Chapter 52: Hey Harry
"Oh my Merlin!" Lucy moaned in despair, "What am I going to do, Lily?"
It was Lucy and Lily's fifth year in Hogwarts and Lucy was bothering her best friend over her little "heart problems". Lily hardly paid any mind to her friends misery because, frankly, she was putting her OWL studying before her friend. Lily gave a sigh and bookmarked her page before closing the book and looking at Lucy. Lucy, whose hair was sticking out in different ends from her repeatedly messing it up, looked like she just woke up from a bad hangover. She grabbed hold of Lily's forearm and repeatedly shook it.
Lily swatted her. "What are you going to do on what?" she raised an eyebrow.
"On Sirius!" Lucy cried, "Whenever I'm near him I feel like I'm going to throw up!"
"Who doesn't?" Natalie snickered as she approached her friends and took a seat beside Lily.
"She doesn't mean it like that, Natalie," Lily sighed and brought her hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, "Lucy, 'throw up' is the wrong term to use in your dilemma."
Lucy sniffed, "Then what should I use?"
Lily looked at Natalie who shrugged. She didn't really know what word to use. She's read all the books that described the feelings Lucy was having but she couldn't really put them in her own words. She couldn't even describe it from her own experience seeing as she had none. Lily sighed and ran a hand through her long fiery red hair. "Any idea?" she looked at Natalie.
Natalie held up her hands. "Whoa, there honey, you're asking the wrong person here."
"What makes you say that?" Lucy asked.
"That fact that I'm me is enough proof that I'm the wrong person to ask," Natalie simply said.
"But –"
"Lucy, face it. When has Natalie ever, I mean EVER shown signs of liking a guy?" Lily emphasized.
Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. "I was pretty sure she fancied Remus," she said thoughtfully.
Natalie blushed. "You're off your rockers," she then laughed.
"You got a point," Lily smirked and ignored Natalie's objections, "Let me rephrase it then. When did Natalie ever shown signs that she actually liked Sirius?"
"Yep, we despise each other," Natalie nodded.
"I thought it was just one of those friendly-hate thingy you and Sirius had?" Lucy asked.
"Okay! We aren't getting anywhere with this. The point is that Natalie isn't the best one to ask with your Sirius problem," Lily offered a sympathetic smile.
Natalie snorted, "It sounded like you said 'serious problem'"
Lily rolled her eyes, "Very mature," she then faced Lucy, "Tell me what you feel when you're around him"
"I told you before I fe –"
"Upup, remember 'throwing up' isn't the right word to use," Lily scratched her head, "In fact, it's rather offensive"
Lucy bit her lip and looked down. How did she feel when she was around him? She remembered the days when she would just hang out with him, have their laughs, play pranks, tease each other. Those days where everything just felt simple and carefree but now it just seemed to get complicate for Lucy. She could not think straight when she was with him. Her heart that used to beat rapidly because she often ran away from him so she wouldn't be his next victim for a prank was now beating when she just saw him pass by. The laughs she had with him were still there but now it seemed that a blush accompanied them, she even found herself giggling at his antics from afar rather than joining him so she could be part of the fun. Teasing and pranking were main problems for her, rather than fighting back she found herself feeling bashful and shy. Lucy hated it. These changes, though at times weren't noticeable, made her uncomfortable.
She shared these thoughts with her friends.
After Lucy said what she felt Natalie and Lily remained silent. Lily pursed her lips in thoughts while Natalie twirled her finger in her hair, a habit she developed when she was thinking. Natalie was the first to speak. "Well, obviously you fancy him," she said bluntly.
Lucy chocked on her own breath. Lily automatically got to her feet and went to her friend's aid. She rubbed Lucy's back and waited for her to catch her breath. Lucy took in a gulp of air and looked up at Lily. "Can you please translate the rubbish Natalie is saying?" her cheeks flushed.
"It isn't rubbish!" Natalie argued, "It's the truth! Accept it!" she made a gesture as if she were throwing the truth right at Lucy. Lucy dodged the 'truth'.
Lily furrowed her eyebrows in concentration. "What Natalie is trying to say is – No, yeah, you fancy him," Lily ended with a nod.
"That can't be," Lucy breathed out, "That's completely illogical"
"Honey, you live in a magical world. Anything illogical is logical to us," Natalie said with a smile.
