-Supercut-
-in my head i do everything right-
-when you call i forgive and not fight-
After Harry was cleared of all charges, everyone at Grimuald Place decided to celebrate. That afternoon, Molly had made an amazing midday feast, to which every person had at least three servings.
Bria had baked a "cleared of charges" cake, a simple two-layer vanilla cake with buttercream frosting in between, and decorated with white frosting and green lettering.
She had very few ingredients to work with, as no one at Grimuald Place had baked in years. And of course, being the family of the Scared Twenty-Eight, the only food coloring was green.
Still, despite the incorrect coloring, everyone had gone back for seconds, much to Bria's pleasure. Everyone had gone to bed well-fed, and were all ready for a good night's rest.
Except for Bria. And Harry.
That night, Bria couldn't sleep and Harry had a nightmare again. It wasn't long before Bria joined him in bed.
By the next night, Bria had skipped all pretenses and went straight to Harry's room once everyone had gone to sleep.
They slept together the next night.
And the next.
A week had passed of their impromptu sleepovers, when it was finally time for their Hogwarts letters to arrive. Hermione and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, and the twins were locked in their room testing out some more products, so Bria, Ron, and Harry decide to just get their letters together.
The day they receive their letters is Bria's favorite time of year. It is a reminder that she doesn't have to remain at the bakery for much longer. From the time they receive their letters, Bria starts a mental countdown until she can leave her mother behind for the school year.
Once they retrieve their letters from downstairs, they rush back into Ron and Harry's room to tear open their letters. As if right on schedule, the moment they open their letters Fred and George walk in.
"Bria, do you have the other designs for us?" Fred asks her.
Bria doesn't answer Fred for a moment, choosing to open the letter just to find the usual list of their required textbooks. "Yes, it's in my room again. Give me a second," she says, putting down her letter and running back into her room to get her sketchbook.
When she walks back into the bedroom, she sees Ron standing there with his mouth wide open, and shock written all over his face.
"What's up with you, Ron?" Fred asks.
Ron still did not answer.
"What's the matter?" George asks impatiently, moving around Ron to look over his shoulder at the parchment.
George's mouth fell open too.
"Prefect?" he asks, staring incredulously at the letter. "Prefect?"
Fred leaps forward, seizing the envelope in Ron's other hand, and turns it upside down. Something scarlet and gold fell out of the letter as well. Harry picks it up, turning it over in his hands with a strange look on his face. Bria thinks it might be a look of jealousy.
"No way," George says in a hushed voice.
"There's been a mistake," Fred says, snatching the letter out of Ron's grasp and holding it up to the light as though checking for a watermark. "No one in their right mind would make Ron a prefect . . ."
"Prefect . . . ickle Ronnie the prefect . . ." George teases.
The door swings wide open, Hermione standing on the tore side of it. Her Hogwarts letter was in her hand as well, and she had a crazy and dazed look on her face. She looks at the badge in Harry's hand and shrieks.
"I knew it!" she says excitedly, brandishing her letter. "Me too, Harry, me too!"
"No," Harry says quickly, pushing the badge back into Ron's hand. "It's Ron, not me."
"It — what?"
"Ron's prefect, not me."
"Ron?" Hermione says, her jaw dropping. "But . . . are you sure? I mean —"
She turns red as Ron looked around at her with a defiant expression on his face.
"It's my name on the letter."
"I... well... wow! Well done, Ron! That's really —"
"Unexpected," George says, nodding.
"No," Hermione says, blushing harder than ever, "no, it's not . . . Ron's done loads of . . . he's really . . ."
The door behind her opens a little wider and Mrs. Weasley backs into the room carrying a pile of freshly laundered robes. Bria quickly flips the sketchbook to a different page, forgetting that the original plan was for her to show the twins her designs. Ron being made Prefect had distracted her from showing the designs.
"Ginny said the booklists had come at last," Mrs. Weasley says, glancing around at all the envelopes as she made her way over to the bed and started sorting the laundry between Harry and Ron's clothes. "I think you may need some new robes, Ron. You have grown over five inches since last year, and Charlie's no longer fits you."
"You should get him scarlet and gold robes to match his Prefect badge," Fred says.
"Match his what?" Mrs. Weasley asks absently, rolling up a pair of maroon socks and placing them on Ron's pile.
"His badge. His lovely shiny new prefect's badge," George says sarcastically.
Mrs. Weasley stops what she's doing, replaying the words in her head.
"His . . . but . . . Ron, you're not . . . ?"
Ron holds up his badge.
Mrs. Weasley lets out a shriek just like Hermione's.
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That's everyone in the family!"
"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbors?" George says indignantly, as his mother pushes him aside and flings her arms around her youngest son.
"Wait until your father hears! Ron, I'm so proud of you, what wonderful news, you could end up Head Boy just like Bill and Percy, it's the first step! Oh, what a thing to happen in the middle of all this worry, I'm just thrilled, oh Ronnie —"
Fred and George were both making loud retching noises behind her back but Mrs. Weasley did not notice; arms tight around Ron's neck, she was kissing him all over his face, which had turned a brighter scarlet than the badge itself.
"When Bill and Percy became Prefects your father and I gave them a gift! We could get you a new cauldron, Charlie's old one's rusting through, or a new rat, you always liked Scabbers —"
"Mum," Ron asks hopefully, "can I have a new broom?"
Mrs. Weasley's face falls slightly; broomsticks were expensive.
"Not a really good one!" Ron hastens to add. "Just — just a new one for a change . . ."
Mrs. Weasley hesitates, then smiles.
"Of course you can. . . . Well, I'd better get going if I've got a broom to buy too. I'll see you all later. . . . Little Ronnie, a prefect! And don't forget to pack your trunks. . . . A prefect . . . Oh, I'm all of a dither!"
