Night of the Broken Glass
C4: Shards
[A/N: Professor Weasley looks very mad indeed.]
[Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the original Harry Potter stuff. I own whatever and whoever I make up. Don't steal and don't sue.]
"Oh my." Rima murmured, "He got back from the hospital wing rather quickly." Professor Weasley advanced on Kendra, his ears as red as his hair.
"What in God's name…" he could barely speak from his rage, "You could have broken your neck…killed yourself…and you weren't even riding the broom right!"
"Professor, Talionis took her wand!" the Gryffindors protested, "And he was riding on a broom too!"
Professor Weasley's eyes seemed to show a little less anger, but he still grabbed Kendra's wrist. Kendra gave Virgil and Rima a look that clearly said "I'm-going-to-die," but they just grinned and waved.
"Seal, d'you mind if I steal Ward for a minute?" Professor Weasley poked his head into the Transfiguration classroom, "I have a little problem."
Kendra felt a very large weight drop into her stomach. Shuffling footsteps came towards the door and a well-built girl with raven-black hair came out of the room, looking sleepy and bemused.
"Ward, Kendra, come on." Professor Weasley jerked his finger, suddenly smiling. He led them straight to his deserted Charms classroom and turned to each of them, smiling broadly.
"At the risk of sounding like Professor McGonagall, Ward, I found you a new Seeker." he chuckled. Kendra's eyebrows jerked up in shock as the raven-haired girl looked faintly happy, and Professor Weasley grinned.
"Like her father, isn't it?" the girl yawned, "How real."
"Real?" Professor Weasley blinked.
"I meant weird." the girl shook her head, "Weird, it is."
"Um, Professor, I'd really rather…" Kendra muttered.
"It really is just like your dad." Professor Weasley laughed, "This exact same thing happened to him when we were going to school that while ago."
"Professor, I don't want…"
"You'll be perfect." Professor Weasley insisted.
"…I don't want to."
"Kendra?"
Kendra glanced up from staring out the window in the Gryffindor common room to see Virgil. He sank down on the floor next to her and glanced out the window.
"It's just about five." he murmured, looking back at her, "And you haven't said a word since you came back from talking to Weasley."
"They want me to be on the Quidditch team for Gryffindor." Kendra said in a low, scratchy voice, "But I really don't want to be there. So Professor Weasley wants me to come down to the Quidditch field at seven."
"That just sucks, doesn't it?" Virgil sighed, "So are you going to go?"
"I have to or I get a detention or two for being a dimwit on a broomstick."
"Well, you could go down there." Virgil looked out to the setting sun, "And you could just do what he asks of you to see if you really don't want to play for Gryffindor. If you don't, I guess you won't. But if you do think it's just a bit of fun, maybe you should play. I'll shoo now. You probably need to think."
He stood, dusting off his black jeans, and started away towards the fire.
"Virgil?" Kendra murmured before he could get very far away, "Do you and Rima want to come down and watch?"
Virgil smiled and replied, "Sure. We'd love to come and cheer you on."
At seven, the three Gryffindors made their way down to the field, where they spotted a person flying twenty feet overhead, and a person throwing a overlarge red ball at them from the ground.
"You've got much better timing than your father and I did." Professor Weasley was the one on the ground, "We rarely had a day where we weren't late for something."
The person flying overhead shot down to land on the ground. It was the girl with the raven-black hair from earlier in the day, looking much more awake than before.
"Now, Kendra, I want you to do exactly what you did before." Professor Weasley turned to a box at his feet, kicking it open, "But do it on this broom." He handed her a sleek broom with the words 'Lightning Bolt' at the top.
"The Lightning Bolt." Rima sighed a bit, smirking, "Successor to the famed Firebolt of many teams. Released only recently. Quite expensive, too."
"For an Auror's daughter, you sure know a lot about different things." Professor Weasley raised his eyebrows a bit as he handed Kendra the broom. Kendra stared at the broom in her hand apprehensively, as if not wanting to have anything to do with it.
Virgil nudged her with a finger in her back. Kendra groaned vaguely and dropped the broom to the ground. She stood on the handle and began to think to get it in the air.
Before she thought anything at all, the broom leapt off the ground a few feet. Feeling something like a great deal of excitement, Kendra simply thought of moving forwards and the broom shot straight ahead. It responded exactly to her thoughts, even when she decided to scare the folks on the ground by doing a roll and loop one after the other.
"Wicked!" Professor Weasley whooped, "Kendra, I'm going to let out the Golden Snitch! Look for a little gold ball with wings!" He kicked another box at his feet and something shot as a blur from it.
Kendra glanced towards them and spotted the gold ball hovering around Virgil's head before it zipped away. She went after it, not really knowing where it went, but spotted it soon after as it tried to hide by skimming the grass. Kendra rolled over and stayed hanging upside down, hand out, and grabbed the Snitch.
"I counted about thirteen seconds." the black-haired girl smiled as Kendra landed by them a few seconds later, "I'd say you're on the team, if you want to be."
"…was my father really such a great person?" Kendra asked nervously, "On the team?"
