Chapter 16: Explanations

*****

            Charms class had ended with no sign of Alinora.  Her friends were getting very concerned and hurried back to the common room, hoping to find that she'd simply gone back to get some sleep.  When Katie had rejoined them, after running upstairs to check their room, to say that she wasn't anywhere in the girl's dorm they got really worried.  They were about to go search the halls when Hermione, Ron and Harry burst through the portrait hole.

            "Have you heard?!?" Hermione exclaimed, gasping for breath, "Goyle attacked Ali this afternoon down in the dungeons!"

            Fred quickly grabbed hold of George, who looked ready to find Goyle and do some attacking of his own.

            "What happened?  Do you know where she is?  Is she okay?!?" Katie asked worriedly.

            Hermione took a deep, steadying breath and continued.  "Padma was in Transfiguration this afternoon when Ali came to the door of the room, about half way through class.  Padma said that her hair was down around her face and she looked... on edge, like she might break if pressed too much.  McGonagall hadn't been too pleased with the interruption, but had walked back to the door to talk to her.  Padma was sitting near them and was able to hear most of what they said.  Basically, it seems Goyle grabbed her as she was leaving the dungeons after class- she didn't know why.  Padma seems to think he'd taken her wand since Ali hit him, or something, to knock him out so she could get away.  She'd just been up to talk to Madam Pomfrey about where she'd left Goyle and had wanted McGonagall to be aware of what had happened too, before hearing about it from someone else.  McGonagall supposedly looked really shocked and, after asking how she was doing and whether she should go back up to the hospital wing, Ali broke in and said she had to get away for a little while and she'd check back with Madam Pomfrey again later.  Then she walked off and McGonagall resumed class, though she seemed a bit distracted."  Hermione stopped to take another deep breath.  "Has she come back here?  Is she okay?"

            But George didn't stay to hear who answered Hermione's questions, he'd heard enough.  He ran upstairs to grab his cloak and scarf before heading out of the common room and down towards the entrance to the school.  He had a feeling that he knew exactly where she'd be.

*****

            It was already getting dark out, but he headed out into the falling snow, towards the lake.  After a couple minutes walk, he saw a small figure sitting on a rock ahead of him and could hear the sound of singing.  As he approached, he could tell she'd heard him.  She stopped singing and turned her head in the darkness towards him.

            "It's safe to come closer- I promise not to hit you or anything…" she said, chuckling weakly.

            He crossed the last couple of feet to the rock, sat down beside her and enclosed her within his cloak- wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

            She sat there stiffly for a moment before he felt her relax as the barrier around her emotions broke.  She wrapped her arms around his waist before burying her face in his chest and bursting into tears.

            They sat there for quite a while in silence, except for the sound of Alinora's sobs.  George was glad to notice that she'd remembered to put a warming charm on the rock- since he had no idea how long she been out there in the snow and he didn't think freezing to death would greatly improve situations.

            Finally, her crying slowed and she pulled back to wipe her eyes and dry her running nose.

            "Feeling better?  Well, other than the headache, itchy eyes and running nose?" he teased gently.

            Alinora smiled weakly, though she knew George couldn't see it in the dark.  "Yes, I'm actually feeling much better… except the whole aching head thing."

            "You up to telling me what all's been going on today?  You've been looking ready to have a breakdown all day and now we've heard from Hermione that Goyle attacked you this afternoon?!?"  George could feel himself tensing up in anger again at that and forced himself to relax.

            "Yeah, it's been a ruddy awful day all around." she sighed in response, sounding very tired.  She paused for a moment, trying to decide how to explain.  "I don't know if I've ever explained why I didn't come to Hogwarts when I was eleven or why I transferred in suddenly mid-year last year.  My father had a rather dangerous job, where it was decided early on that it would be best if the wizarding world wasn't… aware that he had a family, let alone a witch for a daughter.  I took my mother's name, which is actually common in her family, and Dumbledore helped him hide the fact that I was talented.  So, I never got my invitation to Hogwarts- I was taught at home by my father and other friends of his.

"A couple years ago, a number of people my father worked with started dying, under what could only be called mysterious circumstances, and he arranged, at that point, to have me come here if anything happened to him."  She stopped to take a steadying breath, and then continued.  "About a year ago, my father had been gone on another of his research trips when I started feeling a bit worried about him.  He was due to come back that day- he'd promised to be back before Christmas- and I decided to go to his office in town to wait for him.  I got there… and I found him.  He was dead and appeared to have been tortured."

