DOROTHEA {fred weasley}

twenty nine

Dorothea didn't see Elvira until the next morning on Hogwarts Express platform, she stood with the Weasley twins, dark circles and puffy eyes, sniffing every now and then. Dorothea quickly jumped up from where she sat in an empty compartment and put her head outside of the door when she saw her friend stepping onto the train. Fred noticed her standing, staring first and nudged Elvira, pointing at the blonde witch.

"Vi..." Dorothea began, pulling her best friend into a tight hug as she approached, "I'm so sorry."

The twins looked awkwardly at each other and silently decided to leave the girls to it, Fred turning around to briefly nod at Dorothea where she still had her arms around Elvira. Dorothea met the boy's eye but didn't respond to his acknowledgement, instead stiffening as her friend gripped her tighter, an overwhelmingly guilty feeling taking over her.

When Fred and George retreated from the witches, they found Oliver and Lee sat silently in an otherwise empty carriage. Both wizards were staring out the window as the train began to pull out of the station, intermittently sighing. Their parents had spoken about losing school friends in the first war, and it felt surreal, it had always sounded like a completely different world. The final assembly was about Cedric, a few funny stories shared from his fellow Hufflepuffs, it hadn't really sunk in yet that they would never see him again.

It was Oliver who spoke first, though it seemed to be a monumental effort.

"Is Vi with Dorothea?" He asked, looking at the twins.

George nodded, noticing how exhausted his friend looked.

"What did you do last night?" Fred asked, noticing the same thing.

"Wandered around the grounds. For hours. She wouldn't stop crying."

Fred winced, that would have been hard for any of the boys, considering their friendship with Cedric, but if he and George's suspicions were right about Oliver's crush on Elvira, he supposed that talking about Cedric for hours with the girl would have been even harder on Oliver

"Clementine was there," George said, ignoring Fred's probing eyes yet choosing not to mention that she killed Cedric. "Harry saw her. With him."

Oliver nodded, "Elvira suspected so, she said last night. I doubt it'll change anything between the pair of them. Last night she really wanted to see Dorothea."

"Well she was sat outside of the common room for ages," Fred said.

"Yeah, so long that Freddie gave away an invention to her." George said under his breath.

Lee's eyes moved from the window at that, and a small smirk appeared on his face. "Thought we didn't do that unless we fancied someone?"

Fred's face twisted, "firstly, she gave me the idea. Second, she was about to cry over her murderous mother. Third, don't make jokes about me fancying a bloody Rosier on today of all days."

"Ah, Ced would love it," Oliver chuckled, relaxing into his seat and smiling at his friends. "He was very into inter-house mingling, as we know." The four went silent for a few seconds after grinning and each looked at the ground.

"What was it then? That she gave you the idea for?" Lee asked, trying to lift the suddenly dark mood.

Fred reached into his pocket for another of the small ear and threw it to Lee who laughed, "the extendables."

"Probably be useful for the Rosier household, I imagine," George sighed.

The four friend's laughter was short lived when a blonde witch, who on first glance was Dorothea Rosier, banged on their compartment door.