DOROTHEA {fred weasley}

thirty three

"How was it, then?" Ezra Nott asked Dorothea when she returned from Cedric Diggory's funeral. His tone was disinterested but the witch did not miss his prying eyes, watching her as she moved around his kitchen.

The witch shrugged and nodded, accepting a cup of tea that he handed her and sitting opposite him at the table, smiling at the wizard.

"It was fine, lots of people, as you'd expect. Sad, of course, but I think that a few weren't happy with me being there, though. So I left early."

Ezra didn't seem surprised, but still said, "that's ridiculous, who?"

"Potter, for starters. He's the only one who explicitly stressed that I shouldn't be there." Dorothea replied, her eyes boring into his as she tried to read his expression.

"He said that to you?"

"To the Weasley twins, then they told me."

"They made you leave?"

Dorothea shook her head, "I decided to."

"Well, suppose Potter's got to back up his ridiculous lies somehow, doesn't he?"

The girl narrowed her eyes at the wizard sat opposite her, "and you're sure he's lying?"

Ezra groaned and put his head in his hands, "Thea, how many times do we need to have this conversation? You know your mum."

"I don't," she said, laughing a little. "Not really. I hardly ever see her. Once I leave here I'll be alone for the rest of summer. She's hardly my mum at all, and you know that Ezra."

The boy's heart fell a little at that. He knew how often Dorothea was left alone, and without a mother himself, he and Theo often also experienced the same empty house that she would. But they had each other, he had Adrian Pucey only twenty minutes away. And Barnaby Nott told Ezra more, he was allowed to decide his own future, allowed to sit in on meetings with his father's circle. Dorothea was completely in the dark, living down south in the remote countryside, with no one near her.

"Can't you see Elvira?" He asked sympathetically.

"We never see each other over summer, you know that. She's all the way in Scotland."

"Well, you can apparate now."

"Well, Clementine doesn't approve of her as a friend," the witch snapped.

Ezra sighed at the girl's mood, leaning back into his chair and glancing at his watch.

"Got somewhere to be?"

"Got a meeting," he replied.

"About what?"

"Just future jobs, meeting with some people from the ministry."

"Why don't I get these meetings?"

"I thought Clementine was more interested in your magical strength, not political pursuits."

"So what, I'm going to be an auror?" Dorothea asked, tongue in cheek with a slight smirk on her face.

Ezra laughed at that, grinning and reaching across the table to hold onto her hand, "yeah, Dorothea Rosier, you're going to be an auror. Focus on the wandless magic."

"It's quite late for this...Ministry meeting?"

"Yes," he said, not breaking eye contact with her.

"You must think that I'm a fucking idiot, Ezra Nott."

The wizard didn't speak again, but leant down to kiss the top of her head before leaving, "I'll be back late," he said quietly. "Sorry to leave you alone, we can spend the day together tomorrow, before you go home."