A/N; okay, so this is my first Next Gen One-Shot (:
Disclaimer: I own nothing you see here but the plot!
My sister was going to become Minister for Magic. I knew she was going to get there, right up to the top of the food chain, somewhere where she actually belonged so you could see her shining. She was going to save the Wizarding World from poverty and sort out those Dementors that were getting restless back in Azkaban. She was going to get married in our back garden, she was going to have six kids and she was going to live happily ever after alongside throwing a plant at someone's head when they screwed up their job.
That was what she's supposed to do, that's what she will do – she was on her way up, my friends, and it looked like no one could stop her.
So why is it that her brother was sitting on a pavement homeless, hungry and in need of a shave?
Why is it that Rose Weasley was soaring upwards like everyone had hoped for her to do, more than they had hoped for her to... and her brother who was to be expected to do just the same, down in the gutter?
It was a cold December evening, rather near to Christmas I should think, plenty of people were all hurrying to and fro from Diagon Alley, all locking up their precious shops that where doing wonderfully and hurrying back to their warm homes to enjoy a nice hot meal. Or they were coming in from work and all heading for the pub to meet friends, family... you know, things I know longer have anymore.
You see, I made a mistake... and now I'm paying for it. By being homeless, hungry and growing a beard down to my knees. You know what's bad though? How my own sister wouldn't even bail me out. She didn't care at all, she was off at her precious Law School, or whatever it was, too busy with her own perfect life to help me. Well... no, that wasn't what had happened when she found out. She did try to help me; she tried to stop Dad from killing me with his bare hands. She tried to get Mum to understand my way of thinking. Honestly, she did.
But what good did that do? I guess it saved my life. Though that doesn't mean much either, my life is over if it keeps on going like this.
I moved in with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny for a while, but then I thought I was intruding on them and went to live with Granddad and Grandma Weasley – I still didn't feel too good about it though. Like I still wasn't where I belonged... like I was just being accepted out of pity and I was burden to everyone. I got a job in some little shop, sitting around with a bunch of animals for about eight hours with a total amount of five customers. I got the money though and I moved out into a dingy little apartment, out of everyone's hair. That was until the shop then closed down, meaning I had no money to pay the landlord and was chucked out. I didn't tell anyone where I had gone; I visited them not the other way around. And now, I'm here on the street where I'm supposed to be.
"Here you go pal." says a passing stranger, flicking a couple of sickles into my lap.
I look up and nod at him in thanks. This is what my life has reduced as. I had a promising future, I did good at Hogwarts, 10 O.W.L's and 7 N.E.W.T's. I was made Prefect just like my Dad... but none of that even mattered now that I was booted onto the street.
I only had an old, paper-thin quilt, the clothes on my back and a piece of cardboard with 'Help me make something of myself' on it. My wand had been snapped, my bank account in Gringotts blocked and seized by my Dad... I was doomed.
Like every day at around this time, I would sit here feeling sorry for myself as I could feel the biting cold on my face and everywhere else that the quilt didn't cover i.e. my whole body.
I decided to reminisce, to see if I could somehow grasp the old days and imagine warmth again even for a short while.
I picked out a good memory to start with; Sunday Roast at the Burrow, filled with Merlin knows' how many people. Granddad Weasley, Grandma Weasley, Aunt Audrey, Uncle Percy, Aunt Fleur, Uncle Bill, Uncle George, Aunt Angelina, Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, Mum, Dad and sometimes Uncle Charlie (when he decided to drop by from time to time – he never did marry)... James, Lily, Albus, Dom, Victoire, Teddy, Rose, me, Fred, Roxanne, Molly, Lucy, Louis... the house was bursting with people, most of us ended up filing into the garden.
Grandma Weasley used to scream at us for almost ruining her flowers and then assigned us de-gnoming duty. Ha, there were gnomes flying all over the place, everyone was competing with each other about who could go the furthest. Even Uncle George, Uncle Bill, Aunt Angelina and Uncle Harry joined in for a while. We got rid of them in five minutes flat with all of us chucking gnomes everywhere. It was brilliant.
