Amelia Merlin

Part Forty Nine: the eye

Amelia sat at breakfast, weeks after Valentines day. The post was starting to arrive and she saw Morris' quizzical brow zooming towards her. He was carrying a small box wrapped in brown paper. Amelia fed him a bit of toast before starting to rip the paper off.

"Who's that from?" Lavender peered over her shoulder.

"I dunno. There was no note."  She crumpled up the paper and opened the box. Lavender gave a loud shriek and half the hall looked over to see what was happening.

Amelia couldn't breath. Inside the box was an eye, ripped from its socket. The blue iris stared up at her. There was blood splattered on the inside and the tendrils hanging off the back of the eye had a note attached. She grabbed the note, that was covered in blood and read Akkedis sends his regards.

She crumpled the paper in her hand and Lavender gave another scream making Amelia smack her.

"Lavender!" she hissed. "Shut up! I swear to god, if you don't shut up right now." Lavender gulped and turned away. It was strange though, she went right back to eating like she had before, like nothing had happened. And Lavender never mentioned the eye ever again.

Amelia would have given it more thought but she had more important things to take care of. She grabbed the box and headed out of the Great Hall.

"Amelia!" The unmistakable voice of Fred Weasley sounded behind her.

She grimaced before turning around. "Hey!" Amelia put on a smile.

"What's in the box?"

"Your birthday present." She said without hesitation.

"Let me see!" He grinned and made to grab it from her.

"No! You'll ruin the surprise." Amelia insisted. "I have to go put it in my trunk."

"I'll walk with you!" He offered and started to make his way to the door. Amelia couldn't think of a good enough reason to refuse his company without letting him now something was wrong, so she went along with it.

"So how's Quidditch practice going?" She made light conversation.

Fred immediately launched into a rage of how crazy Wood was. "The mans a nutcase! I swear!"

"Yeah sounds like it." She agreed.

He looked at her with a quizzical expression. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing!" Amelia laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Seriously. What's up?"

"Nothing Fred!" She insisted but he wasn't letting up.

"Come on, Amelia. I know when something's bothering you."

"Nothing's wrong. How many times do I have to say that?" She started to get a little angry. Why couldn't he just let it go?

"You're lying." Fred said as though this were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Maybe it's none of your business!" She defended.

"Is Cedric being a dick? Cuz I'll beat the shit out of the guy." He growled.

Amelia laughed incredulously. "Unbelievable! Of course you assume Cedric! For your information," she raised her voice. "He is nothing short of perfect! He treats me like gold and never makes me feel shitty when I'm with him."

"Calm down, will you?" Fred looked at her like she was crazy.

"Don't tell me to calm down." Amelia stabbed every word she spoke.