*TW* - Heavy mentions of death

Chapter 11

December in Hogwarts was an interesting time, the mood of the school becoming almost ostentatiously festive in preparation for the upcoming Christmas. For as much as the wizards in this country claimed to reject anything nomaj, they certainly seemed to embrace the holiday with as much fervor as any muggle would, maybe even more so. The entirety of the castle seemed caught up in the festivities, with the Great Hall alone sporting more holiday decor than Vivian had ever seen in her life. At any other point prior to this year, Vivian likely would have found the excessive decorations to be gaudish and over the top but, just this once, she decided to embrace the festivities with a newfound warmth that was unfamiliar to her.

As a lifelong cynic, she normally hated to admit any kind of enthusiasm for the Christmas season, but this year she found herself caught up in the excitement in a way she hadn't been since she was a young child.

In her most recent years, Christmas had been a mostly solitary holiday. Even when Eli was around to spend it with, their parents were most often not and even though she had quickly grown to accept that fact, her brother loathed it, usually choosing to spend the day angry at their repeated absence. And of course, when he had died, that only added to the bleakness of the holiday in her mind.

This year, however, would be different. Instead of her usual solitary brooding, she would be surrounded by the Weasley's, a prospect that she was growing more and more excited about as the end of term drew nearer. With less than one week of classes left, she couldn't help feeling giddy with anticipation, nearly bouncing out of her seat as George informed her not a day after inviting her that the entire Weasley clan not actively at Hogwarts would be waiting at Kings Cross to pick them up and shuttle them to The Burrow. Not only was she excited to see this much alluded to home, she was also thrilled to be meeting the rest of what had quickly become her favorite family. Though she had initially been hesitant to accept the invitation of joining them for Christmas out of fear of burdening the family, her worries were quickly dashed when Mrs. Weasley immediately responded to George's letter, enthused to offer her children's newest friend their home for the winter break.

Vivian isn't ashamed to admit that she forced George to show her the letter, not believing in his claims that his mother was happy to have her until she saw the words in writing herself - much to George's amusement, who of course knew that his mother would love another guest for Christmas, as he had informed Vivian previously.

With T-minus 5 days to go until the Hogwarts Express departed, Vivian was nearly pulsing with excitement, the feeling of finally allowing herself to look forward to the holiday putting her in extremely high spirits. Not even a tediously long potions essay or a frighteningly boring end of term charms exam were enough to put a damper on her holiday spirit.

As the group of Gryffindors exited the Great Hall after dinner, she couldn't fight the smile that had remained on her face for the past few days. Laughing loudly at Fred's dramatic story about pranking a group of 2nd years earlier that day, she couldn't help but wonder if this was the happiest she had ever been, sitting in this strange and eccentric magical school, surrounded by a group of friends that so readily welcomed her into their ranks - it certainly was the happiest she had been in quite a few years.

"You should have seen the look on their faces!" Fred was practically howling with laughter, feeding off the energy of his captivated audience. "I'm pretty sure one of them just about shit his-"

A throat clearing paused Fred's story mid-sentence. Turning around, the group was faced with a grim looking Professor McGonagall, who somehow managed to look even more tightly wound than usual.

"Minnie! Pleasure to see you on this fine evening," George said with a good natured grin, not picking up on her obvious unease that was beginning to make Vivian nervous. Like many of the older professors at Hogwarts, McGonagall always put on a certain stoicness that made her seem unshakeable. To see her with any expression other than neutral on her face had to be a bad omen.

"Mr. Weasley," she nodded tersely at George before turning back to face the group, her eyes landing on Vivian in a way that filled the blonde with dread. "Miss Mento, please come with me. The headmaster and I need to have a word with you. Immediately."

The way the professor was looking at her with a combination of pity and alarm turned her blood cold. She had only seen that look directed at her a handful of times in her entire life and bad news always seemed to accompany it. Only mustering up a weak shrug towards her friends, who were looking at her with curiosity over the headmaster's sudden interest in speaking with her, she followed McGonagall, having to work to keep up with the older woman's brisk pace as they made their way up the stairs towards Dumbledore's office.

The headmaster was in hushed conversation when they arrived at his office after a near silent walk, his head bent towards a tall man whose face was masked in shadow as the two women entered the room. Hearing the door open, both men quickly turned to face the newcomers, finally giving Vivian a good look at the mysterious stranger.

"Elder Geldart?" she stared at the man, the surprise evident in her face and voice. Of all the people to randomly show up for her at Hogwarts, Geldart would have been her very last guess. The man had practically jumped for joy when he'd learned she was moving away. In fact (and if Lizette was to be believed), the man had tears in his eyes the first day he had mentored her without Vivian present, apparently unable to contain the sheer glee he was feeling at losing his least favorite student.

The fact that he was suddenly here now, his face filled with an emotion that Vivian couldn't quite place was certainly a bad sign.

