DISCLAIMER:
Me: I do not own anything Harry Potter, but soon I will because J. K. Rowling is leaving the copyright and everything that comes with it in her will. YAY!
J. K. Rowling: What? No I'm not.
Me: DDDIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
J. K. Rowling: AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! *creepy silence*
Me: Yay! I killed J. K. Rowling!
Policeman 1: AHA!!! A confession!
Me: Uh oh! Abi! Help!!! (Abi is one of my close friends who happens to be very very ADHD. LOL)
Abi: DDDDDIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! *silence* Yay! I killed him!
Policeman 2: AHA!!! Straight from the murderer's mouth!
Abi: AAAAHHH!!!! HELP!!!!!
*cycle starts all over again*
By the way, I'm not actually that crazy. I came up with it when I was mad at a teacher once, and I wrote it down. Later, I turned it into a funny disclaimer.
However, I do own the character Autumn Pendley, as well as the plot line to this story. Hope you like it!
Brief description of Autumn for the reader: Autumn is a muggle-born, at the story's opening she is fourteen years old, putting her a year behind the golden trio. She has wavy ash blonde hair down to the bottom of her shoulder blades, curious bright green eyes, and she is five feet and three inches tall. She is Ginny Weasley's best friend, and her house is Gryffindor. Her personality combines Hermione's brains, the twins' sense of humor, and Draco's willingness to do just about anything to get what he wants. Some personality traits unique to Autumn though are klutziness, the attention span of a goldfish (only sometimes, normally she has the attention span of a rabbit, maybe a duck), she is absolutely terrible at sports, and is a very happy-go lucky person.
This story starts the summer between Harry's fifth and sixth years.
Enough of this nonsense, let's get on with the story.
Italics = thoughtsToday has just been one of those days I would not care to relive, thought Autumn as she sat under a tree at Hogwarts, causing different colored sparks to come out of her wand. Throughout her day, Professor Snape had taken fifteen house points from Gryffindor because she was out of uniform (even though it was the last day any of the students would be there and there weren't any house points for him to take), she had run into Draco Malfoy twice that day (once she literally ran into him, knocking her to the ground) and he tortured her for being muggle-born again, got hit with a bludger while watching the Gryffindor quidditch team practice, and after all that she managed to fall off the pier into the Black Lake.
Ginny had been sitting out here with her, but Ginny could see that the blonde was not in a mood to even try to carry on a conversation, so the Weasley girl had soon left her best friend alone to drift off into la la land once again. Now she sat there staring at the multi-colored sparkles from her wand. She allowed her mind to wander to home. She was glad to be going home. She loved Hogwarts, but days like that one made her miss home more than ever. She stood up and headed into the castle, looking forward to the train ride home the next day.
Autumn lay on the ground in her backyard staring at the stars. She had been home from school for nearly two months, and she missed her friends, but she didn't want to go back to school just yet. School came with people, and with people came gossip and drama. She had always hated drama, as well as the chaotic backstabbing that it caused. Sure home was boring and she couldn't use her magic, but boring was what she had been craving lately, a break from the excitement that magic brought into life.
Unfortunately, the break she'd wanted was never going to happen. Just as she finished thinking about it, her mother's shriek echoed out of the house and filled the air, just as a bright green light flashed in her parents' bedroom window. No more than a minute later the light flashed again as her father's scream resounded throughout the yard. Autumn immediately grabbed her wand, only to have someone take it from her as the person covered her mouth with his hand and grabbed her around the waist. She tried to scream only to have his grip over her mouth tightened. She recognized her potions professor's voice as he whispered to her, "Be quiet if you want to escape this place with your life."
Instantly the young teen was scared into silence. Her only question was if the teacher meant to help or harm her. Snape released her mouth and she whispered, "But my parents…"
He interrupted, "Are already dead. Nothing we can do but keep you alive right now. Now let's go."
The next thing she knew she was experiencing the unpleasant feeling of a side-along apparation. When it was over, she had fallen down onto the cement front step of 12 Grimmauld Place. Snape helped her up before entering the building that served as the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. The professor led her into the kitchen, where Sirius Black, Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Fred, George, Ron, and Hermione all sat around a rather large table. Spotting the slightly green dazed blonde, Ginny immediately ran and hugged her, while the others questioned Snape. Ginny asked, "Merlin! Are you all right? You don't look so good."
