Alicia is five and happy. She is wearing a new dress (rose red, her favourite colour in the whole world), and Daddy has braided her brown hair as prettily as only he can. Alicia dances and laughs, catches the sun and clouds from the sky, twirls around and every inch of her little body is painfully alive.
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Alicia is fifteen and flying. The wind ruffles her hair (cut short, no more braiding to her dad's disappointment), her eyes are fixed to the Quaffle, Katie-Angelina-Katie-her-Angelina-her-Katie, the red team's three Chasers play better than in any practices lately. Then the Snitch is caught and Alicia cries the tears of joy, she is happy, happy, happy and Oliver hugs her longer than he hugs Katie or Angie.
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Alicia is twenty and worried. The first Christmas after the Battle is coming with alarming speed and she is afraid of how it will affect her loved ones. She fears, because she has read enough books to know what numbers increase around Christmas-time, and is almost ashamed that little, barely noticeable limp is the only thing the Battle cost to her, when Fred is no more and the look in George's eyes is haunting her at nights, Kenny lost his fiancé and little Katie her sister and faith. Alicia feels their pain in her leg and wonders will the Battle ever really end.
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Alicia is twenty-five and very much pregnant. She rests comfortably (or as comfortably as you can when your stomach is a size of an elephant and what ever you do, your back aches anyway) in the armchair and laughs faintly when Oliver presses his head against her belly and calls the baby "Quaffle."
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Alicia is fifty-five and a grandmother of two. "Quaffle" is no longer a baby in their dreams, but tall and handsome Aidan, who is married to Molly Weasley and glows with pride every time he looks at his sons and wife. "Snitch" is lovely young woman with engaging laugh, "Bludger" is in the middle of his Healer training and suddenly Alicia feels so old.
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Alicia is eighty-five and a mother of three, grandmother of eight, great-grandmother of two and a widow. It's been three years since Oliver passed away and Alicia's fingers tremble when she takes the rose red robe from the closet and wears it instead of her usual black ones. Today is the wedding day of Jacob's (Bludger's, Alicia still sometimes says and Jacob laughs wistfully) daughter and as Alicia twirls around with her son, she feels alive again.
Make reviews, not war. :)