Moments later, I appeared outside St Mungo's, which of course was disguised as an old clothes shop. A rusty red beetle car was parked just outside, and three people were climbing out. I admired the car for a few moments, until I realised who the driver was.
It was Arthur, wrapped up in a thick coat and a beanie hat and wearing a worried expression. "Rory!" he said, looking relieved to have spotted me.
"Hey, Arthur." I said, as Cole's cousin gave me a big hug. "How are you?"
"Better now that I can see Cole." he looked around anxiously before lowering his voice. "My Aunt and Camille are a nightmare to drive around, I nearly crashed the car twice."
"Arthur, who is this?" A woman spoke in a thick Bulgarian accent as she climbed out the back of the rusted car.
This had to be Cole's mother, Elena. She was a short woman with olive skin and thick brown hair that was tied in a braid down her back. She was dressed very smartly, a travelling cloak with a furry hood thrown over her. Her eyes were very dark--and I realised that they were the exact eyes that Cameron had.
"I'm Aurora," I said awkwardly. "Aurora Potter. It's so nice to meet you, Mrs Wilde."
"Ms," Elena sniffed. "I got rid of that копеле months ago."
"Mama," the girl next to her--Camille-- frowned. "Don't be rude to her."
Camille looked so much like Alia, it was quite spooky. They were of the same height, and she shared the same crazy brown curls (though her's was in a thick side ponytail) and the strange violet-blue tinge of eyes. She was dressed a lot more formally than Alia would, with a pleated skirt and thick black robe--not to mention the thick pair of glasses she wore.
"It's alright, Camille." I said to her. "I think your mother must be stressed at the moment."
"I am here, you know." Elena sniffed superiorly. "Who are you then? Arthur's girlfriend? Or is he still kidding himself that he likes boys?"
Arthur went bright red. "I like boys and girls, Aunt Elena, I told you this. And anyway, Rory isn't my girlfriend. I have a girlfriend--Eloise."
"Are you my son's girlfriend?" Elena asked abruptly.
"Gosh, no. That's Gennie, Cole is like a brother to me." I assure her, trying to at least attempt to be polite to this severe woman. "I know where his room is, if you want to come with me."
"Lead me to my boy, I need to see him immeadiatly." Elena said, gesturing at me to enter the hospital. "I have allowed distance to come between us for so long..."
I entered the hospital, and Arthur hurried beside me, seeming eager to get away from his Aunt and cousin. "I love them, I really do--but Aunt Elena annoys the hell out of me somtimes."
"She seems... nice." I said lamley, navigating through the hospital wards.
"She is, she's just... a bit of a handful sometimes." Arthur said sheepishly.
"Don't think I can't hear you, Arthur Wilde." Elena said sharply. "I might be getting older, but that doesn't mean I can't hear you."
We made our way onto Cole's ward, and we were stopped by a healer who asked to speak to Elena about Cole's condidition. "You three go and see him," she said, waving us along. "Warn him I'm coming.. The last time we spoke, it was not pleasent."
So we entered the hospital room, and Cole looked up eagerly. He was still looking bored, but drinking a bottle of water Gennie had gotten him. She was still there, and looking much more relaxed.
"Hey Arthur, Rory," Gennie said, sounding relieved. "Thought you weren't coming. And you must be Camille, right?"
Camille nodded, looking at her brother shyly. "Hi Coley."
Cole looked up, clearly shocked. "Milly, you've... grown up."
Camille seemed to lose all composure, and leapt at her brohter, throwing her arms around his neck. Cole awkwardly patted her on the back. "Why must all my sisters attempt to strangle me?"
Camille pulled away from him, her face streaked with tears. "Alia is here as well?"
"She's gone to see some friends of ours, their Father is in here." Gennie said. She turned to me. "When you were gone, Fred and George came by--Mr Weasley's going to be okay. They're all around here somewhere--Harry too."
"Ooh yay, everybody will get to visit the freak show." Cole rolled his eyes. "Yay."
"You aren't a freak show." Arthur spoke up finally, and sat down next to Cole. "I'm the freakshow, according to your mother."
