Obsidian & Bronze {Fred Weasley}

24. The undoing of Christmas 1996

Essentially, I have been a terrible cousin and an even worse friend. Coming to Hogwarts can't have been easy, especially coming from the family that we do and I couldn't get my head far enough out my own ass to realise maybe you had every right to be cautious around me. Instead of accepting that maybe you needed time, I did what I do best and pretended you didn't exist for a while. Sorry about that. I am trying to do better.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and all that fuckery. You don't have to wear it, you don't even have to accept it, but I thought you should have this anyway. It belonged to Pollux Black, our great grandfather.

Your, I hope, friend

Draco x

~~~~~

Sitting in the bottom of the envelope was a sterling silver ring with the embellishment of black vines trailing around the band. It was hanging by a dainty silver chain that I imagined Draco had attached himself to make the large ring wearable somewhere other than my finger.

I secured the chain around my neck, shivering slightly as the cool metal made contact with my exposed skin, smiling down at the band as it rested just above my sternum.

Until that moment, I had spend to majority of my life taking little scraps of family, collecting them up and gluing them together to make them my own, I had never had family in its entirety and there I stood in possession of a family heirloom, a constant reminder that I was in fact less alone than I thought.

That was the only recognisable point of that day and the days that followed that were not shrouded in confusion and silence and misheard information due the lack of communication. Essentially, from there, everything plummeted into a downward spiral no one could escape.

The rest of the day was relatively calm and unproblematic, the harsher complications saving themselves for the days to come, as we spent the majority of the day lounging around the crackling fire, chatting lazily and playing board games.

Ginny refused to engage in any game or conversation, purposely nestling herself into a book she must have read three times over before the day was through. Hermione was constantly shifty, her gaze trailing between Harry and Ginny in concern, as well as occasionally locking her eyes with mine and casting a worried glare.

I desperately refrained from hinting that I was harboring any form of secret, constantly engaging myself in busy conversation with the twins and Ron, who were of course none the wiser to the current headspace of their sister.

It was only when Harry, Ron and Geogre disappeared upstairs for a brief moment to get changed before dinner that the mood shifted once again, and from then, as they descended the stairs, it was evident that Ron was ignoring Harry, not only that but was visibly angry and uncomfortable in the presences of his best friend.

We ate dinner in broken silence, the only voices filling the gaps belonging to Bill, Tonks and Fred, with the occasional comment from George. But the awkward hostility remained, the majority of which radiating off of Ron as he tore through his food, his cheeks burning fevered scarlet whenever he caught sight of Harry.

Going to bed was no issue, everyone retreating to their designated rooms, Ron opting to sleep on the couch and neglecting any of the questions fired at him when he was asked why, and Hemrione and I moving to Percy's vacant room in an attempt to give Ginny some space.

The next morning, it was evident that more of the group had been dragged into the pained antagonism that was becoming Chritsmas 1996, as we watched George and Tonks descend the stairs in complete silence, both red faced and sheepish, an unnerving sense of humiliation radiating off both of them that rendered each of them mute.