A/N LOOK WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BANNER IM SCREAMING I'VE NEVER BEEN RANKED BEFORE AND NOW IM 536 IN FANFIC I LOVE YOU ALL <3
I woke up to a scream.
Reaching my hand under my pillow I grabbed my wand and hazily got into a defensive stance, only to hear muted sobs. With everything blurry and broken I pressed my glasses onto my face to see Hollie, drenched in sweat and shaking.
"Hey, you okay?" I said softly, lowering my wand. I reached out to touch her shoulder and she flinched away.
"M' Fine," she said, though she was sniffing, and her hands shaking as she rubbed at her eyes.
"Come here you softie, come on." I said, holding out my arms. Hollie squidged into my grasp, nestling her face against my neck, arms wound tightly around my waist as she carried on sniffling.
Cole was watching from his and Gennie's bed, his face peaking out from a moud of blankets and Gennie's arms. "Talk to her later," he mouthed with a small smile.
I nodded to him, kissing the top of my sister's head, wishing I could fix the traumatic memories in her mind.
Three hours later, I woke up to an empty bed and Cole struggling to pull on a pair of skinny jeans. "Gennie went to go get the portkey, we're going to my house today if you want." He explained.
"Where's Hollie?" I asked anxiously, pulling a random t-shirt over my head.
"She snuck out like half hour ago, looking like hell," Cole said, looking with sympathy towards the door. "But I saw her, she's with Fleur's sister."
"Good, she needs friends her own age."
"Rory...." Cole said hesitantly. "I think, well I think what happened to Mark is really messing with her head."
"Tell me something I don't know." I snapped, and pulled at my hair. "Sorry, I just... I don't know what to do. She won't talk to me about it."
"She's like me." Cole said thoughtfully. "After I set my brother on fire, I couldn't sleep properly for almost four months. The guilt was eating me inside out and I saw his burning face everytime I closed my eyes... Sometimes I still do."
"But... But she didn't kill Mark, Draco did." I spluttered, and an evil, dark thought crept into my head. "She couldn't have... No, she wouldn't even let me kill a fly last Summer...."
"Well it's not last summer anymore."
**********
Half an hour later, Cole, Gennie, Hermione and me were ready to leave for Cole's house, with an old boot as a portkey.
"You four stay there three hours-at most-and then have Elena phone me when you're on your way back
Way back." Mrs Weasley said strictly, wagging an accusing finger at us.
"We'll probably be less than that, you know how lovely my mother is." Cole said with a sarcastic smile, and with one final wave, the four of us headed out of the Burrow.
"Oh, I wonder what Sam left for me." Hermione said as the two of us followed Gennie and Cole up the hill. "I mean, I didn't know her for that long, what could she possibly want to leave me?"
"Hey, she really liked you," I said, patting Hermione's shoulder. "She loved trying to beat you at exam results."
Hermione and I both laughed, and sighed nostalgically. "I miss her," I say aloud. "She didn't deserve what she got."
"She's still out there, recovering." Cole stated, as if it was a fact. "I mean come on, once I got my hand stuck under a rock on the beach and she managed to rescue that mangled mess-she can save herself from death."
Still unconvinced, I nodded, and put my hand on the boot with everybody else. And with that aggravating pulling feeling in the bottom of my stomach, we were sent flying off in the direction of Devon, colour and sea spray and light whirling around us in a kaleidoscope.
With a shriek the four of us fell on top of each other on some sort of flower bed, small thorns pricking out our skin. "Cole, what do you think you're doing?" a heavy Bulgarian accent shouted.
"Mama!" Cole grinned, scrambling to his feet, and giving his small mother a big hug. She whacked him around the head and he winced. "What was that for?"
"For landing your girlfriend and friends into my rose bushes you идиот!" Elena snapped. She looked much older from when I last saw her, her hair almost entirely grey, her eyes tired and hair out of place.
"Sorry Mama," Cole said, and he helped Gennie up from the ground, before yanking Hermione and me to our feet. "I'll get you new flowers."
Elena rolled her eyes. "Of course you will. Now, are you all hungry?"
"We have to sort out Sam's stuff, Mama, I told you this on the phone." Cole said irritably.
"Well you can't do that on an empty stomach!" Elena snapped. "Come on inside before you get mugged!"
The three of us followed Cole and his mother up a long winding path to their home. It was a tall structure, bricks the colour of sand and a slanting roof edged with moss and ivy. It looked exhausted, but you could see how much work had been put into it, through the impeccably trimmed grass and hundreds of flower pots around the doors and windows.
