Chapter 19
June 30th, 1991 (Two days after the full moon)-Travelling on the Hogwarts Express
Benvolio hooted and looked between Grace and Patricia. The two humans were squabbling over a letter and he just didn't understand why. They both wanted him to take it.
"You've put it off for long enough!" Grace exclaimed eventually. "Why'd you write the letter if you weren't going to send it?" Patricia's response to this was to open and close her mouth several times while trying to think of an answer. Grace took advantage of this lull to grab the letter out of her hand and tie it to Benvolio's talon. The grateful bird gripped the parchment and took one last look at his beloved mistress before flying out of the open compartment window, starting his first leg of the long flight to Greece.
Patricia was torn between screaming, crying, and slapping her friend, or thanking her. She chose not to do either by leaving the compartment and going to sit with the boys.
Fred, George, Lee, and Kenneth Towler were in the middle of a game of Exploding Snap. They were playing with Kenneth's cards, which contained a hand drawn caricature of Snape on the back of each one, so they were calling the game Exploding Snape. Patricia plopped down on the seat beside George.
"Deal me in?" Kenneth did so just as the entire deck decided to explode. They and the compartment got covered in a layer of ash. Kenneth coughed and Lee leaned over to pick up the cards, which had reformed in the 'centre' pile on the seat between them.
"What're you doing here?" Fred asked Patricia while Lee dealt out the cards.
"Weren't you sitting with your roommates?" George asked.
"We had a disagreement," Patricia said tersely.
They began playing. Fred and George took a few cracks at Geoff, the man had quit his job during the last week of school and gotten out of castle as fast as he could after the pranks and the nightmares had gotten to be too much. Coincidently the curse broke right after that, thanks to the full moon.
Patricia was three points ahead when they were interrupted by the arrival of the Slytherin second years. Warrington sneered at them. He had lost weight since first year, all those Hogwarts stairs probably meant he'd walked more in the last two years that he ever had in his life, so it was possible to see Pucey, Niven, and Battaglia standing slightly behind him. The other three boys looked less pleased to be there than Warrington, and Pucey, at Warrington's back as he was, actually had a look of embarrassment on his face.
"What do you want, Warrington?" Patricia asked without looking up from their game. The boys followed her lead and ignored the Slytherins, though Fred and George were ready to draw their wands if it was needed.
"Aren't I allowed to speak to my betrothed?" Warrington said. Patricia looked up with surprise and saw the nasty grin on his face. "My father sent a contract to your adopted father. It's sure to be signed by the time we reach London. He'll be glad to be rid of you, I'll bet. A murderer doesn't like people, after all."
Patricia saw red. Without warning she dropped her cards, which exploded on Warrington's feet, and flicked her wand out of its holster. She pointed it in his face. "Listen carefully because I'm only going to say this once. My father would never betroth me to someone, especially without my input, and I can do so much better than the likes of you. And he would never try to get rid of me. And he's not a murderer!"
Fred and George grabbed Patricia's arms. "Run while you can." Pucey listened to the twins and pushed Warrington down the hall.
The twins gave Patricia a minute to cool off before they released her. Then the boys looked on awkwardly as Patricia collapsed into her seat and began crying. Eventually Fred and George, the only ones among them who had the experience of having a little sister, hugged her and let her cry into their shirts.
"There's something very wrong with me."
July 2nd, 1991- Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, London, England
"You're a Black now. There's always been something very wrong with our family since cousins started marrying each other." That's what Sirius had said when Patricia brought her concerns to him. It was true, but didn't quite seem to fit what Patricia was experiencing. She felt like she had hundreds of different people inside her, all feeling different things at the same time.
In other words, she'd been having massive mood swings since November but it hadn't gotten bad until now.
Since Sirius's answer wasn't satisfactory, Patricia did what any Ravenclaw worth their salt would do. She went to the library, the Black family library to be specific. If she didn't find anything there she planned to get Remus to take her to Diagon Alley so she could raid the books in her vault for information.
Sirius had also said that in his option she was too young to be betrothed to anyone, and Warrington's father had been way out of line anyway. It was supposed to be the girl's family offering the contract, not the boy's. But the Warringtons were "desperate to better themselves" so getting ahead of himself was to be expected from the elder Warrington.
Kreacher popped into the library just as Patricia was getting started on the next shelf of books she was allowed access to. "Master is telling mistress to be coming down for dinner."
Patricia put a bookmark into the books she was reading. "Thank you, Kreacher." The elf gave a nod and Disapperated with a crack.
Patricia made her way to the kitchen to find Sirius and Remus yelling loudly while Bathsheda and Ms. Greene shook their heads and smiled. "What's happened?" Patricia shouted over the celebrating wizards. Bathsheda shouted back.
"Sirius has had another of his ideas, and Harry Potter's coming to Hogwarts!"
A/n: I know it's short, but this felt like the right place to stop.
-Cynder2013