AN: Wow thanks so much for all of the wonderful interest in this story. So this chapter jumps forward a bit and I'm considering using a few flashbacks to previous years throughout the story. So sorry it's taken me so long to post this, I've been trying to get a few chapters banked so I can post more regularly.

CHAPTER 2 – Life goes on

There was no maybe about it. I definitely had friends, even if they were a year older than me and possibly the craziest friends a girl could have. Being friends with the Weasley twins certainly had its surprises. Like the time that I found them attempting to sneak into the girl's dormitories for some reason unbeknownst to me. In saying that they were exceptionally good at making me laugh; it was near impossible to be sad or angry around those two. So for the first year or so it was just us; nearly inseparable we did everything together. That was of course until I came across a girl in my year crying in an abandoned classroom; apparently she had been tormented by several older Slytherins for being a muggleborn. It was almost automatic to take her with me and introduce her to Fred and George. So for the next four years it was the four of us; me, George, Fred, and Vanessa, we were a group of misfits and that was what made it special. This year is going to be different though, as it's mine and Vanessa's final year at Hogwarts, however it is also our first year without the twins there too. So I'm going to miss them terribly.

I sat up in bed, breathing heavily, a cold sweat running down my face from my nightmare. I could still hear those words, the words that still kill me inside. I heard heavy footsteps outside and someone on the other side flung the door open; it was Mr. and Mrs. Anderson and Vanessa. Ever since second year, I had been living with Vanessa's family. They had basically taken me on as a second daughter, and I loved them as if they were my own parents.
"Are you okay?" she queried, her voice full of concern, "We heard you scream." I nodded slowly,
"I'm fine; it was just my Hogwarts dream again." Relief washed over Ness' face as she realised and understood what I was talking about. She turned to her parents,
"Don't worry mum and dad, I can handle Lessie. You guys go back to bed." Her mum turned to me,
"Are you sure Celeste? John and I are happy to stay with you if you aren't comfortable being alone."
"No thank you Mrs. Anderson. I'll be fine." I replied smiling at her. She sighed and nodded, not totally convinced that I was fine. As she and Mr. Anderson turned to leave, I distinctly heard her say,
"How many times have I told her to call me Francine?" As soon as her parents were out of earshot Ness turned to me,
"Alright Lessie, what's going on?" I was surprised at how genuinely concerned she sounded especially due to the number of times at school that I'd woke her up with my screams.
"Nessie, it was the same nightmare as always." I replied, my face impassive.
"Yes Lessie, back when we were like 12. You haven't had that dream in years."
"It's always the same; it starts off in my bedroom back at Malfoy Manor…"
'I'm lying on my bed reading a book, when my father walks in. He never says anything; he just looks at me, his eyes full of scorn. I ask him politely why he is in my room. I get no reply and he continues to stare at me. The room dissolves and suddenly I'm kneeling on the steps in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, my father sitting in Dumbledore's chair; glaring at me. Guards grip my arms and begin to drag me down the hall
"Father!" I cry out, struggling.
"Take her away," he tells the guards, "she is no daughter of mine." I burst into tears, and Ness hugged me tightly.
"Shush, it's ok. It's not real. I'm here for you always." She rubbed my back lightly and allowed me to sob loudly into her shoulder. After a bit a minute or so, I pulled away,
"Thank you Ness. You truly are the best friend a girl could have. Oh dear, I'm sorry I've ruined your shirt." I whispered pointing at the large stain on her shoulder. Vanessa leaned forward and wiped the last remnants of tears from my eyes,
"My shirt isn't important Lessie, honestly." She told me smiling softly, "Now I think we both should try and get some sleep, don't you?" I nodded and we both cuddled down underneath the blankets on my bed, holding on to each other as if our lives depended on it.

