Sorry if I haven't updated for such a long time but I have had very few reviews in the last chapter, I thought nobody read my story anymore. I was a bit depressed but then I got an email that made me want to write again. Thanks Debbie-Zor!
Chapter 12
It had been strange at first to be back in her parent's house. A lot of things had changed. For a start Ginny was no longer the tall and thin woman she used to be. Her stomach was huge and Alicia didn't find the courage to look at it. She could already feel the hate for her parent's baby boiling inside her. Harry's attitude had changed a lot as well. He was always in a good mood; he sang at the top of his voice, he didn't bother with his messy hair anymore.
He had even had a long talk with Ali about Slytherin without insulting her new house.
"Look, Ali, I get it. I don't own your life. It's your decision; you can be whoever you want to be."
Ali thought this was an improvement although she knew Harry was wishing his next child to be a Gryffindor.
It was strange how Ali's relation with Mitch had changed as well. He still teased her but it didn't bother Ali as much as it used to. Ali was even starting to feel fond of her neighbour. Mitch could be fun even if he was a muggle. He made her laugh and it was clear he was clever.
Alicia felt peaceful for the first time in a long time. Her parents accepted her at last, she had quite a lot of friends, and Morla was growing exactly the way she wanted her to. Indeed the snake was twice the size it used to be. Alicia had not forgotten the plan about re-opening the chamber of secrets, but she wanted to relax a bit seeing this was her last holydays before the end of the year.
Alicia was sure nothing could ruin her two weeks of holydays until her mother came with the news.
"Ali, do you know where your father put the mattress of your old bed?" Ginny asked.
"No, why?"
"Beverly is staying here for the holydays."
When she heard these words, Ali dropped the book she had been holding.
"What?!"
"She's going to sleep in your bedroom; I hope it doesn't bother you too much." Ginny said ignoring Alicia's outburst.
"But, Mum, why is she coming here?" Alicia wailed. Beverly was the cousin she liked less. Extremely pretty and cheeky, Beverly had never done what Alicia wanted.
"Hermione and Ron are going on a romantic trip together, like a second honeymoon. You can't expect them to take their kids with them, can you?"
"What about Olivia, Amber, Luke and William? Where are they staying?"
Hermione and Ron had five children. The only one Alicia liked was Olivia. Olivia was still a baby herself, she wasn't old enough to understand that Alicia was different from the other Weasleys.
"Olivia and Janet are staying with your grandparents. Kenny and William are staying with Fred and Angelina. You know how much they love the twins' shop!"
Alicia felt quite jealous. She loved her two uncles Fred and George and she would have longed for a few days in their shop.
The Weasleys' shop was one of the most popular shops in the world of wizards. Every child was brought up to look out for anything that looked like one of Fred and George's products.
"But why does she have to come here?" Alicia asked stomping with her foot like a spoiled child.
Ginny laughed at her daughter's attitude. She was so cheerful these days: Alicia could almost taste her happiness from a distance.
"Harry and I thought it would do you good a bit of company."
"But I'm not alone, Mum, Alicia cried, I have a muggle friend here. You know, the boy who lives next door."
Ginny smiled and for a moment she looked like a teenager.
"Your new boyfriend, eh?" she said winking.
"Mum!" Ali cried poking her playfully.
"How old is he anyway?"
"About fourteen, I think." Alicia answered vaguely. She didn't like talking about Mitch much. It was so weird: she was a completely different person around Mitch. It was hard to compare the two sides of her character.
"Oh, well, that's nice. Maybe Beverly can become friends with him as well. She's fourteen as well." Ginny said.
Instead of being reassured, Alicia panicked. She had gotten used to think of Mitch as her personal property, and the thought of sharing him with Beverly didn't please her at all. She knew these were childish thoughts but she didn't care.
Alicia decided to get ready for Beverly's arrival. If her cousin tried to approach Mitch then Alicia would be prepared. She was not going to let anyone take Mitch away from her.
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Alicia was locked up in her room when the doorbell rang. She could hear her mother open the front door and then closed it again. Alicia hoped she would not to have to greet her cousin but that was impossible.
"Ali! Beverly is here!" She heard her mother shout from downstairs.
"I'm coming!" Alicia cried back. She sighed and got to her feet. She dreaded seeing her cousin's mock smile that said 'well aren't you pleased to see me?'.
Beverly was even taller than Alicia remembered her, and prettier to tell the truth. She had blue eyes and bushy red hair tied back into a ponytail. Her gaze fell on Alicia's face, and her lips curled into a false smile.
"Hello, Alicia, how are you?"
