A.N.: Awww, you guys make me feel all warm and fuzzy, SO DOES MY NEW COAT! I got it at the festival, it's so nice, and I just love it!
(I sound like a crazy person.)
chap. 4: The guests
After a week things became somewhat normal, Nicci and George became fast friends and he and Fred were teaching her about quidditch and Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. And she caught on fairly quickly. And everything was fine, except for the fact that for no reason she would hide things. Like just anything, and when you noticed it was missing she would just tell you. That's how things started the morning of August 10, the day Hermione and Harry were coming over. Mrs. Weasley couldn't find her frying pan and Nicci was sitting at the table sipping out of a mug filled with water, as she often did.
"Deary, where did you put you my frying pan?" She took a small gulp of water and pointed at the fireplace where it was sitting in plain view on the mantle. "Honestly Nicci, you have the strangest hiding places." As she walked back towards the stove Harry, Hermione, Ron, the twins and Mr. Weasley walked out of the fireplace. Fred and George walked over to Nicci and took her to the living room where she stood facing Harry and Hermione.
"Harry, Hermione, we'd like to introduce-"
"Our newest-"
"And most promising employee-"
"In Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes."
"Ms. Niccola-"
"Machiavelli-"
"Rayda."
"Or Nicci, for short."
"Nicci, this is THE Harry Potter, you may have heard of him-"
"And if you haven't he's an absolute louse." George said with a wink to show he was being sarcastic.
"And Hermione Granger-"
"Smartest witch of our age-"
"And top fun-killer at Hogwarts." Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry smiled at Nicci.
"Hi Nicci, it's nice to meet you, what's wrong?" He said frowning as he noticed her pressing into Fred and George's legs, a frightened expression on her face.
"You-your the one who almost killed Vol-that beast?" She said her eyes darkening slightly when she referenced to Voldemort. Harry frowned.
"Yeah that's me, but you don't have to worry about me, I don't bite, usually." Nicci grinned.
"I don't bite either, I just nibble a little." They both laughed at her bad joke, except George. He frowned a little.
'Usually I'm the one she jokes with, what makes Harry so great?' He mentally shook his head, he was not feeling jealous, and she was just a little kid that would be weird. "Come on guys, let's go eat breakfast." They went into the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley had been making breakfast. As they started to sit down Nicci noticed Hermione was sitting where she's been sitting for the past two weeks.
"Uh, Hermione? You're in my seat, can you move?" Hermione looked down the table at an empty seat next to Harry.
"You can sit down there with Harry."
"But that's my seat!" she yelled, she knew she was sounding immature, but not actually 'having' anything in twelve years makes you cling to the things you acquire, even spots at a table, or a mug. "Move!" Hermione stood up and glared at her.
"Now see here! I will not be talked down to by a four-year-old! You are just a guest here you have no say over anything in here!" Nicci glared at her harder as she felt tears sting her eyes. She quickly wiped at them, those words hurt more then she was willing to admit. "Oh no, those fake tears won't work on me little missy, your gonna have to take that act somewhere else!" Nicci's jaw dropped.
'How DARE she? How dare she speak to her like that' She thought as an almost acidic feeling crept up inside her. It was a feeling her father was accustomed to, hate.
"SHUT UP YOU-YOU" she searched in her vocabulary for a mean word to use on her; she remembered something Ron had said about her parents and a word she so despised slipped out of her mouth. "MUDBLOOD!" She clamped her hands over her mouth the moment it left, but the damage had been done. Everyone stared at her in shock. But the thing that hurt worse was the tears welling up in Hermione's eyes. "I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN IT I SWEAR!" Mrs. Weasley started to walk towards her. Anger in her eyes.
"Niccola that was a horrible thing to say. Apologize immediately." Everyone was starting to stand up.
"I-it was ju-just a word." she said stuttering horribly as memories of her father and the other death eaters shouted that word as they crucio'd people and laughed.
"But words can be hurtful too now apologize." But she was lost in her memories where Voldemort was forcing her to watch her mother being tortured, her screams cutting through her heart like knives while she begged them to leave her mother alone. It happened only two years ago when she was 18. Her father laughing and saying, 'Listen to that mudblood scream.' 'I'm not like him, I can't be like him, no.'
"I can't...I won't...no," she whimpered. Everyone thought she was saying she wouldn't apologize. By now she was hiding behind her hands. So Mrs. Weasley grabbed her forearm to get her attention. This yanked her out of her reverie.
