Chapter Two: The Kitchen Theft
Dom descended from the stairs of the Gryffindor girls' dormitory. She tousled her damp hair as she easily navigated the steps.
Practice had been shit. When she returned to Gryffindor tower, she had hurried up the stairs to her year's bathroom avoiding everyone. The moment she had stepped into her dormitory, she stripped off her sweat-drenched Quidditch robes, and had immediately jumped in a steaming shower where she stood for nearly an hour.
James had not failed to notice that she was the last to arrive at practice. She had been distracted the entire time. Already not one of the team's best players, her distraction made it difficult to talk to her fellow chasers. She had even taken a quaffle to the head which had caused James to erupt in a cruel snickers. But, her interaction with Lucy had left her spinning.
"Oi, Dom," Fred called from his favorite armchair by the fire. He and James had their heads bowed together playing a game of exploding snap.
Dom took a deep breath and headed over towards her two cousins. She sat on her own overstuffed armchair and curled her feet under her as she braided her damp hair in a long plait.
"James, I'm sorry about practice," she muttered eventually as she studied her split ends.
James looked up at her, studying her for a moment. "It's fine," he shrugged after a minute and returned back to his game with Fred. "Just maybe next practice, let's get our head in the game, yeah?"
Dom nodded readily.
The trio fell into a comfortable silence with only the occasional small explosions from the card game punctuating the quiet.
Dom stared off into the fire and traced her fingertips along her eyebrows. "Have either of you spoken to Lucy recently?"
"Lucy who?" Fred asked dumbly.
"Our cousin," Dom rolled her eyes.
"Erm—no," Fred said.
"No one's forced me to lately," James said simultaneously.
The trio fell into silence. "Why do you ask?" Fred said after a minute.
"I think she's having a tough time," Dom said without looking at the other two.
"What?" James guwaffed. "The prefect, head-girl shoe-in who pulled perfect Os on every O.W.L. she took—we're talking about that Lucy, correct?"
"Yeah," Dom mumbled.
"Then no, I don't believe you. Every adult thinks the sun shines out of her arse. She's literally perfect, she can do no wrong," James said, shaking his head and laughing.
Fred watched the exchange with an intrigued expression. "What do you know that we don't?" he asked Dom, cocking an eyebrow.
"Well, the whole thing with Molly is probably weighing pretty heavily on her," Dom started.
"I don't know, she seems to revel in being the golden child, doesn't she?" James offered.
"Well outwardly, but it must be pretty stressful to suddenly have your sister kicked out of the house and your dad acting like a prat," Dom thought aloud.
The two boys mused over this for a moment.
"Maybe you're right, but what do you want us to do about it?" Fred asked after a moment.
Dom paused for a moment. "Well, nothing I guess," she said quietly. Fred was right—Dom could count on one hand the number of times she had seen Lucy, Fred, and James interact. Even during big family gatherings, Lucy was usually alone reading a book or talking to Gramps at the fringes of the activity. Meanwhile, Dom, Fred and James were often in the dead center of whichever drama was dominating the event.
"So, returning to our regularly scheduled programing then," Fred started, "we nicked some firewhiskey from the kitchens while you were taking the longest shower ever."
"Oh," Dom said as she picked at her nails and raised an eyebrow.
"We're thinking about heading down to the Forbidden Forest tonight, let off some pre-Remembrance Day steam," James finished for his cousin.
"And who else will be joining us?" Dom asked with a glance at James. His cheeks reddened slightly.
Fred roared with laughter drawing several stares from their fellow Gryffindors. "James didn't have enough lead time to find a date," he said in a quieter tone.
"Thank god, I prefer my evenings to be puke-free, thank you," Dom said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I know," James said. At least he had the decency to look down as his blush crept towards his shirt collar.
"I still think I prefer her puking than I do sober. For some reason she wanted to dissect every one of your interactions with me."
"I know."
"Each morning, over breakfast, I had to hear—in vivid detail—a blow-by-blow analysis of your snogging sessions."
"So you've said before."
"It wasn't just snogging she decided to talk about. I'm entirely too privy to your sex life now," Dom continued as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"I know—listen, Dom, how many times do you need me to say sorry," James looked up at her.
"It was a really nice fucking sweater she ruined!"