"Oh god, the wicked witch of Bulgaria is here?" Cole groaned. "Kill me now."
"See, this is why you can't have cake, you keep making too many death jokes." I said.
"You aren't doing anything like that, ever again." Arthur said quietly to Cole, but there was a fierceness in his tone that I'd never heard before. "You are never going to get into this place again, you hear me? You're the one meant to be around my death bed, not the other way around."
Cole looked close to tears. "Don't say that, Art."
"Buddy, you can't just feel you aren't worth being here." Arthur said, his voice jagged with emotion. "You've got all these friends, your sisters, a girlfriend and me... You are worth so much more than you think, and so important to the world."
"How am I important? I've done nothing of any use." Cole huffed, keeping his eyes fixated on Arthur.
"You told me once not to give up." Arthur said bluntly. "If you hadn't told me that, I probably wouldn't be here." he paused. "Plus you were the one who set me up with Ben, and without you--I never would have come out, so.. yeah."
Cole scrubbed at his eyes. "Stop making me cry, you dick."
"Stop making me drive your family members cross country, you slut." Arthur grinned.
"Stop making me wish I was the one adopted out of this family." Camille grumbled.
"Stop making me go to Hogwarts to pick up your band tops." I piped up, and threw the sportsbag onto Cole's lap.
"YAS!" Cole exclaimed, delving through the sportsbag. "Oh man, you even brought my mp3! And... Gennie's clothes?" He picked up a bra. "Eh, okay, I'll keep this."
"I hate you." Gennie huffed, taking the bra from Cole and picking her clothes out of the bag.
Cole gingerly took the covers off himself, and with only the hospital gown on, he looked very pale and skinny. "Yeah, so everybody don't look, unlesss you want to see my butt."
"Yes, I don't want to be scarred like when you ran into my room naked when I was six." Camille piped up.
"I was sleepwalking!" Cole frowned. "Now everybody shut their eyes!"
We all shut our eyes, and were silent until Cole shouted that he was in the bathroom changing. The four of us sat in awkward silence until the door opened.
"Finally!" Elena declared. "I couldn't find this room anywhere---where is he?"
"Here." Cole said quietly, emerging from his bathroom. He was wearing a pair of jogging bottoms and his AC/DC shirt, his hair sticking up everywhere. "Hi, Mama."
Elena ran at her son, holding him close while Cole stood awkwardly with his hands balled into fists. She held onto his face, scrutinising him. "Your thin in the face, my boy. Has the school been feeding you enough?"
"Mama!" Cole whined. "I lost all my chubby face fat since we met last."
"And what is the matter with your fringe?" she tutted. "It was so much neater when we had the Malia Emrys cut it--"
"Mama, I'm fine." Cole said, lowering his voice. "I'm here, aren't I?"
Elena led him over to the bed, and kept an arm around him. "Oh my poor little Cole... How was I not here to help you?"
"You were back in Bulgaria, and I was home at Hogwarts." Cole said quietly. "You couldn't have done anything. Nobody could. It was all me."
"Cole.... You know what happens to people who commit that act..." she trailed off, and I noticed a golden cross hanging from her neck. "They get sent to hell for damnation."
Cole laughed lightly. "Mama, we all go to hell. Everybody does something wrong at least once in their life."
Everything was quite awkward for a bit, with Gennie, Camille and I sitting quietly while Elena interogated Arthur and Cole about Hogwarts, and what Britain was like--it seemed it was her first time over here.
"And what about your medication?" Elena asked Cole, sounding softer, the harshness stripped from her voice. "For your biploar disorder?"
Cole looked panicked. "I... Uh. I don't--"
"Cole Oliver Wilde," Elena said quietly, "I spoke to the healer, of course I know about your condition. I don't know why I didn't see it when you were younger. I suppose you just became accustomed to concealing things."
She looked quite upset, and I could guess she was referring to Cole hiding everything about Cameron from her.
"I didn't know what was wrong with me." Cole mumbled. "I thought I was a freak."
"Don't say that, boy." Elena said quietly, though her tone was sharp. "My mother had this condition, and she lived the most normal life you could imagine."