They shook hands and smiled as if they were the best of friends, but Ali could see in her cousin's eyes that Beverly regarded her as a freak, the only Slytherin in the family. It hurt for a bit that even if her parents had accepted her, she would be known forever in the family as the girl who had not been brave enough to go into Gryffindor.
"So, girls, would you mind if Harry and I went out for a while?" Ginny said winking at them.
Beverly shook her head.
"No, it doesn't, Mum, we'll be fine." Alicia said bored. She tried to hide the fact that she dreaded the long hours she had to spend with her cousin's company.
"Very well. We'll come back in a few hours." Ginny said. She grabbed her coat, kissed the two girls' cheek, and joined Harry who was already waiting outside.
There was silence in the house as Ali and Beverly stared at each other, not really knowing what to do.
"So, what shall we do?" Beverly asked at last.
"I don't know, you're the guest: you choose." Alicia shrugged.
Beverly sighed.
"Look, Alicia, we're going to spend every single second together for six days now, you'd better get used to me."
Alicia didn't answer. Instead she turned her back to Beverly and walked over to the living-room. To her annoyance Beverly followed her.
"I could have gone to Molly and Arthur's house but I chose to come here because I need to talk to you. So you might just as well listen to me." Beverly said.
Alicia said nothing. Beverly took this as an invitation to go on talking.
"Everyone is worried about you in the family. We want to know if you're really happy with the Slytherins. Because you know, we could probably ask the headmistress to take you out of Slytherin again. We can say the hat has made a mistake. You don't have to stay with these people!" Beverly stopped talking and looked hopefully at Alicia.
Alicia had listened to every single word her cousin had said, and she couldn't believe it. She thought of Elisabeth and her broken father Draco, she thought of Peter Parkinson who made her laugh so often these days, she thought of Frank Williams who was so sweet yet so shy, she thought of herself and all the other Slytherin she knew. She thought of how many people hated them in the school just because they were Slytherin.
"You don't have to stay with the Slytherins, Ali! You can leave them all behind!" Beverly repeated once again.
It was all too much. Alicia felt the anger rising in her throat. She stood up abruptly.
"How dare you," she hissed.
Beverly looked startled as Ali pointed her wand at her.
"You're not going to use it." She said although you could hear the doubt in her voice.
"How dare you, Alicia cried again, how dare you insult these people as if you know them! You know nothing of them! These people you seem to hate so much, Beverly, they are my friends. You hear that?"
Alicia was trembling in rage. She could see the picture of Morla in her mind, and she was certain for the first time: Slytherin wasn't just in her mind: the hat had made no mistake. Slytherin was in her blood, in her flesh as much as in her soul, it belonged to her.
"Why do you hate me so much? Why do you hate the Slytherin house?" Ali asked. She was still pointing her wand at Beverly, although her hand was shaking.
Beverly said nothing at first, surprised by Alicia's sudden outburst.
"I thought you were clever enough to know the answer yourself." She said simply after what seemed like hours to Alicia.
Suddenly Alicia had only one name on her tongue.
"Voldemort." She whispered and lowered her wand.
Beverly nodded silently.
"But what about Peter Pettigrew? He was in Gryffindor, wasn't he? And look how he turned out! He betrayed his best friends, and gave his hand to help Voldemort get his body back! If it wouldn't be for him, Harry's parents would still be alive!" Alicia shouted again.
Beverly had never heard about Peter Pettigrew but her parents had talked vaguely about a man who had betrayed James Potter and Sirius Black.
"How do you know all this?" Beverly asked frowning.
"I read." Alicia said simply.
Beverly looked impressed.
"But that's not the point, Alicia said, the point is that I'm fed up with people judging by our houses! What is important is not the house we're in but the person we actually are."
Beverly saw Alicia had a point. She sighed. It was all getting mixed. It had been so much easier to see the Slytherins as the bad ones.
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After Ali had calmed down, the two girls began playing muggle cards. Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Alicia knew immediately who it was. Only one person didn't like using the doorbell.
"Hey, Mitch," Alicia greeted her friend as she opened the door.
"Hey Ali!" Mitch said smiling. He often visited Alicia these last days. Even if she was a bit young for him, he enjoyed her company. You were never bored with the little girl.
Alicia invited Mitch to come in.
"My cousin is staying here for the holydays, so I'm sorry if I didn't come to your house this morning." Ali explained as she motioned Mitch to follow her into the living-room.
Beverly's lips stretched into one of her most charming smiles as she saw Mitch. Mitch returned her smile and Ali could feel a pinch of jealousy. She tried to hide it by introducing the two teenagers.
"Beverly this is Mitch, Mitch this is Beverly."
