We walked back to the common room hand in hand, silently. Once there all of the girls excused ourselves to remove make-up, take down hair, and change clothes. It was weird for me to be this quiet. Oliver just thought I was tired, but Braeden had heard the whole thing. He was really concerned.
"Guys, why don't we go up to our dorms? The girls can come up there if they like," Braeden suggested. The guys agreed, but Braeden grabbed me before I got to the stairs.
"Fallon, meet me down here when your done, okay?" He requested quietly. He knew something was wrong. I nodded and went upstairs. Angelina helped me get the make up off, as I hadn't a clue. I loosed my hair from its bun and changed into loose pajama pants and a tank top. With that I walked back downstairs to the common room where Braeden was already waiting, wearing only a wife beater and sweats. I'd seen him in less though, I mean, he was my brother.
I sat down on the couch at the opposite end as him not wanting to look him in the eye.
"Fallon, I know what you tried to say," Braeden said calmly. "I think its good your trying to tell him…are you okay?" He asked after I wouldn't meet his calm gaze. Him, calm? Wow, that's not normally the thoughts people give about him.
"No, I don't think I am…" I trailed off. I'm not one to cry but…I mean, it wasn't like anything really bad had happened, or anything, but now that I came so close and couldn't I'd lost my nerve. I was as terrified again as the day I found out. Silent tears fell down my face.
Braeden pulled me in and hugged me gently. I buried my face into his chest and he just held me like the big brother that he was. Soon, his shirt was wet but he didn't mind. He just let my cry silently and soon my tears had stopped. He rested his head atop mine and just whispered to me:
"Its okay Fallon, ssshhh…" just like mother used to. "It's all gonna be okay." He just repeated slowly.
"Thanks Braeden," I muttered as I rested my head against him.
"Isn't this what I'm supposed to do?" He jested slightly.
"No. This is what the guy who fathered this kids job is. All you were supposed to have to do is be at the hospital, go to the bachelor party and shit," I replied quietly.
"I disagree. You're situation is unique. And I'm your brother. My job is to support you. This time it's a little different," Braeden encouraged. I snuggled in to him a bit as he just held me like a brother would.
"Thanks," I murmured again.
"Its my job," He replied, "Are you gonna be all right going to bed tonight or do you want to hog mine?"
"I'll just go to mine," I answered, but I was still too quiet and timid for his taste.
"No your not. You're still not quite right. C'mon," Braeden ordered. I followed with argument, which just proved his point. We walked up to his room and I grabbed his wand for a moment to enlarge the bed a bit.
"Thanks," He said when I handed him back his wand. He pulled an extra pillow from somewhere and handed it to me. I took one side of the bed, and he took the other. We slept facing opposite directions with just our backs touching. When were little and mother made us take naps we would sleep like this so it became habit. Just like one of us sleeping in the same bed with the other when we got upset. It became habit because when we were young when one of us had a nightmare, instead of putting us in her bed, mother put us with the other that way we wouldn't build habit and because we'd always been very close like that.
We climbed into bed and fell straight asleep. We couldn't help but fall asleep that quickly because we both felt just so completely safe and comfortable when we slept like this just because we'd been doing it since we were kids.
The Next Morning.
I threw myself out of bed with a loud thump that I'm sure woke at least a few of the boys as I ran towards the bathroom. I felt completely nauseous and it was obvious. I fell right in front of one of the toilets and began puking my brains out. Braeden, though not a morning person, had followed me to the bathroom and was now holding my hair back. Soon there was nothing left I could through up so I turned my back to the toilet, leaned up against it and pulled my knees in.
"Fallon, are you okay? I thought you were given a potion to get rid of morning sickness," Braeden asked groggily.
"It only cuts down on it," I replied.
"Well, lets get down the kitchens. Its six am on a Sunday, no ones gonna be awake yet meaning no food yet, and you need some water and something bread-y," Braeden mumbled sleepily. I nodded and the two of us made our way out of Gryffindor Common room and to the kitchens. There the house elves helped us, and we drank some tea and coffee, I had a bagel at Braeden's request and took a bottle of water with me out the door.
It was about seven when we rolled back into Braeden's bed and went back to sleep. My stomach was much more settled now, so we didn't get interrupted until about four hours later when our friends chose to wake us.
"Oi Braeden, have you seen Fallon? No one's seen her this morning," One of the twins asked from outside the curtains. Braeden had them enchanted so one couldn't open them from the outside without his will.
"Yeah, Fred, she's in here," Braeden replied sleepily.
"Open up," George ordered.
Braeden, half-asleep, threw open part of the curtain and dropped his arm.
"Well, what's wrong?" Fred asked.
"What?" I slurred.
"The only time you two sleep in the same bed is when something is wrong with one of you," George replied.
"Or both of you," Fred added.
"Its nothing," Braeden mumbled.
"Fine its nothing, but get out of bed, we've got some Charms homework due tomorrow I doubt you did," One of them said.
"I didn't," I groaned. "You?" I directed at Braeden.
"No," Braeden answered. We dragged ourselves out of bed and followed the twins to Oliver's room where we often did homework together. Everyone was already there.
"Okay, who did the charms homework," I grumbled as I came into the room. I realized I'd forgotten my bag in my dormitory.
