SCREAM | ginny w.

SCREAM | four

"Thanks again, Molly," Remus said, before he hurried off past the apparation point and disappeared on the spot with a swirl. Vera felt uncomfortable already and wished she could go back into her room and lock the door.

"Well, I was just finishing up breakfast for everyone when you got here, would you mind giving a hand?" Molly asked. Vera shook her head silently and stepped inside the house. The interior was even better than the outside. It was cluttered enough that the house didn't feel foreign and cold, but in a tidy manner so that it didn't feel messy. A clock sat in the corner, each of its hands pointing to home. She followed Molly into the kitchen, where the older woman pulled out her wand and started moving several steaming dishes towards the table. "Could you be a dear and do the silverware, it's just in that drawer there." Vera moved towards the drawer and grabbed enough to set the table.

"Like this?" Vera asked quietly. Molly inspected her work and switched the fork and the knife. She smiled at Vera.

"Have a seat, dear, I'm going to go fetch everyone else," Molly patted her shoulder and beamed before she headed off towards the stairs, humming to herself. Vera pressed the folded metal object that she been in her sleeve into her palm- she could have been blind and she still would have known it was her switchblade. It was a young child's teddy, it was a locket with pictures of her parents, it was every comfort she had ever lacked in the bitter reality of the world, all folded up into a small, compact means of protection. There was the thud of footsteps on the stairs as someone ran down them and Vera froze like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. A girl, probably near Vera's age, hair just as red as Molly's had been ran down the stairs, pausing to stare back at Vera, though she was more confused than scared. A smile split across her face as she realized.

"You must be Vera, Mum said you might be here soon," the girl, presumably Molly's child asked, sitting next to Vera with ease. Vera nodded. "I'm sorry for staring, that was rude of me."

"You saw a strange girl sitting in you kitchen, I don't think it was rude," Vera replied, smiling slightly at the girl, who grinned back easily.

"I'm Ginny- well, Ginevra, but if anyone calls me that, they'll be missing a larynx," Ginny said, still grinning.

"I like you, Ginny," Vera said pleasantly, tucking her switchblade back up into her sleeve. Several sets of feet sounded on the stairs now. "How many people live here?"

"Well, my mum and dad, me, and my brother Ron right now. But Ron's got his two friends over, Harry and Hermione. Hermione'll be down in a moment. But Fred and George visit, and Bill's over for dinner a lot- thank god him and his fiancée finally got a flat together. Charlie and Percy've got rooms but they never come over," Ginny flushed. "I'm sorry, I'm really going on, aren't I?"

"It's alright," Vera replied.

A flood of people interrupted Ginny and Vera's conversation. Vera found herself being greeted, stared at, and offered smiles by every person. Molly took it upon herself to introduce Vera.

"Everyone, this is Vera, Vera, this is my husband Arthur, my son Ron, and his friends, Hermione and Harry. And you've already met Ginny," Molly beamed again. Vera managed a smile in return. She had never seen a room so full of smiles that weren't poisoned it her life. Subconsciously, Vera gripped the arm of the wooden chair she was sat in.

"Nice to meet all of you," she said, managing to keep her cool through her moment of anxiety.

"So, Vera, where are you from?" Hermione asked. Vera smiled dryly.

"London," she replied, laughing shortly, trying not to sound bitter. "But I spent most of my life in Germany, and my parents were from Russia before they came to England."

"What's Germany like?" Ron asked curiously as he piled food onto his plate.

"I don't think I can give you an accurate depiction," Ver said apologetically. "My years in Germany did not treat me well, though it was at no fault to the country."

"And what year are you going into again, Vera?" Arthur asked, changing the subject promptly when he heard the teen start to sound bitter.

"Oh, fifth year, Mr. Weasley," Vera said politely, just as grateful for the ease of the subject change as she was for the switch in topic itself. "Though I've never been formally educated."

"You've never been to school?" Hermione gasped slightly. Vera smiled slightly and shook her head.

"I went to a muggle primary school for one year before... I ceased to be in attendance," Vera smiled tightly, her eyes dark.

She was thinking about him again, and she was always angry when he crossed her thoughts. He was in Azkaban, but there was no sense of personal justice for the young witch and revenge was still always at the tip of her tongue, the end of her wand, the edge of her knife. Even just the thought of it left such a sickly sweet taste in her mouth that she had to swallow dryly and wish for nothing but to quench her thirst of it.

Breakfast passed without incident after that. Vera decided she liked the Weasleys, though she was glad that they hadn't been assigned to take care of her. Everything about them was pure culture shock to her, which she supposed was good, as it took her mind off the darker thoughts and memories. She particularly had taken a liking to Ginny and Harry, both of whom she related to more than the rest of her housemates for the next few days. It was why she liked Remus, it was why she liked anyone she had ever met, their sameness to her. Perhaps it was a self-centered, closed mindset of thinking, but Vera didn't like or trust those she could not relate too. Her whole life she had to rely on manipulation to survive, knowing what made people tick, what they thought and why they thought it, and that was just much easier when they were like her, the person she knew best.

Perhaps, Vera could find a normalcy in this life, with these friends. Perhaps she could wash the sickly sweet taste of revenge out of her mouth with another.

Only time would tell.

a/n: not me not updating for a whole month 😶 sorry gang I didn't mean to play y'all like that I really thought I updated like two weeks ago 😶😶😶😶😶 and then I took another 11 hours after I finished the chapter to get it out 🙄 talk abt a reliable author lol