Yes, I'm back. I know it's been well over a year since I've updated and most of you probably gave up hope of another chapter a very long time ago. That is if there are indeed any of my original readers left who still care to finish my story. I apologize for the ungodly amount of time that has passed between chapters. It turned out to be a very bad year for me, particularly in writing. But I'm doing much better now and am back and plan to stay back. I'm attending college now so I will only have the weekends to write on. But rest assured I'll be working on new chapters as much as I can and will be getting them to you as often as I can. I do hope you will forgive me for my absence. And so, without further ado, the next chapter, enjoy.
Chapter Four - - Distracting Events
Cedrea awoke in the middle of the night with a terror filled scream. She sat up and buried her face in her hands; eyes filling with tears.
"What's going on, what's wrong?!" Cut Sunny's panic stricken voice through the darkness and Cedrea heard her fumbling around for her wand and the other girls also waking.
"N-nothing, everything's fine, just a bad dream." Cedrea said shakily through her hands as wands on either side of her lit. "Sorry for waking you all, everything's fine, go back to bed, really." She saw a quick flash of wand light from Sunny's direction then a sigh of relief as the other wands were extinguished.
"It must have been really bad, you sounded horrified. Try to get some more sleep." One of the other girls said. If only she knew how hollow her words sounded.
Cedrea knew it had been a dream but she couldn't stop herself from crying silently into her pillow. Nor could she cast from her mind the horrible images of what she had seen. Over and over the last moments of the dream played in her head. There was Donlan, kneeling in fear before a man laughing mirthfully as he pointed his wand at Donlan's heart and asked him if he was ready to die. The man's face she had not seen, he had been cloaked in inexplicable darkness. But she had seen they were in a dark field surrounded by a circle of faceless spectators, all enjoying the spectacle immensely. Then, quite suddenly, a voice had told him not to answer; there was a flash of green, and Donlan fell limp onto his front. This is where she had woken up and screamed.
It was all made worse by it being two weeks into the new term and there having been no word from Donlan about where he was or what he was doing. And when Rudolph had met with Professor Krum yesterday morning he again couldn't get a straight answer. Krum had said he would give him an answer as soon as he could. This was no comfort to Cedrea; she wanted answers now, not whenever Professor Krum got around to giving them to her.
She had never known Donlan to leave her wondering about important information, or as to why he hadn't kept a date, and now he had done just that. As little as a piece of torn parchment saying no more than "I'm fine" in Donlan's hand writing would have consoled her, yet nothing. Leaving her mind to follow logic's path to its only conclusion of something having gone wrong.
It took her several minutes to stop crying. When she had she laid back down and pulled her blankets tightly over her trying to put the images of her dream from her mind and get some sleep.
Come morning, Cedrea had gotten little sleep, unwillingly rethinking her dream which afforded her not rest. She welcomed the coming day, hoping it would provide distractions from the thoughts and questions filling her head as she dressed. Could Donlan really be in danger? Could what she had seen been true events that had somehow found their way into her dreams? Or were they events that had yet to happen but would soon?
But how could they be? Said a reasoning voice; pushing its way to the front of her mind.
There are seers; there have been plenty of them, we've learned about them in history of magic. Ones whose predictions had come true and ones whose hadn't. A nasty arguing voice interjected, spreading more doubt.
That's just ridiculous, you're not a seer. The first voice was back. You can't be, there's never been a seer in your family. And there hasn't been a witch or wizard with the sudden onset of foresight without a previous family member also possessing it in more than 1200 years.
That doesn't mean it can't start happening again. The nasty arguing voice observed, quite logically.
Cedrea shook her head overly forceful to banish these annoying and unsettling voices back to where they belonged and pulled her shiny blonde hair into a pony tail. Sunny, who had just gotten up, was pulling on a robe and saw the force with which she had shaken her head, drawing a question of whether she was alright. Cedrea skillfully waived off Sunny's concerns by quickly lying that a bug had flown into her face and startled her. Sunny believed this.
Cedrea would have much preferred it, as she took her time walking down to breakfast, that it had not been Saturday so she would have classes to distract her from Donlan. It was Saturday, however, and she had all of today and tomorrow to dwell on the matter with hardly anything to do.
