Each night for the remainder of the week Harry and I met in the Great Hall for a quick dinner before heading up to serve our detentions with Umbridge. Each night was the same, Umbridge would make us write the same lines over and over with her special quills.
"It's not bloody right!" Fred clenched his fists when I returned to the common room Friday night after my final detention.
"It's all over now so don't worry about it so much," I replied with a shrug, pulling my sleeves down to cover my torn flesh.
The truth was that my hand felt raw from being torn into so many times by that damn quill but I already knew Fred and George were worried enough as it was.
"Ready for quidditch tryouts tomorrow?" I asked, blatantly changing the subject.
"Yup! It'll be cool to see Ange as captain," George replied brightly.
I smiled, still feeling proud of Angelina for getting the mantle of quidditch captain since Oliver Wood had already graduated. She had been busting at the seams when she told us about it on the train coming to school.
"Does everyone need to try out for their positions again?" I asked as I sat down beside Fred on the love seat.
"No, just Oliver's old position," Fred answered while he looked over some plans for a new joke product in front of him.
"I hope Ron get's it," I replied encouragingly but the twins both scoffed.
"Hey, it would do you two some good to treat him more fairly," I retorted.
"Well, if he ever did anything worthy of our praise we might respect him more. All he ever seems to do is follow after Harry and give Hermione a hard time," George responded.
"Not everyone is as carefree as you two. I mean look at Neville, he's very soft spoken but that doesn't degrade his character," I argued my point.
"Hey, we don't have anything against Neville," Fred replied defensively.
"Yea, and he at least had the nerve to ask out Ginny to the ball last year. I might have had a problem with Ginny going but Neville is the trustworthy type. Plus, Gin said she had a really good time," George continued.
"Ron couldn't even work up the nerve to ask anyone and wound up going alone," Fred added while shaking his head.
"Pathetic," they both agreed in unison.
"Hey! I George went stag as well!" I retorted.
"Yea, well that's because Freddie over here decided to ask the girl I wanted to take," George shot back.
Fred frowned, looking embarrassed with himself. "Sorry again about that mate."
"Wait, so who would you have taken instead hmm?" I looked at Fred goadingly.
"Erm—how the hell did we get talking about ball dates? Ron is a git end of story!" Fred huffed before he rolled up the parchment in front of him and stood up.
"I'll see you two in the morning," Fred said without looking back and headed upstairs.
George also stood up, looking after his twin before he turned back at me and smiled.
"Good-night Marnie," George said before he also went up the stairs to go to sleep.
I continued to stare up at the boy's staircase and felt my stomach sink. The truth was that bringing up the ball brought back my own memories of that night. Cedric had made sure to make it wonderful and I couldn't help but ache to see him again.
Instead of letting myself wallow I went and grabbed a book from my room and brought it back down to sit by the fire. I knew that if I went upstairs to sleep that I would be plagued by the same nightmares I had been having about Cedric. I heard enough of Harry's story to know how Cedric died. And even though Fred had sheltered my view from Cedric's dead body that didn't stop my mind from imagining it.
After a while I felt my head tilt back onto the edge of the sofa once my eyes finally got too heavy to keep reading. When I opened my eyes sometime later it was to see that I was now standing in the living room at my house. There was also a man standing just inside the doorway as I stood there facing him.
"Dumbledore?" I asked, surprised to see my headmaster paying us a house visit.
"I haven't had any luck reaching the Longbottom's. Alice is supposed to be on duty with you tonight so I was hoping you could send me word once you speak with her?" he asked and I realised that I had yet again been transported into my mother's memories.
"Of course Dumbledore, I'll head there right now," my mother agreed.
Dumbledore nodded before looking behind me towards the kitchen.
"Good evening Joss," Dumbledore greeted as he bowed his head before turning to exit the cottage.
"I'll be back by morning dear," my mother called out lovingly.
"Marnie and I will have breakfast ready for you," my father replied as he waved us both off.
My father was smiling back at my mother but I also noticed how worried he looked. I often wondered how it must have truly been for him to stay at home with a toddler while my mother went off to only eventually become hospitalised.
