Winona couldn't sleep, but that was hardly surprising.
When dawn came, she finally got sick enough of staring at the ceiling that she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and climbed from bed. Her bare feet were silent on the floor as she padded across the room, making her way to the door and slipping out with barely a creak of its hinges.
The seventh-years' boys' dorm was still and quiet, the light spilling in through the windows a dull, muted grey. It was peaceful, and made the sight of Fred asleep on his bed all the more appealing.
He was on his back, head tossed to the side, his red hair glowing like fire in the light, his arm thrown haphazardly across the pillow above his head. His face was so serene, calmer and more peaceful than it ever was while he was awake.
Winona stood there longer than she cared to admit, staring at him. In the privacy of her own mind, she couldn't help but admit that he was actually rather beautiful. For the first time in a long while, she took a moment to just appreciate him, marvelling at the fact he was, by some miracle, hers.
She crossed the space, passing George's bed as she did. Her best friends' curtains were pulled shut, but she could hear him snoring from within and it made her smile.
Fred mumbled in his sleep as she climbed onto his bed. She moved slowly, careful not to disturb him as she quietly pulled his curtains shut, and cast a Silencing Charm on them. Then she lifted Fred's covers and slid beneath them, and that was just enough to wake her boyfriend from his slumber.
"Win?" he murmured before he'd even properly opened his eyes.
"I can't sleep," she whispered despite the charm she'd cast. She slung her arm over his middle and slid her leg between his.
"Y'kay?" he slurred, blinking sleep from his eyes. It was still early enough that it seemed cruel to wake him properly, but that wasn't quite enough to keep her from ducking her head and kissing him over his pulse point.
He began to awaken, and Winona smiled against his warm skin as his arms came up to squeeze her. "Uh, Win?" he said, sounding strangely hesitant as she gently nibbled at his collarbone.
"Hm?" she hummed distractedly, very focused on her task.
"As much as I'd love to – and believe me, I'd really love to – I'm not in any, uh, state to be doing anything of an…intimate nature, today," he managed to tell her, and the statement was so perplexing that Winona stopped nuzzling at his clavicle to raise her head, brow furrowed in confusion.
"What?"
Fred looked uncharacteristically awkward. "Let's just say our experiments last night went somewhat…awry," he confessed, shifting uncomfortably.
She pulled back further to stare at him. "Did you break your dick?"
Fred's cheeks flamed. "No!" he said, sounding aghast. "But, er, there may be a, erm, an outbreak of a sort, in that…general…area…"
Winona pressed her lips together tightly, but it wasn't enough to keep her laughter from spilling free. Fred's expression twisted in annoyance as she laughed, head tipped back against pillows that smelt of him, giggles pouring from her lips. And eventually not even Fred could keep from smiling, grinning broadly in good-natured amusement.
"Yeah, yeah," he murmured, his smile shining through the words, "laugh it up. You're the one who's gonna have to go unsatisfied until this clears itself up."
Winona only laughed harder, and Fred pinched the sensitive skin at her thigh in reprimand. When she looked over at him, he was smiling, and she pressed her lips to his even through the obstacle of her hysterical giggles.
"Poor baby," she murmured, winding her arms around his neck and trailing her smiling lips down over the strong curve of his jaw. This time it wasn't sexual, but rather affectionate, and Fred held her in response, making her hum in contentment. "Was it the Fever Fudge?"
"George thinks there's a tad too much Eye of Newt in the recipe," he told her, fingers trailing slowly up and down her side. She could feel his warmth even through her pyjamas, and Winona leant into his touch, the familiar cadence of his voice soothing her more than she could say. "Next batch, we'll add more Doxy Venom to compensate. Gonna have to use a cream on these boils, though, otherwise Quidditch practise is gonna be hell – at least once Angelina finally manages to get our team privileges reinstated."
He kept talking, but his voice began to fade into the background. Winona felt nothing but sleepy and content, feeling the steady thrum of his heart under her cheek and the heat of his skin against hers. And finally – blessedly – she slipped into the land of dreams, where for once, there were no warnings of death and destruction. There was only peace; and there was only Fred.
She woke up some hours later to George shouting for Fred to wake up through the curtains of his bed, her Silencing Charm having long since worn off. Fred grunted into her hair, and she realised he'd fallen asleep at some point, too.
Impatient, George yanked open his brother's curtains only to blink in surprise when he saw Winona curled around him like an affectionate octopus. "Hello there," he said, impish and sly. "Having ourselves a little early-morning tryst, are we?"
"No, actually, thanks to you and your experiments," Winona murmured, the words muffled by the fabric of Fred's shirt.
George looked confused, but a glance at his twin told him everything he needed to know, and then he didn't bother trying to hold in his laughter. Fred groaned and rolled his eyes as George cackled. "Shut up," he muttered. George only continued to howl.
"What's so funny?" Lee demanded, stepping from the bathroom, damp and shirtless. Winona grinned but kept silent. Fred was suffering enough as it was; he didn't need her spilling his embarrassing state to their friends. George didn't tell him either, just shaking his head and slipping past Lee into bathroom.
"I'd better go change," she said, kissing Fred soundly on the cheek before climbing reluctantly to her feet and leaving the room, heading to her own dorm to shower for the day ahead.
The day went smoothly enough. Herbology was a drag, but their Charms class made up for it. The weather was terrible during the afternoon, so for their break everyone stayed inside the castle, holing up in empty classrooms and procrastinating their homework.
Winona was lounging in a classroom on the second floor with the twins and Alicia when Angelina appeared, out of breath. "I just got it," she announced proudly.
The four friends glanced at one another warily. "Just got what?" George asked, looking rather afraid of the answer.
"Permission to reform the Quidditch team!"
"Oh brilliant!" said Fred. "Umbridge finally caved, did she?"