"You look like crap." Kelly said, slightly subdued, sitting next to her. It was true, she did. She had bags under her eyes and looked as if she might fall asleep where she sat, slipping face first into the untouched eggs in front of her. She thought Kelly did not look much better.
"Haven' you slept? You need sleep, ya' know, to replenish your energy. Same with food." He said, looking from her to the eggs. "So you might want ta start on those before they're cold and slimy." He was tipping the contents of several platters onto his own plate.
After breakfast, Cedrea, Rudolph and Kelly took a slightly somber walk around the castle. It being the only thing they could all agree on. Rudolph had suggested a bit of friendly Quidditch to pass the time but Kelly and Cedrea had turned this down. Kelly then suggested they go to the library since they all had lengthy reports for potions and, despite her wishing they had classes, both Cedrea and Rudolph turned this down too. Cedrea could think of nothing and they eventually decided to take an aimless walk about the grounds.
It was as they were returning to the castle almost an hour later that their plans were made for them by the worst person imaginable. They hadn't gotten within twenty feet of the front steps when Jesse came trotting out the front doors, spotted them and smiled broadly.
"Ah, the perfect candidates!" Jesse said to himself, though loud enough for everybody around to hear.
Cedrea rolled her eyes and held Rudolph's hand tighter as she wondered what Jesse could be referring to and wondering how terrible it would be.
"How would you lot like to do a favor for me?" said Jesse falsely cheerful once he reached them.
"We wouldn't! Thank you very much!" Cedrea answered for them all, quickly walking away while pulling on Rudolph so he knew to hurry and follow, he did, and Kelly did not hesitate either.
"I guess that's too bad, cus you're doing it anyway." Jesse called after them, Cedrea stopped dead; there was nothing in the sorting hat that was going to make her do him a favor.
"Like hell we are!" Cedrea said heatedly, letting go of Rudolph's hand and turning to face Jesse with hands on her hips. "You can't make us do anything if we don't want to." Kelly whispered to her to be careful.
"Oh, but I can." said Jesse with a pompous grin and he tapped an index finger on his prefect badge. "I can't order Polov, of course, with him being the new Quidditch captain making him on equal footing as prefects. But, he can't contradict me either and that leaves you and Conners here well within the range of my power to hand down tasks to."
Cedrea scowled at him and heard both Kelly and Rudolph call him two different very nasty things under their breath. This had to be a misuse of his prefect powers if ever she had seen one.
"What do you want, Markus?!" Rudolph asked, putting a hard emphasis on Jesse's surname.
"As I said, Polov, I can't press you into this so there's really no need for you to get involved. But if you want to you are welcome to go along." Jesse's immense false kindness was irritating Cedrea so much that she just wanted to get away from him. And if that meant doing his little favor than she was willing to.
"Would you just get to the point? Please?" Cedrea said, not reciprocating the false kindness.
"Simple really," said Jesse joining them midway up the steps and holding out a sealed envelope. "A professor asked me to deliver this to the village. I'm far too busy I'm afraid, so I've decided to give you the privilege of delivering it for me."
Without any further explanation Cedrea snatched the envelope from Jesse's hand and tucked in inside her robes.
"Excellent!" said Jesse happily. "Just deliver it to the address and that'll be the end of it. Now, I'm off to meet Sunny, see you later." He turned to walk away
"Which professor gave you the letter?" asked Kelly curiously.
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you that. Just deliver it." Jesse said, turning back. "Oh, and I almost forgot. One of you hold out your hand." Cedrea obliged first.
Jesse retrieved his wand from up his sleeve and held it just above her outstretched hand. He said nothing and after a few seconds retracted his wand having seemingly done nothing. Cedrea was beginning to wonder if he wasn't really just playing at trick on them, that'd be just like him. But she had heard about the village on the northern tip of the island since she had arrived at the academy and had always wanted to visit. So even if this did turn out to be just one of his humorless jokes, there was a chance she would get to go to the village and that was worth the almost three mile walk. Plus it would be a handy distraction.
Jesse left them and Rudolph and Kelly rounded on Cedrea.
