Outside in the garden, over the dinner tables, the three objects Scrimgeour had given them were passed from hand to hand. Everyone exclaimed over the Deluminator and The Tales of Beedle the Bard and lamented the fact that Scrimgeour had refused to pass on the sword to Vega, but none of them could offer any suggestion as to why Dumbledore would have left Harry an old Snitch.
"Are you okay?" Fred muttered into Vega's ear as the younger female sat down on the chair next to him, and Vega nodded as she felt his hand on her knee.
"I'm alright," Vega assured him quietly. "Let's talk later tonight... how about one?" She glanced around the table. "Be careful when sneaking past your parents,"
As Mr. Weasley examined the Deluminator for the third of fourth time, Mrs. Weasley turned to look at Harry and asked tentatively, "Harry, dear, everyone's awfully hungry we didn't like to start without you... shall I serve dinner now?"
They all ate rather hurriedly and then after a hasty chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and much gulping of cake, the party broke up. Hagrid, who was invited to the wedding the following day, but was far too bulky to sleep in the overstretched Burrow, left to set up a tent for himself in a neighbouring field. Vega wanted to go help but she couldn't leave the vicinity.
"Meet us upstairs," Harry whispered to Vega and Hermione, while they helped Mrs. Weasley restore the garden to its normal state. "After everyone's gone to bed,"
Vega and Hermione managed to get through their duties quickly and joined Ron and Harry in the attic room, where Ron was examining his Deluminator, and Harry filled Hagrid's mokeskin purse, not with gold, but with those items he most prized, apparently worthless though some of them were the Marauder's Map and the shard of Sirius's enchanted mirror.
Harry pulled the string tight and slipped the purse around his neck, then sat holding the old Snitch and watching its wings flutter feebly.
"Muffiato," Hermione whispered, waving her wand in the direction of the stairs before entering the room behind Vega.
"Thought you didn't approve of that spell?" Ron said.
"Times change," Hermione replied. "Now, show us that Deluminator,"
Ron obliged at once. Holding it up in front of him, he clicked it. The solitary lamp they had lit went out at once, leaving them in total darkness.
"The thing is," Hermione whispered through the dark. "We could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder,"
There was a small click, and the ball of light from the lamp flew back to the ceiling and illuminated them all once more. Vega turned to look at the Deluminator.
"Still, it's cool," Ron responded, a little defensively. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"
"I know but, surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!" Hermione said.
"Well, there must be something else about the Deluminator," Vega pointed out. "I believe that there was a reason we were left these things. There must be something hidden in them. And those things may only manifest when we need it. He must've known about the Ministry,"
"So, you really think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will," Harry spoke up as he looked at her. "And examine everything he'd left us?"
"That has to be it," Vega replied. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that will doesn't explain..."
"... why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" Ron asked.
"Well, exactly," Hermione said, now flicking through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have left us know why... unless he thought it was obvious?"
"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" Ron said. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. Leaving Harry an old Snitch – what the hell was that about?"
"I've no idea," Hermione said. "When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!"
"Yeah, well," Harry said as he raised the Snitch in his fingers. "I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour was I?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"The Snitch I caught in my first ever Quidditch match?" Harry said. "Don't you remember?"
Hermione looked simply bemused. Ron, however, gasped, pointing frantically from Harry to the Snitch and back again, and Vega answered for him before he could choke over his own inability to speak, "It's the Snitch that you nearly swallowed,"
"Exactly," Harry replied before he pressed his mouth to the Snitch.
It did not open. He lowered the golden sphere, but then Hermione cried out, "Writing! There's writing on it, quick, look!"
Harry nearly dropped the Snitch in surprise. When Vega looked over, she saw that the brunette was quite right in her shock – Engraved upon the smooth golden surface, where seconds before there had been nothing, were five words written in the thin, slanted handwriting that Vega recognised as Dumbledore's, the writing she had seen so many times:
I open at the close.
They had barely read them when the words vanished again. Harry turned to look at them, "I open at the close.... what's that supposed to mean?" Vega, Hermione and Ron shook their heads, looking blank. "I open at the close... at the close... I open at the close..."
But no matter how often they repeated the words, with many different inflections, they were unable to wring any more meaning from them. Vega tried to think if she had heard something like that anywhere but she could not find anything to stick.