"Nah, I went over her head to McGonagall, who probably appealed to Dumbledore. Umbridge had no choice but to agree. Practise down at the pitch tonight – seven o'clock sharp." Alicia and the twins quickly nodded their heads, and Angelina sent them a pleased smile. "I've gotta go let Harry, Ron and Katie know, too."
Winona spent the rest of the afternoon in Arithmancy, and when it came time for the team's practise, she was planning to go down with them. Only, she took one look at the weeping sky and changed her mind.
"You don't need me there," she told Fred as he and George met her in the common room that evening, their haggard old brooms thrown over their shoulders.
"But you're my good-luck charm," he said, pouting.
"Good thing this isn't the actual game, then, isn't it?" she asked, barely looking up from her black and white sketch of Hedwig.
"Winnie," he whined.
She sighed in exasperation, looking up with wide eyes and pointing to the window where the rain was beating against the glass like it had a violent vendetta. "I wouldn't go out in that if you paid me."
"Fine," Fred said, still pouting, but Winona was resolute. "See you tonight?" he asked hopefully. Winona's answer was a brief kiss to his lips before she collapsed back down onto the sofa near the fire and went back to her task.
She lost herself, as she usually did, in her art. The drag of her pencil against the parchment of her sketchbook was the most soothing feeling in the world, and she didn't even care when she got graphite smudges across the heel of her hand. Rain thudded against the window as the storm outside raged and thrashed, and the common room was full of ambience and chatter, people huddled over their homework or gathered in groups to play Exploding Snap.
All of it was lost on Winona, the world nothing but background noise. That is until somebody dropped down into the empty spot beside her with a sigh. She blinked in surprise at the unexpected company, expecting it to be Hope or maybe Hermione – seeing as all her other friends and/or family were still down on the pitch for practise – but instead she found it was Ginny.
"Ginger," she said affectionately, a broad smile blooming on her face. "Long time no see."
Ginny looked unimpressed. "We spent nearly the whole summer locked in the same house, Win," she reminded her dryly. "Although, I s'pose you may have been too busy snogging Fred and hanging out with your dad to notice."
Winona gave a playful gasp and laid a hand over her heart. "Well since we've been back at school, I'veassumed you were too busy snogging Michael Corner to notice me," she sang, impish and sly.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "You think you're so funny."
Winona abandoned her artwork, shutting the sketchbook with a snap and shoving it haphazardly into her bag so she could turn her full attention to Ginny. "Tell me everything," she demanded, trying not to clap her hands together like an old grandmother excited over her next-door neighbour's gossip.
She'd never known her grandmother, of course, or been up-to-date on her neighbour's gossip, but when she was little and alone, she'd liked to pretend there was some kind, matronly old woman out there. They would be sweet, and dotty, and utterly unaware her precious little granddaughter was locked in her bedroom for the third day in a row, nothing to eat but unsalted crackers and some chocolate bars she'd been saving for a special occasion.
In the present, Ginny groaned, looking embarrassed even though there was nobody around to hear Winona's fussing. "Winnie, you know I'm not the gossiping type," she said firmly, but there was a glint to her eyes that told Winona she wasn't as set in her ways as she seemed.
"I'm not asking for gossip," Winona argued. "I'm asking for details."
"It's the same thing."
"No, it's not," she insisted. "Gossip suggests I'll spread those details onto other people. But I won't, I swear. Whatever you say, I won't tell a soul."
Ginny narrowed her eyes. "Not even the twins?"
Winona snorted. "Yeah, because your protective older brothers are definitely the people who need to be hearing all the sordid details about your love life."
Ginny's cheeks flamed. "There are no sordid details," she hissed, looking both mortified and exasperated. "Merlin, Win, you're so embarrassing."
"Is he nice, at least?" Winona pressed stubbornly, ignoring Ginny's jab. "I don't know much about him, other than that he's a Ravenclaw in Harry's year who seems to take hair advice from Snape."
Ginny scowled and slapped her on the shoulder. "Be nice."
Winona held up her hands in surrender, but she could see the amusement glinting in Ginny's eyes. She might have been dating the bloke, but she wasn't so lost in the romance that she couldn't laugh at a few well-timed jokes at his expense.
Although, what Winona had just said did bring something to mind. "Does this mean you've given up on Harry?" she asked innocently. Ginny didn't flush, but she didn't go pale, either. It was an improvement from only a year or two before, when she'd have gotten flustered at just the mention of Harry's name.
"Hermione talked some sense into me," Ginny confessed. "Apparently staring at him all the time, blushing whenever he looked at me, and writing poems about his eyes wasn't exactly doing me any favours."
Winona couldn't help but laugh, a sharp, surprised sound. Some might even say it was a bark. "And dating someone else is?" A thought occurred to her, and her smile melted into a frown. "You're not trying to make Harry jealous, are you?"
"Merlin, no," Ginny said, sounding so sure of herself that Winona couldn't help but believe her. Ginny sighed, like she were bracing herself to say something important. "I finally realised I can't just wait around for Harry to notice me. I can't put my whole life on hold, hoping he'll suddenly look at me and see…more."
Winona stared at her with a renewed respect. "So you actually do like Michael, then, right?"
"Yeah, I do," Ginny smiled, nodding her head, and while Winona believed her, she couldn't help but think there was something missing. Winona couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was, but it was there all the same, bright and glaring in the corner of her eye. Ginny's smile wavered. "Unless you know something I don't," she said carefully, and Winona realised she'd been silent for too long.
"Oh, no, sorry," she hurried to say. "Just lost in thought."
Ginny looked unconvinced.
"If I'd had a vision, I'd tell you," Winona assured her, even though that wasn't necessarily true. There were plenty of things Winona had Seen that she didn't tell people about, either for one reason or another. She was getting good at knowing when to speak up and when to stay very, very quiet.
"You don't see Harry and I getting married some day in the distant future?" Ginny asked, trying very hard to sound casual and playful, and not at all like she was holding out hope for a particular answer.
