THE AFTERMATH | RON WEASLEY [BOOK FOUR]

1. BUBBLEGUM

Forty-eight days.

By Gene's count, that was how many nights she had spent crying out of the fifty-seven that had passed of her summer holiday.

She knew it was quite pathetic to have counted, but at the same time, it was some sort of achievement for her to hold, at least. It wasn't like she had managed anything else noteworthy in her life, let alone her time at Hogwarts.

Gene had faced Voldemort and she still felt like the most incompetent witch in the world, because Sirius was dead and it was all her fault.

She felt Sirius' absence more deeply than she could have ever imagined, and it truly felt like a hole had been left in her heart. Only, Gene wasn't sure if it was fixable.

They found that Sirius had, of course, left the home to herself and Harry in his will, through Dumbledore. Kreacher came with it, but both Gene and Harry agreed to send him to the kitchens in Hogwarts, where he might either enjoy or despise Dobby's company.

The nightmares would start again and so would the crying, and she would soon find herself in the bathroom at three in the morning, hoping her tears would be quietened, so that she could hide in her shame, away from Aurelia and away from the world.

Aurelia wasn't usually there at Gene's side for most of them, and Gene was glad, because there wasn't anything Aurelia could have said, or done, to help. But she soon found that it made all the difference to Gene, as much as she thought it wouldn't.

Gene did her best to put on a brave face for her aunt. She didn't want to make things harder than they already were. But upon Gene's final visit to Grimmauld Place, where they wanted to take back some of his things, Aurelia had been woken up by the sound of crying, coming from a room that had been left untouched since June.

Aurelia quietly crept into the bedroom, only to find Gene sat on the edge of the bed, cradling Sirius' jacket as she sobbed against the fabric, his smell still lingering, and Gene feared it would soon go away, and she'd forget.

She made her presence known, stepping into the room as Gene began to wipe her tears away, clearing her throat as she let the fabric sit in her lap, her fingers still mindlessly tracing the seams. Aurelia walked over to her niece and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug, and Gene cried and cried and cried. Only this time, she wasn't alone.

The went home and climbed into bed soon enough and the crying eventually turned into laughter and smiles, as they reminisced on last summer and Christmas, all the times they spent with Sirius, Aurelia telling Gene her fondest memories of him from school, which happened to be just about all of them.

So if someone were to ask how Gene's summer went, she was likely to have lied, because the answer was just too complicated for even her to give. On the bright side, Gene hardly believed her life could have gotten any worse than this.

Summer had been different this year, but it wasn't all bad, Gene soon found. Some change was good, it seemed.

Aurelia had begun to notice just how much Gene had changed over the summer, though she could barely see the difference herself. Sure, her hair had grown quite a bit and she'd grown a little taller, and she had noticed some development elsewhere.

"I'm telling you, bug, you'd look great in this top. It'd really perk the girls up!" Aurelia threw another top in Gene's direction, landing across her head. She snatched it off, holding out the thin black fabric and her eyes widened.

"Where's the rest of it, Aure?" Gene asked in in disbelief, to which she rolled her eyes.

"Try it on." she said, before rifling through her wardrobe once more.