"Grandma had it?" Cole said, his mouth open in awe. "But... she was so normal and happy."
"See? If she can do it, you can too. You can be happy and normal, and whatever you want to be." Elena said quietly. "You can do anything, Cole."
"I've never been normal." Cole said wistfully. "All normality went away when he rose his wand."
"I've left him." Elena said abruptly. "Your father. He was the one who introduced him to the dark arts, taught him the spells that he used on you. I lost all respect for your father the moment he shed a tear for that monster. Your sister and I are therefore relocating to Britain once the school year is over. I cannot stick to be in the same country as that копеле."
"Mama, I may have learnt a lot of English now, but I still recgonise Bulgarian--I know what you called him." Cole chuckled. He turned to us. "When we were younger, Mama always swore in English so we wouldn't understand her. But when Arthur told us what the words meant, she switched to French."
"You are too smart for your own good." Elena shook her head, but a smile flickered on her lips.
"But why are you moving over here? You always said you hated Britain."
"Well I have to keep an eye on you and your sister, don't I?" Elena said crisply. "Where is that girl?"
"Here." Alia spoke up, and it startled me to see she had slipped into the room without us noticing. "Hello, mother."
Elena straightened up, looking afraid. "Alia. You are looking well."
"I had a family to raise me, so of course I look well." Alia said cooly. "And I think they did a better job than you, considering you raised a psycopath."
And then she stormed out of the room, looking very unsettled. Camille got to her feet. "Should I follow her, Mama?"
Elena nodded tiredly. "Tell her what I told you, my girl."
Camille nodded reverntly, and dashed aftter her twin sister. She had barely left, when a healer came in. "Ah! Hello Ms Wilde! Is is alright if we discuss treatment plans with you and your son?"
"Of course." Elena said. She looked around at us. "Please wait outside while I speak to this gentleman."
Gennie gave Cole a quick kiss on the cheek, and then we all filed out of the hospital room. Alia and Camille were sat on seats next to each other, Camille whispering to Alia, who was looking defiantly away from her sister.
"I'd better find the communal shower and change." Gennie sighed. "I didn't really want to meet Elena dressed in day old clothes..."
She wandered off towards the desk, to find out where the communal showers were. I looked towards Arthur. "So, what was all that about to Cole?"
Arthur laughed once. "It's a depressing story. I might tell you one time."
"So... That's Cole's mother."
"That is Cole's mother, and gosh she is a woman of steel." Arthur said, leaning back in his chair. "She never used to be so tough, but I suppose all that's happened has made her even more tough on everybody."
"I just can't believe she gave up Alia," I said, looking towards the two girls to see Alia was still blantantly ignoring Camille. "Why would a parent do that?"
"It's complicated." Arthur said. "Elena explained it to me once."
"I don't see anything complicated about giving up a child. Either you keep all four, or you have none at all, it's as simple as that."
"Okay, I'll tell you, Miss grumpy pants." Arthur rolled his eyes. "I was as mad as you when I found out. So I remember Alia--or Adrienne as she was called--and Camille being born, and I held them and they were like the cutest things ever. But then Maxwell--Cole's Dad--was all unhappy and stuff, and little three year old me was confused."
"I bet you were a cute three year old, you probably had tufty little fluffs of hair." I interupted, the image of a younger Arthur coming to mind.
"I was, thank you Rory, but I will continue with my story. So then, Maxwell goes to Aunt Elena and says that there's this stupid-ass curse on the Wilde family, that one child will curse the others.. blah blah--"
"Cameron said about that last year," I remebered from when he asked me to the ball to annoy Cole. "He said that it had to be Alia, but that his parents were wrong, and it was Cole..."
"Ah, but the curse was never real." Arthur said solemely. He looked around. "Okay, so you can't mention a word of this to anyone, okay? Otherwise Aunt Elena will kill me."
I nodded. "So Aunt Elena and Uncle Maxwell had this huge fight like ten months before the girls were born... And she slept with somebody else." Arthur said. "You get where I'm going with this?"
I stared at him with my mouth open. "So Alia and Camille are Cole's half-sisters?"
