Chapter 9

1996 (Seventh Year)

'Malia...please don't cry,' Fred whispered.

'You are gonna be alright,' George added.

'N-no, I...I won't!' Malia sobbed.

The twins glanced at each other worriedly; they had been dreading this moment for months.

'Yes, you will. You are the strongest girl we know. We probably need you more than you need us.'

Malia wiped another tear, 'I will always need you. You two...you two are my best friends, my brothers, my family. What am I going to do without my twins?'

'You'll still have Angelina, Alicia, Lee and the others. Besides, we'll be only one letter away.' Fred replied reassuringly.

'It won't be the same...'

George gently took her hand and gave it a squeeze, 'We know it won't...but we'll be apart for only a couple of months.'

'I guess deep down I knew this was coming... I just didn't want to believe it. Why didn't you tell me before? I could have helped, I would have understood.'

Fred took her other hand and shrugged, 'This is as difficult for us as it is for you, we've been trying to gather the courage to tell you for weeks. Also, we didn't want to drag you into this and get you in trouble. We know you do want to graduate.'

Malia stared down at her hands clasped with the twins' and sighed, 'I'm going to miss you both so much.'

'So are we, Mal.' the twins muttered in unison.

'Why tomorrow?' she asked curiously.

'Harry needs a diversion to floo Sirius, and as we already have everything ready we thought there was not a reason why we should delay our plan any further.'

'I'm sooo taking a picture of Umbridge's reaction. Thank Merlin I brought my camera this year.' Malia giggled.

The boys sighed in relief, the difficult part was over.

'And we are sooo pinning that picture on the wall of our new premises of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes.' George smirked.

'WHAT!'

'Yep, a few days ago we successfully purchased number ninety-three, Diagon Alley.'

The matching grins on the twins' faces couldn't be any bigger.

Jumping up, Malia threw her arms around the boys' necks and hugged them tightly.

'I'M SO PROUD OF YOU.'

And for the first time in over a year, Fred and George saw a full and sincere smile on their friend's face.

Her last night as a Hogwarts student, Malia sat in the kitchen eating whatever the elves wanted to surprise her with. However, her mind was not on the food. She sat thinking about everything that had happened in the last year.

Malia had always figured that her last day at Hogwarts would be filled with "fun activities" (pranks, that is) with her favourite twins. But as she sat alone on the long table, she didn't feel sad nor was she mad at them for leaving. She just felt a little bit lonely. However, she knew that the following day, the twins would be at the platform waiting for their siblings and her.

Ever since they left Hogwarts, the trio had been exchanging letters three or four times a week. Malia could not wait to go to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes! Apparently, business was going great and she couldn't be any more excited for her friends. For years, they had worked extremely hard and it was paying off.

Her mind then drifted towards the chaos that was now the Wizarding World. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was sighted in the Ministry of Magic, and now everyone finally believed what Harry had been saying for a year.

When Dumbledore brought the Order of the Phoenix back together, it meant that her loved ones, like her mum and dad and the Weasleys (the ones who were of age, of course) would be in constant danger going on secret missions. And that was something that worried her throughout her whole Seventh Year.

And now that she was finished with school and of age, Malia would be able to join them and help with the cause.

Even though she was trying her hardest not to let her thoughts make their way towards him, she was failing. Badly. She couldn't help but think about Charlie every day.

Malia tried to move on with her life like she had promised him.

At the beginning of Seventh Year, she started talking to a boy from Ravenclaw, and after a few months of being friends, he asked her out. They dated for a few months, time around which Charlie stopped sending her letters, and after a couple of hers went unanswered, she stopped too. She suspected that the twins had told him that she was seeing someone else and he stopped writing in order to let her get over him more easily. Malia never asked the twins nor the twins said anything to her. But she didn't blame them, they only wanted what was best for their brother and their friend.

She ended up breaking up with the Ravenclaw after three months together. Malia knew that even though she liked and cared for the guy, deep inside her she would be comparing him with Charlie. Maybe she was being dramatic, but she felt that Charlie was the only one for her. And no matter how hard she tried, the dragon keeper would never leave her mind or her heart. Therefore, it was not fair for the guy and her to continue the relationship.

Charlie never got in touch with her again and neither did Malia try to contact him. She was too scared that he would not reply or worse, that he would and he would tell her that he had a girlfriend. Which made her feel like a hypocrite, because she had had a boyfriend for a little while. The twins got tired of telling her to stop overthinking things and just send him a letter but she wouldn't listen so they let her be.

Now that she was graduating was he thinking about their last face-to-face conversation like she was, that conversation where he told her that when she finished school she could go live with him in Romania or he could come home, that they'd figured out a way to be together? She would never know if he was, but she sure hoped so.

AN: I'm so sorry! I really have no excuses for why I abandoned this story for so many months. I'll try to update more frequently from now on. Oh! and also, a reader thankfully made me realise that I had completely forgotten about Percy in the Prologue. Oops. So I corrected that. Anyway, I'll probably post another chapter in a few hours, or tomorrow! Stay alert!