"And the sword," Ron spoke finally, when they had at last abandoned their attempts to divine meaning in the Snitch's inscription. "Why did he want Vega to have the sword?"
"Also... why didn't just tell me about it?" Vega asked, quiet and upset. "I mean to say, he had it in his office, hanging on his wall – he could've mentioned it any time during our conversations last year. If it was something that he wanted us to have, he could've passed it on,"
Vega fell silent, her mind clouded and working overtime as she tried to find the answer to a question that she had never expected. She tried to remember everything that she had spent in Dumbledore's office, and she wondered if there was something that she had missed in her long conversations with Dumbledore las year? Had Dumbledore expected her to understand?
"And as for this book," Hermione said when Vega did not speak. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard ... I've never even heard of them!" Vega looked at her in surprise.
"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" Ron said incredulously as he stared at the brunette. "You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not," Hermione said in surprise, looking at Vega's stunned silence and Ron's absolute shock of her lack of knowledge about them. "Do you two know them then?"
"Well, of course we do!" Ron said.
Harry looked up, diverted, and Vega knew why. The circumstance of Ron having read a book that Hermione had not was unprecedented. Ron, however, looked bemused by their surprise. He decided that the three of them needed to hear from him.
"Oh, come on!" Ron exclaimed. "All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's aren't they? 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune' ... 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot'... 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump'..."
"Excuse me?" Hermione asked giggling. "What was the last one?"
"Come off it!" Ron said, looking in disbelief from Harry to Hermione. "You must've heard of Babbitty Rabbitty –"
"Ron, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!" Hermione told him. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' and 'Cinderella' –"
"What's that, an illness?" Ron asked.
Vega, who had read the Muggle stories through her Muggle schooling as a young child and through her Muggle side of the family, laughed.
"So, these are children's stories?" Hermione asked, bending against over the runes.
"Yeah," Ron answered uncertainly. "I mean, just what you hear, you know, that all these old stories came from Beedle. I dunno what they're like in the original versions,"
"But I wonder why Dumbledore thought I should read them?" Hermione asked.
Something cracked downstairs.
"Probably just Charlie, now Mum's asleep, sneaking off to regrow his hair," Ron said nervously as Vega looked at the door as if waiting for it to slam open.
But Vega felt like she was sure that it was just Fred.
"All the same, we should get to bed," Hermione whispered as she motioned to Vega and the two girls stood up. "It wouldn't do to oversleep tomorrow,"
"No," Ron agreed. "A brutal quadruple murder by the bridegroom's mother might put a bit of damper on the wedding. I'll get the light,"
And he clicked the Deluminator once more as Vega and Hermione left the room. Together, the two of them creaked down the stairs towards the first floor. As they had suspected, all the rooms were quiet and lights were turned off, down to the first floor. Vega, however, bit her lower lip as they reached Ginny's bedroom door –
"Listen, 'Mione," Vega whispered. "I'm, uh, going to go and talk to Freddie... I'll come back in an hour or less – don't give me that look, it's nothing weird –"
Vega managed to brush Hermione off from her back but her real test was downstairs where she had to sneak past the living room where Mr and Mrs. Weasley were asleep. She crept past them and into the kitchen, where she snuck out of the backdoor. The fields were shrouded in the moon's light as she made her way over to the barn, knowing Fred would be there.
"You should be careful," Vega muttered as she found Fred waiting for by the open barn door. "I heard you creaking your way down, you know?"
"I tried my best," Fred replied as he threw his arms around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him the moment she reached him. "I'll be more careful the next time,"
"Come on, let's avoid getting caught," Vega said as she pulled him into the barn, tapping her wand at the door to close it without any sound. "We can't stay up for late either, the wedding..."
"Is everything okay?" Fred asked, watching the girl go ahead and sit down on a low table, running a hand through her black hair.
"What do you mean?" Vega asked.
"You look stressed," Fred told him and pressed his finger between her eyebrows. "You know this place? It's always knitted when you're upset and lost,"
"Oh," Vega muttered. "Right..." She looked up at him in the darkness, the moonlight barely penetrating into the barn. "Well, I was hoping to talk to you about it..."
For a moment, it was silent between the two of them as Vega waited Fred to pick it up but she watched as her boyfriend continued to stand in front of her, lost in his own thoughts and almost subconsciously rubbing her legs in his own rhythm.
"Fred..." Vega began.
