thank you so much :
PerfectlyObscure,
pancakeatebatman,
LyndsayMalfoyRiddle,
purplepanda357,
angel2u (and no...it's not George...) ,
and also Anonymous,
for leaving really nice comments, and adding my story to your favorites and to story alert and me to your author alert...I really appreciate it a lot guys!
keep reviewing and I'll try to update as much as I can...just heads up, there's big exam coming next week at school so I might not update for a couple of days but then we have 2 weeks vacation so yay!
enjoy!
"It was them, They will come and take me away! And Mom and dad are dead!" she cried and shook violently, the look of pure terror in her eyes.
"what's wrong with mommy?" scared and now whimpering Ginny asked, her own tears running down her cheeks.
"I want mom and dad to come back, this is not fun anymore." Added Ron seriously and wiped his nose with his sleeve.
"Don't worry guys, mom and dad are absolutely fine and they'll be back in the morning." Said Charlie trying to save the situation. He was determined to give their parents a break, and not call them unless it was absolutely necessary and bad dreams hardly qualified as emergency.
Ron and Ginny didn't seem to believe him and the fact that Jade was still crying silently didn't help.
Charlie sighed and wiped his face with his palm. He was far too tired to think about anything.
"Let's just go to bed." suggested George and very exhausted looking Fred agreed.
But Jade seemed to panic at the idea, not wanting to stay alone again with the storm still on.
"Ok, Fred, George, will you stay here with Jade for a while?... I'll be right back." He added when Jade grabbed his arm desperately.
Charlie let the light on in the room and picked up Ron who seemed glad to have someone to hold him and make him feel safe. "I want mom to come home." He confessed silently whispering into Charlie's shoulder.
"I know buddy, but we'll be fine, she'll come home with dad in a couple of hours."
Percy who was already holding Ginny in his arms followed his older brother upstairs.
"Percy? Can I sleep in your room tonight?" whispered Ginny, her voice still shaking.
"sure you can, but there's nothing to be scared of, you know that right?" he asked silently carrying Ginny to his room and setting her down to the middle of his bed where she curled under the covers.
"I know." Said Ginny seriously, "but still, it's nicer down here." She claimed and snuggled closer to Percy.
"I don't want to sleep in my room when Ginny's not up in hers. It's too far away from everyone." Complained Ron and hugged Charlie's neck with all the force he had.
"Well…alright, you can stay in mine, but only tonight." Agreed Charlie and smiled when he saw Ron relax a little bit.
He left his little brother in his room and came back downstairs.
"Ok now, Jade, do you feel better?" he looked at her sipping some water from a mug one of the boys brought her from the kitchen.
Charlie had to suppress a chuckle when he imagined how their mom would react to the sheer idea of water in a mug. Mugs are for tea and coffee and glasses for water and juice. She taught them, repeating it over and over until all her kids learned the rule and automatically grabbed a glass when getting some water. The education somehow skipped the twins, not that she didn't try, but one could only do that much before giving up, and as all forms of education seemed to avoid the twins Molly realized this was not the hill to die on and let them be.
Charlie never understood why it's so important, but no one ever questioned their mother's rules.
Jade nodded lightly, feeling a little bit better now that the hiccups from crying were gone. Charlie pulled up her covers and set the mug on her desk.
"Go to sleep Jade, it will be fine in the morning. No more bad dreams right?" Charlie pushed a strand of hair from Jade's forehead and stood up from where he was crouching.
"Ok boys, let's go to bed." He started but although Jade was watching him with big eyes so far, now she grabbed both twins by their shirts, not letting them go and new silent tears began to run down her face.
"Charlie, I think we'll stay a little bit longer." Said Fred looking Charlie straight in the eyes giving him no space for arguments.
"Yup, we'll stay and chase all the monsters away." Nodded George and winked at Jade.
"There are no monsters, and I don't think it's time for that kind of remarks now…" said Charlie looking ad Jade as she grabbed the twins with even bigger force.
"Well, certainly no monsters in this house…"started George, "but have you ever seen McGonagall after reading out project on "Why goblins wars finished and peace returned to their nation" and we've stated "because they got all drunk and forgot what they were fighting for and drunk creatures are friendly as hell so they all became friends" as our one and only reason? Well, that my dear brother looked much like monster to me." Finish Fred and high fived his twin.
"Alright boys, but don't be up too long and let Jade sleep. I'll leave the lights on in the corridor." Said Charlie and left, leaving the door open just a crack and moving the misty light from Jade's room to the hallway with one little flick of his wand.
…
When Molly and Arthur returned from their date at 8 a.m. they found silent Burrow. No one to be seen. Molly walked quietly up the staircase, stepping over the squeaky stair, closely followed by Arthur carrying both their bags.
But when Molly looked into Jade's room, checking if she was still asleep, this was not what she expected to find.
Jade was sleeping alright, but on each side of her was one red-headed boy, snuggled comfortably under the covers as the air was still chilly from the rain.
"Fred! George!" Molly whisper-yelled furiously. "what are you two doing down here?"
George woke up and looked at his mom confused. He tried to sit up but Jade was still holding the collar of his shirt in her right hand and she stirred a little when he moved.
"Molly let them sleep, I'm sure they'll explain everything later." Said Arthur as he pushed his wife out of the room and looked seriously on his son.
Then he turned around and left, closing the door behind him.
Fred snuggled back to the pillow only half awake and got one more hour of sleep before everyone woke up.
