Power ▸ Ron Weasley [1]

XXII. INEVITABILITY

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:

INEVITABILITY

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      She wanted to be anywhere else but there, sitting alone in her dorm with only the sound of her own breathing ringing in her ears. She was well-aware there was a Quidditch game going on that Weasley was playing in, but she'd already told Potter that morning that she didn't have the heart to hear the all-too-familiar tune of Malfoy's rendition of "Weasley is Our King." She wasn't sure she could stop herself from punching him in the face.

       If she was being honest with herself, Nova didn't have the heart to do much of anything.

      Her mind, as she knew it would be for perhaps the rest of my life, was on the black tattoo on her brother's skin. The same Theo that had promised to always protect her was the same one who would bring her downfall. 

      Bellatrix's words lingered in her mind. Sooner or later, she'd become like them. She'd fight like hell to put it off for as long as possible, but everyone had their weakness, and her weakness was Theo. As she looked to the clock off to the side of her dorm wall, she realized it was nearing the end of the Quidditch game and thought with a shock to her system that there was a redheaded Weasley that was slowly but surely becoming another weakness. Another weak spot in her armor that she'd fight to protect with all her might.

      It was odd thinking that, she reflected. It was odd that she had full knowledge of her feelings for him and knew the extent she'd go to to make sure Ron Weasley was happy and untouched by the blackness she'd forever had present in her life. And because she had a masochistic side, she wondered, only for a moment, what her mother would have thought of him.

      Elizabeth would be shocked at the choice, but it would be a different kind of shock compared to Edgar. She'd be more shocked that Nova had opened up her heart to someone. Nova liked to imagine that her mother wouldn't care about his blood status, and from the little piece of her that Hagrid had offered so many weeks ago, Nova believed it more and more everyday. "He's so good for you, Nova," she could imagine Elizabeth saying as she brushed her fingers through her daughter's hair. "I've never seen you smile so much."

       She never had, Nova realized with a start. She'd never smiled so much in her life.

      Another glance at the clock told her that Ron had long since traveled to the kitchens. If Gryffindor had won, he would be eating celebratory toad in the hole. If they had lost, he would be sulking and burying his face in anything chocolate. She'd remembered these particular facts when he had practiced the entire week leading up to the match, and she had given him a quick kiss on those days when he was eating a piece of chocolate pie. Nova stood from her four-poster and made her way down to the kitchens, sighing when she saw him halfway done with a piece of chocolate cake.