DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING JK ROWLING OR ALPHAVILLE DOES!
CHAPTER TWO
The next morning, Harry was distracted. He lagged behind on the way to class, at meals he barely said a word, and in class his mind wandered. Hermione noticed, and asked him what he was thinking about, but he simply said that he hadn't slept well the night before and that he was tired. But as Hermione rattled on about the dangers of not getting enough sleep, Harry gave his full attention over to watching Ron's reactions to Beth, as he had been doing all morning.
He knew that Beth liked Ron. He could tell from the way she laughed and smiled and acted around him. What Harry wanted to know was if Ron liked Beth. To his surprise, as soon as he brought his attention to it, he realized that Ron was indeed very interested in Beth. Just like her, he laughed a little more, smiled a little brighter, and stole glances at her every now and then. And sometimes, when one looked over at the other, the other was looking back, and both would smile a little and turn back, a fiery red blush creeping along both faces. Harry knew that the two of them would never admit how they felt about each other, however, unless they were pushed into it. He was wondering how to go about this on his way back to the common room when he ran into Ginny.
"Oh, hi, Harry!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Ginny! Hi!" Harry said as an idea popped into his head. "Sorry for running into you like that. Where are you headed?" he asked.
"I was just going to find Hermione and Beth. I need some help with my Arithmancy homework. Would you happen to know where they are?" she inquired.
"Yes, they are in the library with Ron, attempting to make him study. Er – Ginny, may I talk with you for a moment?" he asked as he pulled her aside.
"Yes, what do you need Harry?" Ginny asked.
"Are you aware that your brother likes Beth?" Harry said.
"I knew Fred had a secret girlfriend!" Ginny started to exclaim, but Harry cut in before she could get any farther.
"No, not Fred. Ron," Harry said impatiently.
"Well, I know they're friends…" Ginny replied uncertainly.
"No, I mean he really likes her," Harry said.
"Oh, no I had no idea. How do you know?" she asked, and Harry spilled the whole story to her, from Beth's confession of the time before she was born to the way Ron acted when she was around. Soon, Harry had convinced Ginny of this and they began to plot ways to bring them together.
From then on, Harry and Ginny spend much time together planning to bump Beth into Ron in the hallways and to leave them alone together when they weren't expecting it. The next month was spent carrying out those plans and making new ones. They knew their ploy was working one day when they were in the library with Hermione, Ron, and Beth. They had left Beth alone at a table where she had fallen asleep and were in the next aisle when they heard a blood curdling scream that made their hairs stand up on end and sent chills down their backs. Ron raced around the corner and by the time the rest of them had gotten there, he was already holding her in a tight embrace. Beth's face was white and she was trembling.
"She's all right," Ron said. "She just had another one."
Harry, Ginny, and Hermione looked at each other in confusion, but silently agreed to let it go. Later, when they were out of the library and out of Beth's earshot, Ron explained.
"She told me last week that she's been having nightmares and waking up screaming. She put a spell on her bed so that no one else would hear her," Ron stated matter-of-factly.
Harry and Ginny were sure that their plan was going to work, until one day when they walked from dinner into the common room to find Beth staring blankly into the fire.
"There you are, Beth," Ron said. "I was wondering – I – I mean, we were wondering where you were."
"I'm going to bed early tonight. Good night," Ginny said as she walked up the stairs. Harry watched her go and suddenly felt a strange sense of longing that he couldn't explain.
"What's wrong, Beth?" Hermione asked, and Harry jolted back into reality.
"They're sending me to Azkaban," she said quietly as a tear ran down her face.
"What? Why?" Hermione asked. "How do you know?"
"Dumbledore told me that an insider told him. Something about because he won't be able to weasel me out of punishment, so I'll be the first student to actually go there while I'm still in school," she answered, not bothering to wipe her face clean of tears. Ron just stared at her.
"When?" he asked quietly.
"The day after tomorrow," she said. Finally, she couldn't hold back the sobs any longer. All four of them were crying now.
"Why?" Harry asked as he struggled to compose himself.
Beth simply shook her head and sobbed harder.
After some time, she fell asleep on the couch and the other three decided to talk on the stairs so that, if she needed them, they were only a few steps away.
"Tomorrow's a Hogsmeade day, right, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," she answered.
"Then you both know what we have to do, right?" he said as determination filled his bright green eyes.
As the other two nodded, Beth's screams, now worse than ever, filled the room. They were going to make tomorrow Beth's best day ever. Just as they did when her father died.
On their way to Hogsmeade the next day, Harry looked at the girl walking beside of him. He had never realized how short she was. Walking in between Ron and himself, Beth only came up to Harry's chin. Ron towered over her. As she caught his glance and smiled at him, Harry saw her bronze hair glitter in the sunlight.