"She had amazing tits!"
"Oi, you two! Let's not get reprimanded before we actually do anything" Fred interjected with a pointed glance towards the Gryffindor prefect who had eyed the trio as James and Dom's volume had increased.
"I still don't understand how you managed to date her for two months," Dom said quietly.
"She had a truly amazing pair," James said, a bit wistful. Dom gagged and feigned retching.
"Just go for less tits more substance next time" Dom mumbled as she leaned back in her chair and grabbed an old Witch Weekly someone had abandoned in the common room. James rolled his eyes.
"Let's meet down here at midnight," Fred said, ignoring his cousin.
"Cheers," Dom nodded as she flipped through the magazine. The boys resumed their game. Eventually, all three straggled off to their respective dorms.
Dom jumped awake when her alarm clock rang a quarter before midnight. She heard the stirrings of some of her fellow dorm mates, but waited until she could sense through their deep breaths that they had returned to sleep.
She stripped out of her pajamas and then quickly pulled on tights and a long sleeved shirt. Then she added a pair of jeans and a thick beige jumper as she shoved her feet into her trainers. She tied her strawberry blonde hair into a top knot at the crown of her head. She exited the dorm and slowly closed the door behind her, careful not to make a sound. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest when she turned around and saw her own reflection in the mirror, softly illuminated by the golden light from the candelabra in the hallway. Scrubbed down and casual as she was, she had barely recognized herself. For one sleep-addled moment she had thought her reflection was her sister, Vic in the hall.
Dom moved closer to the mirror.
"When did I start looking just like her?" she said quietly aloud to herself as she placed both hands on her cheeks and squished her face. Vic, who would turn twenty tomorrow, was undeniably beautiful. But Dom had, for the last several years, done everything she could to look as different from her sister as possible. Heavy makeup, different hairstyles, wilder, brighter clothing: she had tried it all. But here she was, stripped of her normal armor, and she was struck with how all of her efforts had been for naught.
Angrily, Dom spun away from the mirror and pushed through the door into the washroom. She grabbed her toiletry bag from the arrangement of cubbies at its entrance. She'd be late, but she also knew that Fred and James would wait for her.
She dumped the contents of her bag out in the sink and dug through for a peach lipstick, liquid liner, and mascara. With each swipe of dark, sticky goop around her eyes, she felt better. When she looked like this, no one compared her to Vic or Molly or Lucy. She was different. She was not brilliant like the three of them were, she was not fresh-faced and conservative dressing, falling in line and following the rules. No, she looked sultry, sexy even with her blue eyes shining impossibly bright from her spider-like lashes—no, the brightness was not from the inexplicable tears—that was not it. She pulled a few wisps of her hair from the bun to frame her face and then shoved her items back in her bag and shoved her bag back into her cubby. She blew a kiss to her image in the mirror as she headed for the stairs.
Fred and James were huddled by the fire using the feeble glow to study the Marauder's Map.
"Finally," James huffed as he turned to see Dom. "You okay?" he asked with a quizzical expression as he looked at his cousin's face.
"Yeah, of course," Dom said as she shoved her hands in her jeans pockets, making sure she had brought her wand.
"Okay, you're handling the cloak, I've got the map," James said as he tossed the gossamer material towards her.
"Who's got the whiskey?" Dom asked.
Fred patted the chest pocket on his flannel with a crooked smile. "I got Aunt Hermione to explain to me some of the spellwork she did with her beaded bag. It's not perfect, but it'll do."
"Elvin wine?" Dom asked, thinking it seemed out of character for her Aunt to willingly disclose complicated magic to Fred who would be likely to use it for something nefarious.
"Yup, on Easter at the Burrow," Fred said triumphantly.
"Well done, you," Dom congratulated.
"Yeah, he's brilliant. Come on, the coast is clear, Higgs just went into his office," James said as he moved towards the other two.
Dom threw the shimmering cloak over the three of them. She bent her knees a bit so she was the same height as the other two.
They deftly made their way out of the portrait hole.
"I know it's you three," the Fat Lady called after them as her portrait swung back into place. "It's always you who leaves the night before Remembrance Day. Just be back before your parents get here."
