Seven Devils ★ T.M.R ★

Chapter Twenty-Six

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UNFORGIVABLE
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CW: Torture
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"SO YOU CAN just listen to any song? Anywhere?" Charlie asked agape.

"Yeah, you pay a couple bucks a month and then you can go ahead and listen to your heart's content," Marina said, leaning her chin forward on his shoulder.

It was an unexpectedly warm afternoon about a week after their trip to Diagon Alley. Golden sunlight streamed onto the frost-bitten countryside, a brief respite from the ever-cooling winter air. They had covered every chore they could think of tackling – from checking on the moaning ghoul in the attic who was posing as Ron, to cutting so much firewood that the callouses that had been steadily growing on Marina's hands had gone white with strain. When the afternoon had hit and Mrs Weasley was still finishing up the bread, Charlie and Marina had retreated to the field to distract themselves until it was time to go.

Charlie – who was giving Marina a piggy-back – started twisting his body side to side, using Marina's feet to kick aside the grass in front of him.

"Muggles come up with some crazy stuff," he muttered, though he sounded impressed.

"I must say, I do miss Spotify a lot," sighed Marina, watching the grass flow over her feet. "Honestly I just miss music a lot."

"We have music," Charlie protested.

Marina rolled her eyes even though he couldn't see her. "No offense, Charlie, but magical music sucks."

"You'd say that," he said accusatorily, "you didn't grow up with it, did you?"

"True," she conceded.

"What did you grow up with?" he asked, meandering through the grass. "You don't talk much about your past."

Marina was quiet a moment. "No," she said slowly. "That's by design, though."

"Sorry," said Charlie, craning his neck to look at her apologetically.

"It's alright," she said, letting her head roll to the side lazily. "I just don't like to think about it. That whole world, my childhood, my life... it's all so far away now. It feels sort of self-flagellating to think about it, considering I'll never get it back."

"You might," Charlie said quietly, "you never know. Maybe after the war, we could go figure something out."

Marina gave a non-committal hum, looking out at the countryside before them. The sun was lowering before them, and a cool breeze blew the grass around making it ripple and rustle. Charlie had fallen silent, giving her time to think. She twisted her mouth, feeling conflicted – Charlie was her friend, and she was hardly taking her own advice if she held back from opening up to her friends just because it was difficult.

"My favourite subject in high school was history," she said, not looking at him.

"Are you serious?" he said, grin audible.

"Yeah."

"You're a real nerd, you know that?"

"So I've been told," Marina smiled wryly.

"I hated history," Charlie muttered. "Bloody Binns sitting there droning on all day... I'd much rather be outside."

"A lot of people feel that way," said Marina, "I think it's because people have shite history teachers. You have to have someone that makes it come alive. After all – history is just stories... it's like talking to people from the past," she mused. "I fell in love with it."