Jade sat up on her bed, feeling too tired considering how long she slept. She was alone in her room, pile of clean laundry from yesterday waiting on her desk chair.
She got up and opened the window a little bit more, the wind had to close it at night.
Sun was already high on the sky and she saw Ron and Ginny hanging out by the hammock while Percy was reading yet another book.
Jade put on her favourite jean cut-off overalls and white tank top. She was loving this hot summer in the country (compared to grey gloomy London).
She didn't bother with shoes, no one seemed to care around here and skipped down the stairs to get some breakfast and see if she could help with something before starting her today's lesson.
There was a voice coming from downstairs, it was Molly, giving a rather angry speech.
"…if the social services found out! Do you realize it could influence the court's decision about the adoption? What were you thinking? Don't you know the rule that foster kids can't have mixed bedrooms? No boys sleeping in girls' room? What were you thinking?" yelled Molly while Fred and George tried to protest that they didn't know because she didn't tell them before.
"The social workers won't care if we consider her our daughter already! They have rules and they're watching us like dementors waiting for the tiniest mistake to take Jade away!" cried Molly and furiously snatched boys' plates from the table.
"Mom, Jade had a bed dream. More like a nightmare, I'd say." Started Charlie.
"I couldn't get her to calm down and it was late and everyone was out of bed. No one wanted to do anything bad for the adoption, it's just that… if Ginny had a bad dream none of us would hesitate to comfort her and let her sleep in our room that night. That's what big brothers do." He finished, looking at his mom.
"alright then. Just don't do anything like that again, we don't need someone to take her away before the adoption is complete. Matilda is already doing all she can to persuade the adoption agency to let her stay here as our foster child while we finish the paperwork." Said Molly more calmly and let the boys go.
The adoption process was usually less complicated if it went only through Adoption department at the Ministry of Magic but this time the muggle social services got involved and it complicated the whole thing, with Jade's history of unsuccessful placements they weren't going to make another mistake and let her in a home where she wouldn't be taken care of. There were few homes like that in the past and if something happened again it would be huge scandal and it wouldn't escape the attention of public. No one wanted that, neither magic, nor muggle agency.
Jade slowly came downstairs pretending she didn't hear the conversation.
She knew she had bad dream at night, she remembered crying and being scared but she couldn't remember what it was about.
She let it be, like always, trying to close all the bad memories in the back of her mind.
"Good morning dear, would you like some cereal with milk or bread?" asked Molly, worriedly looking at the black circles under Jade's eyes.
"Cereal's good, thank you." Said Jade and sat down.
No one did much that day. It was nice and hot, but another storm started in the evening which gave Jade more time to study and Molly even said she could be done in two weeks if she continued this way.
After uneventful day came another crazy night when everyone woke up at three in the morning and again, Ginny and Ron ended up sleeping in rooms of their brothers, scared and sad at the same time.
Jade had another nightmare. After being up last night because of the first bad dream she woke up tired, so tired in fact that tonight she fell asleep again – after fighting to stay awake until two in the morning.
Fred and George run downstairs but Molly was there first. She woke Jade up, brought her cup of hot chamomile tea and send twins back to bed.
After calming down however, Jade wouldn't let go of Molly's arm, so the two of them snuggled down together and Jade was lulled to sleep by the sound of Molly's voice, quietly telling her the tale of three brothers.
Another night with few hours of sleep led to the next one with another nightmare and so on. It was a kind of chain reaction which made Arthur put a muffiato spell around their masters bedroom and Jade's room so the rest of the house could sleep while he and Molly could still hear Jade scream at night and be there for her when she had another bad dream and needed them.
…
it as the first week of august.
The train pulled out of the station and Jade was sitting in the seat close to the window, but she didn't see Arthur or Molly waving her good-bye and yelling "I love you" countless times. She didn't see Molly put her head on Arthur's shoulder and cry silently when the train started to move. Jade had eyes full of tears, as she sat on the plush magenta colored seat hugging her knees.
She wasn't alone in the compartment of course, there was one very strict looking old lady accompanying her – the same social worker which came to pick her up from Burrow a couple of hours ago.
Jade knew this wouldn't last, she knew something will go wrong from the very beginning and Weasleys will send her away eventually.
Molly said it's only for a couple of weeks and Arthur promised it's nothing permanent, and that they didn't want to do it but they had to…something about the rules of the adoption agency.
It was always the same. Same excuses and promises no one ever kept.
As Jade looked out of the window, light rain started to fall and the drops on the glass copied tears which finally spilled out of her eyes.
It were the nightmares every single night. Jade was sure about that. What the hell is wrong with me? She thought. If she could only remember what they were about maybe she'd find a way to stop them.
Maybe it was that she got involved in Fred's and George's project and helped them find the last ingredients. Lemon grass as something zesty to cover the smell and ginger to nicely compliment the tint of explosion powder. She shouldn't have done that.
Maybe they realized she just didn't fit in when Bill arrived and they had the birthday party for twins, and she obviously didn't belong.
Maybe…
The rest of the train ride was filled with "what if" and "maybe" thoughts and reflections about the last couple of weeks.
So next time I can do better. Jade told herself but the truth was she didn't want any next time. Because Weasleys were different.
For once, she stopped trying to get rid of them before they could get rid of her. Actually she tried really hard to stay, to make them want her. But it was a mistake, another huge mistake as every single decision in her life. And as the train stopped in some unknown station and the old lady from social services grabbed Jade's hand in her cold dry palm, it seemed as if all happy memories from Burrow disappeared.
"And so I'm an orphan again."