Fourth Book
June 27th, 1995
Sixth Year
All Hogwarts students had been excused from their remaining classes of this term, and all final exams had been made optional. But everyone close to Ara knew that even if this hadn't been the case, she would not have attended lessons.
The girl had gone missing shortly after Cedric's body had been transported out of Hogwarts.
Well, she wasn't missing. She'd just locked herself inside her dorm, which was practically the same thing.
The night of Cedric's death, Nereza hadn't even bothered trying to enter the dorm. The Italian girl sat outside and, through the door, told Ara that if she needed someone to talk to, she had her. Nereza was joined by Adrian, who had said the same thing.
They'd been met with silence, of course. After spending the better part of the evening with their ears pressed against the dorm door, Adrian and Nereza had come to the realization that Ara had cast a silencing charm on the room. That night, they fell asleep while leaning against the blonde's dorm door and awaiting even the slightest sign that pointed to the possibility of their friend needed them.
The next day, Ara didn't come out for breakfast, which was very worrying, especially to Fred Weasley, who had no way of speaking to her.
He wasn't very welcomed in the Slytherin dorms.
That morning, Fred and Nereza had exchanged discreet conversation in the Great Hall during breakfast, during which Fred had demanded that Nereza keep an eye on Ara's metal state. The dark-skinned Italian rolled her eyes at this before informing the redhead that this was already the plan.
"We're both worried for her, you know,"
"Just wanted to be sure,"
Ara didn't leave her room for any other meals that day. Draco Malfoy had caught wind of this, and had attempted to coax his sister out of her dorm. Unfortunately, with no success.
That night, due to her aching back, Nereza had been snuck into the boys dorm to sleep on Adrian's bed with him. When she awoke the next morning and realized that there was still no sign of Ara, she had decided that the blonde needed at least some human contact.
For her mental state, right Weasley?
Although, after the night she'd had, Nereza didn't mind not sleeping in her own room anymore.
She and Adrian picked out Ara's favourite food's during that morning's breakfast and left the Great Hall immediately afterwards. They scurried back to the Slytherin dorms together, and reluctantly entered the female of the twos dorm.
The room was so unmoved that it was nearly disturbing.
Ara was covered by her duvet, and she hadn't bothered to acknowledge the fact that someone had entered the dorm.
"Ara?" Nereza began softly. She walked over to her roommates bed and sat down reluctantly. Upon feeling the bed shift, Ara turned to her.
Nereza was met with bloodshot, puffy, eyes, and waxy, pale skin. Ara's once vibrant face was harrowing and haunting.
She eyed the food in Nereza's hands for a moment before glancing back at Adrian. The male was in near disbelief, he could've never imagined seeing Ara's once put together self in the state she was in now.
Nereza and he had tried to speak to the girl, but had been met with silence. They left shortly after entering the dorm, due to feeling strongly unwelcome and clearly bringing up the wrong conversation subjects. Nereza had, out of anxiousness, said a few choice things about 'needing to get back to normal', while Adrian had begun to ramble about Cedric's old Quidditch skills due to nervousness.
The building sneer on Ara's face told her friends that she did not appreciate their sentiments.
The rest of the day has been spent anxiously glancing towards the female Slytherin dorm corridor from the house common room, in hopes that Ara would appear.
She didn't.
That had led up to today. Fleur Delacour had come down to the Slytherin Dungeons, and upon deciding that perhaps it would make Ara feel better, she and Nereza had gone to visit the blonde. Adrian had decided that he would hold off on going to see Ara; as he and Nereza had come to learn, together they were a bit tone-deaf when it came to grieving.
And, as selfish as it was, the boy was very uncomfortable with seeing Ara in the broken state she was in.
Fleur and Nereza had been shocked upon finding out that the latter's dorm was locked.