Then me and Rose would argue about how we were both insufferable idiots and how she was too much of a goody-two-shoes and I was an immature freak. Then we'd both storm off and I'd go and hang out with Lily and who was with Lucy and Louis and playing Truth or Dare or something like that – something that always ended up with the Living Room being half destroyed.
Everyone was reunited at this massive table that had to be extended and the furniture being moved out the way too so everyone would be able to fit. I'd sit next to Lily and Rose and make funny faces at her while stuffing roast potatoes in my mouth. The whole table would be alive with constant chatter and laughter. It was a good atmosphere despite the ribbing and teasing; it was home.
Then, surprisingly enough, Lily and I would start the Mexican Wave around the table and everyone would join in, even Granddad Weasley who was half asleep and half trying to shovel in a spoon of peas into his mouth. Naturally the food would go flying everywhere. It was a classic moment of brilliance by the Weasley kids. Then James would stick carrots up his nose while Rose tried to kick him under the table and got Al instead, which picked up the mashed potato and threw it at her. Again, it missed and got Dom who let out some sort of war cry and then there was unruly chaos.
Everyone started throwing food at each other and everyone was screaming, shouting (I'm pretty sure there was dancing too) at each other.
Rose and I would team up, surprisingly enough, and we'd huddle underneath the table, grab our camouflage army helmets and begin strategising. We bought down a whole load of food and once we were ready we shot up from under the table with a mass amount of food in our arms and attacked everyone.
I hated and loved my sister, she was good for organization and when she was in the mood she'd come along and help me in a stupid plan. Like our food fight missions, we did it without fail even if we were in a huffy mood with each other. It was great.
I could practically hear the screaming now... the noise and the swearing that was leaking out of the adults' mouths as they were under attack. Everyone was on their feet, mash potato, roast potato, pees, coleslaw, roast chicken, toast, chips, lettuce, cucumber, beetroot... so much food exploding on the oak table. Half of the oak chairs, with decorative cushioning on the seats, were on the floor and stained and some of them had even snapped in half, the legs hanging on by a strand of wood, the top of it looking like someone had really sunk their teeth in and took a bite out of it.
It would eventually end with the loud profanities that our dear Grandmother Weasley liked to shout at us. Her blazing red hair would shake around her as she screamed and everyone would scuttle off and fix everything by use of their wands and the kids with their hands and cloths. By the time she had finished cursing us to the moon and back everything had been cleaned up and the dishes were in the process of being washed.
It was a really beautiful day despite what the weather may be at the time. I sighed happily and shrunk back against the wall in order to try and conserve some sort of heat.
See my head aches from all this thinkin',
Feels like a ship God, God knows I'm sinkin'
"You know, you should really stop thinking about the past and move on." A very familiar voice whispered into my ear. I ignored it, I was getting too old and too tired for this now – I wouldn't be surprised if I was hallucinating. I bet I did it on a regular basis without knowing.
"I miss those times too you know... I wish you'd come back. Why didn't you tell me anything?" the voice carried on in its usual nattering and nagging sort of tone. Honestly, my imagination is really brilliant.
"Shut up Rose, I'd like to reminisce in peace." I muttered, shrugging away from the voice.
"Hugo Weasley! Please explain to me why you're trying to look like Dumbledore in a homeless ginger version? Why haven't you told any of us that you're out here? What happened to your job? And your apartment? I can't believe you've done this to yourself! Why didn't you come to me? Or Uncle Harry? Aunt Ginny? Granddad and Grandma Weasley? What the hell is wrong with you?"
I would expect this sort of ranting from Rose, I mean honestly – she cares too much for everyone else's wellbeing than her own. She could be out on the streets and she'd still be patrolling about for free liberty for the House Elves.
"Hugo! I am talking to you! Turn around now!" Rose practically screamed. Ugh, my hallucinations are far too demanding.
I decided to humour my now crack-pot mind and turn around to see what all the fuss was.
"Yes, Rose? How may I help you on this awfully frozen and arctic-like night?" I replied, cracking one eye open to look at her.
