Heart on Fire(Seamus Finnigan and Watty Awards 2013 Finalist!)

Chapter 7

Ailsa arose from her state of nightmares to find that she had overslept and it was now 7 AM. She  jumped out of bed threw on a floral dress with a cardigan and ran out. She had been on the same schedule for the past two weeks. Wake up at 4 AM. Start making breakfast. Check the Owls. Wake up the cranky old wizard in room 798. Start serving breakfast. Wake Seamus up, and it just went on from there.

She hadn't been letting Seamus out of his room until he promised he would sober up. He still hadn't as of last night. And she made sure that he was not getting out. She had Eli set up a charm so he couldn't apparate anywhere outside his room and another so he wouldn't get out of his locked room. It was hard at first, because he didn't realize that it was for his own good. Then it slowly started to get better. He stopped sleeping in until 2 PM, and started to become a bit kinder to Ailsa.

She scurried down the stairs where she saw Eli and Seamus serving customers. "What is going on here?!" 

Seamus looked up and smiled. "Eli let me out! He is such a nice lad."

"I'm not a lad, Seamus, I don't know how many times I can tell you this, but I'm older." Eli laughed as he flipped a pancake. He preferred not to use magic while cooking. He told Ailsa that his grandmother(who was a muggle) created much better food than any of his wizard relatives ever could. 

"You weren't suppose to let him out for another 2 days! That was our deal!" Ailsa pouted. "He may not be ready yet."

"I heard that!" Seamus yelled after giving a middle age witch her food. "And I am ready. You know what I did yesterday? I read. And you know me. I don't read. At all. So there! I have changed! And besides we came up with a plan."

"And what is that?" Ailsa asked as she nibbled on a piece of leftover bacon.

Seamus smiled at Eli. "Well you've been working your as-("SEAMUS! There are children here!") so we thought that you should have the day off. You haven't had one off in almost a month now, so we thought that you could go and do whatever girls do, and we'll take care of the Cauldron!"

Ailsa couldn't contain her smile. "Really? Are you sure? Can you two get through the day without  me?"

"Of course we can it's only Tuesday("It's Wednesday, Seamus.") It's only Wednesday! It's practically nothing!" Seamus smiled. Almost eager to get rid of the girl. 

"Fine. Fine. I'll get out of your hair." Ailsa smiled than ran up to her room like a little child, eager to finally put a good outfit to work.

~

Ailsa sipped her pumpkin juice outside as she enjoyed the glorious September day. She was currently eating lunch at a new cafe that had opened up but she never had time to go to when she was working. They hired free elves to work part-time, whenever they wanted(which as most people would tell you, is all the time) at a very good wage, so Ailsa was more than happy to put her hard-earned money towards this cause. 

When she finished her sandwich, she left a more than reasonable tip for her young house elf who was decked out in the last socks and shirts, and headed out to go and enjoy Diagon Alley. Ailsa considered buying a new bathing suit and apparating to a popular wizard lake in Wales, but disregarded the idea. She was in an older antique store when she saw something that caught her eye.

An older newspaper listing the names and obituaries of some of the people who died during the Battle of Hogwarts. The paper was only two knuts because there had been a large print of that day's newspaper. She bought it and apparated to a hill about a mile away from her childhood home.

She searched the newspaper for Lavender Brown's obituariy and finally found it on the fourth page. 

Brown, 18, lived in Godric's Hollow with her parents and younger brother. She was in Gryffindor and lived to help her friends and school. Lavender was planning to have a job in divination. She is survived by her mother, Sarah, 41, her father, Alan, 43, older sister Amethyst, 22, and younger brother Celadon, 11. It is unknown whether or not she had a significant other. Brown was killed by known werewolf, Fenir Greyback. She has been laid to rest in the newly created Severus Snape Memorial Cemetery at Hogwarts. 

Ailsa reread the obituary many times, but it had the same effect on her. She should have been the one buried in the ground. She shouldn't had gone back to Hogwarts. She was a puny fourth year, just trying to prove herself to her parents. If she wouldn't have gone then maybe Fenir would have killed someone else and Seamus would be living a happy life with Lavender and not be an alcoholic and have fifty colored named babies!

Then her eyes found a small article on the back page.

Please check back within the few weeks for a list of people who had become ghosts. 

She had never seen the ghost list before, but she knew the Ministry would have the list. She sorted the plan out in her head and then apparated back to the Cauldron. She opened the door to find something that she was not very surprised to see.

Seamus with a black eye. He looked up at her with scared eyes for her reaction. Ailsa had obviously done a good job by showing that she was not to be messed with.

"I'm not asking what happened. Nor do I want to know." Ailsa sighed as she put on her apron.

When would Seamus ever grow up?

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Ahhhh! Look I did it! Woohoo! Sorry it's been so crazy at my house. Well not really at the house, really just with me. I feel like crap, I'm underweight(dude, I want to gain weight. Seriously I'm 16 and 90 pounds. It's sad and gross) and I can't gain weight. And I'm depressed. But oh well! 

But the good news is that in a year my aunt is taking me to Great Britain!! AHHHHH!!! Now I just have to wait for 2014. Oh well.

You guys need to read All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin. She is seriously one of my favorite authors(her book Elsewhere is my favorite book of all time(well besides Harry Potter)). But any book by her is so good! GO READ IT! NOW!!!

Also find Kiss You by One Direction. It's leaked and it's fantastic.

Ok love you! 

~Kate