"Won every game he was in." Professor Weasley smiled, "He stopped playing for a while after you were born, to spend time with you. Then…"
"Guess I'm on the team then." Kendra shrugged her shoulders with an unsure grin, "If I'm actually good."
"Good doesn't even begin to describe it." Rima smiled sideways, her voice half-mocking and half-praising. Kendra smiled a bit more at that and started to hand the broom back to Professor Weasley. He refused with a smile, pressing it back into her chest with a smile.
"I can't take this if it's so expensive." she objected, "Professor—"
"Call me Ron, all right?" Professor Weasley smiled wearily, "I knew your mum and dad. They were my best friends here. I technically inherited your parent's vault in Gringotts, but I never felt right about using any of the money your parents earned. However, your dad left a large amount of money from his Quidditch days, and it only seemed right to at least use it for something good. Think of it as a very belated ten-year's worth of birthday presents, OK?"
Kendra looked at him for a long while, the broom clutched in her hand. She let out a breath and looked to the ground, her eyes looking for something.
"Could you tell me about my parents?"
Ron's fire-colored eyebrows lifted into his hairline. Then he smiled slightly, chuckling softly in his throat.
"Sure." he replied, "Come on with me. The rest of you can go on and get back to Gryffindor common room. Go on now." The others went off towards the castle, Virgil casting a glance over his shoulder.
"Let me see…" Ron groaned as he sank into a chair in his office, "Your mum and dad. Where to begin?"
Kendra sat down opposite him, glancing around the office. It had a bookcase holding a number of texts, but the walls were more coated with posters of moving wizards throwing the large red ball at each other and black balls shooting at them. One wizard in particular was hovering above the game, looking around. His hair was black as pitch, his eyes emerald green, and a lightning scar was carved on his head. Kendra felt a pang.
"That's your dad." Ron smiled, "The one with the black hair. He was the best Seeker England ever had."
"What were my mother and father like?"
"Smart." Ron listed the qualities, "Brave. Powerful, of course. And they were the best pair the wizarding world had ever seen. Most people—not counting Malfoy, the Death Eaters, and You-Know-Who—liked Harry and Hermione. They were almost leaders in the war against You-Know-Who and Darkness.
"Course, Darkness is still around. But he'll be defeated sooner or later. I really miss your mum and dad."
"Did you know them long?"
"Yeah. All seven years here at Hogwarts. Knew your mum when she worked at the Ministry of Magic. She was about to be the next Minister, she was. Knew your dad when he was on England's team. Everyone was envious 'cause I scraped good seats for my daughters and me."
"So how did they die?"
Ron looked abashed and shocked. Kendra stood with her back to him, her hand splayed over the poster with her father on it.
"The Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra." he replied after a pregnant pause, "No marks, no traces, just gone. Darkness did that, supposedly, after You-Know-Who was killed. Harry finally beat You-Know-Who, but…it kind of got him killed."
Kendra stood stock-still, a ringing coming to her ears. Something was coming back to her, and she didn't want it to come back. She turned and bolted from Ron's office, running towards Gryffindor Tower.
The common room was vacant. The only sound was the sound of the fire crackling. Kendra sat at the window she had been before, staring out at the blackened sky. It looked like rain.
A sudden, unsure step came onto her leg. She looked down to see a little black kitten trying to crawl onto her lap. It was too little and slipped from her leg, tumbling back on the floor. Kendra picked the kitten up carefully and cradled it near her chest. It purred and nuzzled up against her, closing its red eyes contently.
"Tac, did you sneak out here—oh." Virgil came down the stairs from the boy's dormitory and spotted Kendra, "Are you all right?"
"Is he yours?" Kendra questioned, her voice quavering, "He's friendly."
"Not to most people." Virgil smiled and walked over, sitting himself down next to her, "But he seems to really like you."
"Tac's his name?" Kendra scratched the kitten under his chin, "That's an interesting name."
"Cat, spelled backwards." Virgil chuckled slightly, "He's a goofy little thing that just likes to be out here. I don't let him because he's just a kitten."
"He'd be all right." she lifted the cat to look him in the eye, "He looks smart enough."
"I know." Virgil replied, "He's smart enough to trick the others in my dormitory to let him out. But he's still a kitten."
There was a very long pause, minutes long, until either of them said anything.
"Are you really all right?"
"No. I can hear screaming now. I can see a light, a scream cut short, and someone laughing. I don't know who's laughing and who's screaming. But that's the only thing I can hear, even if I hear you talking. I can't hear anything else…"
She lowered her head and sniffed, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to stream from her eyes. Virgil shifted closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She turned to his shoulder and cried silently, her shoulders shaking from her silent sobs.
"Kendra, I think you had better get to bed." Virgil chuckled a bit, trying to make her cheer up, "A person with tear-reddened eyes isn't very happy in the morning unless they get some rest." Kendra let a laugh break through, a weak smile on her face.
"I'll even let Tac sleep with you tonight. Now, will you go to bed?" he asked not in an exasperated tone, but in meaning. Kendra didn't move and didn't respond, but felt a point poke lightly into her side.
Her green eyes slid shut and she was asleep.
—to be continued—
