Hey again, I think I'm going to add a small Author's break before every chapter now, just because I can. Anyway I got a message asking what Samira's mom and dad look like. Well for people that want to know. Her mom looks like Jewel Staite, for people who don't know her, she's the girl that plays Kelee from Firefly. Except that her hair is black and curly(of coarse) her father looks like Peter Facinelli, he's playing Carlisle (I think I spelt that right.) in the upcoming twilight movie, he also played in fast lane. That's what he looks like, brown hair and a small goatee. So that's for my readers, sorry for the long Author's break, thanks for reading this far, it's almost over. SNB
Chapter 14
Samira woke up in Lupin's home. She had arrived a day after the Christmas party at Slughorn's and dreaded the weekend she had to spend over at the Weasley's the next day.
She walked down the stairs to see Lupin eating breakfast drinking a cup of coffee, and reading the daily prophet. "oh," he put down the paper and looked at her as she made her way into the kitchen. "did you have a good night?"
"it was nice, though it was a bit noisy."
"yes, I apologize for that. The town's very lively during the holidays."
She sat across from him and started to eat some French toast.
"I heard you found your mother." he said.
"yes, Tonks helped me. She found her, but didn't know if it was her."
"well that was very nice of her." he turned back to the newspaper.
"what's going on between you two?" she asked. "I started to notice it the last time we were at the burrow."
"it's nothing that you would be interested in." he took another drink of his coffee. "when you're done, we'll travel to Kells and look over that flat."
She quickly finished her breakfast and ran upstairs and got dressed. Audrey was sitting in his new cage and looked up at her.
"sorry boy, you can't come with me today. Maybe next time." she promised and headed back down stairs.
"ready to go?" Lupin handed her a coat and opened the door for her. "we're going to take a train and then a short boat ride. It's to cold to fly on broom."
The train ride was nothing compared to the Hogwarts express. Muggles were everywhere, so Lupin and her had to watch what they said to each other. There was a small child crying next to Samira in the next aisle. The kid was about six, and his mother didn't know how to quiet him down.
"do you want to hear a story?" Samira asked him.
The kid quieted a bit as he nodded.
"you have to promise to be quiet though." she put her finger over her mouth in a shushing motion. The boy became quiet. The mother looked at her and mouthed 'thank you'.
"what's your name?" she asked him.
"Bradley."
"well Bradley, do you like magic?"
He nodded.
"well do I have a story for you." she went on about the adventures about Harry Potter that she read about in the daily prophet and some that she heard from her friends. Lupin quietly laughed next to her as the boy stared wide eyed at her as she went on telling the story.
"it isn't true though." he said as she finished one of many of her stories.
"not true? They're all true. But." she leaned in so that she could whispered in his ear. "you can't repeat these stories to anyone."
"why?"
"because the witches and wizards live in secret, if you tell someone then they'd disappear."
"then why'd you tell me?"
"can I be honest with you?"
He nodded.
"I'm a witch, and I saw something in you that I could trust."
"really?"
"yeah, but you have to promise to be good, or else other witches and wizards won't tell you their stories."
"alright." he sat up in his seat and stayed quiet for the rest of the train ride.
"you're really good with kids." Lupin whispered to her as she leaned back in her seat.
"yeah I guess, it just comes naturally."
After the train stopped the mother walked up to Samira and gave her a small ten dollar bill.
"oh no I couldn't." she said giving the money back to her.
"please, it's the least I could. I've been trying to get him to behave for a while now. Please except this as a thank you."
She hesitantly took the money.
Bradley came up to her again. "can you tell me more stories?"
She knelt down to his level. "I can't, I have to go my home." she gave him a smile. "but remember what I said, if you're good there will be another witch that will see you and tell you stories. You promise to be good?"
He nodded and took his mom's hand and left in the opposite way.
The boat ride wasn't as great as the train ride, there wasn't any kid that needed a story told to them, but they were soon at Ireland.
"I'll go rent a car." Lupin left her momentarily. She waited when she heard a familiar voice.
"Samira? What are you doing here?"
"Seamus? I could ask you the same." she hugged him.
"I'm here to see my grandparents. You?"
"I'm here to see that flat my dad left me."
