Twins in the End

By Kukaburry

Chapter 10 - Tumbling

The mud became deeper and Avry found herself walking like a horse with each step, lifting her legs high through the suction of dirt and water then plodding it back down as lightly as possible. They walked for endless minutes in silence, looking at the ground for signs of recent animals, when a thought occurred to Avry. "Did Hagrid tell us what Unicorn poo looks like?" She asked.

A groan of frustration soared over her head. "No, he didn't." Fred stated flatly, annoyed that they had forgotten to ask such a simple question.

"Maybe they poop rainbows and sprinkles?" The thought popped from Avry's mouth, surprising both herself and Fred. Somehow letting go in front of Fred helped Avry relax and move on to the next stage of dealing with the issue: acceptance. All bodily power had been lost in front of Fred, yet he did not use it to harm her, instead he went out of his way to try to soothe her. Rationally, Avry didn't understand why he would do such a thing. If their roles were reversed, she would have done something horrible to him.

Perhaps, she thought, this is really what he meant by calling her evil. This is the difference between good and evil. The difference between kicking someone while they are down and helping them stand back on their feet. One was infinitely easier than the other was. It was so reminiscent of Mandy and her constant goodness; Bringing a roll to Avry when she was sent to bed without dinner, rubbing oil on the marks left by their father's lash spell, pretending to run away with Avry every couple of weeks. The goodness that Avry always admired and wished she could possess. However, her parents made it clear that this was not meant to be Avry's allotment in life. She was a shadow child, born and raised in the eclipse of another, always outshone and outloved by her twin. Mandy was the person she could never be. Every light had a dark.

"Maybe it will smell like cupcakes," Fred mused, rolling with Avry's suggestion. "Maybe they fart cinnamon."

"I could go for a cinnamon roll right now," Avry murmured, stomach growling with hunger.

"Are they not feeding you during house arrest?"

She hadn't realized that he knew about her house arrest. "Does everyone know about that?"

"Well, that one girl, what's her name, Haley? The girl with long black hair. She was talking loudly about it this morning." Avry's expression turned grim. "I thought she was a pal of yours."

A soulless laugh trickled from her mouth. "It's Slytherin, there are no such things as friends."

"I think that's the most profound thing you've said." Avry recessed back into herself, thinking about her current relationships. She pushed Haley away for asking about Blake, and very possibly, she only asked out of concern. She became friends with two ugly-hearted girls just out of spite to Haley. She allowed Blake to do almost anything to her because she needed the support of the most popular person in Slytherin. Not to mention the number of younger Slytherins she had bullied and pushed around just for fun, just to show that she had control over them. What was the point?

"Why don't you change things?" Fred's voice cut through her thoughts. "You've climbed all the way to the top for what? For fun? Why don't you change the course, make it better for next Slytherins. You don't have to be the same as the others."

"What do you know?" She snapped, guard back up at maximum. "Gryffindors have no idea what Slytherin is like. One person means nothing."

They continued in tense silence for a few minutes. "If one person means nothing," Fred started slowly, "Then why does everyone listen to that Blake guy?"

"It's not just B-B..Him", Avry stuttered hard on his name, feeling nauseous just thinking of it. "It's B-him and the people he manipulates. That's the only way to matter in Slytherin: be the best manipulator." The best manipulator. The best intimidator. The best...raper. Had he gone after other girls like this or was she unique? How many others had he tried to strangle for disobeying him? Knowing the other girls in Slytherin, probably none. She couldn't imagine any of them telling him 'no'.

Fang whined loudly and started pulling in the other direction. "It looks like we have to go back now." They turned and back-tracked their previous steps. Avry's face became even more sullen than before. "Why don't you play that game then, and take over that way? You have the charisma, and I'm sure your little stunt got you enough points," he added snarkily. "Why do you have to be a bad person just because you're surrounded by bad people? Just manipulate them into being good."

Sighing loudly, Avry shook her head. "Gryffindors are so optimistic it's disgusting." The ideas rolled around in her head, unsettling her already jumbled thoughts. "I can't do it. He has too many people in his hands."

"Including you," Fred replied darkly. "Well if that's the case, we have nothing to talk about." They spent the next hour in mutual silence until they got back to Hagrid's with an empty bag.

"S'alright. Maybe ye'll fin' sum termorrow." He dropped his overflowing bag of rancid-smelling feces outside the door. "I might let ye go on yer own since I's got more then enough tanite."

They, meaning Fred, said goodnight to Hagrid and walked back to the castle. "I don't know what happened to you, but you should know that I don't think you deserve it." He said quietly. "And I think you deserve quite a long list of things."

"It's not your concern."

"You're right, it's not." He agreed in a monotone voice. "But the point is, it shouldn't be your concern either."

Avry allowed Fred to walk ahead of her, eventually slow to a halt just outside the dining hall entrance. "It shouldn't be your concern either." That Weasley kid made everything sound so simple and profound. Nothing in Avry's life had ever been that simple. When her parents locked her in her room for a week, should she have not let it concern her? When her mother made her walk across broken glass just to teach her a lesson about not dropping things, should she have said 'This doesn't bother me'? No. She learned from her mistakes as a child. There was no soft side of life, only those who won or lost. She was a winner and she could take care of Blake without the idiotic advice from a penniless redheaded boy.

