Cafuné (Portuguese); tenderly running your fingers through someone's hair in a loving way * I didn't actually look this one up very much so it might be fake but I'm putting it anyways because I'm lazy, so let's just pretend this is real :D*
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Ginny
January 24th 1998
Before hogwarts Ginnys favorite color was emerald green. The moment she'd stepped in those doors it became abruptly clear by her peers green was not a color she was supposed to enjoy. When she was small her mother would take them to the hospital ward when she visited Alice and Frank Longbottom. They weren't great friends before the incident but Molly had confessed to Ginny that Alice had in fact been one of her best friends back in school. They had a falling out during the war, her mother felt guilty.
Ginny didn't see Alice nor Frank much. The twins would set up all kinds of games in the forest behind the building. They'd sit on a knitted quilt for hours whilst the sun blared gently though the trees above. Emerald green took her back to that forest. Times were simpler then, in her mind at least.
Now all green was associated with was slytherin and weirdly the light for the killing curse she dreaded ever having to meet.
Though, maybe that's why she liked the forest surrounding the cottage. It looked nearly identical to the one around the hospital, so identical sometimes when she'd lay there she'd forget that she was at the cottage at all.
In her mind, she was somewhere simple.
Amora understood the best she could, Ginny could tell it felt odd to her most likely due to her lack of well, anything as a child. Let alone simple times.
Now, as the sun blared through the trees she was not alone. Amora stood with her, the dueled with wandless magic. Ginny had mostly gotten the hand of it, putting aside a few minor slip-ups. Amora tried to control her magic, Ginny could visibly see her frustration. Until Ginnys arm got better they decided on using small dark hexes, not ones death eaters would use per say but hex's that can still physically hurt your opponent.
Amora threw a paralyzing hex, Ginny put up a shield immediately. It protected her but shattered from the force in which the hex hit. Ginny quickly cast a hex she'd read about months ago, it caused horrid migraines sometimes even causing the nose to fracture. The lion watches as she saw the snakes eyes flash as she threw one hand in the air, suddenly a vibrant blue light cast around her almost mimicking a waterfall. She would've cast another hex, though she knew better. This was a charm Amora had read to her about, though powerful it's countercurse was complex on the mind but if known how to counter it even a mere five year old could preform it. That was the charms only noticeable flaw.
She worked out how the countercurse was preformed in her head, she tried to think of it like quidditch. In a matter of seconds she had it.
Once cast, the shield fell, making a crease in the ground and it disappeared into the earth below. Amora smirked, casting a hex Ginny wasn't familiar with. Ginny quickly cast her own hex, a hex with a bright white light that made small light cuts all over the body. Their distracting but somewhat easy to heal if you have time. The brother of the curse is much more deadly, not quite as fast as a sectumsempra but painful still. It made small cuts still, but riddled with poison. Deep cuts that kept you alive until they've bled you dry entirely.
Amoras hex cast a pink light, crashing violently against hers. Ginny found that lately Amoras magic was much more fierce than at hogwarts. Without a wand dueling required much more concentration. She put force into her hex, she felt it pull through Amoras light, slowly gaining power against her. Amoras frustration was apparent, she had once told her that her magic never did was she wanted it to lately, it had a mind of its own. Amora put another hand up, squinting against the light. A branch behind her fell, leafs falling down. They evaporated immediately in the light.
Ginny put more concentration into her hex. Finally, she watched as the pink light disappeared into the white. She watched Amora for a reaction.
She stared blankly at the branch on the ground as small gashes sprinkled her beautiful, beautiful face. Her eyes fogged over with realization, a smile spread across her face.
The snakes eyes met the lion, no longer venomous, her eyes. They appeared proud, bright.
"Oh come on your not even slightly phased by the gashes?"
She asked, Amora rolled her eyes though her smile clung to her face.
"I can thank my mother for that."
She jogged over and threw her arms around her.
"Are you hugging be because I beat you or because your magic is out of control?"
Ginny asked softly, inhaling the sent of the apple shampoo Amora always used.
"Both."
"You're getting blood on me."
Amora pulled away. She sat on the soil and leaned her head a large trunk of one of the trees.
"Accio murlap essence."
