Chapter 9 Soothing Cinnamon Scents

Holly was in a gloomy place, she was sure she had never seen before. Something about it immediately reminded her of that cemetery, but this time she somehow knew to be somewhere else entirely. In the corner of the room, she could hear a horrifying, quiet moaning, it sounded muffled as if it's origin was hidden behind something. It was so dark, she hardly saw anything, all she could make out was some weird bundle, laying on the floor over there.
Holly raised her wand in that direction, frightened, when she saw the long, pale, spiderlike fingers wrapped around it.
Just that it wasn't actually her wand either.

Gently she pointed her wand at the bundle that lay there in the corner. Without a word, the bundle lifted up into the air, floating over to her where it came to an abrupt halt. Holly swallowed, disgusted at the sight in front of her.

What she had thought to be a bundle, actually turned out to be a woman's naked body. The only piece of cloth left on her body was the dirty rag someone had stuffed into her mouth.
She was badly injured, bruises covering every single inch of skin, several gaping wounds here and there still dripping with blood. Multiple streams of the thick red liquid run down the body, seeping to the floor, pooling at her feet.
The worst was the woman's face, it was swollen, bruised, some marks looked as though she had been burned with something. The lips chapped, hair tangled, some places matted with what must be dried blood. The one eye that hadn't swollen shut looked at her in panic, yet there was some kind of emptiness in the glance.
Holly was terrified by the sight of it, and even though she couldn't recognize who that woman was, Holly was sure to have seen her before, she felt oddly familiar.

Where was she? What did she do here?

All of a sudden, Holly could hear a horrible, cold laughter coming out of her throat. Shivers ran down her spine at the cruel sound of it.

"My dear guest, I'm so happy I can finally inform you that you are no longer of use to me.
See, you will finally get the release you have been begging for since you came here", the cold voice stated without any emotion.

Holly watched the woman's face crumble, tears swimming in the open eye. Merlin, let it be over with already.
If only Holly could leave this place.
Where the fuck was she?

The wand in front of her was lifted higher:

"It will be over soon, I promise. Just a little more fun and you will be released… Crucio!"

The body, still floating in the air, twisted and turned in pain, dreadful sounds leaving the woman's throat, screams of torture, muffled by that rag in her mouth.

"Crucio" the voice said, again and again, laughing in between. At the same time, his victim's body seemingly lost the rest of what little life had still been within it.
The woman must have passed out after sometime, because the screams stopped, and the body hung even limper in the air than before. Holly couldn't stand it, closed her eyes, tried to blend everything out. Then:

"Avada Kedavra."

A green light filled the dark space and the body fell down to the floor.

...

Holly pulled herself up, heavily breathing, the images of the crime she'd just witnessed still in front of her, even though she slowly realized, she was back in her room at Grimmauldplace, in her bed. Next to her, Ginny and Hermione were still sleeping, breathing steadily.

Her racing heart slowed down after some time, but she couldn't process the things she'd just seen. That poor woman! Holly felt something wet dripping to the bare skin of her thigh. Silent tears streamed down her face.

Grabbing her dressing gown, she went out of the room, down to the kitchen yet again. So many nights she found herself in this room, but usually after a different kind of nightmare, usually she dreamt of the cemetery or Voldemort finding her, her friends, hunting them down.
Mostly she saw Cedric's handsome face with those dead eyes staring at her emptily, however even in death accusingly, blaming her for the loss of his life.

This time had been different. This had not been a normal nightmare, not some kind of horrible spawn her subconsciousness had come up with.
This time, she had actually seen something real.
Somewhere at that very moment, a woman had gotten tortured and murdered by Lord Voldemort and Holly had witnessed it happening.
How could that be? Why had she seen it happening as if she were Voldemort?

Still crying, trembling, she sat down onto the carpet in front of the fire, trying to calm herself, hoping the warmth would help her forget what she had seen.

Out of nowhere, a hand touched her shoulder. Frightened to death she startled, jumping to her feet at once, ready to fight if necessary.
Next to her stood George, his hands held out in front of him, obviously confused by her reaction.

"Damn it, Holly, it's just me!", he spoke softly.

Holly took a deep breath and nodded once before sitting down again, wiping her hand over her face to hide the tears from him. With little success.

"Have you been crying? What's wrong, Holly?" His voice was full of concern.

He sat down next to her, again touching her shoulder in comfort.
This time, at the sense of his touch, she couldn't hold back anymore, she burst into tears again, sobbing uncontrollably. George, without hesitation, wrapped her into his arms tightly and stroke over her sleep tangled, dark hair whilst she sobbed into the front of his t-shirt.

