"I thought we were done with exams," Lucas grumbles as we leave a 'team meeting' where Selena told us that after the Christmas break we would be being observed by a few of the most experienced dragon handlers to determine whether we "well, not pass or fail... But more like, have learned enough to... Pass... Or fail...".
"Ah, look on the bright side," Tilly says happily, "we're allowed to do some things on our own now and we're young and beautiful!"
"Why're you always in such a good mood?" Lucas mutters, following us to dinner.
"We're surrounded by dragons," Tilly points out, "how can you not be happy?"
I laugh and we sit down to eat.
"And hey," Tilly says, "you have to have had a better day than Aurelia."
"What happened to you?" Lucas asks, looking over at me. I grimace.
"One of the Horntails managed to eat one of Kim's shoes," I say, "I spent today making sure it 'passed'."
"How?"
"She had to go through all the shit," Tilly says.
"Gross!"
"You're telling me," I sigh, "my hair will never not reek again."
"Ohh, mail is here!" Tilly says, craning her neck as Dan comes in with a stack of letter. He walks around, handing them out. Tilly gets a couple, then Lucas gets one and I get one from Georgiana.
"Let's go to Aurelia's and read them," Tilly says.
We head down to my cabin and Tilly jumps on my bed to read her letters. Lucas sits on the rug and I take the chair.
Dear Aurelia,
I've been good. I love getting your letters, they're always so interesting!
I caught up with Alicia the other day. She misses you and made me promise to make you promise to catch up with her the next time you're both in England, which we think will be this Christmas. Angelina will be in France, or it would be like old times!
Fred and I are still rocky. He's been really distant lately, I think he's distracted with something but whenever I ask he just says "it's nothing". Boys, right? We haven't been fighting as much since our "break" ended, but I think that's because we just don't talk as much. I don't know what to do. I really don't want to end things, but it just feels like we're frenemies.
Make my life choices for me?!
Love your Georgiana.
P.s. For goodness sake, come and visit soon! I miss you!
I read the letter twice, trying to think of comforting words to send back. I glance over at Lucas. He's looking at Tilly with curiosity. I look at her too. She's reading a letter with a half smile that is easily discernible as a love sick look.
"Who's that from?" I ask her. She looks up at me and blushes guiltily.
"No one," she lies, folding it up. Lucas goes for the envelope and Tilly tries to get it, but he's too quick.
"Fred Weasley," he reads. He hands it to her and we're all silent for a moment.
"You said it wasn't like that," I say.
"It's not, it's not from Fred," she says, her cheeks going dark red.
"It said his name," Lucas points out.
"That's something else," Tilly says, "really, Aurelia, it's not like that."
"You guys should get to bed," I say coldly, "we have an early start tomorrow."
Tilly takes the hint and leaves the room, her head bowed. Lucas hesitates at the door, looking like he wants to say something, but then he just says goodnight and follows Tilly.
I sit down on my bed, feeling furious at Tilly. All this time I've been trying to help Georgiana and she's been flirting with Fred behind my back.
The next morning I refuse to sit with Tilly at breakfast. It's the first time since we met we've been separated by choice. Tilly looks at me with hurt in her eyes.
I have to force myself not to think about it as I do the rounds with Kim. It's our week on 'mucking out' so we're cleaning out the enclosures with a bunch of others. Dangerous, smelly work. Luckily, the dragons are a present enough danger to force my mind off the Tilly-Fred-Georgiana dilemma.
That night, however, my anger splits from just Tilly to Tilly and Fred. How could he do this? How could he let his relationship with Georgiana die while he flirts with Tilly? I have a good mind to write him a strongly worded letter.
About a week later, Tilly tries to speak to me at lunch.
"I can explain," she says.
"Don't bother," I snap.
We don't talk for another month.
And then another.
And then another.
I had been planning on inviting her to spend Christmas with me again, but I'm too angry. I spend the night before pacing my room, thinking of all the horrible things I'm going to say to Fred. I could just tear his throat out. I could disembowel him. I could peel his skin from his flesh.
There's a knock on my door and I answer it. Charlie is standing there, looking serious.
"Can we talk?" he asks. I nod, and step back to let him in.
