Mental
Ramona lay sprawled out on the sofa reading, occasionally glancing over at her mother who was knitting in the corner. Lately she had noticed her mother has been more depressed, going to her room to cry more, just generally not bothering with anything. But today was one of her good days and Ramona couldn't help but smile at her.
"What do you think?" She asked holding up the little pink cardigan.
"It's lovely mum."
"I hope your aunt likes it" She sighed bundling up her knitting needles. "Perhaps we should go see Preston?"
Ramona almost dropped the book as she scrambled to sit up. "What?" She asked nervously, earning an odd look from her mother. "At the cemetery." Her mum continued as she stared at her daughter.
"Oh, Right….yeah."
"And don't forget, Sunday the Weasleys are coming over."
"All of them?"
Her mum nodded standing from her chair. "For a meal."
"Why?"
Ramona's mum tutted starting to walk out of the room and Ramona quickly followed her into the kitchen. "We've known them for years." She said. "And Arthur and Molly were really quite helpful after, well, I just thought it would be a nice idea."
"Right." Ramona sighed opening the fridge and grabbing the apple juice.
"I thought you would go off to see George today? And don't drink out of the carton."
The box hadn't even reached Ramona's lips when her mum said that, so she slammed open a cupboard door and reached for a glass. "I don't need to spend all my time with George."
"But you two were inseparable since he finished his shop."
In truth Ramona had felt bad for abandoning her mum so much, knowing Preston was alive she felt slightly better, even if the pressure of lying to everyone was causing her to be more moody than ever, but her mum, she was still living with the fact her son was dead and she had no idea why.
"Well, I wanted to spend more time with you."
Rachel gave her a weak smile. "I'm fine, honestly."
After the Cemetery Ramona's mum headed off to her aunts leaving Ramona to head home by herself, she loved her aunt but didn't really want to spend an afternoon listening to her talk about how happy she was and watch her mother put on a fake smile while inside she was practically dying.
When she arrived home she slumped up to her bedroom only to be met by Preston sitting on her bed looking deathly pale. He glanced up at her and she saw his eyes were bloodshot and tired; he looked like he hadn't sleep in days.
"What are you doing here? What if mum and dad saw you?" she hissed as she closed her bedroom door.
He went to speak but instead shook his head, swallowing hard.
"Preston..."
It seemed to come out, as soon as he opened his mouth he couldn't stop talking. "They were getting suspicious," He croaked "This one guy, Yaxley, kept going on and on about how I wasn't 'pulling my weight'. How I couldn't be trusted. So they brought this muggle born in, and told me to prove my worth."
"But, you didn't...just," Ramona couldn't think. She couldn't believe what he was saying.
"No. I didn't. I said I proved myself by breaking them out of Azkaban."
"That was you?"
He nodded sharply, "Me and a couple of others."
"You know Bellatrix destroyed Neville's parent's right? They are now in St. Mungos. They don't even know who on earth Neville is."
"Yeah." He muttered. "Bellatrix goes on about it a lot."
"That's enough Preston, Talk to Dumbledore; tell him you can't do this anymore. Then you can come home! Dad can protect you; he's an Auror for heaven's sake!"
"It's not that simple."
"Yes it is! Tell Dumbledore you don't want to do it anymore!"
"THEN WHAT?" He yelled standing up sharply. "WHAT THE FUCK THEN? HIDE OUT HERE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE?"
"That's what you're doing now! What if they find out who you are Preston? You might as well have just joined them in the first place instead of putting us through all this shit. Have you seen mum lately? Do you know how depressed she is? She's practically killing herself."
"I was trying, to, protect you."
"You honestly though that DEATH EATERS, of all people, would stop coming after us just because you're dead? Are you that stupid?"
"It's not my fault they want us! Blame dad if anyone."
"What?" She spat. "Blame dad for what?"
"He's the reason we're like this in the first place, when I was little I begged dad not to tell anyone I was like him. I just wanted to be normal. Then you came along and you were the same. We didn't stand a fucking chance. Remember all the bullying when you were a kid? If dad had kept his mouth shut no one would have found out about us!"
"Everyone always finds out everything Preston. You didn't have to go along with Dumbledore; you didn't have to fake your death. Don't go blaming other people, because YOU fucked up. We are the way we are, we can't change that!"
She throat felt raw from screaming, Preston was stood over her breathing heavily, his jaw locked. "Fuck this." He shouted pushing past her.
