Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Letters to him
This is not one of the stories about the boy who lived or the downfall of Tom Riddle, it a story of a girl, a girl whose love shone brighter than fire and how the war affected the lives of those who were no involved, how others, innocents became collect oral damage between the war that ranged between the two greatest wizards of our generations. This story is written in remembrance of Katie Aubrey Bell, a girl who defeated even death in her quest for love and life. It is the story of one who died, to protect another over and over again.
It wasn't that I didn't want to move on with her life and forget him. I wanted that more than ever, but I was afraid. Every night since the great battle had been hell. Every moment that was spent was a moment spent in regret. When he died, it felt like my happiness died with him. There was not a second in my life after the war when I did not grieve. I needed an outlet and quickly. My friends and family were worried but I was not so weak as to commit suicide. She was stronger than that. I wanted to keep living for his legacy. His son. Fred the second was not in any way related to me. I was just a friend of his father's, that was you by the way in that timeline, but the boy resembled his uncle so much that sometimes I thought that I was five years old and that he was still alive. Truly stupid but uncountable too. I needed a way to stop the tears and heal my heart. But most of all, I had to confess. He never knew and didn't think of me in that way, he was with Ange just like now, just like now, I was more of a sister than a lover. Sitting down one Sunday afternoon I started to write a letter.
Dear Fred
I love you. Not as a brother or other family figure but truly from the bottom of my heart, I love you. I know that you loved Angelina Johnson and probably still do. She is prettier and smarter. Ange is kinder and sweeter when she wants to. You deserve somebody like her. I hope that one day I will meet you again and I hope that you find peace. I hope you find love. I have already found mine. I know that you are waiting for us all up there with the big guys.
I know you are already pranking somebody up there. I hope you are happy and never have to shed a tear.
I will always love you
Katie Bell
I folded up the parchment and kept it in the Weasleys Wizarding Weazes box in the bottom of my wardrobe. Wiping my tears, I walked over to the fireplace and grabbed a fistful of floo powder. I was going to her parents' house for supper.
The clock chimed nine as I flooed rather haphazardly into my bedroom. Yes, I was drunk. After a traditional Sunday supper, I decided to head over to the leaky cauldron for a drink or two. It seemed like the Fred thing to do. It's funny how almost everything reminds me of him. It's good in a way. This way he stays alive and a part of my life, even though I will never really see him again, at least not in this life.
When I drank there was not much hope for common sense in my actions and so I passed out on the sofa.
I love dreams. It's one of the only places where I can be happy. Tonight I dream of all our quidditch practices and of course all the after practice shenanigans.
Just in the middle of my favourite part of the dream, I was noisily awaken by a large creature that had flew in threw my fireplace and landed flat on my scowling cat. An owl. Who sends owls in the middle of the night? Heart beating fast, I checked the label, half excepting it to be bad news, the war was gone but not the fear. Looking at the address, I sighed,
Well apparently people in Australia like to send me owls without considering the time difference. I ponder over opening it or going back to sleep. I'm already awake and kicking so what the heck, might as well open it.
With one sleepy eye I glanced at the important looking stamp at the front. At least now I knew that it isn't junk mail. Skimming through the letter makes me want to read it aloud and fully. Maybe it might sink in.
Dear Miss Katie Bell
We at Wilson and Smith curse breakers and alchemists(pvt) are honoured to present you with a opportunity to work for our company as a junior alchemist and assistant to potions master. Your reply is much anticipated and would best be given before this coming Saturday.
Yours sincerely
William Wilson and Gregory Smith
I could not believe this. A job offer in Australia. It seems perfect. Too perfect. "Perhaps I am too sleepy and this is just another dream. It's absurd. If I didn't apply to the company then they wouldn't know how to get to me.
I need to sleep," I thought before going back to dream about Fred.
Why did I have to drink so much and drown my sorrows? I am never thinking of drinking again. My head is throbbing right now. The owl is still there. I wasn't dreaming, I wrote in my dairy the next day.