When Winona smiled, it was sympathetic. "No," she said gently. Ginny turned away, probably to try to hide the way her face fell. "But I don't See it not happening, either," she added, and Ginny looked up, eyebrows raised. "I don't make the future, Gin. I have no power over it, or at least, no more than you do. Besides, I only see possibilities that are based on decisions."
Ginny seemed lost in thought after that, eyes distant and hazy as she stared across the common room, blind to the students milling around by the fire or playing Gobstones at the window. Winona shifted on the couch so her body was facing Ginny, a patient smile spreading across her face.
"Come on," she pressed, somehow managing to look both impish and supportive at the same time. "Tell me everything about Corner. And spare no details."
Ginny's eyes focused back on her, and Winona rested her elbow on the back of the couch they shared, propping her cheek up on her fist and watching as the youngest Weasley reluctantly relented, beginning to talk about her budding relationship with Corner.
They sat on the couch over an hour, chatting about life and love and the nature of relationships from Winona's experience. Ginny had always been easy to talk to, but sat there with her that evening, chatting about everything and nothing all at once as the torrential rain tried to drown the great castle where it stood, Winona realised Ginny was really, truly growing up.
She wasn't a shy little girl anymore. She was becoming a woman. While she still had a fair way to go – slowly but surely, she was growing up. And Winona felt blessed to be able to witness it from such a close view.
At some point the sun must have set, although it was impossible to tell through the thick cloud cover and sleeting rain. Ginny and Winona were still curled up on the couch when the Quidditch team trudged in through the portrait hole. They were soaked to the bone and shivering from the cold, and as the twins came up the rear, Winona noticed the way they were wincing as they walked.
Ginny noticed Winona's distraction and smirked. "I should go get started on my essay for Flitwick," she said.
Winona looked back at her apologetically. "No, no, you can stay."
"Nah," Ginny nudged Winona playfully. "We've spent enough time gabbing on. I'll see you later?"
Ginny left, headed up the girls' staircase and disappearing into the dorm. George spotted Winona first, nudging Fred, and the two of them broke off from the shivering Chasers and made their way towards her. Angelina waved hello, but the three soaking girls quickly escaped up to the dorm, where hot showers and dry clothes waited.
"How'd it go?" Winona asked the twins, who remained standing in an effort to keep from soaking the couch with rainwater and mud.
"Terrible," said Fred, nose wrinkling as he uncomfortably shifted his weight. "Barely got anything done, this weather's so terrible. Plus, my – ah – situation is worsening," he added, unusually delicate. George shifted too, grimacing in pain.
The part of Winona that was their best friend wanted to laugh at their misfortune, but the part that was in love with Fred and cared for George like a brother was bigger, so instead she just smiled sympathetically. "Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey."
Fred looked alarmed by the suggestion. "Are you joking? The last thing I'm going to do is pull down my trousers and let Pomfrey take a gander at the goods. I'd rather suffer in silence."
Winona rolled her eyes. "Well then at least use some of that salve you have leftover from the last batch," she said sternly. "It worked well enough on my split knuckles, so it should offer a little relief."
Fred's nose wrinkled at the thought. "Will you at least rub it in for me?"
Winona had to laugh. "Sorry, love, for once you're on your own."
George laughed as Fred scowled, and Winona bit her lip to try and smother any more laughter. "All right," said George. "C'mon Freddie – we have injuries to attend to."
With twin sighs they reluctantly turned to go, only for George to pause, turning to her suddenly, and Winona could tell what he was going to say next was serious.
"By the way, Harry had a sort of turn down in the locker room."
"Turn?"
"He cried out in pain," said George, looking concerned. "Said he poked himself in the eye, but, well, we know a lie when we hear one. Thought you'd wanna know."
She nodded her head, lips pursed unhappily. "Thanks, Georgie," she said, and George nodded once. Fred ducked down to peck her swiftly on the lips before awkwardly waddling up the stairs into the dorm, George not far behind.
Winona pulled out her sketchbook again, halfheartedly returning to her task, keeping one eye on the portrait hole as she waited for Harry to appear. When he finally did, he was just as soaked as the twins had been, with Ron trailing after him, a worried frown on his freckled face.
Harry must have felt the weight of her stare, because he looked up on his way to the dorm. One look was all it took for him to know she knew about his outburst, and she watched him sigh. He nodded once, then held up a single finger in the universal sign to wait a minute. Then he disappeared with Ron up to the dorm and she anxiously returned to her drawing, waiting impatiently for him to reappear.
Finally he did, freshly showered and dressed in warm, dry pyjamas, his Charms textbook and a roll of fresh parchment tucked under one arm. He ignored the group of fourth years eyeing him scornfully from the corner and trudged across the room to the empty spot on the couch next to her.
"What's this I hear about a funny turn in the locker room?" she asked immediately, because patience had never been one of her virtues.
Harry rolled his eyes, but he couldn't mask his exhaustion. "The twins really can't keep a secret, can they?"
"Well, not from me, they can't," she replied with a smile. "And especially not about you. Are you okay? What happened? Was it your scar?" she asked, leaning closer and lowering her voice so the nosy fourth-years by the window couldn't eavesdrop in their rampant curiosity.
Harry sighed again. "Yeah," he confessed, setting his Charms book on his lap and cracking it open to an earmarked page, attempting to look distracted. Winona wasn't fooled. She stared expectantly until he had no choice but to lift his eyes to hers. "It wasn't a big deal," he insisted. "I just – I got a flash of something, for a moment."
"A flash of what?"
Harry turned his green eyes back to his book, but she knew he wasn't really reading the words on the page. "I dunno – emotion."
That was certainly a surprise to Winona. "Emotion?" she echoed, confused for a beat until realisation trickled through her system like an unpleasant drug. "You mean his emotions," she whispered, horror sitting sharp and thick in her belly. Harry's expression twisted, but the set of his shoulders and jaw remained the same. He was trying not to show weakness, as if acting strong on the outside might change the cracks appearing below the surface. But Winona knew from experience that things were rarely so black and white. "Oh, Harry," she sighed, staring at him sadly.
