Finding Neverland | George Weasley ✓

Chapter Thirty-Two

Thea remembered when she was younger that she had been reading a book in which the protagonist lost her mother and the author had described the protagonist's feelings as being in grief. Back then, Thea wasn't aware of what grief was and had immediately gone down to go see her father who was reading the Daily Prophet downstairs. Anne had taken Cedric out to go get something so it was just the father and daughter in the home. 

"Dad!" Thea shouted jumping onto her father who was sitting in his armchair by the fireplace.

"Thea!" Amos replied mocking her before he began tickling her. 

"Dad....stop," Thea said between laughter. She never could stand tickles. 

"Ok, Thea," Amos said for a few moments.

"Dad. What is grief?"

"Grief, huh?" Amos started. "Let's think. There are five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It's what people go through when they've lost someone they love."

"Ok, cool. Thanks, Dad." Thea said about to run off to escape her dad who would surely start tickling her again. 

"Not so fast, Thea," Amos said grinning. "Here comes the tickle monster!"

"No!" Thea shouted before breaking into giggles. 

Thea now looked over to the same armchair, her father's armchair by the fireplace, the armchair where he was currently sitting, his head in his hands sobbing, crying out for his son. 

After her discussion with her dad on that day, she understood what grief was but she didn't see someone go through it until she went with her mother to a funeral to celebrate the life of one of her close friends from her time at Hogwarts. Her mother had gone through all the stages that her father had described and hadn't reached acceptance for a long time. Anne had only had two really good friends during her time at Hogwarts. One was dead and the other had lived at St Mungo's with her husband since they were tortured to insanity during the first wizarding war. Thea had also watched Sadie go through grief when her childhood cat died during their fourth year at Hogwarts.

However, these two events did not prepare her for her own grief. 

Thea's summer was far from normal. All the funeral preparations had taken place at her house and Anne was using all the preparations as something to distract her from her own grief. Amos tried to help out where he could but spent most of the time in Cedric's room mourning his son. But both Amos and Anne were too busy dealing with their own grief and mourning they forgot to check in on their daughter and how she was dealing. 

Thea had so far spent every day of the holidays in her dark room sitting in the corner doing nothing. Occasionally she would read a book but she mainly just sat there listening and watching her curtains blow in and out due to the wind coming from the open window. The minute she got home, Thea had gone up the stairs into her room and opened the window just in case Cedric came back as a lost boy and came flying through her window to take her to Neverland. At night she would open her curtains and would watch the stars and the sky searching for the shape of a lost boy flying. It was bad for Thea, she wasn't eating, she wasn't sleeping, she just sat there doing nothing. The only time she really moved was when her mother came into the room, holding a black dress and ordering her daughter to get dressed because Cedric's funeral was today and despite Thea not wanting to go she was expected to be in attendance. 

The actual ceremony seemed to go well but for Thea, she just sat there playing with her fingers as she had for the rest of the holidays feeling everyone's eyes on her. 

Thea wasn't ready to see the friends that the last time she had seen them, she had told them that she never wanted to see them again. Even the entire Weasley family were in attendance and the only time Thea had looked behind her, she had met the eyes of George Weasley who had given her a sympatheic smile. 

The ceremony quickly finished and the Diggory family were expected to walk out of the small chapel first in front of everyone. Thea walked between her parents, keeping her eyes on the ground feeling everyone watching her. 

The Diggory family went downstairs and apparated to the venue of the reception. This was the one thing that Thea was dreaded more than anything. Actually having to look people in the eye as they came up to her all sympathetic and asking what they could do to ease her grief. Eventually, Thea just found a seat in the corner of the venue, as she stared at the floor hoping that her body language would tell people that she didn't want to talk. 

Max, Alexander, Sadie, and Marquis entered the venue at the same time as Fred and George and the six of them nearly crashed into each other. 

"Oh sorry," Max said. 

"It's fine," Fred replied.

"Hey, aren't you guys the friends of Thea?" George said gesturing over to where Thea was sitting. Thea looked unwell, the giant dark bags under her eyes, the amount of weight she had lost, her sad expression like everyone she had ever cared about had left her. 

"Well, we were." Sadie replied. 

"Were?" George asked. 

"Were," Alexander confirmed. "Max and I tried to approach her the day after everything happened and she told us she didn't want to see us anymore and that we didn't understand."

"That doesn't sound like Thea." 

"Well, it happened. I mean look at her now." Sadie said gesturing over to Thea. The group all looked over to Thea. "She looks awful, it's clear she hasn't slept or eaten much in a long time."

"So what do we do?" Fred asked. 

"We try and be a support for her. She might not be ready yet to accept everything that has happened but when she is ready, we will all be here for her."

Thea had lost everything, her brother, all her friends and it even seemed like she had lost her parents some days as well. Of course, it was her own fault that she had lost her friends because she had been so angry at everyone and everything it had caused her to lash out at the people who did care. Thea just hoped that when she was ready to try and mend her friendships with her friends that they would as accepting as she hoped.