Grudges

Chapter 29

It had been days since Victoria had gotten any proper sleep, every time she closed her eyes her nightmare came back to her. Except this time her imagination filled in the blurred faces of the dead. Fred. George. Remus. Tonks. Harry. Her mother. Skye.

It was like the nightmare followed her, it played on the back of her eyelids every time they closed and plagued every second of sleep she got. She was worried so much for her friends, what if they were one of those bodies? Would Skye die? She shook the thought from her head, there was no way Fred would let Skye die, unless he died first.

Victoria sighed as the sun rose over the trees, painting the sky in a beautiful array of oranges, reds, pinks, blues, and purples. Sunrises are always beautiful from the balcony of Grimmauld place, there were buildings surrounding them, but they were short so the view of the sunrise was perfect. Victoria was a night owl, so many nights she would stare at the stars until the sun would come and paint the sky in a million different ways. She missed the days where she would convince Skye to stay up with her and look at the stars, where they would take for hours about nothing and everything all at once.  She almost contemplated breaking up with Draco to get Skye back, but Victoria knew she couldn't do that. Sadly she had to choose between her best friend and her love.

She had yet to choose.

"Miss Victoria?" Kreacher's voice came from behind her.

"Hm?" She hummed, not fully awake but not yet asleep. She had constantly been in a state of sleep and wakefulness, she could barely process when someone spoke to her from the cloud of sleep that covered her mind.

"A Weasley wishes to see you downstairs." Kreacher sneered the name Weasley, he hated them so very much. Though he took a liking to Victoria, he kept her room spotless compared to the other rooms in the house and brought her food when she didn't come down for dinner. She supposed it was because she was a Slytherin, thought she wasn't complaining, having someone in this house that actually speaks like you was a relief. She nodded slightly and stood, putting her hand on the wall as a wave of nausea washed over her.

"Miss Victoria?"

"I'm fine. Just a little dizzy." With that she traveled downstairs, only stopping at the bathroom to fix her appearance. She was pale, almost ghostly with large bag beneath her eyes. She sighed and slapped her cheeks lightly to return the color to them before brushing through her hair once and continuing downstairs.

No one was in the living room as she came down the stairs, she ventured into the kitchen to find it empty as well. There was a blue cake sitting on the counter, small white icing letters spelling out 'Happy Birthday' in messy handwriting. It looked homemade, kind of like the ones her mother used to make but a little messier.

"Oh! You found it! Happy Birthday dear!" Molly came in behind her, smiling at Victoria as she took a large pan out of the oven. "I've made you a birthday dinner so you'll have to wait to eat the cake, so come sit down in the dining room and i'll be out with the plates in a second." Molly explained as she went to work on the dinner.

"For....me?" Victoria asked slowly, confused at the fact that her birthday was actually recognized, let alone celebrated.

"Yes of course. Who else would it be for?" Molly asked kindly.

"Um... someone you actually care about?" Victoria asked, less sassy and more confused at this whole situation. Molly gave her a serious look and walked up to her.

"Now, of course we care about you. We didn't mean to treat you as terribly as we did, we had just heard some stories that you were dating the Malfoy boy-"

"-Draco." Molly sighed at her interruption.

"Right. Sorry. That you were dating Draco and we don't trust that family so we thought we'd keep our distance. Don't worry, we've realized out mistake and now we're making it up to you! Come eat!" Molly smiled and led Victoria into the dining room and sat her down next to Harry, who smiled at her.

"Happy Birthday!"

"I'm surprised you even remembered. I was convinced you all hated me." Victoria said sheepishly as she scanned the table. Remus sat across from her, Tonks next to him, Arthur sat a seat away from her on the opposite side of Harry, Moody sat at the head of the table grumbling about something or another. Ron and Hermione sat the farthest away from her, whispering to themselves in the corner, not so subtly glaring at Victoria.

"Hey! Sorry we're late! What's the occasion?" A voice yelled from the hallway, soon enough 2 identical red heads appeared, followed by a ravenette.

"Skye?"