Ron was staring at her too, and with a slight grimace, said, "Why are you so unlucky?"
Beth grinned at him and said, "Well, I'm not so unlucky, am I? I mean, I did meet you. You all, I mean," and blushed.
Throughout that day, the three of them did everything they could think of to make her happy. They made her laugh herself to pieces in Zonko's and then settled down with butterbeer. Though they could still see in her eyes the foreboding which they all felt, they still felt huge relief as they noticed that she had almost forgotten what the day looming ahead of them held. On the way home, Harry consoled himself with the thought that he had never heard her laugh so hard as that day, and that Ron had even held her hand. She had delighted immensely in that, as Harry could see by the way she blushed and her small, satisfied smile.
They spent the rest of the evening in the Gryffindor common room, reminiscing of their few months at Hogwarts. As they were alone, she let her wings stretch and relax, the bronze feathers glinting in the firelight. They knew, though, that she knew that they stayed with her to prevent the nightmares on her last night as much as to simply spend the time with her. All squished on the couch, she took great comfort in being squashed between Harry and Ron. She fell asleep on Ron's shoulder and slept soundly even as he carried her to her bed.
The next morning they said their goodbyes as the tears streamed down her face. The dementors were soon there, and as they all watched her scream in anguish as the dementors strapped the straightjacket around her shoulders, a single tear fell down Ron's face.
"Goodbye, Beth," he whispered. "Come back soon, and alright."
"Don't worry, Ron," Dumbledore suddenly said behind them. "I won't let them have her for long. This is ridiculous, accusing a student of such a crime."
"Whatever it was, she didn't do it," Harry said quietly.
"Of course not," Dumbledore replied as he walked away.
"What could they even think she'd done to deserve time in Azkaban for?" Hermione wondered aloud as they walked to their next class.
Three months passed, but not one of them could close their eyes without hearing her gut-wrenching sobs as the dementors drug her away. They thought about her every day, through every class, and every night until one day in Transfiguration.
"Harry! HARRY POTTER!"
Harry came out of his daze as Professor McGonagall slammed his book down on his desk. "Have you three heard a word of anything I've said all lesson? Well, no matter. Dumbledore would like to see you, Weasley, and Granger in the Gryffindor common room immediately. You are excused."
They soon arrived at the common room to find Dumbledore already sitting in a chair and gesturing for them to sit on the couch.
"Miss Beth will be returning in a very short time from Azkaban. I need you to reacquaint her with comfort and being comfortable with the people who surround her. She will need your patience and kindness and love at all times and at any cost. Is this clear?" Dumbledore glanced expectantly into each one of their faces as they nodded. "Yes? Good then. Oh, but one more thing. She will not be able to be alone for some time. At least one of you will have to accompany her everywhere, and I would suggest that all three of you sleep in this common room with her until she feels she can handle the night by herself." Harry saw Ron and Hermione shudder at the memory of Beth's terrified scream that was associated with her nightmares. He couldn't imagine what they would be like now. "Well then," Dumbledore stood to leave, "let's go meet them."
Hermione stood. "What, now?"
Dumbledore didn't even turn. "Of course."
They made their way down the great steps to the outside, where Dumbledore pulled out a watch and muttered, "Any time now…, ah, here they come."
Harry looked into the sky and was astonished to see two dementors falling as if attracted to the earth by magnets with something hung between them like a shirt on a clothesline.
"Is that…?" Ron inquired. No one had a chance to answer him, for at that moment the dementors landed directly in front of them. Only at this did Harry notice that this "something" was Beth. He gasped as she looked up at them, her eyes dead and dull, devoid of her usual spark. Her skin was a strange gray color, her hair tangled and matted with none of its bronze shine.
Suddenly the creeping stillness was broken as the dementors tossed Beth at Harry, who barely caught her and noticed that she was still wearing the straightjacket they forced on her the day they picked her up.
"You may leave now," Dumbledore said with an edge of anger, and the dementors seeped back into the sky. "Hermione, go prepare somewhere for her to sleep. Harry, carry her there. Ron, make sure all the doors are opened. Go, quickly now." As Harry gathered her into his arms, he caught a jealous glare from Ron.
What was that all about? Harry thought before he remembered Ron's relationship with Beth and suddenly understood. He looked down at the girl he was holding like a baby. She was so light. He hadn't remembered her being so fragile and frail. She looked like she hadn't slept in months. Her eyes, wide open, kept drooping, as if going to sleep, but then jerking wide open once again as if something had fiercely jolted her awake. Poor Beth, Harry thought.