"Is it about breaking up?" Fred asked, interjecting and Vega looked up at him in surprise, only to find his intense eyes looking down at her. She looked away.
"In a way..." Vega whispered. "It's not – I just don't think I'm worthy of your love in the manner that not only it will paint you in a wrong way but also put you in danger. You saw the way the Death Eaters are after me... and especially Bellatrix Lestrange. She wants to kill me, bring me to Voldemort and all others want to one-up her by killing me. And as long as Voldemort is around, I cannot continue to bring people around me into such danger,"
"Listen to me," Fred told her. "Listen... look at me," He moved her head over to meet eyes with her. "Vega... I've been in love with you for a long time now. You can't... expect me to just give it all up like this. Not when you can't even find resolution in yourself. You think I had no idea what I was putting myself into? I knew, and I still fell in love with you,"
"Fred..." Vega started again but Fred shook his head.
"How can I find the will to move on from you when you're still not sure of it yourself?" Fred asked, his hands squeezing her shoulders. "I love you, for a long time now, and... I want to marry you, one day, in the future if you want to marry me, too,"
Vega stared at him, her body going colder than ever at the words expelling from his lips.
"I'm in this relationship with the intention of living the rest of my life with you and only you, Vega," Fred told er. "I can't imagine kissing, loving or marrying any other person. If it isn't you, then it's no one. I know I sound stupid and stubborn but I'd rather be alone than with someone who isn't you,"
"You're in danger with me, Fred," Vega breathed, her eyes turning glossy. "There's a war coming – what I don't make it? You can't hold onto it like this –"
"Do you think I don't know?" Fred asked. "I know... I know everything... but if it is my last few years, months or even days, I'd rather die knowing that you love me, and that you knew that I loved you. I'm trying my best to be careful for you. Please return this sentiment,"
Silence descended upon them and Vega felt her tears drip down her cheeks but she was unable to say anything as Fred pulling her into a hug. Her head rested against his abdomen and Vega clutched at his shirt, squeezing her eyes close to ease her heart.
⚡️
The following morning was rather hectic for every single occupant of the Burrow, and Vega had been an early-riser as ever to help lay out clothes for Fleur, and then head down to get the breakfast out of the way for everyone since it would take too much time if only Mrs. Weasley did, especially since the older female was continuously looking for any sign of Percy's arrival.
But when the older male did not arrive, Vega was not surprised to see Mrs. Weasley leave the kitchen, trying to play off the water in her eyes as getting some spices in her eyes. Vega tried not to make anything any more burdensome on the woman.
"Hey, Vega," Ron said as he arrived downstairs. "Can you go wake your boyfriend up and tell him to change? I don't want him to start smooching me,"
"I would hope that my boyfriend can differentiate my lips from others," Vega responded, and was internally satisfied as Ron looked sick at the thought. "I'll go,"
Vega went upstairs with some breakfast for Fred, and stopping by the laundry where Fred's robes for the wedding were hanging, pressed and all. She glanced around to make sure that all the other boys were downstairs as she reached the attic room.
Fred was still passed out on his mattress on the floor of Ron's bedroom when Vega stepped inside, and she smiled weakly to herself as she set down the tray of food on the desk and laid out the robes on Ron's bed, correcting the covers with her wand.
"Hey, Freddie," Vega muttered, kneeling down next to his mattress and reaching over to brush her fingers through his messy hair. "Come on, it's getting late, it's time for you to wake up,"
"Vega?" Fred asked, and Vega watched as he tried to look at her but his yawn squeezed his eyes shut. She shook her head at him but he pulled her over to him.
"I knew you were going to do that," Vega said and Fred chuckled, wrapping his arms around her back, looking right up at her as she laid on him. "We can't stay in bed,"
"It's still hours before the wedding," Fred replied. "I love you,"
Vega blushed at the suddenness and mumbled out, "I love you, too. I'll love you even more if you get up, taking a shower, have the breakfast I brought you and change into those robes there,"
"What colour dress are you wearing?" Fred asked.
"Red as always," Vega answered as she got up. "Come on, you have to get dressed before the guests start to arrive. I'm going to go work on Harry and I's disguises,"
"I forgot about that," Fred muttered. "Don't tell me you're going to act as a distant cousin, too? Just change your hair to blonde and you'll be Fleur's little sister,"
"Well, I am supposed to act as one of Fleur's friends," Vega muttered, shaking her hair until they turned to blonde and her eyes green. "How do I look?"