"He wants something done," Harry told her, the words almost empty, green eyes hazy and vacant – if Winona didn't know any better, she'd have said he was having a vision. "But it's not happening fast enough. He's getting…impatient and – and angry."
Winona had experienced her fair share of traumatic events, but being mentally and emotionally connected to the most famous mass murderer in their world – the very same bastard responsible for killing the only family Harry had – it was a horror Winona could scarcely imagine.
She suddenly wished, with a fervency she'd never before felt, that she could reach inside Harry's skull and take away that connection. That she could scrub at his brain and wash out the lingering dark magic in his scar until nothing of Voldemort remained – until there was just Harry.
But even if she could do such a thing, it wasn't what Harry needed. What he needed was to know he wasn't alone. "You're not the only one who knows things they wished they didn't," she reminded him softly.
Harry blinked, looking up from the chapter on Silencing Charms to meet her eyes, his expression unfathomable.
"I'm not saying I know exactly what it's like, or that I have it any better or worse than you – all I'm trying to tell you is that you're not in this alone."
Harry stared at her a long moment, seeming to assess her, to weigh her honesty. Then his eyes flicked to the dark circles under her eyes – the ones that had only been getting darker as the days went on. "Still can't sleep?"
She smiled wryly. "My sleeping brain doesn't seem to understand the difference between now and then," she told him. "When I sleep, it's like I'm experiencing all of time at once. It's…overwhelming."
Harry looked concerned. "Have you tried Dreamless Sleep Potion?"
"Yeah – but whenever I take it, it's like I'm aware that I'm asleep. Like I'm conscious even when I'm not, unable to see, hear or move. It's almost worse than the visions themselves," she whispered, sketching halfheartedly now, the drag of graphite against parchment soothing her.
"So, nothing helps?"
She met his eyes. "Fred helps," she said baldly, and clearly Harry hadn't been expecting her to be so honest, because he blinked in surprise. Winona's smile grew fond. "He doesn't fix it entirely – but when I have him beside me, it's always a little easier to handle. Besides, he's very good at distracting me," she added impishly.
But the playful innuendo was lost on Harry, whose eyes grew distant again, either in thought or exhaustion. Winona nudged him gently.
"Maybe that's what you need."
Harry's attention snapped back to her. "What, a Fred of my own?" He shook his head. "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."
"Oh, come on," she goaded him. "I've seen how you look at Cho Chang."
Harry shushed her almost violently, checking over his shoulder to be sure nobody heard. Winona laughed, flipping to a fresh page in her sketchbook and beginning a rough outline of Cho and Harry together, mostly to mess with Harry, but also because she'd never drawn Cho before and was curious as to how she could make her look on paper.
"Would it be so bad, having a girlfriend?" she asked as she worked, smirking at his flushed cheeks. "You might find you like it."
"You want me to get a girlfriend?" he countered, still barely speaking aloud in an attempt to keep this juicy gossip from spreading through the castle like wildfire.
"I want you to be happy," she corrected him. Harry blinked, not having expected such a heartfelt, matter-of-fact answer. She shrugged like it was no big deal, but her heart rate picked up slightly at the emotional territory – every nerve in her body screaming TOO PERSONAL, ABORT MISSION! But she pressed on anyway, because this was Harry, and she wasn't going to wear a mask in front of him, no matter how comfortable the option might have looked. "You see how I'm happy with Fred, don't you? Maybe I want that for you, too."
Harry stared at her a moment, considering. "You're really happy?"
"More than ever before," she said, just as quiet. Harry smiled then, wide and bright and just a tiny bit cheesy, and Winona tipped her head back against the back of the couch and groaned. "Don't make it weird," she begged him. "It's not a big deal. I'm happy. He's happy. We're all happy. Now all I've gotta do is make sure you're happy, and then I'll truly be set."
She expected him to smile, or maybe laugh again, but instead he just looked sad.
"Harry?"
"I mean, even if I did like Cho – hypothetically," he hurried to add. Winona nodded with the sort of stoicism usually reserved for nuclear test zones. "Well, I mean, who'd wanna be with me?"
Winona stared. "Are you joking?" she finally asked. Harry frowned. "Harry, you're a total catch!"
She said it with maybe just a hint too much fervour, the words echoing across the common room. Heads swivelled in their direction and Harry's cheeks went bright pink. "Thanks," he ground out, both exasperated and annoyed, "but you're my cousin – you kind of have to say that."
"Hey," she said firmly, reaching out with graphite-stained fingers to grip his chin and force him to look at her. "Have you ever known me to lie just to spare somebody's feelings? I'm serious, Harry, any girl would be lucky to have you."
Harry still wasn't convinced. He glanced over at a group of third-year girls walking by, and one of them squeaked loudly and went pale, the lot of them scurrying away like they were scared that just meeting his eye would curse them. "I'm a pariah, Winnie."
"I wouldn't say you're a pariah," she said, but it was weak at best.
"Even despite my total lack of charm or charisma," Harry pressed forwards, talking over her when she tried to argue some more, "just standing too close to me at the moment is considered social suicide. Someone like Cho would never want to be with someone so…"
"Unpopular?" Winona supplied. "Geeky? Lame?" Harry was unamused, and she smiled back at him innocently. "Harry, you're only fifteen. Give it time. You've got your whole life ahead of you."
Harry pulled back far enough to narrow his eyes at her. "You know you're only seventeen, right?"
"Yeah, but I grew up in the foster system, and that always adds a couple extra years to your total."
"So, what, you're really nineteen?"
"I figure twenty-two, given the whole 'one-true Seer' thing added on top of the whole 'father jailed for a crime he didn't commit' thing."
"You're really gonna keep milking that, aren't you?"
