Author Notes: Hey, that's the first fanfiction I'm posting, so I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: This whole universe belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling, the only thing here belonging to me is the plot and a couple of original characters.
Chapter's summary: Time changes people. Lia Burns learns that the hard way when the only person she ever called friend, suddenly, is not the same. But, after all, she's not the same too. By far.
She knew him since she identified herself as a person, as well as he knew her even before knowing how to sit. They shared toys, adventures, small broomsticks, magical discoveries, candies; they even shared a big crib when babies. Molly Weasley and Louise Burns had gone to Hogwarts together, and stuck together ever since; it only made sense their children would stick together too.
Oh, and they did.
Bill and Lia came almost as a pack when they were children. Before the war was at it's peak, they spent whole days at the Burrow's orchard and the gardens, playing around with broomsticks adequate for their size, chasing gnomes or deciding that chase random stray cats was more fun. Bill always had been more inclined to fall off from the brooms, and Lia would always get bitten by one of the small creatures infesting the gardens.
When Charlie was born, the two year olds pair would often be trying to steal glances at the small, curious thing that Molly was always carrying and nursing. Sometimes Bill would get a bit jealous, even though he himself didn't knew, and then Lia would notice the boy pouting and proceed to hug him or pull him to play something. She was a smart little one.
Before their sixth birthday, then, came Percy. Charlie was already grown, but Bill and Lia still preferred to play just between themselves mostly, so the boy either spent his time staring at his baby brother, chasing gnomes or befriending some bowtruckles that lived in the trees around the orchard. One rare time when the three of them were playing together, Charlie called Lia "my sister", and then Bill was angry because Lia wasn't anyone's but his. She was his Lily. And he was her Bill.
Molly ended up scolding her oldest son for hitting his smaller brother, keeping him from seeing Louise's daughter for some couple days as a small grounding. At the end, it was years before Bill fought Charlie again.
Then, at some point after their eight birthday party, which was always hosted at the Burns' house since the first one, they noticed the adults' sometimes odd behavior. Their parents and uncles would be shifty and careful, checking and being suspicious of everyone that knocked on their doors or crossed ways with them in the street.
But Bill and Lia would still swim in the lake or ice skate, if it was frozen (be it naturally or through a spell), and they would still play on toy broomsticks, chase gnomes and explore the gardens. When they went to Diagon Alley, they still visited Florean Fortescue's, admired the brooms and pets in exhibition through the shop fronts and daydreamed about getting a wand and going to Hogwarts.
When they completed nine years, things were drastically worse. The adults finally sat down with the duo and explained what was happening; the kids became almost terrified when they learned there was a war going on. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was, in their perspective, the bad guys' boss, the supreme evil. Not that it was too far from the truth, but reality was infinitely more complicated.
So they learned what they could to help, even at their extreme young age. Lia and Bill, instead of playing in the gardens, would take care of the paddock's herbs and flowers that would be used for potion brewing in the near future, granting no gnome or weed would touch them. They learned a simple spell that would warn the Order Of The Phoenix (a very heroic name, in their perspectives) to sent them help. And when the duo accompanied their parents in the meetings, they would watch over the younger kids, Bill's brothers as well as Lia's sister namely, so that the adults could properly manage their matters.
Practically two whole years passed when it was almost time to go to Hogwarts, but their main focus was not the school. Uncles Gideon and Fabian had been recently killed, as well as many, many other family members and friends; between them, Lia's mother. When the Burns' house was attacked by half a dozen transformed werewolves, Louise shoved her husband and daughters into the green flames as she simultaneously activated them; as soon as they disappeared the woman destroyed the fireplace. The body was never found, but a quick spell to her abandoned wand showed she put up a good fight.
Saying Lia was devastated was an understatement; she was already mature enough to understand what death meant. Eight months passed before they were to start Hogwarts, and at that time the girl still mourned her mother, but with a certain pride behind it. Louise, as everyone from the Order, had died with honor, great courage and had put up a fight.
During these long months, Bill desperately tried to cheer his friend up, so he convinced his father and uncles to build them a small treehouse close to the lake. Then they went shopping together in Diagon Alley, because September 1st was really close. And for August's entirety, it was practically all they talked about; how the classes would be, what would be like playing a real match of Quidditch, what house they would be sorted into ("Gryffindor, of course!" according to the boy), and about the many friends they would make.
"But I don't need more friends! I already have you, you're my best friend" Lia had pouted once, while they laid together for a sleepover in the treehouse.
"I know Lily, you're my best friend too" Bill had answered. "But imagine how many more people we'll meet! Think how incredible making lots of friends would be! Wouldn't it be awesome, like, befriend everyone?"
"Even Slytherins?" She had asked, just to provoke him. It had worked, because he had grimaced immediately.
"No, silly, Slytherins are, like, the future Death Eaters" His tone had been kind of disgusted, but dead serious. Lia had ignored the shiver that had ran down her spine.
"And we're the future Order Of The Phoenix" At that, both of them had smiled widely.
—
At September 1st, 1981, Platform 9¾ was at complete chaos. Many families were crying and hugging and having a severe catch up; as the war was at it's peak, most people couldn't even know if their friends were even alive at all. Had it been different, there wouldn't be a school year at all, but that moment, though, Hogwarts was the safest place in the whole Wizarding Europe, because there resided the only man Voldemort feared. Albus Dumbledore granted that the platform would be as safe as the school and that the Express would be under heavy protection; thus, that place in that very moment was the hurricane's eye.