Remember when I said that I kept having moments when something inside said that it would be the Fred thing to do? This was one of those moments. My head was at war. I thought that I should stay and take a job at the local Gringotts. Fred thought that I should go to Australia. Sometimes I think Fred is just the subconscious part of me that wants to have fun. Taking aa good look around my poor excuse for an apartment, I made my decision. A well paying job that I'll be good at seemed like silk next to the cotton idea of staying here.
Reaching for a piece of parchment and a quill, I penned a short acceptance to the letter and sent it back with the owl that was now sitting regally on my window sill.
Time for a new beginning.
I started to neaten up the place and decide what to do with my bank accounts and the flat. Financial decisions. I was rather good at that.
I think the thing that I love most about the burrow is its welcoming atmosphere. Cosy little nooks and warm tumbling staircases. It could have been home, I thought then, now it is home.
I stumbled in through the front door and draw a deep breath before looking at the people seated in front of me. George. Mrs Weasley. Mr Weasley. Harry. Ginny, Ron and a beaming Hermione.
Gathering my Gryffindor courage I stepped forward only to be caught in the arms of Mrs Weasley.
"Katie dear, how lovely to see you again, I believe you wanted to say something to us dear," she said with a flourish.
My palms sweated as I hoped they would try to persuade me not to go. It was silly really. The owl was already sent and my bag packed. But his family meant the world to him. So they meant something to me too even if they didn't know it. Now they knew it and the it was our family, not his.
"Yes Mrs Weasley, I just felt that since you guys were like family during the war and all that I should say goodbye. I'm moving to Australia," I just managed to rush these sentences in under a minute. I looked around the room, not anticipating much.
Suddenly George stood up and wobbled over. Engulfing me in a hug he exclaimed his congratulations and wished me the best of luck. Soon after him I found myself in the tightest of embraces from the rest. I put on my best happy face but deep inside my guts I was disappointed. Not a single person there looked even the tiniest big sad at my departure. Now I wonder, what George really felt. Was he sad? Or relieved? Or broken? Confused? What?
At exactly nine'o clock the next morning, I stood in my living room, clad in a pair of jeans and a professional looking top. Fumbling with my keys, I walked over to the set of mismatched suitcases and trunk and blinked. My apartment was not a nice place to be. I was glad to be rid of it and its painful memories. At least I hoped I was.
The portkey left in five seconds.
Five ...Tears threatened to surface
Four... I stopped them. I was stronger than that
Three... I was ready for this now. Waiting for the new beginning eagerly
Two... what could possibly go wrong. Life would be as mundane as ever but it would simply be in Australia.
One. ...it was now or never.
I felt the familiar tug at my navel and held on to my suitcases for dear life. I was determined to succeed.
- portkey arrival-
There was a flash and a green light. Naturally I drew my wand as I fell. The war made us all respond quickly to flashes of light. Especially green ones.
I blinked. Then I blinked some more. Where in the world was I? Of course I knew that this place would be fancy but I had no idea that the place I would live in would be so so so... swanky!
There were high ceilings and glorious golden drapes framing the walls. The wall to my left had a floor to ceiling window and fabulous view of the pool and beach. The floor was tiled in an expensive looking Egyptian tile that was partially covered in a creamy shaggy rug. The furniture coordinated the rest of the room but still contrasted it with its black leather. A tall fireplace occupied one corner and a reading nook the other.
I realized that I was now still on the floor when I heard a crash behind me and was pinned like a glue to the floor.
Gingerly opening my eyes I found a sandy blonde haired boy staring at me. Correction: a sandy blonde haired man with hellava muscles.
He stood, thank Godric, and offered me his hand.
I always was friendly at school, except with a few Slytherins so it surprised me when I found myself glaring and spitting out, " Who the HELL are you? " Of course, then I did not know what role this one boy would play in my destiny.
He looked at me with raised eyebrows before saying,
"I take it that the boss hasn't explained everything yet?" There was laughter in his voice.
Slowly I backed away while shooting him odd looks. "I believe a simple floo call can be the most effective solution" it was the best I could come up with. Really. That was the best? Wow. I was clearly pathetic. No wonder Fred. ... never mind.
