Haidee finally left the hospital wing when school ended and she had graduated. It felt surreal, leaving school with the knowledge that she had closed that chapter in her life and would be moving onto bigger things soon. Walking through the halls alone, once again, she took in her surrounding. It seemed that Fred and George could not wait to leave Hogwarts and start a new life but she felt a pang of grief in her heart as if she had lost someone. She was glad to see that the portraits were returned so that she could say her goodbyes to the friends had when she had no one else.
Her last visit was to the kitchen. Her corner was removed of personality as her ingredients, jars, plants and powders were removed, leaving it blank and spare for whoever else to use in her departure. The kitchen felt less lively without her corner, although there were many house-elves surrounding her feet to bid her farewell.
The sound of the kitchen door opening brought her attention and she spun around to see Dumbledore standing at the foot of the door, looking around. She smiled at his appearance and made herself know by stepping around the corner from her spot in the kitchen so that she could be seen.
"Not many days have gone past in the last seven years that I have not woken to the pleasure of your sweets in the morning," he announced, thinking fondly on the memories. "I will miss our arrangement."
She sighed deeply in remembrance as she looked around the kitchen, also thinking of all the late nights she had spent there. "I will be sure to bring you some when I come to visit," she said with a knowing smile, "as I am sure this will not be the last time I am at Hogwarts."
Dumbledore nodded at her comment, a tinge of a smile on his lips. "Precisely."
She travelled back to Platform Nine and Three Quarters on the Hogwarts Express for the last time. She travelled it alone, just as she had the first ride up to Hogwarts. She would have thought that after all her years at Hogwarts and all the friends she eventually made that she wouldn't have to sit alone anymore. But her first train ride up was just as similar to her last train ride back. However, she was not alone at Platform Nine and Three Quarters anymore. She was greeted by Mrs Weasley, who looked horribly anxious until she saw Haidee and gave her a nice, warm welcoming hug. Fred and George were also there, wearing lovely new suits Ron was not sure to miss.
"What are they supposed to be?" asked Ron, who was walking their way with Harry.
"Finest dragonskin, little bro," said Fred, giving his zip a little tweak. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves." He looked to Haidee with a grin. "Was gonna buy you one too, but George thought this would be better."
He pulled out a large flowy green shawl that looked as if it were a piece of earth covered in moss pulled from the floor of the Forbidden Forest with a gold clip at the front to secure it together. She stared at it in awe, becoming speechless at the beauty of it.
Her trembling hands reached out to touch it and as her fingers grazed the material, she was sure she felt the second softest material she had ever felt in her life.
"Here, darling," said Fred, walking behind here to place it over her shoulders. It was light, although it looked heavy, and covered her beautifully, draping down her shoulders all the way to her knees. She wore it almost like a cape.
"Oh, it's . . . it's . . . " she stammered, looking down at the gift. Overcome with happiness, she flung herself into Fred's arms and kissed his deeply, which he gladly accepted.
"Hem, hem," George coughed, separating them. "It was my idea. Where's my kiss?"
"Right here," Haidee smiled, gently placing a kiss on his cheek causing him to grin teasingly at his brother. "Thank you for understanding my style better than my boyfriend," she laughed.
"Anytime," he replied making Fred roll his eyes.
"We would have been matching!" he defended. The three of them said goodbye to the rest and headed back to Diagon Alley, where Haidee was excited to see their shop.
It had been a while since Haidee had been to Diagon Alley. It was much duller than she remembered. Her favourite ice cream shop Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour was no longer selling ice cream, in fact, the shop looked sort of run down and robbed, as if Florean Fortescue had been dragged off in a hurry. The atmosphere was no longer friendly, all except for Fred and George's shop, which seemed to be the brightest and most fun looking shop she had ever seen.
The left-hand window was dazzling full of an assortment of goods that revolved, popped, flashed, bounced and shrieked. The right-hand window was covered with a gigantic poster.
Why Are You Worrying About You-Know-Who? You SHOULD Be Worrying About U-No-Poo- the Constipation Sensation That's GRIPPING the Nation!
"Too soon?" George asked, looking between the poster and Haidee, who's eyes were transfigured onto the words, 'Why are you worrying about You-Know-Who?' She believed she had a very good reason to be worrying about You-Know-Who as the flashes of horrid memories flooded her vision. She said nothing as a response, rather just shook her head and averted her attention back to the left-had window.
Fred unlocked the doors to their shop, stepping out of the way for Haidee to enter first. "It's quite dull at the moment," he said, looking around at the empty shop and turning on the lights, making all the brightly coloured packaging and displays come to life. "But just ait until it fills with customers. We've got a real atmosphere going."
