\\Blinding Love// (Fred Weasley)
Fred and I had walked around Hogsmeade for awhile just looking around in stores and talking about our summer until we decided to have a drink at Madame Rosmerta's pub. "Two fire whiskeys." Fred ordered as we walked in and took a seat near one of the walls.
"So Fred," I began once our drinks arrived. "Why on Earth did you want to hang out with me today? I mean, aren't you usually hanging out with your other friends?"
I took a sip of my fire whiskey. It burned my throat but it felt replenishing seeing as how it was another scorching day outside.
"Well yes but, they aren't my only friends you know. You are still one of mine and the last time we ever talked to each other was the Yule Ball last year."
I blushed slightly at a memory that had popped into my head.
"Hey Elise!"
I turned around to see Fred Weasley. I smiled as he came over to me; briskly walking in a hurried manner.
"Hey Fred. Wow, you look sharp." I commented.
"Thanks. Hey, I was just wondering, would you like to go for a walk in the gardens?"
I quirked an eyebrow at him and looked around. Every one of my friends was preoccupied with someone else and I was certain no one would miss me at all. I held my hand out to him.
"I'd love to."
We took a walk around underneath the moonlight; in the freezing cold not to mention as well. I was just admiring the night sky and the falling snowflakes when Fred stopped walking with me and turned me around to face him.
"Elise, there's something I've been meaning to tell you for awhile."
"What is it Fred?"
He seemed to be trying to gather the words in his head. He then looked away from my face, as if he was too embarrassed to say what he wanted to say. I grabbed his face in my hands and made him look at me.
"Well? What is it?"
"Just that, you look gorgeous tonight. You always looked good in red."
I had the feeling that that wasn't what he was going to say but I didn't push him any further. Whatever he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me eventually, maybe. I just smiled as I flattened my red dress a little. It was very form fitting and had a slit that reached the middle of my right thigh. I then wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Thank you Fred. You know, I really like having you as someone I can be normal around." I then gave him a peck on the lips.
We both smiled sheepishly as we walked back into the castle corridors.
"Well that may be true," I commented, getting back to our reality conversation. "But don't your family and friends say anything about you hanging out with some one from Slytherin." I mocked the name.
"Well yes, you know how they all hate Malfoy and his gang and I suspect they dislike you as well because you hang with him sometimes as well." I scoffed.
"Well sorry but, I've known Draco since we were toddlers. You can't blame me." I shrugged as I took another drink.
"Besides, being in Slytherin means nothing. I've heard Potter and his friends talk about me before, thinking I'm in league with the Dark Lord. Not everyone in Slytherin is you know."
'Even though I've seen and I know Voldemort myself.' I thought.
"Well, they don't really think that anymore. Harry thinks you're rather nice, of course George does too but that's just because he's known you for a long time as well."
I shrugged again.
"That's surprising. Wish I could say the same for my so called 'friends' but they always discriminate everyone. It's mostly because of their parents. They suck up to them and I'm the complete opposite."
"Well," Fred said "I guess that's why I like you so much. You're nothing like the others. And, you joke around a lot." I stared at him for a long minute then smiled.
"That makes two of us." We both laughed for a little while until my face fell a little.
Here was Potters gang coming towards our table.
"Hey Fred, hi Elise." Harry greeted.
"Hello." I said simply, forcing a small smile.
With him followed Granger, Ron, George which I said hi to also, and Ginny. The main gang I would say. Everyone grabbed a seat and put it up towards the table as much as they could. I felt extremely out of place once again. I didn't say anything except sit there, drinking my Fire Whiskey and listening to some weird story that everyone was replaying for Fred.
"So Elise," Hermione started a conversation with me, which everyone's eyes were averted to me. I raised an eyebrow. "There's something I've always been meaning to ask you."
"Shoot." I said in a bored tone as I took a swig of my drink.
"Why were you placed in Slytherin anyways? I mean, you just don't seem like you fit there. I used to have a class with you in third year, I believe Muggle Studies. There were no Slytherins in there whatsoever and from my experience; I know most of them hate Muggle-borns and well, just plain muggles anyways."
I sighed, folding my hands on top of the table; everyone listening intently.
"Yes, I took that class because believe it or not, I used to have muggle friends before I knew I was a witch. That was probably why my parents never allowed me to go to school which, my friends thought were crazy until I had to tell them I was being 'home schooled' of course. As for being in Slytherin, it's more my genes than my brains. I was supposed to be in Ravenclaw but the Sorting Hat placed me immediately in Slytherin just because of my family tree. Most of my family were in Slytherin and on my mom's side, most went to Ravenclaw." As I explained this, everyone seemed to have been thinking over something in their minds.
I could have done what I usually did in these situations but, I hadn't done that in so many years, I don't know if I would still have the same control. I decided to not do it.
