CW: discussions of child abuse and stuff bleh
♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡
Hermione watched with a fond smile as Robyn hurried away after kissing Ginny's cheek.
"Since when is she so affectionate?" asked Ginny with an unsure laugh. "That was weird."
"So weird," agreed Hermione, amused.
"So...d'you reckon we should listen in? In case it's an Order meeting?"
Hermione frowned. Eavesdropping in on Order meetings was all right, she supposed, for the sake of knowing what was going on. And there hadn't been one for a while. And she knew Robyn had to have some sort of significance for the fact she'd been at the graveyard, and that Dumbledore had been so keen on hiding her away, so maybe she would be let into a meeting.
But what if it wasn't a meeting? She didn't want to intrude on a private conversation. She'd be no better than that awful Rita Skeeter.
"I don't know..."
"Oh, come on," pushed Ginny. "If it's not an Order meeting, we'll stop listening straight away. Should we get Harry and Ron?"
"No, just- wait. All right, we'll listen in first, for a second. If it sounds like anything good, then we'll get them," reasoned Hermione, still not entirely enthusiastic, but she could understand why Ginny was. They wanted news, they wanted updates.
"Okay, I'll get the Extendable Ears."
"I'll wait by the banister."
As she waited, she was given a fright as Sirius's mother's portrait started her screaming about filth and whatnot. She watched Sirius emerge from the kitchen to slam the curtain shut.
A minute or so later, Ginny reappeared with the Extendable Ears.
"Sorry, they were trying to give me a Canary Cream."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Let's get this over with."
Ginny lowered the ear so that it hovered at the bottom of the kitchen door, or as near enough as she could get it. She held up the other end of the string between the two of them.
It was fuzzy for a second, and quite difficult to hear, but there was something. Neither Muffliato nor the Imperturbable Charm had been cast.
Ginny gave an enthusiastic thumbs up which Hermione acknowledged with a nod.
"Robyn..." they heard Sirius say slowly, "did- did they...hurt you?"
...
"My father used the Cruciatus Curse on me last summer."
Ginny gasped audibly and dropped the string in shock.
Hermione felt like she was going to be sick. Like her heart dropped into her stomach. Like her mind went haywire. She was frozen, staring down at the ear on the ground.
"Shite," hissed Ginny, rushing along the hall and down the stairs to pick up the Extendable Ears before someone else could.
Tears sprung to Hermione's eyes, a rush of emotions overwhelming her as she processed what she had heard. She was angry – angry at Robyn for not telling her, but even more so, angry at her poor excuse of a father for what he had done. And she was upset – heartbroken, that Robyn had gone through such a thing. Not only the physical pain, but emotional, too. She must have been miserable.
And Hermione knew Robyn had been off last year. But she had no idea it had been because of something so heinous. She had been too busy being hurt herself.
So there was guilt, too, for not pushing past her own emotions to seek Robyn out when she should have.
She should have known there was something evil at play.
She should have—
She lurched to the stairs and descended them quickly, seeing Robyn looking confused while Ginny wrestled the Extendable Ears from Crookshanks.
Ginny ran away.
Hermione tried to catch her breath while Robyn watched after Ginny, glanced behind herself to the kitchen door, then finally looked right at her, which sent a shock of pain through Hermione's heart.
"We need to talk," was all she could get out, for now.
♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡
It wasn't a hopeful "can I talk to you?", it was a grim "we need to talk"; it didn't bode well. And Robyn was already feeling quite overwhelmed from dropping such a bombshell, and now Hermione was crying and marching up the stairs dragging Robyn with her.
Yeah, it didn't bode well.
"Hermione, what's wrong?"
Hermione did not respond. She pulled Robyn into their room and shut the door harshly.
"Did something happen?" asked Robyn, scared for the answer. She approached the girl slowly, who was leaning against the door, shaking her head and covering her eyes. "Hermione...?"
Hermione then let out a whimper and lunged forward to cry into Robyn's neck, who stumbled but caught her balance again, wrapping her arms around the girl, both bewildered and worried.
"Y-You..."