"Where are you going?" She couldn't stop the sob that escaped her throat, the hot tears spilling from her eyes.
"You know, I came back to make sure you were ok. You're my little sister and I love you, but fuck this if you're just going to shout at me and make me feel worse."
Her bedroom door slammed and she heard a loud cracking sound as he apparated from the house.
When George arrived in the kitchen that morning Ramona mum gave him a small smile. "Couldn't stay away?"
"Not for long." He chuckled. "She upstairs?"
"No, she's at the bottom of the Garden. Actually I'm glad you're here George. We went to see Preston's grave the other day and ever since Ramona has been in an awful mood, she won't talk to me."
"Oh, well. I guess I could try talking to her."
She gave him a final smile before he made his way out back, following the small path. She was laying in the over grown grass starring at the sky when George stood over her, casting a shadow over her.
"Lovely weather for it."
"For what?" She murmured as he took a sea next to her.
"No idea. What are you doing down here anyway?"
She pushed herself, up rubbing her eyes. "When I'm not in the house Mum can't bombard me with questions. Why aren't you talking? Is something wrong? Blah freaking blah."
"Why aren't you talking to your mum?"
"Worried I'll say the wrong thing, or something I shouldn't."
He gave her an odd look but decided not to say anything else on the matter. "So, school next week."
"Hm."
"Uh, you excited?" She shrugged and he let out a soft sigh. "I can't talk to you when you're like this, what's wrong?"
She looked up at him and he saw for the first time how tired and pale she looked, and her eyes were red, like she had been crying for a good couple of hours. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Oh come on." He said wrapping an arm around her. "What can't you tell me?"
Ramona sighed and clenched her jaw. "I…had a fight, the other day."
"With your mum?"
She shook her head. "With Preston." She whispered. George tried to stop the look of shock coming over his face, but in truth that was the last thing he had expected her to say. "Uh, Ram...what you mean?"
"What do you think I mean? He's alive, he's not dead. And the other day him and I had a screaming match in my bedroom because he's an idiot."
His arm slowly fell from around her as he starred at her in disbelief. She continued talking, explaining pretty much everything had happened, at the ministry. The hospital. What her brother was doing. She could feel all the pressure being released from her as she went on and on only stopping to let George take it in.
When she finished he opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking a bit like a gold fish, apparently not being able to say what he wanted to. "Wow, that's….uh…Ram are you sure this happened?"
She immediately stood up and started to storm towards the house. "Ram wait!" George yelled grabbing her arm but she snatched it away. "No! I knew you wouldn't believe me, you just think I'm insane."
"It's not that …I don't believe you."
"You just think I'm losing it?"
"Ram, you have to admit it sounds,"
"OH MY GOD. You know what? Fuck you George. Actually go and fuck yourself."
"Ram!"
When she entered the house she slammed the door shut and locked it but George pulled his wand out, ready to unlock it.
"Don't you dare!" She shouted at him through the glass. "Go away George!"
He watched her as she stormed through the kitchen and disappeared into the hall. He stood there holding his wand, ready to open the door. He knew that he couldn't just go and leave it like this, but he wasn't sure what to think. Why didn't he just believe her and now he had this feeling in his gut that wouldn't go away.
So he decided to just go home.
On Sunday Ramona sat between Ginny and Bill as George starred at her from across the table. Everyone was merrily chatting about work and going back to school, while the two remained in deathly silence. Since he was there last his rage had been building, mainly towards her over reaction of how he took and it, and partly because she had been keeping it from him for this long. He couldn't stop himself from being angry, and the fact she wasn't talking to him about it was making him feel worse.
"Lovers tiff?" Bill said causing everyone to stop talking and look at the pair.
"Something like that." Fred muttered and Ramona's eyes shot up.
"Did you tell him?" She asked and George looked at her angrily. "Of course I didn't! Are you nuts?"
"Well apparently you think so." She spat, her chair scrapping across the floor as she stood up and left the dining room.
"Well what was that about?" Ginny asked as everyone stared at George. "I don't know. I need to get back to the shop. Thanks for dinner Mr and Mrs Hodges." He stood and apparated from the Room, then everyone's attention turned to Fred who was shovelling food into his mouth. "What?" he asked "You do realise he was making that stuff about needing to get back to the shop up right?" he rolled his eyes continuing to eat.