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Fred's Legacies | ||||||
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Category: Post-DH/AB Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley Genres: Drama Warnings: Death, Disturbing Imagery, Mild Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 109 Summary: It's the summer after the battle, but victory is not sweet. Old enemies are still causing trouble. Harry and the Weasley's are having trouble moving on. To complicate matters, Fred left something behind. Hitcount: Story Total: 75535; Chapter Total: 2986 |
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Ginny was used to Side-Along-Apparition. She landed with her mum on the hill across from Luna’s and shook the compressed feeling out. Molly sat down on the grass for a minute and Ginny, concerned, sat next to her. “You alright, Mum?” “Yes, dear. Of course. I was just thinking how we used to live so close by. Yet I never came out this way. I should have gotten out more, I suppose.” Molly wiped her eyes with her sleeve, trying to pretend she wasn’t crying. “Well, we spent a lot of time at Grimmauld Place, actually.” Ginny tried to cover. “Besides, with the Floo Network, we sort of measure distance…differently than Muggles, don’t we? It’s not like the actual miles between homes matter so much.” “True.” Molly steadied her voice. “She was still your best friend in school, wasn’t she? You would think I would have had her over. Goodness knows Ron’s friends were over all the time.” Luna saw them through the window before they arrived and ran out to meet them. “It’s so nice to see a friend, Ginny. I’ve never been here when a friend visited before. Ron told me he came by last year, of course, but that didn’t go very well, did it?” “Your dad blew up your house when he tried to Stun Harry. So yeah, not very well,” Ginny agreed. Luna gave Mrs. Weasley a hug, too. “I’m glad you came along. There hasn’t been any woman in the house since Mum died. I’m not sure how you’ll find it. I can make tea though. But Ron said not Gurdyroots. I guess they are an acquired taste.” Ginny grinned. This was going to be a fun week. Gurdyroots sounded much more interesting than tallying up cash register totals. They walked under a damaged dirigible plum tree and into the house. Molly did not stay for long, but promised she would be back often in the future, particularly once the Burrow was rebuilt. Ginny and Luna were together on the pretext of studying, but it was the very last thing that either of them talked about that day. Luna, having the advantage of being seventeen already, had been through the country seeing all their friends and gave Ginny all the news. Ginny, in turn, told Luna all about Fred’s girlfriend. “She lives in the village? Can I meet her?” Luna asked eagerly. “I was hoping to go down there, actually. So you’d better come along.” Ginny laughed. This would be a fun introduction, and she wasn’t about to pass up the chance. “I should warn you though, I’ve been having this dream, about Amanda and the village.” Luna was an attentive listener, but she was taking it so much in stride that Ginny felt a need to dismiss her own feelings about the dream. “I was never one for Divination. Mum says it’s just the stress from last year. Anyway, I’ve just been a bit tense about visiting the village. I feel like I need to get there sooner not later.” Ginny had taken her wand out and was absentmindedly twisting it between her fingers. “It might be just the stress.” Luna fixed Ginny with her big eyes. “You’ve had it exactly the same way for three times?” “Yes. Well, it would have been four, but George was banging around and woke me up.” “I think your brain must be practicing,” Luna determined. “Practicing for what?” “For duelling, when you need to,” Luna stated, as if it was obvious. Ginny shrugged. “When should we visit the village, then? Not today. It’s getting late. Amanda’s shop will be closed and I don’t know that I should knock on her house door yet.” They determined on going mid-day the next morning. Luna had a skirt that she had worn to Colin’s funeral. She borrowed a top from Ginny, reflecting that all black was bad luck. They looked an odd set as they walked down to the village. Luna walked in a long black skirt, with bright blue ballet flats and a bright green blouse. She had stuck sunflowers and peonies every which way through a very messy bun, giving the illusion that she had a bird’s nest made of flowers up top her head. Ginny had on jeans and a cropped T-shirt that her mother would never have let her out in public with. She had bought it at a store near Diagon Alley during a lunch break, feeling