They'd attempted to speak to Ara through the door, and even unlock the room with magic, but it was useless. Fleur had spent a large portion of the day in the Slytherin common room, quietly brainstorming alongside Nereza and Adrian on what to do, because a suddenly sealed room was not a good sign.
Draco, upon realizing that Ara had sealed the dorm when trying to visit her, had spoken to Nereza about the situation, and left rather abruptly. That left a bad taste in the Italian's mouth.
Don't do anything rash Malfoy, your sister is a ticking time-bomb.
That very night, Ara had been awoken by the sound of an owl scratching at her door. She turned to stare at the entrance to her dorm; she waited for the animal to get frustrated and leave, because there was no way she was letting it in.
Upon noticing a talon push a letter under the door crack, Ara's curiosity peaked. She, wobbly, walked over to her door and grabbed the letter. Her stomach dropped.
It had her name on it, in her father's handwriting.
Harry Potter was quite irritated about being woken up by Ron's whimpering. Though, that irritation had quickly turned to curiosity when he realized that it wasn't just Ron's whimpering; it was Neville's, and Dean's, and Seamus' too. Before the boy could grab his glasses from his nightstand, and demand to know what was happening, he was grabbed by his shirt collar and yanked out of bed.
A blurry Ara Malfoy stood before him, angry as ever. Even without his glasses, Harry could tell that she looked nothing like what he remembered her too.
She looked scary. And ill.
"What the-"
"Shut up," Ara hissed. Her breathing was heavy, and as Harry glanced around the room, he came to realize that all his roommates had been yanked out of their beds as well.
Harry knew better than to disobey the very clearly unstable girl in front of him, so he stayed quiet. He avoided her gaze as she analyzed his face, and as she stared at his scar.
She looked very angry.
"Who did it?" Ara asked in a low, quiet tone, that quite frankly startled Harry.
"W-who did what?" The boyasked, his voice cracked. The grip around his collar got tighter, and Ara brought his face closer to her own.
Harry desperately glanced at Ron, who was slowly making a move towards the dorm door. A feeling of relief washed over him. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't very discreet. Ara followed his gaze, and upon noticing Ron, she waved her arm in his direction. The redhead flew back towards his bed.
Wordless, wandless magic? The twins weren't exaggerating.
Harry noticed a crumbled piece of paper in the blondes hand.
"Harry," Ara's voice brought the boy's attention back to her face. "-Who killed Cedric?"
Oh.
"Voldemort," Harry was quick to reply. Although, his answer hadn't satisfied the Slytherin in front of him. The sudden sound of his dorm door being thrown open rang in Harry's ears, but he was too preoccupied with Ara to check who'd made a run for it.
"I know that," The Slytherin hissed. "-But, he rarely dirties his own hands. Who sent the curse?"
Harry stared at Ara in shocked.
She's not gonna believe me.
"Harry!" Ara shook the boy in her hands back to reality, angry tears brimmed her eyes, "-Who killed Cedric?!"
The young Gryffindor heard running and shouting coming from the corridor outside his dorm.
"Peter. Peter Pettigrew." Harry whispered, and quickly shut his eyes. He was scared Ara would hex him for lying, because to everyone, her included, Peter Pettigrew was dead.
Only, Ara didn't hex him.
Harry slowly peeled one eye open. The blonde in front of him was quiet, she looked to be mulling something over in her head.
"Thank you," She whispered before abruptly dropping him, Harry fell onto the floor by his bed with a thud. When the initial aftershock of the situation had passed, Harry grabbed his glasses and turned to glance at Ara's now retreating figure. While doing so, he noticed that Ron was missing, and that Fred Weasley had slid into the room, frantically.
Ara had stopped in front of the twin, and to everyone's shock, after staring at him silently for a few moments, the blonde fell to her knees and sobbed.
Fred wasted no time, he jumped towards Ara and pulled her into his arms. He glanced at all the Fourth Years surrounding him and the blonde, apologetically, before bringing her closer to his chest and beginning to kindly whisper into her ear. George Weasley, along with Lee Jordan and Ron, came running into the room shortly after, their eyes widened at the scene of Ara crying loudly while Fred cradled her.