"the one in Kells?"
She nodded. He looked back behind him as someone yelled his name. "well I'll see you at school after break."
"yeah, see you then."
Lupin came up to him. "was that Seamus Finnigan?"
"yeah."
"charming boy," he said. "couldn't quiet do a spell that resulted without an explosion though."
She laughed as she remembered him telling stories in the great hall. "you got the car?"
He held up the keys and they headed for the parking lot.
Kells was a small town, a few markets and pubs lined the roads and people waked down the street with presents in their arms.
"looks like a nice place." Lupin said as he parked his car on the side of the road. "and the flat should be…" he looked at a piece of paper. "on the second floor here." he pointed to a small shop next to the car. The shop was a small café. They both got out of the car and went inside the warm building.
"hello, can I help you two?" a young girl asked.
"um yes, we're here to look at a flat." Lupin handed her the piece of paper.
"oh yeah, we've been wondering when you'd get here. My name's Corinne" she went into the back and came back out to the front without her apron on. "follow me." she lead them to a door on the other side of the backroom entrance. She lead them up the stairs and into the second floor. "there's three other people living here too." she pointed to two doors on the right. "my mum and me live here and the owner lives on the far end, so if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask us." she opened the door to the flat. The living room was a little small and it was connected to the kitchen. "you have your dining quarters here, um, in the back..." she walked over to a door that was on the right of the living room. "is the bedroom, and the bathroom is connected to it."Samira entered the bedroom, it was big enough for all her things. "I like it here." she said.
"when can we expect you to move in?"
Samira looked over at Lupin. "I think this summer? But I have to go back to school for another year so I'm not going to stay long during the break."
"that's fine, I know how school is." she looked around the room. "so do you two want to look around the place some more?"
"um no thanks, I think we've seen enough." Samira walked over to Lupin. " you think we can go and see dad's grave while we're here?"
Samira stood over her father's grave, it was almost covered by snow now and dead grass hid his name. "is anyone looking Lupin?"
He looked around him. "I don't think so."
She took out her wand and waved it over the grave the grass weeded itself and the snow melted around it. "hey dad." she said. "it's good to see you again." she knelt by his grave stone and touched it with her bare hand. Lupin walked to the gate entrance to give Samira some time alone.
"school's been ok I guess, I've made lots of friends." she laughed. "I have a job at a joke shop. The owners are really funny twins, though they sometimes try to flirt with me, don't worry they fail miserably." she nodded her head. "yeah, um, I found mom." she moved her hand over the engraved name. "she explained everything to me, why you had to lie to me and all, and I understand why you couldn't tell me anything. But why did you hide the fact that I'm half werewolf?" she paused. "I don't think you can imagine the shock I had when I passed out at Lupin's house." she smiled again. "but I guess that was part of the secret you couldn't tell me." she paused again. "Merlin, I miss you dad. I'm going to live in the flat you gave me. And then I'm going to become a writer." she looked over at Lupin. "I have to go dad, but I'll come back when it's warmer, ok?" she patted the top of the headstone before she left and then headed over to Lupin.
"you're ready to go?" Lupin asked.
"yeah." her eyes started to tear.
Lupin put an arm around her. Her wrapped her arms around his waist. He brushed the back of her hair as she cried a little more. She parted a few minutes later, she wiped hr eyes dry and sniffled the rest of the time as they headed back to the car.
The burrow was warm on the Christmas eve day. Samira woke up in Ginny's room and headed down to the living room. She had to share the room with Hermione and Ginny, and with those two together the chatter didn't stop. She didn't get to bed until two in the morning. She got dressed quickly and headed downstairs.
The kitchen was empty except for Mrs. Weasley, as mostly everyone was outside. Samira saw that Bill, Fleur and Lupin were sitting in the living room, Lupin sat in a chair reading while the two lovebirds lounged on the couch.
She snuck out the backdoor through the kitchen to see that most of the Weasley kids were doing outside. The twins were throwing snowballs at Ron and Harry, while Ginny and Hermione sat in the snow covered garden.
"hey Samira. You want to help pelt Ronald with snowballs?" Fred asked.
