"Harry, dear, are you sure you're all right?" said Mrs. Weasley in a worried voice, as they walked around the unkempt patch of grass in the middle of Grimmauld Place. "You look ever so pale ... are you sure you slept this morning? You go upstairs to bed right now and you can have a couple of hours of sleep before dinner, all right?"
Harry nodded, not saying much. And right after Mrs. Weasley opened the front door, Harry bottled upstairs and into Ron's bedroom, leaving Rigel, his sister, and the rest of the Weasleys downstairs.
"Alright, what did you hear from the extendable ears?" Rigel asked straight to the point. All the Weasley's looked slightly uncomfortable now.
Ron spoke up. "We heard you lot talking about Harry's connection with You-Know-Who, and the bit about Mad-Eye sating Harry's possessed—"
Eliza paled and Rigel cursed. "Of course, Mad-Eye would've thought of that-"
"Hang on you knew!" Ginny said accusingly.
"No, and If I did I would have told you," Rigel said slightly offended. "It's just a theory everyone had but personally dad and I think that Harry and Voldemort have some sort of-"
From down below, there was the sound of a door opening and closing.
"And that'll be my cue," Rigel muttered, leaving Ron and jogging down the hallway. He met Remus at the painting and the two worked together to shut the curtain. The woman won't make any noise, but her face was bloody annoying.
Once she had been subdued, Rigel turned to look at the source of the disruption. Standing in the entrance, pink-faced from the cold, was Hermione.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were skiing?" Rigel said hugging the girl he considered a sister.
"Don't tell Ron, but skiing really isn't my thing. So I thought I might come here and spend Christmas with your family" she said with a bright smile. "Where is Harry, anyway?"
"Harry locked up in his room ever since we got back from the hospital. He hasn't really talked to anyone. I'll take you up there, he might want to talk you." Rigel said and took her hand before heading to the room and Harry, Eliza, and Ron were sharing while they stayed here.
Without even bothering to knock they entered the room and found him sitting on the bed.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
"My parents let me come here. It's not important. We need to talk" she said briskly.
"I'll leave you lot alone. Need to go do some stuff." Rigel said. He hurried down the stairs, almost tripping several times his feet landed on the first floor and Rigel ran into the kitchen to meet Mrs. Weasley.
"Just the women I need!" Rigel yelled before dragging a confused and slightly amused Mrs. Weasley to an empty room.
So, a few hours later Rigel dressed himself up in semi-formal attire robes. He knocks on Eliza's room and knocks on the door. In an instant, she opened the door. and her face showed surprise.
"What . . .?" she trails off.
"I was wondering if you would join me tonight for dinner. Just the two of us." Rigel told her with a soft smile. She looked at him with wide eyes before a wide grin broke into her face and she nodded.
"Give me ten minutes"
As Rigel stood outside her room he heard a lot of noises coming from inside, Rigel could only imagine things being thrown around, Eliza running all around the place huffing in frustration when she couldn't find what she wanted and sighing in relief when she finally discovered its location.
Ten minutes later she came up dressed in a simple white blouse and blue skirt but RIgel thought she looked rather hot
"What?" Eliza asked. "Do I really look that bad?"
Rigel shook his head. "No, it's not that. How do you look so beautiful all the time? I could stare at you forever and I'd still feel like I haven't had enough of you"
That made her blush. "I dress especially for you" she admitted, which made me feel a little proud. "So, where are we going in this special occasion?"
"It's a secret" Rigel smirked. "Close your eyes"
"Really?" she said, placing her hands on her hips.
"I am not moving until you do so" Rigel warned with a shrug. She looked at him skeptically but reluctantly agreed to close her eyes.
Rigel let his hand slip into hers and pull her forward so she follows him. They walk for a while through floors and hallways and make sure to tell Eliza where to step when we make turns and heap upstairs so she doesn't trip or anything. They walked and half jogged in silence.
"How long are you going to lead me around in the dark?" she asks at one point. "Will you tell me where you are taking me?"
