CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
RESOLUTION
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Astoria Greengrass remembered the first time she ever saw Blaise Zabini.
It was on her very first train ride to Hogwarts. She was sitting in a compartment with her older sister, Daphne, who was going on an on about how much Astoria would love Hogwarts. According to Daphne, it was a given that Astoria would end up in Slytherin, "the best house in the entire world" (Daphne's words). A couple of Daphne's friends, Pansy and Millicent, were nodding their heads in agreement. Astoria's mind was whirling, trying to connect everything in her brain. What would happen if she didn't get Slytherin? Would Daphne be disappointed? Would her parents?
It felt suffocating, especially for an eleven year old. So, Astoria Greengrass excused herself from the compartment, under the guise of the excuse that she was going to find the Trolley Lady and get some candies for the ride.
She walked around the train for what felt like hours, peeking into compartments and seeing the sea of black robes with green, red, yellow, or blue badges attached to them. She hadn't heard much about the other houses besides Gryffindor, which according to Pansy she was "absolutely, positively, not allowed to be in." Gryffindors were obnoxious and brave to the point of stupidity.
Still, she wondered. What would happen if she did end up in Gryffindor? Or Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff for that matter?
She didn't realize she was crying until a tear fell from her cheek and hit her hand. She hastily reached up and wiped away the lingering tears, hoping no one had seen them.
"You alright?" someone asked. It was a head poking out from one of the compartment's open doors. There were three people in the compartment. There was a boy and a girl, sitting next to each other on one of the benches. They had the same facial features, though the boy looked soft and happy where the girl was hardened and angular. They had smooth pale skin and brown hair, though the boy's was a shade or two darker. Then, there was the boy who had poked his head out to ask her the question. His skin was brown, the color of the tea their house elf made for Astoria's mother in the morning before she added all her milks and sugars. His eyes were dark, so dark she could barely see the pupil, but they looked kind. He was giving her a hesitant smile, an expression caught between crying-girls-being-the-bane-of-his-existence and wanting to help.
"What?" she asked stupidly, blinking at him. Another tear fell.
"You're crying," he said, matter of factly. "Are you alright?"
"Oh. Yes, I suppose. Just nervous."
His dark eyes showed recognition. "Ah. A first year, are you? Well, not to worry. I'm Blaise Zabini."
He held out his hand, and Astoria took it. His skin was warm, like he had been holding them up to a fire. "Astoria Greengrass."
His smile widened. "Daphne's sister!"
She was so confused that she ended up nodding blindly.
"Daphne's a good friend. Why aren't you with her?"
Astoria shrugged. "Needed a break."
He nodded his understanding. "Well, you're welcome to sit with us for a spell." He moved away from the door. Astoria wondered if he had done some sort of wandless magic on her, because she felt her body moving against her own will into the compartment. The two people already in the compartment stared at her, though not unkindly. They were just curious. "Astoria, this is Konstantinova and Theodore Nott."
Theo's nose crinkled. "Just Theo, please. And don't bother trying to say Konstantinova. She won't respond. It's Nova."
"Nova can speak for herself," the girl responded, rolling her eyes. "But, yes. Nova is fine. You're Astoria Greengrass, aren't you? Daphne's little sister?"
Astoria nodded. "Nice to meet you."
"You as well," Theo said, kicking his feet up and placing them on the bench Blaise and Astoria were sitting on. It wasn't in a rude way, however, since they were far enough away from the two that it didn't interfere with Blaise and Astoria's seating arrangement. "So, any ideas on what house you'll be in?"
Astoria couldn't help it. Her eyes welled up with tears again.
"Nice going, mate!" Blaise yelled, smacking Theo's leg.
"I'm sorry!" Theo stuttered out, blinking wildly. "I didn't know!"
Astoria waved him off. "It's fine," she managed. Once she had taken a few deep breaths to calm herself down, she continued. "I'm just...a little overwhelmed. My whole family is Slytherin and I just...what if I'm not?"
"Who cares?" Nova asked. Her voice was cold, but her expression was anything but, so Astoria figured she wasn't meaning to sound rude. "The other houses are perfectly respectable. Besides Gryffindors, but even if you end up there, you'll be fine."
It was the first person to say that Astoria would be fine. The word seemed so nice. "Really?"
"You'll do great wherever you end up, Astoria," Blaise said, nudging her side. "Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are great. Gryffindor is fine, but it's more the people we dislike rather than the house itself. Nova's right. You'll be brilliant, even if you're in Gryffindor."