"no thanks, think I'll just watch." she turned to where the girls sat, then a snow ball hit the back of her head. She froze as the cold snow ball started melting and trickled cold water down her coat. she slowly turned to the boys, trying not to laugh, "ok, which one of you did that?"
"he did!" the twins said in unison, pointing to the other.
She gave a smile towards the both of them as she knelt down and started packing snow into a ball.
"you wouldn't." Fred said. "you couldn't possibly think about taking on us in snow ball fight."
"oh really?" she asked sarcastically, as she threw the ball and hit Fred in the stomach.
"this is war!" he yelled as he started to pack more snow.
Samira did the same and not long after her the twins, Ron and Harry were in a snow ball fight. During the fight she lost direction and ran into George, she fell to the ground.
"I'm sorry." she laughed, then froze as she looked up at him.
He held out his hand. "are you ok?"
She reached up and took his hand. "yeah, just covered in snow that's all."
Once she was up they held hands for a moment longer than necessary.
"hey you two!" Ron yelled. "mom's telling us to come in."
They parted quickly and started walking towards the house. Fred waited up for them, and looked at them in a confused way. They didn't look at each other, most of the time they looked in opposite directions.
That night was pretty quiet. Mrs. Weasley had everyone listened to Celestina Warbeck, Samira saw Lupin look at the fire in the fireplace, Mr. Weasley was nodding off to sleep, Ron was watching Fleur and Bill, probably thinking about Lavender the whole time.
"hey Samira? You want to play Exploding Snap?" Fred asked.
"sure. How do you play?"
After he explained, they began to play with Ginny, Hermione, and George. They laughed quietly as Mrs. Weasley already had the volume on the radio up as loud as she could get it.
Samira accidentally bumped elbows with George, he froze and dropped the Exploding Snap.
"you lose George." laughed Ginny. "Hermione it's your turn."
Fred looked across the side of Samira over at his brother and mouthed something to him.
Harry started to talk to Lupin, Samira was glad, she was afraid that Lupin wouldn't have fun while he was here.
Fleur started mimicking the song that was playing.
"I think that's our cue to go to bed." Fred whispered.
"why?" Samira asked.
They all pointed to their mother.
"oh," Samira saw Mrs. Weasley glaring at Fleur. "bed sounds good right about now. "she faked a small yawn.
They kids started to head upstairs. "hey Samira can I talk to you?" Fred asked as they were out of earshot of the adults.
"sure." she smiled.
They went into a desolate hallway near the stairs going up to the attic. "what's up with you and George?" he asked.
"what are you talking about?" she tried to fake a laugh.
"you two have been acting strange around each other. So what's up?"
"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about?"
"if I ask George, will he say the same thing?"
Her smile faded. "I don't know."
"just tell me what happened. Is it bad?"
She looked down and muttered under her breath.
"what did you say?" Fred bent down to hear her more clearly.
"her kissed me." she whispered.
"he did?" he said. "about bloody time." he muttered.
"what?"
"nothing." he smiled. "Listen I think you should kiss him back." he shrugged casually. "even the score a bit, and maybe you'll feel something."
"I don't know, it's awkward enough as it is." Samira started walking to Ginny's room.
"I just don't want to see you two like this, it's sad." Fred went down the hallway and disappeared behind the doorway.
She entered Ginny's room to find that they two girls were up still.
"hey Samira. Me and Hermione were wondering. If you still had that vial of Amortentia."
"I just want to check something." Hermione said quickly.
"um yeah, I never go anywhere without it." she made her way to her backpack. " never know when someone's going to give you a good deal for it. You should've heard the offers just before Slughorn's party." she pulled out the vial. Then it struck her.
She passed the vial to the two girls, Ginny uncorked it and took a small sniff of the potion.
"well?" Hermione asked.
"my likes haven't changed yet." she shrugged as she passed it to Hermione.
She took a sniff of it.
"well?" Ginny asked in a small teasing tone.
"the smell I dreaded is stronger now." she whined.
"is that bad?" Samira asked.
"in my case, yes."
Hermione gave the vial to Samira. "you know." Hermione began. "I never knew what you liked when you smelt Amortentia."
She sniffed in the potion's fumes. "I smell, my father's old pipe. The smell of freshly fallen rain and." she paused. She smelled something that was so familiar, she corked the bottle and quickly ran out the room.