"You don't say," she muttered as she gawked at the shop. If they called this dull, she was sure to have an experience when customers arrived.
Stacked to the ceiling were boxes upon boxes of Skiving Snackboxes. Bins were full of trick wands, separated into price range. Haidee ducked as a display item designed to fly around the room flew towards her head, a grand smile sweeping into her lips. She saw boxes of quills with Self-Inking, Spell-Checking and Smart-Answering varieties along with the Shelves of Headless Hats. Patented Daydream Charms and Edible Dark Marks, even a figurine of a wooden man ascending stairs of a miniature gallows on a box that read: Reusable Hangman - Spell It Or He'll Swing!
Some of their jokes and assortments were quite morbid, but there were also cute, little Pygmy Puffs, who were all rolling around at the bottom of a cage releasing high pitch squeals.
The store was filled with their marvellous invention and Haidee could not be more proud of them. As she walked, surveying the store and their items, she saw some things she helped them create and some things they had never even mentioned to her, until she stumbled upon the blank back right corner of the shop, desolate of products.
"That's your corner," said Fred, walking over to her. "I know, you said your magic brain would be put to better use if you became a Healer, but, we though-"
"Hey, this one is all on you," George interrupted, fiddling with some of the products on the shelf.
"Fine, I thought that since becoming a Healer takes a couple of years of schooling, you could study and do this at the same time," said Fred with a smile, twirling around the empty space as if to make it more appealing.
"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," said Haidee, walking up to Fred and grabbing him gently by the lining of his dragonskin jacket to tug him in for a kiss. "You were right. This is what I want to do. It's been my dream for so long and to be with you while I do that," she sighed with a timid smile, "how could I refuse?"
Fred grinned widely and swept her off her feet, swinging her about the empty space as she laughed with his joy. "Brilliant, darling," he smiled, setting her back to her feet and kissing her.
"Here, I'll show you the back room, it's just storage at the moment and we're developing new things in there," said Fred. "Then, I'll give you a tour of the flat upstairs. It's got a small kitchen, and since George and I don't really cook, we thought we'd just designate that as your kitchen," he shrugged and she smiled. The idea of having her very own little kitchen, just like back at Hogwarts, excited her.
She was led to the backroom where new products were lining the walls, ready to replace any item that needed to be restocked. The room was small, but it did its purpose, most of which was storage but in the back, she could see that were some unfinished products that needed to be completed.
She followed Fred and George into the flat upstairs which was quite cosy. The boys seemed to have settled in quite well. It consisted of a living room, which one entered upon climbing the stairs with had a small dining table, a couch and a bookshelf filled with books she was sure Fred and George hadn't read.
Attached to that room, from the back wall, was the kitchen. It was a small kitchen, only a tad smaller than her corner in the Hogwarts kitchen, and it was wooden and cosy. She looked around the room knowing that after unpacking all of her ingredients and plants, it would be a space she would never want to leave.
There were also two bedrooms in the flat, conjoined by a bathroom. Fred led her to their room, where she would be sleeping. Setting down her things, she looked around the room. It was oddly decorated with a similar aesthetic to his bedroom back at The Burrow. Things were everywhere including boxes of undeveloped products. Kenmare Kestrels posters were hung on the wall and there was a lovely closet for her to put her things away.
As she walked around the apartment, she couldn't help but realise that the store and the flat had two very different feels. The store was chaotic and loud with tricks around every corner and Haidee could safely say would be Mrs Weasley's worst nightmare. However, the flat felt quite similar to The Burrow. It felt homey and livable with unkept items everywhere and a knitted blanket from their mother draped over the couch. She smiled. She had never really had a place of her own before. A place where she knew she wasn't intruding.
"You like it?" Fred asked, wrapping an arm around her. She smiled and looked up to him.
"It's perfect," she smiled. "When do you open?"
"George is already downstairs. Customers are flying in." He gave her a kiss on her forehead and started heading towards the door. "I'll leave you to unpack."
She thought leaving Hogwarts and starting a new chapter in her life would be scary, but she was beginning to think it would be easier than she thought. Considering every year before that, she would be returning to Hogwarts, she had never fully unpacked her trunk. She gazed over the items she would usually leave inside, such as her books and some trinkets. Now, she removed everything.
Hanging her clothes, placing things in draws and finding empty spots on shelves to put her things was only slightly more difficult with trembling hands than usual. She learnt quickly that her grip needed to be firmer than usual to make sure whatever she was holding didn't go flying out of her hand.