"Shh, I think- I think you need to let it out...whatever it is...it's okay..."
Hermione ignored her. "No, no. You. I can't believe you- you didn't tell me."
"What—" Robyn cut herself off, putting the pieces together (for once, she was not oblivious). That ear Ginny had picked up, distraught Hermione, 'you didn't tell me'...
Hermione had overheard her conversation with Sirius!
She gasped, "You!" and tried to pull away, but Hermione refused to let go.
"No!"
"You eavesdropped!"
"I- I didn't mean to," sobbed Hermione. "And you should've told me!"
Robyn was annoyed. Because she hadn't exactly been planning on telling Sirius – it had more or less slipped out after she followed a wrong train of thought. And now he knew. And now Hermione knew. And Ginny. And maybe the others. And she wasn't prepared for this.
"Hermione," she whined, burying her face in the older girl's shoulder feeling more overwhelmed, "I can't believe you—"
Hermione was the one to pull away. Her face was all red and tears streamed down her cheeks. "No, I can't believe you."
"Me! You would've told Dumbledore! You wanted to tell him I'd been locked in my room, never mind the torture!"
"Of course I would have told him! I already did! I want you to be okay!"
"What- what do you mean, you already did?"
Hermione shook her head as if to clear it and wiped her tears. "W-What?"
"You already did?" Robyn pushed.
"I..."
"Hermione."
"All right! You- you told me not to say anything, so I didn't."
"And?"
"And I didn't say anything...I wrote it."
"You...you wrote..."
"I wrote him a note that I was worried about you! Just- just so he would be aware. And then, after the third task, he came to me, and he told me- he told me you wouldn't be going home over the summer, for your safety. And...and you were going to go to Snowdonia, in Wales, but I told him you like the beach, all right? Because I want you to be safe, and I want you to be happy."
At the moment, all Robyn could hear was that Hermione had betrayed her. In fact, Hermione wasn't looking like her favourite human being on the planet right now.
"Well guess what? I wasn't happy—"
"Would you have been happier amongst Death Eaters?"
Robyn conveniently ignored that. "You went behind my back, you told Dumbledore. I can't believe- after you..."
"Promised?"
Robyn shook her head firmly. "That's not fair."
"Maybe not," breathed Hermione. She was still upset.
And so was Robyn. "You knew I would be taken away..."
"Of course I knew! I'm your girlfriend!"
"Yeah, of a week!" Robyn spat back. "You weren't at the time!"
"I was as good as! And I am now."
Robyn took a second to think things over quickly. She didn't know what to say.
Although, it wasn't the best time to stay silent as Hermione's face fell.
"I- I am, aren't I...?"
"What?"
"Robyn," pleaded Hermione desperately, taking her hands.
Robyn's brain caught up with the conversation. "No- yes, of course you are. I just- you told..."
"I want you to be safe," repeated Hermione, cupping her cheeks to look deep into her eyes.
"But- but Dumbledore," started Robyn shakily, "he might do something...get my father in trouble..."
"He deserves it," said Hermione with a level of conviction Robyn had never seen from her. "He deserves it."
"But—"
"No. He hurt you. And he's a Death Eater. He can rot in Azkaban for all I care—"
"He's my father, Hermione!"
"And you're his daughter and he still tortured you!"
Robyn's own tears fell for the first time. Hermione looked like she regretted her outburst immediately.
And then she pulled Robyn in for another hug, weeping, "Sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."
"I deserved it," whispered Robyn.
Did she really believe that? She wasn't so sure. But it was the only way she could justify her treatment to include the idea that her father actually cared about her. She deserved it, and he was helping her become better.
Otherwise, he just tortured her because...
Because he was evil?
No, she had done something wrong – in his eyes – so deserved to be punished for it. And he helped her realise that.
And she had misbehaved again when she was caught by Gunnar, so he had taken the steps to ensure it would not happen again by using Dylan against her. Dylan hadn't deserved it – not at all, but that's why he Obliviated it from her memory. Because he was merciful. And he was teaching her. Helping her.
And it had worked for a while. Well, until the allure of Hermione Granger pulled her in again.