"But will my Slytherin friends feel the same?" Astoria asked bitterly.
"Screw 'em if they don't! We'll still be your friends," Blaise responded.
Astoria knew it was irrational, for her heart to skip a beat over a boy she'd just met. But here he was, reassuring her in the span of one sentence. "And are we? Friends, I mean?"
He wrapped an arm around her. "'Course we are. A Greengrass sister is a friend of mine, believe me."
At the mention of her sister, Astoria grimaced. "Speaking of which, she's probably freaking out. I should get back to her."
Astoria stood, making her way out of the compartment. Before she could completely get away, Blaise stuck his head out again.
"Hey, Astoria!" he called. She turned, facing him with a raised brow. "It's a bit of a mouthful. Mind if I call you Stori?"
There it was. That pesky skip in her heartbeat again. "Sure."
"Alright. See you later, Stori!"
So, yes. Astoria Greengrass remembered the first time she ever saw Blaise Zabini. And she'd been in love with him ever since.
Which was why when she walked into the library to see him sitting at one of the tables, waiting for their talk, she grinned and stepped inside.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Nova sat next to George, her head resting on his shoulder. They had all been there for the better part of a day, waiting for Ron to regain consciousness. Nova would guess she had about an hour of sleep, and none of those minutes were consecutive.
Harry, who had been with him when it had happened, had explained to her what went down, looking chagrined considering the last time they had spoken, he had all but accused her of being a Death Eater. Fred and George were watching him like a hawk to make sure he wasn't going to throw any more nasty accusations her way. He had eaten some love potion concealed in chocolates, so Harry had gone to Slughorn for help. After the threat of the love potion was eliminated, Slughorn had offered some mead to Harry and Ron. Ron had dropped and started seizing, Harry told her. She tried to block that image out of her mind, shaking her head and closing her eyes every time they threatened to come to the surface.
George gently patted her knee. "Don't fall asleep on me, Rogue Slytherin."
"I don't think I could sleep if I tried," she said. Her body was terribly exhausted, but her mind wouldn't shut off.
"I know what you mean," he replied, sighing. The movement jilted her head a little, but he didn't ask her to move it.
"Nova, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, patting her hair lightly. Nova had been happy to see the matriarch of the Weasley family when she'd shown up to the hospital wing, though she wished it were under better circumstances. Mrs. Weasley had immediately wrapped her into a warm embrace that reminded Nova of the hugs from her own mother when she was a child. Arthur had shaken her hand and given her a pat on the shoulder. "Are you sure you don't want to go and get some sleep? We'll alert you if anything changes, we promise."
"I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, Mrs. Weasley," she argued gently, shaking her head. "But, thank you."
Suddenly, the hospital wing doors opened with a crash. When Nova looked up, she saw Lavender Brown shooting down the hallway. "Where is he? Where is my Won Won?" She rudely pushed through Mrs. Weasley and Hagrid, who had shown up about thirty minutes after Nova had. Hagrid looked affronted, but didn't say anything. "Has he been asking for me?"
"He's been comatose," Fred replied, deadpan. "When would he have had time to ask for you?"
Lavender looked over at Fred, ready to deliver a snarky response, when her eyes landed on Nova. "What...what are you doing here?"
"She's checking on my brother," Ginny mentioned, eyes narrowing.
"Why?"
"Because she's someone who cares about him? What do you mean, 'why'?" George followed up, glaring. In his ire, his shoulders moved and Nova had to lift her head from it.
Lavender scoffed. "Cares about him? She's been treating him horribly ever since they broke up! And, by the way, she's his ex-girlfriend. If anyone should have been alerted, it should have been me!" Her glare was icy. "I suppose you want to get back together with him now that he's all interesting."
"Interesting? What about him being poisoned is interesting?" Nova snapped, moving to stand from the seat. "How selfish can you be, thinking about something like this when your boyfriend is lying on a hospital bed?"
"Exactly!" Lavender shouted, pointing her index finger out at Nova. "My boyfriend. You lost the privilege of being here a long time ago."
Nova tried not to let those words sting. She opened her mouth to reply, but a sort of groaning sound permeated the room, coming from where Ron lay. All eyes locked on him, waiting on baited breath to see what would happen.
"No..." he groaned out.
"See?" Lavender hissed. "He doesn't want you here!"
"No...va...No...va. Nova."
It was silent for a few moments. Nova could feel eyes on her, but all she could focus on was Ron, on the way his lips were moving slightly, giving words to his dreams. That he was talking was a good sign. She hesitantly took a step forward, and then stopped, wondering if Lavender was right. Maybe it wasn't her place anymore.
