the hallows - f. weasley

- c h a p t e r - t h i r t e e n -

 After a long (few hour conversation) not-so-great conversation with Harry outside, Hermione found Gemma with her face pressed into her knees, which were pulled up to her chest.

The Lupin girl shook violently–the Horcrux was hanging from the end of the bunk again, seeming to glow maliciously in the light of the tent.

"Gem?" Hermione's voice shook as she called from the tent flap, "Are you okay?"

Gemma lifted her face, sniffing harshly, "Y-Yeah. J-Just a nightmare."

Hermione stared at her best friend/sister, knowing she wasn't going to elaborate.

Gemma had been slowly becoming a shell of the girl who had been so vivacious before they left for this quest for Dumbledore–actually before that. She had seemed to be starting to come completely apart after fifth year, got better after Dumbledore's death, but then, as soon as Gemma had overheard what Mr. Lupin had said at Grimmauld Place–she was not the same.

And the Horcrux had not been helping.

Hermione regularly was upset that Regulus Black had left the Horcrux to Gemma–even though, technically, it wasn't even his. But it was unspoken between the four–three–of them that it belonged to Gemma. She had never been mean about passing the necklace around–she actually seemed to feel more relieved when she wasn't around it. But at the end of the day, Gemma would double-check to see if it had gotten damaged and then hang it at the end of her bunk.

Hermione glowered at it as she sat on the other end of the bed–turning her eyes to Gemma, "Want to hear what Harry and I found out?"

Gemma rubbed her face–the dark rings under her eyes looking like bruises as she nodded, "Please."

Gemma listened intently as Hermione started to explain what the pages of Rita Skeeter's The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore held.

And it was–a lot, to say the least.

1. Dumbledore and Grindelwald had been best friends. 

2. After Kendra Dumbledore died, Dumbledore apparently went home to care for his younger siblings–a brother and a sister.

3. People called Dumbledore's younger brother–Aberforth–a headcase. Also, apparently, he and Dumbledore did not get along. 

4. Allegedly, Dumbledore kept his younger sister–Ariana–"imprisoned" as her mother had done to her due to the girl's "poor health." 

5. Bathilda Bagshot was one of the only people on speaking terms with Kendra Dumbledore and said that the woman died from a backfiring charm. 

6. Rita Skeeter had used Veritaserum on Bathilda Bagshot to get information on Dumbledore's life. 

7. Bathilda Bagshot is the great-aunt of Gellert Grindelwald and stayed with her the same summer Dumbledore went back to Godric's Hollow. 

8. At sixteen, Gellert Grindelwald had been expelled from Durmstrang for experimenting with Dark Arts. After travelling for a few months, he moved in with his great-aunt and became friends with Dumbledore. 

9. At one point, Dumbledore agreed with Grindelwald's beliefs about wizard superiority in life. 

10. Despite their freakishly fast friendship, two months later, they never saw each other again until a "legendary" duel years later. 

11. Bathilda Bagshot had claimed that Grindelwald had left because of his witnessing Ariana Dumbledore's death. 

12. Aberforth blamed Dumbledore for what happened–and went as far as breaking his brother's nose at their sister's funeral.