The three ignored the Fat Lady's warning. She might know it was them, but she had no way to prove it.
They continued their way along the familiar corridors, glancing at the map every once in a while to make sure no one was around. As usual on this night, the halls were deserted. Fred, James, and Dom knew that the professors were busy sharing a nightcap in a few select offices or—in the case of some—drinking alone in their quarters. The older instructors had all been here, preparing the castle for battle this night twenty-four years ago. The younger professors had been evacuating the castle. For the few faculty members who had not participated directly in the Battle of Hogwarts, it was still a complicated night. Even the portraits remembered the Battle, and there was just no other way to describe it—Hogwarts was different on this night.
The moment they left the Entrance Hall and the castle was behind them, Dom felt a smile creep across her face as the invisible weight of a thousand different iterations of grief lifted off of her. Not necessarily outdoorsy, the fresh air still invigorated her as the spring chill turned her cheeks pink. She took a deep breath, she could breathe again.
They headed towards Hagrid's hut which was dark. Hagrid had probably found his way to the Staffroom where he enjoyed regaling his colleagues with Grawp's antics during the Battle. Once past Hagrid's, Dom pulled the cloak off of them as James tapped the map with his wand.
"Mischief managed," he mumbled, then he stowed the blank piece of parchment in his back pocket. He illuminated his wand. Fred and Dom both illuminated theirs as well and headed into the woods.
Dom could see the same happiness she felt reflected on her cousins' faces. There was something joyful about breaking the rules, about this tradition they had established for themselves.
They made their way deep into the woods. Their first year, they had hardly made it ten meters past Hagrid's hut. McGonagall's welcome had left them appropriately afraid of the Forbidden Forest. But the next year, they strayed further. By their fourth year, they had realized that any creatures who meant them serious harm probably stayed deep in the woods, if they existed at all. Fred still maintained that Acromantulas were a myth, even if Uncle Ron had told them he had met them.
The three found themselves near a small clearing. Deciding that they felt too exposed in the clearing, they stepped back a bit and set up camp towards the edge.
Dom sat on a rock and leaned her head back, she tried to glimpse some stars through the canopy of the trees. Suddenly, a wave of nostalgia hit her. This was her second to last year doing this, sneaking out of Hogwarts with her cousins and finding salvation in the Forbidden Forest. Who knew where the three of them would be in two years. James and Fred would have jobs of some sort, they would not take off just to sneak back with her to some spot in the forest and drink.
"Here, make yourself useful," Fred ordered Dom as he reached in his breast pocket and pulled out a small leather coin purse. He tossed it towards her and she caught it, studying the item.
She wondered how Fred had managed it. She had no idea what spell one would even begin to use. With a jolt of inadequacy, she realized Aunt Hermione had been about Fred's age when she had created her beaded bag too. Even if Dom herself had known the spells, she guessed that she would not have been able to properly perform them.
She snapped open the coin purse and plunged her hand in. It was amazing, the bag was no bigger than her fist, but she watched as her arm plunged in up to her elbow before she felt the waxed cork of a bottle of firewhiskey.
The boys collected firewood and placed it in a pile in front of Dom. Once they were satisfied with their collection, Fred pointed his wand at the pile and started a warm crackling fire. Dom placed the coinpurse down as she took the first bottle of firewhiskey and twisted the cork out of the bottle. She took a big sip and felt the heat travel down her throat to her belly.
"Here, gimme," Fred said as he plopped down next to Dom and extended his hand to her. She passed him the bottle.
"Twenty four years," James started, mimicking his father and shaking his head seriously as he poked at the fire with a spare stick. "Can't believe it's been twenty four years," he removed his glasses and wiped them on his shirt, continuing his schtick.
For a moment, Dom was struck by how much like Uncle Harry he seemed. Especially in the warm glow of the firelight and without his glasses, James's eyes could have been green and he could have easily been Harry ruminating on the past. James had enjoyed mimicking his father for years, but this was the first time that Dom could see that James was nearly an adult and the mimicry was much more dead on, no longer a boy pretending.
"You tosser," Fred laughed as he passed the bottle to James. In a moment, James's face was filled with the carefree grin and mischievous glint that Dom had never seen on her Uncle's face, and she felt calmer as the visage of Uncle Harry disappeared from her cousin's face. He took a big swig of firewhiskey and then passed the bottle back to Dom.
