I Know The End {Fred Weasley, ACT I}

Chapter 37- Fred V. Eleanor

Eleanor Potter loved Hogwarts. It was a living, breathing thing to her. The stone walls pulsated with magic, rippling from one corridor to the next, sending messages to distant points in the castle that allowed staircases to move on unexplained whims, or rooms to disappear on command. Hogwarts inhaled the spells that ripped through the empty space, trapping any leftover trace of power within its structure to be used at a later time. Because you see, magic is neither created nor destroyed. It's in the air, in the life force of the trees, in the expression of emotion. A person doesn't possess magic. They gather it, and Hogwarts had been attracting magical energy for a thousand years. It was a hot spot, and it was a hot spot that Eleanor knew well. She treated Hogwarts as a real being and in appreciation it bent to her will. She knew how to draw upon its power and unleash it on the world.

It responded to her touch, to her thoughts. She knew the castle better than most but there was still so much left to unpack. She loved how she still found herself getting lost in the maze of corridors and moving staircases. She loved the overgrowth of the forbidden forest, the way the stillness combated its ferocity, both states of being occurring simultaneously under the cover of the trees. She loved the way she could feel magic radiating from every corner of the grounds, like electricity popping through her veins urging to explode. She loved its secrets, and she'd love nothing more than to uncover them all. Hidden tunnels, the Chamber of Secrets, the Room of Requirement - it was only the surface. She knew there was more, and she wanted to be the one to learn every nook and cranny of Hogwarts. She wasn't ready to leave it. She never would be.

So, no one was more surprised than her when she had to be dragged out of bed by her godfathers to begin the process of returning at the end of winter break.

"You cannot make me go back to that place," she cried, face-first into her pillow, as Sirius and Lupin fumbled about her room, heaving her things into her school trunk. "I won't go. I'm staying here, with you."

"As much as I'd love the company," Sirius sighed, "you have to go to school. It's just six more months."

"That's a long time!" A long time to endure Fred's anger. A long time to be ignored by the only person she ever craved attention from.

"Are you really asking to drop-out of school over a boy?" Lupin asked, heaving a deep breath. They were annoyed with her. To be fair, she was annoyed with herself too but it didn't change the hopeless, all-consuming feeling that had welled up inside her and taken root.

"No," she muttered, "not a boy. Fred."

"He's just a boy," Sirius grumbled, turning Eleanor over so that she now faced the ceiling. She scowled at the loss of darkness.

"I just don't want to see him!"

Correction – she did want to see him. She simply did not want to be seen by him.

"He'll get over it soon," Sirius waved away her concern and propped Eleanor up. It took all her strength not to simply fall back down upon the bed. That room was her safe haven. It hid her from Fred, from Death Eaters, from herself. And now she was being thrust back into the world where she'd have to explain to all her friends what had transpired over Christmas Break. She could barely recount that night to herself, let alone to others. And what would Fred tell everyone? Would they all hate her for ruining the group dynamic?

"No, he won't," she cried, truly this time. With tears and hiccups, the full nine yards.

"He'll understand one day," Lupin said gently, closing her school trunk with a snap, "believe me. It just takes time."

She was quite aware that Lupin was speaking more-so of himself and Sirius's situation than hers. Well, it had taken them fourteen-years and they still weren't who they'd been. She didn't have fourteen years to spare. She only had now.