Zoey pursed her lips and dug deeper into her mother's box. She had pulled out several more books, clothes and photo albums but she still hasn't found what she was looking for. The books were helpful in understanding the Emeraudes but Zoey did not need to read it yet, the clothes were nice and Zoey liked them but she has no use for them at the moment, the photo albums were always Zoey's favorite things to find and was glad her mother had so many of them yet that wasn't what she was looking for. She began to pull more hats and shirts from the box and she didn't even know how deep she was going. More than half her body has disappeared into the box. Zoey went deeper and deeper and yet no matter how deep she got she could still see what she was picking up.
Yes, the inside of the box was dark, pitch black even yet the necklace that dangled from Zoey's neck emitted a gentle pink that seemed to brighten up the box, Zoey picked up a stripped sock and tossed it out. The necklace didn't glow often; in fact the glow instantly disappeared when Fred and Zoey went back to the Burrow. The glow seemed to only come back when Zoey was alone or with Fred, sure, it wasn't as strong as before but it was still there, she didn't mind though, it came in handy at times like these.
If anyone were to enter Ginny's room at this time they would find it very peculiar to see someone's bottom sticking out of a box with feet on their tiptoes. The image was odd, almost comical yet true. That was what Fred thought when he opened the door to his sister's room. He and George were finally released by their mother after she practically tried to bite their heads off in anger. She was furious at them, together with their father though he wasn't as angry as her, for pulling a prank on Harry's cousin and even mentioned how low their OWLs scores were. It appeared so that their results came in while they were away.
Fred, before entering the room, had knocked on the door several times. Each time he heard no reply. Sometimes he thought he heard something dropping on the floor but dismissed it as a trick of hearing. After two minutes of waiting and knocking he decided to simply barge in. Fred expected to see either the room empty or Zoey asleep but what he didn't expect to see random objects piled on top of each other on the floor with a box wide open and a bottom and legs sticking out of it. The sight was strange and Fred almost thought he was imagining things but he came to the conclusion that what he was seeing was true when he saw a sock being tossed outside from inside the box.
"Zoe?" he asked as he closed the door and stepped closer the odd sight. There was no reply, only a jacket being tossed outside of the box and landing on Fred's head. Fred scrunched up his face and threw the jacket on the pile of random objects. Zoey, or what he figured was Zoey, had a good arm if she was able to toss the thing from deep within a box and it was able to land on his head, he was very tall after all.
The feet began to push further and the bottom disappeared into the box as well. One of the legs lifted and the other one, which was tiptoeing on the ground, began to shake with the stress that was placed on it.
"Zo – oh!" Fred exclaimed and quickly grabbed hold of the leg. He struggled a bit and tried to tighten his hold. Zoey, he finally concluded it was her, pushed too far and lost her footing. If he hadn't grabbed hold of her she would have disappeared into the box. He heard a surprise squeal from inside the box. "Zoe, are you alright?" Fred struggled with his words as he readjusted his hold.
"Fred?" Zoey's voice echoed from inside the box, "When did you get here?"
"Is that really what you're concerned about right now? You almost fell into oblivion!" Fred said in a strained voice.
"Oblivion? You mean the box – Ow!" There was an echoing bang in the box and a groan from Zoey.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah – oww – I am," Zoey said, "Can you – err – help me out of here?"
"Oh no, grabbing hold of your leg is simply out of pleasure rather than helping you out," Fred said sarcastically but later blushed, "That sounded wrong"
There was a laugh from inside the box. It sounded rather embarrassed but it was a laugh nonetheless. Fred then let go of Zoey leg and quickly bent into the box and grabbed hold of her waist before she could fall further in. Zoey's surprised scream echoed inside the box. Fred tightened his hold on her and looked inside the box. It was dark and the only light he saw was a pink glow. He shook his head and, with all his might, pulled Zoey out of the box. When he finally pulled her out he lost his balance and toppled over to the ground, Zoey landing on him.
They both groaned.
Zoey slowly got up from Fred, with a blush decorating her cheeks, and ran a hand through her hair. "Next time… warn me before you do that," she ran a shaky hand through her hair, "I almost thought you'd drop me in"
Fred sat up as well. "There's going to be a next time?" he joked and raised an eyebrow. Zoey laughed but Fred could see her hands still shaking. She also wore a worried expression. Fred touched her cheek. "Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah," Zoey lied. When Fred let go of her she remembered the time her aunt let go of her when she was practically dangling from the tower where she got splinched. "So when did you get back? Hermione came a few minutes after you guys left," Zoey changed the subject
"A few minutes ago actually," Fred then gave her a bemused look, "Didn't you hear us come back?"