Her feet unknowingly took her to the hospital wing. All of the regurgitated childhood memories must have caused her to think of her sister. Professor McGonagall sat in a lounge chair just outside the wing and her face drew tight when she saw who was walking the halls this late at night. "Back from detention already?"

"Yes," she answered immediately. "Is Mandy awake yet?"

"No, not yet." She answered coolly, eyes glinting behind her spectacles.

"Can I see her?"

"I'm afraid not, Miss Saunders." Professor McGonagall didn't supply an explanation because both of them already knew why.

"If she wakes up…" she began, and then thought better of leaving a sentimental expression with a teacher as powerful as McGonagall, "tell her she's lucky." She stated roughly and stomped away.

'Tell her I miss her.'

Avry made it to bed just in time for lights out forty minutes later. She pulled the sheets tightly around herself and made sure the bed hangings were tightly closed to give Blake a hint that nothing was going to happen tonight. 'I'm going to tell him that it's over if he does get in.' She told herself firmly. She was stronger than Blake was. She didn't need him to make herself known. 'Watch out Slytherin, a new master is coming.'

"Miss Saunders. Miss Saunders." A voice echoed much too close to her ear. Was there a fire? Why was there someone standing over her bed? "Open your eyes, girl." Why couldn't she open her eyes? It felt like they were glued shut. With much effort, she ripped one eyelid open and saw at Madam Pomfrey standing over her looking gravely concerned. Behind her, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall stood like two sentries barring a little wooden door. Hold on a moment, this was not her bed. Where was she?

"Where am I?" Even her voice seemed stapled to her vocal cords.

"You're in the hospital wing. Do you remember what happened?"

"What happened?" She repeated dumbly, finally seeing the stoic expressions on Snape and McGonagall's faces. Did she do something bad?

"You had a nasty tumble down the first and second floor stairs." Why would she be on the second floor at all? "Can you tell us why you were out this late?"

Gray static burned through her memory. "I..I don't know."

"That is convenient," Snape whispered in his most spine-curling voice. "How about a drop of vertiserum to help you remember." He handed her a cup of water and gave a look that promised terrible consequences if she didn't drink it. It took a few minutes to allow the liquid to pass through her raw throat. "Now, what were you doing?"

"I don't know." All three seemed surprised that she had been telling the truth.

"Where were you going?"

"I don't know."

"Why did you try to kill your sister?" McGongall finally asked.

"I didn't." That answer truly did shock them.

"Why did you try to kill George Weasley?"

"I didn't." Avry's flat voice answered more than they expected. "I just wanted to hurt him."

"I think that's enough for now," Madam Pomfrey snapped. "My patient clearly needs to rest." The two professors shuffled out followed closely by Madam Pomfrey who left a thick green concoction next to Avry's bed. "I'll wake you in a few hours for breakfast. Try to drink that in one swig." Unable to think of anything else, Avry choked down the green goo and fell into a very restless dream.

Madam Pomfrey kept Avry locked in the private room through lunch, but finally seemed to feel comfortable enough to keep the door slightly ajar by midafternoon. Avry listened to someone read a novel about sprites and fairies in the other room, which brought a lump to her throat. One of Avry's favorite creatures as a child was tree fairies that helped grow forests in the wild mountains.

No one came by to check on her even though she heard another person talk about her accident. "They're saying she tried to kill herself by falling down the stairs." She tried to drown out the rest by humming some of her favorite songs.

Snape came by before dinner to announce that she was reprieved from detention for tonight. "I'm told that you were unsuccessful in your…" he paused with a knowing sneer on his lips, "hunt… the other night, so you're expected to attend tomorrow once you are healed. I expect you to fill two pouches before the end of your detention Miss Saunders."

"Avry, wake up," a male voice called to her. "Hey, come on now." He shook her slightly, which aggravated her still-sore muscles. She opened her eyes and focused on the person sitting on the edge of her bed. "There she is," Blake said with a tender smile. "You look better," he said while smoothing her cheek with is fingertip. Avry couldn't make herself talk; all words had vanished from her mind.

"What? You're not happy to see me?" He sounded genuinely surprised. "I guess that's fair. You're still processing what we talked about last night."

"Last night?" She echoed the words like a puppet. When had they talked last night?

"Oh right, you wouldn't remember that yet," his tender smile spread into a wide, cruel grin. "It's part of the spell. Don't worry; it'll come back to you soon."

It dawned on her, was he the one who made her fall down the stairs? "You… did you do this to me?" She gestured at her bruised face and body. His grin turned into a bone-chilling Cheshire smile.

"I told you, I control you baby. You do what I want, when I want." His pupils seemed like two desolate pits drawing her in.

"But there's no way you could..." she began shrilly.

"Oh but I can," he laughed, "I most certainly can. I know spells that would make Dumbledore's toenails curl under." He leaned down and stole a slow, sloppy kiss from the defenseless girl beneath him. "Come talk to me when you've had a chance to remember our conversation. I trust you will make the right choice. I'd hate to hurt that pretty face of yours anymore."

Ugh. He gives me the heebie-jeebies. What a disgusting person. Why did I even bother writing someone as horrible as him? Let's see what Avry does next! Hopefully, chop off something near and dear to him. ~Kukaburry