But no, the important thing was – she hadn't been caught again. She had learned, because he had taught her.
She repeated this in her mind several times.
'I deserved it. He was helping me. I deserved it. He was helping me—'
"How can you say that?" cried Hermione, shaking her head in disbelief.
"He was helping me, he told me so himself."
Hermione pulled away again to look her dead in the eye, holding her by the shoulders. "No! You're- you're brainwashed. That's not what a father should do. It's not normal," she insisted, similarly to Sirius. "Do you think Mr Weasley would do that to Ginny? You think...Sirius would do it to Harry?"
"No..."
"No, of course not! Hurting your child is not helping them. Do you hear me?"
"He told me he was helping me..."
"No, no, no. Nadir was helping you when he took you to safety."
"And left me alone all day?"
"That's- the point is, he cares about you. He never hurt you, did he?"
"No!" she said quickly.
"See! You're defensive because you know it's wrong!" Hermione pointed out cleverly.
"S-Stop it," sniffled Robyn, looking down. She didn't want to hear this.
But maybe she needed to.
Hermione lifted Robyn's chin and spoke firmly, "Listen to me. You deserve better."
As much as she didn't want to acknowledge it, she knew Hermione was right. She knew it wasn't normal for a parent to use the Cruciatus Curse on their child. The train of thought she'd followed while talking to Sirius had been foolish. She hadn't been thinking properly.
And...maybe she had wanted to tell him, deep down – for relief, or comfort, whatever – and her subconscious had come up with an excuse to justify it. But she knew – she knew it wasn't normal. Sirius told her so. Hermione told her so. Her own brain told her so.
She felt the foundation of the idea that her father cared about her falling away, crumbling, turning to dust...
"You deserve better," repeated Hermione, searching Robyn's eyes for understanding.
...And it was gone.
The tears fell faster as she was truly confronted by the fact her father didn't care about her at all. And it was sad.
She was sad.
Well, the truth hurts. That's what people always say.
"I deserve better," conceded Robyn in a whisper. Her admittance was bittersweet.
Hermione let out a sigh of relief as she nodded. And then they were hugging again, because they both needed it after the emotional rollercoaster they just experienced.
The door opened. Though Robyn's eyes were shut tight, she could tell exactly who it was.
"Erm, lunch is ready soon," said Harry awkwardly.
"Just a minute," replied Hermione, voice wavering slightly.
"Okay."
The door shut again.
Robyn didn't really know what to do now. She was feeling very vulnerable and drained, yet she was expected to, what, go eat with everyone and pretend everything was normal and that not one but at least three people now knew her biggest secret?
Morgana, give her strength...
And she still felt somewhat betrayed by Hermione going behind her back, although she could understand why she did it, now that she thought about it.
But it was the simple fact that she had specifically asked Hermione not to tell Dumbledore, and Hermione had agreed, but then did it anyway.
She just wished Hermione had told her.
But Hermione wished Robyn had told her about the punishment.
They were both in the wrong? Maybe.
They could get past this? Definitely.
Robyn wasn't about to break up with Hermione after dating her officially for only a week. That would only upset both of them.
She would forgive, but she wouldn't forget. Hermione had now showed that she was capable of more or less double-crossing her, deceiving her...
Who's to say she wouldn't do it again?
"Do you want me to bring you something up?" asked Hermione quietly, pulling Robyn out of her thoughts.
She nodded into the older girl's shoulder, who then half-carried her to their shared bed and tucked her in (even though it was nowhere near bedtime). Before she left, she handed Robyn the old Walkman she had brought with her for Robyn to use to her heart's content and kissed her softly on the forehead.
Robyn watched Hermione go with the smooth tones of Stevie Wonder serenading her.
She didn't talk much for the rest of the day.
As they went to sleep that night, she cried again, feeling a sense of loss, of grief, like someone had died. In some ways, it was true. After finally admitting the truth to herself, it did feel like her father had died, in a way. Or rather, the façade she had created for him had died.
And Hermione cried too. She cried for Robyn. And Robyn was flattered, but it made her even more upset that Hermione was upset.
