DAYS PASSED FROM CHRISTMAS and the halls were still quiet. New Years was on the doors and students were excited to start the new incoming year. The weather outside seemed to go colder and colder as days passed on and everyone preferred staying inside in the warmth of their blankets, while Michael stayed by the side of his sister.
"You can't stay there forever," Fred said.
"Won't have to," Michael said, "she's gonna wake up soon."
Fred and George gave each other a look. Everyone wanted her to wake up, but Wendy didn't budge anytime soon.
"We should do something for New Years," George proposed, "nearly everyone is here and Durmstrang and Beauxbatons are here too— it will be fun!"
"You're right, George!" Fred clapped, "we should throw a party!"
"We did that already, though."
"Then what?" They both looked at Michael through the corner of their eyes.
The boy's eyes were fixed on Wendy, but he couldn't lie and say that he wasn't listening to the boys, and he knew they were expecting him to say something, "Muggles celebrate by counting down until midnight and fireworks."
"The count down sounds boring and tiring," Fred complained, "but the fireworks seems fun!"
"It's not exactly counting down all the way... We do—"
"Let's do the fireworks then!" George interrupted Michael.
"But the fireworks are supposed to go off at the en—" he tried again.
"But we will make fun fireworks!" Fred proposed.
"How are fireworks not fun alre—"
"Not enough!" George he replied.
"Ours fireworks will be more boom!" Fred added with effect, "and more kappam!"
"Let's go!" The two said running away.
Michael didn't want to leave Wendy alone, but the thought of the twins doing fireworks was scary enough for him to consider keeping an eye on them. Hesitantly, he said goodbye to the sister, promising her that he will be back soon, and ran after the two.
"Wait for me!" He screamed at them.
It was finally dark and in the hospital wing and Madame Pomfrey was fixing up the beds. She decided to check up on Wendy, making sure she was okay, but the moment she turned around to look at her, the girl was sitting up on her bed with her eyes opened.
"Wendy!" She ran to the girl checking her up, "you scared me, how are you feeling?"
"Ma-madam..." She said in a small raspy voice.
"Dear, you need some water—" she said handling her a glass, "here you go."
The girl sipped in a bit, making her throat adjust to the new sensation. After that, she chugged the whole glass down, not leaving a bit behind.
"Are you okay?" She asked, "Professor Dumbledore asked me to inform him the moment you woke up."
"Yes, I am," she said.
"Will you be okay here? I'll have to call the headmaster."
"I'll come with you," she said putting down her feet, she knew the floor was cold, but for some reason, it didn't send her shivers as she thought it would. The cold became quite familiar for her in the past few days in her sleep.
Madam Pomfrey tried to push her back to bed, "no, dearie, you've got to stay here—you were unconscious for days!"
"I've been in this bed for days—I've got to walk."
The woman found truth in her words, but her instincts told her to keep her in bed. Although, she did look fine and after thinking about it, she allowed her to come with. Madam Pomfrey helped the girl put on some clothes Hermione left behind for whenever Wendy would wake up.
The two walked through the dark corridors of the castle and knocked on the headmaster's door. Once inside they were greeted by both Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore.
"Wendy!" Dumbledore greeted her, "I'm happy to see you're back on your feet."
"Professor," she greeted him with a smile.
"Professor Dumbledore," Madam Pomfrey started, "I wanted to inform you of Wendy, but she insisted in coming along."
"That's alright, Madam Pomfrey, thank you for your assistance," he thanked her.
The woman smiled at him and gave him a nod, she looked at Wendy one last time before leaving. Hoping the girl would never come back to see her unconscious or injured again; she was under too many accidents way too often for it to be normal.
"How are you feeling, Wendy?" Dumbledore asked once the door was closed.
Wendy walked towards the two professors, "I'm doing well, sir, but I can say I've been better."
Dumbledore tried to study the girl. She looked fine, for someone who was just under the effect of an old magical artifact that was lost for centuries and used to hold a Horcrux after the murder of an innocent soul. The girl was upright in front of them, giving them a small but warm smile.
"Then you won't mind if I talk to you about what happened?"
Wendy gave him a nod, and Dumbledore took it as sign to continue the conversation. He glanced over at Snape who, until now, has been incredibly quiet.
"I'm sure you're aware what the diadem was?" He asked and the girl gave him another nod, "and that it's highly dangerous?" She nodded again, "then why did you search for it?"
Wendy took a deep breath in before talking, "to prevent the worse, we have to work on the things we can work on now. It is useless to let things be if they'll only be complications in the future."
"But what were your intentions?" Snape finally spoke.
"To destroy it," she replied quickly and surely, it almost made the two grown man shiver.
A girl so quirky and positive to be so firm on such destructive intention was quite unusual.
"On your own?" Snape asked.
"I could have made it," she defended herself, "if Fred and George didn't came to disturb I would ha—"
"Died," Snape interrupted her.
"No," she corrected him, "I would have—"
"I'm sorry, Wendy," Dumbledore interrupted her too, "but what you did was incredibly reckless of you."
Wendy stood quiet. Unlike Snape, Dumbledore was hard to talk back to.
"I'm sorry, professor," she said sincerely, "but I assure you, it is for the best."
Dumbledore stood up from his chair and Snape gave him a fast glance. The headmaster brought out Wendy's bag, that supposedly contained the tooth of the basilisk and the diadem.
"I believe this is yours," he said handing it to the girl.
Wendy grabbed it and it felt lighter than it should have. With questioning eyes she looked at between her two professors.
"If you're wondering where the content is," Snape talked, "don't tire yourself."
Dumbledore gave her a smile, "professor Snape already took care of it—we don't want a student handling such a dangerous task..."
Wendy couldn't help but recollect the times he personally asked Harry to help him, but chuckled at it. Probably it was for the best that it wasn't her who did it, she wasn't sure she could even look at it after going through what she did.
Then a roar filled the halls of the castle. Snape was the first to react and immediately ran outside.
Dumbledore moved towards the window that showed the Middle Courtyard and looked out, "seems like Mr. Flitch will have a lot of work later."
Wendy, puzzled, walked to the window and leaned in to see a crowd of students forming a circle. Among the students she could recognise her friends, and something in her knew that this was the twin's work.
She excused herself with a look and Dumbledore gave her a simple nod, knowing it was time for her to go back to her routine. The professor watched her rush towards the doors of his office, hoping that the girl really was feeling as good as she was showing. He couldn't possibly know how she was feeling
She ran through the corridors until she was at the edge of the crowd of students. They were all incredibly quiet and it was highly unusual for them to do that. Fortunately, she saw Fleur with her sister.
"Fleur! Gabrielle!" She called for them.
The two looked at her direction, surprise beaming to their face.
"Wendy!" Fleur greeted her with a smile, "you are awake! We tell Michael!"
"Where is he?" She asked.
Fleur took her hand and started pushing people aside excusing herself. Wendy didn't like the amount of people around her, tight spaces wasn't her favourite place to be in. But she bear through it and was glad to see her brother just on the other side of the empty part of the courtyard.
The boy looked worried and his gaze was at the sky, just like everyone else's. His eyes were dark and lazy, eye bags rested on them. She wasn't sure if she could walk through the empty space, but she didn't really want to wait a bit more to hug her brother.
"Michael!" She screamed walking through the court.
The boy, because of the quiet atmosphere, noticed the girl. His expression was so happy to see the girl but then it was soon gone when the girl started to run through the curt.
"Wendy!" He said, "sto—"
But before he could say anything else Wendy was swept away from the floor. Fred and George, both holding one arm each, brought Wendy away from the court and towards the sky.
"Good evening, Princess," Fred greeted her.
"You're late," George continued.
"Royalty is never late," she laughed, "everyone is just too early—could you please let me down?"
The two looked at each other and swung the girl back and forth to throw her up. Wendy let out a little squeal when they've let go of her, she knew that the boys wouldn't just let go of her but she still let out a sigh of relief when George finally caught her on his broom.
"You literally just ran through a mine field, are you aware of that?" Fred asked.
"I was unconscious until a few minutes ago, I'm not aware of anything."
"Right," George turned around to look at her, "how was your nap?"
"Well rested, I hope," Fred answered for her looking at the big clock and the bell started to chime, "because you just got yourself first seats for the most amazing New Years event you'll ever see."
And just in time little whistles of wind shot right up in the sky from down bellow. Barely touching the three on their brooms. Wendy looked around her and a faint smell of vanilla filled her nose. Wendy looked around and tried to find the source.
"Can you smell that?" George asked feeling the girl looking around from behind him.
"What is it?" She asked.
Fred smirked, "just you wait."
Another whistle shot straight up and this time the smell of cinnamon embraced her. Not long after a last whistle came and dark chocolate balanced the sweet smell from before. Before she could ask anything a group of students shot fireworks up in the sky along with the first sound of the bell. Wendy could only see blue all around her and she could swear that the image of her parents and brother greeted her from the lights.
Another bell rang and the blue was paved away with violet, and her friends from a lifetime before waved at her; Clara and Nigel. She couldn't even try to call out for them before a warm green was shot from another group of the students from down bellow. She expected to see another face through the colours, but she searched in vain.
A canary yellow warmed her heart with the image of her first love. A little shy and a little bit of embarrassment flushed through her cheeks and she couldn't help but chuckle at her memories from a lifetime ago.
A golden glow glittered and her best friend and work partner smiled at her.
"What is happening?" She finally could feel herself asking.
The two laughed, but George was the one who explained, "we're saying goodbye to yesterday and starting tomorrow with a boom!"
Thousands of colours were filling the skies of Hogwarts, while the students watched the scene play. Some were crying, others were laughing. Luna's smile was one of Wendy's favourite, she swore she saw the girl mouth the word "mum." Harry was smiling, no tears in his eyes, but nostalgia and a life of what ifs, and Fred, the only person she could see clearly, wasn't looking around through the beautiful colours and multitude of rainbows in the sky, but was smiling at her. Wendy wondered what he was seeing through the colours; his family, his twin brother, his little sister, and friends. She could only hope to be among the people he saw in his colours of life.
She looked down and saw Michael, who smiled at her, she knew she was in his colours. Beside him there was Cedric who, like everyone else, was looking up; but she could tell there were times he was looking directly at her.
That was the first time she saw him since the Ball and she felt a little grip in her heart, how could have she left him alone in a ball? The dance with the boy came through her mind, and that was followed by Draco's.
She tried looking for the Slytherin boy, but she couldn't find him anywhere on the ground. Then a thought came through her and she didn't know why but her eyes drifted forward, where one of the windows of the hospital wing was facing open. She didn't see anything other than the red curtains blowing in the wind.
One last colour came up distracting her from the red courtains and a soft red kissed her on her cheek. Wendy tried looking around to see the image of a new person, but all she could see were streaks of red falling elegantly on top of her and her friends' head. She looked over at Fred who was trying to catch the twirls and streaks, but they broke on his hand and fell down in little hearts. George did the same, his stayed and a smile grew on his face.
"Congrats, Georgie," Fred said.
"Thanks," he simply said then looked from over his shoulder to talk to Wendy, "Try to catch one."
Fred and George studied the girl's movement carefully. With a smile that refused to leave, she brought her hands out and tried catching a streak of red in her hand. Fred came closer with his broom and George fixed himself to have a better view of her hand.
The streak stayed on, until she looked up at to look at her friend and the streak broke down into small dancing hearts.
Feeling the streak fade away she looked up at Fred again and asked, "what happened?"
"A little spell casting, hours in potions, and little help from divination," George explained for his brother.
"It's silly and probably doesn't even work," Fred continued, "it's supposed to tell how well your love life is doing."
Wendy could still see her dancing hearts fall down. She wasn't sure if that was a positive sign but she couldn't ignore the look on Cedric's face when she looked for him in the crowd. He had a smile, but his eyes clearly didn't match.
One last bell rang and a roar of sounds and colours filled the sky even more than before. Wendy could smell all the things she loved most. Dobby's familiar and loving hot cocoa, the smell of the winter morning when she would go out and run when no one was up yet, her favourite jumper, the smell of books and walks through the gardens in the afternoon , milk and biscuits from her nana, the smell of the sea at the afternoon summer spent with her family, and the hint of gunpowder she dismissed because of the firework.
"Happy new year, Wendy."