"This is the only thing I like about bloody Remembrance Day," James said.
"You've got that right," Fred agreed.
"Even Gran is mean this time of year," Dom said.
"What's more scary is how quiet Gramps gets," Fred said.
"No, what's really scary is how quiet your dad gets," James directed towards Fred.
Fred took a big sigh. "Yeah—" he trailed off as he picked randomly at one of his tight curls.
"Come on, let's talk about something else," Dom ordered.
"Okay—" James started. "When do we think Vic and Teddy are going to get married?"
Dom erupted in a bout of giggles. She calmed herself by taking another sip of firewhiskey before passing it off to Fred.
"I don't get the joke," Fred stated as he looked at her.
"Neither do I," James added.
Dom took a steady breath. "I caught them over Christmas," she said, then clapped her hand over her mouth.
"You caught Teddy and Vic?" James clarified.
"Well, technically I caught Teddy shimmying down the downspout Christmas morning," Dom said.
"Teddy…" Jame said quizzically.
"Shimmying?" Fred finished.
"Uh huh. I'm sure they'd overslept and he was supposed to be out of there before the sun came up. Vic tossed his shoes out the window after him. He bumped right into me, begged me not to say anything," Dom said before she erupted in another fit of giggles.
"Oi, why am I just hearing about this now?" James demanded.
"I was just doing what Teddy asked!" Dom defended.
Fred took another sip of firewhiskey, but then spit it out violently as he began howling with laughter. The fire glowed brightly and sizzled as the drops of firewhiskey hit it. Dom shrieked as a few droplets landed in her hair. "Ew! Bloody hell, Fred!"
"Sorry," he laughed. "I just can't imagine Teddy shimmying down anything," he said in between laughs.
Soon James and Dom joined in with him, barely containing their laughter.
"It was pretty funny," Dom said. "But mostly, I was just so shocked that Vic was breaking the rules," she laughed.
Dom peeled off her sweater having grown hot in front of the fire. She stretched her legs towards the heat and leaned back, reveling in how good it felt to laugh so freely with two of her favorite people in the world. They drank and continued to laugh, reminiscing about funny things their family had done.
Eventually the conversation turned to Quidditch and James was trying to explain some play he had seen over Easter break when Uncle Ron had taken him to the Puddlemere and Chudley Cannons match.
"Okay, here, you lot, stand up," James commanded.
"Merlin's y-fronts, he's so bossy," Dom whispered conspiratorially to Fred as she attempted to stand. She stumbled dangerously, so she took the hand Fred offered.
James took each of his cousins by their shoulders and attempted to move them into some sort of configuration, but the group was too fraught with drunken giggles to manage much of anything.
Eventually, James gave up, throwing his hands up in exasperation at them then sinking dejectedly back onto his rock. Dom fell over with laughter at how disappointed James looked, and Fred soon joined her on the ground. Meanwhile, James reached in the coin purse for the second botte. "You two are such lightweights," he admonished as he pulled at the cork with his teeth and then took a long swallow.
Fred reached his hand towards James for the bottle while Dom set to untying her trainer so she could fish out a pebble that had been digging into her heel.
"Don't you think you should pace yourself," James said as he withheld the bottle from Fred.
"Give it here you son of a bitch," Fred ordered as he tried to reach for the bottle without falling off his own rock.
"Well that's no way to talk about my sister," said a quiet voice from the other side of the fire.
The three cousins froze and looked across the flames.
"Dad," Fred gulped as he dropped his hand. James tried to casually obscure the bottle of firewhiskey from view. Dom meanwhile found herself looking around frantically for something she could use to obscure the countless rules they had broken, but she could not think of anything to do.
"Try again," the man across the way said as he walked around the flame to come closer to the teenagers. Dom's breath caught in her throat as the fire illuminated the man's left side.
"Holy fuck," she exclaimed.
"How fucking drunk are we?" Fred demanded.
"What the fuck is in this?" James asked as he whipped the bottle of firewhiskey out from behind his back and smelled it suspiciously.
A wide, carefree grin appeared on the man's face as he looked at the teenagers who had loudly begun accusing each other of spiking the bottle without the other's notice.
