Disclaimer: I own nothing except my characters.
Note: So, the next few chapters will probably have a lot of grammatical errors since I was trying to correct it really really early in the morning. I apologize many times over in advance.
Pushing Away
The following morning we sleep late, by time I had woken up upon hearing Charlie had arrived and I knew he wasn't due until around noon. "Good morning sleepy head" he joked pushing a cup of tea in my direction. "Morning Melinda" he said nodding at Melinda, pushing a cup of tea in front of her.
"Hey" we echoed, still groggy. "Why didn't you wake us?" I asked Mrs. Weasley who was now passing bacon and eggs around to me, Percy and Charlie. Percy barely noticed as he kept the Daily Prophet close to his face.
"Oh I figured I'd let you lot sleep a bit longer, enjoy the holidays, you know," Mrs. Weasley said excitingly passing the last plate to Melinda.
"Where are the others?" Melinda asked noticing how quiet it was.
"Ginny and Mr. Weasley are meeting Bill for lunch and then heading back, Harry, Ron and Hermione are out shopping again, Hermione wanted to get a few more things. And the twins, hmm, I'm not quite sure where they are" she stopped and looked over at the clock. I took a peek too, both the dials for Fred and George were pointed toward home but yet it seemed oddly quiet.
"I like how all of us know they're not sleep…" I said after a few minutes of silence. Mrs. Weasley wiped her hands off and then kept busy around the kitchen, cleaning up this, straightening up that. Melinda finished before I did, though I would've been there all day chewing on the piece of bacon as Charlie retold one of his favorite dragon stories. "Oh, Melinda, if you don't mind, upstairs, there's a box, with little globes like these," she paused to hold up a few round color globes, all of them filled with floating snow, all various sizes. "Could you just bring them down? That would be excellent" she said. Melinda nodded and quickly disappeared up the stairs. As Charlie got to his favorite part—which involved the dragon completely uprooting a tree and chucking it toward his head—Mrs. Weasley gave a disapproving clearing of the throat.
"I'll see if the twins are up" I said taking the hint and leaving the room. Sure enough, when I approached the door the twins were indeed awake, though they looked slightly different. "Oy you two" I said stepping into the room. "Hey" I said when neither answered. George was lying on his back on his bed, humming, a glazed expression had come over his face, he didn't seem to take the least bit of notice me. I looked down at Fred, who had an identical expression. I lightly kicked him, but that seemed to do nothing. "What have done now?" I asked looking into the box next to Fred. His clipboard was next to the box, on it was something scribbled with Daydream. I looked back at Fred and waved a hand at him. He wasn't at all paying attention, he wasn't focusing. He was in a complete daydream, at the moment I probably didn't even exist.
"George" I whispered, getting up and walking over to his bed. He was completely out of it too. I wanted to laugh; this was one of the few moments they would be completely caught off guard if anything were to happen. I looked back over at Fred, he still wasn't moving, but he did appear to at least blink quite a few times. "I'm just glad you two are testing these out on yourselves" I told them, patting George's arm. I lowered myself to the floor again, sitting across from Fred. Feeling bold I leaned closer; I could kiss him without him paying attention. I thought I moved an inch closer, making a face, and then laughing. I was just about to lean in to kiss him when he lurched forward and kissed me first; nearly making me fall backwards as I tried not scream. "So I think we should add the Pygmy Puffs to the list—Tammie, what are you doing in here?" George asked, snapping out his thoughts.
"I came in to check that you both were alive and I find both of you with your eyes glazed over and not saying a word. Didn't you hear me calling you?" I asked as I tried to ignore the tickling sensation in my stomach.
"No" George replied looking at Fred who nodded and picked up the clipboard. "We need to lower the amount of potion in that one, the sample we tested is good, but needs adjustments. Subjects can't be brought back from the daydream." George said nodding at Fred who wrote.
"Yeah, but, it's not like it last that long" Fred countered. I sat back against Fred's bed and listened to them discuss it, at least until I saw Melinda in the doorway. "Hey" Fred said casually.
"Um, your mum wants to know if you want any of these in your room?" she said holding out the globes from earlier.
"Sure, we'll take a handful each" Fred said taking the box from Melinda and reaching inside, purposely looking for different sizes. When he finished he gave a handful to George but George declined.
"I'll help you with the rest" he said to Melinda as they walked out.
"That's not going to end well" Fred said handing some globes to me. I followed his lead, hitting them against the wall, where they didn't fall and shatter, but rather stick to the wall, and bounce up and down.
"What do you mean?" I asked when he didn't continue to explain himself.
"Well, last night, and yesterday, we had a long discussion about it. After that bit he said about our relationship he sorta figured he could do the same thing."
"How do you mean?" I asked eagerly.
"He thinks they can just patch things up, they'll be okay if he overlooks her, other interest" Fred explained. I wrinkled my nose. That didn't seem very characteristic of George. "He wants her back, badly, but it's weird, I've never seen George so, interested in something. I mean, he knows she loves Draco; he's the one who told me last year." I almost wanted to laugh at the idea; George knew before the rest of us. Probably before Melinda was ready to admit it to herself.
"Yeah, he was like that yesterday too, do you think he's okay? I mean, maybe that vision you saw affected him somehow" I suggested, knowing Fred had the least amount of desire to think about that vision.
"I don't know, maybe, but I doubt that. I mean, what I saw, it doesn't apply to George at all; there's no reason he should be getting so upset over this. Maybe we were wrong, maybe Professor Madison isn't control our emotions like we thought. I mean, if she was, how is she be doing it to George now?" he asked.
