Wisps of Beth Black ϟ Fred Weasley [2] (ON HOLD)

2

"To Fred?" Beth mumbled to herself as she fidgeted with her pen in her hand and her notebook lying flat in front of her.

It felt abnormal to say his name out loud and the girl felt a jolt in her stomach upon hearing his name...Saying it...

"No...too formal...just Fred? No -- Weasley. No, but then they won't know --"

Fred's owl had to have been brain damaged by the way it swooped all around her room and collided into the walls, letting out all sorts of squeaks and chirps. It hadn't left yet, thankfully, because it was still waiting for a treat. Sighing, Beth moved her pen to the corner of the page, not yet pressing down to write a single word. This was going to be her first letter she had written to him all summer.

'Fred,' she wrote, pausing to think of what to write.

She wanted to tell him that he was still not forgiven but that she would accompany him to the Quidditch World Cup anyway, even though the thought of being near him again made her feel queasy and sick to the stomach. But she didn't want to make it sound like she was using him, even though that's exactly what she was doing. She knew he wouldn't have minded, but that wasn't the point.

'I don't think I'll ever be given another opportunity to go to the Quidditch World Cup, so I'll come with you if it's really no trouble at all. I just want to get one thing straight though -- me accompanying you there doesn't mean that you're forgiven. I don't think--'

The door burst open even after Beth had locked it.

There stood her mother with a large, sloppy, drunken grin on her face with an arm slung around Barry's shoulders. Her mother's brown eyes scanned the room and landed on the owl, then darted to where Beth was with a pen in her hand. The sounds of Fred's owl flying into the walls and making loud noise must have been what brought her up here.

Mandy's face changed completely into something that looked rather sinister and furious.

"You've been writing to the other freaky people, haven't you? The devil has been writing to his demons!"

Beth nearly snorted, but simply turned away to look out her window and wait for her mother to pass.

"You look at me when I'm talking to you, Bethy!"

Beth yelped as she was pulled up roughly from the chair. Her mother yelled in her face about not allowing owls in the house or other freaky things. Beth barely got the chance to open her mouth to retort before her mothers fist connected with it.

Beth couldn't believe it. Mandy had never done such a thing, although she was right about having said no owls in the house, no owls as a pet. Which is why Beth didn't own an owl...although she would have really loved to.

Shocked beyond everything, Beth, after having landed on her bed, gripped the side of her face and sobbed dryly. A squeal escaped her throat as Mandy threw Beth's unfinished letter in her face and yanked her back up by the hair before reeling her arm back and turning her hand into a fist again.

"Mum!" Beth cried in horror, a note of bewilderment in her voice, looking into her mother's eyes with shocked ones of her own.

Barry quickly stepped in and wrapped his hand around Mandy's fist, whispering soothing things in her ear. But Mandy shook him off, a shocked expression of her own, as though she hadn't meant to do that at all. As if she was asleep in her own body and had finally woken up to the horror it had done.

"Beth..." she whispered, almost questioningly and apologetically. Mandy covered her mouth with her hand, tears filling her eyes. "Oh, Regulus, what have I done?"

Beth shook her head at her mother and brushed past her, grabbing her bags and shoving clothes and her school books in it. Mandy kept talking, kept apologising, even told Barry to go home, but Beth completely ignored her mother's pleas. The girl grabbed her trunk, shoved her bags inside, and dragged it out behind her past her mother.

"Beth, please, I didn't mean for it to go that far!" Mandy shouted at her daughter's back.

Beth said nothing, only walked out the front door.

The ride to the Leaky Cauldron in the Knight Bus was not as peaceful as she wanted it to be. Beth wanted to be alone and think to herself but it was the bumpiest ride she had ever been on. She had heard about the Knight Bus, of course, but she'd thought the speed and the careless driving was a myth.

She was shown to a room once she arrived at the Leaky Cauldron and the first thing she did was sit calmly on the double bed, reaching a hand up to touch her face for the first time, feeling her stomach turn and her throat swell up at the thought of her mother's terrifying reaction, her fist colliding with Beth's cheek and her nail scratching the corner of Beth's mouth as she swung.

Beth wandered over to the dresser on the other side of the room and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked as though she had just gotten into a fight or someone had mugged her. Her braid was a mess and a lot of her hair had fallen out of it, her cheek had a gash across it, the corner of her mouth was covered in dry blood.

No wonder she had gotten curious looks on her way here.

The girl sat down at the dresser and fetched her unfinished letter, even though it had crinkles in it now thanks to her crazy mother. Fred's owl had flown off when Beth left the house, but Tom the bartender lent her another.

'Fred,

I don't think I'll ever be given another opportunity to go to the Quidditch World Cup, so I'll come with you if it's really no trouble at all. I just want to get one thing straight though -- me accompanying you there doesn't mean that you're forgiven. I don't think I can forgive you.

The point is, I will go with you to the Cup, but just not because I want to see you. You'll find me at the Leaky Cauldron.

Beth.'