Arthur shrugged. "Not even Aunt Elena knows. But she slept with Uncle Maxwell and mystery guy very closely... So she doesn't know who the father of them are. And she asked St Mungo's for a dna test when they were born... and Uncle Maxwell was suspicous already, but he overheard and it confirmed his doubts. But Aunt Elena didn't know until recently, but Uncle Maxwell made up the curse story.... So one of the girls would be torn from her, as punishment for her cheating."
I stared open mouthed at Arthur. "What a bastard."
"Exactly. So Aunt Elena didn't know that he knew, so she agreed to put Alia--or Adrienne up for adoption. And then she got to pick the family, so she picked the Fawcett family as they were childless and kind. But she asked one thing of them."
"What?"
"To name their new daughter Alia." Arthur said with a small smile. "In isreali, Alia means 'immigrant to a new home'. She wanted Alia to have a fresh start away from her old family."
"That's so sad, that Elena was tricked into giving up her daughter." I said, feeling sympathy. "And that her eldest son turned into a psyopath, and her other one went on a downward spiral..."
"Yeah, Aunt Elena hasn't had the best luck." Arthur chuckled. "I'm not sure how Alia will react to that story though. She's not going to forgive Aunt Elena very quickly."
"Well I don't think Elena will forgive herself very quickly, for falling for what Maxwell told her..." I sighed, staring over at Alia, who was still ignroing her sister, tears forming in her eyes.
* * *
Time passed, and I had finally showered and changed into one of my jumpers from Mrs Weasley and my favourite jeans and converse, with my hair finally clean and fluffy. Gennie was becoming impaitent at the healer being so long with Cole and Elena, and she kept tapping her foot on the floor irritably.
Camille had been reading a thick paperback for the last half hour, her eyes jumping from words to Cole's hospital door every few seconds. Alia and Arthur were talking in low voices; he was trying to tell her what he told me about Elena.
Finally a door swung open, and we all looked up, expecting to see the healer. But instead it was Sam, who had finally returned from Hogwarts. She was wearing one of my old t-shirts with a cat on, and my old jeans, which were so long in the leg that they drifted past her feet.
She wore a brilliant grin on her face as she sauntered down the corridor with her phoenix on her shoulder.
"Sam!" Camille exclaimed, and she leapt to her feet and threw her arms around Sam in a hug.
"Millie!" Sam exclaimed, and buried her head into Camille's curls. "I missed you, kid!"
Camillle frowned at her. "You speak differently. You look different as well."
"I've changed a lot since we saw each other last, Millie." Sam said with a smile. "I'm borderline good person now. But wait--how do I speak and look so different?"
"You're using less posh words, you sound like an actual teenager now." Camille noted. "Plus you look... punk."
"That was my goal," Sam said dryly.
"So, what did McGonagall want, and why do you look so darn happy?" Gennie asked.
"Ah, of course." Sam said, clapping her hands together. "Well McGonagall recognised me from when I went there last year with Durmstrang... And she was confused why I wasn't in school. So of course, I had to explain the whole ugly mess I'd gotten myself into." she laughed nervously. "And she was concerned for my safety so she offered me a place at Hogwarts."
"Seriously?" I said happily. "You're seriously going to join Hogwarts?"
Sam couldn't keep the smile off her face. "I'm coming to Hogwarts, straight after Christmas, and I'll be staying until I graduate with you all. And she and Dumbledore offered me protection from any death eaters on the prowl for me. And they got in contact with Elena, who agreed to take me in."
"So you're going to be living with me?" Camille said, her mouth open in shock.
"I'm going to be living with you!" Sam grinned, and her and Camille hugged tightly.
"I'm so glad, I've been sick of just living with Mama. She's not the easiest person to live with."
"You girls are all missing the big question." Arthur spoke up. "What house are you in?"
Sam smirked. "Now that, is a surprise, my dear friends."
At that moment, Cole's door opened and the healer came out. He shook his head. "How this boys get so many visitors, I'll never know..." He coughed. "You can all go in now. But if anybody else turns up, they'll have to wait outside. There's so many of you..."