It was a bit of an understatement to say that she had changed. Sure, her hair was still that weird bright red and brown-y colour and sure, she still had her brown eyes. But she was incredibly pale and she actually wore make-up now, she had grown a fair bit taller from when I had last seen her – which was years ago – she had this sort of light around her. She wore an angry expression but I could tell she was happy; she had made some sort of achievement in her life, probably met a man while she was at it too. It was good that she was happy; I wanted her to be happy as I wanted everyone else in my family to be happy. My imagination was doing her justice for once – finally!
"Hugo Weasley! How could you possibly act this blasé about being out on the streets?"
"Because, my dear hallucinated sister, I've been out on the streets for about four years now! I'm surprised I'm alive and kicking, this cold should be the death of me," I complained, trying to wrap my quilt around me a bit better and only succeeding in uncovering my legs.
"Hallucinated... sister? What? You think I'm a hallucination? Ha! You really have lost your marbles haven't you? Oh, dear Merlin. You need to go to St. Mungos' – you're going crazy! Hugo, I'm real! I am here! Standing right in front of you!"
Oh how I know Rose so well! I didn't even think I could come up with a Rose-ish reply like that, well I guess hallucinations are supposed to convince a person to believe them so...
"Oh, Rose! Don't think I know what you're up to! You're just a fabrication of the mind, trying to make me think as if this actually happening." I waved my hand vaguely before tucking it back into the quilt.
Rose stared at me sceptically before sighing and taking a seat beside me. She was annoyed, I could tell which made me smile – apparently she saw me though and smacked the side of my head.
"You need to take a shower and come back to Grandma Weasley's Sunday Roast, I no longer have a partner in crime thanks to you." She nudged me, smiling while I scowled at her. She was disrupting my sleep, I'm all for my hallucinations but I'm rather tired at the moment.
"How do you even know I was thinking about that?" I grumbled at her, sitting up a little and passing over the quilt to her.
"I'm a well-practised Legilimens, didn't you know? I had Uncle Harry teach me even though he was rubbish at both Legilimency and Occlumency. Then I got someone from my office to teach me it properly." She replied, laughing at the last sentence she made as she fidgeted with the loose strands of the quilt.
"Ah, you're picking about in my head. Very good then; you know I still can't believe we were actually insane enough to strategise a food fight," I reply, shaking my head at the thought.
"Well... occasionally people are out of their minds together. Just so happens that it increases between us Weasley siblings," she says with a huge grin.
"But, really Hugo – what're you doing out here? I thought you were getting your life back on track..."
Oh, here she goes again. Being the protective and sickeningly caring Rose that she is – what should I tell her? I don't know what she wants to hear.
"Well, you'd know I wasn't if I hadn't been in touch for the past three years. But you're too caught up in your life that you haven't noticed and no one else has otherwise they'd actually come and look for me. It's not my fault that I'm not as successful and as great as you are, Rose. I mean, you make no mistakes whatsoever and everyone adores you so why would they care about ace under-achiever me? So once people stop caring I ended up out here, with no money, no wand and no home."
My mini speech slash rant seems to surprise Rose and then a thoughtful expression clouds over her face as she ponders over what I've just told her. I'm actually speaking to my own hallucination about my feelings, this is the icing on the cake this is. I'm actually going mad. Maybe I do need to go to St. Mungos', at least I'd get some decent food and some warmth there.
"Hugo, it was your own fault that you made that mistake but you didn't need to chuck yourself out on the streets and separate yourself from us. We have looked for you Hugo – and don't you dare say we haven't!" she says as I open my mouth to protest. I grumble at her about being a know-it-all but she ignores me.
"You move from place to place so we can't find you – you make sure of that. And then you go and feel sorry for yourself because you think no one loves you enough to come find you and care for you. You brought this upon yourself for your stupid actions – you should stop thinking negatively about everything and actually come to realise that the good things we say about you are meant in the most sincere way possible. So don't give up, don't act stupid and do the right thing by coming back to us."
The look on Rose's face made me think that this wasn't actually a hallucination but that thought was instantly dismissed as I came to realise that my subconscious was probably kicking in now. Maybe this is actually what I think of myself and now it's coming out as a hallucination and who better to tell me than Rose?
I smile nevertheless at my sister and she smiles back as I sigh quietly to myself. "Considering my life's in shambles right now, couldn't you at least take the blame?"
She huffs at me, rolling her eyes breaking the seriousness of our conversation that we were having and she smacks the side of my head again.
