Insomniac• a Harry Potter Fanfiction

19. O.W.L.s

Months pasted, and it was time for Harry, Ron, and Hermione to take their OWLs. The past few weeks I had been training Harry. Or at least trying to. Halfway through each of my lessons, he'd loose interest and try to change the subject to something other than school.
Then they left. Then Fred and George left.

Long distance is hard. Like, really hard. When Fred and George left Hogwarts, they had spent over a week trying to convince me to go with them to open up their joke shop.
"It's your dream. Not mine." I'd tell them. "Besides, I have to finish school, and . . . ."
"And what?" George would ask me.
I would shake my head, "I'm only seventeen."
Fred would always take his hands in mine, "but in the wizarding world, you'd be considered an adult."
"I know it's just that. . . ."
"Just what?"
"Like I said, this is your dream, not mine!"
They'd hug me. "But my dream is you." Fred would then tell me.

The day they left, it was around their eighteenth birthday. N.E.W.Ts was the very last thing on my mind. Since I was eleven I thought that maybe I wanted to be a professor at Hogwarts, but now, I just wasn't sure.
"Jesus, Meg. When you told me Fred and George were leaving, I didn't even think you'd be this miserable. You look terrible." Alli told me the night before they left.
I wipe the tears from my face, "awe thank you! That's what every insecure, teenage girl wants to hear!"
Alli snapped at me, "Hey! Don't you get sarcastic with me, missy."
I held my hands up like I was surrendering. "I'M SORRY!" I cried out and ran over to her. At this point, I was losing it. "What am I supposed to do? Just sit around here, as if two of my closest friends aren't leaving?" Even though she was hugging me, she looked offended that I said 'two of my closest friends', like she wasn't. "Oh my gosh, Alli, that's not what I meant!"
She laughs, "I know." Alli pushes her dark hair into a loose ponytail and wipes her face. "Alright, I'm going to bed."
I nodded, "right back at 'ya!"
Like more often than not, that night I didn't sleep.

I miss you - Meg. That was all I wrote on the note.
I gave it to my owl, and sighed. "Look, I need you to hand this to Fred and, or George." I wiped the back of my hand over my eyes, " I don't know where they are."
Right after doing so, I opened up the window and my owl flew out.
A week later I found out that I did okay on transfiguration, horrible on charms, I did fantastic on astronomy, and I forgot what I did on everything else for the entire school year. Astronomy. Maybe that's why I didn't leave to go with Fred and George: to be an astronomy professor at Hogwarts. I didn't know what I want to do with my life. Saying that is terrifying considering that this was my last year at Hogwarts.
I hear tap at my window. Thinking that I just imagined it, I shook my head. I hear the tap again. I shake my head once more. Again, I hear a tap. This time I actually got up to see what was going on. My owl was sitting outside with a note attached to its foot. (Foot? Do owls have feet? Claws? Oh wait talons. That's what they have). I open my window quicker than I thought was possible.
I carefully take the note in my hands and unfolded it. I miss you, too. It read. That was it. It took me no longer than five seconds to realize that it was Fred's handwriting. His horrible hand writing that I was in love with.
At that same moment, my door opens. I look up to see Alli leaning on the doorway, grinning. "Dinner's starting, by the way." She said. Her eyes wonder to my hands, "hey what's that?"
Without warning, she snaps it from my hands and read it silently, "it's from Fred isn't it?"
"Yeah."
She hugs me. "Well you have to write back. Like now."I nod. "Oh- okay." I managed to get out.
As quickly as I could, I wrote the words, "she loves you"- the Beatles. "What does that mean?"
Alli was peering over my shoulder at the almost plank piece of parchment. I broadly smile, "he'll know." I fold up the parchment and give it to my owl. "I'm sorry. I know you're tired, but can you give this to Fred Weasley?" I gingerly (ha gingerly. Get it? I hate myself) open my window and my owl flies out.
"Tell me the story behind that." Alli says as we make our way to the Great Hall.
"It's a bit of a long story." I tell her, shaking my head.
"I think we have time." Alli responds. She was right, we did. And so I told her the story behind it.

Only the next day is when I got another letter, I miss how your lips would taste like strawberry because of the cheap Chapstick you'd put on them. I miss how you'd keep your room messy, though you'd insist it was clean, but yet you still managed to look done up everyday. I miss how you'd often come to class with your hands clad in charcoal and graphite. I miss how you insist on documenting everything, like you're going to forget something. I miss how you would get lost in your music like it was air and you were drowning. I miss your obsession with the Beatles. I miss how you were basically made up of creativity.
I miss you -F.
I put the parchment down on my desk. "I miss you too, Fred." I told my window, like he was standing there. I sit down at my desk and pull out one of my last sheets of parchment. I miss how you'd do anything for anyone you loved, regardless of the consequence. I miss how you would always want me to revise your papers before you turned them in; and you always seemed to spell many words incorrectly. I miss how your heartbeat and pulse would somehow align with mine. For some reason I miss your vain-y hands. I miss how we'd have prank wars and you'd let me win. I miss how whenever i was feeling blue and sad, you'd make me feel excited about the smallest things. I miss how you slammed me against the closet door the first day of sixth year. I miss you - M.
I gave it to my O.W.L, "last one." I opened my window for my owl. She flew into the small breeze. "For now."