"What did you agree for? – Why would you agree to that?" They said almost simultaneously, neither looked very pleased with her.
"Because he was right, he had the authority to tell us to do this, especially since it was at the request of a professor." Cedrea said, skipping down the steps two at a time.
"We could have gone to a professor, that might not have been an abuse of his powers but I'm sure they would have sided with us." Rudolph said, most correctly.
"Yeah, I'm sure Professor McGonagall or Longbottom would have made him do his own tasks." said Kelly, as correct as Rudolph.
"Oh come on you two." said Cedrea. "None of us have ever been to the village and it was unlikely if this hadn't come up that any of us ever would. It'll be fun." She added as she took Rudolph's hand again.
She led the way in the proper direction with Rudolph and Kelly following reluctantly.
It was nearly eleven-thirty when the threesome came to the wall of pine and other assorted trees that surrounded the village. A fact Kelly lost no time in pointing out meant they would miss lunch and have to settle for snacks once they got back to the castle and they would never be filling enough for him.
Cedrea paused a few yards from the edge of the trees; wondering if they should just walk in or wait for someone to greet them. It didn't seem right for there to be no one around. Did this mean that anyone could just walk into the village at their leisure? This was definitely contrary to what she had been told.
Cedrea squinted in among the trunks of the many trees. Hardly any light was making it past the treetops and she couldn't make out anything past the first half dozen trees, making for a very unnerving sight. She cast nervous glances at her friends which they returned with very skeptical ones that clearly said: "We shouldn't have done this; he was messing with us."
Ignoring their looks, Cedrea made up her mind and started walking forward; confident that they would soon be visiting the village for the first time. True, most of the wooded areas on the island were off limits to students seventh year and below, particularly the forest taking up most of the southern part of the island. But there was nobody around to prevent their entry and indeed it looked as if there were no measures to prevent it. Of course, the appearance of countermeasures meant very little in the magical world. But perhaps all the rumors of the exceedingly high level of security around the village were precisely that, rumors.
Cedrea stopped at the edge of the trees and turned around to face her best friend and boyfriend, neither of which had moved.
"Are you coming?" she asked, a bit curtly. "Or am I going to have to Imperius you both?"
"That's not very funny; and I'm sure Rudolph, like myself, was working on it." said Kelly, casting a sideways glance at Rudolph as they both met her at the edge of the trees.
"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" she said, patting them both on the arm. "Now, in we go."
Cedrea turned back around and the three walked into the dark of the trees together. They had gotten barely three steps, however, when they found themselves unable to move anything below their eyes and were finding it impossible to voice the concerns now racing through their minds. Then, quicker than Cedrea could blink and without a sound they were surround by a dozen wizards and witches in dark robes with hard faces and their wands directed at the three of them. They appeared to have emerged from the trees themselves.
"The one of you that can clearly, concisely, and quickly state your business here blink thrice now!" The hardest looking wizard said fiercely, a man with short gray hair that stuck straight up.
Cedrea immediately blinked three times and the man waved his wand and the feeling that someone was squeezing her vocals cords in their fist disappeared. He looked at her expectantly so she spoke up.
"Umm… we came to deliver a letter." said Cedrea, eyeing the many wands pointed at her and hoping more than ever before that Jesse hadn't been playing a joke on them.
"Who is the letter for?" said the man.
"I don't actually know, I hadn't looked at who it was addressed to yet." Cedrea said, wishing she had not been so hasty when given the letter and had looked at it first. "I could get in for you… if my arms were free." she added hopefully.
The man raised his eyebrow suspiciously but waved his wand again and Cedrea's arms were set free from the spell that held them. She slowly reached inside her robes and retrieved the letter, careful to make sure she didn't look like she was going for her wand. Cedrea read the envelope and was surprised to see only an address. Number 7 Albus End.
"There's only an address, no name. Number seven Albus end." she said and the man gave her another suspicious look and motioned to a witch with long, flaming red hair and curiously dark blue eyes to come forward.
The woman took the letter from Cedrea without asking and looked it over for herself. The two exchanged whispered words that Cedrea couldn't hear and turned back to her.
"We were supposed to deliver it for a professor." Cedrea spoke up, hoping to move things along.