"Maybe she only needed to plant the seed, like the idea of something continuing with the two of them." It was just another suggestion.
"But then why did she do that whole thing with me through Courtney? That didn't make any sense." he was right though, it didn't make any sense, and I could only guess at some parts.
"Maybe because it takes more than an idea to convince you of something that terrifying" I said.
"But why?" he said, getting himself worked up.
"Because Fred, she wants to isolate me and Melinda. She wants people to break up, giving you a—a picture like that would push anyone to break up. It's the opposite with Melinda; give anyone besides Malfoy an idea of them being together for a very long time and you got yourself a problem" I explained.
"Well, in that case, I think that's why I understand George, I know how it feels to be fighting against some 'realistic possible'"" Fred said quietly.
"What possibility?" I asked, trying to focus on what he was saying.
"That whole Matt business." I slammed my head lightly on the wooden part of the bed, half annoyed half tired of explaining this to him.
"Nothing is going to happen with me and Matt, ever, I swear" I told him, though he didn't look at me as he nodded.
"Then why were you with him last night. You could've signaled for me, you could've left from a nearby fireplace; you know how I feel about him and yet you went off with him anyway." I tried not to suck in air or roll my eyes.
"He looked truly concerned about me wandering the streets at night. If he didn't look so worried I wouldn't have gone." I explained slamming my head once more against the wood.
"Just, please, limit your interaction…" Fred said rubbing his forehead. I wanted to say no; Matt was my friend, but Fred's expression changed my mind. I would try my hardest to limit conversations with Matt and private jokes—not that we had any—to wide interactions with a group of people. I never wanted to see Fred look so worried about our relationship.
"Okay" I said moving closer to kiss him.
"You know I care about you..." he trailed off, he must have sensed my desire to continue on this conversation had drastically gone down. I started to make a joke but George's footsteps hushed me up first. He looked angry, and sadder than before. He opened his mouth to say something but caught sight of me first.
"Get out" he said trying to sound as calm as possible, but his voice was shaking, on the verge of yelling and crying. I quickly got up and left the room, closing the door behind me. As soon as I did I heard muffled voices, did they enhance their door so you could hardly hear their conversations? Did they do that because of my eavesdropping or because their mother was home. Not waiting to find out I hurried down the stairs to find Melinda. She was sitting on the couch reading a book, her face oddly well composed. Before I could make my way over to her there was a tapping on the window and then another and then another. Mrs. Weasley went to the window first, three large barn owls flew just outside; I recognized them instantly.
"I'll take care of it Mrs. Weasley" I said rushing over to help take the packages of the owl's legs. Two on each. The last one had a note attached. Already embarrassed, I quickly tipped all three hours, who hooted loudly before disappearing and then unfolded the letter
I was a disappointed you couldn't even visit before heading off to that place. Regardless, we've spent your presents. Enjoy the holidays.
The Malfoys
I made a face, I wasn't expecting anything from them, though, I never expected anything, but surely enough they pulled through with six presents. Which only meant I had to at least get one for each of them. I looked at the door, they're presents could be late; it wouldn't matter to them, as long as they got something. That was the one thing I was glad about the Malfoys, as long as the effort was outstanding, it didn't matter when the performance was. "What's that?" Melinda asked, looking up from her back, as if just noticing me.
"She got some presents from her family" Mrs. Weasley said half excited as she carried the present out of the room. Melinda looked at me with surprise but I shook my head and she relaxed.
"The Malfoys" I added.
"That was nice of them" she said standing up to stretch.
"So, why is George so mad?" I whispered, looking to make sure Mrs. Weasley was completely out of the room.
"He said he wanted to try again and I said no, and he said I was being stupid and immature and I said he was being clingy and he said he loved me and I laughed" Melinda said casually. I looked at her in complete shock.
"You—you laughed?" I said. She nodded and sat back down on the couch, I sat beside her. "Why would you laugh at something like that?"
"Because, I like him, a lot, and I can't like him. I can't be with him. Ever. I want to so bad but I can't. And the only way to get him away from me is to humiliate him, which, honestly I'm surprised is still possible." I stared at her as she continued talking. "I mean, I kinda figured he'd say it, but, you know, it was really forceful and it didn't sound like he meant, but like he was trying to find any way to keep me to him. And honestly, if I didn't laugh it wouldn't have worked; I would've went back. But I can't go back, I can't like him in that sense" she said, her voice suddenly had an edge to it. "I can't care about him…" she was sniffing again, her eyes were watery.
"C'mon" I said nearly dragging her and a two thick cloaks outside. "We'll be back Mrs. Weasley!" I shouted through the open kitchen window as I started down the path toward Diagon Alley.
Melinda didn't say a word, even as we shuffled into the high quality jewelry store she didn't make any snickering comments or lame jokes. She looked honestly depressed beyond all reason. I started to pat her back but a woman caught my eye. She looked similar to the one I saw the previous day, only, she was, taller, and skinner. She seemed to notice me just as quickly and made her way, she too had a cane, but I wondered if it was just for show. "You two look lovely; names?" she asked looking over Melinda and me. Melinda, who had appeared mostly dazed, straightened to attention but looked cautious.
"Melinda and that's Tammie" she said thumbing at me.
"Ah, yes, impulse and control…very nice to see the pair. Very nice indeed." The bell to the shop rang and we both turned to the sound but when we only saw a short balding man of no interest we turned back to the old lady, but she was gone. I started to make a joke about fleeting old ladies recently but Melinda's face was pale. I tapped her shoulder but when she looked at me her eyes were huge.
"I know her…" she whispered, almost in disbelief.
