Chapter 24: Not now

When Zoey, Echo and Bridgit reached Flourish and Blotts they were not surprised to see it filled with women around Mrs. Weasley's age trying to get upfront where Gilderoy Lockhart would be standing and signing copies of his books like "Magical Me" and what not. Zoey watched as Bridgit and Echo began to push through the crowed, she followed soon after.

"Calmly, lady's please… Don't push there… mind the books now….," a harassed looking wizard said by the door.

Zoey bit her lip as she once again squeezed her way through the crowd. She really didn't favor her visits to Diagon Alley when it was overly crowded. Zoey gasped when a witch jabbed her elbow at Zoey causing her to stumble. Zoey fell onto someone.

"You alright, love?"

Zoey looked up and saw Fred grinning down at her, his arms grabbing hold of her. He helped her stabilize herself before leading her towards the line. They sneaked up it and caught sight of the rest of the Weasleys, Grangers, Echo, Bridgit and Harry. Zoey watched as a breathless Mrs. Weasley began to pat her hair.

"That Lockhart bloke is going to sign books soon," Fred said in Zoey's ear as the women in the bookshop began to scream in excite.

Gilderoy Lockhart came into view and sat on a table filled with pictures of him, each giving the same pearly white smile. Zoey gave a shiver when the pictures all gave a wink.

"Forget-me-not-blue," Echo said from beside her.

Zoey looked at her questionably, "Pardon?"

"His robes, it's forget-me-not-blue, same as his eyes," Echo explained as she opened her new book and began to read it.

Bewildered, Zoey looked back at Lockhart but her attention was caught by a short, irritable man who was jumping all over the place taking pictures of Lockhart. The short man snarled at Ron and said that the pictures were for the Daily Prophet.

"Big deal…," Ron said, rubbing his foot.

Zoey watched as Lockhart turned to look at Ron but then caught sight of Harry. "It can't be Harry Potter?" Lockhart said jumping to his feet. Zoey began to feel sorry for Harry as the crowd parted and began to whisper excitedly. She felt Fred hold her closer to him as everyone drew their attention to the area where Harry was.

"I feel for you," Zoey mouthed to Harry as Lockhart shook his hand and began taking pictures with him saying things like "Together we'll make the front page" and "Nice big smile, Harry!" Zoey rolled her eyes at Lockhart's antics as he began to make a speech on giving Harry all of his books free of charge. She couldn't possibly see what the women found so dashing about Lockhart. He was just odd in Zoey's opinion.

Zoey watched as Harry staggered under the weight of all Lockhart's books. Harry walked away from the crowd and gave all his books to Ginny saying that he would buy his own.

"Leave him alone," Zoey heard Ginny say when a blonde boy, Draco Malfoy, began taunting Harry making comments like "You can't even go to a bookshop without making front page"

"Git," Zoey heard Fred say from behind her, his arms still holding onto her.

"Who's he?" Zoey whispered to Fred not wanting the blonde boy to hear her.

"Malfoy's son," Fred answered, "You know Malfoy right?"

"Yeah…," Zoey muttered as her eyes glazed over a bit, "I heard your dad mention him once or twice…He doesn't sound like a nice man."

"He isn't. That one there is his son, Draco. He's in Ron's –"

Fred stopped and Zoey stiffened when she heard Draco's comment. "Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley. I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those."

Zoey felt herself glare at the twelve-year-old boy. Mr. Weasley began to push through to crowd and struggled a bit with Fred and George. She watched as he began to have a conversation with a man that stood beside Draco, Mr. Lucius Malfoy. Zoey felt her eyes widen at the sight of the man.

"No…no… please leave me alone," Zoey sobbed as she felt a stinging pain on her right leg. She had once again not given her aunt the answers she needed.

"My, my, Damiana," a ruthless voice said from behind her aunt, "What have you got here?"

"My sister's daughter," Zoey's aunt, Damiana, said as she kicked her in the gut.

"P-please…help me…," Zoey mistakenly asked Lucius as tears flowed from her eyes.

Lucius mouthed formed a smirk as he looked down at the helpless girl. He drew out his wand.

"Obviously not," Lucius's voice brought Zoey back to reality, "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard world if they don't even pay you well for it?"

"We have a very different idea on what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," Mr. Weasley said.

"Clearly," Lucius said.

