Spark - A Fred Weasley Fanfiction

Chapter three

After the emotional turmoil of the morning, the last thing Lola wants to do is go to Charms class. Waiting outside of the room is torturous, staring down at the ground and avoiding the stares from the Hufflepuffs, who don't know how to approach her. She sighs, blinks the tears from her eyes and fiddles with her sleeves, pretending that Cedric's absence isn't as sad as it actually is. She tells herself that it doesn't matter that he isn't here, making her laugh. But no amount of convincing could conceal the hole in her heart, nothing could make her forget that Cedric isn't there - that he never will be there.

Knots form in her stomach as her thoughts spiral away, and she worries that she has taken her time with Cedric for granted. They argued all the time. They're siblings, after all, but Lola should've been the bigger person more often. Cedric shouldn't have had to give in to her feelings every time. It wasn't fair. She worries that she didn't give him enough of her time - there are times when she could've stopped what she was doing to help him or talk to him when he was stressed and upset, and she didn't because she was prioritising what she wanted. But worst of all, she worries that he didn't know how much she loved him. Despite their occasional bickering, Lola absolutely adored Cedric. He was the best brother she could've ever asked for, and she would do anything to get him back. Absolutely anything. Now that he's gone, Lola doesn't know if she showed him enough love. She could've apologised more often, she could've made more time for him, she could've told him she appreciated him more often. Now, she can't do any of those things because he isn't there to hear it. Her worries mean nothing to him.

Too little, too late, she thinks, squeezing her eyes shut and quickly wiping the tears that escape them with her sleeve.

She's grateful when the door to the classroom swings open, breaking her out of her spiralling thoughts. Professor Flitwick welcomes the class in, and Lola heads straight for the desk at the back of the room, hoping nobody will try and sit next to her. Unfortunately, a short girl with black hair flowing down past her waist and dark brown skin sits beside her. Her eyebrows are thick but neat around the edges, and she smiles kindly at Lola, her brown eyes flooded with both concern and a little bit of anxiety.

"Hi," she says quietly, unpacking her parchment and quills onto the desk in front of her. "I'm Navya Rai. I was friends with your brother."

"Oh," Lola replies blankly, staring at her. She isn't sure how else she could reply to that statement, and Navya's eyebrows knit together.

"Sorry, that was weird," she stumbles over her words, shaking her head. "I just wanted to introduce myself to you."

"Cedric never mentioned you," Lola says, and Navya frowns, her gaze dropping down to the table and her eyes welling with tears. Lola feels a little bad for being so harsh to her, so she shrugs her shoulders a little. "He had a lot of friends, though."

"Yeah, he did," Navya agrees, sighing and she crosses her arms over her chest. "Well... I, uh...  are you okay?"

"Fine," Lola says. Yet another lie. "Are you?"

"I'll be okay," Navya says, but Lola can see she's lying. She can see the deep bags under the girl's chocolate eyes and the frizziness of her hair, which she hasn't bothered to style. Lola knows she's struggling through the same loss she has, and she wonders why Cedric would never mention Navya to him if they were close enough for her to be so affected by his death.

"Good," Lola says simply and turns her attention to Professor Flitwick.

"I'm no good at Charms," Navya sighs, resting her chin on her hands.

"I can help you if you need it," Lola offers kindly, and Navya gratefully accepts her offer. The rest of the Charms lesson flies past, and Navya is much better company than Lola expected she would be.

"Did you really mean it when you said you would help me with Charms?" Navya asks, fiddling with the ends of her sleeves as the two of them leave the charms classroom once class has concluded.

"Uh... yeah," Lola shrugs, and the ghost of a smile plays on her lips. "I can help you out."

"Okay, great!" Navya grins, and she looks relieved. "Maybe we could meet in the library one night this week?"

"Unfortunately, I have detention every evening with Professor Umbridge this week," Lola sighs with a grim expression, and Navya's eyebrows raise in surprise.

"Detention already?"

"Yeah... she was trying to tell the class that ced... cedrics death was just an accident," Lola explains quietly, and Navya's face falls, her eyes welling with tears. "I got upset and I swore at her."

"What a rotten cow!" Navya exclaims, horrified by what she is being told.

"I know," Lola agrees, a frown still plastered across her face. The two of them part ways and head to their next classes, and Lola spends the rest of the day on auto-pilot, barely paying enough attention in class to complete her work and not talking a word until dinner where she sits beside Luna.

"Hello, Luna," Lola says plainly as she takes a seat at the Ravenclaw table.

"Oh, hello, Lola," the blonde smiles dreamily at Lola. "Did you enjoy your first day?"

"It was fine," Lola lies as she spoons a salad onto her plate. Lola used to turn her nose up at salad, she finds it can be very bland, and she'd rather just eat something nice like steak pie or roast chicken, but she still feels nauseous, and salad is one of the lightest foods at the table.

"What was Professor Umbridge like?" Luna asks curiously. "I don't have her until tomorrow."

"She was-"

"Is it true that you swore at Umbridge?" a Ravenclaw girl in Lola's year butts in, her eyebrows raised in disbelief.

"Do you really believe that nut job Potter?" Another asks, sneering at her incredulously.

"Piss off," Lola replies rudely and stabs her fork into a clump of lettuce. 

"I think humans are inherently nosy," Luna comments lightly, and Lola lets out a snort of derision. 

"You don't say?" Lola remarks sarcastically, but Luna does not seem to notice her tone. Luna continues to talk to her throughout dinner, telling her all about her father's magazine and how they both believe Harry and Dumbledore. Lola isn't really happy to be talking about the return of You-Know-Who even if Luna is just being kind, so she quietly excuses herself from the table after she has finished the measly salad and marches towards the doors in the Great Hall.