He must have thought her crazy, sitting in front of the fire at night, alone, crying for no apparent reason at all, but he just held her in his arms anyway, trying to comfort her, showing her, she wasn't alone.

Somehow, it helped. She couldn't explain why, but being hugged by him, feeling his strong arms around her, his fingers tenderly caressing her head and back whilst murmuring softly into her hair… All of that helped. She couldn't understand a word he said, since she was still sobbing too loudly herself, but hearing his gentle voice was incredibly soothing.

After a while, the sobs grew quieter, and while tears still soaked the fabric of his t-shirt, her breathing slowly calmed down as well. Without thinking about it, Holly began to speak unsteadily:

"I was just asleep. At first, I thought it was one of my usual nightmares, but it was so very different than usual. There… was a woman. I don't know who she was, but I think I knew her. Vo… Vol… He was there too. She was already deeply injured, nearly dead by the looks of it. He tortured her nevertheless, telling her she was of no use to him any longer. That she would be 'released' soon. I can still hear her screams and his laughter. It was fun to him, seeing her in pain, being the cause of it… She went numb after some time. Then he …"

Holly swallowed to keep another sob down.

"He…"

Holly couldn't finish the sentence, but there was no need for it, George got her meaning all the same.
He didn't say a word, for fuck's sake, he didn't know what to say to her after that story. He just pulled her a little tighter to his chest, putting his head on top of hers, his cheek against her hair.

Holly felt his embrace growing tighter around her and she pressed her face harder against George's broad chest, burying herself into his soft (even though thanks to her soaking wet) t-shirt. One arm wrapped around his body, the other hand resting just under his collarbone, on top of his heaving chest. The rhythm of his beating heart beneath her ear comforted her more than anything.
Content, she inhaled deeply, breathing in his musky, yet somehow freshly clean scent.
It reminded her of the Burrow and Quidditch and for some inexplicable matter of cinnamon.
This smell helped her relaxing even more, she could feel all the tension falling off her body.

Holly could not say for how long they had stayed in that exact position, holding onto one another, sitting on that soft, velvety carpet in front of the dancing flames. It must have been quite a while though, because slowly, a new day started to break.
When the first light of the day began to show outside the kitchen window, Holly softly released her arms from George and he did the same, however he didn't let go of her completely.
He laid his hands gently to the sides of her waist, his touch causing a tingling sensation that spread through her entire body and made a shiver run down her spine.

She could now see the dark stain her tears had left on his chest, it made her smile for some reason. She had left her mark on him. What a weird thought!

Slowly, she lifted her eyes, up to his face. His sparkling blue eyes expecting her already. Holly had never been this close to him, she could count every single freckle on his face if she'd wanted to. Had he always been this handsome? A grin started to show on his lips, she'd never noticed that it was ever so beautifully lopsided.
Holly shifted uncomfortably, stressed out by the sudden turn of her thoughts and blinked whilst a faint blush crept up her cheeks and she quickly turned her eyes away from George's face.

"I…" she started, but she didn't know what to say.

"I…" another attempt.

"Thanks, I guess."

She risked looking up at him again now, glancing through her eyelashes.
He was still smiling.
Still lopsided.
Damn it.

"Don't worry, you're welcome. I'm just glad I could be of service, milady", he returned to their usual joking. Holly could do that too.

"That you were, Mr. Weasley."

She couldn't help but smile. What the fuck was wrong with her? This was George fucking Weasley after all!
George shook his head in amusement, his ginger hair moving slightly with the motion.

"Well, I guess we should better go back to bed before anyone finds us here, don't you?", George asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

When she nodded in agreement, he lifted his hands from her waist and it felt as if a spell had been broken by that move. He patted her thigh softly before standing up.
Another shiver.
All Holly could do was hope he hadn't noticed. Or if he had, hopefully he would blame it on the morning chill that had spread through the kitchen. Apparently, the fire had gone out some time ago. Holly hadn't noticed until now.

As soon as he stood, he stretched out one hand to her:

"Milady, would you do me the great honour of escorting you up to your chambers?"

Smirking again, she put her small hand into his and stood up. Her body ached from sitting on the floor for so long.

"There is nothing I'd rather do."

Voilà!
George fucking Weasley everybody!
Do you think this will be the one Holly will fall for?
Or will she return to her senses... after all, George had always been more like a brother to her, never had she imagined something like that to happen with him!
Stay tuned!
- A