Bill and Lia entered in the train hand-in-hand to avoid getting separated, managing to find an empty cabinet and put their heads out to say a final goodbye. During the trip, no more kids entered their cabinet (and the boy managed to hide his small disappointment), so they chatted and speculated and ate candies until the Express stopped.
In the sorting ceremony, Lia went first and, after two minutes of deliberation, was sorted into Gryffindor; immediately a roar from the lions erupted through the Hall. Bill was the last kid, thus earning the loudest row of cheers when the Hat, upon barely touching his head, declared with a thunderous voice: "Gryffindor!"
All in all, the first month was amazing to Bill, but very strange to Lia. He had talked so much about making lots of friends, and then it was only a matter of days for him to get along with every boy from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. But she discovered herself to be a little socially awkward, as the only ones she managed to effectively talk to were a tall girl with shiny dark skin and amber eyes from her dorm, and a surprisingly kind Slytherin boy that offered help to her in potions class.
Then, at Hallowe'en night, Dumbledore made the announcement. Voldemort had been destroyed while attempting to murder Harry Potter, after murdering James and Lily Potter, in Godric's Hollow. That night Bill and Lia were sat side by side, and at the same time turned to each other with similarly shocked expressions, because they didn't wanted to believe that Uncle James and Aunt Lily were dead. They hugged and cried while most of the Hall cheered and roared in celebration for the Dark Lord's fall.
A month later was the first time in, well, forever, that Bill turned one of Lia's offer down. She invited him to join her in a small study session with Jean, the only girl she could actually befriend, as there was to be a charms test on the following day.
"Ah, sorry Lily, but I had already promised to help the boys" He said, apologetically, and when the girl offered to merge the groups, Bill turned her down yet again. "You know, big study groups don't work, it's better this way"
And Lia convinced herself to believe that yes, it wouldn't have worked, but couldn't avoid being a little upset that Bill, her Bill, had turned her offers down twice.
During the next months it only got worse, somehow. Bill would spent more and more time with those boys that looked at Lia strange, and less and less time with her. They still managed to have small talks during one or other meal, or during a class, and in rare moments they would study together. But this moments were becoming scarce.
Lia managed to establish a good friendship with Jean, but it wasn't the same as her friendship with Bill. She refused to think that her relationship with the boy had changed; he's just enjoying being overwhelmed by all this new people, soon he'll be back to normal, Lia kept repeating in her head. And she found herself dreading for the summer, because then they would be together almost every day, like it has always been, and then he would be all hers again. Because she never stopped being his, even if they were slightly apart at the moment.
When they were about to enter Hogwarts Express, Lia and Jean were holding hands to avoid getting lost in the crowd, much like she and Bill had done before, and thanks to the former's insistence, the girls were after said boy. They couldn't find him anywhere, so Jean managed to convince her friend to enter the train and find a cabinet for themselves before every single one was taken.
As they walked through the corridors of the Express, the girls passed through a specific cabinet and, like magic, there was Bill, joking and excitedly talking to the boys. Lia stopped and waved energetically to him, who took a while to notice her presence; then he gave her an awkward wave, and made no motion to go outside the cabinet as she signed for him to.
That attracted the other current occupants attention, and, even though being separated by thick glass, the girls could sense the awkwardness growing. Finally, Jean managed to pull Lia, who still held a hurt expression, away. It was right in time to avoid seeing the boys bursting in laugh.
In the end, Lia and Bill didn't spent the summer together as she had planed to do. Her father, Gringotts' head cursebreaker, insisted on taking her to a vacation with him, "to get away from everything, breathe and rest"; they took a portkey to Egypt a day after the girl arrived from Hogwarts. Jean and Lia exchanged a lot of letters while the later was away. On the other hand, the letters exchanged with Bill were few.
The girl had sent the first owl, saying where she was, describing everything, from food to cursebreaking and touring tombs; he answered in just six inches of parchment, mostly talking about how amazing it was to spent summertime with his friends, and the little he asked was related to the cursebreakers. That stung her heart, but she told herself he just really admired the profession (which was true to some degree). The next letters went pretty much through the same situation.
Lia came back one week before the school started again, and Bill wasn't the first friend she saw. Jean excitedly asked for them to meet at Diagon Alley to buy their books and supplies together as soon as her friend was back. Connor Burns and the Johnsons got along pretty well in a quiet and very adult-like way, and their younger daughter, Angelina, and Lia's small sister, Clara, also suddenly became the best of the friends quickly, as only children could.
The only time Lia went to the Burrow that summer was three days before the school year started, and as always the whole family was reunited in a big table in the gardens. Charlie was poking fun at Percy because the only thing the younger Weasley would talk about were books, while Fred and George whispered furiously to one another, worrying Mr. Weasley a little, and Ron was stuffing his tiny face with food, while Ginny was sound asleep.
And then there was Bill. Bill, who had one of the other Gryffindor boys to come over and practically ignore Lia for the whole afternoon. The girl was indescribably upset when the two of them went to the treehouse. Without her. That night she cried herself to sleep.