Ginny broke the silence. "Huh. Weird. Sounds like he does want her here."
Lavender let out a heartbroken huff and her eyes started watering before she rushed back out of the hospital wing. They stood silently for a few moments, before George gently pushed her with a hand on her back.
"Go ahead, Rogue Slytherin. He seems to be asking for you."
"I don't...it's not really my...are you..." Nova couldn't seem to get a complete sentence out.
"Go ahead, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, giving Nova a warm smile.
Nova went to Ron's bedside and sat in the chair that had been pulled over sometime in the night. She reached out gently and swiped some hair out of his eyes, thinking that if he woke up, he'd see nothing but bright orange. Fred grinned a little, and Nova rolled her eyes. "I don't want to hear it," she said in a low voice, careful of the fact that Ron was sleeping, despite having whispered her name.
"Didn't say a thing, Rogue Slytherin," Fred singsonged in reply. "Whatever do you mean?"
Before Nova could respond, she heard it again. The sound of Ron trying to talk.
"No...va."
"I'm here." She wrapped her hand around his. "If only you'd open up those stubborn eyes and look. You Gryffindors really are obnoxious, you know," she whispered. She heard Geroge snort and then heard Mrs. Weasley corralling them all out of the hospital room until only Harry, Hermione, and Ginny remained.
"I'm sorry, Nova," Harry said softly, "for how I acted at Christmas. It was wrong of me. Ron gave me a piece of his mind. Fred and George, too."
"I'm going to be very honest with you, Harry," Nova said, looking over at him, "I don't care. And I don't mean that in a rude way. It's just the last thing on my mind right now."
Harry nodded. "Understood. But...we're okay?"
"Depends. You still think I'm a Death Eater?"
"I think you'll do whatever you need to in order to help your brother. And...that doesn't sit well with me. But you're my friend. I'll try and be less judgmental. No promises, though."
Nova let out a small laugh before the fingers gripped in her own suddenly tightened. She shot up like a rocket, sitting straight up in her seat as Ron's eyelids fluttered. After a few moments, those blue eyes fluttered open, taking some time to adjust to the light before they landed on her.
"Nova?" he asked, his voice croaking.
"We'll get you some water to drink," she said, but Hermione had already grabbed one and was handing it to her. Nova braced the cup of water against Ron's lips. "C'mon, Weasley. Drink up."
He did as he was told, slurping down the water with the ferocity of a man who had thirsted for it for months. Once he was done, Nova set the cup down on the table next to his bed. "Can you...help me sit up?" he asked groggily. Nova nodded and placed her arm around his shoulders, maneuvering him until he was sitting up as best as she could. "You're here," he said, eyes wide in amazement.
"Of course I am," she whispered, feeling like if she spoke louder, something in that moment would shatter. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Lavender wasn't happy," Harry interjected. "Don't know if you've got a girlfriend anymore, to be completely honest with you, mate."
Ron didn't seem too concerned with it. He just squeezed Nova's hand and repeated, "you're here." Nova felt her chest warm and she looked away, meeting the grinning faces of her friends.
"Shut up, all of you," she said, but she couldn't help the small tear that trickled out of her eye. Ron stared at it in amazement, reaching his hand up to wipe it away.
"You're crying over me?" he asked.
"Surprised?" she responded, giving him a watery smile.
"A little," he laughed, eyes wide. "Yeah." Nova's chin wobbled with emotion, and he noticed. "Hey, I'm okay, Nova. I'm okay."
"I know." But she squeezed his hand tighter. "I know."
He didn't let go of her hand for a long while. Not when his family came back into the room and his brothers gave him wagging eyebrows and sly smiles. Not when Madame Pomfrey told Nova that she needed to leave and Ron somehow convinced her to let his friends stay. And not when he fell back asleep, repeating her name in his sleep throughout most of the night.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
So...um...hi?
I'm so sorry that it took me so long to write this, but I've been so busy and my career comes first. I love all of you for sticking with this story! It makes me so happy to see all of the comments and love for this story and its characters. I know this is a shorter one, but it felt like a good place to end. Hopefully this summer I can write some more chapters. For your patience, though, I wanted to give you some fluffy Rova!
As mentioned in my last author's note, for every chapter of Control that is posted, I will donate to the Trevor Project for LGBTQ+ youth. I recommend that if you can donate, you do. Unlike the author of the Harry Potter series, let's fill the lives of everyone with love, positivity, and support. I love you all!