Alexandra Weasley

35

Alexandra wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or relieved when they arrived in Romania. Her brother had picked them up from the airport himself. This only seemed to draw the spotlight more to her, no matter how many times she attempted to steer the conversation away. Eventually she decided to pretend she'd fallen asleep.

Later that night, she and Charlie were the only ones awake.
"Hey, little sis." He approached her with two mugs. He held one out to her and she took it gratefully.

"Working with dragons. It must be a dream come true." She tried. He looked at her in surprise. His other siblings had warned him of her distance.

"It is. It's really fantastic."

"Do you miss Hogwarts?"

"All the time." He said. "I miss my friends, I miss the teachers- well, most of the teachers. I miss playing quidditch." Alexandra pulled a face and he laughed. "You still hate it, then?"

"I don't see the point in it. All you're doing is putting a ball through a hoop. Whilst avoiding bigger balls that want to kill you!"

"It's just a bit of fun. The muggles have their games, we have ours."

"Not to mention the fact that it's played, like, fifty feet above ground. If you fall, you could die."

"That's why being able to fly is a requirement to play quidditch." She rolled her eyes, as though they'd had this argument often.

"It's dangerous and mad!"

"It's a game, Alexandra."

"Alex." She corrected.

"Alex." He repeated. She nodded, before putting her empty mug down on the coffee table.

"Can I use your owl?"

"What for?" He asked.

"Hermione made me promise to owl her when we got here." She shrugged. "Which I'm several hours late to do."

"Yeah, sure of course." He agreed, and gave her a quill and some parchment. She sat at the table to write the letter.

Dear Hermione,
We're home, and we're alive. Just checking in like I promised. I'm using Charlie's owl so just send him back with a letter of your own when you're finished.
See you,
Alex

She folded the parchment and Charlie helped her tie it to his owl, sending it away to find Hermione.
"So who's Hermione?"

"She's my friend. She's in Gryffindor and we've bonded over how annoying Ron is."

"Surely he's not so bad?"

"He's a total arsehole."

"Hey, hey. Watch your language." He scolded and she rolled his eyes.

"It's a lot easier to avoid him now, but the twins are even worse. They sent their friend to spy on me."

"Yeah?"

"They drive me crazy."

"I heard you got them in trouble with Snape."

"I did not!" Charlie looked at Alexandra disbelievingly. "Okay, so I might have pranked them. And the prank may have made them do silly things. And Professor Snape might have given them detention for being so silly, but it wasn't my fault. They shouldn't have been so annoying."

"Right, of course." He said. Alexandra sighed. Conversation with Charlie seemed to come easy to her. It wasn't difficult to be annoyed at Ron nor the twins. Percy respected her wishes and kept silent and she tried so hard to keep away from Bill. She managed that successfully. But right then, in that moment with Charlie, she wanted to talk to him. "Do you like Hogwarts?" He cut into her train of thought. She shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Sounds like this Hermione's made an impression on you."

"She's a good friend of mine. She's the best... well, most of the time." Alexandra stopped. "I think I'm going to go to bed now."

"Sure." Charlie nodded and she walked to the room Ginny was sleeping in. Charlie had decided he'd sleep on the couch, so the girls could sleep in his room and his parents in the guest room.

Alexandra got up early the next morning. She'd barely slept, but that was normal. Charlie had to go into work, leaving her with Ginny and her parents, all of whom were yet to wake. She sat in the living room, alone in her thoughts when Charlie's owl pecked on the window. She let it in, untying Hermione's letter. She picked up some treats from on top of the cupboard and fed it to the owl. After she fed him, she shooed him out of the window to get a proper breakfast and sat down at a table opening Hermione's letter.

Dearest Alex,
I am glad to hear that you're alive and well. I'm back home with my parents too, but I can't wait to go back to Hogwarts. I hope you're having fun, or at least brooding a lot less than you did back at Hogwarts. Be sure to bring me back a souvenir, would you? Romania must be magical this time of year. Smile, have fun and write me a letter again soon. Happy holidays!
Lots of love,
Hermione.

Alexandra smiled as she finished the letter, gently folding it up. Her mother walked into the room.
"Alexandra?" Molly asked. Alexandra looked up.

"Morning." Molly walked over kissing her daughter's forehead.

"What's that you got there?"

"Letter."

"From your brothers?"

"Hermione."

"Oh, and how is she?"

"Fine."

"I want more than one worded answers out of you."

"Hermione's fine." Alexandra said, rolling her eyes. "Better?"