—
During the second year, Bill and Lia basically just exchanged occasional waves and casual words, no matter how much she tried to talk to him. They sat several meters apart at the Gryffindor table, stopped studying together, just exchanged a couple words during classes. In which, by the way, the girl and her new best friend (she liked to emphasize, trying to ignore the wrongness of her best friend not being Bill), Jean, were becoming really proficient.
To them, mastering charms, jinxes and transfigurations came surprisingly fast and easy, and the execution was as flawless as possible for two second years. Potions were quite more complicated, but with a great deal of focus they could brew most of them without trouble. Flying was another matter for Lia, as she discovered yet in the first year, but Jean just absolutely loved it, and was planning into becoming a beater for Gryffindor.
Of course, everything came with hard work and lots of hours studying together in the library.
That summer, Lia spent the first week in Jean's house, then they switched houses for another seven days, and once again Connor took his daughter to travel. They spent, in heavy contrast with Egypt, the rest of the time in Patagonia, where the winter was harsh and bitting, but beautifully endeared the mountains with white snow. She tried not to think that, this summer, she didn't even had a glimpse of the flaming red hair that she learned to love, the one which contrasted heavily with her dark cascade.
—
Back to their third year, Lia and Jean were together in their usual cabinet when a somewhat shy boy entered after, wordlessly, asking for permission. The girls recognized him as a Slytherin in their year; precisely, it was the boy that helped Lia in one of the first potion classes. After some moments of awkward silence, Jean offered him some chocolate flavored fudged flies. Then, conversation was flowing again in a matter of seconds. The girls didn't asked why he wasn't with some random Slytherin friend, and Ed, a short for Edward that they adopted, wasn't willing to talk.
Lia and Jean weren't together in any elective discipline, as the former picked Arithmancy and Ancient Runes (and she was nailing it) and the latter picked Care of Magical Creatures and extra Flying lessons, to practice for her tryout at the Quidditch team after the Christmas Holidays. But they were considerably fine with it.
Ed, on the other hand, had picked Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures too, being lucky enough to be in the same classes as both Lia and Jean. But he also surprisingly picked Muggle Studies, and the girls thought this was the reason he was promptly being excluded from his whole house in general.
Some months was all it took for the gossip and rumors to form and run, mainly between Slytherin and Gryffindor but also among the other two houses; the snakes said Ed was a little filthy, foppish blood traitor, while the lions said the two girls were strange and crazed out for being friends with a bloody Slytherin. Then, there was the general prejudice against the unusual amount of time the trio spent in the library, or the odd composition of the small group; the point was, they were the best in their classes, and frustrated almost-teenagers just wanted to discount anyhow.
However, Lia was still somewhat grateful that her boggart was a werewolf, a comprehensible one which wouldn't make anyone make fun of her. The only one who knew why it was a werewolf, though, had utterly stopped talking to her. Bill didn't wanted to be seen with the weirdo everyone talked ill about; the boy, with a great help of his new mates, made sure to pointedly ignore and avoid her. The girl tried to talk to him sometimes, still, and that moments were awkward as hell to him, and heartbreaking to her.
Once, in History of Magic class, Binns told them to form pairs in order to take a relatively hard quiz on the Goblin Rebellions. Bill ended up alone, because his friends were skipping this " boring as fuck" class, and Lia was on her own too, since Jean was really sick. She was heading to him almost smiling, but as he spotted her coming, he rose his hand.
"Can I do it alone?"
Lia could practically hear something breaking and something roaring inside her aching chest; her quill took a swift fall to the ground, contrary to the inkwell, that shattered in various small pieces and send black ink flying around the ground and her robes. Everyone in the room, except for Binns and Bill, stared mockingly at her as they miserably failed to stifle their laugh. The girl could only watch as Bill took the quiz, sat down and started doing it.
The first reaction was rage. Lia quickly repared her inkwell, cleaned the small mess and rushed to Binns' table to take the quiz. She made sure to ace that stupid thing and be the first to finish too, because the teacher always commented on their scores.
"25/25" His boring voice echoed in the classroom. The scratching sound of quills and chatting stopped, and the girl kept her chin held high. "Perfect score. Well done Miss Burns, you're dismissed"
Lia nodded, grabbed her things and slammed the door shut as strongly as she could. It wasn't as if the ghost would care. Then she ran to the Myrtle's bathroom and thanked Merlin she had a free period, because she cried through every second of it.
—
Fourth year went pretty much like third, except for the fact that Jean was finally in the house's Quidditch team; Lia, at the beginning, feared being forgotten by another best friend, but soon her worries were proved to be unjustified, as they just grew closer. Ed would still, as their internal joke, ask both girls for a "date" with him in Hogsmeade every weekend, and they all would still study together for hours and hours in the library.
As every Christmas Holiday, Lia stayed in the school; her father and sister would always spent months in a row somewhere around the world, cursebreaking for him, traveling and exploring for her. Not that she cared, because to be honest Hogwarts was quite nice during that period, mainly because of the Christmas feasts and the empty library.
That summer the Burns, yet again, house changed. As Connor spent the equivalent of school year traveling with the younger daughter, they just stayed for long in a single place for some weeks in the summer, at maximum, so there was no reason to have a fix house. They settled down for some days, almost two weeks, until Lia received a letter and discovered she was made prefect. Therefore Connor decided to take the girls to New Zealand, inviting Jean along.
