Read My Mind

A Jar Of Sunshine

"Do you guys know anything about Ria's mother?" He finally asked.

Hermione looked at him, and sighed. "She said it once when she was burning paper money for her mother. The Chinese believe the deceased are living in a different world, and they would also need currency and houses and stuff. So the livings will burn paper money, paper houses, horses, everything for their loved ones, usually on the anniversary of their death day."

"But Ria never knew when her mother had died. She was taken by the death-eaters, because you-know-who wanted a Legilimens. So she burns her mother paper money on her birthdays instead."

Hermione still remembered when Ria showed her the jar she used.

She was standing in front of the window in Buckbeak's room. The sun was pretty bright that day, and Hermione couldn't quite see the expressions on her face.

"My mother was an interesting woman.

We went to a lake once to see the water nymphs, but I just remembered the sunshine that day. It was so beautiful, falling through the trees and leaves, like pieces of fragmented golds scattering around."

"She knew I loved it, I mean, of course she did, and she said, let's put them into a jar." Ria smiled and shook her head, "How silly of her, huh? Storing sunshine."

Then she held the jar up so Hermione could see, it was glowing, dimly, but warmly, like the sunshine from outside the window.

"I never knew how she did it." Tears started falling down her face and she quickly turned back to looking at the outside, "It had always been empty, and I held it with me every day. And started one day, I noticed it was glowing. At first I thought I was hallucinating, or it was some sort of trick. But then I realize...that's probably when she was..."

"I have heard from Sirius that Ria's mother killed herself," Hermione kept the story on. "I think Ria thinks a piece of her soul went into that jar, and she uses the light in the jar to burn paper money for her mother every year. I don't know how it works, but there aren't any ashes left afterwards."

There was a long silence. It was quite a lot, hearing two tragic stories about their friends and their parents on the same day.

"Why did--Vol--him want a Legilimens?" Harry asked, decided to change his words after seeing Hermion's accusing eyes.

"I don't know." She said.

"He liked to collect." Ron weighed in, "Dad said he's like a magpie, likes to collect people with unique gifts. That's what he claimed when he first started, that he values each person's unique gift, and he was able to recruit quite a few Metamorphmaguses, a lot of veelas, you know, they didn't get much respect from other wizard families to start with. Anyways, they truly thought he would make a difference and treat them differently." Fred and George nodded, concurring their brother's words.

"Also for power. Imagine having your thoughts, even the unconscious ones being known by the most powerful wizard. You won't even know when you have exposed yourself like you were under the spell of Legilimency. And he used those dark secrets he had collected to further control them." Hermione said.

Harry could picture a gigantic spider sitting in the center of the web, waiting for those dark, slicky, bloody secrets to be delivered to him so that he could use them as leverage on others.

"And I guess, she just couldn't take it anymore one day. But no one knows how she did it. There were people guarding her all day, they took away her wands and everything, but she managed to do so anyway." Ron added.

By the time they went back to Grimmauld Place 12, Ria was still asleep. Fred offered to go check on her.

He didn't knock on the door prior to entering. He didn't want to wake her, and he was able to keep it discreet.

He knew she'd be with Buckbeak. She was still in her dark green nightgown, which reminded him of the dress she wore at the ball. One strap was falling off her shoulder, but she's probably not feeling cold because Buckbeak was shielding her with his left wing again.

"Shh." Fred gestured to Buckbeak, the latter was amazingly understanding and didn't make a single noise.

He walked up and squatted down. He had never looked at her face from this close before, probably except the night at the ball, and the night when she told him that she liked him, in this very same room.

She always had a smile on her face, even though Fred knew most of the time they might just be more of a formality out of politeness, but now, her face looks so peaceful and...sad.

Even in her sleep, she had a tiny frown, and she was curling into a ball with her left arm wrapped around her neck, as if she was giving herself a hug. Her eyelashes were unconsciously fluttering, and she was gently shaking her head.

"No..don't go. Mother, don't go." She murmured.

Fred reached to wake her up by gently nudging her on the shoulder. She gasped and woke up immediately.

"Oh." She was still haunted by her dream and with the side effect of Custodia, she wasn't able to return to her usual level of sharpness as she would like.

"Hey." Fred said, and he sat down with her.

She wasn't sure why he was acting so gentle and caring all of a sudden. Her mind told her to move to the left to make space for him, but her heart just wanted to lean in even more and extract those warmth.

"I--." For the first time in his life, Fred Weasley didn't have something smart to say. He wanted to tell her that he was concerned about her. He wanted to let her know that he felt sorry for acting like a jerk and misinterpreted her care. He wanted to thank her for caring about him and his family so much, for her time and energy. But he felt tongue-tied, as if there was a rock blocking those sounds coming out of his vocal cords, and a stone intercepting those words from coming out of his heart.

It is HARD to care about a person. You get scared, don't know what to do, don't know when to approach, and you feel their pain, and even more pain for not being able to make their pain go away.

She looked at him, unable to detect his thoughts. But she couldn't resist anymore. His eyes are so gentle yet drowning, they look deeper than usual, yet shinier--as if there are stars and oceans in them at the same time.

She leaned in, and kissed him.

SHE'S SO BRAVE. That was Fred's last thought before getting lost in their kiss.

She didn't quite know what to do, and was just letting their lips touch. He tentatively placed a hand behind her head, feeling her soft, smoothy hair, and pushed her towards him a little bit more. He tried to suck on her lips, they tasted so...soothing. He felt peaceful, as if all his concerns will go away and everything will be fine as long as he is with her--because he knew she would always be there for him.

Ria put one hand on his waist, feeling the texture of his shirt, the warmth radiating from beneath, and his firm, lean muscles. Then she pushed him away and broke the kiss.

They looked at each other, eyes locked. Ria thought, he's so close, and he's so tall. She felt herself being overshadowed by him, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to stay or run away. She looked down to the side, still unconsciously gripping on to his shirt.

Then Fred cupped her face, turning her head back, and kissed her again.