"So, for the record if I may clear up, I might have still had the Slytherin attitude but I would have been in a different situation I think." I shrugged. I started to think though.
'Would I really be in a different situation if I was in Ravenclaw? Or would I still be forced to join the Death Eaters?' A snapping of the fingers by George directed me back to real life.
"Hey dolly daydream. You ok?"
"Yeah, why?"
Fred nodded towards the entrance. There, coming towards the table was Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise, and Montague. I groaned and rolled my eyes.
"Well well well, isn't this a surprise?" Draco said with a sick disgust in his tone.
"Buzz off Malfoy." Ron said getting up from his seat.
"Oh, getting angry are we Weasle-bee?" The boys all snickered and Draco stood there with his infamous smirk. That soon vanished when I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Elise, what are you doing hanging out with these rodents?"
"Geez Ferret boy, I could ask you the very same thing." The Gryffindor gang all chuckled at my joke.
Draco's face was turning red and I rolled my eyes. "What do you care Draco who I hang out with?" I demanded as I stood up from my chair and stood in front of him with my arms crossed.
"We need to talk." he whispered in a low voice.
"Whatever you have to say, you can say in front of everyone here." I raised my voice.
Some other people in the pub looked towards the arguing, seeing who was causing such a racket until they saw nothing was happening and went back to what they were all doing.
"No, I can't." he replied
"Then it's not important!"
I was getting aggravated with him.
"Elise, you're going to want to talk to Draco." Montague cut in. I stared at him.
Montague and I had a weird relationship as 'friends'. We never liked each other yet, we would talk to each other if we were really bored. I hated him because he was so cocky. He hated me because I had a smart ass mouth. But he has never lied to me once throughout all these years I've known him so if something was important, I knew I had to believe him.
"Elise," Draco started, staring at me intently with his steel grayish blue eyes. "It's for your own good."
I gave up.
I turned around to face my audience as Draco started to leave with a few curses to Potter and the others. "Later Scar head, Weasle Chumps, and Mudblood."
I rolled my eyes at his creativity.
"I'm sorry about that everyone. Apparently it's super important. It was nice talking for awhile. I'll see you later Fred." I smacked down some money to pay for my drink and then left the pub.
Outside were my two other so called 'friends' waiting for me.
"Ok, now what the bloody hell is so important?" I asked as we all started towards the exit of the village.
"We can't tell you until we're back at the common room." Cheryl spoke from behind me who was walking with Danni also.
I turned to look at her and she mouthed a sorry to me as Danni gave me a sheepish look. I smiled slightly as we all hopped into some carriages and rode back to school. Back at school, we all rushed to the common room and made sure no one else was in there before they begun to speak.
"Ellie, you're going to need to sit down." Danni said as she pointed to a chair.
"What the hell for? Is it that bad?" I was suspicious now but I obeyed the gesture.
What was the big deal?
"Cheryl, you should tell her." Blaise pushed Cheryl forward.
"Well, first off, did you read the paper this morning?" I shook my head simply.
"Ok," she took in a deep breath. "Your parents are dead."
I began cracking up and dancing around the room.
"Alright! No more parents! Hey guys, want to have a party at my house this holiday?" I began laughing.
Everyone took a couple steps back and gave me weird looks at my reaction.
"Seriously guys, what is SO important that you had to bring me back all the way to school?"
I stopped dancing when I noticed everyone was giving each other looks.
Draco walked up to me and placed a hand on each of my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes as he spoke. "Elise, you need to listen. Ok? You are homeless now. Your house was burned to the ground."
My face was blank. "What?"
"Oh boy, here she goes. She's going to pop." Adrian Pucey jumped in who was sitting on the couch.
"What?" I kept repeating.
"Now Ellie, calm down alright?" Danni said hugging me.
I shrugged away from her and everyone else. "WHAT?! How the hell did this happen!?" I screamed at everyone.
"I want answers NOW!" Tears were starting to gather around my eyelids.
"Well, apparently the ministry figured out somehow that your parents were connected with the Dark Lord. I guess a fight happened in your house and your house was set on fire. Your mother was killed in the fire, having a piece of the house fall on her while she was trying to escape and your dad, well the floor underneath him gave way and he fell into the basement, cracking his skull open and bleeding to death." Draco explained.
"Of course it doesn't say that in the newspaper, we heard from...a more reliable source let's say." Blaise explained.
The tears tumbled down my cheeks. I sunk to the floor in disbelief, everyone staring down at me with sorrow in their eyes, Danni and Cherry hugging me.
"You need to collect yourself Elise." Cheryl told me.
"You know that new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge? She works for the ministry and is bringing Fudge down here to question you." Someone entered the common room then. We all turned heads to see Snape.