"where re you going? Mum's going to do sleep inspections soon?" Ginny called after her.
Samira ran back to the door. "I'll be back, I just need to check something."
She knocked on the twins' door.
Fred answered the door. "hey Samira what're--"
"I need to talk to George." she said quickly.
"about time you two straighten this out." he said. "is mum doing sleeping inspections?"
"not yet."
"alright." he disappeared in the dark room, there was movement from inside.
Samira fidgeted with her clothes then she straightened as she saw George. "you wanted to talk?"
"yes, I feel like what happened at Slughorn's party was--"
"I know, I'm so sorry, it won't happen again. I didn't know what came over me."
"well… then I guess that's that."
"yep."
They stood in silence for a few awkward moments.
"well I got to go before your mom sees me, but I'm glad we sorted this out."
"me too." He hugged her.
She took a small sniff off him.
"I'll see you tomorrow." George parted and closed the door.
"oh shit." she said quietly to herself.
She didn't get a wink of sleep that night. She kept thinking the same thing over and over in her head.
If the potion says I like him, then deep down in my subconscious I really do.
She thought about the night at the Christmas party. Why can't I remember what I was feeling then?
she thought about today outside, and tonight in the living room. I'm fucked. Why did this have to happen to me? Why did I have to fall in love with not only my friend, but my boss?
Ginny shook her awake. "merry Christmas Samira!" she cheered.
Samira at up in bed and saw a packed stocking at her feet. She opened it to see that the twins gave her a few new products from Fred's store that she didn't see before. Ron gave her a few boxes of Bert's and Bott's every flavor beans. She laughed to herself as she unwrapped those.
Mrs. Weasley had knitted her a nice blue sweater, it was striped horizontally with darker blue. Which Samira quickly put on, a perfect fit.
They moved to the kitchen where they joined by everyone, all were wearing their own sweaters. Samira smiled as she saw George and Fred's sweaters. Mrs. Weasley showed off the gifts that her twin sons gave her. George said how much they came to appreciate her after living on their own.
A moment later a gravy boat was flying in the air.
"you're as bad as zat Tonks." Fleur said. "she's always knocking--"
"I invited dear Tonks to come along today." Mrs. Weasley said.
Samira grinned. Oh how she wished to see her again.
"but she couldn't come. Have you spoken to her lately Remus?" she asked Lupin.
"no, I haven't been in contact with anyone very much, well other than Samira." Lupin said. "but Tonks has got her own family to go to, hasn't she?"
"maybe. I got the impression she was planning to spend Christmas alone, actually." she gave a look towards Lupin.
Samira excused herself from the table after finishing her breakfast. She didn't feel like staying around while the Weasleys said hello to their son Percy who came in shortly afterwards with the minister.
She went upstairs and sat on her bed. She got dressed out of her pajama bottoms and into some comfortable jeans.
"hey." Ginny knocked on the door as she stuck her head in the room. "some of us were thinking about going into town, you want to come?"
"yeah I'll be there in a sec." she turned back to her bag, she pulled her hair into a ponytail and headed down stairs.
Everyone was already outside. "so where are we going?" she asked Fred.
"anywhere that's away from that prat." he motioned to the house.
The walk to town was loud, as the twins resumed their snow ball fight. Samira chose to sit out of that one, and laughed on the sidelines as Ron was hit right in the face by Fred. Ron fell to the ground.
"are you alright?" Fred sounded genuinely worried.
Ron shot up and nailed him in the face as well. "take that!" he yelled.
They stopped their game as they entered a small bookstore. It was completely deserted as they walked the aisles of dusty books. The counter girl smiled at the twins as they came up to her. "hi guys. How's your holiday?" she giggled.
"never been better." George said.
Samira looked away and looked over the shelves of books. She didn't really care about any of the books. She walked back to the lobby like clearing, there she saw a sight she wished she never saw. George was kissing the counter girl. Her eyes grew wide, and she felt her feet move by themselves out the door. She ran down the street.
"Samira?!" Ron ran after her, finally he caught up with her. "are you alright?"
She nodded. "yeah, you know I don't feel to good, I think that maybe I'm getting sick or something, I'm just going to head back early."
