mirrorball

chapter two

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Clara was quickly rushed into a hug between Ginny and Hermione. Her bones were crushed between the two girls' tight squeezes, and she gasped for breath when they finally released her.

"Missed you too," Clara said with a laugh.

"We were so worried! What happened?" Hermione said, still holding onto Clara's hand.

"Yeah, and why do you look so gross?" Ginny said, earning her a bad look from Mrs. Weasley, "I mean, well, you usually look way hotter than this."

"It's a bit of a long story."

"Well we've got tons of time!" Mrs. Weasley said, ushering her to the table, and seating her in the spot where Ron was before he joined Harry.

"Hey! That's my spot!"

Mrs. Weasley glared at him and immediately Ron complained no more. Clara whispered out a 'Sorry, Ron!" before having food shoved towards her.

"Let me put on a fresh pot of tea, and we'll listen to what's happened. Oh, where is my kettle?"

Clara quickly moved over to allow Ron to sit in his seat and picked one of the few empty chairs at the table. Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron sat back down and they all waited for Mrs. Weasley to return. Clara stole glances at Harry whenever she could. His hair was shorter, but he had grown significantly over the summer. Clara guessed he was at least two inches taller. It seemed however, like Clara, that he had lost some weight. His signature blue tee-shirt hung off of his shoulders instead of hugging onto them like they had during the school year.

She quickly looked away when Harry looked towards her, and tried to focus her mind on the more pressing matter at hand: her summer. Clara tried her best to include every detail she could remember, although it wasn't like any of the information she'd heard would help them at all. She'd only been there long enough to hear surface level plans that were already completed.

"I know it's not much, but maybe something will reveal itself soon." Clara said, finishing her recap.

"It's plenty, sweetheart. Would you like any more tea?"

"No, I'm alright, thank you."

Mrs. Weasley left the dining room and the kids went upstairs. They climbed the long flight of stairs up to Ron's room. It was cleaner than Clara expected, and she smiled at the quidditch posters that decked his walls.

"It's not much, but it is home. You can stay with Hermione and Ginny, they're just a floor down."

The group settled themselves in the room and were quiet for a moment. The twins and Ginny had gone out to play quidditch, so it was now only the four of them. Clara picked up a book from the ground and looked at it with interest. Maybe Ron would let her borrow it for a bit.

"So," said Hermione, "You've told us what happened in the meetings, but what happened with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, was your father mad?"

"Yeah. . . Yeah he was really mad. He sort of locked me in my room the first week we came back, but it wasn't all too bad. Being at Malfoy Manor was the worst part, that house is so daunting. I hated staying there."

"You stayed at Malfoy Manor?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, for almost two weeks. I ran away after that, I couldn't take it. I wanted to stay as long as possible, to get information, but. . . they wanted me to get the Dark Mark." Hermione gasped at this and Ron trembled slightly. "I knew then that I had to leave. I tried to convince Draco to come with me but he was too scared."