"Oi! That hurts, you know!" I complain, rubbing the side of my head and nudging her. I end up doing it a bit too hard as she almost topples over onto the cobbled-stoned ground. I laugh as she kicks me in the side with her high heels. We look at each other before both doubling up in laughter.
"I'm going to quote something now and you better take it into consideration, okay?" Rose eventually says as we calm down from our laughter. I roll my eyes but nod anyway, typical of my sister to quote something out of some century-old book. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a millennium-old book that no one knows anything about.
"A wounded deer leaps the highest." She says, expecting me to know the meaning of whatever it was she was saying.
"How does that work then? They're going to break their legs off if it jumps, aren't they?"
...what? What she's saying makes no sense whatsoever. It basically means that she wants a deer to jump and injure itself even more than it already has. What a cruel girl she is!
"No, you toerag! It's not meant literally! It means that when a person who goes through life's difficulties they can still cope with them and achieve the best if they wanted to. Well, at least that's my opinion on it anyway..."
I raise an eyebrow at my sister but take it into consideration all the same; I knew what she was trying to say. She was trying to get me off my arse and do something with my broken, crappy life. I could do better than this.
"If you let us help you then you can be the one who leaps the highest." Rose reasoned with me. It was a bit sad how this was all a hallucination – I might've believed her if this wasn't all screwed up in my head.
I'm guessing from the expression on my face that Rose sighed, knowing that she lost the battle already with me but stayed seated all the same. I could practically see the cog works that was her brain trying to think of something that could persuade me again. She was trying to get me to think that my family loved me. Trying to get me to believe in something that wasn't true. It wasn't that I didn't want to believe it but I wanted to be realistic and them loving me wasn't.
"Please Hugo... just try it out and if it doesn't work out then just move in with me and you can just start afr –"
"No, Rose. You don't understand, what's the point of trying again? Mum and Dad hate me, the whole family thinks I'm a disgrace – how could I ever show my face there? Go back in and just get booted back out again? No thanks." My bitter voice even surprises me as I came to terms with the fact that I hadn't believed much of that until I had actually said it. Hearing it in my voice made it more like solid proof and it hurt, it hurt quite a lot to have it in the open.
Rose bit down on her bottom lip which had started to tremble, her eyes began watering but she stayed strong enough to not cry while I was there.
"Just think about it okay?" she said quietly before putting her hand into her pocket and giving me a card that had her name, address and phone number on it. She slowly began to rise to her feet and brushed a few strands of hair that was falling over one eye.
"Bye, Hugo." She whispered as she slowly began to walk away, her heels clacking on the cobbled-stoned street. Clacking further away from me.
I'm only human
I said I'm only human
I couldn't help but feel that I'd made a mistake, like I had disappointed her all over again. I began thinking back to what she had said, "A wounded deer leaps the highest." She was only a hallucination after all, so why did I care so much? Why did it feel too real? Or was that the whole point of hallucinations? To have the experience feel so real and feel hard-hitting emotions? Even feeling objects that aren't supposedly real in your hands?
I jumped up from my pathetic spot and ran towards my sister, "Oi, Rose!" I shouted at her.
She turned around, her pale face stained with tears as she looked sadly at me – I could see a slight hopefulness in her eyes though. I knew my sister well even in my hallucination.
"I'm ready to jump." I said to her and with that a smile broke out on her face as she ran towards me. She slammed into me with such a force I almost fell back but it was a good feeling – I felt as if my life was turning for the good for once.
"Took you long enough!" she said, with a laugh. I rolled my eyes and put my arm around her as we walked back home; back to where we belong.
I just hoped and wished on every star in the sky at that moment that my hallucination was real.
A/N: So, how was it? Leave a review and tell me! Also, the quote 'A wounded deer leaps the highest' is by the Emily Dickinson and the credit goes completely to her!
'Considering my life's in shambles right now, couldn't you take the blame?' the credit goes to the comic 'Calvin & Hobbes'!
'Occasionally people are out of their minds together' the credit goes to RenegadeNiffler's of cataloguing random brilliance quotes!
(RenegadeNiffler is on HPFF which you can look up on their forums, etc if you wish too!)