Ginny borrowed the Walkman to block them out. If Robyn hadn't been so busy crying, she would've found it funny.
It took a few days of sombre reflection on Robyn's part and gentle coaxing on Hermione's before she felt ready to have a proper talk with Sirius.
And talk they did.
Sirius repeated that it was not normal to be treated in such a way by a parent, but then revealed that he, too, had suffered the same way as a teen. In his case, it was his horrible mother who hurt him. Not long after, he ran away to live with the Potters.
It was an emotional conversation, and they hugged for a long while afterwards.
Her father had never hugged her...
...Which only reinforced what she had come to terms with – he didn't care about her.
It wasn't nice.
Sirius had then taken her to the room with the massive tapestry in it, showing her all the family members who had been blasted off, and explaining that things were better once he ran away. She didn't know if he was trying to influence her on purpose, or if he was just being honest.
Either way, it affected her. Because she didn't want to run away, to abandon her siblings and mother. But Sirius was telling her, not for the first time, that running away, though hard, was the best option.
It was the best option for him, she could see. But for her...?
Not that she needed to run away at the moment, considering she had been "kidnapped", but there was a difference between the two. One was willing; the other was not.
And she was not willing, but Sirius – and a few others, she supposed – wanted her to be.
Instead of addressing it directly, she pretended to be interested in the tapestry. And then she actually was interested as she spotted both her mother and her father's last names, albeit from long, long times ago.
'Neviah Rosier' and 'Blodeuwedd Selwyn'.
Well, that meant she was distantly related to the Blacks. And that meant she was distantly related to the Potters, the Weasleys, the Longbottoms, the Malfoys...
And who she was fated to marry? A Malfoy.
Lovely.
You know who she wasn't related to? Hermione.
Not that it was a competition or anything, but if it was, that would get Hermione some points.
Anyway, thinking of her family and running away made her sad again.
And she would use her Occlumency to block out the feelings, but then they would never go away, and she'd never grow from them. Plus, Occlumency blocked out happy emotions too, and she needed all the happiness she could get.
So, she didn't use it – honestly, she was surprised she hadn't had a vision yet – she just had to feel it all. And Hermione was there every second.
In fact, she hovered. Robyn liked Hermione very, very much, but she didn't like that Hermione was constantly walking on eggshells around her. Like she was at risk of breaking, like...the world's most fragile piece of glass, like she was a—
"I'm not a baby," snapped Robyn as Hermione fussed over her watering eye. She had just been punched by some sort of prank telescope she'd found outside Fred and George's room. She'd guessed one of them had dropped it and made to return it to them, but as she looked into it a tiny fist had burst out violently, hitting her in the eye.
She absently noted Kreacher shuffling by muttering about Mudbloods, only making her more agitated.
"I know you're not," said Hermione quietly, recoiling.
"Then why are you treating me like one?" pushed Robyn, irritated from the pain, Hermione's mollycoddling, and the awful old house-elf she had come to avoid during her time at Grimmauld Place.
"I- I'm sorry, I just want to look after you..."
She took a deep breath so she wouldn't snap again. 'You're not my mother,' was on the tip of her tongue, but she really wasn't trying to be confrontational. She didn't like arguing, especially not with Hermione. "Okay," she breathed instead, "okay. And I appreciate you, but it's just a small bruise—"
"It's big. And purple," retorted Hermione, brushing her thumb over it gently. "Does it hurt?"
"Not a whole lot," she said, trying not to flinch. It did hurt.
Hermione shook her head derisively, scoffing, "Those twins! So irresponsible. I'll teach them—"
"Yes, please, teach us your ways, Your Ladyship," said Fred as he appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Please bestow upon us- oh, Merlin, what's happened to your eye, Robyn?" added George, appearing barely a second later.
"Your blooming telescope, that's what!" scolded Hermione, throwing it at them.
"What she said," sighed Robyn.
The twins exchanged a look.
"Well? Aren't you going to fix it?" prompted Hermione, crossing her arms all huffily.