"He's very loved." Alia said, popping up with Camille at her side. She looked more comfortable around her sister, but her expression was strained.
We all headed into the hospital room, and in the end Camille and Alia had to squish onto a chair together, Sam was sat on the floor and I had to awkwardly sit on Arthur's lap as he insisited I sit down.
"So, what did the healer say?" Gennie asked Cole eagerly.
Cole went to open his mouth, but Elena spoke for him. "Well he's staying in the ward until Christmas, and then they're moving him to the rehabilitation unit for a few months. They need to make sure he can control his medication intake and have therapy."
"What about school?" Alia said, sounding down-hearted.
"They'll send my work to me." Cole shrugged. "I don't know about OWLS yet.. We'll see."
"That reminds me!" Sam piped up, sounding excited. "Cole, I have some news."
"Oh god, you didn't get arrested, did you?" Cole asked wearily.
"No, you idiot." Sam rolled her eyes. "I'm going to Hogwarts."
Cole raised an eyebrow, before he grinned widely. "That's fantastic! And Millie coming to Hogwarts in Autumn.... All the people I love are going to be at Hogwarts!"
"He's like a hyperactive puppy, is he always like this?" Camille asked Alia.
"All the time, sis, all the time." Alia said solmely.
I still thought it was weird seeing Camille and Alia together, considering they looked almost indentical. I'd gotten used to seeing Fred and George together, but seeing Alia and Camille together was almost eerie.
"But yeah, I'm not going to give up trying to get better." Cole said, sounding more seriously. "I mean I thought if I died none of you would care, life would go on fine, but there's like six of you all here all happy to see me alive... And I heard there was a lot of crying, and I don't like seeing people cry. So if staying here means no crying, I suppose I'm going to have to put up with you all."
"There's seven of us." Arthur pointed out. "Not to ruin your motivational speech and all, but there's seven."
"Yeah, but Alia and Camille are twins, so they're practically one person." Cole said logically.
Alia and Camille started to protest together, but Gennie interupted them. "Regardless of how many people are in the room, I'm proud of you, Cole. You know what you want, and you know how you're going to get there. You're so brave."
There were tears in her eyes, and Cole lent across the bed to hug her. "Don't cry, Gen. No more tears, okay. Never?"
"Never." Gennie agreed, and the two of them quickly kissed, before Cole seemed to realise that his mother was watching.
Elena stared at Gennie for a while. "So you're my son's girlfriend."
"Yes, m'am." Gennie said nervously.
Elena narrowed her eyes. "Yes, you seem to be a perfect match for my son, much better than that Aurora girl--"
"I'll try not to be offended by that," I muttered to Arthur, who snorted.
"It's Elena, she shows she loves somebody by offending them. She loves me a lot." Arthur muttered in my ear.
"--And once again Arthur Timothy Wilde, I can hear when you're talking about me, I'm not deaf." Elena continued. "But yes, I approve of you, Genesis." she looked at Gennie again. "You have perfect hips for childbirth."
Gennie and Cole both went bright red, while the rest of us burst into quiet laughter. "MAMA!" Cole shouted. "Please, can you not?"
Elena shrugged. "I was merely stating a fact."
"And with that wonderful fact about my best friend, I'm going to get coffee." I said, climbing off Arthur's lap. "You coming, Arthur?"
He shook his head, looking very awkward all of a sudden. "Nah, I'll stay here if that's okay."
So I headed out down the corridor, before realising I had no idea where the coffee machines were. But it was too late to head back to the hospital room to ask Sam, so I carried on.
I ended up getting lost somewhat, and found myself wandering around various corridors, until I found a tea room on the top floor. There was a witch selling coffee in the corner, so I headed over to her, glad I'd brought some money with me.
"Um yes, could I have a de-caf cappuccino?" I asked the witch.
She nodded, and started to prepare it. I spent the time wondering how to get back to Cole's room, and if I should ask the woman where to go.
"Three galleons." the witch declared.
I fumbled around in my pocket until a familiar voice said: "Its on me. I'll have a black coffee."