I flooed Mr Smith and soon enough it as confirmed. I had a roommate. Not long after that a slim tall girl with a pair of glasses holding a heavy box waltzed into the lounge. Great, another roommate. What was this? Bombard Katie Bell with roommates day? Or perhaps Godric really does hate me that much. Too much.
At least she had more than two brain cells to rub together. She's nice but... she reminds me a little much of Hermione. Hermione was not a nice person contrary to what the world thinks. Especially Fred. He seemed to think that they were angels. Devilish angels they were.
Not even remotely happy with the fact that I wasn't alone, I spent the rest of the day in my room unpacking and generally doing random shit.
Then night fell. I wasn't am early sleeper so I waited for ten thirty to visit the only bathroom and take a long deserved shower.
I had gathered my things and was on my way to the bathroom when I stopped to look at the neat display in the hallway.
Slowly I opened the bathroom door only to find Sam, that annoying boy. He was standing under the shower with the curtain open and his eyes closed as he rubbed soap everywhere.
I quickly shielded my eyes and mumbled apologies. Good Godric what was I thinking? I should have knocked. But then I wasn't to know that other people took showers at ten thirty.
Hoping he didn't notice, I thought that going to bed was in my best interests.
As I slipped on a very revealing long old nightdress, Sam decided to pay me a little visit about the shower. He simply sauntered into my room and touched my shoulder before completely ignoring my deathly glares. Note to self: improve deathly glares.
"Listen Katie. I'm sure that you're a nice person but I don't think you're my type, "he looked apologetic. Why in Merlin's stinky left toe would he say this shit? Then it hit me that it looked like I was hitting on him by walking in on him. That little...
"Look dude. Whatever you may think, it was an accident and I would prefer it if you acted like a mature adult and forgot about it! " I spat out the last bit with enthusiasm. Too much enthusiasm. Now it looked like I was interested in him but my plans backfired. I should start using unforgiveables, because now I felt like I might understand what Draco Malfoy meant when he said stuff about being misunderstood.
"Yes, well of course then. I'll see you in the morning..." He smirked. That little foul loathsome evil little cockroach. He needed to be taught a lesson. Definitely soon. I smiled beside myself. The Fred inside me was throwing a party right now.
A/N- I copied Hermione' line from POA for Katie. Sorry but that particular line was stuck in my head.
One of the many perks of being a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidittch team at the same time that Oliver Wood was Captain, is that you developed a very good aim. A perfect aim. The other perk was that you had excellent relationships with the members of the team. If you spent the early hours of the morning with the same people every day for months. You would either kill each other or love each other protectively.
After getting a few sneakily stashed goodies from under my bed courtesy of Ron Weasley and Weasley Wizarding Weazes, I began to perfect the plan. I couldn't ask George. He was still not ready to bound into their bright and colourful shop now that it had become just his store. I don't blame him. I don't think he should be rushed. I don't think anyone should be rushed.
A few good weeks after 'the incident', as I referred to it in my mind, I caught the imbecile Sam off guard one day. Perfect. Absolutely spiffing. Splendid.
My other( not so much like Hermione after all) roommate, Mona, was out at the local Muggle Market for the morning. She loved to shop and paint. Recently, I decided that painting wasn't as artsy a fantasy as I earlier thought it was. She could be a Tom boy if she wanted and still be a pretty little girl.
Alone and vulnerable, much like a baby Voldermort, that thought made me shudder and return my focus to the task at hand. Standing from the open railing, I aimed for the man in the plaid blue shirt sipping tea in the open plan kitchen. With one swift and fluid motion, I released the breath I was holding and a small orange ball flew in the air striking my victim in the neck.
He slumpled against the kitchen cabinets and promptly landed on the floor. Uh-oh! Well, things had a habit of going south with me sometimes. This time, I was in the south pole.
What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I just do something properly by myself for once? Another thing with training at two in the morning is that after a while, you get familiar with medi- spells. Nothing a good charm couldn't fix, I hoped.