"Vivian," he nodded solemnly, gesturing towards the seat in front of Dumbledore's desk as he and the headmaster both sat in their own chairs opposite her. "We've gotten some news in regards to your parents." Elder Geldart never addressed her by her first name. She was always 'Miss Mento' or even just 'you' in his less charitable moods. And he had never, in the entirety of the time he had known her, offered her a seat. A very bad sign indeed.

"My parents," she echoed flatly, feeling a pit begin to harden in her stomach, longing desperately for the sheer joy she had been feeling just five minutes ago.

"As you know they've been missing for some time now," Geldart continued, fixing her with what she thought was supposed to be a sympathetic look, though seeing it come from the normally red-faced and screaming man only succeeded in thickening the already tense atmosphere of the room. "We of course have had search parties looking for them periodically but have always turned up empty. We had nearly given up hope of ever finding them when out of the blue, just yesterday, we got a call from the non-magical police saying that the Chinese coast guard located two sets of skeletonized remains on a small island off the coast of mainland China."

"Skeletonized…remains…" Vivian's brain was struggling to catch up with what Elder Geldart was saying. What this had to do with her parents, her mind didn't want to accept just yet.

"Unfortunately," Geldart began again, tapping his fingertips once on the wood desk in front of him before steadying his eyes on her, "dental's of the remains match those of your parents. I'm very sorry, Vivian."

Vivian could only stare back at him, mouth agape as her brain worked overtime to process this information. With her parents having been missing for well over two years, the possibility of them being dead had of course crossed her mind. She had had years now to come to terms with potentially never seeing them again. Though of course thinking it's a possibility and knowing it is a fact are two very different things, and it seemed that any words she might have said in that moment had completely failed her.

Her parents were now legally and officially dead. And with a finality she should have been used to by now, she was now legally and officially an orphan, alone in the world. Quite the hollow turn of events from the festive cheer at dinner only moments ago.

After several beats of tense silence, Geldart cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with the next bout of news he was about to deliver on top of the information she was obviously still digesting.

"Right, so additionally your parents' lawyers will be needing to meet with you as soon as possible. Just some matters of estate they need to attend to." Elder Geldart turned his head slightly to his right, locking eyes with Dumbledore who had yet to speak since Vivian entered the room. Seeming to take some unspoken cue from the man, the headmaster stood up and addressed Vivian for the first time.

"We've arranged a portkey for you to leave here immediately after classes end on Friday. Please accept our condolences," Dumbledore said while looking at her kindly. The pity in all of their faces might have annoyed her, had she been at all aware of them, focused too heavily on her racing thoughts. "Minerva, can you please escort Miss Mento back to the Gryffindor common room? I'm sure this has all been quite a shock."

Vivian didn't look up as she felt professor McGonagall's hand on her shoulder, allowing herself to be stood and led towards the office door. Her brain screamed at her to stop, to force them to tell her more details than they had. There were so many questions going through her mind - surely they must know more than that.

"How did they die?" she blurted, grinding their movements to a halt as she turned back around to face her former mentor, searching his face for answers to any of the thousand questions that were perched on her tongue. "Where have they been the last two years? Have they been dead this entire time?"

Elder Geldart cleared his throat once more, eyes averting from her gaze as his expression seemed to grow even more uncomfortable with her line of questioning.

"Well I imagine answers to those questions will come up during the homicide investigation."

The world around her seemed to freeze with his words, her heart going still as she wrapped her mind around this latest bombshell. Homicide investigation. Meaning whatever happened to her parents was no accident. No shipwreck at sea, no accidental drowning, no unforeseeable circumstances. Her parents were homicide victims. Meeting their end at the hands of another person, someone who wanted them dead. As less than stellar and oftentimes absent parents as they were, it was still inconceivable to her that they were here one minute and gone the next, because some unknown person decided it would be so.

"All things the lawyers will go over with you when you see them next week," Geldart advised once she had remained silent for several moments.

With a weak nod in response, she finally allowed herself to be guided from the room and down the stairs. The entirety of the walk to Gryffindor tower might have taken seconds or hours for all Vivian was aware, too busy shifting through her mental turmoil to pay much attention to the passing corridors and curious students.

In a matter of minutes, her life had been turned upside down yet again. Once more she was being forced to say a final goodbye to a member of her immediate family. Not for the first time did she wonder then if she was cursed to follow in their footsteps, meeting some kind of tragic end, her demise soaked in mystery and unanswered questions. Though of course for her, who would be left to miss her? To ask the questions they would never get an answer to? Lucky her, her parents and brother made sure to see to it that she would be the last one left who had to grieve.

Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't noticed as they approached the Fat Lady, McGonagall quietly giving the portrait the password and stepping back to face Vivian as the painting swung open.