I turned in astonishment to see Lacey hand the witch some coins. "What's up Rory?"
"W-what are you doing here?" I asked in astonishment.
"Visiting Arthur, duh." It took me a minute to realise she was talking about Ron's father and not Cole's cousin. "How's your friend?"
"He's getting there. His mother is embarrassing Gennie."
"Poor kid. Thanks--" Lacey said, taking her coffee from the witch. "Arthur's doing okay, if his bandages would stop bleeding through, he could come home."
"Well that's good." I commented, as we exited the cafe. "I'll pop by to say hello."
"Harry and Hollie are here as well, they'll be pleased to see you." She took a sip of the coffee. This is godamned awful, I don't know how the hell George can drink this."
"You guys buy food for each other, how sweet." I chuckled. "So everything's good with you both?"
"Well the long distance sucks, but its not for long. Then we're getting a flat with Fred and Hollie--Do you think we're moving too fast?"
"No." I said honestly. "You guys act like you've been together for years. Do whatever makes you happy."
"And he makes me happy, Rory. So damn happy. Happier than I'd ever thought I could be with a boy."
I clapped her on the shoulder. "Good! I expect you guys to name me godmother for your first kid."
Lacey scowled at me. "I'm not even eighteen yet, shut up."
I raised my hands up in defence. "I'd just think I'd be a total punk rock godmother."
"You aren't punk you idiot."
We spent the rest of the journey to the ward talking about what'd happened recently (which included Hollie making her teacher disappear for an hour, and Lacey turning all the house robes pink).
We reached the ward, only to find all four Wesley siblings, Harry and Hollie gathered outside the door. "Rory!" Hollie cried, and threw herself at me.
She had grown again, and her hair was wavier and hanging in poorly tied plaits. "Hey there Holl,how you been?"
"Great! I made it snow yesterday at Sirius's!"
"Hey, sis." Harry said tiedly. "How's Cole?"
"He's getting better. Why are we all out here?"
"Moody and Tonks kicked us out." Ginny said grumpily.
Fred was looking in his pockets furiously.
"Looking for these?' said George, holding out what looked like a tangle of flesh-coloured string as he balanced the coffee Lacey passed him.
"You read my mind," said Fred, grinning. "Let's see if St Mungo's puts Imperturbable Charms on its ward doors, shall we?"
He and George disentangled the string and separated eight Extendable Ears from each other. Fred and George handed them around. Harry hesitated to take one.
"Go on, Harry, take it! You saved Dad's life. If anyone's got the right to eavesdrop on him, it's you."
"Everyone needs to catch me up once we've eavesdropped."
I took the end of the string and inserted it into my ear as the twins had done.
"OK, go!" Fred whispered.
The flesh-coloured strings wriggled like long skinny worms and snaked under the door. At first, I could hear nothing, then I jumped as I heard Tonks whispering as clearly as though she were standing right beside us.
"---they searched the whole area and couldn't find the snake anywhere. It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur . . . but You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"
"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," growled Moody, "cause he's not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there the beast would've had a lot more time to look around. So, Potter says he saw it all happen?"
"Yes," said Mrs Weasley. She sounded rather uneasy. "You know, Dumbledore seems almost to have been waiting for Harry to see something like this. He's wondered about Aurora too."
"Yeah, well," said Moody, 'there's something funny about the Potter children we all know that.'
"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry and Rory when I spoke to him this morning,' whispered Mrs Weasley.
"Course he's worried," growled Moody. The boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake--god knows what the girl saw. Obviously, Potter doesn't realise what that means, but if You-Know-Who's possessing him - '
I dropped the ear and stared at my brother, who was bright red and looked terrified.
************
A/N UNEDITED because I wrote the last part on my tablet and its s hard to write on! Chapter name is after one of my favourite youtuber's (Emma Blackery) song. I'll post the video once I'm on my laptop. It's amazing and everybody needs to listen to it, okay?
I really liked that chapter. I just love Arthur and Elena, they're fan. Camille will have a big role in the final book, just saying....
And Sam is going to Hogwarts YAY. What house do you think she's in? I know but yeah.