She shrugged, shooting him another sunny smile, and even through everything going on right now, even though he'd had the day – the month – from hell, Harry laughed. Accomplishment warmed her belly, and she hooked an arm over his shoulders, pulling him into an affectionate side-hug. He struggled against her but she ignored him, squeezing him tight. When she let him go his hair was even more crazy than usual, and his cheeks were pink as the rest of the common room eyed them with like they were something in a zoo exhibit.
"Can I ask you something?" Harry asked as he adjusted the glasses on his nose.
Winona returned to her sketching, glancing up now and again to look at him. "'Course."
"Hermione, Ron and I – we're having trouble finding somewhere to, um, meet," he said meaningfully. Winona understood his meaning instantly.
"You want to know if I have any ideas about where to have the class."
"Or, you know, any visions."
"Well, nothing yet," she told him apologetically, and Harry's shoulders slumped with disappointment. Winona nudged him with her elbow. "Cheer up, buttercup. You don't need a vision to guide you. You'll figure it out on your own."
His expression told her everything his words didn't – that he didn't want to have to do it alone. An inkling came to her, a sort of worm tunnelled into her brain, a tiny brush of something that wasn't quite a vision, but wasn't not a prediction.
"You should spend some extra time in the common room tonight. Work on your essay; enjoy the warmth of the fire," she told him on a whim. Harry looked up from the book he wasn't reading in surprise. "I don't have any answers, Harry. Just a feeling."
Brow furrowed, her cousin nodded.
"You gonna be okay if I head up to bed now?" she added quietly.
"Of course," he told her, still looking confused, but people tended to look that way after she presented them with the vague details of the future she'd gotten, seemingly from nowhere at all. "Do you think you'll actually be able to sleep?"
"Unlikely," she sighed. "But sometimes it helps just to rest my eyes and curl up under the covers. You should get some sleep, too."
Harry shook his head. "I'm up to my neck in homework. There's no way I can go to bed without at least starting this Charms essay."
She didn't like it – he looked dead on his feet, and she knew he could use some rest – but far be it from her to stand in the way of his studies. Just because she hadn't cared about OWLs didn't mean Harry felt the same way. And besides, it was a big year for him. He had a lot on his plate – more than anyone else in this castle. Maybe putting his focus into schoolwork might help, somehow.
"Well, get some rest when you can. Promise?" she asked. Harry nodded, and although she wasn't entirely convinced, she knew when to choose her battles. "All right. I'll see you in the morning, Boy-Wonder."
"Night, Winnie," he said, reluctantly dropping his eyes back to his work just as Ron appeared from the dorms, a textbook of his own shoved under an arm, a harried look on his thin face.
He nodded to her in greeting, but instead of nodding back, Winona caught him by the shoulder before he could dart around her. "Keep an eye on him," she told him, not quite an order and not quite a plea, but rather somewhere in between.
Ron hurried to nod. "Of course."
She smiled, strained, and let him go, disappearing up the stairs to the girls' dorms. She could hear her pillow calling her name.
The next day, it was Ron who found Winona, Lee and the twins gathered together under the tree in the courtyard. George and Lee were playing a halfhearted game of Gobstones while Winona lounged in Fred's lap, sketching in the margins of her DADA textbook while Fred whispered nonsense in her ear.
"Would you two get a room, already?" Ron demanded, peering at them in disgust.
"Just because you wouldn't know what to do with a bird if you got one doesn't mean the rest of us should go without," Fred sniped back. George snorted his approval and they high-fived above Winona's head.
Now Ron just looked irritated. "Do you want to know where we're meeting tonight, or not?" he demanded in a voice slightly too loud for comfort.
Winona shushed him. "Say it louder, won't you? I think some of the crows down at Hagrid's didn't hear you properly."
Ron's ears went pink. Winona could tell he was regretting being the one to come find them. "Look, we're meeting tonight at eight o'clock, on the seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls. You know it?"
George and Fred scoffed, taking offence. "We know things about this school you could scarcely even dream of, Ronald," said George with a sneer.
Ron didn't look pleased by his tone. "Well, will you be there or not?"
"We'll clear our schedule, shall we?" asked Fred.
Winona stabbed him in the ribs with the point of her elbow, and he grunted. "Thank you, Ron," she said, ignoring the way Fred pinched the skin at her hip in retaliation. "We'll be there."
Ron hurried away before his brothers could deliver any more scathing comments sure to make his face flood with red. Winona picked up one of the nearby Gobstones and lobbed it at George's head. It hit him above the ear and he cried out as it made contact. "What was that for?!"
"This whole thing is Harry's project," she reminded them. "You will treat it with respect."
"Yeah, but I can respect Harry while disrespecting Ron, y'know," Fred said into her hair, sounding entirely too glib for her liking. "You know how good I am at multitasking."
George yelped and promptly stuck his fingers in his ears, beginning to hum an obnoxious tune while Lee cackled and Fred just smirked wickedly against Winona's neck.
That night, Winona rounded all her friends up at seven-thirty, all but shoving them out the portrait hole and corralling them in the direction of the seventh-floor tapestry. "We're too early, Win," Fred complained as she tugged him impatiently along.
"No such thing."
"You sound like Hermione," grumbled George.
"Merlin's beard, she totally does!" said Alicia, practically cackling as they walked, taking their sweet time meandering through the corridors towards their destination.
Winona abruptly stopped, Fred and George nearly bowling her over in their surprise, and when she whirled around on her friends with fire in their eyes, they knew she was serious. "This isn't a Gobstones club, or bird-watching-for-dummies," she reminded them. "This is important – this is necessary. The future is coming whether we like it or not, and it isn't going to be pretty. So, every single one of you are going to come to this meeting, sit and listen to Harry when he speaks, and so help me Merlin, you're all going to be the best goddamn students you've ever been in your lives."
By the time she finished, she was breathing hard, and her friends were gaping at her in varying degrees of shock.
Fred hesitantly stepped forwards, catching her eye and holding it. "You okay, love?"
She arched a brow. "I'm not losing it," she assured him, then glancing at her friends firmly. "Is it so surprising that I want to do everything in my power to keep Voldemort from killing you all?"
