Confident | Fred Weasley

Chapter 89 | In-between

Everything was irritatingly bright, even through Sarah's closed eyelids. She opened her eyes and was confronted with a white bumpy ceiling that reminded her distantly of the flat. She was lying on the ground, but it was surprisingly comfortable.

Like an electric shock, everything came back to her. Her completion of the revival potion, the fight at Hogwarts, Bellatrix hitting her with the green, killing curse. Fred's face...

She sat up quickly, breathing rapidly, and realised she wasn't at Hogwarts anymore. Quite frankly, she didn't think she was truly on Earth anymore. Her surroundings just proved it.

It looked like she was in the flat, except that it was completely white and clean. The walls were pure as snow, the floor as pale as paper, the sofa the same colour as Alabaster. Considering that her and her flatmates had gone to extra lengths to make sure their flat wasn't white and boring, the sight of this alternate flat was disorientating.

Sarah clambered to her feet and quickly made two more realisations. Her body was no longer in pain. Really, she had never felt more fit and healthy. She swore when she was fighting Bellatrix (more like when Bellatrix was kicking her ass, Sarah reluctantly conceded), her head and back had been hurting.

The second realisation? She was completely naked.

She scrambled to cover herself and glanced around quickly. If this was the place she thought it was, the afterlife, then there would be other people here, too. She didn't need any dead people seeing her in the nude. It was a relief to see that she wasn't the same pure white as everything around, though. Her skin still held a lovely, bronze tan from Italy.

The second she thought about clothes, some folded, grey items appeared on the dining table. Sarah reached for them and hurriedly slipped them on.

With some clothes on, Sarah took to exploring the flat. Interestingly, the front door was locked with a thick, white chain. Sarah still tried to shove it open, but it didn't budge. George and Capri's bedroom door opened without an issue, as well as the bathroom door. Her and Fred's door, like the front door, was locked with a thick chain. Sarah still pushed at it.

"That one won't open yet," a voice startled her.

Sarah jumped, her hand scrambling for her wand in her pocket and coming back empty. She turned towards the voice, and her jaw dropped.

"Mum?" Sarah whispered, approaching slowly.

Her mother looked the same as when Sarah had last seen her, although perhaps a bit healthier. She was a similar height to Sarah. She had ash brown hair, the ends of which skimmed her shoulders. Sarah found herself staring at the same cerulean blue eyes she saw in the mirror every day. Her mother's skin was paler and dotted with freckles few and far between. She was skinnier than Sarah, and her lips were thinner, and she had more lines on her face.

"Hello, Sarah," Trinity Copper greeted her, a neutral expression on her face.

"Why are you here?" Sarah demanded, stopping so that the dining table separated them. She didn't think she could stand to be any closer to her mother than that.

"Have you ever heard of Charon?" Trinity asked.

Sarah shook her head, and so Trinity continued, "He's from Greek mythology. He ferries the dead across the River Styx as long as they have the required payment."

Sarah nodded, biting back any remarks. She needed to know what was going on before she could allow herself to get angry at her mother, "So, I take it you're Charon, my flat is the River Styx, and I'm dead?"

Trinity nodded, sliding into a seat on the dining table, "Exactly! You've grasped on quicker than some other dead people do. How about we sit?"

"I'd rather not," Sarah responded sharply.