"do you need someone to come with you?"
"no. I'm perfectly fine." she started walking back to the burrow.
It was the first week after the Christmas break and Samira had to work at the shop alone with George. Claire had come down with a fever and was in the hospital wing.
Samira was still upset about what she saw at the bookstore and didn't really talk to George like she used to. Even when they made new potions.
But today was different, because today the last person that she wanted to see entered the store.
"hey mudblood." Draco greeted.
"can I help you with something?"
"no, I'm just looking." he stared at the shelves. Samira sat back behind the counter and waited for him to be gone.
"you look horrible. Are you sick?" Draco asked.
Before she answered he spoke again. "or did you look in the mirror?"
"I don't have time for you're crap right now, are you're going to buy something or not?"
"testy much?"
She glared at him.
"fine, I'll take a few of these." he put a couple of fanged Frisbees on the counter.
"that's sixteen sickles each."
He gave her the coins and started to head out the door. "you know." he turned to her. "there's a rumor going around that you and George Weasley got together before Christmas."
"they're just rumors." she looked down.
"that's what I thought." he grinned. "because it would look pretty bad if you lowered your expectations."
"what do you mean?"
"I mean that you dating Longbottom wasn't that bad. But you dating a Weasley is worst." he laughed.
"take that back! George is amazing, he's a hundred times the man you'll ever be!"
"sounds like you love him." he teased.
"well maybe I do!" the words came out of her mouth before she knew it. Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth.
Draco had a smug face. "like I said, you lowered your expectations." he left the store.
Samira's eyes started to tear, she kicked the inside of the counter. She her face in her hands as she started to cry again.
"are you alright?" George came out from the backroom, "I heard screaming."
"how much did you hear?" she quietly asked with out looking up at him.
"everything."
Her head shot up, her eyes widened even more. She ran into the backroom, almost hitting George on her way there, and threw her robe off.
"where are you going?" he asked.
"just leave me alone George." she sat on the steps that lead to the flat. "I don't want to talk to you right now."
"well that's too bad, we're going to." George sat next to her. "what happened to you? After Christmas you don't talk to me and when you look at me you have this distance look on your face."
"you probably wouldn't remember even if I told you."
"try me."
"I saw you with her." she started to tear up again.
"with who?"
"the girl from the bookstore!" she yelled. "it was Christmas day, and we all went to town to get away, that's when saw you and the counter girl snogging." she buried her head in her arms.
She could feel George lean back. She heard him laughing.
"I don't think this is quite funny." she sniffed.
"no, that's not why I'm laughing." he put his arm around her. "I didn't kiss her."
"yes you did, I saw you." she looked at him.
"no, I didn't." he gave a warm smile. "I went with Ginny to find a book from Dean, Fred stayed with the counter girl. Fred kissed her."
"do you honestly think that I would fall that?"
"ask her." George said. "she's at the three broomsticks."
"fine!" she said as she dabbed her eyes dry so that they weren't red and puffy.
She stormed out of the shop and headed to the three broomsticks. She found Ginny quickly and pulled her to the side. "Ginny, I need you to tell me something."
"anything what?"
"during Christmas, when we were at the book store did George help you find a book for Dean?"
"yeah, he helped a lot. Dean loved the book." she smiled. "why?"
"I got to go." Samira said almost out the door. "I just made a horrible mistake."
She entered the joke shop slowly, George was sitting at the counter. "I told you." he smiled. "I didn't kiss her."
"remind me to kill Fred the next time I see me." she said.
He gave a small laugh. "I'll be sure to do that." he got up and stood in front of Samira. "is what you yelled at Draco true?"
She looked down. "every word." Her heart beat a thousand beats a minute.
He put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. She slowly did the same. he kissed the top of her head, then to her forehead. Samira lifted her head a little. He moved his hands to the sides of her face. He looked into her eyes. He kissed both her cheeks, one at a time, each time he would part from her skin he would make eye contact with her again. He kissed her nose and then, her lips. She closed her eyes and big tears rolled down her face. He parted and looked at her. "I don't' want to make you cry again." he brushed her tears away with his thumb.
She gave a small smile and leaned in and kissed him herself.