"You see..." started Fred, "it's a prototype..."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning..." continued George, "firstly, it looks like it's punched you a bit harder than intended."
"Secondly, we haven't quite finished the bruise removal paste," added Fred.
George nodded. "Rather, we haven't started it."
"Brilliant," deadpanned Robyn.
"Can't you just cast a healing spell?" frowned Hermione.
"Knowing them, no," said Robyn, rolling her eyes (which hurt).
"You are correct, DJ," said Fred. "But we'll get to work, ASAP! Don't want people thinking you've been fighting..."
"...Again," smirked George.
Hermione shook her head, annoyed. "You two are scoundrels. Can't you even get rid of the pain?" she pleaded, totally ignoring the fact Robyn said it didn't hurt. That, or she knew better.
"We can do that," they agreed.
Until they finished the paste, Robyn would be walking around with a black eye. Yay. It was annoying, but whatever. She had a feeling Hermione was angrier than she was.
She hid away for the rest of her time at Grimmauld Place – or, more than she already had been – not just because of her now grisly appearance, but also because more and more Order members were showing up, and, really, no one was supposed to know where she was.
Not that people knew she was "missing". Her absence wasn't being reported in the papers or anything, which she was glad about – she didn't need more attention at school.
It was true the Dark Lord knew she was with the Order, but a lot of the Order didn't know she was with the Order. If that makes sense. So, if people saw her at the headquarters, they would ask questions.
Thus, whenever others were around, she had to hide away, including from Snape. She didn't know if he even knew she was at Grimmauld Place, or if perhaps they'd told him she was being held in some other secret location.
That, she doubted. Nevertheless, he had plausible deniability that he genuinely hadn't seen her.
Because if everything had gone according to plan, the only people that would have known her location were Dumbledore, Nadir, and her mother. Neither Hermione nor Sirius had known exactly where she had been staying. And the fewer people that knew her exact whereabouts, the safer she was, or something like that.
Whatever. These were all Dumbledore's rules which she had been told not directly from him (he had been weirdly absent), but from his messengers.
She'd been pleasantly surprised when, watching from the uppermost banister, she spotted Willow's mothers coming in the door. She didn't know they were involved with the Order, but it made sense. They were both light witches who supported Dumbledore, and one of them was skilled enough to be an Auror.
She watched bitterly, reminding herself she could not officially introduce herself to them.
Instead of staying bitter, she decided to finally pay Fred an individual visit. He had information, and she wanted it.
"Fred? Can I talk to you?" she asked after knocking on his door.
George looked up from a box of Merlin knows what, pretending to be offended. "Did you forget to say, 'and George', or...?"
She shook her head, but Fred was the one who spoke from his seat at a desk. "Sorry, Georgie. Looks like she's chosen her favourite."
"Looks like she's got poor taste, then. Let's not kid ourselves; I'm the handsomest Weasley."
"I know someone who disagrees," said Fred, raising his eyebrows several times playfully.
George scoffed, "Like I said, poor taste." Then, he muttered, "Must run in the family."
"My taste's impeccable," defended Robyn, thinking of Hermione. She didn't catch his mutterings. "But right now, it just so happens that annoying gingers are not in my good books."
"Really? I thought you and Ronnie were getting along—"
"Oh, ha-ha."
"We're working on the paste, honest," insisted George with a grin as he moved to leave. "Sure you want it, though? I reckon the whole black eye thing makes you look all...devil-may-care."
"Like a real battle-axe," added Fred.
"Yes, I'm very sure. Thanks."
"Surely?"
"The surest."
George shrugged. "Can't argue with that. Cheerio."
He left.
Fred vacated his seat for Robyn and instead sat on the bed. She eyed the items on the desk with contempt, seeing Extendable Ears and the telescope...thing. Both of them had caused her grief.
"Glare at them any harder and they'll burst into flames," commented Fred.
"That's what I was hoping for, actually."
He pouted. "You wound me."
"You wound my eye," she retorted easily.
"Fair," he conceded. "So, I take it you didn't come up here to talk pranks."
"No. I want you to tell me about Dylan. I don't care how or why you talked to her, I just want to know what you know."
