Sequel to "More Than Just Friends". All credit to J.K. Rowling and my crazy brain.
Set Aflame
By: Weaselle7
Chapter 2
The Order of The Phoenix (part 1)
Cecille scurried to her room upstairs and almost slammed her door off the frame. Her temper went off the roof so quickly she felt her brain was being smacked against the inner side of her skull. Of course she understood she shouldn't have eavesdropped them and things. But why couldn't she join them? She was seventeen already; legally of age. It was her twin that just died last month. She didn't even know why'd her throat narrow when she was about to argue.
She squeezed the hem of her shirt so tightly, trying to calm herself down as wild ideas popped in her mind. She winced. Her wand laid still in her pocket; she wouldn't want to touch it if she didn't want her room to be set in fire.
She crawled up to her bed helplessly, her feet seemed like they were unable to support the weight of her thoughts. She shivered as she smashed her skull against the soft pillow. Her mind echoed whys again and again that her head throbbed. She sank down in her exhaustion, drowned slowly in hurt and fell asleep.
Well, she wasn't actually sure she was asleep. She opened her eyes almost immediately and found herself lying not in her bedroom but strangely curled into a ball inside her fireplace. She could see the pieces of the night sky with glittering stars through her window. She knew it, she knew this place, even though she could only recall pieces of them, because she hadn't lived there for quite a time to let her young brain memorize every single details.
She rose to her feet and the obscured inside view of her old house came to her eyesight. This is it, she said to herself. Tears escaped from her eyelids, tears of joy, tears of waiting, and her lips curled into a wide smile. She could see her old dining room. But she could feel the emptiness within the atmosphere, the hole inside the scene, like she knew what was going to happen. But she refused to admit it, she refused to accept it.
Until the burst of green light lit the night, but there was no warm feeling like one you got when you watched the sunrise. Terror and daring seized her, she crept to the window and the Dark Mark shone blindingly in the sky. When she turned away, she saw her aunt and brother's corpses. She screamed, but it wasn't her voice that came out from her throat. It was Mom's scream when she saw her sister and son laid down lifelessly there.
And then her eyelids fluttered open. She found herself lying on her bed, drowned in sweats and had trouble breathing. The sun hadn't risen yet and she was wallowing herself in the aftermath of her hundredth nightmare until the dawn broke.
She heard the wooden floor echoed the sound of footsteps. Someone turned the doorknob and sat on the edge of her bed.
"Breakfast is ready, Cecille." she heard Mom said. Contrary to the light announcement, there was a tone of urgency in her voice. With fear, Cecille tried to act as normal as possible, opened her eyes and looked as sleepy as she could. But Mom wouldn't get fooled, she knew her daughter had been thinking about something she'd succeeded to eavesdrop all night long.
"Okay." said Cecille shortly and stifled a fake yawn. She stretched her body and walked down to the dining room. Dad was reading the Daily Prophet and didn't show any sign of sensing his daughter's arrival.
"Wow, toast." Cecille said, trying to ease the atmosphere, though she couldn't help but added the sarcastic tone which she immediately regret. She pulled out her favorite chair and sat watching the moving photograph of Sirius Black. "Are we run out of dandelion jam?" she asked.
"I just bought some yesterday. They're in the cupboard in the kitchen." said Mom, taking a seat next to Dad.
"No. Helena, you get it for her." said Dad shortly. He set down his newspaper, revealing a photograph of her Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, under the vertically-mirrored bold headline she couldn't proceed to read. "I want to talk to her." Dad added and stared into Cecille's eyes.
"I know Dad." she started tentatively and gulped. "I'm sorry - I know I was wrong and impolite and-"
"No, don't apologize." Dad cut shortly. She looked at her father questioningly, ignoring the knife that was enchanted to spread the dandelion jam on her toast. "It's not your fault if you were so curious or so itching to fight You-Know-Who." said Dad.
"But in the other hand," Dad continued before Cecille could interrupt, "You're not old enou-"
"Dad, I'm seventeen-"
"Correction. You still have a year on Hogwarts and two years of Healer education, if you still so desire the position." Dad explained.