"Come with me Miss Richards."
I got up from the floor and straightened myself out as I wiped away my tears and took in deep breaths, blinking continuously to make my remaining tears disappear. Snape walked me through the hallways at a fast pace.
"I take it you've found out then?"
"Yes sir."
He said the secret password to get up to Professor Dumbledore's office. When we entered, there was Dumbledore enduring screams from Fudge and Umbridge.
"Here she is Professor." Snape said as we walked over to Dumbledore's desk.
"Please, sit down Miss Richards." Dumbledore gestured to a chair in front of his desk. Umbridge was to the left of me as Fudge was on my right, Snape was behind me.
"I assume you have heard the news about your parents Miss Richards." Fudge started off. I nodded.
"I just found out not two minutes ago."
"I'm sorry for your loss but, we were in pursuit of people who were linked to You-Know-Who and your parents were one of those people." I acted shocked.
"What?!"
"Are you implying Miss Richards that you had no idea?" Umbridge stepped in.
Now I acted offended.
"Why of course I didn't! Why would you assume I knew of such a thing?!"
"Well, a daughter would do anything to keep her parents out of jail." I scoffed at this lady who was overly obsessed with the horrid color of pink.
"Excuse me but, don't you mean that a mother would do anything for the happiness of her daughter?" Umbridge kept back her anger I could tell. "And anyways, Minister, I thought you didn't believe that You-Know-Who was back."
He avoided my statement. "Miss Richards," Fudge began again. "For the good of the Wizarding world, we are going to need you to take some Veritaserum, it's the only way we can be sure you aren't lying to us."
I gave Fudge a disgusted look. "So you don't believe me? Unbelievable! If you are judging me just because I'm in Slytherin, that means nothing. That's like labeling a person." I said crossing my arms.
"Look here Minister; does she not look like she's telling the truth? She is a good student after all and has never had a single detention or has been in trouble all of her years here." Dumbledore pledged for me.
"We need to take precautions Dumbledore!" Fudge was yelling now.
I sighed in frustration. "Fine! I'll take it just to show you I'm telling the truth."
"Head Master if I may, I do not have any stocks of Veritaserum. That is usually the first assignment I give all of my students so I have a supplies the rest of the year which seeing as how the year has not started, I have none."
In my head I smiled. "Good old Snape."
"I really am telling the truth. I had no idea they would be in league with him. Sure over the summer most of the time I was home alone and my parents rarely ever came home but I didn't know of their whereabouts. They always told me they were going on a trip." I shrugged putting up the most innocent act I could muster up.
"Now you see Fudge? That explains it. Her own parents had lied to her as well." Dumbledore explained smiling.
"Now, Miss Richards you are excused." I nodded and left the room with a screaming Fudge and a yelling Umbridge.
I thought about going back to the Common Room but I didn't feel like being bombarded with questions of what had happened with my questioning session. I would face it later but now wasn't the time. It was past lunchtime and there was most likely no food in the mess hall for me to eat. I wasn't even feeling hungry anyways but I knew I would later. I walked outside to the front of the school. I saw more people coming back from Hogsmeade, seeing as how it would be dinner soon. I needed a place to be alone where I could cry my eyes out and no one would bother me.
I made my way towards the Whomping Willow. Hardly anyone ever walked towards there and it had a beautiful view of the Black Lake and Forbidden Forest. I sat as far away from the Whomping Willow so it wouldn't be able to reach me if it intended to attack. As I sat there by myself on a tipped over tree, the silence, the wind, just being alone, it started to make me cry. I had no more parents, no home, I still had money left after I get the chance to direct all of my parents' savings to my own account but, I had no more family.
My mom was an only child and my uncle had died when I was only three years old from pneumonia; some kind of freak accident occurred when he was playing a muggle activity...fishing or something. He had fallen through some ice and that's how he became ill. I was now considered an orphan I guess but I was old enough to take care of myself. Still, it was heart breaking and I was all alone now and without a house. I could always buy one somewhere if I really needed but, that was pointless it seemed.
A flutter of wings made me jump when I heard something land on the ground behind me. It was Caim.
"Why are you crying Mistress?" he hooted as he changed into a black cat and stared up at me with green eyes.
"My parents are dead. I'm just like Danni, Nott, even Harry Potter. Isn't that wonderful?" I tried to choke out a laugh but a sob just came out along with a waterfall of tears that fell onto Caim who shook them off of his fur.
He rubbed up against me and purred. "I'm sorry. At least you have a house though."
"No, it burned to the ground." Caim didn't say anything but just sat there cuddling with me.
"Why do you only use your powers with me?" Caim asked suddenly.
I sniffled, trying to breathe. "Well, because it gets annoying sometimes, being able to read everyone's thoughts."
"You should find it very useful though. It can also help with love problems." I laughed slightly.