Everybody flinched when she said the name, including the twins, and she rolled her eyes. She didn't like the name either. It was sharp and acidic and it tasted terrible on her tongue, but the fact of the matter was that it was just that; it was only a name. And a name couldn't actually hurt you. (Right?)
"Look," she said, trying to sound a little more sane. "The things I've Seen…" she trailed off, vision turning foggy. Fire and rubble and dust. The smell of blood thick in the air, clogging her throat. The flash and burst of spells thrown, the difference between life and death coming down to a matter of inches. Someone screaming Harry's name – her own voice-?
Fred shifted to regain her attention and she blinked back to the moment. Her friends looked wary now, and maybe a little concerned.
"Sorry," she apologised quickly. "I don't mean to be intense. I just need you all to know how serious this is. We're not doing this to get a good mark on our NEWTs, or to kill time. We're doing this to survive."
Slowly but surely, her friends all nodded. "All right," said Angelina bracingly. "We'll take it seriously, Winnie. Promise."
There were murmurs of quiet assent from all of them, and Winona smiled back gratefully. Fred caught her hand, twisting their fingers together and tugging her back along down the hallway.
Her friends went back to their playful banter, but it wasn't quite as carefree as before. Winona felt a bit guilty about that, but she knew she'd needed to have that moment. They needed to know the truth about what was coming if they were to have any hope of surviving it.
When they reached the tapestry, they also found a door, of which the twins insisted, "On our mother's life, that wasn't there before."
Inside it was a large, cavernous space, lit with torches exactly like the ones lining the walls in the dungeons below, and the walls were lined with bookcases, thick leather tomes resting along the shelves and bringing with them the scent of parchment and ink. Large, squishy cushions were spread across the room instead of chairs, and all together it created a warm, comfortable ambience. Winona pulled herself from Fred's grip and went straight to the middle of the room, where Harry stood looking nervous and sullen, like he was in the middle of regretting every decision he'd made in his life that had led him to this point.
He attempted a smile as she approached, but it wasn't terribly convincing. "You're gonna do great, Boy-Wonder," she assured him, reaching for his hand and squeezing once. "Just focus on the magic."
Apparently too nervous to even speak, Harry wordlessly nodded his head. Winona smiled as comfortingly as she knew how, following her friends to a large spread of red cushions off to the right. She took a seat between Fred and Alicia, crossing her legs and pulling her bag into her lap as she waited for everyone else to arrive.
Finally, once Zacharias Smith had loped into the room, everyone they'd invited was there. The sound of a heavy, reliable lock clicking into place echoed throughout the cavernous room, and the low hum of chatter dissolved into nothing, leaving only silence in its wake, every eye in the room focused on Harry.
Her cousin looked like he'd rather be literally anywhere else, and he didn't seem cheered by Winona's encouraging smile. In fact, he looked rather green.
"Well," said Harry, sounding less nervous than she was sure he felt. "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've – er – obviously found it okay."
"It's fantastic!" said Cho with perhaps a touch more enthusiasm than was necessary, but several people still murmured their agreement.
"It's bizarre," added Fred, leaning back on his hands and eyeing the room with just a hint of suspicion. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."
Harry opened his mouth to respond, but then Dean Thomas spoke up from where he sat between Ginny and Neville. "Hey, Harry, what's all this stuff?" he asked, nodding to a set of shelves on the far end of the room. They held a wide variety of metal instruments of some sort, and Winona was glad somebody had asked.
"Dark detectors," said Harry with a touch more confidence, stepping between the cushions to reach the so-called 'dark detectors' across the room. He held a small, dreidel-like object up to the light. "Basically, they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around. But you don't want to rely on them too much, 'cause they can be fooled…"
He grew distracted a moment before setting down the object and turning his attention back to his audience.
"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and-" he cut himself off when Hermione's hand shot up into the air. Winona had never had class with Hermione before, but she imagined they all went a little something like this. "What, Hermione?" asked Harry, sounding exasperated.
"I think we ought to elect a leader," Hermione announced decisively.
"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, peering at Hermione in surprise. Winona had to agree – it was sort of a given.
"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So – everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"
Hands shot up into the air, some quick as a whip, others with just a tad hesitancy. Winona was in the latter category, but only because she felt kind of stupid doing it. Obviously Harry was the leader. What exactly was someone like Zacharias Smith going to be able to teach them? The best way to run and hide? Harry was the clear choice.
Harry looked appropriately mortified. "Er – right, thanks," he said, face bright red but his expression clear. "And – what, Hermione?"
"I also think we ought to have a name," Hermione continued brightly, her hand still high in the air. Clearly this was her natural habitat; the sort of environment she thrived in. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"
"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Angelina asked hopefully, looking a little cheered by the thought.
"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred.
Winona laughed. "That works," she said. "We can call it the M3G for short!"
But of course, Hermione had something to say about it. "I was thinking," she said, frowning at the two of them in disapproval, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."
And although she was a tiny bit disappointed, Winona could see Hermione's point. She was glad at least one person had a steady head on their shoulders. If it was just up to her, Winona would probably call it the FUC – standing, obviously, for the Fuck Umbridge Club. She opened her mouth to suggest it – because she certainly thought it was clever – but Cho spoke over her.
Which, in all honesty, was probably for the best.
"The Defence Association?" the sixth-year Ravenclaw suggested. "The DA for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"
"Yeah, the DA's good," agreed Ginny, which took Winona by surprise. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"
Fred and George laughed at their sister's bluntness, and Winona shot her a thumbs-up from across the room.
"All in favour of the DA?" asked Hermione bossily, kneeling up on her cushion to count as once again people stuck their hands into the air. Despite finding all the formality ridiculous, Winona still held up a hand, in respect for Ginny's idea, if nothing else. "That's a majority – motion passed!"
