Chapter Four: Back to School
"We meet again, fair maiden."
Holly spun around to see Cedric, clad in armor, on one knee offering her a single white rose. Holly smiled and looked down at her own costume. She wore a white gown, trimmed with gold and a crown of bluebells upon her crimson hair. She laughed.
"Is this some sort of a joke?" she asked.
"Not at all," Cedric replied, smiling. "It's something to cheer you up. Go on, take the flower." He nodded at the rose in his hand. Holly took it.
"Why thank you, noble knight!" Holly said, dramatically.
"Look around," Cedric said, nodding at their surroundings. Holly found herself standing in front of a castle wall with pink roses creeping up it, twisting its thorny vines into every nook and cranny. She was in a lovely garden with every sort of flower imaginable.
"Oh Cedric, you shouldn't have," she said, laughing.
"Hey, it's your head. You did it," Cedric said. "So, how's Oliver?"
"Oh, I don't know!" Holly sighed, falling onto a stone bench. Cedric took a seat next to her and looked concerned. Holly explained. "He seemed a bit strange today... and then he got all upset when I tried to tell him that... that I felt..."
"That I'm still here?" Cedric asked. Holly squirmed and looked up at him.
"Yeah," she said. "Were you there?" Cedric smiled.
"What Oliver– nor anyone else but you, I'm afraid– doesn't understand is that the dead are all around you. Our consciousness is in the scent of the fresh morning glory and the melodies of the nightingale. We are still there. Maybe not in whole form... Or the way you'd expect us to be... but we are there. Bits of me drift on Alaskan winds with Muggle explorers, or into the depths of the oceans with whales bigger than Hogwarts! I see things I would never have gotten to see when I was alive..."
Cedric sighed.
"But see, you don't really understand... you never can quite understand until you experience it. It may seem weird to you that I can be in two or more places at once... See, a part of me is always with you. I'm always here when you need me, whispering advice into your ear. And when I talk to you like this... In your head... You see me as you remember me because that is how you want to see me. Although, this body..." and Cedric looked himself up and down. "There's more to me than this body. This body is how you recognize me. But it isn't me. Are you confused yet?"
"Head spinning," Holly confirmed, nodding. Cedric laughed and looked up at the clear blue sky.
"Yes... Well, you'll understand when your time comes." Cedric sighed. Holly frowned.
"Is it... you know... strange? To be dead, I mean?" Holly asked. Cedric smiled.
"Maybe at first it can be a bit scary. But you figure things out," he said.
"And ghosts..." Holly said. "What would they say about death?"
"Ha, they're probably more miserable than I am at any rate," Cedric said. "I mean, they're too connected to their body. They don't understand that their body isn't who they really are... They refuse to let go of that form, to take the last step, and it prevents their consciousness from reverting back to its natural state– floating, individual particles of nature. Human beings didn't pop out of thin air, we're all made of elements. Except our conciseness is neither matter nor energy... It's something else. But I'm no physicist."
"You sound smarter than me," Holly said. "Does wisdom come with death?"
Cedric laughed hard at that one. "No, no, no, Holly! Wisdom comes with age and experience. You experience a lot more dead than alive, believe it or not. But today, you... you showed wisdom beyond your years today, Holly. With Oliver. That was quite mature of you."
Holly blushed. "Not really..." Holly said.
"You're growing up, Holly," Cedric said. "And growing up means changes. You don't know it yet, but something inside you has already changed. And it's a big change indeed. It's not something that happens to most girls your age. It's a gift your mother gave you."
"What are you talking about?" Holly asked. Cedric smiled.
"You think all this is normal?" he asked, gesturing around at their medieval garden. Holly shrugged.
"It's my dream, isn't it? Everyone dreams different things," she said.
"Yeah, but no one dreams anything like this," Cedric laughed, looking around at their landscape which seemed to stretch for miles. "I bet you could go running towards that farmland way over there and keep running forever."
Holly followed his gaze. "Yeah, maybe," she said. "I don't think I'm strange just because I have creative dreams."
Cedric looked at her and smiled. "But they're so much more than dreams, Holly," he said. "Don't you understand that?"
Holly awoke frustrated from her pleasant dream. Cedric was confusing the hell out of her. She looked at her clock. 7:30. She had to get up and get ready to go to the train station.
Trudging downstairs, she took her seat at the kitchen table.
"I hate getting up so early," she mumbled.
"Drink your tea, dear," her mother ordered with a warm smile as she waved her wand at the dishes for them to start washing themselves. "Oh, I hate cleaning!" she complained. Holly smiled up at her mother, who grinned down at her. But Elise's grin slowly turned into a frown.
