Chapter 14 – Ottery St. Catchpole
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"Thanks for that." She smiled before she popped a painkiller in her mouth. "It was getting to me."
"Yeah, they can be a bit much, but they mean well." George chuckled as they walked further in the garden. "I never asked, but how old are you really?"
"I turn 22 this year." She answered looking around the grounds.
"When?" The twins asked.
"Does it matter?"
"Of course it does!" They called again.
"You're doing it again." Leah chuckled. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"Just taking a stroll to the village." George said, turning them to the right. "But don't change the subject."
"Fine, my birthday is next week." She grumbled.
"What? Why didn't you say anything?"
"I actually forgot about it, with everything going on." Looking stunned herself. "Oh shit!"
"What?" George asked, as Fred was lost in thought.
"My friends from college throw me a party every year. They told me the time and place the night before everything happened. It's this Friday."
"You should go, you deserve a little break from it all. And it's before we go to Minnie, so before your life will be turned upside down."
"Maybe..."
FW
They walked in silence for a bit as they walked through the forest, the only sound coming from the birds that flew around or the crunches their footsteps made on the leaves or branches on the ground. When they reached a creek, Leah frowned when it looked familiar but before she had a chance to think about it, George spoke up.
"You did great by the way, that stuff about expanding our muggle line, genius."
"Yeah, well." Leah shrugged. "When Fred showed me everything in the shop, I thought the muggle line was a bit ... small? And Fred and I already came up with some ideas."
"Really?"
"Show him the notebook." Fred said excitingly, talking for the first time since her birthday had come up, making Leah chuckle.
"I don't have it with me." She turned back to George. "We wrote it down in a notebook but it's at my flat."
"Ah." George said, understanding what the two of them talked about. "You're really good at lying, I might add. Maybe even better than me and Freddie."
"Yeah, should I be worried about that?" Fred asked, with a teasing grin.
"No." She grinned back. "Even though I lied my butt of today, I normally tell the truth. I've been told I'm too honest someti-" She stopped in her tracks, her heart starting to hammer in her chest, her breathing becoming fast as they arrived in the small town, standing on a familiar cobbled street.
"Leah?" The twins asked worried. George grabbed her shoulders as he levelled with her, Fred next to him with the same worried expression etched on his face. "Come here, sit down." George ushered her to a bench a few meters away.
When she calmed down and slowed her breathing, she looked past the twins, to her surroundings. "I know this place."
"You've been here?"
She nodded her head. "See the country house on the end of the street? That's my grandmother's house."
The twins looked at the old house before looking back at Leah with big eyes. "Leah..." Fred started slowly, when it dawned on him. Leah looked away from her grandmother's house and looked in his blue eyes. "Remember what you called me the first time you met me, at the park?" He said, while showing his scar.
She looked down at her hand, her index finger tracing her own scar. "Carrot top."
Before George could ask what she had whispered, Fred and Leah's eyes closed as the memory of that summer's day in 1986 came flooding back.
When Leah's eyes opened again, she grinned. "Need glasses, carrot top?"
"Oh Godric!" George called out; his eyes went wide. "You were the girl?"
"Yeah, guess so."
"But you said you never been to Ottery St. Catchpole before."
"My Nan and my parents always called it Otter's River."
"I can't believe I didn't recognize you." Fred whispered as he was still crouched down in front of her.
"Fred, it's been almost thirteen years. I wouldn't have expected you to."
"We need to send Minnie a message, so she can narrow down her research. Because we first thought you never met but now..." George stood up from the bench. "I'll go hide behind the trees and see if I can send her a Patronus." Not waiting for an answer, he hurried down to the tree line.
FW
"Did you come here often? Because besides that day, I never saw you again." Fred asked sitting down in George's vacant seat.
"Addie and I came here almost every other weekend during the schoolyear when my parents had to work. And during the holidays, it would alternate from us coming here, or my grandmother coming to our place. But Addie and I mostly kept to ourselves."
"I still can't believe it." She whispered. "How did we not put two-and-two together? I mean, come on, Otter's River and Ottery St. Catchpole." She laughed, Fred joining in.
"I can't believe we were so close but never saw each other again."
"Maybe it was for the best, I don't think we would've gotten along." She turned her hand, so she could see the crescent on her palm. "So, we bumped into each other and got cut?"
"Seems so. Did your scar light up?"
"Light up? No, I don't think so." She frowned at her hand. "My Nan cleaned the wound and put a band-aid on it. What happened with yours?"
So, Fred began telling his tale, rather exaggerated and elaborate, just so you know. George was coming back from the tree line when Fred was at the point in the story, the two of them made their way back home, so Leah patted the space on her other side, which George quietly took as she placed her finger on her lips.
"Hm, okay." Leah started, as she took in this new information. "But how did it turn into a gash, a scar? I didn't bump into you that hard."