Quickly I hurried over to his side but of course after I slipped on his coffee and landed on top of him with my hands on a peculiar looking locket. Hmmm. I never noticed it before but now that I have, it looks rather odd. Perhaps one might even call it sinister looking. I swept my gaze up to see his eyes flashing a deep red. He was under some sort of curse that had nothing to do with the dart I threw. It was the locket. He started to utter a weird incantation. Somehow though it felt familiar. Her hand loosened its grasp on his shirt and the locket but he pulled her close and uttered the words in the ear softly, " You will find yourself at the finger tip of what you seek. Fear not. It is your choices that will determine your true outcome not your foolish actions. " He was breathing into my ear now.
Just as I was about to stand up, an oddly familiar tug at my naval pulled at me but it was stronger and seemed to take longer in what seemed like deciding where I would be going.
Do you remember that tingling feeling in your stomach when you were just three years old and didn't know where you were being taken but was over the moon? No, I definitely wasn't excited. Mortified, horrified, terrified were words that could somewhat describe my displeasure. And to add to my misery, I had drunk a lot of Firewhiskey last night, which needed to come out, soon. Surrounded by a upward spiral of colourful liquids, I just stood there with my mouth agape, my face turning various unappealing shades of green, purple and white, my legs clenching around each other in a effort not to be wet, all while clutching on for dear life to a small golden locket. I was quite the multi-tasker.
As it spiraled upwards it slowly closed in on my petrified body, the liquid started to blur into one solid bright colour, a blinding white. I was never particularly fond of darkness but I would be glad to find some right now. My body would not move to defend itself from the white monster so I simply stood there, frozen, waiting for the thing to engulf me and get it over with. I blinked and a trickle of warm liquid went down my leg. Crap! Well, there were more important things than wet clothing right now.
It stopped about a millimeter away from my nose. Slowly it parted in opposite directions, leaving me standing in what looked like the Gryffindor common room. What is Merlin's left toe was I doing here? On the bright side, at least I was in a familiar place. It was better than landing in the Malfoy manor. I shuddered and looked around. Everything looked normal, like it had before seventh year, before all our nightmares came true. In matching beds arranged in a circle, slept Angelina, Alicia, Susan and Leela and Viola. They looked so peaceful. It was when Viola let out a loud snore, I realized that my bed was empty. I froze with the locket in my hand. I should be in bed. I never left my bed after dark. It was well dark now. I panicked and rushed forward only to be tripped by my own feet. The world was once again swirling but this time with blackness as I hurt my head on the cold stone floor.
"Wake up Kates!" Shouted an obnoxiously loud voice. Where in the world was I? And who was that annoying person that was just asking to be punched in the face by shouting so dang early in the morning? Suddenly a dark-haired girl sat on my bed with a frown on her pretty features. "Katie Bell if you don't wake up this minute, I will be late for breakfast, and I won't get a chance to talk to Fred and then I might not get to get him to ask me to the Yule Ball and then I'm just going to kill you! "She spoke with alarming speed and anger. The events of last night came back to be as I ran into the bathroom. The locket was still with me when I stripped off my clothes and turned on the shower. Showers are excellent for thinking. So I did what I normally do, I thought. By the end of it, I decided that I should just go to one of the professors because either I had a very weird dream or this is all real. I changed quickly and reached for the locket when I realized that it was gone. Vanished. It had to be somewhere here. I searched high and low but no avail! No sign of the locket. I should just go see Dumbledore. Surely there would be other ways of knowing? I hope? Please don't let them send me to the mental ward at St Mugos but before that I had to get past the gargoyle( of course I knew where his office was- I was friends with the Weasley Twins after all!) In the end I just stood there like a fool, rattling off the name of every single wizarding candy I knew, until, I hit gold on sugar quills.