"Girl like her, Amos, I'd be surprise if she needs more than a year to complete the training school." said Mom and smiled. Cecille couldn't help but noticed the hidden message. Dad stared at Mom in a way she associated with the way Alicia looked at Lee. "Just saying."
"But still, only highly competent wizards who are physically and mentally ready can join." said Dad, turning back to Cecille. "There'll be some things that must be paid with death. You-Know-Who's followers didn't take our old house and killed your aunt without any intention."
The awkward silence seized the air and suddenly she couldn't stop replaying her parents' last fight. She tried to put each pieces of information in the right place and figured out the shattered picture.
"So, it's true..." she said rather to herself. "You two had been a member."
"And it needs more than an hour of arguing for this crucial decision, remembering how half of our small family-"
"Can't we just go straight to the point?" said Mom snappishly. "I'm sure our daughter is aware of things that happened around her."
Dad sighed before he said to Cecille.
"This isn't something for you to broadcast, Cecille. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't have heard of our underground activity." said Dad. Cecille couldn't choose -between irritation and guilt- that she felt right now. Cecille raised her eyebrows. "But your Mom and I had chosen to join."
"Oh..." she said, missing the cheery tone because she wanted to join so badly. "That's- that's good." said Cecille and forced out a smile. She felt abandoned and underrated although she knew her parents just wanted her to be safe.
"We'll have to meet Dumbledore." said Mom shortly. She turned to Cecille and smiled encouragingly. "You and Dumbledore will have a bit of a talk."
"What - Me?! Why?" Cecille asked, bewildered. She imagined herself having an intense talk with Dumbledore about being expelled from Hogwarts instead of some big secret about this underground organization that involved her family.
"I'm sure that's what Arthur's children do." said Dad and he let out a long sigh. He summoned a piece of parchment, his jet-black raven quill and a bottle of ink. "Six sons and a daughter, I'd be surprised none of them had discovered about this."
"Hang on." Cecille muttered as she remembered when Dad refered to one of his children as Fudge's secretary. "But you said one of them is Fudge's secretary. It's hard to keep such big secret when you're in a close term with the Minister, isn't it?"
"I know Arthur." said Dad, shrugging hopelessly. "I know where he laid his faith. I don't know much about what happened between him and his third son. But judging how they look at each other at the Ministry, Arthur seemed to have disowned him." said Dad as he shuddered.
Cecille gasped. Percy? Cecille knew Percy well enough. He'd caught her doing mischief, given her detentions, and docked 20 points from her at his anger when she, Fred and George tailed him and transfigured his essay into a frog (before it hopped around the Common Room, made the girls shrieked in disgust and made one of the girls threw the frog out of the window). But to acknowledge Percy to do something that made him abandon his family was the last thing to ever come to her mind. She thought Percy did it all to make his parents proud.
"That's completely awful." Cecille muttered after a moment. "Percy. That prick."
"Oh, I have an impression that this is just the beginning." said Dad gloomily. He rose from his seat after scrambling a quick brief note and tied it to his owl. He let the owl find its own way out the house while Mom rushed to the kitchen, wand in hand, muttering a long spell.
She spent the rest of the day alone in her house. Dad finally gave her the history book Cecille had been searching for days. After her third attempt to duplicate the pages (she duplicated the whole book on her first two attempts), she attached the pages along with her reply onto Alicia's owl. The owl flew away after bit her index finger -Cecille thought- in a way it thought as a friendly way. But when the bird had reached the sky, it looked like something had whipped its wings and fell helplessly to the ground.
Cecille raced downstairs and rushed for the owl. Despite its vicious behavior, the owl let out a painful screech before looking at Cecille pleadingly. Cecille examined the bird and found out it had broken its two wings. This is weird, Cecille said to herself, gazing all around the sky, what has hurt it?
Cecille raised her wand. "Periculum!"
The spark shot to the air and hit an invisible shield. The shield glistened like the surface of a potion, the ripple ebbed from the spot where the spark hit it down to the ground in a curving line; divulged the existence of an invisible gigantic bowl that was set up above her head. Cecille stood there, amazed, for a few moments, wondering how she could still feel the summer hot wind brushed her hair.
