Chapter 10:

Finally all of our classes for the day were finished, and we were eating dinner at the great hall. I was just staring at my food and thinking about how the meeting was going to go when suddenly Hermione tapped my shoulder. I was about to ask why when she nudged me and I looked at Harry and Professor McGonagall talking to him. I frowned and asked, "When did Harry get up?" "Just a few seconds ago Arrington." Hermione said and now she was looking at me worried. "You should eat something." she said motioning to my food. I shook my head and responded "I'm not hungry."

Harry walked back to the table and sat down. "What did she want?" I asked right away leaning forward to hear his answer. "Well... She wanted me to remind you that you have the meeting tonight." He said trying to cover up the real reason of why she had pulled him over. "You mean that she wanted you to force me to go." "Well... no" I glared at him and he cracked under the pressure and said, "well yeah." I just nodded.

"So... are you going to go?" Hermione asked tentatively. I just sighed and said, "Well he will probably just try and keep scheduling one, so might as well." Hermione nodded trying to act unsurprised but she wasn't hiding it very well. People started to leave, and I waited for them to finish. It seemed to me like they were eating way to fast. In no time, they were all done and getting up from the table, I got up, albeit reluctantly, and stood next to Harry. "You'll be fine, just be honest." Harry whispered to me. I nodded, but knew full well that I was going to have to lie my butt off.

We parted ways right after exiting the great hall since the offices and dormitories were on separate ends of the castle. I started walking to Dumbledore's office, and as I walked I thought about what I was going to say. I had no clue why he would even care this much about the well-being of one student. I couldn't be the only one with a screwed up sense of family, 'but I am the only one with a secret' I thought. Dumbledore probably knew of everybody else's problems and how to help them without having to meet with them. Nobody could have warned Dumbledore about my problems because I had never told anyone. Then suddenly a thought struck me that stopped my heart. Dumbledore had sent me that letter, so that means... "Oh god he read it." I mumbled out loud to myself. I became a lot more nervous and my leg did the jiggle that it always did a telltale sign that I was extremely worried or nervous.

Finally I reached Dumbledore's office, I realized I didn't know the password to it. But no sooner had I realized that, had it opened. I slowly walked up the steps dreading the moment, then finally reached the door to his office. Before I could even knock Dumbledore's voice came floating through the door, "Come in." I pushed open the door, and walked into Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore's office was huge with a round ornate desk in the middle, with shelves and shelves of books lined up against the walls. There was also all of the headmasters photos lined up in order of their terms on the wall to the left of Dumbledore. This whole time I was taking in the office I had managed to avoid looking at Dumbledore and his piercing blue eyes, but after having looked at every trinket and valuable I finally looked at him. "Hello sir. You called me here?" I said deciding to once again play dumb, since it always worked best. Dumbledore looked right through me and of course knew I knew right away. "Yes I did. Why don't you take a seat?" He said motioning for the chair across from him, playing along with me. I just nodded saying nothing and sat across from him.

"So has school been so far?" I said nothing and just looked at him curiously. I decided to wait until he got to his point to say something in order to make this meeting go a bit faster. When it was finally obvious I wasn't going to respond he sighed. I was so used to getting that sigh, the sigh of defeat from people, but it shocked me that Dumbledore had given in this quickly. So many people had given up on me that I was easily able to see the signs now. The small signs like the sigh, the annoyed glances when they thought you weren't looking, and finally they would just stop talking to you. They told themselves it was okay that they weren't feeling bad for me because I didn't tell them what was going on. But how were you supposed to tell somebody something so awful? There wasn't exactly a guide book to that.

Finally after a really long pause after his sigh Dumbledore said with his whispery voice, "I'm not giving up totally, just for today." I was a little startled when I realized he had read my mind. I quickly closed it off not realizing it had opened so far. He was no where close to the memories, but still in unnerved me when somebody knew even the littlest thing of what I was thinking. "And by the way I didn't read your letter." Dumbledore said suddenly startling me out of my thoughts. "Uh huh." I said not being able to help myself. "I didn't." He said sincerely, and I knew instantly he wasn't lying. I realized he pushed out his thoughts to me. 'Interesting,' was all I thought sensing the demons in Dumbledore's past just like mine, his weren't buried as deeply though, you could sense he had told people. Which meant his secrets were less safe because other people wouldn't guard them as much, and your own mind was more susceptible since you had relived when you told people. "Goodbye Arrington. I will see you later. Whenever I want another fun session with you I will just send a letter. Got it?" I just looked at him and shook my head. "And you will come." I looked at him with an or what glance and he responded with, "Or I will have to have Harry in these meetings and I bet his mind is more susceptible to mind magic." "Humph." Was all I said in response.