The Anderson household was extremely quiet the next morning, Ness's parents were tip toeing around me as if I might burst into tears at any point and her younger brothers Logan and Tom were watching me closely, obviously they had heard my scream last night. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore, and I nudged Ness, indicating I wanted to go out.
"Mum, Dad, Lessie and I are going to do the last of our…" I dragged her away before she could even finish her sentence.
"Let's just go." I hissed, they didn't really need to know where we were going, after all we were both 17 and about to start our final year at Hogwarts, technically we were adults in the Wizarding World. She grabbed my hand and turned on the spot. However instead of taking us to Diagon Alley like I hoped she would, we were standing, or rather Vanessa was standing and I was collapsed on the ground, outside the Burrow.
"Uh, why are we here?" I asked dusting myself off.
"To see the terrible two, duh." She replied as if I was being completely stupid. I sighed,
"You do remember that they moved out at the end of last year don't you?" Ness giggled,
"Oh that's right silly me." Without another word she had again grabbed my hand and turned on the spot, this time I was slightly more prepared and managed to keep my balance so instead of falling I simply stumbled. At least she had the right address this time and we weren't going to have to go through it again.
"You seriously have got to stop doing that!"
"Sorry Less, but you know you want to see them as much as I do." She stepped forward and rang the bell outside their door. After a couple of minutes the door opened and a freckle faced man with flaming red hair popped his head out the door surrounded by a cloud of smoke.
"Now isn't really…" He trailed off when he realized who we were, "Nessie, Lessie, come in, come in. To what do we owe this lovely surprise?" Before I could say anything, Ness butted in with,
"Fred, Celeste had her nightmare again." His face dropped,
"I'll get George." He was gone before I could say anything.
I knew that what happened next was going to bring out the serious side of the twins. That wasn't my favourite side of them, especially not when it came to matters about myself. I much preferred my idiotic best friends who did silly things like last year when they left Hogwarts with a bang, literally. Fireworks in the shape of dragons which destroyed every single one of our then Headmistress Professor Umbridge's Educational Decrees, thank god for that. Luckily Umbridge was gone and Professor Dumbledore was back. I heard a shout and a loud bang followed by the sound of running footsteps. Next thing I knew a pair of strong arms had encircled me and I was lifted off the floor.
"Now don't lie to me Celeste Titania Malfoy. What happened last night?" Something in George's voice told me not to mess with him.
"I had my nightmare about my father again." I admitted, trying to avoid eye contact. I knew that if I didn't, I would burst into tears. George set me back down on the ground and sighed,
"But Ce you haven't had that dream for almost 5 years. Why now?" I gulped; I guess I actually had to tell them, they could always tell when I was lying.
"Well um, my mother owled me a few days ago, and well, last night I… um… I opened it." Ness' mouth dropped and Fred was staring at me like I had gone crazy, but it was George's reaction that worried me. His whole face had gone grey in colour and his eyes were completely dark, I was beginning to get scared.
"What did it say?" He muttered so low I couldn't hear.
"I said… What Did It Say?" He exploded at me, and I shrank away from him, he was really scaring me now. When he noticed what his reaction had done to me his expression immediately softened and he sighed regretfully.
"Please Ce; I need to know why you had that nightmare." I nodded slowly before taking a deep breath; this was going to be hard to explain. There was no way that they would understand properly.
"Remember how Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny put my father in Azkaban at the end of last year?" Ness and the twins nodded, how could they not remember? It was absolutely heartbreaking for Harry when Sirius died in the process. "Well, apparently mother finally feels free enough from my father's control to talk to me. Basically the letter said how sorry she was and that she missed me. She wants me to come and visit over Christmas break this year." I paused; they weren't going to like what I said next, "I think I'm going to go see her." That was the final straw for George, he completely lost it.
"No! There is no way that you are going there! The idea of it is already giving you nightmares; can you even imagine what actually being there might do?"He looked to Ness and Fred for support, and smiled slightly when he saw them nodding in agreement to what he had said. I sighed once more,
"George… She's my mother. As much as I might want to, I can't hate her. At least she seemed slightly upset when father disowned me. So please don't make this any harder for me than it already is. My mind is made up, I'm going." George stared at me for what felt like an eternity before he simply turned and walked away. I took a deep breath, tears pricking my eyes once again. I couldn't understand why he couldn't just be happy for me; at least Ness and Fred were trying to be supportive of me, even if they didn't agree with my decision.
"It'll be ok Lessie. You've just got to give him some time to calm down. He'll come round, don't worry." Fred smiled and wrapped his arms around me in a suffocating hug. I shrugged halfheartedly; my life didn't need to revolve around George freaking Weasley!

September 1st arrived quickly this year, maybe a bit too quickly for my liking. Somehow Ness had managed to convince her parents that we didn't need a chaperone to the train station, clearly she had left out the small detail about You-Know-Who being back at large. We arrived at the train station with only minutes to spare, the whistle going just as we climbed aboard the train.
"You know I never did understand why seventh years can't just apparate to Hogsmeade? Surely it would be easier?" Ness asked as we walked past a third consecutive full compartment. I just shrugged, not really in the mood for her random thoughts. George and I had barely said two words to one another since he stormed out on us when I made my announcement, and I hated the idea of going to Hogwarts without mending things with my best friend.
When we eventually found a compartment to sit in, I sighed, it seemed like there were more students this year than there had been any other year before. I guess Dumbledore had always said that there was no safer place than Hogwarts.
Our train journey passed relatively uneventfully, supposedly some new teacher was on the train and was holding a tea party for specific students however it seemed to just be a rumour. At one point Ness got fed up with my shrugging and grunting in response to her questions and she finally snapped.
"What is going on with you Celeste? I'm trying to talk to you, but you seem to be stuck in your own world!" She huffed, before marching out of the compartment. After that it was just me alone with my thoughts. I became so wrapped up in them that I had a mad panicked rush to get my robes on before we had to get off the train. Up in the Great Hall I managed to find Ness and mutter a quick apology, which she ignored, before McGonagall marched in followed by a large group of nervous looking first years. I half expected to feel George nudge me in the ribs and whisper something about the first years being smaller than usual, but when I glanced sideways I was painfully reminded of the lack of Weasley twins. I sighed rather dramatically; this year really was going to be hard.
The sorting nearly passed without problem, and I felt myself finally begin to relax. The only hiccup was Harry being late to the feast and covered in blood, not really anything new there though. Hogwarts was my only true home, the place where I could be myself. It wasn't until the end of the welcome feast that problems began to arise. Of course I just had to bump into Draco; he just couldn't leave me alone.
"Celeste." He smirked, "Still besmirching the family name I see. Where are those blood traitors you call friends? They ditched you too? What about that little mudblood? Still living with her and her dirty family?" I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of replying, but hearing him talk about Ness like that made my blood boil. No matter how mad Ness was at me, she was still my best friend and best friends stick up for one another. My fist flew out and connected with Draco's face,
"Oh baby brother, you never learn, do you? Insulting people doesn't make them like you." I turned to walk away, only to bump into none other than Professor Snape.
"Fighting in the hallways, on the very first night? How very muggle of you. 20 points from Gryffindor and detention tomorrow night." He sneered, before snapping at the quickly forming crowd.
"Clear off. Unless you wish to join Miss Malfoy in detention?" Well that's just great, detention on my first night back. Why didn't I just walk away, why did I have to be so rash?