Lee, who felt very awkward, motioned for Harry and the rest of the boys in the room to exit. He guided Neville, Dean, and Seamus, who'd been quick to leave upon being the given the chance, towards the Gryffindor common room. George and Ron stayed back and stood by the door frame. They were waiting for Harry, whose pity made him straggle.
When the Fourth Year finally moved to walk past Fred and Ara, the older redhead and he locked eyes. While continuing to hold Ara comfortingly, Fred reached out and grabbed Harry's wrist.
"Are you okay?" He mouthed silently, Harry glanced at Ara as sobs continued to rack through her body, he nodded guiltily.
Fred dropped his wrist and nodded back. Harry took that as his cue to leave. Upon joining George and Ron at the door frame, the oldest of the three boys guided Harry and Ron away from the room, but not before pausing to glance at Ara and his twin once more.
Nereza and Adrian had forgotten to go to the latter's dorm on the night that Ara had supposedly locked herself in her room. But it'd been for the better. If they hadn't forgotten, they wouldn't have heard the slamming of the common room door early that morning.
They'd both groggily sat up in the green common room chesterfield they'd fallen asleep on, and upon glancing at the Slytherin Dungeon entrance, they were shocked to see Ara walk past them.
She looked sick, but that seemed to be her new normal.
Nereza and Adrian locked eyes before clumsily falling off their shared chesterfield, and turning to run after Ara, who was steadily making her way back to her dorm.
"Ara! Where were you?" Adrian asked. He'd ran ahead of Nereza and caught up to his blonde friend without breaking a sweat, he supposed he had Quidditch practise to thank for that.
Ara paused in front of her dorm door. She gripped the knob of the room entrance tightly as Nereza and Adrian continued to ask her questions, none of which she answered.
"-You can't just stay locked up in your dorm for days, and then disappear mysteriously!"
She couldn't stand it, Ara abruptly turned around and the angry look on her face forced both Nereza and Adrian to shut up.
"I can do as I please!" She yelled, loudly, "-So don't act like I can't! And,don't act like I owe you an explanation!"
Nereza and Adrian were both silent as they eyed Ara.
"We were just worried-"
"I don't care!" Ara knew she was being mean, but now that she had started, it felt like she couldn't stop. "-It's not like any of it involves either of you! It's not like either of you actually care about Cedric! Or about me! You just want me to act 'normal', right?!"
"Ara-" Nereza had teared up while listening to her roommates emotional outburst. This was the most Ara had spoken to her in days. The blonde rolled her eyes before opening the door to the girl's shared room.
"Leave me alone," Ara hadn't given Nereza the chance to finish speaking before she slammed the door in her and Adrian's faces.
The two Sixth Years stared at the shut door quietly. They didn't bother acknowledging the girls from surrounding dorms who'd stepped out upon hearing the ruckus. Two of said girls had been Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass, who, with matching crossed arms, shared a look.
They'd be sure to bring this up with Draco.
posting almost a week late while home alone and after an argument w ones parents === superior
HAHA pls forgive me tho, im sorry but my time management skills are SOOO bad lately idk
also, guess what, i signed up for a summer course to fast track my education, and it is WHOPPING MY ASS. seriously, everything is so fast paced but also lowkey, i love it. idk, im indecisive lol
onto stuff that you guys maybe actually care about {or not, maybe you skip my wonderful a/n's :( }, this chapter feels so shitty because i have no idea how to write a grieving character, but here we are, building skills until i DO know how to write one. either way, i hope you folks at least kinda liked this chapter, that'll be enough for me :)
leave a comment with your thoughts (whether you liked this chapter or not, criticism is as important as praise) and with anything else you'd like to say because i love speaking to you amazing people! bye everyone, i love you!