The Empty Chamber (Harry Potter Next Generation Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen: Genevieve

Genevieve didn't know what Hope was up to, and that concerned her as much as it concerned her friends. But the difference between Genevieve and her friends was that while her friends now believed that Genevieve had the Hope situation under control, Genevieve knew she absolutely did not. And she was aware that if she told them this, they would help her in a heartbeat, but Hope's mystery was no one's but Genevieve's. If that mystery turned out to be kidnapping other students, Genevieve would share when she knew for certain. She hoped her sister wasn't a kidnapper, but Genevieve didn't really find the others foolish in suspecting her either.

The memory Genevieve had, however, of trying to understand her sister ended with an empty corridor, and a framed picture of a woman who looked remarkably like their mother. What Genevieve knew for sure was that there was something important on the fifth floor, and that she had to keep her friends distracted from all the signs pointing to Hope. Genevieve did feel guilty about this secrecy, and whenever Hope returned to the common room late, Genevieve remembered clearly the startled faces of two girls who couldn't remember the past several days of their lives. But family is family, and sisters are sisters, and Hope was, though confusing and at times scary, a child. She probably wan't guilty.

Genevieve told herself this as she sat with Alice, Lorcan, and Lysander in the Ravenclaw common room a week before Christmas break. They were discussing whether or not they would go home for the holidays, and Genevieve for the most part tuned out their conversation. 

"I'm staying here," Alice said simply, "because I'm curious. I've never seen a wizard Christmas, you know, and I wrote my parents about this a month ago." She paused, considering. "I also want to be at Hogwarts in case anything happens." She didn't clarify, but everyone nodded in understanding. Alice looked back down at the book in her lap, which she had long since stopped pretending to read.

"Our parents are in Laos," Lysander said, speaking for both himself and his twin. "They're looking for some endangered breed of unicorn or something, I don't really know. And we were invited to join them, but I'd rather stay here in the comforts of," he looked around skeptically, "walls and the indoors."

"What about you, Veev?" Lorcan asked, and Genevieve turned to look from Lysander to his twin quite sharply. Alice and Lysander were also blinking at Lorcan, their eyes full of confusion.

"Are you talking to me?" Genevieve uttered, placing a hand tentatively on her chest.

"Yes," Lorcan prodded, "you haven't said where you're spending the holidays."

"Did you call me Veev?"

"Genevieve is a very long name," Lorcan smiled, seemingly unaware of the uncomfortable looks his friends were sharing.

"My name is French. It's Jon-vee-ev. There is no 'Veev' sound in it. And Lysander's name is just as long. Why don't you give him a nickname?"

"He called me 'Lice' for about three years," Lysander said miserably. "You might be stuck with this name for a while." Alice snickered, but quickly brought her hand up to cover her mouth, as if this hid anything.

Lorcan didn't react to the commentary of the other Ravenclaws. "So are you staying or not?"

Genevieve looked weakly back to him, "I'm staying. Because Hope is staying, and it's her last Christmas as a Hogwarts student, and she wants to spend it here." Her friends all nodded at this, convinced that apparently Genevieve did speak to Hope, though none of them had ever seen such a thing happen. Truthfully, Genevieve had written her parents and they had been the ones to tell her of Hope's plans to stay at the castle for her holiday break. Genevieve didn't really know what Hope would do on Christmas day, since she wasn't very close to her sister and Genevieve had never seen Hope with friends. It didn't matter, however, because with Hope there were more pressing issues.