Chapter 29: Bogs, Battle Wounds, and Bad News
A/N: Got a few queries regarding how soon I'll be able to update- somebody worriedly asked 'not once a month, right?' Have no fear! I'm thinking probably about twice a week, and as I keep saying, I'm nearly finished anyway! Mwahh…
BUT
For those who want to partition:
1. Story about the next few years afterwards, careers, marriages, kids etc…
2. A collection of stories about the second generation at Hogwarts- what they're like, who they'll date etc…
3. AND/OR 'The Girl who loved Tom Riddle' which is so interesting, I think I'll do it anyway.
.o0o.
To everybody's relief, Percy had finally left the building, and with Bill, Fleur and the baby back at the cottage and Charlie back in Romania, things felt like a breath of fresh air in the Burrow, if a little empty. George hadn't come back, so it was just the four of them when Mr and Mrs Weasley weren't around. Harry had never known it so quiet and peaceful.
Not that it was always like that with Hermione around, buried under mountains of homework and revision.
"She doesn't stop, does she?" Ron rubbed his head in frustration, watching her scribble away.
"Nope," Harry grinned. "We're going to see Teddy again Ron, want to join?" He asked it knowing what the answer would be.
Ron scowled. "Funny, Harry, really."
"Well, more so than watching Hermione work."
Ron groaned, but when Harry closed the door, he fetched out his own textbook at began to flick through it, if only to make Hermione happy.
Teddy had learnt a new trick that Andromeda proudly presented to them upon his arrival. "It's Harry, Teddy, Harry." She said. "Do 'Harry' Teddy."
"Habby!" Teddy cried, scrunching up his face in amusement. He shook his head from side to side, cheeks wobbling as though he was sneezing, and when he stood still, his eyes had turned bright green and his hair was black and untidy.
"He's turned into you, Harry!" Laughed Ginny ecstatically, "How cute! Look, he's even got your scar…"
"Gibby!" Teddy's face began to wobble again. A second later, he had long red hair and brown eyes. He looked pretty ridiculous, but amusing nonetheless.
Harry and Ginny couldn't contain themselves.
"Clever boy, Ted- well done!" Harry picked him up and swirled him around, "Can you do Teddy now, just Teddy?"
Teddy grinned, and turned back to his usual self.
"There, that's my-" he was going to say 'boy' but stopped, glancing at Ginny briefly, but she wasn't looking."
"Oh, his so clever, Andromeda, really. You must be proud."
She laughed. "I am," she smiled, "and so should you be!"
They had lunch, the four of them together, at Andromeda's house and them took Teddy on another walk. He was getting really fast, a handful to look after, but loveable as ever.
"He was so cute with baby Victoire, wasn't he?" Said Ginny.
"Positively adorable!" Andromeda beamed. "Such a shame about their age, it would be lovely to see them at Hogwarts together!"
"I wonder what house he'll be in?" Harry thought aloud. "Impressive lineage- Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor- Ted was in Hufflepuff, wasn't he?"
"Yes- you can imagine the scandal, me running away with a Muggle-born Hufflepuff, can't you?" She laughed, ruffling Teddy's hair. "You're grandpa was a very brave man… marrying me and all. Perhaps you'll be in Ravenclaw, Teddy love, make us even weirder?"
Teddy looked at her as though she were mad, then grinned at Harry and Ginny cheekily. "Vic-wor!" He laughed suddenly, his hair and eyes changing. "Vic-wor, vic-wor!"
"Molly's invited me over for tea next week, and Fleur's bringing Victoire up to socialise," Andromeda continued, giving her grandson a kiss. "It was so nice of her, really. I do like dear Molly."
Ginny and Harry's hands caught under the table and they smiled, knowing what the other was thinking. Not only had Harry become part of the Weasley family, but it looked like Teddy and Andromeda had too.
.o0o.
"George," Teatrina was balanced on one of the many stone platforms she'd transfigured out of the walls and floors of the flooded dungeon, dotted about like stepping stones. Beneath her, thick, murky green bubbles punctured the muddy surface of the bog, where the stone floor used to be. It was their second day of working on it, still to no avail. Before long, the students would be pouring back to Hogwarts.
George looked over and grinned. "Yes, 'Trina?" Despite her frequent use of his first name, George never called her anything other than 'Trina' now, and he had the faintest suspicion she liked it.
"I wasn't always a good girl, you know."
George frowned. "You're good? As far as I know, the school rule is don't hex people in the corridors, not do."
"Haha, very funny. I mean, I've always been very clever, and being McGonagall's granddaughter, I always got away with a lot. I was quite the prankster in my first year."
"Figures."
"George, please, I'm trying to be open."
"Sorry- go on."
"Anyway- I started to feel guilty because others would get into trouble when I didn't. Some didn't mind… these red-haired boys in my second year, for instance, they were the worst…"
"I get the point."
"So I stopped. Concentrated on my studies and nothing else. Nothing else. I was one of the few who went home for Christmas instead of staying for the Yule ball."
"Shame, I was missing a dance partner."
"George!"
"Sorry, sorry- go on."
