𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐬 [Harry James Potter]

Chapter 4: Queen of Pentacles

Queen of Pentacles

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Vera spent the rest of the holidays at the burrows with the trio, while getting to know fleur, she turned out to be an incredibly intelligent woman as Vera spent a portion of her holiday, wedding planning with fleur mostly because she felt terrible because of Mrs. Weasley and Ginny's cruelty to her. Vera could tell Hermione wasn't fond of her, but she ceased teasing the French woman on Vera's behalf when Vera reminded her of internalised misogyny.

Ron on the other hand spent the rest of the holidays offering Vera every assortment of food he could get his hands on; Vera was aware of that just being Ron's way of showing support and affection. This was something special they had developed when they were kids, with Vera growing up in an orphanage with no family, she had trouble expressing how she felt, the words would leave a bad taste on her tongue before they had even left her lips. On the other hand, Ron grew up in a big family, yet he sometimes felt overwhelmed or left out, and food was a sort of an escape for him.

So, when an eleven-year-old Vera didn't feel like talking about something she couldn't explain, an eleven-year-old Ron would find her with a piece of fruit cake and sit with her in comfortable silence as they would get crumbs on their small faces and would say so much without saying anything.

Vera hated cake, but she'd never tell him that, she loved their moments together and she knew it would break his food-loving heart. She understood Ron's insecurities and Ron accepted the dark parts of her more than Harry or Hermione as much as she would like to believe they did.

They had now boarded the train back to Hogwarts and Vera had just finished up her prefect rounds for the moment as she slid open the compartment doors.

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," said Hermione a little impatiently.

"What is?" Vera asked the trio as she sat down next to the black-coloured kneazel she purchased at the magical menagerie; Vera named her Nyx. Nyx was the night goddess and the child of darkness and chaos... Fitting, Vera thought. Nyx instantly took a liking to Vera and Crookshanks but would stare at Harry, would not acknowledge Hermione and would hiss at Ron sensing his dislike of kneazel, Ron's excuse was that Crookshanks gave him (in his words) 'Trauma'.

"Malfoy." Ron whisper-shouted behind his hand.

"He's replaced his father as a Death Eater!" Harry said.

"Quite down before someone hears you," Vera told Harry as she looked towards the door. "He's only sixteen he can't even do actual magic outside of school, what would Tom Riddle do with him that he couldn't do with any other brain-dead Death eater?"

"I don't know, but you said yourself he was acting strangely in Borgin and Burkes, which is a highly dangerous shop for you to casually be in for your information," Harry added sternly, turned out the three musketeers had been spying on Draco before Vera entered Borgin and Burkes, fortunately for Vera the extendable ear lost signal before Vera had said anything incriminating.