There was an excited air about the Leaky Cauldron, a hustle and bustle of something happening. Hearing two familiar voices arguing in the dining area Harry hurried over to the stairs. In doing so he missed Clione coming out of her and Ginny's room.
"Finally," George muttered from where he lay sprawled on his bed in the room across from them.
Fred stepped into the doorway and looked her over. She had a loose flowing pink shirt tucked into light blue flowery trousers. "It takes time to look this good, George."
Clione bit back a smile as she fixed the scarf over her shoulder so it'd lay straight. "Thank you," she told Fred sweetly.
"Honestly, Clione, a prefect and next year's Head Girl should really be wearing her uniform."
The twins watched her face sour at Percy's self important tone, then as she turned on her heel and marched back into her room slamming the door.
"Way to go, Percy, now we're gonna be late," George huffed and fell back onto his bed.
About five minutes later Clione came out in a black button down tucked into a plaid skirt the same shade of emerald green as her blazer. This time her scarf was a shimmery silver.
"Even better," Fred told her grabbing her suitcase.
She led the twins downstairs and broke away from them to throw her arms around Harry. He'd stood from the table the moment he'd seen her at the top of the stairs. Her face had browned under the hot desert sun and she looked older than he remembered.
"Not quite what I meant," Percy said when he saw she'd picked the approved casual uniform rather than the formal one. "But still more fitting."
Her dark eyes flashed dangerously as they followed him to the other end of the table. She was grumbling something about fitting her trunk in a place the sun didn't shine as she grabbed a seat and a plate.
"They tried to shut Percy in a pyramid," Ron told Harry with his voice low. Harry nearly spit his drink out while Hermione shook her head disapproving.
George sat one chair down from Clione, feeling Fred slide in the space between them. "Clione almost had it til Fred distracted her telling her how nice she looked. Then mom found us."
"Prettiest she's ever looked," Fred declared without shame. The back of her hand smacking his chest did little to steal his grin.
Harry turned to Ron with a half smile. "Are theyfinally together?"
It was Hermione who answered quietly. "Not yet, she said she wasn't ready." Last night she and Ginny giggled from the bed they shared as they begged Clione to tell them.
Ron pulled out the photo album Clione and Ginny helped him make and tucked the folded up newspaper in the back. "Clione and Fred found a way to get the camera Hermione sent to take moving pictures. That's the day they're talking about."
Harry looked at the photograph he pointed to and found Clione looking the same as she always did. But the photo caught the warm look she and Fred shared before they turned to George, who'd taken it.
"Look at this one," Ron said turning the page. It was of the entrance to a pyramid where giant Anubis statues were lined up inside. "Bill said everyone who tried to enter was killed." But Harry saw that as Clione stepped inside every statue sprang to life and bowed.
"Told you she was a princess."
"No," Clione said waving Fred away. "An ancient ancestor, nothing more."
"An ancient ancestor that was a pharaoh," George piped in.
Ron nodded as he closed the album. "Bill thought it was fascinating til he realized none of the curses responded to her."
"I had fun annoying him with it," Clione told them hiding a smile behind her mug. Before Hermione could interject Clione continued, "they're trying to break into my ancestor's tombs to steal our treasures." To that Hermione closed her mouth and turned away from her, looking instead to her hideously cute cat.
They chatted away about their upcoming classes until Mrs. Weasley fluttered about getting them all together and out the door. Clione held Jamila's small cage as she followed after Ginny, passing a photo of a man that'd escaped Azkaban. Having not been raised in the country neither the man nor the prison meant much to her.
At the train station Mrs. Weasley hugged and kissed each one of them, Mr. Weasley patted the boys on the back but he hugged both Ginny and Clione tight. "You be good," he told Clione. "Don't scare me like that again."
He'd fussed over her all summer making sure she was feeling well, that the heat wasn't too much, that Fred kept an arm's length between them. She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed his cheek before hugging him again.
He sent her on the train and turned to his most troublesome sons. "Look after your sisters," he told them both. And sent them both in at their agreement.
Clione saw Ginny to a train car full of her friends and turned finding Fred and George making their way after her. She caught Fred's eye and they shared a smile, though he watched hers drop from her face like it'd been wiped off as Percy came behind her.
"You'll never be Head Girl if you keep hanging around my brothers. They'll ruin your reputation." He'd meant it to be cautionary, a word to the wise. But his tone was sharp and it left him sounding pompous.
She turned to follow him up to the first two train cars muttering to herself, "you won't survive being Head Boy if you don't stop bossing me around." If the summer had revealed anything it was that she didn't take well to older brothers.
Her face lit up at the sight of Gail already sitting down and she just about fell on top of her in a race to hug her. "I have so much to tell you, I missed you so much."