"Accio book bag," I muttered and roughly three minutes later my bag was banging on the door for entrance. With a flick of my wrist I opened the door and closed it once my bag was in. It fell lightly in my lap.
"Well," Katie began, "I did the introduction paragraph. Alicia and Angelina did the content, and believe it or not, between the two of them Fred and George actually did the closing paragraph."
As soon as we knew this we began passing around papers and within the hour we were done. I'd not sat next to Oliver, but on the floor next to Braeden. I of course adopted the mask of normalcy so Oliver knew nothing was amiss.
"Alright, we're done, lets got get some lunch," Oliver suggested as his stomach growled. The blob of us walked down to the Great Hall and began to eat. I was now again carefree, thanks to my amazing brother.
We wasted most of the rest of the day lounging about by the lake. I was laying with my back toward Oliver laying against his chest, Katie was shyly resting her head on Braeden's leg, while Alicia and Angelina sat in Fred and George's laps. We were all beginning to get drowsy when a small boy, probably second or third year at the oldest came up to our group.
"Grier and Wood?" The boy asked.
"What?" Me, Braeden and Oliver all asked sharply.
"Oh, um, there was only supposed to be two," The boy stuttered. "They said to look for Oliver and his girl…. they didn't say her name because they said it'd be obvious. Th-They just called her Oliver's Girl," The boy continued to stutter.
"Oliver's Girl?" I said suddenly awake. "Bloody hell, when did dating someone come with a new tag so people don't know your name? It Katie going to become Braeden's Girl? And are Alicia and Angelina going to be named fucking Weasley Girls? Or will they get separately named Fred's Girl and-" I began to rant. Oliver covered my mouth with his hand and turned his attention to the boy.
"What is it you needed?" He asked.
"Er- Professor McGonagall wanted to see you. She figured you'd forgotten your appointment since you'd won the match," The boy explained. Oliver and I didn't understand at first, but when we did…
"Shit! We're gonna be late!" I cried as I realized what appointment he meant. Oliver and I sprinted across the grounds and up to castle. How could we have forgotten about the Animagus appointment?
We arrived breathless to McGonagall's room apologizing before we actually made it through the door.
"Sorry Professor," I gasped as I opened the door. Oliver followed me inside.
"Quite alright Ms. Grier. I assumed you'd forget what with the ball, and the match. Excellent job in the match, by the way. I'd no idea you'd gotten the entire team trained that well. I'm happy I got the extra uniforms you requested for the back-up team, as they are obviously well used."
"Thanks Professor," Oliver said gratefully.
"Now then, today, I want you to do the Retelius spell nonverbally. Once you accomplish that we'll go from there. Easy enough?" She instructed. We nodded and pulled out our wands. We decided, with just a look, to try and cast it nonverbally on each other. I didn't succeed, but Oliver did. I found myself in my four-legged form. I changed back and told him:
"Good job Oliver. Now lets see if I can't get it this time," I congratulated. I thought hard and gave the proper wand movement…
And it worked! There Oliver was, and wow…he was gorgeous. I stroked his head and he…purred? It was very funny.
"Awww! You're so cute!" I complimented. Oliver changed back laughing. We raised our wands and this time managed to change each other at the same time. We began wrestling and tackling each other playfully until we accidentally ran into Professor McGonagall, who actually smiled at us.
"Yes, I believe I was right in asking you two to try this task. It obviously suits you," She said thoughtfully. " Now that you obviously have this down, I'd like you to try this wandlessly. Only one at a time though, as you'll probably need to help each other. Understand?" She asked. We tilted our heads to the side, I took my paws off of Oliver's chest and we changed back.
We put our wand on the desk and got to work. I decided to go first and Oliver and I set to work. Finally I sprouted whiskers, but by my efforts or Oliver's we could tell. I managed to change it back and we tried again. Another twenty minutes went by when I managed to get an ear. Then Oliver got the other ten minutes later, only…I couldn't get my old ears back!
"Professor," I said shakily. "I can't get rid of them."
"Fallon! For heaven's sake," Professor McGonagall sighed good-naturedly.
"Tretelo!" She said quickly and soon my ears were back to normal. "Okay, that's enough for today you two," She dismissed us.
"Thanks Professor," I called as we walked out the door.
The Next Day
A thought popped into my head but before I said it, I looked all around for Snape and any Slytherin prefects. Seeing none, I complained to Oliver, Braeden, and Katie, who I was walking to our first class with.
"Isn't this just perfect! Not only do we have double potions but we have it first thing in the morning," I groaned.
"Fallon, you shouldn't be taking my course if you have such a contempt for it. Twenty points from Gryffindor," Snape said. Where did he come from?!?! I watched him walk down the corridor to his class with Oliver holding me back from storming up to him. Once he was out of earshot I began ranting.
"Where the fuck did he come from? Oliver did you see that? He wasn't there half a second ago! I actually checked this time!" Oliver just rolled his eyes as Braeden and Katie fought to stifle giggles. I continued like that until we were about five feet from the door to the class.
"Fallon, I love you to death," He began, accent heavier than normal, "But if you don't quit raving Snape is going to take off all the points we earned yesterday." I smiled and reined my temper in. With that we went into the potions classroom and sat down in our normal seats waiting for class to begin.