In seconds a large bottle came flying at a dangerously fast speed towards Amoras hand. She caught it and twirled it once before tossing it to Ginny, who rolled her eyes.
"Show off."
Ginny said as she sat down in front of her. Amora didn't respond, she only smirked. They talked quietly for a while as Ginny spread murlap essence over every wound. Their conversation trailed back to hogwarts, eventually leading to Luna.
"—and she used to go into the forest, feeding these things called thestrals. I always sort of wanted to know what they'd looked like at the very least-"
Amora gave a dry laugh, turning her head from the forest.
"They're not very pretty if I'm being one hundred percent honest with you."
Ginny popped the cork back into the bottle, setting it on the soil. She leaned back, sitting next to Amora leaning her head on the trunk. She couldn't see Amora from where she sat, though she could still feel Amoras breathing as she began overthinking her silence.
"Who died?"
Amora sighed. Her pinky slightly grazed Ginnys.
"My aunt."
Ginny held her hand.
"How?"
Amora waited for many moments, staring off into the abyss of the forest. She blinked once more before giving up, ranting reluctantly.
"My aunt got disowned when she was sixteen. Her parents hated the fact that she refused to break up with this muggle she'd been dating for a while, so they kicked her out. She didn't have much money, so she sort of built this hole underground. It was quite nice though, lots of things from old muggle pawn shops but nice nonetheless. It had loads of small skylights and she even managed to build a wall strong enough to hold floral wallpaper. Anyways, my aunt, she was... strange to say the least. Remember professor tralany?"
"Yeah, but of a crazy hag wasn't she?"
Amora laughed silently before continuing.
"She reminds me of my aunt a bit. My aunt practiced a different type of magic. Her magic wasn't as strong as she'd liked, so, she practiced actual earth magic. Mental blood rituals and all that shit. Whenever my mother was away Theo and I would sneak off on our brooms to her —house— and just hangout with her. She sort of gave me a taste of what it felt like to be normal. She'd make us pie and knit us horrid quilts... though one day when I was fourteen, these people broke in. Apparently she'd harbored loads of magical artifacts these wizards wanted, did loads of evil things. My aunt swore she just wanted to get them out of evil hands but I guess we'll never know, will we?"
Amora shook her head, almost like trying to recall the events.
"We heard this huge crash telling us they'd gotten past her protective charms, my aunt took a blade and sort of poked herself. She did a —spell— that cloaked Theo and I."
Amora swallowed, looking down at her hand in Ginnys.
"I held my hand over Theos mouth and I watched her die. Then of course about ten death eaters plus Sirius."
She blinked before her face changed, she'd slipped on one of her masks.
Prick.
Ginny watched as Amora stood up, brushed herself off, and turned to her with a half smile.
"They're healed."
Was the last thing she'd said before walking off to the cottage.
Ginny wasn't taking that, she got up and spun her around by her shoulder.
"Wait just- wait."
Amora smiled lightly pretending she hadn't just confessed she'd watched nearly twenty people die.
Amora
The deaths didn't get to her very much anymore, all she had to do was not think about them. But here she was, with a girl telling her she shouldn't run.
"I won't let you bottle it up."
She had said.
Prat.
Why'd she have to be sensible only at the worst times? She stared at the lake, then sunset cascading down the water causing it to almost glisten. Ginny stayed directly by her side, as she had a habit of doing. The light breeze caused a scarlet toned stain to show on her nose, Ginnys as well. The silence wasn't comfortable, but needed. She briefly caught a glimpse of the gryffindors hair flying in the wind. She stood for a moment before she'd felt it.
When she was small she'd taught herself to never cry. She didn't flinch around anybody, she barely even moved. Now she felt it build up in her throat, her nose began to sting as tears clouded her vision. The last time she'd cried had ironically been with Ginny, it almost felt like a dream then. She almost didn't even feel it. She began to feel every bit of it as empty tears ran down her face.
She didn't imagine it looked very pretty. Ginny grasped her hand tighter when she saw the tears. She didn't talk, she just wrapped her other arm around Amoras shoulder, allowing her to sob into her shoulder.
The bottle wasn't open.
Sometimes she thought it never would.