"It's about Tilly," he says. I try not to groan.
"I'm telling you this because I trust you," he says, "please don't make me regret it."
"What?" I ask, confused. Charlie takes a deep breath.
"Tilly hasn't been getting love letters from Fred," he says, "they're from me."
"What?!"
"Because I'm her mentor we're not, strictly speaking, allowed to date," he says, "so we've been keeping it a secret. Fred and Tilly are just friends, that's all they've ever been."
I stare at him, almost unable to believe it.
"I'd really appreciate if you could keep this to yourself," he says, "just until the program is over and we can go public."
I nod, my voice gone. Charlie smiles at me.
"Thanks," he says, "I hope you and Til can figure things out."
He claps me on the shoulder and walks out. I stare at my wall for a few more moments, then walk out into the night, over to Tilly's cabin. I let myself in, forgetting to knock. She's sitting in bed, reading, but looks up when I come in.
"Charlie?" I squeak. She blushes and nods.
"Oh my god," I sit down on her bed, "oh my god."
"Yeah..."
"Oh."
"Mhm."
"My."
"Yep."
"God."
"I know."
"I can't believe you didn't tell me," I say. She blushes.
"We'd only just become official," she says, "and then the whole misunderstanding happened..."
"I was so awful to you!" I cry, hugging her, "oh, Tilly, I'm so sorry!"
"No, you reacted how anyone would," she says, hugging me back.
"I was going to invite you for Christmas, but I was such a bitch!"
"That's okay," she laughs, "I'm going to stay here anyway... With Charlie."
"Oh my god," I say again, "you and Charlie."
"Yeah," she laughs, looking shy, "came to Romania and got myself an English boy. Isn't he a dream, though?"
"A dream?" I ask, laughing, "I mean, he's funny."
"And hot."
"Ew."
"He is!"
"He's my boyfriend's brother!"
"We could totally be sisters-in-law," Tilly says dreamily.
"Oh my god!"
I climb into bed with her and we look at the ceiling.
"I'm so sorry," I say again.
"Forget it," she says, "just keep my secret and it's all forgiven."
"Have you guys... You know..."
"Oh my god, no! I never have sex on the first date. Well, almost never."
"I was thinking about kissing!" I laugh. She bursts out laughing too.
"Oh, well, that, yeah," she says, "how long did you wait to do it with George."
"Hmm, let me get back to you on that," I say. She looks over at me, shocked.
"You haven't?" she asks, "but you've been together like, five years."
"I'm a vampire, though, that complicates things."
"Yeah, murder isn't exactly sexy."
"I dunno."
"Ew, Aurelia."
I grin at her.
"You sure you want to stay here?" I ask, "it's not too late."
"Yeah, I like it here," she says, "I think I'll stay on after the program ends, if they'll have me. Do you know what you'll do?"
"Not yet."
I leave the next day, feeling much happier, though still a bit guilty and embarrassed, and am excited to see George. Lucas has also elected to stay behind, so it's just Jennifer and I, which means it's a very quiet journey. It's not until we're descending into London that I break the silence.
"Why don't you ever talk?" I ask her. She looks over at me.
"Excuse me?"
"Why don't you talk?" I repeat.
"I do," she says, turning away.
"Not to me. Not to Lucas or Tilly. Do you speak to Andrei?"
"Sometimes," she huffs.
"We're friendly, you know," I say, looking out the window."
"Yeah, I know."
"You could sit with us if you wanted."
There's a long pause.
"Thank you."
I look over at her and she has tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" I ask, turning to her. She wipes her eyes quickly, embarrassed.
"You can tell me, I'm ace at keeping secrets," I assure her. She rolls her eyes, but nods.
"I didn't have any friends at school," she says harshly, "I just... I got used to being alone. It's easier."
"But lonelier," I point out. For the first time in nearly two years of knowing her, she smiles, a proper smile. She looks pretty when she smiles.
"Why didn't you have friends?" I ask.
"When I went up to be sorted," she says slowly, "I... Peed myself."
"Oh," I say, covering my mouth and trying not to giggle. She shakes her head at me.
