Crystal the Half-Ghost Witch

Chapter 20

Crystal hesitated outside the room where she was supposed to meet Fred and George so she could explain things to them. She hadn't told anyone about being half-ghost except for her cousin, and that was when she was six. Unlike Danny, Crystal kept her secret life well hidden. Even full ghosts didn't know about her being a halfa, except for Frostbite, but she didn't count him since she wasn't the one who told him. Danny had asked if he could tell Frostbite since the ghost was a healer and could help Crystal if anything happened to her.

So she had only told one person about being a halfa, and she didn't know how to tell others without traumatizing them! When she and Dudley were younger, neither of them understood what being half-ghost meant. As they grew up and realized the gravity of Crystal's situation, they had already had years to get used to the idea, so they didn't think much about the logic and horror behind being half-dead.

But the Weasley twins were well aware when it came to death and ghosts. They went to school in a haunted castle and interacted with ghosts often. The two older boys were going to be horrified when they learned how this had happened.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly let it out before phasing through the door, enjoying the way the twins jumped. If she had to tell them about her secret, she might as well get payback for the scare they gave her yesterday. Speaking of...

"You know, when you two scared me yesterday, I almost seriously hurt you with an ecto-blast?" As she spoke, she powered up an ecto-blast and shot the wall, leaving a scorch mark behind. Both twins paled when they saw it.

"Oh," one of the twins said, staring at the wall.

"Yeah, oh," Crystal rolled her eyes, grabbed one of the old chairs, and plopped down on it. "Ask your questions, and I'll do my best to answer them."

"How did this happen?" the twin on the left asked after a few minutes.

Crystal sighed. "Getting right into the heavy questions, huh?" She adjusted how she was sitting, feeling the uneven wood digging into one of her legs.

"I was six, and I was involved in an accident with another person. His parents are ghost hunters, and—"

One of the twins cut her off. "Ghost hunters? Are those like witch hunters?"

She hummed. "I guess, kind of. I mean, he found out his ancestors actually were witch hunters back in the old days, but that doesn't mean they're like the hunters of back then."

She looked at the twins seriously. "His parents believed that ghosts were just ecto remains of people who died—imprints, really—and thought ghosts couldn't feel emotions like happiness or love. They believed that all ghosts wanted to haunt and hurt the living, so by hunting ghosts, they thought they were protecting their town and their children. They're not bad people, just misinformed."

"They've since learned better and now only hunt evil ghosts or ones attacking people. Even then, they don't kill or try to hurt the ghosts—they just release them back into the Ghost Zone like their son," Crystal smiled slightly as she thought back to the Fenton parents. They had really improved since she first met them.

"So you're safe around them?" one of the twins asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Oh yeah, I'm safe. So is their son, who's also a halfa like me. And yes, everyone who knows about this finds it really ironic that the ghost hunters' son became a half-ghost," Crystal said dryly. She was thankful Danny let her tell these two about him. She wasn't using names, though, just in case the twins tried to tell others about this.

"So what was the accident that caused this?"

She sighed. "I wasn't lying when I said I was exposed to a lot of ectoplasm when I was younger, which caused my allergy to blood blossoms. I just left out that it wasn't just ectoplasm; it was also electricity. Kind of like when someone gets struck by lightning, only turned up to eleven," she explained in a way she hoped the wizards would understand.