"I know. Montague likes Cheryl. I knew that Danni and Nott liked each other before she told me. They'll most likely get together if not, Adrian finds her attractive too."
Caim meowed. "Someone's coming."
I wiped away the residue from my tears that were still on my cheeks and sniffled. The sun was just now starting to disappear behind the mass of trees from the forest and shining the sky with brilliant bright colors and hues of orange, yellow, purple, pink, and red. The clouds were a dark gray color, like it looked as if it were going to rain. The footsteps stopped right beside where I was sitting. I looked up to see Fred. I looked away from him as I focused my attention back to the glistening colors on the lakes surface.
"Are you alright Elise?" he asked as he sat down next to me. Caim meowed at him. I rubbed Caim's head as I shook my head.
"I heard what happened from Harry, Ron, and Hermione after you left." I took in a deep breath. I was still trying to calm myself down.
"Do you have another place to live?" I slowly shook my head again.
I took in one more deep breath. "All I have left is the clothes I brought with me and the money that's in my bank." I sniffled.
Caim jumped out of my lap and up onto the log. "It'll be alright Elise." he comforted as he gave me a sorrowful look.
I stared at Fred and felt the tears coming. I looked down at the ground, weeping silently as I felt him hug my shoulders. I turned and cried into his shoulder as I hugged him back. It must have been forever because when I finally started to calm down and lift my head from his shoulder, which was wet from my tears, it was pitch black outside with only the stars lighting the ground.
I wiped away the residue from my face once again and looked at Fred. "Thanks, you're a great friend." I smiled slightly as I sniffled. Caim meowed once again.
"This is my pet. His name is Caim, he can transform into any kind of animal." I clarified cheering up a little and trying to put this afternoons tragedy news aside.
"Wicked." he said as I swooped up Caim. "I think we better get going. It's late."
Fred walked with me all the way to the steps where we usually parted ways. "Hey Fred?" I called once I was half way down the stairs. He looked back at me.
"I really appreciate you being with me all that time." I half smiled.
"Eh, it was no problem. I hate to see you like that really."
I frowned. "Why?"
He shrugged. "Maybe because I believe you're too beautiful to be upset and in a mess like that."
I rolled my eyes at his comment but I gave him a genuine smile.
"I'll see you later." I then rushed down the stairs and made my way to my common room.
When I entered, I was glomped by Cheryl and Danni. "We were so worried about you! We thought you went to go kill yourself or something!" Danni started to cry somewhat.
Caim jumped out of my grip as I managed my way out of their death hugging grips and the emotions.
"I'm fine, really. Stop worrying about me."
"There's the Ellie we all know. Tough as nails and always bounces back."
I rolled my eyes at Blaise's analogy.
"We have a surprise for you." Montague smirked as I sat down, Caim running back into my lap and I looked at him weirdly. There behind the couch popped out my house elf, Dotty.
"OH MY GOD! DOTTY!" I said getting up and running over to Dotty whom I hugged.
The others looked at me strangely but I didn't care. Dotty was the sweetest little house elf ever!
"How are you here?" I questioned.
"Dotty left when battle begun. Dotty knew Mistress would need things from her house so Dotty packed them and brought them with her here." the little house elf smiled happily.
"Why thank you. I thought I lost all of my things. I appreciate that Dotty."
"Dotty must leave now. Dotty works in the kitchen while you still have school. Dotty brought you a sandwich like your friends ordered." I smiled again.
"Thank you Dotty." she then disappeared.
"You guys, don't use her to bring food up to you all." I ordered.
"Ellie, we told her to bring up food for you because you weren't at dinner. We figured you'd got to eat something." Danni shrugged.
"Well thanks but, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to shower and go to bed. I'm tired." I said goodnight to all of my friends and Caim followed me as I went into my room.
I was lying in bed when Caim jumped up next to me and lay down too.
"Why are you being so loving and caring Caim?" I asked suspiciously.
"Can't a cat get some loving around here?" he meowed at me.
"I have a question for you. Do you work for the Dark Lord?"
"What on Earth gives you that idea? He got me off the black market. Nothing else. Besides, I would never work for him. I hate that snake of his. I should turn into a dragon and turn it into a crisp."
I snickered at the thought of a charred snake and handing it to Voldemort as a surprise desert from India or something.
"You know Caim? I think I'll start using my powers again. Who knows? I might hear of some secrets from my friends I can use to Black Mail." I heard him chuckle in his mind as we both drifted off to sleep.
As I was drifting, I thought of Fred Weasley and how a great friend he was for actually seeming real about caring about my well being. Not that my other friends didn't but, none of them are really good at showing emotions, being hard core Slytherins and all. It was just very sincere of him to comfort me, that's all. I'm lucky to have met him.