Hermione climbed to her feet and made her way to a stretch of empty wall on the far side of the room. They watched as she pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on the blank wall and wrote across the top in large letters: DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY.
"Right," said Harry bracingly as Hermione took her seat. He stared at her an extra moment, just to be extra sure she really was finished interrupting him. When she made no move to shoot her hand into the air again, he gladly pressed on. "Shall we get practising, then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic, but I've found it really useful-"
"Oh, please," scoffed Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms, leaning back on his cushion like he owned the room. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?" he asked haughtily.
"I've used it against him," said Harry, quiet and non-confrontational. "It saved my life in June."
Smith's mouth hung open and everyone in the room was utterly silent. Winona smirked broadly at Harry, wagging her eyebrows in approval. Harry's eyes skated over her, but that was probably for the best, too. Now wasn't the time to make him laugh.
"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," her cousin finished simply. Winona was so proud of him it nearly choked her – maybe she got her smart mouth from her mother's side, after all.
Smith made no move to stand and leave. Nobody else moved so much as a muscle. Winona thought maybe they were staying simply out of morbid curiosity, but that if they were, it would soon turn into genuine thirst for knowledge.
Harry might have, at one point, asked her to help him with spells. She'd helped him with the Summoning Charm, and then again when he wanted to master the Biting Jinx for one reason or another. She could help with those – charms and hexes and jinxes had always come easy to her – but when it came to magical defence? When it came to situations of life and death, and making split-second decisions that meant had everything on the line? She had no experience. She had no skill.
And she needed to know how to keep herself safe; maybe more so than anybody else in the room.
"Okay," said Harry once more, now looking fiercely determined. Winona thought that she couldn't wait to tell Moony what a great teacher Harry was proving to be. "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practise."
Everybody immediately listened. Winona was actually surprised by how quickly they all climbed to their feet and divided up. Her instinct was to go to Fred, but then Katie caught her eye and Winona waved Fred onto George, who grinned wickedly as they wandered away to start practising.
Winona and Katie moved to an empty area nearby and took turns casting Expelliarmus. Katie wasn't particularly good at Defence – she'd always moaned about her falling grades in essays and tests – but she had a natural instinct that kept her quick on her feet; and made for a brilliant Chaser.
Winona was fairly good, too, managing to disarm Katie on the first try, her wand shooting up towards the ceiling with a small explosion of sparks. When she managed to keep disarming Katie, Winona pulled out of her own head long enough to realise it wasn't because she was fantastic, but rather because Katie was distracted, staring dreamily across the room.
"What're you looking at?" Winona demanded, turning to the side and trying to follow Katie's line of sight. But with over twenty students filling the space, it was difficult to tell who she was staring at.
"Oh – er, nothing," lied Katie.
Winona's expression was deadpan. "Convincing. Expelliarmus!"
This time the wand shot towards her, and Winona plucked it from the air with cool ease.
"Really," she said, crossing the few feet between them to hand the mahogany wand back. "What's got you so distracted?"
Katie bit her lip hard and Winona tried to look encouraging but not pushy. Finally Katie relented and asked, "If I tell you something, do you swear not to tell anyone?"
"Of course," said Winona at once.
But Katie wasn't convinced. She narrowed her eyes. "That's including Fred, you know. Especially Fred."
Winona frowned. "Okay, now you're worrying me. You're not pregnant, are you?"
Katie's cheeks flushed pink. "What? Winnie, oh my God," she hissed.
"What? There's no shame in it. Sometimes we forget to use the Charm. Merlin knows it's happened once or twice with Fred, but so far our luck's held out-"
"I'm literally going to curse you if you don't shut up right now," Katie warned her.
Winona held her hands up in surrender. "All right, but you know that if you don't tell me what's really going on, I'm just going to have to keep guessing…"
Katie groaned, casting an Expelliarmus so powerful that Winona's wand was ripped from her hand and catapulted across the room to smack Zacharias Smith in the temple. He cried out in surprise, but Winona didn't feel particularly bad for the bloke.
"Sorry," she said anyway as she picked up her wand. Fred and George were snickering delightedly from a few feet away. She winked at them and made her way back to Katie. "Okay, spill."
Katie exhaled loudly in frustration, but Winona could tell that, deep down, she actually did want to talk about it. "Okay, promise you won't freak out?"
"Scout's honour."
Katie shuffled a few steps closer, looking around furtively like she thought maybe this whole thing was some giant setup to get her to spill her darkest secrets. "The other night – George and I…we sort of…kind of…kissed," she finally confessed, cheeks pink.
Winona felt her jaw drop open. "No way."
"Shh," Katie hissed, looking over her shoulder at Angelina and Alicia, who were partnered up a few feet away, looks of concentration on their faces. Winona remembered her own plea that they all take this class seriously, and realised gossiping about George wasn't really the level of respect she'd been hoping for – but she figured she could make an exception. After all, this was Big News.
"What happened? When? How? Where?" she demanded eagerly.
"Shh," said Katie again. "It's really not a big deal."
"Um, I beg to differ." Katie's cheeks seemed to be stained permanently pink. "How did I not notice something was up?"
"Well, it's not difficult to miss it," Katie murmured. "It was two days ago and ever since, George has been acting like it never even happened."
She could tell Katie was hurt by the fact, and Winona smiled sympathetically. "Believe it or not, George can actually be kind of shy when it comes down to it," she told Katie quietly, disarming her again with a muttered incantation just so they didn't look like they weren't working. "In my opinion – as the guy's closest friend – he's probably scared you think it was a mistake."
"But I don't!" Katie said, a little too loud. Angelina and Alicia looked over at them with raised brows, but Winona shook her head once and handed Katie her wand back.
"How long have you liked him?" she asked softly, taking a few steps away and bracing herself so Katie could disarm her.
"Since the Yule Ball," Katie confessed sheepishly. "He was so nice to me that night – danced with me after my date blew me off. I guess I've seen him differently since then."
Winona frowned. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Please," Katie scoffed. "You have enough on your plate without me adding something so trivial."