"No… why?"
"Well, mum was pretty mad about something George and I did and I thought you would have heard her," Fred said with a shrug.
"Define 'pretty mad'," Zoey raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"She was practically a dragon," Fred laughed, "She was yelling about what we did to Harry cousin, our OWL results and about Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Oh, that's –"
"The name of the joke shop you and George plan on making," Zoey smiled, "I helped your mum clean out your room."
"That explains it. So, if you saw the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes then you should have seen our OWL results as well. How did you do on yours, by the way?"
"Three OWLs is pretty good," Zoey offered.
"But not good enough to be in the ministry," Fred ruffled her hair, "Don't matter to us. So how many OWLs did you get?"
"Enough," came Zoey's vague answer. Fred whined. "Fine, fine. I passed all and am able to study the subjects I need to be a Healer"
Fred leaned back and supported his weight with his hands. "In other words. You aren't going to tell me"
"I think it was pretty obvious. Going to a new topic, what did you do to Harry's cousin?" Zoey asked, crawling towards the pile she created and began to dump the objects back in the box. The only things that remained were the books.
"He ate a Ton-Tongue Toffee," Fred said with s suppressed laugh.
"What does that do?" Zoey asked.
"Well, it did what we wanted it to do," Fred laughed, "It has an Engorgement Charm on it, makes the consumers tongue grow to an indefinite size. Well, maybe four feet long. That's the length Harry's cousin's tongue grew."
Zoey's eyes widened and her mouth hung agape. "You gave a muggle a candy that made his tongue grow four feet?" she exclaimed.
Fred laughed harder. "I didn't give it to him. I dropped it! The poor bloke picked it up and ate it"
"I bet that's what you told your mother," Zoey said with a role of her eyes.
"So what if it was?" Fred grinned and got to his feet. He then lent out a hand helping Zoey up. "So what exactly is that?" he asked pointing at the box.
Zoey looked at the box before looking back at Fred. "It was my mother's," she said simply, "I was looking for something."
"Did you find it?"
"No," Zoey said with a shake of her head.
Zoey walked out of Ginny's room with Fred but in a blink of an eye Fred zoomed up the stairs to the second floor and she heard the slam of a door. Fred had gone to work with whatever with George. Zoey laughed under her breath before going up the stairs herself. She passed by the twins' bedroom and scrunched up her nose when she got a whiff of gunpowder. She rolled her eyes when she heard a boom sound and she proceeded up the stairs. She let her hand glide through the rail and looked down at her pendant. It was still glowing. Zoey bit her lip and continued to climb up the stairs absentmindedly. She only stopped when she felt hands on her shoulders. She looked up.
"Whoa there," Harry said with a grin, behind him were Ron and Hermione.
"Hey," Zoey smiled and brushed her bangs away from her face, "I heard you come in and I wanted to say Hi"
"He came in thirty minutes ag- Ow, Hermione!" Ron rubbed his chest where Hermione had thumped him.
Hermione shook her head and rolled her eyes. She then took hold of Ron's sleeves and dragged him down the steps but not before saying "Honestly, Ronald!" Zoey gave a small laugh and watched the two walk down the stairs. She listened to Ron's confused babbling until he could no longer be heard. She shook her head with a smile before turning back to Harry. "So, was your cousin's tongue returned to normal or you just left him that way as a little 'goodbye for now' present?"
Harry gave a laugh. "Heard about that have you?"
"Yeah," Zoey grinned, "Fred - yeah – Fred told me about it a few minutes ago"
"You seem a little flustered," Harry took a few steps down to be at level with Zoey.
Zoey made a small squeal and enveloped Harry in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, it's just I haven't seen you in so long and – oh my gosh!" She pulled away from Harry, "You grew! You're taller."
"Not as much as Ron though," Harry grinned.
"Well," Zoey tilted her head from side to side, "No one can grow as fast as Ron or can be as tall as him"
"You're taller than him"
"I am?" Zoey beamed before shaking her head again "Well," she tilted her head from side to side again making Harry laugh, "I'm older and I'm a girl. I should be taller."