Harry carried her to the Gryffindor common room where Hermione had placed a pillow and blankets on the couch. He laid her down as gently as he could on the couch and Ron covered her up with a blanket before stroking her once beautiful hair.
"Why was she there, Dumbledore?" Hermione said, unable to take her eyes off of Beth, just as captivated by her obvious frailty as everyone else.
"It no longer matters. She has been proven innocent." Dumbledore turned to leave. He spoke four more words and was gone. "Take care of her."
After a moment, they all looked at each other.
"What…should we do now?" Harry asked uncertainly.
"Perhaps we should brush her hair. It looks so uncomfortable. I'll run and get a comb." Hermione proceeded to run up the stairs.
"Harry, help me get this jacket off. I don't know what Hermione's talking about. This looks way worse." Ron then sat her up and, by the time Hermione came rushing back down the stairs, all the buckles had been unclipped and they were pulling the sleeves from her arms.
"Ron, keep holding her up like that so I can get to all her hair." Ron nodded and held her stable while Hermione attempted to comb Beth's hair, all of them cringing when Hermione found yet another knot. Finally, her hair, if not as full and shiny as it was before, was back to being smooth and soft. Harry then went to request that the Fat Lady make a sign to ensure the peacefulness of the common room until Beth could get enough rest. No sooner than he had stepped out of the hole in the wall, however, Snape swept up to him.
"I am looking for Beth," he said, peering behind Harry into the hold that led to the common room.
"She's on the couch, resting. Why do you ask?" Harry looked at Snape suspiciously.
"Dumbledore asked me to concoct something to make her sleep without dreams. Is that all right, Fluffy?" Harry only too well remembered Hagrid's three-headed dog and knew Snape's comment was supposed to be derogatory, but secretly felt proud at being compared to the guard dog. "Here," Snape said as he handed the potion to Harry. "You may administer it to her. It's already diluted. Have her drink all of it. This will allow for eight to ten hours of undisturbed sleep. However, keep her somewhere quiet. If she is woken before she is ready to be, the potion will no longer work."
"Thank you," Harry said as Snape turned to leave.
"Oh, and one more thing," Snape said as he turned back. "Be careful with her," he sneered.
"Of course," Harry said with ferocity, slightly offended that Snape thought that he wouldn't take care of her. Harry walked back into the common room after asking the Fat Lady to tell everyone coming in to please be quiet. From his encounter with Snape, Harry was left with the feeling that Snape and Beth had a deeper connection than Harry had realized. But before he could give it any more thought, the Weasley twins bounced in from the corridor.
"Hello, Harry," said Fred.
"What's with the Fat Lady's sign?" asked George.
"Beth's back," Harry replied.
"You mean Beth Maywing? The girl with the wings who got sent to Azkaban three months ago?" asked George.
"She's back?" asked Fred.
"Yes," Harry replied impatiently, "and she's resting on the couch. So keep it down."
"May we see her?" the twins asked.
"I suppose so," Harry replied, "but only for a few minutes. Then she's got to get some sleep." And with that Harry led them to the couch.
"Wow, she looks horrible!" said Fred.
"Absolutely terrible!" said George.
"Yes well, she looks a fair bit better than she did earlier," Hermione defended.
"Well, you won't have to worry about her getting taken care of," George replied.
"Yes, Ron would take care of her from the ends of the earth and back," Fred said as they all looked over to where Ron still sat on the couch with Beth. After the twins had greeted her with their hugs and chatter, they reconvened on the stairs. Ron had more than willingly volunteered to stay on the couch with Beth.
"Harry, Hermione! I believe we should attempt to put her to bed now. She really needs it," Ron said suddenly.
"Bye then!" said the twins as they raced off to their dormitory.
"Oh yes, Snape stopped by with a sleeping potion for her. Said she's not to be awakened. So, if you'll carry her up, Ron, I'll bring up that. Hermione, if you'll show us where to put her?" Harry reached for his pocket as Ron hoisted Beth into his arms and Hermione rushed to prepare a bed.
Once they got to the room Dumbledore prepared so that Hermione and Beth could have a private, quiet room to themselves, Ron held Beth up as Harry gave her the potion and then laid her back down as she fell fast asleep. They heard the students rush into the Gryffindor common room after their last classes, but compared to the noise there would have been if they were there, it wounded only like a murmur and there was no fear of Beth awakening.
"Are you sure you'll be all right with her tonight by yourself?" Ron whispered as they got ready to leave.
"Yes, we'll be fine. If not, I'll come and get you," Hermione reassured them.
"All right, let's go then. Good night, Hermione. Good night, Beth," Harry said as they went out the door. And with one last look at Beth lying peacefully in her bed, they went to their own room.