—
Fifth year was almost the worst one to Lia. Teenagers were getting pretty fucking hormonal, and she couldn't stand the other girls on her room talking, oh so dearly, about how amazing Bill Weasley was, how much of a good kisser he should be and oh, how they wanted him to snog the hell out of them. Jean and Lia started to categorize their stupidity based on how far their fantasies with boys would go, and Emily Tyler topped that list (just because she thought Bill was poor and therefore inferior to her, but Lia would never admit this).
Once, when the girls and Ed, who was also a prefect, were at Three Broomsticks, a group of Gryffindor boys passed by and mercilessly started the teasing. The trio exchanged a quick look before deciding to mess with their heads; Jean and Lia both swung her arms around the Slytherin's shoulders, one from each side, planting kisses on his cheeks, while he slipped his hands around their waists.
"Yeah, we've got a pretty fucking incredible threesome" Ed said, with a smirk. "So what?"
"Are you jealous?" Lia was smirking too.
"Of course they are, look at those leprechaun faces" Jean answered. "They're just being pissy because the can't get a girlfriend themselves"
For some weeks, it was pure comedy for the trio to watch people behaving strangely around them; the awkward looks, people blushing furiously as they were caught staring and so. Until it backfired. Hard. Jean and Lia were passing by the almost deserted common room to head to the Great Hall, when two older boys joking around stopped them.
"Hey sweeties" The blonde one said, blocking their way. Lia grabbed her friend's hand and planned on passing right through that guy, preferably harsh and quickly. Then he grabbed her other wrist, hard. "Oi! Don't your parents taught you respect?"
The other boy, a brunette, snickered and joined his mate. "Come on, don't play the difficult ones, we all know you're so desperate to fuck you even share that filthy Slytherin"
Jean pulled her wand and pointed to the blonde, as Lia let go of the girl to grab her own wand and copy the gesture, pointing instead to the other guy. "You let her go or I'll hex the hell out of you"
"Ohhh scary" He mocked and tightened his grip enough to leave a bruise, casually pulling out his wand too.
"Five points from Gryffindor" Lia said through gritted teeth, taking advantage from her position as prefect, then the boy shoved her away so hard she almost fell. The girls left the common room quickly, but still heard the guys calling them bad names.
After that situation repeated itself, with five other different boys, Jean and Lia started to avoid the common room, shoving themselves in the library during the day, until minutes before the curfew, when the former needed to go back and the latter would start patrolling the halls. Being prefect held much responsibilities, but the benefits were probably bigger (using the enormous bathroom was already worth for itself).
The year was passing relatively fast; for the first time Lia was the one supervising the school's decoration being done at Christmas, Hogsmeade seemed enjoyable as ever and her studies were amazing. She planned on acing the nine OWLs she was to take, but didn't decided on a profession yet, so the girl would probably take all the subjects to NEWT level.
After the Holidays, Lia was patrolling the halls, luckily, with Ed, when they caught two people snogging the hell out of each other. To the girl's surprise, it was Bill (who happened to be Gryffindor's prefect) and their house sixth year prefect. He had the decency to look at least a bit uncomfortable, but the older girl was just pissed from being interrupted.
"Come on, that's none of your business. We are prefects too, we're not on the curfew" Her voice was annoyed. "Piss off, if anyone ask we're patrolling too"
"'Patrolling' my ass" Ed replied. Lia and a suddenly very awkward Bill just stared at each other, wordlessly."If you're going to snog at least do it on your 'patrol' floor, or, better, found a proper place and time to do it"
"Hypocrites" Was the only thing the girl answered, shooting them a dirty glare before taking Bill's hand and walking away.
After that incident Lia avoided patrolling on any of the house's common rooms floors, and utterly ignored a certain Weasley. The OWLs came quickly and the girl, Jean and Ed were more than ready. She was, with exception of a couple Ravenclaws, the first one to finish and handle the test to the woman that applied it.
Lia went to sit by the lake, atop a small rock, after changing to comfy jeans and a tank top, to read a old romance book. Everything was quiet for a great while, until a Revenclaw, another boy from Gryffindor and Bill, of all people, sat in the red dirt that surrounded the Black Lake.
"Hey, you!" The Ravenclaw called. She looked at him blankly. "You're Lia right? That smart-as-fuck Gryffindor? Come here!" At her arched eyebrows, he rolled his eyes. "Come on! We don't bite!"
Lia sighed heavily, closed her book and wondered for a moment why, in Godric's name, would she go. Then, looking at Bill's almost puppy gleaming eyes, the girl concluded that it was because she still couldn't say no to him. When she sat down with them, Lia didn't missed the other Gryffindor, a brunette, shamelessly eying her body, but ignored it.
They, awkwardly at first, talked about the OWLs, and the girl was almost definitely shrugging off the feeling that something would happen, when the mindless third boy spat out suddenly. "Fuck's sake, have you ever considered taking one more guy into that crazy threesome of yours? Because I would fucking love to enter"
Lia blinked in surprise and disgust as the the Ravenclaw and Bill bursted out laughing; she was decided to leave. "Freaking gross" As she grabbed her things, the boy let out an annoyed sigh.
"Come on, don't be so boring, don't you at least want to fuck me? Are you on your period? That's because you calmed your ass down?" He continued in some mockery degree as the other boys snickered a little.