Elena hurried us in through a immensely polished white door with glass stained through it, ordering us to take off our shoes. I felt as if we were in some sort of a show house, everything was spotless and in its place; from the crucifix hanging on the wall to the childhood photos of Cole and Camille which scattered the small tables throughout the hall.
Hermione and I played the role of awkward friends over a person's house for the first time, while Gennie chatted casually with Elena about flowers and Cole and medication and how she was doing.
"The girls are in the living room, don't bother them." Elena said, pointing a warning finger at Cole. "Adr-Alia has a friend over."
"Would that friend be Colin?" Cole said, a smirk on his face.
"не, Cole!" Gennie said in a warning tone in Bulgarian, looking proud of herself.
Elena raised an eyebrow. "ти имам било обучение тя?"
Cole rolled his eyes. "да, Mama."
"Good boy," Elena said in English, tapping his shoulder. "Now go, you're making your friends feel unwelcome."
Cole rolled his eyes, and extended an arm towards the door at the end of the corridor, "Ladies first." As Gennie and Hermione ducked through the door, I caught him saying to his mother in Bulgarian, "Az ще имам на пръстен по-късно!"
Elena beamed and nodded rapidly, ducking into the kitchen. I assumed it was good news. "What was that all about?" I asked Cole.
"As me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." Cole winked, and pushed the door open. "After you,"
Ducking through the polished door I found myself in a large modern living room, most of the space taken up with a large black curved sofa and a small squishy armchair facing a moderate sized tv. Bookshelves and large potraits of famous Witches and family members took up the rest of the space, leaving both a regal and cosy sense to the room.
Camille was bent over a thick sheet of parchment, glasses slid down to the end of her nose with concentration. Hermione was sat by her, pointing something out. I assumed it was a practice OWL paper, since Hermione was all equipped in doing those.
Alia and Colin were sat on the sofa together, Alia's legs stretched across Colin's lap. Her injured hand was curled up in a sling, though her free hand was shoving choclate into her boyfriend's mouth. Gennie was watching in amusement.
"Nice to see Gennie realised she doesn't live here." Alia said sarcastically. "It's been almost a week without her here-that's a new record."
"What are you both doing?" Cole said, exasperated, noticing Alia and Colin.
"We're having a 'who can fit the most tolberone into their mouth' contest. I'm winning of course." Alia said smugly. Colin nodded through a large mouthful of chocolate.
"When I said for you to relax after breaking your hand, I didn't mean try to choke Colin with chocolate." Cole said, though he was smiling.
"Eh, come on, Colin and me are relationship goals at their finest." Alia smirked, nudging Colin in the ribs with her foot as he gave her a gooey look that I usually saw in Cole and Gennie.
"Oh my god, can you both just put in a sock in it!" Camille burst out, getting to her feet. "Some of us are trying to make something with our lives!"
She stormed out of the living room with her large stack of books and parchment, looking ruffled and irritated. Alia rolled her eyes. "And to think I started all the arguments at one point. She's a nightmare, honestly!"
"You know why she's stressed, Ali," Colin said softly, after finally swallowing all the chocolate and loosely linking his fingers with Alia's. He turned to Cole. "When you were away, your father wrote a letter to her."
Cole's face darkened and I could tell this was a bad thing. "Hey," Gennie said, noticing his discomfort and linking arms with him, "You can talk to her later about bad stuff. Let's sort Sam's stuff out first."
Cole nodded, taking a deep breath. "Well then that's what we'll do! Come on, Rory, 'Mione."
After saying goodbye to Alia and Colin, we followed Cole up a twisting flight of stairs onto an airy corridor with fancy wallpaper. There were lots of doors in this house, and as we made it onto the carpeted landing, I heard the slam of a door with a sign saying 'Camille's room-KEEP OUT COLE'.
"Welcome to my abode," Cole said with a dimpled grin, pushing open a door which was mostly obscured by a poster of Smaug from The Hobbit.
Just from looking at the room with a single glance you could tell it belonged to Cole. Every single wall was covered in band posters (from Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Oasis to Michael Jackson and the Spice Girls) and a large mural of Lord of the Rings and kittens (of course).
A large Gryffindor flag and Disney mural hung over the unmade bed, which was squished into a corner, as the majority of the room space was taken up by a piano.
"Ah, here is it!" Cole said in triumph, leaping over to his bedside table, which had photos of both him and Gennie in Disney land, him and Sam in Durmstrang colours and all of us in third year. He pulled out a small golden key. "Sam liked her room locked."
"That's where my jumper went!" Gennie scowled, as she held up her own jumper with a large wolf in the centre. "You said your mum gave it to charity by mistake!"