"I can not begin to express how sorry I am dear," the older woman's usually emotionless face finally cracked into a deep frown, making her appear to age ten years in the span of just a few seconds. "If you need anything, or even just want to talk, my door is always open," she said kindly, her hand resting on her student's shoulder.

"Thank you professor," Vivian said quietly, unsure how else to respond to this offering. Managing to put her mouth into a flat line and work her face into what she hoped was a passably neutral expression, she stepped through the portrait hole, immediately aware of her friend's excited voices rising from their usual seats near the fireplace. If she had considered for even a second that she would be able to escape to her dormitory without any of them noticing her presence in the common room, she was sorely mistaken. Before she had taken ten steps into Gryffindor Tower, George was waving her over, saying something that gathered the attention of the rest of the group who all looked equally happy to see her.

"So what's the damage, V? You finally get in trouble for all those cigarettes you smoke on campus?" Fred asked as she sat down on the couch cushion next to George, his perpetual good-natured grin fixed easily on his face.

"Um…no," Vivian answered, eyes staring blankly into the fire, unable to match her friend's upbeat demeanor and unwilling to pretend to try as she fought the whirlwind of emotions that were threatening to explode from her.

"What happened?" George asked, the corners of his mouth turning downward in concern as he suddenly noticed the dramatic change in her mood since he had last seen her.

"They found my parent's bodies," she said, not moving her gaze from the dancing flames. Within seconds the group froze, all eyes widening at her in horror. Clearly not in the headspace where she would even notice such things, she continued, the words tumbling out of her mouth like they had been trapped and waiting to spring out, "Well their remains. I guess there wasn't much left of them by the time they were found. 'Skeletonized' was the specific word they used."

"Gods, Vivian, I'm so sorry," Angelina began, moving from her place on the floor to sit on the arm of the couch, a comforting hand resting on her back.

"Thanks, Ang," she began, working hard to fight back the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. "I'll be…fine," she managed to sputter out before the lump won, growing too big to contain while her eyes overflowed with tears. Her shoulders sagged and she buried her face in her hands as her sobs took over. She was only faintly aware of the multiple pairs of arms holding her and the voices of all her friends whispering reassurances that she wouldn't be able to recall into her ears. Though she would have never been capable of verbalizing it in her current state, and in the days and weeks that followed, she would have trouble remembering the feeling, in that moment she felt cared for and she felt held. For the briefest of moments, she could focus solely on the kindness of these people for whom she had grown to cherish. For just a short while, she could simply enjoy the presence of her closest friends.

It was some time before she was able to breathe normally again, the fog of tears finally clearing long enough for her to regain her bearings. Her friends at some point during her crying had grouped around her in a tight huddle; George and Angelina's arms wrapped around her waist and shoulders on either side, Alicia and Lee sitting on the coffee table in front of her, her left hand clutched between both of Alicia's while Lee rubbed a sympathetic hand over her knee. Even Fred was trying to soothe her, in his Fred-ish way, with the occasional pat to the top of her head, that in any other circumstance would have been enough to make her laugh at his poor attempts at comfort.

Judging on their expressions, each of them in a various mix of sympathy and concern, she must have looked in a right state. Moving her hand to wipe her face, she could feel the swollen skin of her eyes and the raw feeling around her nose, grimacing at the physical pain an intense bout of crying always brought her. She was going to take extra care to not look in a mirror for the rest of the night, if only for her sanity's sake.

"Well anyway," she eventually croaked after some time had passed, her friends exchanging worried looks when they thought she wouldn't notice. "I won't be spending Christmas with you guys after all. I'm sorry."

George's face immediately darkened as he exchanged a tense and very worried look with his twin.

"You are not spending Christmas here alone Vivian, are you kidding? Especially not now-"

"No, I mean I have to go back home to sort out some legal stuff I guess. Dumbledore got me a portkey that leaves Friday and I don't think I really have a choice," she interrupted, shaking her head quickly as she realized the mistake in her words.

"Oh," George breathed, the relief much more evident in his voice than he would have liked as he tightened his hold on her waist. "Well don't feel sorry about that. We can do a makeup Christmas when we're all back at school," he tried, searching for anything that could possibly make her feel better. Loss of a parent was something he had never experienced, was a situation that he could barely fathom, let alone the loss of two parents at the same time. He feared he was completely out of his depth, wading through the complex feelings of her grief and worried that saying the wrong thing would only send her deeper into despair.

She didn't respond and George wasn't positive that she had even heard his offer, her eyes having returned to their expressionless stare into the fire as exhaustion seemed to overtake her. His own worried eyes failed to leave her for a second as Alicia and Angelina quietly asked her if she wanted to go to bed and gently guided her towards the stairs when she nodded. Alicia quickly took George's place as she wrapped her arm around Vivian's waist, while Angelina's arm was still securely wrapped around her shoulders. Moving as one, the three girls made their way towards the dormitory staircase, Vivian staying cocooned in her friends' embrace as they led her to their shared room.