"Oi, quiet down, you lot," the man ordered as he held up his hands. "You're already begging to get caught," he gestured to the fire. "What's with the smoke signal?"
"No one's patrolling, not tonight," Fred immediately responded.
"All the professors are hammered by now," James supplied helpfully.
"This can't possibly be real," Dom said, ignoring the man's question.
"Obviously we're hallucinating," James comforted her as he patted her shoulder.
"How the bloody hell would we all be hallucinating the same thing?" Fred asked James.
The two boys began debating the finer points of shared delusions while Dom continued to stare incredulously at the red-haired man in front of them.
Eventually, he cleared his throat. Dom jumped with shock, but James and Fred spun towards him again. "I'd guess it has something to do with that," the red-haired man said as he nodded towards the pebble that Dom had forgotten in her hand.
"What've you got there?" Fred asked as he took Dom's hand.
"There was a rock in my shoe—" she started.
"Look, there's some markings on it," James said as he looked at the stone in Dom's hands.
"You're Uncle Fred," Dom whispered as she looked towards the red-haired man.
He smiled sadly. "No one has ever called me that before, but yes, I am."
Dom felt her mouth hang agape with shock.
Fred was the first to recover. "Um, so you're back?"
Uncle Fred laughed and then moved towards a rock near the fire and sat in front of the teenagers. "Just for tonight I think."
"Why?" Fred asked.
"My guess is you three won't be in any state to remember this in the morning or put the pieces together to make sure this is a more than one-time occurence," Uncle Fred said as he kicked the empty bottle.
"We'll remember!" James said defensively. "We won't drink anymore," he added as he went to dump the bottle he still held in his hand.
"Hey! Speak for yourself," Dom shrieked as she reached for the bottle before James could upend it. She brought the bottle to her lips and took a large gulp as she clenched her other hand into a tight fist around the stone.
"What're you doing?" James demanded.
"What's going to happen if we do remember this?" Dom asked. "Who's going to believe us, especially tomorrow of all days?"
"She's right, mate," Fred said as he extended his hand towards Dom who handed her cousin the bottle. "What do you think our parents are going to do if we show up tomorrow and tell them we saw Uncle Fred in the Forbidden Forest last night."
James looked significantly less sure of himself. "They'll believe us, they'll want to see Uncle Fred for themselves. Think about your dad, about Gran."
"I don't think it would do George any good to see me," Uncle Fred said quietly from the rock where he had sat.
"You're wrong, he misses you," James said to his uncle.
"How would this change that?" Uncle Fred asked as he gestured to his slightly transparent form.
"He's right, James," Dom said quietly. She suddenly felt quite sober. "It wouldn't be healthy."
"But—" James started.
"No, James," Uncle Fred said sharply, but there was a smile on his face.
The four fell quiet, studying each other, a great chasm of unstated questions between them. The younger ones yearned to know about the past. Dom had so many topics that she wanted to ask her uncle about but, through the thick fog of alcohol, she was unable to prioritize a single one. Fred meanwhile just looked at them almost hungrily, taking them in, their isolated features stirring sharp pangs of longing in his heart.
"I guess I'm your namesake," Fred said to break the silence as he gestured absentmindedly with his hands.
"That you are," Uncle Fred said.
"Am I—erm—a good namesake?" Fred asked awkwardly.
Uncle Fred erupted in laughter. Dom thought how strange it sounded, how strange Uncle Fred sounded. His voice and mannerisms were identical to Uncle George. But this laughter, it seemed truer somehow, less marred than any laugh she had ever heard from his living twin. "You're out here getting pissed at midnight with—" Fred nudged the tossed bottle of firewhiskey with the tip of the shoe until he could see the label. "—firewhiskey that has clearly been stolen from McGonagall's private stores in the Hogwarts kitchen. I've never been more proud of someone in my life," he smiled.
Fred's face erupted in a grin that mirrored his uncle's. "Yeah, if James asks the right house elf, they'll take us right to McGonagall's stash."
"Why yes! Anything for Mr. Potter," Uncle Fred pitched his voice into an uncomfortable falsetto mimicking a house elf.
"Exactly," Fred grinned back.
