Obliviate My Heart {Book 2}

31. The Nightmare

"The one who can change the fate?" Gennie repeated to me with wide eyes. It was near enough to dawn now, and the earliest I dared to wake her up. When I returned last night, she was half-out of it with exhaustion.

So now, Cole, Gennie and I were huddled in the common room next to the fire discussing last night. The others had gone to the owlery to deliver a letter to Sirius--we didn't think it wise for all six of us to go.

"That's what he said." I said grimly.

Cole looked puzzled. "Well that doesn't sound cricket."

"I know!" I said in exasperation. "He made no sense half of the time, he was talking to a tree--"

"A tree?" Gennie giggled. Cole and I gave her odd looks. "Sorry, it's just.. Crouch didn't look like the type for a mental breakdown."

"But he seemed most alert when talking to me..." I trailed off. "It makes no sense."

"Except..." Cole trailed off. "Well he said you were wanted by Voldemort, that you could change fate. Well you kinda have already, haven't you?"

"Have I?" I asked uncertainly.

"You survivied something you should have died from. You should have had no recollection of who you were. You cheat fate, Rory. Voldemort sees that, and wants to cheat his."

"Man, that was deep, Cole." I said, and I shivered from a non-existent breeze. "But.... why? Why does he have to come back? Why can't he just stay dead!" I shouted.

I felt hot and angry tears pour down my face, as I punched a pillow as hard as I could. "He's ruined so many lives!" I cried. "He's taken so many people, destroyed so many.... why can't he just burn in hell?"

Cole looked at me with a determined yet sympathetic expression. "Come here, Rory, you too Gen."

Gennie and I got up from the floor, and sat either side of Cole on the sofa. He drew an arm each around the two of us, drawing us closer to him. He gave us each a comforting hug. "Voldemort is a bastard, there is no denying. And it seems likely that he's on the move, which bloody sucks. But you know what? The three of us are going to get through this."

He placed a kiss on the top of my head, and then kissed Gennie softly on the cheek. "My girls," he sighed. "The three of us against the rest of the world."

"Don't forget Alia." I added.

"Right then, the four of us." Cole corrected.

"Not to mention Hermione, Ron, Harry and the twins." Gennie in-putted.

"Okay, well there's a lot of us against the world, but you two are like the most important ever. My best friend--" he nudged me in the side. "And the girl I lo--that I'm dating. Don't tell Alia that I left her out though, she'd go ape on me."

Right up until we left for breakfast, I noticed a constant flush of heat across Cole's cheeks and a sudden giddy expression over Gennie. I knew what Cole had almost said to Gennie, and it warmed my heart.

Gennie seemed to feel the same way, and I was pleased. Finally the two of them were in a realtionship where the other person loved them.

Later on in the day, the six of us planned to ask Moody for some advice. Rather than face him getting crotchety with us so early in the morning, we planned to go after History of Magic. Nobody was focusing, not even Hermione.

When the bell finally rang, they hurried out into the corridors toward the Dark Arts classroom and found Professor Moody leaving it. He looked as tired as they felt. The eyelid of his normal eye was drooping, giving his face an even more lopsided appearance than usual.