"Which professor gave this to you?" the man inquired.
"Well, actually they didn't." Cedrea answered and the man raised his eyebrow again. "It was given to us by another student and he said that we were supposed to deliver it for the professor."
"And which professor did he say wanted it delivered?" said the man, giving her a piercing gaze that she did not at all like.
"He wouldn't tell us." Cedrea said sheepishly, realizing just how stupid and suspicious she was making the three of them sound with every word that left her mouth. None of those surrounding her looked like they believed her, even Rudolph and Kelly didn't, or perhaps it was the situation they were in that they didn't believe.
"Oh, wait!" Cedrea said quickly before the man could decide what to do with them, remembering. She offered her hand. "The student who gave it to me did something to my hand; at least I think he did."
The man's look changed instantly at her words from one of suspicion to one more of irritation. He struck the back of her hand with the side of his wand with more force than was strictly necessary, causing it to sting, and within a second the shining outline of a bird she did not recognize with large wings and a long flowing tail appeared where he had hit. The effect of this was incredible. Upon seeing the bird, all of the dozen witches and wizards lowered their wands and the witch with the flaming red hair handed the letter back to Cedrea; and though she did not notice it right away her legs were now free and so were Rudolph and Kelly.
"Why didn't you just mention your hand in the first place?" The man said with an air of irritation. "It would have saved us all a lot of time. Why didn't they just send an owl?" He added quietly, slipping his wand inside his robes.
"I'm sorry; I didn't know it was important." Cedrea said a bit weakly. This man seemed to drain her of her usual confidence.
"It does not matter anymore." The witch with the red hair said. "We will grant you entry to the village. Keep walking until you emerge onto the main street; continue up the street until you reach Albus End on your right side. There are signs, so pay attention! But if you do go too far it is the second to last turn off from the end of the main street. Find number seven, deliver the letter, and return to the castle. Have I made myself clear?" she said all of this very quickly.
"Yes," The three said together.
"Very good then, get going." The man said, jerking his head behind him.
They cast quick glances at each other and filed past the witches and wizards around them. All were eager to get away from the group who probably would have cursed their robes off if it hadn't been for the strange mark on Cedrea's hand. Cedrea noticed that despite being a good three to four inches taller than anyone else and being a highly skilled duelist for his age, Rudolph looked severely unnerved and uncomfortable being around the security witches and wizards. She supposed it was because he was not used to feeling powerless.
As the three neared the other edge of the barrier of trees, which seemed strikingly closer than it had a few moments before, Cedrea turned to thank those who had stopped them out of politeness rather than sincerity and was surprised to see not a one of them remained where they had been standing only a minute before.
Feeling slightly unnerved by the superb speed and hiding ability of the security wizards, Cedrea stepped out from the darkness of the trees and into daylight again. Her view of the small village from the side of the street was striking. Everywhere she looked there were houses of all sorts of shapes and sizes, none like another and all colored to the likings of its owner, some with a single floor that were quite simple and others (sometimes right next to each other) with up to four floors and very fancy. And still others had multiple levels and were crooked and rather rickety looking. Cedrea thought it was all simply fantastic, a marvelous wizarding community, not at all like where she had lived with her parents when she was younger. She had never seen a place like this and had missed being in a town of any sort since she had begun staying at the Academy year round four years ago. The trio walked up the cobbled stone main street passing all manner of people. They drew surveying looks from most they passed until they recognized their school uniforms and their surveying looks changed instantly to smiles. A few older men even tipped their hats to them. There was hardly a place Cedrea looked that she did not see a smile looking back upon her. The inhabitants of the village apparently found it very pleasant to see students walking the streets and she could see why. The further they went the more Cedrea noticed a definite gap in ages among the residents. There didn't seem to be anyone older than nine years old but younger than their late thirties. Indeed there was a great deal of young children and middle aged and older men and women.
As the minutes wore on Cedrea was sure they would be nearing their destination soon and turned her attention to the street signs. The signs hung at every corner from slender posts with arms carved like wands, below which were the signs themselves, suspended by two small chains. Kelly appeared to have been reading the signs the whole time, looking almost as enthralled in their new surroundings as she was. Rudolph seemed to be the only one not enjoying himself and taking every opportunity to take in as much of the experience as he could. Though very often hard to read, as he displayed less emotion on his face than most, Cedrea was sure he was not enjoying himself and if it had not been for her would not have come. In fact, something about his expression suggested to Cedrea that he was incredibly uncomfortable.