"Sweeheart, I thought we established, I am a charity case." Cole rolled his eyes. "Let us all embark into the lioness' den."
Following Cole through yet another door (how many were in this house?) we hurried up a small flight of wooden stairs that eerily reminded me of the attic stairs in the Oswin house, and found ourselves at a small and battered wooden door that was half draped in a rainbow pride flag.
Cole bent down and slipped the key into the door, where it opened with a quiet click. Feeling apprehensive all of a sudden, I held my arms around myself for comfort.
There was an odd air in the attic room, and I think it was because we knew the inhabitant was dead. The attic window was open, the cloudless day casting light on the dusty room from lack of life coming through.
The room was both everything I knew Sam as, and every way I didn't know her. The walls were painted in creative paint splatters, one wall devoted entirely to revision help. Another wall was a collage of Sam's celebrity crushes-Angelina Jolie, Wiona Ryder, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Love-flickering fairy lights hanging low over the eeiry room.
Honestly the creepiest thing about it wasn't that Sam wasn't lying across the neatly made bed, but the fact that sticky notes covered most surfaces.
With a nostalgic smile Cole walked over to the first note, which covered a large text book. "This is for you, Hermione. Looks like each sticky note is for an item she wanted one of us to have."
He pressed the large book into Hermione's grasp and she gasped, hugging it close. "I'd-I'd wanted this book for years but couldn't afford it, how did she know?"
As it turned out, Sam had left nearly all of her books to Hermione, save a few she wanted Cole to give to Camille. Gennie was more shocked than anything to find a year's supply of wolfsbane potion for her father and a pair of hardwearing leather boots that would certainly last her years.
"Hey, I found something for you, Rory." Cole piped up, and nervously I followed him over to the corner of the room, where he was holding up two small items.
Taking them from him, I grinned when realising the small silver item was a taser, something I'd always wanted to own. Weirdly enough there was an ordinary looking pen-until I clicked the top of it.
A small knife head sprang out of it, and I almost screamed. "Wow," I spluttered. "I was not expecting that."
Figuring that Sam wanted me to have protection when I went hunting for Horcruxes I smiled to myself, both hoping and praying I wouldn't have to use them.
Cole started laughing hysterically as I slipped the items into my jacket pocket, and I turned to see him holding up a sweater with a sticky note addressed to him.
"What does it say on it?" I asked curiously, but I got no response from Cole as he carried on laughing, so I lightly tugged it out of his grip. "Oh, of course Sam would give you a sweater with that on."
The thick white jumper had the letters SBF written across it in red, smaller letters underneath saying 'Straight best friend'.
"That's brilliant." Gennie chuckled, stroking the material. "She did always hate the label of being the 'gay best friend'."
"Yeah, that term does suck, like why should you define friendship by sexuality?" I scoffed, and looked up when Cole's laughter ceased.
His facial expression was very serious now, and I felt my blood freeze when I saw he had a handgun in his lap. "She-she left me a gun."
"Did she even have a gun licence?" Hermione said, her mouth open wide in shock.
"Well, it says here-for my enemies, so I suppose she wants me to kill those death eaters with this gun." Cole said in a small voice. Silence came between the four of us. "Uh, anyway, we should probanly go now, my mother will be cooking us lunch."
He slipped the gun into his back pocket, and I noticed his hands were shaking as he did so. As the girls ascended the stairs after Cole, I hesitated, noticing a picture on the bedside table.
It was a moving photo of Sam and Jia, which must have been taken about March last year. They were both smiling and as the picture moved they kissed each other, both wrapped around each other under a rainbow flag-which must have been the one on the door.
There was an inscription on the bottom, which said: Me and my love at Cardiff's Mardi Gras, let us one day find our freedom! X
With a hard lump of emotion in my throat I put the photo down. "I really hope you're dead Sam, and I mean that in the best way possible. I just want you to have your freedom, and if that's with Jia-so be it."
I waited a moment, hoping that a sign would come from above saying Sam was alive, or that she was listening. But of course, nothing came.
Miracles didn't happen in my world, there were so such things as fairytales.
*******
We ended up returning to the Burrow almost two hours later, after Cole decided on a whim to fulfil one of Sam's tasks-get a tattoo. He ended up getting Gennie's name in Bulgarian on his wrist (which Gennie rolled her eyes at) and a small tattoo of the sun on the inside of his hand.
Of course in a split second decision I decided to also invest in two separate inkings, but I wouldn't tell anybody what would now rest on my skin for the rest of my days-they were both very private and symbolic tattoos-even if they did hurt like hell.