Lia huffed and blushed, because she really was on her period, but let them think she was just pissed. The girl quickly got up and the moment she turned her back on them, the boy exclaimed again. "Shit, looks like I was right!" Laugh bursted around as she quickly associated the red dirt and the fact she sat on it in a pair of clear jeans.
Clenching her fists around her book, Lia started to walk fast towards the castle. Hushed steps echoed behind her moments before she heard his voice. "Lily! Wait! Come on, Gabriel was only joking!" He grabbed her wrist and made the girl turn to face him. Bill looked a little annoyed, and she avoided looking in his eyes.
"What a good sense of humor" Lia muttered, trying to ignore his hand burning on her wrist; it was the first time they touched after the hug they shared upon discovering James and Lily's murder.
"Oh, don't be such a spoil" Bill started to pull her towards the boys again, and she fought back him and the stinging in her eyes. "Come on, you need to learn to have a good laugh".
"Yeah, because it's really joyous being made fun of" She snapped with barely concealed hurt, pulling her wrist back and stopping dead in her track. He stopped too, but didn't eased his grip. "It's very nice to have everyone gossiping and talking ill about you. It's really amazing when they laugh at you, you should try it. Ah, wait, you're among the ones laughing"
At every word the tremble on her lips became heavier, the strength of her pulls diminished and the stinging in her eyes increased. Only then she dared to look right inside his deep blue irises, and saw something changing in the way he looked at her, his expression in general softening a little as he muttered. "Lily…"
"Don't call me Lily" The tears finally fell. "And let. Me. Go" With a final pull, her wrist was free, and the girl ran back to the castle. She couldn't know, but Bill stood there until the Ravenclaw got to him and pulled the boy back to their place beside the lake.
—
Lia stayed in her new, temporary house in Diagon Alley until she received the OWL results. She received Outstanding in most subjects, and Exceeds Expectations in Herbology and Astronomy, deciding to take every subject to NEWT level except for those two. The girl reunited with Jean and Ed in the Leaky Cauldron to celebrate their good grades, and proceeded to spent the rest of her summer in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, traveling around in a huge boat with a wizard guide.
The sixth year went on without much trouble; the trio awkwardly had to figure out their relationship again, as Ed and Jean began dating after the first months, but everything went by smoothly, and to their surprises, the other people seemed to finally grow up a little and stop pushing their buttons. So everything was alright. Excepting for the fact that Lia vigorously avoided Bill, it was the best year of her life; good grades, no people teasing the hell out of her, a good social cycle...
However, as everything good lasts little, summer came really fast. Surprisingly, Connor rented a huge house in the edges of Ottery St. Catchpole, as far away from the Weasleys as possible, for his daughter's sake; it had two floors, a enormous living room with glass walls turned to the forest behind the house, and enough space for a family much bigger than theirs.
Connor had some considerably complicated business with the goblins and needed to be at Gringott's main bank for a while, so for the first time since Lia was ten she would spent summer in England, which was nice. Even more so because her father gave the girl free pass to invite friends over, as long as she took care of Clara.
It was at the beginning of August when Lia, by mid afternoon, received a letter from Hogwarts announcing her appointment as Head Girl. She immediately firecalled Ed and Jean, and after some arrangements with Connor, Clara and the Johnsons, Lia's little sister was sent over to play with Angelina, and her friends were to come by at 21:00 for a pizza night (a wonderful muggle invention).
At dawn Lia was setting makeshift training dummies close to the forest, because as seventeen year-olds they needed a game to play while drinking, as her father liberated the firewhisky; it would be interesting to see how drunk they needed to be to start missing the spells. She was done when the sun disappeared.
Lia was shooting some spells at the targets to test them, starting with the easy ones and then increasing the level. She was about to sent a powerful knockback jinx when a disarming charm came from the forest, blasting her wand several meters away. The startled girl backed out slowly as a tall and muscled figure emerged from the trees.
"You…" The man, who looked more like a beast, growled while sniffing the air. "You don't know for how long I've been searching for the kids of that bitch" He spatted the word with rage. "You don't know for how long I dreaded to taste your flesh"
"Who are you?" Lia asked, ignoring the shivers running down her spine, as she continued to back away. For some reason, the girl felt that if she turned around to run, she'd be dead before managing to move a meter. When he came close enough to the light emanating from the house reach his face, she already had the answer. "Greyback"
It was barely a whisper leaving her mouth, but Fenrir Greyback smiled widely, showing the pointy teeth in his mouth. "You know what some of them say…" He let out a half groan, half snare. "Better be dead than be a werewolf" Lia almost froze as she desperately looked to the sky, just to see the full moon beginning to show itself.
Greyback continued to talk, but at that point he was mostly growling and snarling. "An ahh-eye for— an eyehh… After infecting—you, I'll go after that— little—" Then he contorted, and suddenly was more beast than man, letting out a long howl.
Lia turned around and ran as fast as she could. It wasn't enough; of course not. The girl turned her head as the stomping in the ground became heavier, and the werewolf jumped. His powerful jaws clenched in Lia's collarbone while one of his clawed paws ripped all the way through her chest to her thighs, shooting pain through her whole body.
Last thing Lia remembered before falling into numbness were two high-pitched voices screaming. One screamed for her, and Jean's name passed through the girl's head. The other was her own, pained voice.