"Oh Holly, why do you insist on wearing that?"
Holly was wearing a baggy black T-shirt she had slept in the night before with the words The Weird Sisters scrawled across it in a fiery color. The writing flickered like a flame. Her mother hated that shirt. With it, Holly wore a pair of baggy jeans.
"Oh Mum!" Holly moaned. "You know with my robes on no one will notice!" Elise pursed her lips, but said nothing. Instead, she turned to the eggs and waved her wand at it for the pan to flip it.
"Oh..." she said, and Holly could already detect the smile in her voice. "And Remus says he's visiting today..." Elise turned around and her face grew serious. "When you're gone, I mean... It's plans. For the wedding next year."
"Oh bah," Holly moaned.
Holly swiftly finished the eggs her mother shoved under her nose and put a cranky Jericho into his cage. He nipped at her finger rather hard when she woke him up.
"Ow! Mum, I think this bird hates me!" she whined. The bird let out a disgruntled "hoot" of agreement. Elise just laughed and shook her head as she carried Holly's trunk to the car.
"Good for nothing little bird!" Holly muttered, throwing the cage in the back of the car and making Jericho's head spin.
King's Cross was unusually packed with tourists, probably tying to rush home before the vacation ended. Holly waited a few minutes before she stealthily made her way through the wall and onto platform nine and three quarters. She saw the gleaming red coat of the Hogwarts Express and smiled. She was going to see the twins again, after a month of separation and she couldn't think of anything better. And at just the right moment, she heard two identical voices calling her name.
"Holly!" The twins bombarded her and nearly knocked her over.
"How was your vacation?" George cried, breathless. "Sorry we didn't write, we were locked up–"
"Nasty little incident with using Ginny as a guinea pig got us grounded–" Fred explained.
"But we're here now!" cried George. "Oh, it's good to see you! How are you?"
"I'm as good as I'll get!" Holly laughed, trying to calm her friends down.
Lee came running up to them.
"Fred, George, were you just with Harry?" he asked. The twins nodded simultaneously. "Is that his dog? I like it. I've been thinking of getting a big dog like that... something to scare off unwanted guests..." Lee then noticed Holly and grinned. "Or girls who just refuse to leave me alone... How are you, Holly? Flesh paint work alright?" Fred and George stared at Lee with identical looks of excitement on their face.
"You tried it on her?" George cried.
"How'd it work?" Fred asked, gleefully.
"Did it come out alright?" said George.
"Was the paint in all the right places?" Fred demanded.
"What did she do to you?" George laughed. Lee just grinned.
"Oh, she got pretty mad alright!" Lee told them.
"Me?" Holly said loudly so the twins would hear her clearly. "Why, you two should have seen Lee's face after he wiped Feature Replacement Potion all over it."
And the old friends shared a good laugh.
Holly looked over her friends' shoulders and noticed a black dog accompanying Harry. Smiling, she approached them.
"Harry!" she said, giving her little brother a hug. He received her warmly.
"Holly," he said. "I've missed you."
"And hello to you to!" Holly said, scratching the dog behind the ears. The dog kicked its hind leg and wagged its tail. Holly looked up at Harry. "What's his name?" she asked him.
"Er, um, Holly, there's something you should..." But Harry thought better of it and merely sighed. "Snuffles," he said. Holly made a face.
"A big dog like this is called Snuffles?" she laughed.
"Hey, it was his choice!" Holly frowned in confusion, but Harry seemed to have noticed that he said something wrong and he pointed behind Holly. "Oh look, Lupin!"
Holly straightened immediately and turned around and received Remus formally.
"Good morning, Holly!" Remus said, opening his arms to hug her. She merely took his hand and shook it.
"Remus," she said, nodding. Remus looked awkwardly down at her and tried to smile.
"You know, uh... Oh! How's the owl doing? What did you name him?" Holly asked.
"Jericho," Holly said. "Father's middle name you know." Remus frowned.
"Really?" he said. "Well, I've known your father all my life and he never..."
"Not that one," Holly said, sharply. Remus smiled.
"Ah, yes," he nodded. "I'm sorry, Holly, but I've always considered your parents to be..." Remus looked at Harry, then back to Holly.
"I get it," Holly said, curtly. Remus nodded and bit his lip.
"Right then!" Remus said, clapping his hands together. "We should be off. Good luck Harry. Holly..." And with a tip of his hat and a flip of his cloak, he turned on his heal and left.