Zoey noticed Bridgit staring intently at the book in Lucius's hand. It was one of Ginny's. He then dropped the book back in Ginny's cauldron and Zoey heard an audible clank. Bridgit continued to stare at the book. Zoey tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Can it be…?" Zoey heard Lucius's voice very close to her. She turned her head and saw him standing near her his hand reaching towards her. She felt Fred's hold tighten and guessed he was glaring at Lucius. She shivered with discomfort when Lucius brought his hand to her face and then pushed her bangs back.

"Little Zoey….Damiana's favorite niece," Lucius said as he tilted her head from side to side taking a good look of her, "Tell me… how's your aunt these days?"

"A-abroad," Zoey stuttered out. She learned that you would pay a horrible price if you didn't answer his questions the hard way.

"I see…," Lucius said before turning back to Mr. Weasley, "The company you keep, Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower –"

Zoey gasped as Ginny's cauldron went flying and Mr. Weasley lunged at Lucius knocking him to a bookshelf making very heavy spell books fly to the air and falling back down onto many of their heads. One fell on Zoey's shoulder making her wince.

"Get him, Dad!" Zoey heard Fred and George cheer while Mrs. Weasley shrieked. Fred let his hold on Zoey go and she was pushed back by some of the crowd as they moved away from the fight. Zoey fell down when Hagrid entered the bookshop and lifted Mr. Weasley in one hand and Lucius with the other. She felt her shoulder throb as Lucius glare from Ginny shifted to her. She knew deep down he was going to report these events to her aunt and somehow turn it to her fault.

Zoey did not want to go home anytime soon.

"So who's this 'Damiana'?" Fred asked as he plopped himself down beside Zoey.

It was a cool summer day and Zoey found it nice to sit out outside somewhere in the middle of the garden. She had busied herself watching the gnomes pop out once in a while sometimes saying foul words she had a hunch Fred and George taught them.

"I thought you guys were suppose to de-gnome the garden," Zoey avoided his question, "There's still three or four left"

"They keep coming back. Dad won't mind, he thinks there hilarious," Fred said looking at one gnome that popped out of a bush only to return to another one.

"Your dad won't mind, but your mom would," Zoey said facing him. She knew what he came to her for. It was to continue their discussion the other day.

"I want you to know… I want you to know…," Zoey repeated over and over.

Fred watched as her shoulders began to shake. He knew that was a sign that she was trying to stop herself from crying. He rubbed the back of his neck as he took a step towards her.

"What do you want me to know, Zoe?" he asked her.

Zoey shook her head.

Fred sighed. He knew these signs. He watched the times Echo would put up a stubborn front when George would ask her what was wrong. He had experienced George asking him to leave so he would comfort her and get the answers from her in the end. Fred approached Zoey and sat by her side. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

Zoey stiffened at the touch and turned her head slightly to him, her hair still covering most of her face but Fred could still see her eyes. Her gray eyes looked haunted from beneath her thick brown hair. Fred brought his hand to her face and pushed her hair back.

"What do you want me to know, Zoe?" he repeated, "What aren't you telling me….Why aren't you telling me?"

"I-I can't," Zoey cried.

"You can't or you don't want to?" Fred asked as he kept his hand stationary at her face brushing away her tears that fell, "Just tell me…"

"It's not that easy!" Zoey gasped.

"What makes it hard?"

"Everything! I'm scared…scared that you…you guys will leave me when you know…," Zoey moved away from Fred

"I won't leave you," Fred said firmly approaching Zoey again.

Zoey looked at him disbelievingly

"I promise," Fred said, "I would never leave you"

Zoey bit her lip as more tears fell, "I'll hold you up that,"

"Mom won't care if there were still a gnome or two," Fred said with a shrug, "So who's Damiana?"

Zoey bit her lip as she looked down. She began to pluck the grass from the ground, "Never you mind," she said.

"Never you mind," Fred said in disbelief, "You know her, Malfoy knows her – He's acquainted with her. She can't be good"

"Your dad is acquainted with him and he's good," Zoey said.

"You've been hanging out Echo too much," Fred said on how Zoey was acting, "Malfoy hates dad. He hates blood-traitors. Last time I checked, you aren't one –"

"You don't know that," Zoey muttered under her breath but Fred heard her. Fred looked at her with wide eyes while Zoey looked at him with worried ones. She didn't think he would hear her. Her heart started to hammer against her chest she felt the box in her pocket start to warm up.