Lia woke up four days later in a hospital bed, her body sore and achy and almost entirely bandaged. She couldn't move her head, as her right collarbone would burn as if there was hot metal being pressed to it, and it took a while to register that it hurt to breathe because her chest had been severely mauled along her belly and thighs.
Clara was the first person to notice her sister was awake, starting to scream and cry and crush Lia's hand between her small ones. Connor cried too, because when he was informed of the attack, he thought he would lose another part of the family. Had Jean came through the fireplace a minute or so after the time she did, Lia would probably be dead.
When the brunette arrived, the werewolf was distracted from his main prey, advancing on the newcomer girl while Ed emerged from the green flames. It took the teenagers their very best, and every bit of their energy, to successfully combine forces to blast an injure the beast enough to scare it away while avoiding it's attacks, and even so Jean's shoulder was profusely scratched, as well as the boy's thigh. However, none of them were infected thanks to a mouth sealing charm.
The same, of course, couldn't be said about Lia. Lycanthropy was transmitted through saliva, and the sensation of the werewolf's jaw on her flesh was still too vivid for her own good.
—
Lia's first transformation was one of the worst experiences she had in her whole life. Locked in a relatively big room at the Shrieking Shack, she paced around and scratched her arms in nervousness, helplessly waiting, because that was the only thing to do. When it began, the girl screamed until her throat burned; she could feel her bones and flesh stretching so hard and so painfully that she thought her skin and muscles would rip, a burning sensation running through her insides while she felt like someone was crushing the bones of her face.
Then, nothing. Literally nothing.
Sunlight peered through small holes in the woods that forcibly maintained the door and windows closed. Lia laid in the middle of the room, her back still bleeding slightly from the wolf self-harming itself and her whole body was sore. The girl slowly opened her eyes, taking in what had happened; she remembered making those gnashes on the wall, and destroying the little furniture that wasn't already in pieces and making the ugly cuts on her own back, and bitting her arms. Everything was fresh in her mind.
After what seemed a eternity, Lia could manage to get up and shakily make her way to the small "bathroom" beside the room, to grab a big black single piece of clothing, which was similar to a bathrobe. It was easier and less painful to wear, considering her fresh wounds; she needed to thank Madam Pomfrey for her idea. To say that Lia was surprised to learn that Remus Lupin, Moony, was a werewolf was an understatement; he had come by to talk to her before the full moon, and the girl was even more surprised to learn that he managed to hide it during his whole seven years in school. Thinking back, it made sense considering Dumbledore was so calm upon learning her new condition.
The girl breathed heavily and slowly made her way through the passageway that led to the Whomping Willow. Madam Pomfrey was waiting for her outside; it was already 07:00 AM, indicating probably all the students would be either in the Great Hall or still asleep. They used yet another passage, which was close to Hagrid's Hut, to enter the Hospital Wing directly from the castle's grounds.
Lia spent the whole day recovering in a bed with the privacy curtains closed; her bites and scratches healed rather quickly, as curses in injuries wouldn't affect her anymore, and left behind shiny thin scars. Jean and Ed, who sometimes happened to limp due to the injury in his leg, visited the girl a couple times during the day, and the former came back by nightfall to accompany her friend back to their dorms.
Jean, upon Dumbledore and Lia's advice, became Head Girl instead her friend, and was currently sharing a common room with Bill Weasley. The scars on her shoulder were composed by four long and ugly lines, who go all the way through the top part of her limb, where they're worse and deeper, to the middle of her back, where they're thinner and shallow. Once Bill saw them, and then was surprised with how rude Jean was when he asked where they came from. It was a pact she, Ed and Lia made with Dumbledore: keep the werewolf attack an absolute secret.
It would be easier that way.
—
Seventh year was almost hell to Lia; she quickly started to feel the true impacts of her new condition as a werewolf. The girl would be always half-tired at least, in the week of the full moon her mood would be rubbish and she would tire quickly and easy, but still wouldn't be capable of sleeping properly in the night. Then there was the transformation, and Lia would harm herself and then spent the next few days looking like she didn't knew the words 'sleep' and 'rest'. And then, the nightmares. She would often wake up with cold sweat running down her back, panic shooting through her veins, only to discover she wasn't transformed. Yet.
Oh, and there was the wolf too. At first the girl thought she was going mad when a female voice started to speak inside her head, but a quick chat to Remus cleared things up; in addition to turning into a senseless, human-flesh starved beast once a month, lycanthropes received a partner to share their mind with. It took some months for Lia to actually stop completely ignoring Lua, as the inner-wolf called herself, and some more time for the girl to answer her mind-companion. And Godric knew how the wolf could be annoying.
Sometimes Lua started babbling random nonsense about anything, and Lia would only answer with sounds of agreement or disagreement, as usually she was too tired to mind anything her companion said, but then there were times when the wolf would start talking about sex and, in her words, mating, and the only thing the girl wanted to do was dig a hole and bury herself as deep as she could. Which, of course, wasn't exactly possible, so Lia would only sigh heavily and try not to blush.
The girl knew about werewolves and soulmates, as Remus told her she would only discover who they were upon meeting them after her 21st birthday, the werewolves sexual maturity age. That was embarrassing, talking to him about such things. But Lia wanted to know anything she could about being a werewolf; maybe it would make things easier.