"This isn't trivial," Winona argued. "You're my friend. It's important to me."
Katie didn't answer and Winona disarmed her again, catching her wand before it could clatter to the floor.
"Did you want me to talk to him-"
"No!" Katie insisted, taking back her wand and nodding for Winona to resume her position a few steps away. "Really, Winnie, if anything's going to happen, I want it to be because he wants it to, and not just because you scared the living daylights out of him for hurting me."
Winona's expression turned to stone. "He hurt you?"
Katie looked sheepish again, but shrugged like it was no big deal. "I think anyone would be hurt if their crush kissed them and then pretended like it never happened," she said simply.
Winona loved George to the ends of this earth – he was her best friend, the third wheel to the tricycle that was Winnie and Her Boys. But Katie was very dear to her, and no matter how much she might love George, there was no excuse for hurting their friend.
"Promise me you won't say anything about it," Katie begged her. Winona chewed silently on her tongue. Katie looked panicked at her silence. "Winnie, please. I can handle this on my own."
And Winona knew that was true. Katie might have been younger than them by a year, but she was perhaps the most mature person Winona knew (if she didn't count Hermione, and in this case it was easier not to). She had no doubts that Katie really could handle this alone. And she really didn't like to meddle. She just found it difficult to stand by and watch them suffer. But it didn't matter how much good she thought she could do; this wasn't her business. She just had to stay in her lane and do nothing to interfere.
How hard could it be?
A sudden sharp, shrill whistle cut through the air. In an instant everyone had lowered their wands and the chatter in the room disappeared.
"That wasn't bad," Harry told them all, voice echoing in the cavernous room, "but there's definite room for improvement. Let's try again."
They went back to practising, and Winona returned her attention to the task at hand. Katie seemed relieved she wasn't pushing the matter of her and George any further, and Winona let them work in peace.
"Try to ground yourself a little more, Winnie," said Harry suddenly, and she looked away from where Katie was retrieving her wand, finding him stood nearby. "You're standing with your feet too close together. If you were going to be hit by a jinx, you're making it easier for them to knock you off your feet."
Winona shifted her feet so they were set apart. "Like this?"
Harry thought a moment. "Pretend you're in a fistfight; Merlin knows you've been in enough of those," he said, taking her by surprise. He smiled, a tad rueful. "Even when you're using magic, you've got to be physically ready for the fight. Ground yourself like you're getting ready to punch someone, and it'll make you a tougher target to knock down."
"That's good advice," she praised him. "You're great at this."
He looked nervous again. "Am I?"
"Maybe you should consider going into teaching when you leave Hogwarts," she mused. Harry batted away her suggestion.
"Keep it up," he said as he moved away, off to where Justin Finch-Fletchley seemed to be caught in the tangle of his own robes.
Soon enough the whistle blew again, and at once everybody paused, turning expectantly to Harry, who looked a great deal more cheerful than he had when they'd started over an hour ago.
"Well, that was pretty good," he told them all happily. "But we've overrun, so we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"
"Sooner!" called Dean eagerly. There was a wave of fervent agreement from the class, and Winona grinned at Harry proudly. She felt like a mama duck watching her duckling swim for the first time. It was a strangely intoxicating feeling. And, like Dean, she was already looking forwards to the next meeting.
"The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too," Angelina pointed out, and nobody could fault her for it.
"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry fairly, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."
Harry pulled out the Marauder's Map and checked it carefully for signs of teachers on the seventh floor. Then, slowly, he let them out in threes and fours, making sure they wouldn't get caught out in the corridors by Filch, who was undoubtedly in love with Umbridge by this point and wouldn't hesitate a moment to rat them out for brownie points.
Other than the Golden Trio, Winona, Fred and George were the last to leave, and Winona swept Harry up in a playful hug. "You were so amazing," she told him enthusiastically, ruffling his already-ruffled hair. "Seriously, Boy-Wonder, this might be the best idea you've ever had."
"Well," said Harry fairly, "it was Hermione's idea."
"But you agreed," Hermione argued, apparently on Winona's side. "We couldn't do this without you."
Harry looked uncomfortable at the praise, but he didn't argue the point, nodding modestly. "You should go before it gets any later," he said, nodding to the map. "Filch is still on the first floor, so you should be good to go."
"Thanks, Harry," said Fred, clapping her cousin warmly on the shoulder. "It was a great class. Think we'll be upgrading to any of the nastier hexes any time soon?"
Harry smiled wryly. "Let's just focus on mastering one thing at a time."
Fred and George bumped their fists against Harry's, made a synchronised face at Ron, then led the way out of the shiny brass door. Winona blew a kiss to her cousin, who rolled his eyes, and then followed the twins out into the corridor.
It was empty just like Fred had said, and Winona hurried up to wind an arm around Fred's and tuck her head against his warmth. He and George talked shop, chatting on about manufacturing prices and test groups and owling that businessman about the space in Diagon Alley.
It had been a good night, Winona decided as they walked. It had been so good, in fact, she was even confident she might get more than a few hours of weak, fitful sleep in the dorm. And sure enough, with a happy aching in her muscles and a contentedness in her soul, Winona fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter that was almost 100% fluff. I wasn't planning on updating today, but I was in a mood to edit rather than write, so I thought I'd get this one out. Some of you in the comments tell me that reading this story is like reading the books again, only from a different perspective – and that was exactly my intention, so I'm so happy you feel that way!
Thanks for all your support on my idea for a Supernatural, Dean/OC story. Now that I know so many of you are interested, it'll make writing it so much more exciting!
Spotlight review goes to: Ami333 – receiving giant reviews like yours gets me (and every other author I know) so incredibly excited. Yours was a thrill to read, and I'm so glad you're enjoying the story. Thanks for all your kind words, and the way you made me chuckle more than once. Hope you enjoyed this sweetened chapter of full of fluff – but know big things are coming, plot-wise, very soon. xx