"So I guess nothing has changed at Hogwarts then," Uncle Fred said as he leaned back and crossed his ankles.
"Does anything?" Dom wondered aloud.
"How're my folks?" Uncle Fred asked.
"They're great," James supplied. "Gran wants Gramps to retire, but he won't hear of it. They're great grandparents!"
"So I heard," Uncle Fred smiled.
"From whom?" Fred demanded, but Uncle Fred dismissed his question with a wave of his hand.
"Uncle Percy is being a prat about the whole thing though," Dom supplied.
"Yeah, he has a tendency to do that," Uncle Fred laughed. "He'll come around eventually though."
"I don't know about that," Fred mused. "He's been pretty wound up."
"How's your dad?" Uncle Fred directed towards Dom.
"Mum reckons he's going through a midlife crisis," Dom supplied.
"Does she now?"
"Yeah, when Louis came to Hogwarts, he started curse breaking again," Dom explained. "I don't think it's a midlife crisis, I think he just needed some danger in his life!" She defended her father.
"One would think that marrying a part veela would ensure enough danger in one's life," Uncle Fred mused aloud. He shared a conspiratorial grin with his niece who returned it. "And Charlie?"
"Dragons," the three cousins replied simultaneously.
"What about ickle Ronniekins?"
"Uncle Ron's doing well, he's been opening another Wheezes in France and Aunt Hermione's been helping him there."
"Yeah, that sounds believable, because Hermione is such a joke shop expert," Fred grinned. "And my sister?"
"Mum's great. She gets to take the piss out of Rita Skeeter on a daily basis pretty much," James supplied.
Uncle Fred swallowed hard. "And how's erm—Wheezes?"
"Uncle George is doing well too," Dom said quietly. She gently nudged Fred with her elbow and looked at him pointedly.
"Yeah, dad is doing great. He'll be here tomorrow and then he and mum always take a vacation after the ceremonies. I think they're going to America this year," Fred said quickly.
Uncle Fred wiped his eyes, and the cousins tactfully ignored him.
"You three should play a prank tomorrow, during the ceremony," Uncle Fred said.
The three cousins looked at him, eyes large and horrified. "No way," Fred was the first to speak.
"Why?" Uncle Fred asked.
"We're not suicidal," James supplied.
"Everyone is so upset," Dom added.
"That's the perfect time to do something then," said Uncle Fred.
"No, it's really not," Fred said. "It's bloody awful and serious, but I don't think a prank would be the right thing to do."
"It's gotten better over the years," James supplied.
"Used to be, when we were little, everyone would go home and not talk to each other or drink or be sad. Lately, there's been receptions afterwards. People drink and laugh and tell stories. McGonagall even takes off her hat!" Dom explained.
"I think a prank might push people too far," Fred said quietly, thoughtfully.
"Well, maybe you're right," Uncle Fred said with a shrug although he still looked unconvinced.
A silence descended over the group as the teenagers continued to pass the bottle back and forth.
"Well, I need a kip," James stated suddenly.
"Are you serious?" Dom demanded.
"Yes," James answered.
Dom glanced towards Uncle Fred. "We're experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity here," she hissed towards her cousin.
"Me too," Fred supplied with a yawn.
"You two are impossible," Dom sighed.
"You can fight it as long as you want, but you're tired too," Fred told her.
"It's okay Dom," Uncle Fred said gently.
"But what if this is just a dream?" Dom asked him nervously.
"Who knows," he shrugged, "it could all be a dream. Go to sleep, it'll be okay."
Dom sighed, but her cousins had been right. She was exhausted. James and Fred had already laid down. She snuggled between her cousins' backs trying to keep herself warm.
She felt her eyes grow heavy and her muscles relax, when suddenly, she realized, here was an impartial omnipresent third party. "Uncle Fred, is Lucy dating a seventh year Slytherin named Sarah?" The questions spilled forth from her, individual words barely discernible. Her eyes were open and alert. But, when Dom peered over James shoulder at the spot where Uncle Fred had been sitting, there was nothing there. Suddenly, she remembered sleepily the feeling of her fist growing slack and the smooth stone slipping from her grasp.
"Oh no," she sighed, feeling tears pricking her eyes. "Goodbye Uncle Fred." Sleep overtook her.