"Zoe-"

"No…no…D-Damiana… she's my aunt. She's… friends with Mr. Malfoy," Zoey stuttered out as she looked the other way. She didn't want to look at Fred right now.

"Friends? Who would want to be friends with that slimy git?"

"I thought the slimy git was Professor Snape?"

"Anyone in Slytherin is a slimy git," Fred said seriously, "Your aunt…if she's friends with Malfoy then-"

"She can't be good news," Zoey finished for him. Fred gave a nod. "You're right… she isn't. She's ruthless and uncaring. She would do anything to get what she wants."

"She sounds like a big ball of sunshine," Fred said sarcastically. Zoey licked her lips as she looked back at him. Her eyes found his and she saw that he wanted to know everything. She felt a guilty feeling at the pit of her stomach because she couldn't answer all his questions. Not now. She couldn't tell him everything.

"You don't know the half of it," Zoey whispered. An impulse happened. Zoey didn't know what she was doing but it was too late to do anything about it. Her hand reached up to the sleeve of her robes and pushed it up showing Fred the scar that she got when she was splinched.

Fred's eyes widened at the sight. The scar on Zoey's arm was long and was easily shown for it was a bit darker than her pale skin. The scar started at her elbow and twisted a bit until it reached a few centimeters from her wrist. Fred felt a bubbling anger in his stomach.

"She did that to you?" Fred asked in anger as he brought her arm closer to his face to look at the scar.

"Not really… I was splinched when she used side-along apparition," Zoey said in a whisper. She couldn't hide that part of her life anymore. She figured sooner or later someone would have seen it.

"What else did she do?" Fred's eyebrows furrowed as he lowered Zoey's arm back to her side.
Zoey shook her head.

"You can't tell me that's the only thing she did!" Fred yelled but Zoey brought her hands to his mouth.

"Please… don't," she pleaded, "She did other things…. Some worse than this…," she pointed to her arm.

"What else did she do?" Fred repeated as he tried to even out his voice.

Zoey felt tears in her eyes as she shook her head.

"Zoe, you have to tell me. If not me, mom or dad or the minister of magic! This has to be stopped!"

"It can't be stopped!" Zoey cried, "She had connections. Whoever I'll report it too nothing would stop her. She'll be to weasel herself out of anything. If she's best mates with Mr. Malfoy then obviously she's on good terms with the minister as well!

"I can't tell your parents either. Mrs. Weasley is already getting suspicious….," Zoey whispered.

"Does Echo know?" Fred said with a gentler tone

"No… you're the only one… you can't tell anyone…please Fred, I'm begging you!" Zoey said as she grabbed hold of Fred's shirt looking at him pleadingly in the eye.

"If I'm the only one who knows can you at least tell me what else Damiana has done?" Fred asked.

"I can't," Zoey said as her grip loosened

"Why not?" Fred felt his anger rising again.

"It's not that easy! I'll tell you…someday… just not now… I've said too much," Zoey said in a soft voice as she wiped away her tears. Fred brought his hand to her face and wiped her tears for her. He stationed his hand at the side of her neck and brought his face closer to hers.

Zoey felt like he was about to kiss her again but Fred didn't he moved his face to her ear and whispered, "You can tell me anything….I would never leave you"

Zoey felt a fresh batch of tears form in her eyes and let some tears fall.

You don't know that

She thought to herself.

My garsh! I got to stop with the angst or I might have to change the genre of the story but then this isn't all angst now is it?

Anyway, Zoey had shared a little bit of her past to Fred now and he wants to know more. He wants to help her. Will she let him? Stay tuned

And here, we learn Zoey's aunts name, "Damiana". Now how did I come up with the name? Well I was
searching one of those name meaning websites and came across the letter D's and found it! It said "Damiana: Feminine form of Damian, meaning "to tame, to subdue" and to euphamistically "to kill"."

So yeah...

Anywho, next chapter is going to be when they're in Hogwarts already and for a little sneak peak for any chapter within their 4th year for a mega Fred and Zoey moment! :D

I would like to thank all of you for your awesome reviews, questions, suggestions and offers for help. Really, I love you guys :D

Now, in here you have seen what had happened in the previous chapter, hope that was good enough to fill up your belly of curiosity.

What?

Okay, I'm getting weird. I must be tired!

Don't forget to review or ask questions!

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