"An interestin' place, this." Kelly said, this uncharacteristically being the first thing said by either he or Rudolph for quite a while. "A lot bigger than it's made out ta be, isn't it? And, all the streets seem ta be named after notable witches or wizards in history." Kelly added just as Cedrea read the sign for the street they were passing: Bones Blvd. History of Magic was his best and favorite subject. She found it rather dull but had noticed the names sounded familiar and now knew why.
"I wonder how many people live here, it iscertainly larger than I would have thought it could be for the space allotted." said Rudolph looking, like the other two, at the street signs.
It was another few minutes before they reached and started down the somewhat narrow street that was Albus End. It became clear while they walked towards the end of the street keeping an eye on the house numbers that Albus End was of a slightly higher quality and upkeep than the rest of the village.
Near the end of the street, which ended in a wide culdesac, they came upon number 7. It was a rather quaint little two level house with a large, unkempt front garden that had waist height grass growing on either side of the front walk and a sizable vegetable patch on the left side of the house. The house and garden were completely enclosed by a low, yellow fence that was only inches taller than the grass it contained. Number 7 was in sharp contrast to the homes surrounding it which had gardens that were, for wizards, well trimmed and few of which possessed fences.
Rudolph unlatched the garden gate and pushed it open, allowing Cedrea and Kelly to go before him. The front walk was made of multicolored flagstone and was almost perfectly straight on its path to the front door. Cedrea was the first to reach number 7's front stoop and, deciding that since she had been given the letter it was her duty, promptly knocked. She heard no movement and no one answered.
"Perhaps they didn' hear, knock again." Kelly suggested. Cedrea initially hesitated, weary, from the condition of the front garden the occupant might well be old and require more time to get to the door. After a few minutes and insisting from Kelly, however, she knocked a second time; ensuring that it was considerably louder than the first. This time they heard hurried scuffling from inside and the door was flung open to reveal a tall, gangly, and eccentric looking elderly wizard with long dull red hair. The wizard had a kind face, was wearing worn emerald green robes and was leaning almost two feet out the doorway with his hands on the frame for support; looking to each of them in turn.
"My word, look at them!" The wizard said, almost as if he thought they couldn't hear him as he cocked his head strangely to the side. "I wonder if they are here for a reason or if they just knock on people's doors for fun?"
The wizard leaned even farther out the door, as far as his arms would allow him, bringing his face inches away from Cedrea's. She immediately retracted, rather alarmed. Rudolph tensed up next to her and drew a little closer. The old wizard was now shifting his eyes rapidly between the three, trying to take them all in. The threesome cast awkward looks from the wizard to one-another.
"So can I do something for you young sir?" He said suddenly, jerking his head to look directly at Rudolph.
"Not for him, but maybe for me you can." Cedrea spoke up; he jerked his head to look at her now.
The wizard stared at her for a moment and then opened his mouth to say something. Before he could, however, a woman's voice called from inside the house; a loving, motherly tone. "Fred, dear, whose at the door. Let me see." He pulled himself back into the house as a short and plumb elderly woman appeared at his side. The woman saw the three dazed looks on their faces and greeted them with a kind smile, the equal of which Cedrea had never see and she instantly felt welcomed. The wizard retreated back into the house; mumbling something about what he needed to do.
"What can I do for you dears?" the woman said with another smile. She was as old as the man if not a bit older, wore and variety or different colors mixed strangely on her robes and had the same kind face and faded red hair.
"We're just here to deliver a letter, ma'am." said Cedrea, pulling the letter from her robes and handing it to the again smiling woman.
"Thank you, dear. Please come in, all of you." She said and Cedrea and Kelly politely obliged and returned her many smiles. Kelly appeared to like this nice old woman as much as Cedrea did. Rudolph was strangely staring at his feet as he entered.