"So, I've never been social. At all. Really. I quit Quidditch after a few years too, and when I left Hogwarts, all that I had were good grades and a prefect badge. And then there's you- you, who left a bloody swamp here. I can't help thinking I'd preferred to have done that now."
"You can leave something this time, look-" he waved his wand, sparks darted dark as paint along the stone wall: Trina & George. He looked like he wanted to write something else too, but thought the better of it.
Teatrina smiled. "George, we can't do that."
"Why not? Public place, really."
"It's a castle, George, and we're teachers."
"So? Why do we always have to set a good example? It's silly."
"Yeah, you've always had a certain disregard for rules."
"You just said you did too!"
Teatrina rolled her eyes. "I'll find something else."
For a moment, the two of them set back to work, examaning what they could with still no more answers. Teatrina broke the silence again.
"Tell me something about yourself- something I don't know."
"Why?" He grinned curiously.
"To pass time. Just answer the question."
"I hate sprouts."
She groaned. "Who doesn't? Say something else."
"Your turn."
"My turn?" she shrieked, "Fine. I hate peanuts."
"This could take a while if we go like this." He chuckled. "All right then. I… I think you're a lot nicer than most people do." There was a quiver in his voice as he said this, and he quickly looked away.
"And I think you're annoying."
"I am annoying- new fact, please."
She blushed. "In a ridiculously cute way, of course."
"'Trina-"
"I'm an orphan." She said hastily. "I had a sister, but she died. Two years ago."
"I'm sorry," George was silent for a moment. "Older or younger?"
"Older." She said bluntly, "But only a year… we were more than sisters. And I still miss her. That's something not even Gran knows."
"I'm sorry," he repeated.
"You, of all people, shouldn't be. I should be saying that to you."
Another mournful silence passed. "What was her name?"
"Aikaterine," she paused. "Aika. Aika and Andy, we were- like... well, never mind. It's hard, isn't it?"
George nodded but did not look at her.
"I mean, maybe not so hard for me… but then, maybe harder. She was all I had left- except my grandma and my cousins, of course, but it's different. I know she wasn't my twin, she was just my sister, but we were so close- and always together, just the two of us. And when she died…" she made a silent, painful expression, "It was like part of me had gone too. Do you… do you ever talk to Fred?"
He nodded slowly, with his name hitting him like a stab in the chest. Everyone had been so careful not to mention his name, not to look at him with pained expressions, so cautious of nearly calling him Fred. Yet, the as the pain began to ease, he felt better. He hadn't spoken about Fred to anyone –anyone- since the funeral, yet here he was, opening up to Trina, a stranger- well, hardly, he corrected himself. She'd certainly kept him busy over the past months, mind more focused, and she made him laugh. Not in the same way that Fred had, but in a different way altogether. And George knew that at that moment, just like they'd never be another Fred for him, they'd never be another Trina.
He looked her straight in the eyes and told her, yes. "Habit, really. You can't help it. I turn around, expecting him to be there, and he never is. I say something, expecting him to finish it of. I laugh, and there's no one laughing with me. I felt so empty, everything so quiet. We lost so much in the war, but I –and I know I'm not the only one, but all the same, I feel like I'm the only one- I lost a part of myself. And I'm not talking about an ear, either." He added with a chuckle, as though it were funny.
But Teatrina did not laugh. She pointed her wand at the wall wordlessly, and her platform slid across the hall towards George. She jumped off, landing in a flurry of green, and knelt down next to him. Then, not really sure what she was doing, she moved away the hair near where his ear should have been. You couldn't see anything usually, and she'd barely noticed. Still unaware, she skimmed her hand over the hole, and his other ear, his face in her hands, and whispered something with a slight smile on her face like 'battle wound.'
"Do you worry about it? Missing an ear, I mean?" She squeezed the other one playfully. "Because I barely noticed."
"I'd rather have one that not, but it hardly matters, does it? A mere battle wound." He added dramatically. As a matter of fact, he was more self-conscious than he let on, something he only ever shared with one person who promptly told him it didn't matter. George hadn't believed him at the time, prepared for lots of jests and hushed remarks, but he'd just realised that Fred had been right, and here was one person –one person he desired the opinion of- who didn't care in the slightest.
"I did worry a bit," he continued. "I mean, I'm not shy, but I did care what others would think- every time they looked at me."
Then Teatrina did something that neither of them were expecting, that made George blush more than he ever thought possible. George, who could do the most embarrassing things in the world, pale as ever, never batting an eyelid. Teatrina moved away her hand, and kissed his cheek, her lips remaining there for a second too long. When she drew back, there was a thin smile on her face.
"I was never very outgoing," she told him, as though this were explaining everything. "I never had many friends."
"I was fairly outgoing," he replied, "never very good with the girls, mind."
"George-" Teatrina's face was inches from this, "I think-"
There was a loud noise like a deflating balloon followed by a fast gulping sound. The two of them looked at each other for a moment.
"What on-"
"We're sinking!"
The platform they were standing on begun to reside into the floor. With catlike agility, Teatrina leapt back onto her platform, George diving in the opposite direction. They watched the stone disappear like a sinking ship, then looked back at one another before falling apart laughing.