She gives Ron yet another kiss on the cheek, sniffs loudly, and bustles from the room.
Fred and George exchange looks.
"You don't mind if we don't kiss you, do you, Ron?" Fred asks in a falsely anxious voice.
"We could curtsy, if you like," George says.
"Oh, shut up."
"Or what?" Fred asks, an evil grin spreading across his face. "Going to put us in detention?"
"I'd love to see him try," George sniggers.
"He very much could now that he has superiority over you two!" Hermione says, rushing to Ron's defense.
"Oh, I'm so scared," Fred says, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah, Fred, we need to look out for ourselves or else Ronnikins is going to give us the boot!"
The twins laugh for a good minute, and Bria can tell them their presence is getting on everyone's nerves. Hermione is mad because she is always offended by those two, Ron is embarrassed for not seeming "cool" like Fred and George, and Harry has been mysteriously quiet this whole time.
Bria walks over to the twins, flips the sketchbook to the right page, and slams the sketchbook in George's chest. "Here are the sketches. Go to your rooms and review them, and don't even think about looking at the other pages."
"Why, what's on them?" Fred asks curiously.
Bria sends them a look telling them to get out of there, and they glance at the others in the room and decide that it might be beneficial for them to leave.
They high-tail it out of the bedroom, and Braid is just grateful that she was able to kick them out without having too many questions about the other pages.
They don't need to know that most of the pages are filled with drawings of Harry.
"Those two! Don't pay any attention to them, Ron, they're only jealous!" Hermione says furiously.
"I don't think they are," Ron says doubtfully, looking up at the ceiling. "They've always said only prats become prefects. . . . Still," he adds on a happier note, "they've never had new brooms! I wish I could go with Mum and choose. . . . She'll never be able to afford a Nimbus, but there's the new Cleansweep out, that'd be great. . . . Yeah, I think I'll go and tell her I like the Cleansweep, just so she knows . . ."
He dashes from the room, leaving Bria, Harry, and Hermione alone.
Harry turns to his bed, picks up the pile of clean robes Mrs. Weasley had laid upon it, and crosses the room to his trunk.
"Harry?" Hermione says tentatively.
"Well done," Harry says so heartily it did not sound like his voice at all, and still does not look at her. "Brilliant. Prefect. Great."
"Thanks," Hermione says tentatively. She brushes invisible lint off of her pants, and clears her throat. "Harry, is it okay if I borrow Hedwig? I just want to tell my parents..."
"Yeah, go ahead," he says bitterly.
Hermione quietly walks out of the room, almost as if making any sound would set Harry off into a rampage.
Bria sits down on the foot of Ron's bed, facing Harry. She understands why Harry is angry but also thinks it's unfair to act this way in front of Ron.
Bria is no stranger to disappointment or favoritism, but that doesn't mean one should be angry about it.
Harry refuses to look at her.
"I know you're disappointed, and I know you're confused, but you need to be happy for your best friend," she says to him quietly.
Harry doesn't respond.
Bria suddenly feels angry; this is how she felt in her own house. Every time Bria had a small success— being in charge of the cakes, making the Quidditch team as a third year, passing all exams, her siblings would ignore her out of jealousy.
Her house was every man for themselves, and even then it didn't matter if her parents paid attention or not. They most likely didn't care.
Harry ignoring her reminds her of being with Rye this summer, and Bria refuses to be ignored any longer.
"You better get your act together before the celebration dinner for Ron and Hermione tonight," she spats at him before leaving him alone in his room.
The rest of the day Bria prepares another celebration cake for Ron and Hermione being made Prefects. Molly was so overjoyed by this news that she had prompted to buy everyone's books and new supplies, and groceries for dinner tonight.
Bria still made a simple two-tier vanilla cake, but had a layer of raspberry filling in between each layer. Bria enters a whole other world when she bakes. Baking brings her a new sense of clarity and tranquility.
She lets go of the remaining stress and anger from her and Harry's last interaction, and feels her shoulders relaxing as she frosts the cake.
With her piping tip, she frosts the words "Congrats Prefects!" onto the cake in perfect maroon cursive. She pipes on the border with yellow frosting, and finishes the cake with a few flowers in yellow and maroon.
By the time she finishes, Mrs. Weasley has already finished dinner and it's now time for everyone to eat. She and Harry sit next to each other once more, but they only speak when asking to pass a dish to the other.
She couldn't ignore Harry for long, because that night during Ron and Hermione's Prefect dinner, Sirius and Remus pull her and Harry into one of the drawing rooms.
"What is it?" Harry asks them.
Sirius and Remus exchange a silent look before they turn back to Harry and Bria.
"We just wanted to talk to you guys about how you're going to handle your fake relationship this year," Remus says.
"Yeah, because last year was complete rubbish," Sirius chimes in.
Bria and Harry just stare back at them with unimpressed looks.
Remus raises his hand to silence Sirius. "School resumes in a week. All we're saying is that this year, people dislike Harry more than ever. You guys are going to try and rebuild his image. Clear?"
"Clear," Harry and Bria mumble, before returning back to the party.
That night, Bria didn't want to go to Harry's room, but she knew that she needed to in order to have a good night's rest.
It had nothing to do with the fact that she would be sleeping in the same bed as Harry. At least that's what she likes to tell herself.
So she sneaks into Harry's bed that night.
And the next night.
And the next.
And the next.
AN:
guys I swear I was gonna post this yesterday after dance and I ended up falling asleep at 9pm so that is totally my fault. I also ended up splitting this chapter because it was just way too long, so at least I'm almost done with the next one. This chapter is also a little boring, but I am so excited for how order of the phoenix is gonna turn out! Also ao3 being down for almost two days was absolutely horrible but I'm glad I made it out alive