He nodded. "All right. Although, I don't have a whole lot to say. She's been rather tight-lipped."
"Tell me," she insisted.
"Okay. Basically, she said you and your mum were attacked out in the woods by your house and you were kidnapped. Of course, she didn't know by who, but guessed it had to do with Dumbledore. Your mum said the attackers were disguised. Was she in on it, or...? Because, I mean, you weren't really attacked...right?"
She froze, unsure of how to go about this, because she didn't know what story had been told to Sirius, Hermione, and so on, about how exactly she'd been taken from her home. Importantly, she didn't think anyone but herself, Dumbledore, and Nadir knew that her mother was the one to lead her to safety in the first place.
Ugh! With all the secrecy and half-truths, it was hard to keep up.
"No, she wasn't in on it," she decided to lie, not wanting to compromise her mother.
Fred looked surprised. "You- you were attacked?"
"It was- erm, caught off guard, more like...Anyway, did you tell Dylan it was the Order?" she asked warily.
He took a moment, then shrugged. "Well, at the time, I didn't know either. So I asked Sirius if he knew anything, and he told me to stay quiet, which was basically a confirmation. Of course, I couldn't tell her, though that didn't stop her from asking over and over again if I found anything out. She obviously wasn't very happy."
She frowned at the thought. "Obviously..."
"She also said your dad went ballistic and left. Dunno if he came back."
Her heart dropped fearfully. "Before he left...did he- did he do anything...?"
"Er, I don't think so. She said he just left."
"So...she really is fine? Mother and Lloyd as well?"
He offered a comforting smile. She appreciated that he wasn't taking this discussion lightly. "They're fine. Just worried about you."
She gave a sigh of relief. Thank Merlin and Morgana.
Crack. George appeared.
"Hope you're done plotting whatever you're plotting. Booklists have arrived."
Of course. Tomorrow was the first of September. She was excited to see her friends and siblings, but nervous to see everyone else.
George handed the booklists over. "Look at that. New Defence teacher?"
Fred hummed. "Hmm. Want to side-along, DJ?"
"To where?"
"To Ron and Harry's room."
She stood to leave, still eyeing her own required books. "You know what? I think I can make it there myself. See you."
On the way there, she bumped into an excitable Hermione. In fact, Hermione was so excited, she threw herself at Robyn.
"I'm a Prefect!" she squealed.
Robyn returned the hug happily. She was already feeling somewhat cheerful after her talk with Fred, and this just added to it. "Aw, good! Who else but you?" she grinned, pinching Hermione's cheek good-naturedly.
"Oh, stop," blushed Hermione, swatting her hand away.
"Come on, you were a shoo-in. I'd bet all my Galleons you'll be Head Girl when the time comes."
Hermione whined again, "Stop," though couldn't hold back her pleased smile.
"Sooo...will you let me use the Prefect's bathroom?" said Robyn hopefully.
Hermione gasped. "What? No way!"
"Why not?"
"That- that would be an abuse of power! Misconduct! Absolutely not!"
"I thought you liked breaking the rules?" challenged Robyn with raised brows.
"I never break the rules!"
Robyn giggled. "Oh, you do make me laugh, 'Mione, honestly. 'I never break the rules', my arse."
Hermione glanced down surreptitiously before shaking her head and clearing her throat. "Nope, no Prefect bathroom for you. Oh, look at that: me not breaking the rules."
"It's a miracle," deadpanned Robyn. Then, "Who do you think the male Prefect is?"
Hermione looked enthused again. "Oh, I just know it'll be Harry. I can't wait! Come on." She hurried towards the boys' room, pulling Robyn by the hand.
She threw the door open in a rush of excitement, revealing Ron, Harry, and the twins. Harry was holding a scarlet and gold badge.
"I knew it!" Hermione said excitedly. "Me too, Harry, me too!"
Turns out, she did not know it. The badge was Ron's, not Harry's, making Hermione's jaw drop. "Ron? But, I mean- are you sure?"
Robyn slapped her in the side to make her stop. "Hermione," she muttered with a shake of her head, quickly noticing the offended look on Ron's face.