#up the stairs# past the gargoyle#
He paced the room looking not the least bit alarmed. Why would he anyway? He wasn't the one that accidentally time travelled and had no idea how. I mean, I know it has something to do with the locket, I just don't know how or what or who charmed it. When I get back to Australia I'm going to kill that nutter! Oh yeah, maybe some muggle acid would do the trick. You have to pour it slowly down their throats and wait a few minutes before pouring more. Or maybe I'll do things the old fashioned way and hang him upside down from that spectacular ceiling and beat him senseless with a beaters club. Yes, yes... I licked my lips in an evil frenzy. This better be a joke or he is going to really be sorry.
"Uh humph, Miss Bell?" The sound of Dumbledore clearing his throat snapped me out of my malevolent thoughts and brought my attention to the rather large trunk on his desk. Moderately sized and full of strange carvings, it held an air of mystery and elegance. It might have looked like something a rich pureblood family, like the Malfoys, would use to store riches, if it hadn't been rattling and shaking like my Aunt June after too many Firewhiskeys on Christmas eve.
"Yes professor?" I looked at him shakily. Inner turmoil. It was terrible. I wanted it to be true. I wanted it to still be sixth year. I wanted to spend as much time as I possibly could with him. I wanted to save him. I wanted to be able to love him. I wanted him to love me, but I know that it's wrong and selfish. He's not here for me. He's not alive because of me. He likes somebody else. And she's much better than me. No. I need to just sort this mess out and move on. It was my new goal. Moving on.
Suddenly the door opened and Professor Snape strode in looking like the prejudiced bat dungeon he is.
"You required my services headmaster?" He drawled. He always drawled, he almost sounds as if he swallowed the entire kitchen sink when he was a child.
"Why yes Severus! I believe you are familiar with a certain time travelling potion." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in the morning light. It was true. I had time travelled. I could relieve some of the happiest moments of my life. Who wouldn't want to do that? "Yes, may I ask why it is needed? And what is Miss Bell doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with those other ghastly Gryffindor girls swooning over Potter at breakfast?
I really want to kill him too. There's nothing a good whacking won't fix, that's what my mother always said but then I realized that I was sounding like Voldy, trying to kill people who annoyed me and there was no way I wanted to be like the man who as good as killed Fred and destroyed Britain. No, never! However, I was brought of out of my thoughts by the Headmaster's grandfatherly (is that even a word Katie? My brain screamed at me) voice.
"Now, now Severus, Miss Bell has arrived here by means of time travel. I don't think that it would be very safe for her to remain for too long. We don't know the full complications. Time is a dangerous thing. Not to be played with." Dumbledore looked at us like it was the most normal thing in the world. The old bat must be losing it.
"I will be working on the potion then. I warn you though. It will not be ready until a month after the Yule Ball." And with that Snape waltzed out of the office with a swish of his robes. I looked at Professor Dumbledore with curious eyes, "so Professor, what exactly does this mean?" His eyes stopped calculating the mix and turned to meet mine. " Well Miss Bell this simply means that you are stuck in our time for now. I hope you haven't left any chocolate out. It does seem to melt fairly fast." He continued his mad exploration of the trunk with his eyes. Now knowing when I'm being ignored, I walked down the stairs with a smile on my lips and a spring in my steps. It was great. I longed to see him. Hear his laugh once more. Smell the stench of his pranks in the common room. As I turned a corner and walked into the great hall, my heart stopped, my knees got weak and I fell backwards onto the cold wet floor. No, I hadn't seen Fred and fainted at the sight of him; I had been hit by a body bind curse and landed in one of the portable swamps that lined the corridors. I heard running of feet and soon Angelina had the curse off me. "Sorry," she grinned sheepishly, "the twins were only messing about! Come on, get up! Let's go eat something. Here let me take care of that swamp water." She led away to the table, smiling at me, not knowing the horrors that would start this year or what I had planned for her and that nutter in Australia if this turns out to be a dream and the dungeon bat, of course Angelina would not be harmed but she might just loose the love of a certain ginger. He smiled at me. This time I really did fall at the sight of him. Luckily there was a bench under me, so I didn't look completely gormless.
I munched on some toast and gazed at him while Angelina chatted him up. It was clear. It was my destiny. I had a month, two weeks and one Yule Ball to make Fred Weasley fall bright orange head over heels for me. Simple enough, right?
