Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 30 ⚡️

Midnight rolled past as the Gryffindor common room deserted itself, leaving behind only Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione. The only sound that remained was the fire crackling and Vega and Hermione's quills scratching out sentences here and there on their essays and the ruffle of pages as they checked various facts in the reference books strewn across the table.

Vega absentmindedly checked Harry's Transfiguration homework but her thoughts were far away. She glanced in the direction of the fireplace where the letter was now curling blackly in the heart of the fire. She looked down and tried to make sense of the empty feeling in her stomach. She just couldn't believe what Percy had written about her.

At least I have always been truthful with my friends.

Well, when it comes to my background.

It wasn't that Vega didn't know that the majority of the people inside Hogwarts and out in the Wizarding World thought that she and Harry were off their rockers, that they were mad and violent. That she, in particular, had ties to unsavoury people from birth. She knew very well that the Daily Prophet had been making snide allusions to them for months, too.

But there was something about seeing it written down like that in Percy's writing, about knowing that Percy was advising Ron to drop them and even to tell tales on them to Umbridge, how he insinuated that Vega kept secrets about her parents or was involved in Cedric's murder, about how he had warned Fred against dating her... that really made it show just how real everything about this situation was.

It was realer, still, because Vega had known Percy for over four years now, and she had stayed in his house during the summers, she had shared a tent with his family during the Quidditch World Cup, she had even been awarded full marks by him in the Second Tas of the Triwizard Tournament last year, she was best friends with his younger siblings, she was in fact dating one of his brothers, too... yet Percy thought of her as unbalanced and possibly violent.

There were many things that Vega and Percy disagreed upon but they had always been cordial to each other. Unlike many people, she hadn't even blamed Percy for anything that happened last year yet he had dumped it all over on her like sewage.

Vega finished checking Harry's homework and passed it over to Harry, who took it from her gratefully. She didn't say anything and pretended to busy herself by cleaning her quill of the ink and picking up Ron's Transfiguration homework.

"Okay, write that down," Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron. "And then copy out this conclusion that I've written for you,"

"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I've ever met," Ron said weakly. "And if I'm ever rude to you again –"

"– I'll know you're back to normal," Hermione said. "Harry, yours is okay except for this bit at the end, I think you must have misheard Professor Sinistra, Europa's covered in ice, not mice – Harry?"

When Vega looked back toward Harry, she saw that he was no longer in his last place. Instead, he had slid off of his chair and was now on his knees, crouching on the singed and threadbare hearthrug, gazing right into the flames.

"Er – Harry?" Ron said uncertainly. "Why are you down there?"

"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire," Harry said, calmly. Vega set Ron's homework down and got up to come and have a look. She bent over, peering into the fireplace.

"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated, surprised. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too –"