            This time, she stopped completely for a few minutes.  Finally, pulling herself together, she continued.  "Friends of ours, who knew us and our situation, took care of the arrangements for him and gave explanations to the Muggles in town, who were very upset about the situation.  I spent most of my time helping my mom.  She was devastated.  Finally, my god parents came for me and she left to go stay with her family.  I hadn't had a chance to come to terms with what had happened and I hadn't realized just how much I'd bottled up- dealing with his death, my mom leaving, coming here and getting use to a new life- until last night.  When it finally sunk in yesterday evening what today was, the one year anniversary of what was basically the destruction of my family, those emotions I'd closed off started breaking out again.  I had nightmares all night and I've been on edge all day trying not to give into them, but still deal with them.  I thought… I knew I needed to grieve, but I hadn't given myself permission to do so and it was tearing me up and playing havoc with my control."  She reached up to push her hair out of her face and winced.

            "And then to top off the absolute day from Hell, that prat Goyle had to go and attack me.  I can't figure out why, or what he hoped to accomplish with that effort in stupidity.  Maybe I should've asked before I punched him…" she murmured consideringly.

            "You really knocked out Goyle?  With your fist?  No magic at all?  The guy's twice your size, if not three times it!"  Alinora could hear the amazement in his voice.

            Yes George, I knocked him out with my fist.  Keep that in mind the next time you and Fred decide to charm objects to sing badly when your girlfriend's having a bad day!"  At George's sudden intake of breath, Ali realized what she'd said and started to draw back; but George wouldn't let her.

            "I will definitely keep that in mind for the future, since I absolutely don't want to unintentionally anger my girlfriend." he murmured to her.

            She relaxed back against him.  Though they'd been spending most of their free time together all year and were going to the Ball together, the topic of whether they were officially 'dating' had never been addressed.  The only reason she had let it slip out now was because her guard was down due to the emotional roller coaster she'd been on all day.  Ali realized that she was grinning rather foolishly and was very glad that it was too dark for George to see.

            "So… you're okay with the whole 'dating' thing?  Everyone seems to have been assuming it was the case, but…" she broke off.

            George laughed and pulled her up onto his lap, rearranging the cloak to account for it.  "I am quite happy to make it official- or maybe just finally official for us, as we seem to be the slow ones here.  And this way I don't have to worry about Angelina coming after me with Fred's beater club, because I wasn't getting around to things quickly enough."

            Alinora smiled.  Reaching up with both hands, she gently drew his head down towards her and kissed him.  While it started off innocently enough, he'd soon pulled her even closer and she'd slid her arms up and around his neck to subconsciously keep him from pulling away.  Eventually though they both pulled back to take a breath and the kiss ended.

            Ali could feel how flushed her face was and wished she could more clearly see George's expression in the moonlight.  That had progressed a bit quicker than expected for a first kiss, but she didn't feel much like complaining about it.

            "I… it's probably about time to be heading in for dinner." George said tentatively.

            "Yes, you're probably right." she reluctantly agreed.  "And I'm done exploding things for a while, so it should be safe to go back in…"

            "You… what?  Exploding things?" George sputtered.

            At that Alinora started laughing, for the first time that day.  Climbing off George's lap and down from the rock, she leaned over and scooped up a handful of snow to make a snow ball.  When she finished she whispered a charm that caused it to glow pink.

            "I found that it makes it easier to see them- and it looks cool." she explained as she tossed it out over the lake.  Quickly pulling her wand, she pointed it at the glowing orb and said "Annihilaramos."  The snow ball exploded into a falling shimmer that resembled fireworks.

            "I've improved over the afternoon- I wasn't hitting them nearly as well earlier, but it was lighter and I wasn't thinking as clearly.  I have had to start using the wand though- finally getting too tired not to." she stated matter-of-factly before putting away her wand and turning back to where George was sitting open-mouthed.

            "Ready to go in?" was all he said.

            George got up to join her, enabling Alinora to end the warming spell and shrink her rock back to it's normal size before placing it in her pocket.  Then, they turned and walked back towards the school.