Friends - a Harry Potter Fanfiction

~4~

Fred was my first boyfriend ever. Since the day I got my diagnosis, I had never let someone so close to me as I let the twins. They were my best friends and I was in love with one of them. But it was just a matter of time until I got to see a person from my old life again.

I broke up with all my friends when I found out I was sick. When I was finally able to leave the hospital I had to do 5th grade again which was good for me because I could break up the contact to my old friends completely. I hardly ever spoke to my new classmates for the two years I shared with them. But when we moved back to England I met Fred and George and there was something different about them. They didn't know I was sick at first. Nearly every student in America had known and I hated it.

It was a cold morning in the end of January and I was in the shop alone. The twins were in our flat, thinking about new good ideas for Valentine's Day in two weeks. There were only two customers here. A couple looking for a present for their son who would celebrate his 14th birthday in a few days. I had already helped them and now they were discussing if they should buy "Weather in a bottle" or a self-writing quill. In the end they decided to take both, payed and left the shop. Only a few moments later a young woman entered. I greeted her, looked at her briefly and noticed that she was pregnant. I waited for a moment but she didn't ask for help so I turned back to the letter I was writing for Mum. I finally wanted to answer her letter I had received more than a month ago.

"Chrm." This sound came from the woman. This sound somehow reminded me of Umbridge.

"Is everything okay with you", I asked friendly and looked at her. She was standing in front of the desk.

"Athena, don't you recognise me?" Now she sounded a bit disappointed. But suddenly I remembered. She was Miranda Abernathy, my best friend at Ilvermony, at least for my first three years, She was two years older than me. She looked good. And she was pregnant. A baby, this had been her dream since she was a little child. When I was 13 years old and she was 15, we had often talked about getting a family. She always wanted to have a big one because she came from a huge family. It had always been a thing I desired too but now I knew that a baby would kill me. If I would survive the pregnancy, I would die during birth. There was nothing to do against it.

"You ... look good", I said. I didn't really know what to say. I hadn't talked to her for about four years.

"Thank you", she answered. "Charles, Robert and I are travelling through England at the moment. We wanted to travel bevor I feel like an Elephant. And I see you found a place to work?" I still was a bit overwhelmed. She was so nice to me, even though I ended our friendship.

"Yeah, I love it here. My boyfriend and his twin brother own this shop. I live with them and work here. I see you made your dream come true too. But who are Charles and Robert? Where are they?" She smiled

"Charles is my husband and Robert is our three years old son. Don't judge me, I got pregnant right after my graduation. But I'm fine with being a young mother. He is so excited to meet his little sisters in April. I'm expecting twins. My boys are still at Gringotts. Robert loved it there. He wants to play with the goblins and there was one who had time to show him a few secret passages. I think he'll have fun in Paris next week. We're gonna go to Disneyland, this muggle theme park."

"Are you doing a tour through Europe?"

"No, just a little world tour. When the twins are three years old, we want to do another one."

This was the Miranda I knew. Unbelievably rich but not arrogant at all. Her parents owned a big factory that produces special cauldrons. Everyone in America has Abernathy cauldrons. Nobody would ever admit that he has one from another brand. I don't think her family really knows how much money they have because they get richer every day. They belong to the richest wizard families of all times but it's not that important for them. They are actually quite down-home.