This was particularly important when she reached the jars or powder, spices and ingredients she had collected over the years at Hogwarts.
After moving from the bedroom into the kitchen, she began to unpack her things. The shelves were bare, as were the cupboards and the fridge. It looked as if the kitchen hadn't been touched and she started to wonder how the boys survived without food, however, she suspected by the candy wrappers that had made it to the bin, as well as the ones scattered around the living room, that they had been living off sweets for a while.
She organised her ingredients into categories of form. Powders, dead insects and dried herbs were all separated and set on the shelves and in the cupboard and she found a cute little spot to place her cauldron for when she was making potions in the corner of the kitchen.
It was not a lively as she would have liked it to be, as the only things in there to give it character were some ingredients she could salvage. She planned for it to be much grander over a period of time when she was able to get some live plants that she needed as well as some other ingredients. She stared at the kitchen with a small smile as if staring at a blank canvas.
That was when she reached her jar filled with rose gold powder. Swallowing a lump as she stared at it, she knew she needed it now more than ever, even if her urge to throw it down the sink was stronger than ever before.
She thought about what Lupin had told her. Was she doing it out of obligation? Of course, it was her responsibility to do it. It was no one's fault but her own that the duty fell upon her. She had made the powder, not anyone else.
She also thought about another thing Lupin had told her.
"Fred's been trying to get rid of the jar," he said sadly. "And I don't blame him . . . after what happened . . . but Dumbledore said-"
"It's important now more than ever," she whispered, finishing the sentence. "I know." She smiled sadly at him for a moment. She wasn't doing it out of duty. Not with the knowledge that she could help stop Voldemort. She was doing it because she knew she would not be able to live with herself if she didn't try everything she could to help win the war. Yes, it may be her duty, but now, after finding people that she loved, she had more than one reason to continue her work.
She had been staring at the jar for a while, dreading the next time she needed to use it but her fear had changed recently, from what pain it would cause her physically to fearing what she would see next and what it would mean in regards of the war.
Lupin suggested she hid the jar from Fred, which she also thought was a good idea. Considering she had only been in the flat for approximately two hours at that point and the twins had been living there for months, it was fair to say the boys knew the nooks and crannies of the apartment better than her. She also knew that it had to be on her at all times, so her options were running slim.
Licking her lips tiredly and took out her wand. Posting it at the jar, she flicked her wrist and watched as it transfigured into a stone ring with a rose gold gem pendant. Quickly, she placed it on her middle finger and continued to unpack until all of her things were tucked in their new homes.
Haidee, while the boys were downstairs doing business, stayed in the kitchen for the rest of the day. She had lost all of her remaining sweets when she tipped them out of her velvet bag when she was being tortured by Voldemort, so she thought she could use her time wisely to replenish. Well, that was her excuse anyway. It was too hard to explain that the noise of busy customers caused her heart to race in panic and fear or that the screams of children triggered the sound of Voldemorts voice to rage through her head. It was much easier to say she had things to do and sweets to make than explain she was scared she would collapse of a panic attack if she had to carry a single item in front of another person, in fear she would drop it. She knew Fred would understand if she did explain, but she wasn't sure if she could handle it herself. So she stayed upstairs.
Luckily, she had kept some of the recipes of some sweets she liked such as the Rejuvenation Sweets, Hover Sweets, Scare Sweet (used to transfigure the consumer into whatever they touch next so that they can scare others) and some others which she attempted to make.
The trembling had proven a larger problem than she had anticipated, even when she didn't underestimate the trouble they would casue. Her shaking hands were too unstable to precisely measure or correctly prepare the ingredients, making the first two batches of her most commonly made sweets, the Rejuvenation Sweets, unusable.
She sighed, frustration gaining in her chest as she leaned, hunched over as her hands clenched the sides of the bench. Even as all of her body weight leant against her hands, they continued to tremble. She ran her hand through her hair, deciding to clean before she attempted again, for even if she got the next batch correct, she would need to make many more before she had enough to sell.
It was hours later before the boys returned upstairs, smiling at a brilliant days work and Haidee was once again, hunched over the bench with only a few batches of the Rejuvenation Sweets made. When she heard them approach, she turned to greet them.
"You look exhausted," said Fred, holding up take out food that they had bought for dinner.
"The trembling is proving harder than expected," she muttered, sitting down at the dining table as Fred served her some food.
"The good news is that it's not permanent. It's already gone down since you had that first dosage of medicine," George replied, shovelling food into his mouth. She nodded, however, she couldn't help but feel a bit helpless in the situation. But she knew she would just have to make do for the time being.