She pulled away and leaned on the counter for support. She barely whispered loud enough to be heard, "I think I'm going to be sick." The youngest Weasley quickly led her best friend to the nearest bathroom, where Autumn promptly hurled into the toilet. Ginny sat on the floor next to her waiting for her to finish, and the red head barely noticed when her brother Fred appeared on the floor next to her, gently rubbing Autumn's back.
When Autumn finally recovered, Fred said, "That's what happens sometimes the first few times you apparate. You get used to it as you do it more often."
The sick girl wiped off her mouth with toilet paper as she shook her head. She muttered, "That was unpleasant, but it's not what made me feel sick."
Ginny stared at her friend, a confused look on her face. "Then what did?"
As the memories of merely moments before flooded her mind, the fourteen-year-old found that she could no longer keep herself together. Tears streamed down the girl's face. Fred immediately pulled her into his lap and Autumn buried her face in his shoulder, not caring that she barely knew the boy that held her so closely. She mumbled, "They're gone. They're gone and they aren't coming back because of those damned bastards." Her voice was muffled by Fred's shirt but the two Weasleys still understood.
Fred stared at the girl in his arms, his heart breaking to see her this way, even if he didn't know her that well. He knew her well enough to know that she was normally a happy-go-lucky girly girl who was strong and independent. It was next to impossible to truly hurt her feelings, she kept them so heavily guarded. He knew it must have taken a horrendous tragedy to cause her to break like this. He asked with a voice completely saturated with concern, "Autumn, just what exactly happened tonight?"
The crying beauty in his lap answered, "Death Eaters killed my parents, and I didn't even get the chance to try to get revenge or save them or anything. Snape told me they were dead and dragged me here before I could. I was in the backyard when they were killed." There was a sharp edge to her words; they were cold as ice and laced with hatred.
Ginny stared in horror at her disheveled best friend. She couldn't believe that the sweet girl she had left at the train station no more than two months ago was the same tortured soul sitting in her brother's lap now. How could something like this happen to such a sweet, caring, innocent girl? Ginny thought to herself. Neither Weasley said anything, knowing that the words deemed to be comforting by society would be hollow and meaningless, and anything they could say would be taken as pity. They weren't sure if pride was even still an issue for Autumn, but they didn't say anything they thought of in case it was. The two weren't going to risk insulting her when she was already in such a delicate state of mind. After a few minutes the crying stopped, and Autumn pulled any emotion inside, leaving her face a cold mask and her eyes dead and empty. Ginny stood and said, " I hate to leave, but I need to talk to Mum for a minute. I'll be back soon, and if not I'll be sure to send someone else, ok?"
Autumn lifted her head and nodded. Ginny disappeared around a corner and left Fred alone with Autumn. Fred said quietly, "I know what you're trying to do, you know. I can already tell you it won't work. Not from experience, but I've watched someone else try what your trying, and believe me, it'll destroy you."
She looked up at the prankster and asked emotionlessly, "And who destroyed themselves doing whatever you think I'm doing?"
Fred sighed. He had heard that she was stubborn, and he had a feeling he was about to witness that stubborn streak in action. "Well, Harry didn't actually destroy himself after losing Sirius last year, but he nearly did, and you know what you're doing. You're holding the feelings in, trying to pretend that everything's ok even though everyone knows it's not. You're sitting here sobbing one minute then the next you're perfectly fine, you're over it, like nothing happened. You can go ahead and isolate yourself, lock your feelings in your heart, go off in your own little world; it's not really any of my business. But I thought it only fair to tell you that it'll only make things worse on you." He paused. "And I'm sure Harry or me or Ginny or anyone here really would be happy to let you talk to them and open up to them, or yell and scream at them or whatever you need to do. Just react. If you don't, all it will do is make everyone think that you're some kind of heartless freak or something."