They shook hands and sat down on the sofa. Ali could see that Beverly enjoyed what she was seeing. Her cousin's eyes were locked with Mitch's.
"Hum, fancy a drink?" Alicia said suddenly making Mitch and Beverly look up at her.
"A soda for me." Mitch said.
"A butterbeer for me." Beverly said.
Alicia bit her lip. Butterbeer wasn't a drink known by the muggles. Beverly froze as well as she realised her gaffe.
"Butterbeer, what's that?" Mitch asked amused.
"It's a drink Beverly and I invented," Ali lied.
"Really? Can I taste it?" Mitch asked.
"Sure." Alicia said, relieved that he had not noticed anything strange.
She began to walk towards the kitchen but then she realised she didn't like leaving her cousin alone with Mitch. Beverly was very popular with the guys in Hogwarts: they tended to fall easily under her charm. And Ali was not ready to share Mitch with anyone for the moment.
Alicia stopped in her track and turned to smile falsely at Beverly.
"Beverly, mind if you give me a hand with the drinks?" Alicia asked.
There was no way Beverly could get out of that one without seeming rude in front of Mitch. Graciously, she stood up and followed Alicia into the kitchen. Once they were sure Mitch couldn't hear them, they dropped the act.
"What were you thinking? Alicia hissed angrily, Mitch is a muggle. He's not supposed to know about butterbeer or anything else that is related to our world!"
"I'm sorry, Beverly whispered back, I hadn't realised you had muggle friends! And cute ones as well."
"Oh, do shut up."
Beverly laughed, as she poured butterbeer into three different glasses.
"You have some attractive neighbours! No wonder you're unhappy I'm here. I'm ruining your romantic holydays with the young muggle." Beverly teased.
"It's not at all like that, Alicia said blushing, Mitch is a really good friend."
"Does he have a girlfriend?" Beverly asked.
"I don't know! It doesn't matter." Alicia said. She knew what was behind Beverly's mind. She had felt this coming the moment Ginny told her Beverly was coming. Although Ali had never looked at Mitch this way she knew he was good-looking. Beverly was beautiful as well. They were both about from the same age. Ali knew it was completely normal for the two of them to get together. Things like that always happened. Two teenagers, both attractive and fun, were bound to like each other.
Then why did Ali have this ill feeling when she imagined Mitch and Beverly holding hands and kissing each other?
Quickly, before Beverly read her thoughts, Ali took the tray of glasses and walked briskly back to the living-room.
"Hum, this is absolutely delicious." Mitch said blind apparently from the look the two girls were exchanging.
Ali was aware she was acting as if Mitch was her own boyfriend. She had no right on him. He was free to go out with anyone he wanted. But Beverly?
Ali simply couldn't accept that.
As Beverly sat down next to Mitch and sipped at her own drink, Ali felt like smirking.
"This is war, Beverly." She whispered to herself.
She drank her butterbeer silently, already deep in her thoughts.
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That night Alicia couldn't find sleep. She couldn't help feeling that Beverly was awake as well in her own bed.
Alicia turned to look at Beverly's bed, right at the other end of the room.
"Beverly?" she whispered.
"What?" Her cousin croaked, she didn't sound in a mood to chat. But Alicia had to ask her.
"Are you planning to ask out Mitchell?" Alicia asked.
Beverly sat up and even in the dark Alicia could see her grin.
"Why do you ask me that?"
"I just wanted to know." Alicia mumbled.
Beverly raised her eyebrows. She could see the small shape of her cousin in the dark. For the first time Beverly wondered if Alicia was really the person she made people believe she was.
What if they had all been wrong about Alicia, and she was just a little girl like any other.
"How old are you?" Beverly asked.
"Nearly thirteen."
"Well, have you had any experience with guys?" Beverly asked. She had never talked about things like that with Alicia, and it seemed weird, but after all they were both growing up. Maybe it was time to forget the fact that Alicia used to burn Beverly's toys.
"No, I'm not interested in that." Alicia answered truthfully.
"Then, why are you asking me about Mitch?"
"He's my friend."
There was silence. Alicia remembered the night she had gone out on the street alone. Mitch had found her and they had talked for a while. Alicia had found Mitch annoying but she had confided in him, even she hadn't told him exactly what was bothering her.
From the beginning she had been able to talk to Mitch the way she couldn't talk to her family anymore. He was like a brother to her.
"Ali?" Beverly murmured.
"Yes?"
"You have changed a lot."
The two girls finally found sleep after that.
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Author's note : Okay, this chapter is a bit short but I really wanted to update now because I don't have the time later.