"Me too," Gail said as Clione scooted to sit beside her. Clione had never really been a hugger, nor was she particularly good at talking about her feelings. The Weasleys had really done a number on her.
It was in that compartment Clione was told more about Sirius Black and Azkaban. Mad and evil enough to help murder his supposed best friends, Harry's parents. Given Harry's lack of worry or hatred that morning, Clione didn't think he knew. Gail hurried to change the subject, never one to linger in darkness long. Apparently she and Noemi had written to each other all summer, she'd even met her family in Diagon Alley. Gail was just asking after Fred, which she disguised as interest in their trip to Egypt, when the train came to a jerking halt.
"We've only just passed halfway," Clione said as they looked outside. Torrents of rain pelted the train turning day to night, but in the distance they could see dark shadows hovering several feet off the ground.
Their breath hung in the air white as a winter day as ice spread over the windows. Clione held Gail's hand watching as a large black shadow draped in tattered cloth slid open their train car door with a sharp boney hand. Cold pooled in her stomach as every ounce of warmth was stolen from their lungs. Gail was shivering after it'd left. When the lights turned on Clione pulled away from Gail and stuck her head out the door checking none of those things were still there.
"I'm going to check on the others." She left Penelope to sit with Gail, both girls immediately held hands and huddled together inside the warming car.
She stepped carefully down the aisle counting the closed doors until she reached the one she'd seen Fred and George go in. Fred was on his feet as soon as he saw it was her in the doorway and reached for her hand. "You okay?" She looked pale and she was blinking a lot, and he couldn't tell if the shaking he felt in his palm was him or her.
"Yeah," she answered, her voice high and strained like a balloon with too much air.
Someone crashed into her side and she turned catching a flash of white blonde hair before Draco was hugging her. He quickly pulled away and cleared his throat. "Everything's okay, Clione. Nothing to worry about." He tried to stand up taller but her hand on his arm had him releasing a breath that shrunk him.
"Thanks, hun," she told him. As he went back to the car across from them she turned to Fred and George smacking them both as they snickered quietly.
Fred watched her brows crease as her head tilted, and he stepped into the doorway as she walked a car down from them and slid the door open. "Oh," she exclaimed softly before stepping into the compartment. "We're okay, darlings. That was really scary, huh?"
Young frightened voices answered back and Fred shared a look with George before they stepped out of their car and joined her. They peered into the compartment finding four first years huddled together, one had buried her face in Clione's chest.
"Anyone ever seen a fizzing whizzbee?" Fred asked as he slid onto the bench across from them.
The newest students, one a muggle born girl trying her best not to cry, turned to Fred's surprisingly gentle face to see what he had in his hand.
Clione sat the girl down next to him, squeezed his shoulder in thanks, and beckoned George with her. "We'll gather all the first years together up here," she decided looking very serious. Very grown up.
She made her way through each car, saw to each and every student. The older students jumped up to help her collect the second and first years and sit with them telling them all about Hogwarts and how grand the feast was going to be.
"Tallie?"
A soft irreverent voice curling around that name had Clione turning to a ragged looking man standing in the middle of the aisle. "Tallibah was my mother," she told him quietly.
"Of course," he said shaking his head, "my apologies. I need to speak with the conductor."
She pivoted to follow him as he stepped past her. "How d-" but he wove through the students moving between compartments and she lost track of him. "He's the new defense against the dark arts teacher."
She followed that voice to Ron, who'd poked his head out when he heard her. "You three alright?" she asked leaning in the doorway. Ron nodded while Hermione gave a quiet yes, but Harry looked pale and shaken. He was quick to try to give her a smile though before nibbling on a piece of chocolate.
Continuing on Clione grabbed five more first years near the back of the train that she escorted up to the front. It grew more crowded the further up they went and she steered the girls who all held hands up into one of the prefect's car where Gail gladly welcomed them to sit with her and Noemi.
"Everyone's okay, that was the last of the young ones. Are we gonna be moving soon?" She asked all of this to Percy while wringing her hands. Rain was still pattering loudly around them and the noise spilling like crashing cymbals from the cars was seeping into her bones.
Percy glanced at her innocent face and stood a little taller. "Professor Lupin says we should be starting any minute now," he told her with an air of importance. "Very good, putting the first years with the older students. Though you should be running things by me."
Before she could respond, and by then he knew her well enough to know she was going to, he made his way back up to where Lupin was still talking to the conductor.
She turned looking for George who shrugged. "Dad would never forgive you if you offed him."
"Maimed, he might tolerate if it was you," Fred piped in from the car across from him. "But then there's mom to deal with."
A heavy breath left her and she lowered her white-knuckled hands to her side as she stepped into the car on her right and sat beside Fred. "We still doing alright?" she asked the first group of first years she'd found.
