Stuck AIAOY 2

Chapter 9

The worst part, Fred thought, of Rebecca's Petrification was that he had yet to find anything he could do without thinking about her absence.

Pranking?  No, near impossible to consider without her.

Walking down to the Black Lake?  Laughable--What was the point if the third role of their conversations was left unfilled?

Doing homework?  Far lonelier without her questions that George would pretend irritated him and she would pretend to back down only to repeat herself when the need grew too great and Fred would answer every time.

Not even meals could be enjoyed because George was tiptoeing around him like he was fragile and Harry and Ron were avoiding them both and...and Fred felt like an intrical part of his routine had been taken away.

So, as Fred sat down to another miserable dinner, he realised that there wasn't a 'worse' part of Rebecca's Petrification.  

It was all horrible.

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"I-"  Harry shook his head, unable to explain himself to Ron.  "I just think we need to go now."

"I've been saying that for a bloody week and now you-"  Ron paused, containing himself a moment.  "Alright, we'll go."

"Thank you."  Harry's voice was small and when the door to the Hospital Wing came into view, he stopped and wondered if his feelings were wrong.

"We've come this far, mate."  Ron said, reaching for the door knob and holding it open for his friend.

It was worse than Harry expected, returning to the girls for the first time since the day they had been found.  The second his eyes landed on them, he could feel the guilt coming up over him.  He should have been going every day, he should have insisted he never leave their sides.

"Go on and put those in the bin."  Ron directed, taking control of the situation.  Harry looked as if he might cry and Ron wasn't sure he would know what to do then, so giving Harry a task seemed the next best thing.  Plus, the flowers in the vase really did need to be changed.

Harry sniffed and collected the dead flowers as Ron told him to, bringing it to the rubbish near Madame Pomfrey's desk.  Madame Pomfrey looked at Harry sympathetically, seeing how he was in need.  "They have not been alone, Mister Potter."

"I-I just..."  Harry shook his head, boxing his pain up.  Is this what he was to be without Rebecca?  She never, ever would have dissolved as he was.  Harry knew that with every fibre of his being.  "Who else has been into see them?"

"Weasley one and two come in every evening like clockwork."  Madame Pomfrey answered confused, seeing how he was trying to put away what ought not be put away.  "Do not shut your pain away, Harry.  It is the ache of loss that reminds us what we have."

Harry froze at the corner of her desk, saying nothing before returning to Ron and Rebecca and Hermione.  Ron was seated at Rebecca's knee and nodded for Harry to do the same on Hermione's side.  

Harry cleared his throat, feeling that he must say something but that it was impossible to know what to say when he would not get an answer.  "I wish you were here.  We need you."

Ron saw how Harry struggled with just that and took the reins again, launching himself into a recount of the lunacy Harry had dragged him along to.  "...and then there were these spiders, alright?  Not just garden spiders and I know this is where you, Rebecca, would make fun of me because of that time there was the really, really big one in the kitchen and I screamed.  Then you, Hermione, would say something stupid like 'they're more afraid of you than you are of them' and I'd tell you to piss off because I'm bigger and have a lot more room for fear than those bloody monsters do and-Anything to add Harry?"