"You know Fred and I were just about to have lunch, we have more than enough and there is no way you three darlings will make it back to the castle in time to eat. Would you like to stay and have a bite before returning?" she asked, looking delighted at the prospect at having three young companions join her for lunch.
"We'd love ta, I'm starving! What are we having?!" Kelly said almost before she had finished the question, his face alight; Cedrea sniggered and he quickly grew red with his zeal. "I mean, if you're sure you have enough."
"I have plenty, now come on!" she said, maneuvering behind them and herding them down the hallway, past a couple doors, a staircase that went up and to the right, and into the dinning room with an adjoining kitchen. The man whom had greeted them, Fred, was already seated at the large table that could accommodate at least twelve people; a pot of potato soup, a loaf of French bread, and a large dish of butter set upon the table.
The woman waved her wand and place settings for three more appeared. "Have a seat." She added as three chairs pulled themselves out from the table. The three sat down.
Cedrea and Kelly were quite enjoying themselves and neither could wait to have a real home cooked meal; especially Cedrea who had not had one in years. But Rudolph looked extremely uncomfortable and had not stopped looking at his own feet; he had become very quiet. He had barely said a thing since they entered the village. This made Cedrea quite confused.
"If I might ma'am," Kelly began as the woman took the five bowls, ladled soup into each and returned it. "Your husband seems a bit, mad. No offense intended sir." Kelly added quickly, realizing how rude this sounded.
"None took my young fellow!" Fred said exuberantly without looking at him. He was stirring his soup with a large piece of bread.
"Oh aren't you such a dear to say something like that!" The woman said warmly with a broad smile. The amount this statement confused him and Cedrea was evident on their faces; Rudolph was staring out a nearby window.
"He is not my husband, dear, he is my son." She said, pinching Kelly's cheek lightly. "You're so sweet to an old woman."
Kelly had a bewildered look on his face from not only having his cheek pinched for the first time in his life, but from the thought that this man was this woman's son. Cedrea too was a bit bewildered. She looked from him then to her. There didn't seem more than a few years difference in their ages. Cedrea thought that she could only hope to age so gracefully.
"Now everyone, tuck in!" the woman said, sitting across from Cedrea and next to Fred.
Cedrea had only had potato soup once before in her life and though it had been many years ago she found this soup to be far superior and indeed some of the best soup she could remember having. The Bread was also very delicious and fresh.
"My word, where is my head today!" The woman said a few moments later. "We have not even introduced ourselves yet. My Name is Molly Weasley, and this is my son Fred." Fred said nothing at his introduction and continued with his meal.
"O', I gus we aven't." Kelly said through a mouth full of bread and soup. He swallowed before continuing. "Name's Kelly Conners, pleased to meet you, the food is excellent."
Molly Weasley smiled at Kelly. "You remind me of my youngest son."
"My name is Rudolph Polov." He said quickly, speaking to his soup.
"And mine is Cedrea Diggory." Said Cedrea and though Molly gave them each a cheery smile in turn, Cedrea thought she had faltered for a moment after Rudolph had introduced himself. However, she thought she might have imagined it.
The meal went quite pleasantly. Cedrea found the food and the company to be very excellent. Mrs. Weasley had a large family, something none of them had any experience with, and she had many amusing stories concerning them. The most humorous of which were several about Fred and his twin brother George when they were younger and attending school. She admitted at the time that she had found the two's pranks aggravating and rather immature, but now could see them for their sheer hilarity and often genius.
Fred Himself scarcely spoke during lunch. He kept his speaking mostly to the occasional off hand comment and seemingly random mumblings about a joke shop and a deadline that was swiftly approaching. Only Mrs. Weasley seemed to have the faintest idea what he was talking about.
By the end of the meal, Cedrea felt she had eaten entirely more than she should have. She had not been the one of their group to eat the most, though, that honor went to Kelly. He had finished with the rest of them but had eaten at twice the rate, having consumed three full bowls of soup and two large slices of bread to Cedrea's bowl and a half and two much smaller slices of bread. Rudolph had barely eaten one bowl but had finally looked away from the window.
Mrs. Weasley promptly began clearing the table with the vigor of a much younger woman. Cedrea offered to help and Mrs. Weasley adamantly refused, saying she was happy to do it as she hadn't had anyone to serve in a very long time and it reminded her of when her children were young.