"What was that about?" Harry asked, confused. Holly sighed.
"Never mind..." she said. "Come, we'll miss the train." The dog jumped up and put its paws on Harry's shoulder when Mrs. Weasley pushed it down again and scolded it.
"For heaven's sake act more like a dog, Sirius!" she snapped.
Comprehension dawned on Holly's face as Harry snatched her hand and yelled, "Come on, Holly!" The dog winked at Holly as she looked out the window and the train pulled away from the station.
Holly wandered the compartments until she found Fred, George and Lee. She found their usual compartment and heard them stop talking as the door moved. When they saw her, they sighed with relief.
"We thought you were someone unpleasant," Fred sighed.
"Don't be too sure it isn't!" Lee warned. Holly shot him a look and he was silenced.
"What are we talking about?" Holly asked.
"What else?" George said. "Our new business."
"Surely not Weasley's Wizard..." but as the other boys nodded, Holly didn't bother to finish and sighed. She plopped down next to George. "Alright, I'm all ears," she said and the boys explained their plans to her for the whole ride.
"I'm sorry, guys... But I really don't get it! You intend on doing this for the rest of your life?" Holly asked as they stepped off the train. Fred and George nodded and looked perplexed.
"What else would we do?" George asked.
"Yeah, Holly, it's not like they could be a tag-team Minister of Magic or something," Lee said. But Fred and George looked at each other gleefully.
"That would be wicked!" they exclaimed together.
"I mean, we could have so much fun messing with Ministry officials' heads!" Fred declared.
"They'd get us mixed up constantly!" George howled with laughter.
"Hello, Mr. Weasleys!" Holly smiled at the two.
"It'd be great to be Ministers of Magic together," Fred sighed, his laughter subsiding.
As she was about to follow Lee into the carriage, Holly noticed Harry hesitate.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked the twins. In unison, they turned to look. Turning back to Holly, they shrugged.
"Probably nothing new," George said, dismissing it quickly. But Holly's eyes widened. What was even more peculiar was the infamous girl who was trying to reassure him.
"And what does you think she's telling him?" she asked, bewildered. Fred glanced over his shoulder again as his brother pushed past Holly into the carriage. Fred grinned.
"Probably nothing good," he laughed, and he followed his brother.
"We meet again, fair maiden."
Holly spun around to see Cedric, clad in armor, on one knee offering her a single white rose. Holly smiled and looked down at her own costume. She wore a white gown, trimmed with gold and a crown of bluebells upon her crimson hair. She laughed.
"Is this some sort of a joke?" she asked.
"Not at all," Cedric replied, smiling. "It's something to cheer you up. Go on, take the flower." He nodded at the rose in his hand. Holly took it.
"Why thank you, noble knight!" Holly said, dramatically.
"Look around," Cedric said, nodding at their surroundings. Holly found herself standing in front of a castle wall with pink roses creeping up it, twisting its thorny vines into every nook and cranny. She was in a lovely garden with every sort of flower imaginable.
"Oh Cedric, you shouldn't have," she said, laughing.
"Hey, it's your head. You did it," Cedric said. "So, how's Oliver?"
"Oh, I don't know!" Holly sighed, falling onto a stone bench. Cedric took a seat next to her and looked concerned. Holly explained. "He seemed a bit strange today... and then he got all upset when I tried to tell him that... that I felt..."
"That I'm still here?" Cedric asked. Holly squirmed and looked up at him.
"Yeah," she said. "Were you there?" Cedric smiled.
"What Oliver– nor anyone else but you, I'm afraid– doesn't understand is that the dead are all around you. Our consciousness is in the scent of the fresh morning glory and the melodies of the nightingale. We are still there. Maybe not in whole form... Or the way you'd expect us to be... but we are there. Bits of me drift on Alaskan winds with Muggle explorers, or into the depths of the oceans with whales bigger than Hogwarts! I see things I would never have gotten to see when I was alive..."
Cedric sighed.
"But see, you don't really understand... you never can quite understand until you experience it. It may seem weird to you that I can be in two or more places at once... See, a part of me is always with you. I'm always here when you need me, whispering advice into your ear. And when I talk to you like this... In your head... You see me as you remember me because that is how you want to see me. Although, this body..." and Cedric looked himself up and down. "There's more to me than this body. This body is how you recognize me. But it isn't me. Are you confused yet?"
"Head spinning," Holly confirmed, nodding. Cedric laughed and looked up at the clear blue sky.