Fred's speech had caused a fresh round of tears for the young girl, partly because she was mad at him, but mostly because her mother had told her something ridiculously similar to something her mom had told her after her first breakup. She had tried to pretend that nothing was different when she was heartbroken. Her mum had given almost the exact same speech just over a year ago. Autumn hid her face in Fred's shoulder again and muttered, "You sound like my mother." Fred panicked and started to apologize when she whispered, "Thank you. It kind of reminded me that I was alive, and that it was ok to feel. It's just become my first reaction, to just shut off like that whenever something hurts. If I were honest with myself I would admit that trust has always been an issue for me. Trusting people scares me and that's all there is to it. I feel like I have to be strong emotionally. Never show how hurt you really are. I've always hidden in a shell but when it cracks it splits in half."
Fred cleared his throat. "If you don't mind my asking, why is that? And please forgive me if a sound like a psychiatrist or whatever. I'm just concerned."
She shifted so that her cheek was on his shoulder and her forehead against his neck. "I was one of those girls who wore her heart on her sleeve for the longest time as a little girl. Well, it resulted in getting hurt frequently. But it really was the worst when I had my first crush. My best friend told him I liked him and when he confronted me about it I admitted to it. It freaked him out, I mean we were nine or ten so I guess that makes sense. That just kind of topped it off. My emotions have been as well protected as possible ever since. It's also why anyone who wants to be my friend has to jump through so many hoops. People think that I'm just another run of the mill stuck up bitch but I'm not. I just want to be sure they won't betray me like too many friends I used to have did." She took a deep, shaky breath. "Which is why it doesn't make sense that I'm sitting here pouring out my heart to you when I barely know you. I just trust you for some unexplainable reason."
Fred smiled at that comment. "Well, I'm certainly glad you trust me, whatever the reason may be." She yawned, soliciting another smile out of the Weasley boy. He somehow managed to pick her up in his arms and stand up at the same time. He carried her into the kitchen to get his mum to lead her to where she was supposed to stay.
However when he walked in the room his mother looked at Autumn and said, "Aww, the poor dear, looks like she's fallen asleep. Fred, take her upstairs to an empty bedroom, would you dearie?"
Fred looked down in shock to find that the girl in his arms had indeed fallen asleep during the short walk from the bathroom to the kitchen. He repressed a grin at just how cute and innocent she looked in her sleep, even though Ginny had told him that she could be very devious and sneaky when she wanted to be, a prankster in disguise, of sorts. He nodded to Mrs. Weasley and headed towards the stairs, only to be stopped by his twin brother, George. He asked cheekily, "Did you bore another one sleep, Forge?"
Fred scowled. "Ha ha very funny, George. She 's just worn out and you know it. The dungeon bat did tell you all what happened didn't he?"
George nodded, all traces of humor gone from his face. "Yeah. But I kind of wonder why Snape didn't come to Dumbledore first, and how he knew she even lived in that neighbor hood."
Fred thought for a minute, then said, "I think Snape might be the one who addresses all the envelopes and sends the owls to the students. Maybe that's how he knew. But you're right, I don't see why he didn't tell Dumbledore first."
Snape's monotone voice came from behind Fred. "Because, Weasley, I didn't have time to tell Dumbledore if we wanted the girl to live. However, several members of the order are currently in the area preventing any more casualties. Now, whichever one of you is holding the girl, hurry up and take her upstairs. As for the other Weasley, just go busy yourself with something that has absolutely nothing to do with me." With that, the greasy haired potions master walked away from the twins.
George shook his head, and Fred sighed. George chuckled and said, "Annoying little git, isn't he?"
Fred laughed softly and nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Well, I'm gonna find a room for her. I'll be back down in a few minutes, depending on how long it takes me to find an empty room." George nodded as his mirror image carried Autumn up the stairs. After about ten minutes of looking, Fred finally found an empty bedroom. The walls were light green, the furniture was black, and the floor was a mahogany hardwood. He laid the petite blonde on the bed and started to walk away, only to have someone grab his hand. He turned around to see Autumn just barely awake enough to know what was going on around her. He smiled and said, "It's ok, Autumn, it's just me. Go back to sleep."
Instead of letting go, she tightened her grip on his hand and asked timidly, "Umm, Fred, would…would you mind staying? I just…don't want to be alone."
He smiled tenderly at her and said, "Um, sure." He lay down on the bed next to her and instinctively wrapped his arms around her protectively. He whispered, "G'night."
She snuggled closer to him and whispered, "Good night, Fred." Not even five minutes later the young girl had fallen back asleep. However, so had Fred.