"Okay, let's pretend that makes sense and change the topic," Harry took Zoey's hand and led her down the stairs, "How have you been? You seem much more… what's the word? Happy? Out going? Lively?"
"Oh, sorry for being gloomy, closeted and dead before," Zoey joked.
Harry laughed. "See! This is what I mean? So what happened? Are you finally going out with Fred?"
Zoey stumbled down a few steps in shock. Harry acted out of instinct and caught Zoey. He held on to her arm and struggled to keep himself and her in balance before Zoey finally caught herself at the last step. Harry let go of her hand when he saw that she was firmly back on her feet. Zoey thanked him before ruffling her own hair.
"Fred?" her voice had a squeak, "What makes you think I'm going out with him?"
"Well, I thought since you guys have been getting pretty close and you obviously like him –"
"Obviously?" Zoey panicked.
"Well – not that obvious. I just thought – So wait, do you like him or not?" Harry gave her a confused look.
Zoey bit her lip. She raised her hand but then slapped it down on her leg. She began to drum it as if she were in thought, her lips in a firm line.
"You don't have to tell me," Harry offered, "And please stop that. You remind me of a mum about to scold her son for doing something bad and she can't tell if she should yell or not"
"Sorry, but yeah I – I li – lo – fancy him but no we aren't going out. He doesn't even know," Zoey scratched the back of her head.
"Oh," Harry nodded his head, "So…. What makes you giddy now?"
"It's a long story," Zoey paused, "Well not really that long – or maybe it is – no, I'll summarize – Oh it's sad – no – It's complicated"
"We have the rest of the summer," Harry offered.
Echo hauled her luggage inside her fireplace and looked at the floor-length mirror to study herself. Everything was the same. Same style, same hair, same eye covered by a chunk of bangs. Same. Echo stepped into the hearth and grabbed a fistful of floo powder and spoke the two words clearly: "The Burrow!"
No later than two minutes she arrived inside the Burrow and stumbled out of the fireplace with her luggage in tow. Her lanky arms pushed herself off the floor and dusted some of the powder that clung to her blue-gray cardigan. Echo's ears perked up when she heard voices coming out of the kitchen. She laughed to herself and decided that it must have been "snack time" already. She placed her hand on the kitchen door and pushed it open.
The moment her foot landed in the kitchen she was just in time to see Harry violently stand up from his chair causing it to topple over at the same time exclaiming "I'M GOING TO KILL THAT WOMAN!" Zoey stood up as well and tried to calm Harry. It flummoxed Echo, but she simply shook her head. She eyed Hermione, who had her hands over her mouth, and Echo could very clearly see the slight tears in her eyes. Ron was next to her playing with a fork and Zoey looked up from Harry only to catch sight of her, Echo.
"Echo!" Zoey exclaimed, "You're early!" she walked around a fuming Harry and practically ran towards her, engulfing her in a hug. It was an awkward moment for Echo, who was not used to such things. They stumbled a few steps behind. In her ear, Echo heard Zoey mutter, "Don't eat anything Fred and George give you"
"What on Merlin are you talking about?" Echo raised an eyebrow
"Just trust me," Zoey paused, "Unless you want to have uncontrollable burps or a tongue that reaches four feet then you can go ahead and accept their treats but if you don't then steer clear"
Echo stifled a laugh, "This might be the first time I'll listen to you"
Zoey stepped back, "First?"
"Can't believe you don't know I don't listen to much people," Echo stuck out her tongue.
"And me of all people," Zoey said before turning back to the Golden Trio. She clapped her hands. "Okay! Away with the tension. Mrs. Weasley will be here any moment and will tell us to skootle our bootles out of here and into the backyard to eat."
The people in the room opened their mouth to argue but the kitchen door opened again to reveal Mrs. Weasley. "She's right now shoo," she paused and saw Echo, "Hello, Echo dear. I thought you'd be coming tomorrow?"
"It was getting boring in my house," Echo spoke out before going to sit down at the table and pit her head on it, "I need food"
Mrs. Weasley approached the Beaumont and ushered her off and away from the table. "Well, you're not going to get any food until later. Now be a dear and put your luggage away and head to the yard to help Bill and Charlie set the table. I'm sure Fred and George are out there too"
"I need energy," Echo groaned.