"You hit me pretty hard." Fred grinned.
"Or maybe you were just a little wimp, carrot top." She teased back.
"Oi!" George shouted behind her.
"What?" She asked, looking over her shoulder.
"You know I'm his twin, right? Identical twin. If you call him a wimp, you're calling me one."
"So?" She grinned at the second twin.
George clutched his heart, in mock hurt and let out a high-pitched scuff. "You'll pay for that, missy." And he lunged for her trying to tickle her sides, but she just sat there, grinning at him. "Why isn't this working?" George grunted.
"I'm not a ticklish person."
"That's no fun." George pouted as he ceased his attempts. George looked over his shoulder to her grandmother's house. "You know… I can get us in."
"Really?" She asked surprised.
"Jup. Just with a flick of my wand."
"Let's go then. I need answers." She had already jumped up from the bench and darted towards the house. George and Fred quickly ran behind her, trying to catch up with her. George filled them in about his Patronus talk with Minerva wanting as many details as she could get. It took him a couple of times before he could conjure his Patronus, since he couldn't do it anymore after Fred died.
FW
"Alohomora." George whispered as he pointed his wand to the door. With a click the door creaked open, a beeping sound coming from near the door. "What's that noise?"
"It's the alarm. Hold up." She walked in the hallway and stopped in front of the little white box on the wall. She quickly typed in the code and the beeping stopped. George closed the door behind him and they turned to look at the house. To her left was the sitting area and to her right a large office with build-in library. The beige curtains were closed, the sun slightly shined through them. All the furniture were covered with large blankets, making it look eerie. Fred stepped up next to her and whispered.
"It looks like one of those horror movies you showed me."
Leah chuckled at that, her laugh echoing through the silent house.
"Creepy." George shivered. Leah rolled her eyes and walked in the sitting area, pulling a blanket off from the desk near the door, revealing a radio. She twisted a few buttons before music blared through the house.
"Better?"
"Much." The twins said.
"I'll start in the library, George why don't you start here and Fred, you can help me out." She said already turning before she stopped and looked around. "Just pull of the blankets and place them together."
George didn't answer, he just swirled his wand in front of him and all the blankets, covers and rags from around the house came flying in the sitting area. They folded themselves and were neatly stacked in a corner.
"Thanks." She smiled at George. "We better get started before your mum starts to come looking for us."
"Oh, right." George said distracted, like he had forgotten about the family dinner.
FW
It was a large house to go through. Besides a picture she found in the library of her Nan with, what Fred said was Cassandra Trelawney, they didn't find anything on the ground floor. The first floor that included five bedrooms and 2 bathrooms didn't hold any clues either. George took it open himself to search Addie's room as Leah couldn't step one foot in there, while Fred eagerly wanted to search her old room.
When they reached the attic, George had to perform an unlocking spell on it because it was the only room in the house that was locked. She stepped in the dark attic; when she clicked on the light, she saw the room filled with carton boxes, spread across the attic.
"There are at least fifty of them." Leah groaned as she walked in further, tracing her finger on the top of one of the boxes, gathering dust on her finger.
"There are things written on them. Like kitchen, bathroom. We could skip those and focus on the others." George offered.
"But what if she hid something in there? She hid things from her family all her life, she wouldn't just let stuff like that lying around."
"Alright." George flicked his wand and three stacks of boxes floated to them. "Better get to it then."
Each of them took place in front of a stack and started searching the boxes. George occasionally chuckled as he saw things floating in the air, from where Fred was sitting as picked the lighter stuff up.
FW
Leah didn't know how long they sat there, just going through box after box before Fred called out, as he peered inside a box. Leah jumped up and she hurried over to Fred, kneeling down next to him. George sensing Fred had found something leaped up too and sat on the other side of the box, opposite of Fred.
"What is it?" Leah and George asked simultaneously.
"I don't know, some kind of chest. I can't get it out, it's too heavy." Fred looked to his left, searching her deep blue eyes. "It has your name on it."
Leah swallowed as she took her scrunchy off her wrist and put her hair in a lose bun before she looked inside and pulled out a wooden box. It was an antique hand-made wooden box; two leather straps that went around the box, one on the left and one on the right. In the middle of the box was her name that was carved in, next to it two engraved crescent moons, like her scar. The box didn't have lock, or an opening. She frowned as she tried to tear open the lid. George inspected the box as he cocked his head to the side.
"Leah." Fred whispered. She looked away from the box as he held out his hand. "Maybe?"
Without answering, she placed the box on the floor, they both hovered their hands over the box. When they touched it at the same time, George let out a high-pitched scream as he fell back, the case clicked open and they took their hands off it, both looking at George confused.
"George?"
"Georgie?"
George swallowed as he sat back up, staring at the space Fred was sitting. "I – I saw you."
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