George watched their retreating figures, a bottomless pit seeming to open up in his stomach. He had felt helpless as he watched the girl he fancied cry, powerless to take away her pain and unsure if anything he could think to say would make her feel even worse.

"That was awful," Lee remarked quietly, breaking the silence the three boys stood in and perfectly encapsulating George's own sentiments on the events of the evening.

"What was awful?" Ron's loud voice broke through the quiet as the Golden Trio walked through the portrait door, getting in seconds before the final curfew bell rang. Oblivious as ever, the younger Gryffindors joined the three on the couch, eyebrows raised in expectation of their answer.

"Vivian's parents died," Fred answered quietly, and with a note of reverence in his voice that George only heard from his twin on the most serious of occasions.

"What? When?" Harry questioned, slightly startled as he pushed his glasses back up his nose. Though he would never admit it out loud, the idea of having a friend who now knew what he was going through enticed him, in a sick way. Selfishly, Harry felt a brief moment of relief that he was no longer alone in that regard, though to his credit that feeling was immediately replaced by guilt and empathy for the girl.

"Don't know. She didn't really say much," George answered honestly, but his mind was wandering back to the girl's dormitory, wondering how Vivian was doing now that she was in the privacy of her own room. He could only hope that she didn't start bottling up her feelings now that her initial tears had subsided.

"That's horrible," Hermoine whispered, her hand going to her mouth and her eyebrows furrowing in sympathy as she looked between the Weasley twins and Lee.

"Let's do something nice for her," Harry said suddenly, sitting straight up in his armchair as the idea popped into his head. "We can make her a care package with all her favorite things? I'm sure the house elves would make a batch of those cranberry-orange muffins she loves." he continued, looking at Hermoine who started nodding enthusiastically as she jumped on board with the idea.

"I could find copies of all her favorite books to include!" the bushy haired girl opened her notebook, already jotting down novels the Gryffindor girls had discussed together on the occasions they were in the library at the same time.

"And I'll sneak into Honeydukes and get her favorite candies," Lee said, standing from his place on the couch.

George rubbed his hands together, nodding at his brother's friends in approval. Although he knew that a care package wouldn't magically erase her situation, anything that could put even a momentary smile back on her face was a step in the right direction. The only question now would be what he and Fred would include. It definitely wasn't the occasion to give her any of their prank candies that was for sure.

"We can brew her some of our more useful potions aye Georgie?" Fred offered as if reading his mind with a clap on his twin's back. "Hangover cure, instant energy, maybe even the hotbox in a tube if we can get the brew right this time?"

George nodded, grateful for the opportunity to do something to help, even if that something was as small as a hangover cure. After agreeing to the due date of Thursday morning for the care package, as set by Hermoine, George followed his twin and Lee up the stairs towards the boy's dormitories.

The anxiety still bubbled in his gut and raced in his mind as he replayed the image of Vivian bursting into tears in front of him. The sounds of her sobs were likely going to echo in his head for the rest of the night, keeping him awake into the early hours of the morning. He had never heard anything like it, the pitiful cries sounding as though they were fighting to break out of her body, tearing through her like she was made of tissue paper, facing no resistance despite her initial attempts to muffle herself with her hands. George had felt himself nearly crying too, unable to remain stoic in light of the heart-wrenching scene before him.

Though of course, all of that was nothing compared to the look on her face. For as long as he lived, George was certain that he would never forget the way her face crumbled as the first tears escaped her eyes, or how empty she seemed when the last of them had finally dried on her cheeks. For the first time since he met her, she had looked utterly and completely broken, as if in that moment all of the fight in her had been ripped away, leaving nothing but devastation and pain in its wake. She looked despondent, inconsolable, depressed - whatever synonym for sad you could come up with, it had been reflected plainly on the blonde girl's face. But more than anything, she looked exhausted. She looked as though she had spent the entirety of her life holding up the weight of the world only for it to come crashing down on her in one fell swoop, she looked like someone who had nothing left to give.

George swallowed, staring up at the dark canopy over his bed, wishing that they could somehow travel back in time, to just a few hours earlier when she had seemed so happy and carefree, so excited to spend Christmas with his family, excited to spend Christmas with him. One thing was for sure and that was he would be spending this year's holiday continuing to worry about the blonde girl who had suddenly come to occupy so much of his waking thoughts.

Im so sorry it took so long for me to update this time. Real life and all that plus just who I am as a person. I hope you guys like this kind of emotion heavy chapter and aren't too disappointed that she won't be spending christmas with the weasleys. they'll have their moment soon enough i promise!

Kazaqui - thank you so much for the reviews! I love your theories/questions and all I can say is that all will be revealed in time ;)