The four of them gave different variations of a yes while Fred snuck his hand on her lap feeling how fast she grabbed and held onto him. All her time and focus had been spent on looking after everyone else, there hadn't been any time left to worry about herself. Everyone else was fine and she was only now dealing with what happened. Fred seemed to be the only who noticed.
Her scarf ruffled near her ear and she turned seeing Fred seemingly pull a flower from behind her head. He was grinning as he held it out to her and she took it biting back a grin of her own.
"I'm getting pretty good at that, right ladies?" he asked of the five girls sitting across from them who giggled.
"Is she your girlfriend?"
Clione looked at Fred expectantly for his answer. "Not yet."
When she said it there was a hopefulness about it, a clear want. But the way he'd said it was a promise, an inevitability. Like he'd wait his entire lifetime for her to be ready because no one else would do. And that had just about the warmest look breaking her face wide open as she smiled.
She was still holding his hand as they finally arrived at the station in Hogsmeade. He helped her corral the first years towards where Hagrid waited, then stood behind her casting an umbrella out of his wand above them as she bid Hagrid a good evening and congratulations on being appointed a teacher. Without looking or appearing to consciously know she did it, she reached behind her grabbing Fred's hand again. He pressed his lips around a smile he tried to hide from her as he led her to where George was waiting in a carriage with Lee and Angelina. Lee shot Fred a thumbs up when Clione was turned away talking to Angelina.
Walking into the Great Hall they found this year the Slytherin table had been placed against the wall next to the Gryffindors. Clione sat on the side closest to the wall next to Cassius, and Fred sat opposite her at the Gryffindor table making faces at her through the sorting ceremony.
Dumbledore's speech was normally light hearted but important, however this year he grew gravely serious as he told them dementors such as the ones they'd seen in the train would be guarding the castle. Clione didn't like the way he warned them not to give the dementors reason to suspect them of anything, she definitely didn't like the way his eyes stuck on Harry. Something felt off about this year; like butterflies in the stomach or a breath held in anxious anticipation. Something that felt like change.
She was wringing her hands again. Her eyes darted to the place just beyond George's head where Fred sat across from him. His brows were drawn together the way they always did when he was hearing something he didn't like. But he caught her eye and sent her a lopsided grin that had her letting go of a breath and unwinding.
..
Having received an outstanding in every subject on her O.W.L.S the year before, Clione had every option available to her and none of the drive. The plan had been a job in the ministry, the one she'd been raised under, the plan had been to go home. But last year Clione had received the highest marks Hogwarts had seen in a decade, and she didn't care. The determination she'd seen on Hermione's face to surpass her scores, coaxing Neville into herbology, doting on Draco who adored her fiercely, the pride that bloomed on Harry's cheeks when she congratulated him on a good game, the first years who now sought her out for everything, that she was now everyone's first thought when they needed something; all of this Clione felt in her heart, in her very soul. And she didn't know what to do with it.
The advanced classes she'd chosen to continue were defense against the dark arts, charms, transfiguration, potions, and alchemy. And she had managed to worm her way into ancient magic and earth magic as electives. There hadn't been enough students interested in Alchemy to warrant restarting a new class, however Snape was able to get her added into the seventh year's alchemy class provided that she caught up over the summer. She'd spent much of her time in Egypt slung over either Fred or George's shoulder as they dragged her around while she studied.
Which was how she found herself that first week in an empty potions classroom with Professor Snape as they reviewed what she'd learned. She excelled at potions but she had no real interest in pursuing a career with them, the same could be said of all the classes she'd chosen. They were a means to an end. An end Snape understood that day as she closed her textbook and stood a moment with her hands folded over it. Wanting something.
"Professor Snape?" His response was a short hum. "Did you know anyone who called my mother Tallie?"
His hands froze from where they'd been collecting the supplies they'd used, but his mind spun. "I see you've met our new professor," he said, his perpetually bored tone dragged thin over his clear disdain for the man.
"Briefly on the train. He refused to acknowledge I existed in class." She watched the unkind curve of Snape's mouth but he didn't respond. He'd been in her mother's year at this school, likely in this very classroom. And he and Lupin looked to be the same age. "If he called my mother by a name no one else did, then it's fair to think he might know who my father is. Right?"
His mind had strayed to a time in his life he'd rather forget with people he preferred to hate. Most of them had called her mother by that name. But Clione's voice was bright with such naive hope. She'd always been a little too soft for the life she'd been born to. "Tallibah," he started and sighed at the use of a name he used to say often. "Your mother made it difficult to know her. She had few close friends, most of whom are dead now. I suppose Remus was one."