"I might not be able to hold back if I began," Fred warned, and Vega smiled. "Thanks for the breakfast... I'll see you in a minute,"
By three o'clock, Vega, Harry, Ron, Fred and George were standing outside the great white marquee in the orchard, awaiting the arrival of the wedding guests. Mrs. Weasley had asked Vega to stay with the boys to make sure that they did their work well.
Vega had used some of Mad-Eye's Polyjuice Potion and fed it to Harry to change him into a redheaded Muggle boy from the local village, Ottery St. Catchpole, from whom Fred and George had stolen hairs using a Summoning Charm.
Harry was to act like he was called 'Barny' and trust to the great number of Weasley relatives to camouflage him.
On the other hand, Vega had kept her hair and eyes blonde and green, making her features sharper than usual and dressed in a red , now named Madeleine Beaumont.
Hermione, Ginny, and Gabrielle were helping Fleur dress up, something Vega envied.
But Vega, Fred, George, Ron and Harry were clutching seating plans, so that they could help show people to the right seats and not jumbled up.
A host of white-robed waiters had arrived an hour earlier, along with a golden jacketed band, and all of these wizards were currently sitting a short distance away under a tree. Vega could see a blue haze of pipe smoke issuing from the spot.
Behind Vega, the entrance to the marquee revealed rows and rows of fragile golden chairs set on either side of a long purple carpet.
The supporting poles were entwined with white and gold flowers. Fred and George had fastened an enormous bunch of golden balloons – on Vega's agreement – over the exact point where Bill and Fleur would shortly become husband and wife.
"When I get married," Fred spoke up, tugging at the collar of his robes. "I won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I'll put a full Body Bird Curse on Mum until it's all over,"
"Don't be like that," Vega muttered, turning pink under the sunlight as she swatted his hand away from his collar and fixing it for him. "Weddings are hectic,"
"She wasn't too bad this morning, considering," George commented. "Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him. Oh blimey, brace yourselves, here they come, look,"
Brightly coloured figures were appearing, one by one out of nowhere at the distant boundary of the yard. Within minutes a procession had formed, which began to snake its way up through the garden toward the marquee. Exotic flowers and bewitched birds fluttered on the witches' hats, while precious gems glittered from many of the wizards' cravats; a hum of excited chatter grew louder and louder, drowning the sound of the bees as the crowd approached the tent.
"Excellent, I think I see a few Veela cousins," George said, craning his neck for a better look. "They'll need help understanding our English customs, I'll look after them..."
George hurried off to meet with a pair of pretty French girls, who giggled at the French statements Vega had taught the boy, and allowed him to escort them inside.
"Well, I'll see you in a bit," Fred said, mostly to Vega before going ahead to deal with the middle-aged witches.
Ron took charge of Mr Weasley's old Ministry colleague, Perkins, while a rather deaf old couple fell to Harry's lot. Vega shook her head at Harry's attempts to get them inside and took the charge instead, taking them inside to settle them in their seats.
When Vega finally made her way back outside, she found a familiar voice greeting Harry, "Wotcher," and she hurried forward out the marquee to find Dora and Lupin at the front of the queue. Dora, too, had turned blonde for the occasion.
"Dora," Vega whispered. "Good to see you!"
"Good to see you, too, Maddy!" Dora replied, taking the change in a stride as she hugged her younger cousin. "Arthur told us you were blonde and Harry was the one with the curly hair. Sorry about last night," she added in a whisper, as Harry led them up the aisle. "The Ministry's being very anti-werewolf at the moment and we thought our presence might not do you any favours,"
"It's fine, I understand," Harry replied, speaking more to Lupin than Dora.
Lupin gave him a swift smile, but as they turned away, Vega saw Lupin's face fall again into lines of misery. She did not understand it entirely still, but there was no time to dwell on the matter: Hagrid was causing a certain amount of disruption. Having misunderstood Fred's directions, he had sat himself, not upon the magically enlarged and reinforced seat set aside for him in the back row, but on five seats that now resembled a large pile of golden matchsticks.
"Oh, dear, Fred should be careful," Vega breathed as she met with Harry.
"Well, he would if he put his eyes off of you for a second," Harry responded, trying to pass the time by annoying the female and Vega elbowed him, turning away from him and heading to the entrance.
⚡️