It didn't, but she still hoped for some placebo effect to kick in.
By the penultimate month of the school year, Lia was already somewhat getting used to being a werewolf. When it was full moon, she would stay the whole day pacing around the Hospital Wing or under the effects of a Sleeping Draught, then Madam Pomfrey would take her to the Whomping Willow's passageway by afternoon and get her back next morning. Then another day in care of the matron, and by the night she would be back on her dorm.
When Lia entered the Shack that nightfall, she breathed in deeply, not knowing if she should be grateful or scared that it would be her penultimate transformation there.
Next morning, Lia woke up in a halt. There was more blood than usual running through her back and arms, some of it splashed over random points of the room, but she couldn't even bring herself to care. That night, while Lua paced and groaned and occasionally scratched or bit her beast-like body, someone approached the Shack. Lia remembered violently banging against the walls and blocked entrances, growling and howling and wanting so desperately to just kill, just taste their blood. Several childish screams were still painfully fresh on her ears.
That was the first time Lia really understood what a menace she was, how real the possibility of killing an innocent was. What if the blocks on, say, one of the windows had given in? Sure, they were enforced with heavy magic, but what if?
Lia was shaking so hard, be it from blood loss or what happened that night, that she fell three times on her way to the "bathroom". The girl learned to leave a clock and a Blood Replenishing potion there, and that morning she couldn't remember ever being more grateful than she was at that moment. She downed the bright red liquid and checked the time; 05:00AM. Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be waiting for her before 07:00, as she would normally wake up only little before or after that, so the girl tried to calm down, doing the breathing exercises Jean taught her, and wait.
After five infinitely long minutes, Lia was still shaking hard and her eyes were still in a bright tone of gold instead the usual grey. She needed a bath. A nice and really long, cool bath. Since her werewolf traits included abnormal and extremely high body temperature, cold was not a problem anymore; instead, she welcomed it. The girl forced herself up, wishing for some moments she had a Pepper-Up potion, proceeded to put on the black robe, then started to slowly walk through the passageway.
Lia used the other passage to get directly into the Hospital Wing, crossing it as quickly as her weak body could in order to avoid meeting Madam Pomfrey, who certainly would scold her for getting out of the Shack alone. The walk to the prefect's bathroom was painful and slow, and she wanted to smack herself for not at least try to get a potion to numb her pain. However, the girl thanked Merlin that no student in their right mind would be awake and running around the castle at that time; if someone was awake, they would be studying for the final tests. That, for sure, didn't stopped her making sure to clean the trail of blood she left.
Some minutes before 06:00AM, Lia finally managed to turn the shower on and relax a little, delighting herself in the sensation of the cold water running down her body and soothing all of the physical pain away. Then, the girl was sure that her intense shaking came from the night's events. But she still didn't knew if she would (or if she should) ask Madam Pomfrey for a Forgetfulness potion, or a obliviating. Lia's grip on the shower taps was so tight her knuckles were turning almost white, her still lightly bleeding back was turned towards the door, and she hung her head low to let the water make it's way down her long dark bangs. There was something soothing on watching the liquid run through her locks and then fall to the ground. But at that moment, nothing could really calm her down.
OoOoO
When Bill walked in the prefect's bathroom, because it was better than the one in his new dorms anyway, he gave mere five steps before stopping dead on his track. A naked girl stood under the shower, but what really caught his attention was the blood running down her back, where ten long, ugly and criss-crossed rips stood out among many shiny scars. And she trembled so much. She was shaking harder than the boy even though possible. The moment he realized who she was, his stomach twisted and he had to fight the bile down his throat.
"Lily?"
Lia turned around impossibly fast, her thin arms shooting up in an attempt to cover her body, bright golden eyes widening to form a panicked expression. Bill flinched when her back hit the wall hard; the girl seemed to barely notice that she had just shoved her wounds against the bathroom tiles, staining them with red lines of blood as she slid down the wall until her whole body was a small trembling ball. Bill was going to her to do, well, anything, when she screamed at him.
"NO! STOP!" Lia's voice was strangled and half-sobbed. That was the first time ever she yelled at him.
But the boy turned off the shower with a flick of his wand and continued to approach her. "Lily I need to-"
As soon as he touched the girl, she flinched away as if she was burned, the gold in her eyes intensifying. "NO! GO AWAY WILLIAM! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Lia gripped her arms so tight that the recent bite wounds started to reopen themselves, her breath quickening and becoming unsteady, choked. Bill was taken aback, surprised and incredibly hurt. He slowly retreated towards the door, giving Lia's shaking form one more glance before walking out. The boy thoughtfully changed the bathroom's password (benefiting from Head Boy's privileges), so that she wouldn't be disturbed by any student.
OoOoO
When Madam Pomfrey stormed through the bathroom's door, one hour and a half later, Lia had already managed to calm down a bit, although she was still curled in the ground, cold water falling on her body. The woman proceeded to take the girl, who kept babbling about the fact that William Weasley knew, back to the Hospital Wing without attracting much attention while soothing the small one's apparent worries. Lia knew he wasn't going to tell anyone, but he knew. He wasn't dumb.