"I'M NOT LIKE HIM! I CAN'T BE!" She yelled as tears streamed down her face. "HE KILLED MY MOTHER, HE HURT HER! I'M NOT LIKE VOLDEMORT I SWEAR I'M NOT! PLEASE DON'T HATE ME PLEASE!" She cried as she shook and started hyperventilating. Mrs. Weasley pulled her close and started stroking her hair as she continued to talk (in a much quieter voice this time). "I escaped once, I found a wizard and told him where I came from and," She whispered this part to Mrs. Weasley. "He saw the dark mark. He called me one of them and tried to take me away, I thought he'd take me to Azkaban, so I broke free and ran. I swear I'm not like them!" Hermione kneeled down next to her and stroked her hair, much to her surprise.
"Niccola, we know you're not like them, but you shouldn't call people that."
"I didn't mean it, I hate that word. It's what they called my mother before they killed her." She said in a quiet voice. "I'm so sorry Hermione you know I didn't mean it, but what you said hurt too. I hate not having anyone or anything. But I should accept it." Hermione shook her head.
"No, you can sit next to Ron if you want to." Nicci smirked mischievously.
"Nah, you sit with him, he's been talking about you ALL summer so it might shut him up a little."
"NICCOLA!" Ron yelled turning beet red.
"What! It's true, I swear you were three days away from writing her a love poem." She said smirking as almost everyone in the room (save Hermione and Ron) was trying not to laugh.
"I WAS NOT! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Nicci just waved it off as everyone started walking towards the table and she sat beside Harry.
"Whatever, you two lovebirds can sit together though," She turned to Harry. "I'll bet those two are always acting crazy at school." Harry rolled his eyes.
"You have no idea. They could drive a person mad."
"Maybe that rumor about you being bonkers is true." Everyone stared at her, and in the same serious tone she said. "And maybe purple monkeys will fly out of my rear end."
"There will be no talk of rear ends at the breakfast table" Mrs. Weasley said as she piled large amounts of food on Nicci and Harry's plates.
"What about the lunch table? Or the supper table? May we talk about behinds there?" Mrs. Weasley smirked at her as she lightly smacked her upside the head.
"Alright miss wisecracks; you can help clear the table." And without missing a beat Nicci looked at her own butt and asked in an innocent voice something that had the whole table laughing.
"My behind is wise?"
Later that night...
Nicci looked behind her as she crept into the forest behind. She needed to get out for a little while, needed to remind herself of who she was under this disguise. She got to a small river in the forest and dropped to her hands and knees and looked at her reflection. She really looked like a four-year-old, except for the eyes. It's the eyes that would do her in. She looked like she had been to heck and back, and in some ways, she was. When they made her believe her mother was dead, when she was four, before Voldemort fell, it broke her heart. Then when he fell and she escaped, she found her mother very much alive. She sent her to live with her sister and her husband, assuming she would be safer there. She wasn't. It turned out her uncle was abusive to her aunt and every night she heard her scream as he beat her. Then after running away two years ago she came back to find her aunt dead and deatheaters in her torturing her mother. Her aunt had a broken neck and strangulation marks on her neck. It was no deatheater that killed her. Then she had to watch as her mother was tortured before an ancient spell, older then the avada kadava took her life, they didn't even let her see her being buried. She didn't even know if they did bury her.
Wiping away the tears on her face she pulled out her wand, the one she got when she was eight. She had transfigured the lovely birch-white wood into some black cord she had tied into a bracelet. She raised the wand over her head, cast one last look at her reflection and said the incantation the remove the glamour. She felt her body shift and grow and was glad she had transfigured the clothes larger. She looked down at the reflection of a twenty year old young woman with high cheekbones, cool gray eyes, flowing black hair, and pale skin that almost seemed to glow. She had regained alot of the weight she had lost because of the deatheaters starvation tactics. In all actuality she was quite lovely. But she knew that didn't matter. She sat back and pulled her knees to her chest. He would never look her way, he thought she was four! She wanted to trust the Weasley's, but there was always that nagging voice in the back of her head that said they would never understand. Harry seemed nice, but how do you tell someone that your father was responsible for their parent's death, and not have weirdness there. But maybe, just maybe she could trust them. She looked up at the starry sky and said softly to herself. "Just one more week, then I'll show them. I'll show them who I really am." She put the glamour spell back on herself and fixed her clothes before heading back inside.
Ooooooooooo! Who does Nicci like? Does she like Harry, does she like Ron, or does she like George? Will I tell you in the next chapter? NO! Bwahahaha, well, I might, if you're good and review.