"Yes... Well, you'll understand when your time comes." Cedric sighed. Holly frowned.
"Is it... you know... strange? To be dead, I mean?" Holly asked. Cedric smiled.
"Maybe at first it can be a bit scary. But you figure things out," he said.
"And ghosts..." Holly said. "What would they say about death?"
"Ha, they're probably more miserable than I am at any rate," Cedric said. "I mean, they're too connected to their body. They don't understand that their body isn't who they really are... They refuse to let go of that form, to take the last step, and it prevents their consciousness from reverting back to its natural state– floating, individual particles of nature. Human beings didn't pop out of thin air, we're all made of elements. Except our conciseness is neither matter nor energy... It's something else. But I'm no physicist."
"You sound smarter than me," Holly said. "Does wisdom come with death?"
Cedric laughed hard at that one. "No, no, no, Holly! Wisdom comes with age and experience. You experience a lot more dead than alive, believe it or not. But today, you... you showed wisdom beyond your years today, Holly. With Oliver. That was quite mature of you."
Holly blushed. "Not really..." Holly said.
"You're growing up, Holly," Cedric said. "And growing up means changes. You don't know it yet, but something inside you has already changed. And it's a big change indeed. It's not something that happens to most girls your age. It's a gift your mother gave you."
"What are you talking about?" Holly asked. Cedric smiled.
"You think all this is normal?" he asked, gesturing around at their medieval garden. Holly shrugged.
"It's my dream, isn't it? Everyone dreams different things," she said.
"Yeah, but no one dreams anything like this," Cedric laughed, looking around at their landscape which seemed to stretch for miles. "I bet you could go running towards that farmland way over there and keep running forever."
Holly followed his gaze. "Yeah, maybe," she said. "I don't think I'm strange just because I have creative dreams."
Cedric looked at her and smiled. "But they're so much more than dreams, Holly," he said. "Don't you understand that?"
Holly awoke frustrated from her pleasant dream. Cedric was confusing the hell out of her. She looked at her clock. 7:30. She had to get up and get ready to go to the train station.
Trudging downstairs, she took her seat at the kitchen table.
"I hate getting up so early," she mumbled.
"Drink your tea, dear," her mother ordered with a warm smile as she waved her wand at the dishes for them to start washing themselves. "Oh, I hate cleaning!" she complained. Holly smiled up at her mother, who grinned down at her. But Elise's grin slowly turned into a frown.
"Oh Holly, why do you insist on wearing that?"
Holly was wearing a baggy black T-shirt she had slept in the night before with the words The Weird Sisters scrawled across it in a fiery color. The writing flickered like a flame. Her mother hated that shirt. With it, Holly wore a pair of baggy jeans.
"Oh Mum!" Holly moaned. "You know with my robes on no one will notice!" Elise pursed her lips, but said nothing. Instead, she turned to the eggs and waved her wand at it for the pan to flip it.
"Oh..." she said, and Holly could already detect the smile in her voice. "And Remus says he's visiting today..." Elise turned around and her face grew serious. "When you're gone, I mean... It's plans. For the wedding next year."
"Oh bah," Holly moaned.
Holly swiftly finished the eggs her mother shoved under her nose and put a cranky Jericho into his cage. He nipped at her finger rather hard when she woke him up.
"Ow! Mum, I think this bird hates me!" she whined. The bird let out a disgruntled "hoot" of agreement. Elise just laughed and shook her head as she carried Holly's trunk to the car.
"Good for nothing little bird!" Holly muttered, throwing the cage in the back of the car and making Jericho's head spin.
King's Cross was unusually packed with tourists, probably tying to rush home before the vacation ended. Holly waited a few minutes before she stealthily made her way through the wall and onto platform nine and three quarters. She saw the gleaming red coat of the Hogwarts Express and smiled. She was going to see the twins again, after a month of separation and she couldn't think of anything better. And at just the right moment, she heard two identical voices calling her name.
"Holly!" The twins bombarded her and nearly knocked her over.
"How was your vacation?" George cried, breathless. "Sorry we didn't write, we were locked up–"
"Nasty little incident with using Ginny as a guinea pig got us grounded–" Fred explained.
"But we're here now!" cried George. "Oh, it's good to see you! How are you?"
"I'm as good as I'll get!" Holly laughed, trying to calm her friends down.
Lee came running up to them.
"Fred, George, were you just with Harry?" he asked. The twins nodded simultaneously. "Is that his dog? I like it. I've been thinking of getting a big dog like that... something to scare off unwanted guests..." Lee then noticed Holly and grinned. "Or girls who just refuse to leave me alone... How are you, Holly? Flesh paint work alright?" Fred and George stared at Lee with identical looks of excitement on their face.
"You tried it on her?" George cried.
"How'd it work?" Fred asked, gleefully.
"Did it come out alright?" said George.
"Was the paint in all the right places?" Fred demanded.
"What did she do to you?" George laughed. Lee just grinned.
"Oh, she got pretty mad alright!" Lee told them.
"Me?" Holly said loudly so the twins would hear her clearly. "Why, you two should have seen Lee's face after he wiped Feature Replacement Potion all over it."
And the old friends shared a good laugh.
Holly looked over her friends' shoulders and noticed a black dog accompanying Harry. Smiling, she approached them.
"Harry!" she said, giving her little brother a hug. He received her warmly.
"Holly," he said. "I've missed you."
"And hello to you to!" Holly said, scratching the dog behind the ears. The dog kicked its hind leg and wagged its tail. Holly looked up at Harry. "What's his name?" she asked him.
"Er, um, Holly, there's something you should..." But Harry thought better of it and merely sighed. "Snuffles," he said. Holly made a face.
"A big dog like this is called Snuffles?" she laughed.
"Hey, it was his choice!" Holly frowned in confusion, but Harry seemed to have noticed that he said something wrong and he pointed behind Holly. "Oh look, Lupin!"
Holly straightened immediately and turned around and received Remus formally.
"Good morning, Holly!" Remus said, opening his arms to hug her. She merely took his hand and shook it.
"Remus," she said, nodding. Remus looked awkwardly down at her and tried to smile.
"You know, uh... Oh! How's the owl doing? What did you name him?" Holly asked.
"Jericho," Holly said. "Father's middle name you know." Remus frowned.
"Really?" he said. "Well, I've known your father all my life and he never..."
"Not that one," Holly said, sharply. Remus smiled.
"Ah, yes," he nodded. "I'm sorry, Holly, but I've always considered your parents to be..." Remus looked at Harry, then back to Holly.
"I get it," Holly said, curtly. Remus nodded and bit his lip.
"Right then!" Remus said, clapping his hands together. "We should be off. Good luck Harry. Holly..." And with a tip of his hat and a flip of his cloak, he turned on his heal and left.
"What was that about?" Harry asked, confused. Holly sighed.
"Never mind..." she said. "Come, we'll miss the train." The dog jumped up and put its paws on Harry's shoulder when Mrs. Weasley pushed it down again and scolded it.
"For heaven's sake act more like a dog, Sirius!" she snapped.
Comprehension dawned on Holly's face as Harry snatched her hand and yelled, "Come on, Holly!" The dog winked at Holly as she looked out the window and the train pulled away from the station.
Holly wandered the compartments until she found Fred, George and Lee. She found their usual compartment and heard them stop talking as the door moved. When they saw her, they sighed with relief.
"We thought you were someone unpleasant," Fred sighed.
"Don't be too sure it isn't!" Lee warned. Holly shot him a look and he was silenced.
"What are we talking about?" Holly asked.
"What else?" George said. "Our new business."
"Surely not Weasley's Wizard..." but as the other boys nodded, Holly didn't bother to finish and sighed. She plopped down next to George. "Alright, I'm all ears," she said and the boys explained their plans to her for the whole ride.
"I'm sorry, guys... But I really don't get it! You intend on doing this for the rest of your life?" Holly asked as they stepped off the train. Fred and George nodded and looked perplexed.
"What else would we do?" George asked.
"Yeah, Holly, it's not like they could be a tag-team Minister of Magic or something," Lee said. But Fred and George looked at each other gleefully.
"That would be wicked!" they exclaimed together.
"I mean, we could have so much fun messing with Ministry officials' heads!" Fred declared.
"They'd get us mixed up constantly!" George howled with laughter.
"Hello, Mr. Weasleys!" Holly smiled at the two.
"It'd be great to be Ministers of Magic together," Fred sighed, his laughter subsiding.
As she was about to follow Lee into the carriage, Holly noticed Harry hesitate.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked the twins. In unison, they turned to look. Turning back to Holly, they shrugged.
"Probably nothing new," George said, dismissing it quickly. But Holly's eyes widened. What was even more peculiar was the infamous girl who was trying to reassure him.
"And what does you think she's telling him?" she asked, bewildered. Fred glanced over his shoulder again as his brother pushed past Holly into the carriage. Fred grinned.
"Probably nothing good," he laughed, and he followed his brother.