She nodded because she knew as much about her mother now as she had as a child. Which was to say, not at all. But her mind tripped over a thought she'd locked away. "Remus?" Her hands dropped to her side like unsheathed weapons, ready to strike. "Remus Lupin?" The name meant nothing to her, but R.L did. "Thank you, Professor Snape, I have to go."
He watched her leave with a sudden flush of worry. Her strange self-appointed coursework made little sense to those who'd been watching her excel for years; McGonagall had been outright furious at finding Clione was wasting the opportunities the girl had fought so hard to get. But it was her mother, her family, built upon an ancient magic that made them something to be revered. Something to be desired. And in her mother's case, killed for. Now Snape was left watching helplessly as Clione threatened to grow into something more than her mother had the chance to be. And it was going to get her noticed.
When Lupin wasn't in his office Clione sought out Fred and George, they at least were where she thought they'd be. To say stealing Fred from practice upset Oliver was an understatement. His hands had clenched and a deep crease formed between his brows, but he gave a single solemn nod before climbing back on his broom without ever really looking at her.
"I thought you were on speaking terms?" Fred was nearly jogging to keep up with her as they made their way to Gryffindor Tower.
The attack last year had in fact forced Oliver to talk her. Short idle conversations but he'd at least acknowledged her again. "We were til he heard me and Angelina talking about you."
She'd said it so simply, so matter of fact, that he replied, "that'll do it," before he really understood what she'd just said. "Wait, you talk about me?" He stood at the bottom of the staircase looking up at her. "Bout how handsome and funny I am? About how completely in love with me you are?"
"Fred," she laughed four steps up from him. From his grin down to the way he stood with a hand propped on the banister, she knew he wasn't moving until she answered him. So she took a deep steadying breath and went down a step. "Yes," another step, "yes," and another, "and yes." She stood on the first step and found her eyes level with his for the first time since they met, he and George had shot up almost a foot that first summer.
He hadn't expected her to admit it so readily, so soon. In place of an ill-timed joke, it'd left him feeling like she cracked open his chest and scooped everything out. "Why aren't you ready?" He didn't have it in him to be embarrassed by how vulnerable he sounded, by how small his voice was. At how scared he was of her telling him she preferred him as a brother.
Her mouth opened a good couple of seconds before anything came out of it. "How honest do you want me to be?" She could see now it'd hurt him when she first told him she wasn't ready, that she allowed herself to miss the way he hid it. His answer was to reach for her hand. "When I look at you, I see the rest of my life." Her eyes dropped to their hands before she could see the way that landed in him. "And if I'm right about you," holding his hand had always felt like the world had opened up for her take, he made her bold. Her eyes rose to his widened desperate stare, "then it's important to me that you never think you were my second choice."
She waited for him to do something other than gape at her. To crack a smile or a joke, to run away, to do anything other than stare at her like that was the worst thing he'd ever heard. Wearing a face that looked like he was in pain he pulled her to him and snuck his arms around her waist gathering her against him. Clione stood with her arms held at her sides and his burning cheek against hers for several deep breaths before her timid hands settled over his shoulders. A breath went out of him as her arms came around him and he sank against her pressing his mouth to her shoulder.
"I'm gonna make fun of you so hard later," he mumbled against her feeling her laugh.
"You better."
She'd been thinking of him in terms of forever. He wasn't sure if he was ready to know that or if he was ready for the way it felt like she'd knocked the breath out of his lungs and breathed life back in all at the same time. He wasn't sure if he was ready to know he felt the same.
"Seriously? Get a room guys."
They pulled away and turned to where Ginny was pushing past them as she made her way to their dormitories. Fred stood a moment with his hands on her waist before he let her go. "I'll get the map," he said before stepping past Clione and climbing the stairs.
It'd been so urgent that she speak to Lupin, immediately, and demand to know who her father was and what her mother had been like. But there was a flutter in her chest and an itch in her palm, and knowing about her parents didn't change anything and it certainly wouldn't make her feel like this. "Fred," she called before he got to the second set of stairs. She looked up at his annoyingly sweet freckly face and sighed at how soft he made her. "I'll ask him after class next week."
He made his way back to her and looked down at her bright face, seeing none of the fiery determination she'd found him with. "You sure?" he asked softly waiting for her okay. He nodded as they stepped away from the stairs towards the direction they'd come from. "Wanna sit on a bench and do homework while I practice?"
Her mouth pursed around a grin as she took a step towards the hall that would take them back to the quidditch pitch. "But then I can't watch you show off," she replied.
"But then you can't watch me show off," he repeated like that had been his point. He grabbed her hand and spun her around making her laugh. "Gotta impress you somehow, Ayad." Her laughter followed them down the long halls as they walked together hand in hand.