"Protective spells." a voice from the doorframe said. Cecille spun around and found Mom was standing at the porch step with Alicia's owl on her shoulder, still in her green lime Healer robes. "I need to prevent you to broadcast everything you've heard from us before you talk to Dumbledore."
"How did you tame it, Mom?" Cecille asked, changing the topic.
"Found a bowtruckle claw clung deep into its flesh. But aside from that, it's its temperament. It's all fine now, I healed it within a second, though I need to see the message." said Mom, stroking the owl's head gently. The bird let out a peaceful coo.
"Oh. Uhm-" Cecille hesitated. She asked Alicia about goblin ancient medical treatment in the letter. "Uh yeah, sure."
Mom knocked her wand gently on the owl's foot and seven pieces of parchments made their way floating in front of Mom. Mom swished her wand graciously to flip the parchments back and forth while examining them.
"You asked me where's Goblins and Wizards book for this?" Mom asked. She waved her wand, neatly packed the parchments and resealed them before tying them against the owl's foot. Cecille killed a minute thinking what kind of answer she'd come out with while playing with the gnomes.
"I- yeah." Cecille said and a 'please don't be mad' smile curved on her lips.
"At least you give her a chapter-length explanation. She'll need to squeeze her mind to find how Carganuk the Goblin arranged his laws." said Mom carelessly and set the owl free. She muttered a long spell quietly and Cecille could see how Alicia's owl escaped the shield and flew eastward.
"I need to get back though. I received the warning, when the owl hit the shield. I'll know if you're doing anything with the enchantment, young lady." said Mom, motioning to invite her daughter inside. Mom scooped a handful of Floo Powder and stepped inside the fireplace. "Oh, and I saw your unfinished Potion essay. Why don't you get upstairs and work it out instead of busying yourself with your friend's essays?"
With that, the tosca-esque flame engulfed her entirely and transported her back to St. Mungo. Cecille spent the rest of the day working her Potion essay with so much effort to focus her concentration. Her mind would flee back to her morning talk with her parents with that underground activity. One moment she found herself imagining how her life would be if she joined and fought dark forces.
When night came, Dad and Mom went back from their desks. A silent squeak came from their living room, followed by a loud thud similar to the noise of Diricawls. All of them scampered to the living room, finding a brief note in a very neat handwriting with a fiery long delicate feather.
"Oh!" Mom squealed as Dad walked gravely to take the note. "It's his phoenix, isn't it? I am actually touching its feather, a phoenix's feather." Mom shrieked as she took the piece of a feather and placed it on her palms as if it was a fairy's egg.
"Calm down Helena, it's not an Erumpent's horn." said Dad as he saw his wife treating the feather like a fragile binding. "Phoenixes've got strong feathers, they can support the bird from weighing a unicorn." said Dad. Cecille peeked from Dad's shoulder to see the note, but, as if Dad had a pair of eyes under his hair, he pocketed the note.
"I know." said Mom as Cecille could see how Mom tried to hide her flushing face. "But it is said that there are only two tail feathers ever donated from a phoenix for a wand core. Two, Amos, two!" said Mom in pure amazement, her face shone. "And I'm holding another feather."
"That doesn't look like a tail feather." Dad pointed.
"It's been fed the blood of immortality since Merlin-knows-when!" Mom squealed again, ignored Dad's argument. Mom stormed to her room, muttering something involving brewing an elixir from it.
"Go to your room before your Mom set this whole house in fire." said Dad. Cecille laughed but obeyed anyway.
A/N: I know you're wondering why on earth did I add "(part 1)" on the chapter title. Like I am willing to make a film. But no, I'm not that fab you know. I just wrote the whole thing and found out that it consisted of 4K (well, 5K actually, 4.9K) words aka too many words. I don't know if I am wrong about the standard length of chapters in fanfiction, but I just thought that 4K is too much, I don't want to make my reader get bored and close the tab in the middle of the chapter saying "omg i'm not even midway through". But I'll publish the second part immediately c: