Alexandra Weasley: Book 5

5

"You've got a howler." Hermione said, handing Alex her letters for the day.

"Probably Haru getting overexcited." She opened it. She was right. Most of the howler consisted of Haru's excited squeals, bringing absent minded smiles to Alex's face. His energy was contagious. Emiko must have pushed her way on to the page because her voice came through scolding Alex for ignoring her letters for a few seconds before the howler shredded itself.

"So are you going to reply to Emiko?" Alex didn't answer, instead jotting down notes on some of Haru's points. "Yeah, thought so." She tried a different tactic to get Alex to talk. "I think your mum's going to floo call Charlie today. You wanna ask him about Saphira?"

"He can look after her just fine."

"I think Snape's coming by today too."

"It's a party!" She exclaimed sarcastically.

"You're not going to say hi?"

"No." Hermione sighed. "You should go to Harry. He's your friend too."

"He's a little angry." Hermione said. "Because we didn't tell him about the Order."

"Did you tell him it was Dumbledore who said not to tell him?"

"Yeah."

"Did you remind him that he'd have done the same if Dumbledore asked him?"

"No."

"Or that basically spilling all the plans in a letter that could be intercepted could cost the lives of order agents?"

"Sounds a little patronising and would probably incite him."

"Maybe just try hanging out and let him work it out." Alex said. "No need for you to be bored here."

"I'm not bored." Alex rolled her eyes. "Just because you don't feel like talking half the time, doesn't mean I'm bored. Besides, how many hours have we spent sitting in silence doing our respective work over the years?" Alex didn't look convinced, so Hermione tried another angle. "Even your half conversations are more mentally stimulating than anything Harry and Ron could come up with combined." This got a smile out of Alex.

"I'm supposed to be mean and you're supposed to tell me to be nice."

"Yeah, well. A lot of things are supposed to be different." Alex looked away.

"I'm gonna try get some sleep." Alex slid down to lay on her bed and put her notebook to the side. Hermione accepted the dismissal and left the room.

She may not have been in love with Cedric, but he was one of her closest friends. Hermione would never forget him either and it was hard to be grieving him alone. Alex refused to talk about him and Harry had witnessed his death. She had no idea what she could even say to him. The rest of the Weasleys hardly knew him. Except maybe the twins, since they'd been acquaintances, but they didn't know him. Not really. They didn't know how much he enjoyed arithmancy because it meant more time with Alex, or that his love of care of magical creatures came from countless trips joining his father at work. It was rather lonely.

Hermione found herself in one of the empty rooms that they'd only recently made clear of doxies. It wasn't furnished so she took a seat on the hard floor and hugged her knees to her chest.

She didn't know how long she sat like that, but a little while later, Tonks had found her. She took a seat next to Hermione.
"Bad day?" She asked.

"Bad few months." Hermione answered. "Cedric was my friend."

"And you've been trying to keep it strong for Alex." Tonks realised. Hermione nodded. "You want to talk about it?"

"And say what?"

"How'd you become friends?"

"I honestly don't remember. I remember I was friends with Alex, and I remember she and Cedric had a weird thing going. He would irritate her and she really didn't like him at first but over time they became friends. Cedric and I would always sort of be acquaintances, both trying to make Alex more approachable and somewhere along the line, we became friends."

"So you've been looking out for Alex since the beginning?" Hermione nodded.

"Yeah, I guess. It's been a two way channel though and, to be fair, her friendship does come with its perks." Hermione smiled.

"How did you two become friends?"

"We had charms together, back in first year. I'm pretty sure we drove Flitwick mad. We'd compete and tease each other and rack up points for our respective houses. It was before Harry and Ron were my friends. Once, Ron made a particularly mean comment that I overheard and I got upset. Alex followed me and comforted me. Offered to hex him no less than five times and made me laugh and lifted up my spirits." Hermione's smile widened at the memory. "When the boys locked the two of us in with the troll on Halloween, accidentally, she saved me. Kicked it's arse. She started to let me in bit by bit after that and before we knew it we were really close."

"Sounds nice."

"I think I'm feeling a little better now." Hermione said, wiping away her tears.

"If you ever want to talk, about Cedric or anything, come find me." Tonks offered. Hermione looked up and nodded.

"Thanks, Tonks. I might take you up on that."

"Alright, dinner time. Let's go." Tonks grinned and stood, before moving to help Hermione up.

A/N- favourite line is "I'm supposed to be mean and you're supposed to tell me to be nice." 😭😭😭 Here begins the Hermione angst.