"I'll have to be going now, mum. George wants that new product done by the time he gets back." Fred said standing and walking to his mother and kissing her on the cheek.
"Of course he does, dear." Mrs. Weasley said, kissing and hugging him tightly before letting him go.
Fred walked down the hall looking thoroughly enthralled in his own thoughts, mumbling things about a toxin to antidote ratio that needed fixing.
The dinning room was not left silent in Fred's absence for long. Soon the four were talking again. Even Rudolph contributed a few sentences when Mrs. Weasley began discussing school and mentioned that many of her children had been quite good at Quidditch when is school. It was this that led to a long friendly argument between Kelly and Cedrea on the subject great Quidditch players of the previous century. This greatly amused Mrs. Weasley. Afterwards the conversation moved to the topic of favorite subjects and teachers, and what they liked best about the school. Cedrea found that the more time she spent there the more she was enjoying it.
"Oh, most definitely!" Cedrea said, agreeing with Kelly. "Professor Longbottom has to be the nicest man I've ever met."
"Yes, Neville has always been a very kind person." Said Mrs. Weasley.
"You know Professor Longbottom?" said Kelly.
"Quite well." She replied. "I've known most of the teachers since well before the school was started." She smiled.
"Professor Longbottom may be very likable but that doesn't mean they all are." Cedrea said contemptuously and Kelly rolled his eyes and Rudolph sighed.
"Not this again, especially not now. Please?" Rudolph said with a tired look on his face.
"He's not as bad as you think he is." Said Kelly
"He is as bad as I think he is! He's mean and bitter!" Cedrea said defiantly, knowing her opinion was outnumbered.
"I'm afraid I am missing whom you are talking about, dears." said Mrs. Weasley.
"We're talking about Potter." said Cedrea savagely.
"That's Professor Potter, ya' know! And he's a great man!" Kelly said angrily.
"That's right, I forgot that you were in love with – That's enough! – " Mrs. Weasley had interrupted, with a surprising amount of force behind her words which were directed mostly at Cedrea.
"There is something you must understand about Harry, dear. Yes… I've known him for a long time too." She added to answer the surprised looks the three had gotten to the use of his first name. "I've known him since he was eleven and he was best friends with my youngest son, and I consider him no less than one of my own children." She paused. "He has led a very difficult and painful life. He has lost far too many people he has loved. I won't deny that this has made him a very angry and sometimes tactless person. But I've always known him to be very kind and selfless, however rarely those traits show themselves these days."
"Poor baby!" Cedrea said with an unnecessary amount of malice in her voice. "We've all had tough lives, especially the teachers. But you don't see all of them having a bad attitude about everything and picking on students. And Potter seems to have something against me in particular!"
"Dear," Mrs. Weasley said with the air of a woman losing her resolve to defend her opinion. "Did you know Professor Potter was with your uncle when he was murdered?"
"So what? Is that supposed to make me all the sudden like him?" She said fiercely.
Mrs. Weasley looked as if she had meant to add more which would make things clear.
"I think that is quite enough, Cedrea!" Rudolph spoke up, getting to his feet. "I think it is time for us to be getting back to the castle. Thank you for the excellent meal Mrs. Weasley."
"You are very welcome, dear. And I agree, I think it would be best for you three to get back, you shouldn't be out too long." Mrs. Weasley said disappointedly, standing and pulling the letter Cedrea had delivered out of her pocket.
Rudolph lightly grabbed Cedrea's arm and prompted her out of her chair. Kelly stood too and made to say goodbye when he saw the worry filled look on Mrs. Weasley face.
"Is something wrong, has something happened?" Kelly said instead.
"What? Oh… no… no…" Mrs. Weasley said looking up from the letter she had been reading and changing her face to a smile. "I have a friend who teaches at a school in America and he just sent me a letter telling me about an amusing bit of trouble they had the other day. Nothing serious... Well, good day. Do visit again." She said and turned and walked into the kitchen, clutching the letter tightly.
Cedrea could tell she was lying but said nothing more and left with Kelly and Rudolph to head back to the castle. Rudolph's hand still around her arm.