Hermione glanced her way for a second and seemed to remember herself. She turned bright red.
"It's my name on the letter," frowned Ron.
Hermione, still, was unable to hide her bewilderment. "No, I- wow! Well done! That's- that's—"
"Unexpected," said George, nodding.
"No! Ron's- Ron's done loads of things! It's—"
"Unforeseen," supplied Fred.
Robyn rolled her eyes. She liked the twins, but they were clearly putting Ron down, and Hermione wasn't helping. And yes, she was aware siblings liked to poke fun at each other – she had two of her own (although Dylan was, like, the nicest person she knew), however, they were just being mean, and Ron looked genuinely disheartened. Harry, meanwhile, watched the whole thing silently. His expression was unreadable.
Hermione tried again. "No, it's—"
"Great, Ron. Well done," Robyn said sincerely.
He shot her a grateful smile.
And then Mrs Weasley arrived and looked so happy she could cry, promising Ron a new broom. Her day was made.
That night, they had a little party for Ron and Hermione, and Robyn met Kingsley Shacklebolt and Bill Weasley for the first time. George had claimed to be the handsomest Weasley, and she might have agreed, but then she saw Bill, and...yeah.
She and Ron spoke enthusiastically about their brooms – the new Cleansweep Eleven. Nadir and Tonks encouraged then.
Hermione talked earnestly to Lupin about house-elves.
Mrs Weasley told Bill he needed a haircut. Sirius disagreed.
Harry, Mundungus, and the twins spoke in hushed tones about Merlin knows what.
And then Moody was clunking towards her, and she tried not to flinch. Indeed, she'd been around him before, but he had yet to speak directly to her.
"Can I have a word?" he requested lowly.
She gulped. "Okay."
He didn't take her out the room, just to a quieter corner. In fact, if he had invited her to the hall, she probably would've been too spooked. And she knew he wasn't Barty Crouch Junior in disguise, but still, it was hard to differentiate the two, psychologically.
"All right?" he grunted.
"All right," she agreed.
"I want to say..." he trailed off as if he were struggling, "I...regret thoroughly what happened last year. My own...foolishness," he spat, "caused an awful lot of damage in many, many ways. In particular, to you and Potter. And...I hear that rotten Death Eater put you through the wringer. So...I'm sorry."
She was surprised, but recovered quickly. "I don't blame you." She couldn't exactly fault him for being caught off guard by Crouch when Crouch had done more or less the exact same thing to her when he took her to the graveyard.
Across the room, she made eye contact with Hermione and was flooded with feelings of comfort. Hermione watched warily, ready to intervene. This time, she wouldn't mind the girl's "babying" if it got her away from this uncomfortable conversation.
After a moment, she looked back to Moody who was shaking his head. It seemed that he didn't really know what to say, which wasn't a surprise. He didn't come across as a person who made many apologies.
"Still, I'm sorry," he repeated anyway.
"I don't blame you," she also repeated, "but I appreciate your apology."
He nodded with a sigh and raised his hip flask. She raised her own glass of Butterbeer and they both muttered, "Cheers," clinking drinks.
Then, he grunted, "Have a good year," and started towards Harry.
"Thank you," she called after him quietly. Hermione was at her side in a flash.
"What was he saying?" she asked carefully, gently touching Robyn's back, who explained briefly, not wanting to put a damper on Hermione's celebration.
And then not too long later there was a scream from somewhere upstairs. Several of the adults hurried to it, and Hermione tried to follow them, Gryffindor she was, but Robyn held her back.
Later, they found out Mrs Weasley had been awfully frightened by the Boggart in the drawing room. Her day had been very much unmade.
Robyn could understand. Boggarts were not nice.
Another thing that wasn't nice was when the scar on her hand hurt so badly she felt ill.
"Ow, you little twat," she seethed, shaking her hand painfully. She could've sworn her vision dulled for a second.
"Who, me?" said Ginny, who was still packing her school trunk. Unlike Hermione, Ginny hadn't really treated her differently after finding out about the whole torture thing. Robyn had come to like the fiery girl quite a lot the past few weeks.