proud of her own mastery of Muggle money. She was planning on wearing it out with Harry some time, but seeing as they hadn’t had any time recently, this was her first outing with it on. She would have felt self-conscious, but, she reasoned, Luna would be attracting all the attention, so she had nothing to worry about. The village was not large. They walked in on Mill Street and turned up Stoatshead Hill. Amanda was helping a scruffy, middle-aged man sort through a box of records when they arrived. She looked up, raised her eyebrows, gave Ginny a once over and smirked, all while continuing her sales pitch. Ginny stuck her tongue out in reply and turned her back, pretending to be hugely interested in a bass guitar. Luna walked around the place, making herself quite at home and humming happily. “Nice tune,” the gruff man commented. Ginny jumped and turned to look at him carefully. “Haven’t heard that one. What’s it from?” Luna kept perusing and humming, oblivious that the question was directed to her. The man, meanwhile, noticed Ginny’s sharp stare. “Not a crime to ask about a tune now, is it?” “Uh, no.” Ginny managed. “Luna, what are you humming?” “I don’t know. Probably just one of the songs in my head. I have lots of songs in my head.” “You write songs, then?” The man asked. “No. I just sing them,” Luna replied lazily. She was scrutinizing a band poster featuring a very scantily clad girl. “I don’t think black leather looks good on this girl. She should wear it in brown,” she stated. The man burst out in peals of laughter. Ginny and Amanda joined in. Ginny might have stopped soon, but Luna followed up her opinion by stating that it was not very nice of them to laugh at the girl for picking the wrong colour of leather, and that, after all, it did flatter her shape nicely. It took several minutes before the others could compose themselves. Ginny was still fighting to catch her breath as Amanda introduced her customer, "Ian, this is Ginny. Ginny, Ian. And I’m sorry, I haven’t even asked your name yet.” She turned to Luna. “Luna Lovegood. Some people call me Loony, but I really don’t prefer it,” she clarified. “Luna. Ian.” Amanda’s voice still sounded like she was laughing. She rang up Ian’s purchases. He’d bought thirteen records for the price of twelve. “You should write your songs, Luna,” he commented as he picked up his bag. “I like your melodies. They’d carry some haunting lyrics.” He nodded at Ginny, and stepped out of the door. Amanda looked toward Luna a bit abashedly when he’d left. “Sorry I laughed at your comment so much. It took me by surprise. Truth is, I haven’t laughed much these weeks. I must’ve been overdue.” “It’s quite alright. People often laugh when I speak, though I don’t always know why. I like making people laugh though. There’s been too much crying this summer. Laughing is good. And you’re having Fred’s baby. It probably wanted to laugh, too. Fred always did.” Amanda moved out from behind the register and gave Luna a tight hug. “Yes. I expect the baby will be wanting to laugh a lot,” she said huskily. “Let’s just hope I can keep up with it. As I recall, Fred wasn’t the easiest.” Ginny smirked. “He was the hardest,” she replied. “Did Fred ever play any of these?” Luna asked looking around at the guitar. “No. He pretended too, but he never took me up on my offer of lessons. He would have approved of your comment on the poster.” Ginny snorted. She would have to relay today’s story to George. The visit was pleasant. Amanda described all the different types of guitars to Luna and demonstrated several. Luna mused about learning to play them. Amanda encouraged her. She was actually quite good. Ginny liked the kind of music she played much more than she liked Celestina Warbeck, or even the Weird Sisters. Walking back to Luna’s that afternoon, she felt much more positive about life than she had before. That, of course, was before she pulled out Hermione’s stack of notes. The next few days had a rhythm to them. They would start a batch of potions in the morning. Luna was a natural at this, often straying from Hermione’s notes and doing things with her own flare. She explained to Ginny that Hermione didn’t understand quite what was happening in the potions, since she had never taken Alchemy. Given that Ginny had never taken Alchemy either, she couldn’t quite follow the explanation. After Potions, Luna would work through her Herbology notes. Sometimes this involved trips in the garden, or out to the stream. If so, Ginny abandoned her studies and followed along, despite having dropped Herbology after her OWLs. If Luna didn’t need to go on an outing, then Ginny would pull out her Defence Against