"Well too bad," Mrs. Weasley pushed the girl out of the kitchen, used to her love for food, "Now out you go. Zoey, go check on the twins and the boys unless you want to help Echo"
"Well, I'm going to check up on the twins and – err – the boys," Zoey said walking to the door and waving at the Golden Trio, it seemed that they would stay for a chat first, she then looked at Echo, "Good luck finding Ginny's room. First floor"
"I'll just go," Echo muttered and sloppily got off the table before trudging her way to get her luggage and pulling it to where Ginny's room was situated.
Zoey watched her purple haired friend leave before turning around and heading out to the yard. When she left the Burrow she ducked her head when she saw two tables smash against each other. She heard cheering and looked up to see Bill and Charlie standing opposite to each other with their wands in the air. Zoey covered her eyes when she heard another smash before blindingly making her way to the twins who were cheering.
"What's happening?" she panicky asked then when the tables once again made violent contact, "Don't we need to use those for – I don't know – Eating?"
"Whoa, sarcastic Zoey. Not used to that," George said tearing his eyes away from the tables.
"What took you Zoe?" Fred asked in turn.
"Well, I had to greet Harry and I sort of told him what happened a few days ago… and what's been happening for – erm – years," Zoey said and sat down beside Fred. The twins' face turned serious.
"How'd he take it?" they asked.
Zoey shrugged and tilted her head from side to side. "Well," she said once again, "He wants to kill her now –"
"Like we all do," Fred interrupted.
"– And I probably turned a kid murderous –"
"He's not a kid anymore and that isn't murderous at all," George said.
"–But I think he took it pretty well," Zoey ended, "Well, as well as it can get when you hear the story. You know, like you guys"
The twins nodded before turning their attention back only to have the tables have another violent smash. They cheered.
"So what else kept you?" Fred asked without looking away from the tables.
"Well, Echo's here," Zoey said.
George sat up from his seat. "She is?"
"Well, yeah –"
"Love you guys but I got to go," George quickly said before running back into his house.
Zoey raised her eyebrow and watched the door swing before closing in on a slam. She then looked back at Fred when the Golden Trio emerged from the door, looking curiously behind them before the smashing of tables took their attention.
"Hey, Fred?" Zoey began and took it upon herself to watch the tables as well, "Isn't Mrs. Weasley going to get mad about the tables?"
"Come on, Zoey, they're wizards. One flick and wave of a wand and the tables are as good as new," Fred gave laughed, "Oh, to be of legal age."
"Oh okay. Another question. What's up with George?"
"What's up with George?" Fred looked at her.
"I don't' know. He just ran out like he needed to use to loo," Zoey shrugged.
Fred looked back at the house and his shoulders shook with a small laugh. "I don't know," he said, "He always did that whenever Echo's around"
"Hmm, wonder why," Zoey mused before she heard a window open and Percy's voice requesting them to be quiet. She shook her head with a laugh and watched Crookshanks chase after a gnome.
Ah... I've been gone for a long time and this time I don't have an uber long chapter to make up for it... just a regular length chapter... sorry about that...
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter and thank you HayleyParadox for helping me out.
Truthfully, I get writer's block easily and sadly that's what causes my absence (duh)
I've realized it's fun to put little bits and pieces of Lucy and Sirius' time at Hogwarts and beyond at the beginning of every chapter because honestly. I find it sort of cute and easier to write from then on.
Yes, I've had ideas of making a story about Zoey's parents but I don't know if I'll be able too (though I REALLY want to) So, just in case I don't have a chance to make A Sirius/Lucy story the least I can give you guys are some memories or chapters of their lives so yeah.
Gosh, I want to make more stories about them. Sirius/Lucy, Zoey/Fred etc.
Anyway, I hope all of you are satisfied with what I am offering so far and I am very thankful for all your reviews and the like.
LOVE you all!
My goodness, I never thought I'll make it this far and really, it's thanks to you guys. I love your support!
Pretty soon the Quidditch World Cup will come so stay tuned for the next chapter.
WOW, I have found a liking to the "F.R.I.E.N.D.S" so if I don't know. Maybe well. Nah, I lost my words :P
So I guess this is it for the author's note.
Don't forget to review and the like
Stay tuned for the next chapter
and
I only own what I own