I walked back to the common room quietly when I ran into Snape. 'Great' I thought, 'just what I need right now is a detention.' "What are you doing out of bed?" Snape asked. "I had a meeting with Dumbledore," I answered as calmly as I could. "go check with him if you want to." Then I just walked by him. Surprisingly he didn't stop me, and I thankfully ran into no more teachers. I walked into the common room and found Hermione, Harry, and Ron waiting up for me. Or rather Hermione studying, Ron sleeping, and Harry waiting for me with a book in his lap that didn't change pages once.

I realized they couldn't see me right now so I put on the invisibility cloak in hopes that they might start talking about me again. With a sudden thunk Hermione closed her books waking Ron up from his sleep. "I'm up! I'm up!" He said sleepy. "Sorry." Hermione muttered. "Arrington's not back yet?" Ron said rubbing his eyes trying to wake up. "Nope." Hermione said shaking her head.

"She'll be fine Harry stop worrying." Hermione said glancing at Harry with sympathetic eyes, seeing that he was still just staring at the fire. "How is she gonna be fine?" He asked. "She's strong of course she will." Hermione responded and moved over to sit next to Harry, and Ron sat up and said, "Yeah of course she will be fine." "I mean she's already been through it and survived so she can get through it with us, people by her side." Hermione said wisely. Harry nodded and said "Yeah I guess. What the hell did they do to her though?" "I don't know. I'm afraid it's not gonna be as simple as just abuse though." Hermione said frowning. Harry flinched at the word abuse and Hermione rubbed his shoulder. "Why didn't Dumbledore put her with me? Why did he put her with that family?" "I don't know." Hermione said. I realized Harry didn't know that my adopted mother was our aunt, our fathers sister. I will tell him that later, maybe in passing and kind of write it off as nothing.

I had the portrait open again after I had taken the cloak off, and pretended I had just stepped in. I knew you could see the tears on my face, but they would just assume that was from the meeting. I walked over to the couch and Hermione noticed me, "Oh hey Arrington." She said softly. She scooted over and patted the seat in between her and Harry, and I sat down in between them. I laid my head down on Hermione's shoulder and cried silently. Suddenly George came barreling down the stairs laughing, and Fred came right after him. They slowed down when they saw me, and I sat up and wiped my eyes. I didn't want everyone knowing that I was slowly spiraling down, "Are you okay?" George asked. 'To late' I thought.

I just nodded and got up and sat in the love seat closest to the fire, just staring at the flames. Flames when I was little used to fascinate me, they would curl and move even though nothing was moving them. It was so beautiful and fascinating, I thought it was almost magic. I looked up and realized only George was still here, everyone else had left. I was confused, but then George came and sat down next to me. I always liked George, he was nice, funny, and courageous, the exact opposite of me. A voice in my head told me that was wrong, but my old family's voice was too strong in my head. George looking at me asked, "How did the meeting go?" I looked at him surprised he knew. "I heard McGonagall talking to Harry, why did you have the meeting?" I shrugged not speaking. "C'mon Arrington, you can tell me." I just shrugged again still looking at the flames and not him. George than turned my face towards him, and stared right into my eyes. "Arrington..." He whispered, "please."

I stared right back at him and decided I could just tell him what Hermione, Harry, and Ron already knew. After all he is Ron's brother anyway. I got up and George asked, "What are you doing?" I walked over to Harry's book bag, which he left down here, knowing that he always carried the letter with him hoping it might divulge him more information somehow. I grabbed the letter out and handed it to George and sat back down, not looking at him. After he finished reading he set the letter on the table face down, when he suddenly picked it back up, reading who sent it. "Did he send you a letter too?" George asked quietly. I just nodded, not being able to speak, because I was wondering what George thought of me know. "Where is that one?" George asked still speaking quietly and gently, thinking as if one harsh sounding word might break me, well who knows maybe it might. I sighed, and just shook my head, knowing that he was gonna ask for it.

Surprisingly he didn't push me any farther, and we just sat together quietly. It was one of the few nicest things anybody besides Harry, Ron, and Hermione had done for me in a while. I started silently crying, and so George hugged me tight, except I didn't pull away. I suddenly felt so extremely tired and so I fell asleep.