"You can laugh," she says, "from then on I was Weennifer, which isn't even clever, but it stuck. Long enough for everyone to find their cliques and me to be alone."
"You know, I didn't have any friends until fifth year," I tell her, "I know how it feels, being lonely all the time."
"Why didn't you have friends?" she asks.
"I was trying to hard to keep things hidden," I say, "I ended up hiding all of me."
"Huh."
"Well, you have a friend now," I say, patting her arm. She rolls her eyes at me.
We part ways in London where her parents are waiting to pick her up. George isn't there yet, so I sit on my trunk and wait for a little while. An hour passes, then two, then three and finally I decide he's not coming. I pick up my bag and make my way down to the tube, figuring George has just forgotten or gotten the days mixed up, or something.
I get off the tube and head down to the Leaky Cauldron. It's completely empty, not even the old bartender Tom around. I push through into the Alley. It's changed a lot. There are almost no shops around. There are wizards and witches begging on the streets, people lurking in shadows with their black market wares. I clutch my wand tightly, feeling tense. I round the corner and an unexpected sight meets my eyes. Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes all boarded up. I rush over to the door. It's locked, but I unlock it, leave my bag inside the door and run upstairs.
"George?" I call, climbing up into the apartment, "Fred? George?"
As soon as I walk in I can tell its been empty for some time. There's a thin layer of dust covering the table and the kitchen counters. But there's no sign of a struggle.
"The Burrow," I murmur to myself. That's where they'll be.
I collect my bag, lock the door and disapparate. As soon as I walk over the hill, I know there's something wrong. There are no lights on in the Burrow, even though night has well and truly fallen. Fear fills me up and I run down the hill, jumping over the garden wall and sprinting to the front door. There's blood splattered across it. I'm starting to panic now, tears flowing down my cheeks. I push the door open slowly, my wand held in front of me.
"EXPELLIARMUS!"
I scream, a high pitched, terrified scream, as my wand flies from my hand.
"Aurelia!"
"Lumos!"
Light floods the room as the lamps are lit, revealing George and Mr Weasley, holding my wand. The other Weasleys come out from hiding and I faint.
***
"Give her some room!"
"Aurelia, can you hear me?"
"George, give her some space, she can't breathe!"
I blink my eyes open, feeling woozy. George is kneeling beside me looking anxious. There are others crowded around us. The back of my head is throbbing painfully.
"Aurelia, are you okay?" George asks.
"No," I groan, lifting a heavy arm to rub my eyes.
"Give her a minute," Mrs Weasley says, "here, there's some water."
"I got her bag in," Fred's voice floats over from the doorway.
I gasp as a cup of cold water crashes over my face.
"George! I meant for her to drink!"
I wipe my face on my sleeves, very much alert.
"Sorry," George says, helping me to sit up, "are you okay?"
"You scared me to death!" I say, hugging him tightly, "I went to the shop, I thought you were dead!"
"I forgot to tell you," he says, "I'm sorry, I thought you were coming tomorrow, I was going to explain everything then."
"What's the blood on the door?" I ask.
"Deterrent," Mr Weasley says, handing me a fresh cup of water, "we have a warning spell, it lets us know when someone crosses the boundaries. We weren't expecting you."
My hands are shaking so badly that I'm slopping water everywhere. George takes the cup off me and sets it aside.
"How's your head?" he asks. I reach back and feel a lump there.
"Ow," I whimper.
"Yeah, I didn't expect you to faint," he says, "sorry again."
"Well, I think we could all do with a hot meal," Mrs Weasley says, "Fred, stoke the fire up, will you? George, get that poor girl a towel and a blanket. Ginny come and help me. Arthur... Just don't get in the way."
George passes me a towel and wraps a blanket around my shoulders. I wipe off my face and the front of my jumper.
"Sorry," George says, taking the towel again. He goes to walk off, but I pull him back.
"Sit with me," I say. He sits down and I hug him tightly.
"I was so afraid," I whisper, "George, don't ever scare me like that again!"
"I won't," he promises. I want to kiss him, but Mr Weasley has come back into the room. I sit back, but hold his hand tightly.
"So," I say, "what news of You-Know-Who?"