"We're back!" I called as the four of us trooped through the Burrow kitchen, my wrists stinging from the needles, even though I had cling film wrapped tighly around the bloody healing areas.
"You took your time," Lacey said, emerging from the living room with Maia on her hip. "What happened to your wrists?"
"Me and Rory invested in tattoos!" Cole said with a big grin.
"I still can't believe you got my name inked on you in a language I don't understand." Gennie shook her head, still looking in disbelief. "I mean I thought if we got married we could both get our wedding date done, but in English."
"And we still can, my love!" Cole said with a dimple filled grin, kissing Gennie's cheek, a small smile growing on her face.
"I'm not even going to ask what you got done, I'm too tired to yell." Lacey said. "I'm just hoping you didn't get somebody's face tattooed or I'll kill you."
"Oh darn, I suppose I'll have to erase that back tattoo of your face," I said sarcastically.
"Will you go get Hollie from upstairs? She's sulking and Gabrielle wants to play with her." Lacey said, turning her attention to talking to Hermione.
"Yeah, of course," I said, wandering up the stairs to my room, poking at the coloured designs on my wrists, pleased at what I'd plucked up the courage to get.
"Hollie," I knocked on the door lightly, but no response. "Lacey says Gabrielle wants to play with you." No response. "Hollie?"
I opened the door, to see Hollie curled up in a ball on our bed, twitching and shaking. Drawing in a breath sharply, I shut the door behind me, and knelt at her side. "Hey, Hollie. Hollie, wake up."
I shook her shoulders and her eyes burst open, hazed and confused she screamed "NO!" lurching out with a pen in hand, trying to stab me in the neck.
Grabbing Hollie's wrists in my hands I wrestled the pen out of her hand as she screamed, still trying to stab me, a weird half-awake state coming over her. Practically lying across her, I pinned her arms behind her back, shouting her name.
With a gasp, Hollie came into full consciousness, and burst into tears when she saw me above her and the pen in her hand. "No-No, I didn't want to hurt you!"
"Hey, hey, Hollie, I'm okay." I soothed her, and as her sobs became louder, I took her onto my lap, holding her close like I used to when she was tiny. "You're okay, see, we're both here and we're all okay."
"I keep seeing him die!" Hollie burst out in a whining sob as she buried her head into my jacket. "Every night, I can't sleep, his eyes are staring at me! It's all my fault!"
I recognised at once what she was on about, she was still thinking of Mark's death, all these weeks on. And heartbreakingly, I could see myself in her, when I blamed myself for Jenna and Kayley's deaths.
"No, it's not." I said fiercly. "You were there, but it was not your fault. Remember, Draco killed Mark. He saved you, and killed to do so. You're the victim in this, Hollie."
"No... No, Draco didn't kill Mark." Hollie sobbed harder and she wouldn't look me in the eye.
"Then who did?"
Hollie was silent, and with her voice barely above a whisper she said, "I did."
Everything froze.
"No, Hollie, you couldn't have, you're just a kid..."
"He was... He was saying he'd take Lacey and Maia too, and that he'd make us be a family again." Hollie cried, her lip wobbling. "And he grabbed me, and I tried to pull away--but-but I had a knife in my hand."
I felt tears come to my eyes, but I just held my little sister closer as she sobbed again, her broken voice stabbing me deep inside.
"-And I couldn't stop. I kept on stabbing, and stabbing and hurting him until Draco pulled me off him.... I'm, I'm a monster, Rory."
"No." I said firmly, wiping away her tears. "You made a mistake, and everybody in their life time makes mistakes. You can come back from this Hollie and we're not going to treat you differently because of it."
"I-I was so angry at him, for hurting mum and those people and you, I'd been dreaming about how to do it for months-I, I can't, Rory, you hate me, don't you?"
Even though I was reeling in shock from this revealation, I automatically shook my head. "I could never hate you, Hollie. I'm glad you told me."
"I'm sorry," she cried, "I didn't mean to-!"
"It's okay, everything is going to be okay now..." I hushed her, but even I didn't believe in my own words.
- --------------------
A/N Since I've now got only one exam left, I thought I'd update!! Here's the translations:
не, Cole=No, Cole
ти имам било обучение тя=You've been teaching her?
Да,Mama=Yes,Mama
And the other phrase Cole says to his mother? Well that would spoil everything if I told you ;)
What do you think Rory's tattoos are? Also, do you want any tattoos? I want a few, like the deathly hallows symbol, 5sos' tally, the feminism symbol, possibly a paper plane on my arm.