"So," said Teatrina after she caught her breath, "you made a swamp. Brilliant idea, George."
"Thanks. We thought so too."
"Shame it's gone haywire and destroyed half the dungeon."
"I still maintain that a Death Eater cursed it."
It took them nearly as long to stop laughing at it did to figure out a solution. Whatever the cause, it was a lengthly process involving several shield spells, transfigurations spells, and the aid of many of the other teachers to finally clean the mess up and get it back into working order. Professor Flitwick sadly advised getting rid of the whole thing, just in case it should happen again, but left George alone to dwell on it.
"Is it really that unsafe?" he asked Teatrina for the umpteenth time.
"I'm afraid so. If this happened while the students were around, and worse…"
"It's just, it's our mark, you know? I don't want to get rid of it if I don't have to. But I don't want it to be dangerous. He wouldn't want it to be dangerous either."
Teatrina placed a hand on his shoulder gingerly and squeezed it, as though she understood. Suddenly, something sparked in her eyes.
"I have an idea!" she said.
With a bit of complicated wand work, Teatrina began to shrink the remainder of the swamp until it was no more than a miniature, small enough to fit on a tray. She froze it, and George watched on as she proceeded to transfigure the stone floor beneath it, making it rise as though on a podium. Eventually, it rested just above waist-height, looking like a slightly deranged sculpture.
"A momento," she explained, "of sorts. It's not quite the same, but-"
Teatrina didn't get the chance to say much more, because George had thrown his arms around her and held her in tight embrace. For a moment, Teatrina stiffened, but quickly melted again, giving him an awkward pat on the back.
"Can we please get back to hexing each other now?" she asked uncomfortably.
George laughed, drawing away. "Not yet, 'Trina. We'll be naughty later if you want."
"Haha."
George drew out his wand and instinctively, Teatrina whipped out hers. George chuckled.
"You're safe, don't your knickers in a twist."
Teatrina scowled at George as he began to trace his wand along the stone, cutting in an engraving. It made a horrible sound, like chalk on backboards. He got extremely frustrated at one point, whereupon she took his hand and tilted his wand.
"It'll cut better like this." She told him.
He nodded, but her hand didn't leave his until he'd finished.
In Memory of Fred Weasley, brother, son &. The cause many jokes and the source of much trouble. To which we dedicate his own creation, in the hope he may inspire others to misbehave.
When George had finished carving out these words, tears were rolling silently down his cheeks. Teatrina looked up, and then away, wondering if she was supposed to see them.
"Do you… want me to go away?" She asked politely.
"I really, really wish you'd stay. But stop being so polite," he added. "I've just wrestled a giant spider into your room."
.o0o.
The rest of the holidays would have continued seamlessly, were it not for Harry and Ginny returning to the Burrow one evening to find the place screaming with angry French shouting and baby cries. Picking up their pace, the two them ran into the kitchen. Baby Victoire was in Fleur's arms, but she was making no effort to comfort her. She was shouting something at Bill in rapid French, which he may or may not have understood. Either way, he was shouting back.
"-To go check!"
Molly hovered about, pouring endless cups of tea as though this would help. Gently, she prised away the the baby and lifted her onto her shoulder, rocking her quiet. Fleur barely noticed.
"-I want to go with you!"
"You can't!" He shook his wife gently, and pointed towards their daughter. "We're not having another Teddy Lupin." He said. With that, his kissed her quickly, pecked his mother and baby on the cheek, and barged passed Harry and Ginny as though he didn't even notice they were there. Fleur dissolved into tears again.
"Mum? What's going on?" Ginny asked worriedly, stepping slowly inside.
"Oh, Ginny," Mrs Weasley's hand rested on Fleur's shoulder. "I didn't- it's nothing, nothing to trouble your-"
"Seriously, Molly," asked Harry sternly. "What is happening?"
She sighed, clearly holding tears back herself. "There's been a bit of a rumour circulating round France," she said slowly. "About another dark wizard seeking power. Nobody thought anything of it but…"
"But what?" Harry's jaw felt tight.
"Fleur's family seem to have gone missing." With this, Fleur let out a strangled sob. "Along with a few other Wizarding families. Bill's gone over to investigate. I'm sure it's nothing- but it has to be looked at."
Harry felt a horrible sinking feeling in his stomach which told him it definitely was something, and swallowed hard, clenching his fists, fighting the feeling to run after Bill and go with him.
"Don't even think it, Harry!" Snapped Mrs Weasley, reading his mind. "You're going back to school." She glared at him as if to say, 'or else.'
"Sorry," Harry apologised. "Habit."
Ginny managed a weak chuckle. "Come on, Harry." She said glumly. "Let's go find Ron and Hermione."
.o0o.
A/N: Another dum-de-dum ending. What happens next? Well, let's see…
Ha! Not telling! Until you review, of course…
God, I love George and Teatrina. The more I write them, the more I love them. They weren't originally going to be in my sequel much, but I think they'll have to be. They're so wrong-but-right for each other! JKR never said anything about George's girl, but I swear this is her.