"No, that ruins the surprise," Rigel said with a scoff. "But, Uhm . . . I have admit it. I got a little bit lost. . ."
"What?! In your own house?!" Eliza exclaims and Rigel had to clamp a hand over her mouth.
"I'm just kidding" he whispered. "And be quiet. We don't want to wake anybody. Come on, we're almost there."
"Wake anybody? We didn't leave the building, did we?"
"Women sometimes you ask too many questions, you know?" Rigel said with a hint of amusement.
A few more twists and turns and they arrived at their destination.
"Open your eyes," Rigel told her.
Coming up so high in the building you expect it to be dark, but it wasn't. Instead, we were illuminated with natural light surrounding us. As they walked into the clearing, the moon shines above them in the open air.
"Where are we?" Eliza asks breathlessly.
"On the roof," Rigel said as they take everything. "I found this one hot summer day when I was exploring the house. It's a nice place to go if you want to be alone." he touched her face. "Now, I want to be with you"
"Rigel I. . ." she breathed.
"This will be our secret. A place where we can go to escape reality and join together to escape to a better" he whispered, their foreheads touching each other. "We can do anything we want."
"Anything?"
"Anything" he confirmed.
"This place is ours and no one else's. It's our place, okay?" Eliza says smiling and he nodded.
"You got to yourself a deal"
"So this being our place and only ours, what should we do?" Eliza asks, taking in the beautiful scenery. "Or should I say what can we do? The look is beautiful and calming, but wouldn't it get boring with just sitting here and looking up at the sky?"
"I have better things to look at," Rigel told her seriously and took her hand. "And as for what to do, I have a pretty good idea. If only you allowed me to . . ." Rigel brings his hand up and pushes a stray piece of her hair. "Kiss you?"
Swallowing, she nods. Rigel leaned down and pressed his lips onto her own very gently as if she would crumble if he pressed too hard. Eliza closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down further into a warm embrace as they lock theirs together in unison.
"Black," Eliza growled in frustration—itching to know why Rigel had suddenly pulled apart.
"Hush, come on" he replied, taking her hand as Rigel lead her to the center of the roof. Eliza was confused for a moment as she watched him sit down, pulling her down with Rigel.
"We're sitting on the floor?"
"Lookup" Rigel replied with a laugh, ignoring her question. Eliza did as Rigel her and grinned.
"That's lots of stars," Eliza said in a low voice as if not to disturb the quietness.
"Mhm, tons of them," Rigel responded with a smile as Eliza sidled closer to me until her back was pressed against my chest.
The sky was clear and starry. Rigel was just pointing out all the constellations: Sagittarius, Cancer, Hercules, Corona Borealis, Canis Major, Orion, Cygnus, and many, many more. One by one, Rigel pointed them out to Eliza. Eliza probably knew this already, as they had been taking Astronomy for the last five years, but Rigel found she was listening far more closely to his words than professor Sinistra's.
At the end of his 'lesson', they spend a little time in silence before Eliza spoke,
"Rigel, I need to say something that I've been hiding."
Rigel raised an eyebrow "Go on."
"When I was... when I saw Mr. Weasley attacked, I wasn't watching I was-"
"The snake right?" Rigel interrupted and Eliza nodded. "But-"
"I- I felt satisfied, so delighted that Mr. Weasley was suffering," Eliza said and the stars flowed from her emerald green eyes. "I just feel so angry all the time. And... what if everything I'm been through something goes wrong with me? Does that.... does that make me a bad person?"
Elizabeth Lilian Potter." Rigel said softly. "You're not a bad person and so is your brother, you're a very good person who bad things happened to. You understand?"
Eliza nodded but she still didn't feel better.
"Besides like dad said, the world isn't split into good people and death eaters, we've both got both light and dark in us, what matters is the path we choose to act upon, that's who we really are."
Eliza smiled. "You sound so much like Dumbledore."
"I'll take that as a good sign then." Rigel grinned helping her up. "When all this is over, we'll be a proper family. You'll see."
And for a moment nothing else existed, it was just Rigel and Eliza in the world.