After receiving proper care to her wounds and another Blood Replenishing, Lia downed, too, a Dreamless Sleep and a Sleeping Draught. Jean and Ed came to her bedside to see a considerably peaceful expression, but they exchanged worried looks upon noticing more bandages than the usual, in addition to deeper dark circles and a even more ghostly skin tone. Then, Madam Pomfrey had been extremely clear that the girl would stay until next morning.
Lia woke up at twenty-past-nine, with the Hogwarts' matron shoving some food to her. Honestly, it was just a thin and long piece of almost raw meat, accompanied by some Nutrition potions and a butterbeer. The girl knew Madam Pomfrey wished she ate more than that, and wanted to please the woman, though quite honestly, the idea of eating meat suddenly didn't seemed so appealing anymore. Of course Lua was dreading for it, but Lia's stomach was still twisting a little.
So she just sat cross legged on the bed, downed the potions, and proceeded to sip on her beverage while contemplating wether she would or not eat the meat in front of her. The moment Lia gave in to Lua's cravings, with a piece of dripping meat on the way to her watering mouth, the curtains opened. Madam Pomfrey stepped aside to William Weasley, of all people, enter.
The girl saw a flicker of disgust in his eyes, which were focused on the raw meat; against Lua's howling and rambling, she put the fork down on the plate. Her stomach suddenly clenched and her body tensed, so Lia thought she wouldn't have been able to eat anyway.
They stared for a while before he broke the tense silence. "You okay?" Lia nodded shortly. "You know I won't tell anyone, right?" Another nod, although it was fulfilled with tension. "Since— When… it happened?" That time she didn't answered, and he became exasperated, his eyes shinning with plead and worry. "Please, talk to me Lily"
Lia's whole body started to ache from so much tension; she so was angry and hurt and utterly exhausted, while at the same time she craved and missed him so damn much. But the bitter emotions won, be it because of the moon or else, much to Lua's entertainment. "Why?" The girl watched Bill's expression fall. "Why should I talk to you, when for years you didn't wanted do so much as look at me?"
The boy swallowed hard, and a low and angry growl escaped Lia's throat as she continued "Go back to your friends" The word was spat as if it was poison on her mouth. "And don't call me Lily"
Bill didn't knew that if he insisted just a little more, she would give in. So Lia tried not to care as he turned his back and took some moments to leave; she tried not to think that as he choosing his friends over her again. As soon as the curtains were closed, then, the girl started to sob. Bill stood on the other side of the white veil until he couldn't take hearing her anymore.
Calling the final six weeks in Hogwarts "tiresome" was a huge understatement. Lia nearly fainted from exhaustion twice, because between studying for the NEWTs, dealing with her wolf and the transformation, complying with her prefect duties and avoiding Bill at all costs, she was almost going mad.
So the girl was grateful to no limit when it all ended. Of course there was the ever-present melancholy from leaving the place that was her home for so long, but at the same time everything was so utterly gratifying. She not only survived Hogwarts, she managed to (at least academically) thrive; Lia had nine perfect OWLs and seven perfect NEWTs, so there was a variety of possible jobs for her. That was, if someone was wiling to employ a werewolf, but she was leaving that matter for latter.
Jean hadn't as many NEWTs, as she dropped history of magic, astronomy and herbology in order to focus on Quiddich; this was well paid, though, because she already had an invitation to join the Ballycastle Bats as the reserve beater. And Ed had already been offered a job in the Ministry's Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, but managed to switch into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, with the promise of making life better to werewolves.
At the graduation night in the Great Hall, occupied only by the graduates and their guests, everything was perfect. It was a silent pact between everyone that there would be no fights, pranks or animosity that night; no one in their right mind would mess up their very last hours on that castle.
Lia and Jean wore matching dresses and shoes that night, while Ed wore a elegant suit. They chatted, drank, ate and stopped to look at the enhanced ceiling for long, misty moments; they exchanged quick and not exactly friendly, but at least cordial words with their fellow graduates from their houses for the first time since, well, forever.
Their siblings played around with some random kids while their parents chatted between themselves and, occasionally, some other proud mother or father. The trio got to talk to some over friendly (and mildly drunk) Hufflepuffs and the girls made peace with their dorm mates.
Lia saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley for the first time in practically six years, and almost cried upon receiving a Weasley hug that she didn't knew she craved for. Then Molly managed to reduce herself and the girl to tears as she started to talk about how much Louise would be proud. Arthur stumbled a little over his small speech that moment, but got some brightening words out too.
After having something like a catch up with the couple, Lia exchanged friendly words with a suddenly very awkward Charlie and successfully confirmed that she was still capable of telling the twins apart. The girl was about to go back to her family when she spotted a long cascade of flaming red hair.
Bill and Lia locked gazes for long moments. They were several meters apart, with people walking back and forth nonstop, but none of that made the moment less intense. After what felt like an eternity, he looked like he was going to come to her. And she dreaded it.
Then the magic was broken when some Gryffindor boys started to shove him towards the drinks table. He went with them, and Lia literally got a visual reminder of why he wasn't the same. Neither of them were. She shook her head as if it would shake off the sore ache in her chest, the burning pain of knowing that Bill wouldn't ever chose her. Not anymore.
So when he looked back, she was not there.
Author Note: That's it! I have the second and last chapter in progress, as I already have everything figured out. And let me know what you think about this story, I would love some feedback!
PS: Do I managed to make someone cry?
Air kisses for y'all 3