Occasionally it'd crack, the lid twisting and popping open briefly before closing itself back up again. No, this was a twist in the lid. She'd almost felt embarrassed, of course she couldn't break the bottle open completely, of course she couldn't.
She felt the magic build up, swimming through her veins. She let go, making her tears disappear with a small wandless wordless charm. She almost rudely shoved the magic down.
No, I'm okay now, can't you see that?
She childishly scolded herself.
Don't break down, I'm okay.
She gave Ginny a tiny smile and walked back to the cottage, this time the other followed cheerfully. Amora smiled along as Ginny began to rant. She usually loved her little rants though now she couldn't bring herself to listen. She forced herself to stay quiet as she looked down at her wrist she'd just been tracing circles on. Instead of her veins running blue, they appeared the darkest shade of black she'd ever seen, if that was even possible.
She looked away, smiling at something Ginny had said and plainly pulled down her sleeve. She shook her head and forced it out of her mind as Ginny pushed the door open.
Tonks was summoning something wandlessly from the stove, Ginny had walked over to see what it was. She peered over Tonks' shoulder.
"What's that?"
Amora walked over, mirroring Ginnys stance.
"Is that dough and— cheese?"
She asked, staring at the food like it had two heads.
"What's the red stuff?"
Ginny continued. Tonks laughed, carrying the tray to the counter. They summoned a knife from a drawer near the fridge.
"Accio knife."
They both jumped out of the way as the sharp blade flew into their hand. They smiled slyly as they sliced into it.
Tonks finished cutting it into at least eight different slices and carried it to the table.
"It's pizza! My dad used to make it every Friday when I was a kid!"
"Pete - zah?"
Ginny repeated slowly as she sat down.
"Remus!" Remus' head snapped up from the newspaper slightly crumpled in his hand "You've had pizza before right?"
Remus laughed ever so slightly.
"They haven't? My mums a muggle of course I have."
"See-" Tonks slammed her hand on the table lightly "Remus knows!"
Amora sat down next to Ginny, who had already taken a few bites.
"It's greasy-"
Ginny laughed slightly as she ate it.
"Is it good?"
Amora whispered.
"It's not going to bite you."
"You don't know that."
She caught Ginny rolling her eyes as Amora eyed the pizza.
"Accio fork."
Remus' (who had been walking over to the table) head threw back as the fork nearly took his eye out. She gave him a slightly apologetic look than began cutting it up into small pieces.
They all ate in silence for a while (minus Amora who was poking at it reluctantly), until Tonks spoke.
"You said Astoria was like a sister to you, right?"
They said to Amora, leaning back in their chair.
"Yeah?"
"Did you ever sense she may not have been your friend?"
Remus finished, Tonks glared at him.
"Remus!"
She whisper-yelled to the scared man beside her.
"It's a full moon tomorrow Tonks give me a break."
Amora set her fork down.
"It's okay Tonks, no. I didn't."
"And we're sure she wasn't being threatened into betraying you?"
Ginny asked from beside her, setting down her can of "root-beer".
Amora sighed in frustration.
"She wouldn't have been threatened, I looked into her eyes, she really believed she was loyal to vol- you-know-who. I've already looked into curses but I'm not sure if any of them can change someone's entire belief system."
Tonks set their second slice of pizza down.
"I'm not quite sure if I can help you there darling, in training we did research on hex's but I have a horrid memory. One particular case I'd read about really stuck with me though, it's an unforgivable but imperio had once been used on a man with a punctured lung, he was on the brink of death but all the caster had to say was 'heal' and he was a healthy man again."
"Imperio."
Ginny repeated under her breath, Amora raised an eyebrow at her.
"If imperio can control the mind... the imperio can-"
"-change someone's entire belief system."
Amora finished under her breath. She looked up from her plate.
"Astoria was hit by the imperious curse."
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A/N: OKAY IK THIS CHAPTER IS CRINGE BUT IT HAD TO HAPPEN OKAY 😭 (also I'm sorry about the names if you couldn't tell I have no idea how to spell half of the professors names—)
Uhm I hope you enjoyed the girls being dramatic over pizza.
Okay kind of off topic but I want you guys to let me know if I ever misgender Tonks so I can change it, I'm re-reading DH rn and they keep being mentioned as 'she' so just let me know if I make that mistake. :-)
- Mars