"Good evening Lena," Dumbledore said once he and my mother were past the front gardens. I figured this must be where the magic wards ended and people could apparate.
Dumbledore immediately disappeared after that and the next moment my mother was twisting her toe on the ground. Instantly, my mother was standing on a street in London. The house directly in front of her was a part of a row of houses that looked fairy typical. It had red brick siding and a black roof that connected seamlessly into the houses next door. My mother rang the doorbell while taking her wand out of her pocket, as if by instinct. My mother only waited a few seconds before she uttered some enchantments and let herself in. Once she entered I noticed that the air in the house was very still. There was a den off to the side that was clear of any sign of people which caused my mother to continue towards the back of the house. Once she started moving down the hallway though I could hear sounds of movement.
"Alice? Frank?" my mother called out.
"Wait… this was Neville's house," I thought to myself as my stomach dropped.
"Why am I here?!" I thought frantically as my mother turned the corner into the kitchen.
My fears came true as my mother gazed down upon two of her dearest friends who were both trembling on the floor.
They looked as if they were too weak to stand and I already knew it was even worse than my mother thought. Instinctually, my mother ran to Alice first who was only a few feet in front of her.
"Alice?" my mother asked more softly.
Alice flinched at my mother's touch but my mother held on and brought Alice's face to look up at hers.
"Alice?" my mother asked again and this time Alice Longbottom met my mother's gaze.
But instead of showing signs of relief at seeing her friend standing before her, Alice looked horrified.
"Alice?" my mother whispered, sensing now that there was something very wrong.
Instead of answering, Alice momentarily stopped fighting against my mother's grasp and instead opened her mouth very wide. There was a moment's pause where my mother stopped moving and Alice inhaled deeply. Then, Alice let out her breath in an excruciating scream that pierced my mother's ears.
"NO!" I shouted inside my mother's head and closed my own eyes.
When the screaming finally stopped I opened my eyes to see that I was back sitting in the Gryffindor common room. My neck was stiff from leaning back on the couch and I looked around to see that no one else as up. Judging by the moon outside it was the middle of the night but there was no way I could go back to sleep now. I looked down to see that my hands were trembling and all I wanted to do was be held close by someone. I stood up and let my feet carry me up to where I wanted to go. My mind was still reeling from my dream but I stopped when I realised that we weren't necessarily kids anymore, so maybe this wasn't appropriate. Sleeping in the same bed as Cedric had meant something entirely different so could I really crawl into bed with the twins and have it be as innocent as it was when we were younger? The scream in my head shook any lingering doubts though as I quietly opened the door and closed it behind me. I then walked over and stood in between both of the twins' beds. Standing in between them, I realised it had been over a year since I had done this or had even been in this room that still seemed so familiar. Somewhere on the other side of the room I could hear Lee snoring and Kenneth rolling over. There were several scattered materials for joke products around both Fred and George's beds that somehow already put me more at ease. I only paused for another moment before deciding to climb into bed with Fred. When I had retrieved my book earlier I changed into some trackpants and a t-shirt so I was already dressed to go to sleep.
I tried to be as careful as possible climbing in but the bed was only single sized and we were much bigger now than we had been in our first year.
"Wha's goin on Georgie?" Fred grumbled in a sleepy voice.
I froze, immediately thinking this might not have been the best idea.
"Hare?" Fred asked more in surprise as he opened his eyes and saw who was actually climbing into his bed.
I didn't respond but only sat there mid-way to getting into bed. Fred's face didn't easily give away what he was thinking but I felt he was thinking far too many things for one to show prominently on his features. He also didn't say anything but instead grabbed for my hand to pull me the rest of the way in. Mistakenly, Fred grabbed onto my injured hand which caused me to wince in pain. Fred looked down and grimaced at the sight of my cut up hand. But instead of complaining like he had before he brought my hand to his lips and softly kissed the scars. His lips were a little chapped but it still felt soothing to feel them softly pressed on my skin. After a few moments Fred brought my hand back down and moved his thumb so it didn't touch the cuts, but he also didn't let go. Instead he pulled me towards him until I was laying securely in his arms. He never said a word and I didn't offer an explanation. We just laid there as I let the rhythm of his breathing still my thoughts and lull me to sleep.