down and pulled the blanket up to their chins, "Sleep tight, okay?"
"I'll try…" She muttered as her eyes already were closing, and soon enough her breathing slowed and she was asleep. He played with her hair like he normally did when she snuck over, and lost himself into thoughts for a brief moment. She had been doing this now for about a year. After that horrible winter break her second year, she had not been able to sleep, unless she was around George, most of the time he had played with her hair on the couch till she fell asleep and then had Hermione levitate her up the stairs to the girls dorm. But every once in a while she would be in her own room and would have to sneak over just to be comforted. This had lasted all of the rest of the second year, and then she had chosen to stay her summer at Hogwarts, which was now allowed because Harry had defeated the basilisk. Over the summer she had found relief only in sleeping potions from Madame Pomphrey, but was only able to have one sleeping potion a week. As soon as her third and current year had started, she had relied on George once again in order to get sleep. For some reason since he had been the one to rescue her, she only found comfort with him. He shook his head, thinking how unfair it was that such a kind person should have something like this happen to them. He picked up his wand from next to his pillow and rapped the bed frame, which caused the curtains to slide shut. He then also quickly set a silencing spell. Sometimes Arabella would relive parts of her nightmare, especially the part where she had been tortured by Crucio, and act them out as she did so. He sighed and then slowly his eyes drifted off.