Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 81 ⚡️

That night, sleep was a bit uncomfortable for Vega and before long, she laid wide awake in her bed, waiting for the sun to dawn so they could have their breakfast and finally get onto the train back home – but there were still three long hours left until the dawn would break and with every one of her dormmates sleeping and snoring away in their deep slumber after a hearty feast, Vega had nothing but her thoughts to accompany her.

Heaviest of that thought revolved around the mirror that Sirius had given Harry and she wondered, and wondered just how different things would've turned out had they known of that and just checked up on Sirius through that rather than running all the way to the Department of Mystery where they happened to get him –

No, stop thinking too much about it.

Vega was just trying to distract herself away that by thinking where Sirius's mirror was right now in the 12 Grimmauld Place when it hit her like a ton of bricks – there was something that Sirius had given to her as well, and she scrambled out of her bed.

Barely remembering to be silent, Vega hurriedly opened her trunk, reaching around to look for the deep red jacket she had worn on the way to Hogwarts after winter holidays, and she felt the pockets until she found the thick yellowed envelope.

It didn't seem to be a letter, and as Vega returned to her bed, unwrapping them, the small package burst and a bunch of Wizarding photographs spilled out all over her blanket. Vega reached to grab the one closest to her and turned it over to what it was about.

The picture was quite old but Vega's eyes were stuck on persons in the picture – two babies, in fact, and Vega stared at them, taking in their tuft of dark hair and big bluish-grey eyes staring up at her, their mouths open in laughter and showing absolutely no teeth. Both of them were dressed in thick clothes, and it was hard to tell their genders – but Vega knew at once.

Vega & Rigel

There was a frenzy as Vega rushed to look at all of the pictures – they were all of her and Rigel in various places but it seemed like they were all taken inside the same house, except for one where they were at a beach, very early in the morning to avoid eyes.

And in some of the pictures, there was a third person; and Vega knew at once that it was Carina Lestrange, trying to smile into the picture as she handled two zealous babies on her lap, waving their hands toward the camera while they looked up at her instead.

Carina Lestrange was prettier than Vega had been told; she had long dark hair and big dark eyes but she looked very thin in the pictures compared to the babies. She didn't look like her brothers – she looked rather warm and bright.

Vega's shoulders slackened as the reality set in, that she was the only person out of these three that was still alive, and she felt her chest close up as she teared up.

It was the last thing that Vega could have expected – she had thought there was no photograph or anything that confirmed to her the existence of her twin brother. She did not remember him very well but now that she could see him in front of her eyes, she felt there was no one she knew better than – and she just wished that he was alive somewhere, somehow.

Sirius must have found these, or maybe he had been given these photographs from someone. And Vega didn't know who to ask if they knew about this. But whatever it was, she suddenly had something to hold onto as she sat awake in her bed that dawn.

The journey home on the Hogwarts Express next day was eventful in several ways.

Firstly, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet, with Vega accompanying him – more out of suspicion something of this sort would happen and a bit less that she wanted to be alone.