Robyn took a few moments to catch her breath before responding, "No, myself."
"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness," sang Ginny.
"And being ginger is the first sign of being a massive—"
"Hermione! Robyn hurt herself!" said Ginny loudly, cutting her off with a grin.
The bathroom door slammed open and Hermione rushed out, toothbrush still in her mouth. "Whath happen?" she asked, speech hindered. She removed the toothbrush immediately.
"Ugh, nothing. Ginny's just being annoying...as usual."
Ginny smiled saccharinely sweet. "We must bring it out in each other."
Hermione ignored them both, feeling Robyn's forehead with the back of her hand. "You're hot."
"Oh?" said Ginny with an annoying look on her face.
She was perhaps as annoying as Willow, thought Robyn for a second.
Nah, not possible.
"I- I mean- you're warm," stammered Hermione, smoothing her hand over Robyn's head. "Do you feel okay?"
Conscious of Ginny's watching eyes, Robyn removed Hermione's hand, comforting though it was, and assured her, "I'm fine. Don't worry. It was just, er...cramps."
"Oh, bother. I wish I could give you paracetamol, but, you know, wizarding world," sighed Hermione.
"Mum knows a few spells—"
"No, it's okay," insisted Robyn, interrupting Ginny. She didn't want to bother Mrs Weasley for no reason. In fact, they should really be asleep right now. Busy day tomorrow.
And then Ginny was smirking mischievously. "You know...I read in 'Where Do Witches Come From?' that one way of getting rid of cramps is to have an—"
"Ginny!" shrieked Hermione.
Ginny gasped, scandalised. "You've read it too?"
"Well, yes. That stuff's in the Muggle world, and in the library. And I like learning..." she trailed off. Then, "I'm surprised your mother let you read that book!"
"Oh, she didn't. No way! I, too, peruse the library books here and there."
"What's this book, then?" asked Robyn curiously. She'd never heard of it, never mind read it.
Ginny shrugged. "Oh, it's in the section titled 'Smart People Only', that's probably why you've never read it."
"Eh, says you, Gryff—" Hermione gave her a look as if to say, really? "—ginger," she corrected.
"Sorry, Gin. That was pretty poor," admitted Hermione after she gave Robyn a nod of approval.
"Oh, whatever! It's a book about, like, sex and stuff. Oi, Hermione, you'll be sixteen soon. Who's the first person you're shagging?"
"Ginny!"
Robyn covered her face as she tried not to laugh.
"What? Hello, age of consent! And we're teenagers; we're supposed to talk about this stuff."
Hermione looked very stressed. She was bright red and flustered. "I mean- yes, but...no- I am not talking about this with you!" She stomped away, back to the bathroom.
"Ugh, so uptight," said Ginny playfully. "She could do with—"
"Goodnight!" said Robyn loudly, turning away from the annoying and apparently salacious girl.
Not that Robyn had a problem with it, but if her parents knew she was hearing this stuff, they'd be all up in arms.
"Bores!" laughed Ginny.
Without turning around, Robyn retorted, "I'm sure Luna would love to talk about that stuff with you."
That shut Ginny right up.
As much as Robyn was looking forward to reuniting with her fellow Ravenclaws, she would miss sharing with her Gryffindor girls.
♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡
A/N: ok
i didn't know if i should include the scene at the end BUT 1. it's amusing...to me anyway... and more importantly 2. it's realistic. like. i'm not trying to make it weird or sum shid but like they ARE teenagers it's normal it doesn't have to be taboo etc. idk. stay educated people
IMPORTANT!!!! guys. i have a question (unrelated to the chapter) lol. now bear with me here... ~what would u do if i changed robyn's last name~ i mean i know i can do what i want but also i don't want to annoy/confuse people i guess? if anyone cares? anyway I HAVE REASONS. AND ALSO I HAD AN EPIPHANY. I DONT WANT TO MAKE AUTHORS NOTE LONG AF SO I WILL POST IN COMMENTS-->
anyway word count: 6014
- A