the Dark Arts books. Hermione’s notes in this area did not correspond at all with the class from last year, though that had more properly been Dark Arts and not Defence. Neither did they seem to fit with the upcoming reading list. Ginny wondered if Hermione had really looked at what she was copying. It seemed like a mistake that she had these. Ginny learned far more about Horcruxes and Basilisk venom and Fiendfyre than she ever had wanted to know. It made her wonder even more what last year had been like for Harry, and for Ron and Hermione. But mostly for Harry. The more she read, the more worried about him she was. How had he survived? Hermione’s writings were explicit. In order for the Horcrux to be destroyed, its vessel had to be damaged beyond magical repair. She wasn’t sure if one more lightning scar counted as “beyond magical repair,” but she wouldn’t have thought it would. The fear that was never far away was playing with her mind again. Whenever she started fretting about this, Luna would snap her out of her dreary mood with amazing demonstrations of their Charms material. That and Potions were the only two classes they would be sharing next year. Luna was taking Care of Magical Creatures and Transfiguration. She was a natural at both. Ginny was taking Potions, Charms, Defence, and Magical Theory. She would never have continued in Potions if it hadn’t been for Slughorn. She wondered if he would still be teaching next year. Hogwarts was going to be different. Something inside her squirmed every time she thought of going back. Luna decided on the third day of their studying that she wanted to take guitar lessons. Ginny sat Luna down at the table to give her the lesson in Muggle money that Harry had given her. She then lent Luna enough Muggle cash for a few lessons. They walked down into the village to ask Amanda about lessons. She agreed on every Tuesday morning at nine, starting the next week. The shop apparently opened at ten, but she would open the doors early, just for Luna. That evening they went for fish and chips at the pub. Amanda skipped on the alcohol. Ginny did too, but Luna ordered a beer and enjoyed it. Ginny sniffed it and grimaced. Amanda laughed. “Takes some getting used to.” “Why would you put yourself through getting used to it?” Ginny asked. “I mean, I like some alcohol, but that smells like, well, like Kreacher refused to take out the trash!” “Who’s Creature? That’s an odd nickname.” Amanda laughed. Ginny kicked herself. “I know. We really should call him something else, but he was so old and ornery when I met him…” Ian saw them at the bar and waved. Amanda waved back. “Don’t worry. I have lots of funny nicknames for people too. Ian, there–I call him the rusty cowboy. He used to have a great voice, but he smokes too much. Drinks too much too. The bar man–he’s honey-sugar. Not because I like him. Because that’s what he calls everyone. Grates on my nerves.” Amanda wrinkled her nose up. For a brief moment, Ginny thought of someone else. “You remind me of Tonks,” she blabbed before thinking. “Another one of your nicknames?” “Yes, but it was what she preferred. Her first name was Nymphadora. She would have killed me if I had called her that!” “No wonder,” Amanda replied. “People name their kids the weirdest things.” “Oh,” Luna piped in, “what are you thinking about naming your baby?” “Well, if it’s a boy, probably Fred, for the weirdest man I ever knew.” Amanda had lost the twinkle in her eye. “If it’s a girl, I don’t know… Your family seems to have nice sensible names, so probably keep to that. Certainly not Nymphadora!” “I don’t know about sensible,” Ginny replied. “Ginevra, Percival, Bilius–not all of us have sensible names.” “You do look a bit like Tonks.” Luna looped back to the earlier bit of conversation. “I think I might like to charm my hair like yours.” “Well, thanks. I guess. Though, no charm required. I can show you the dye if you want. I have a box of it at home, but you’d need at least two. Your hair’s longer than mine. I’m not supposed to use it with the baby on its way. You could pick up another box at the chemist’s.” That was how Ginny ended up loaning out another couple pounds to buy hair dye and gloves. Luna was sure the Quibbler would be making money again in no time. She had written an article for the latest issue. Ginny hoped it sold well. She wrote a note home commanding George to carry the Quibbler at his shop and placed an order on his behalf for two hundred copies. George wrote back in three days. He had sold out. He was requesting five hundred more. Mr. Lovegood actually did a little dance when Ginny gave him the request. Ginny wondered where George’s sudden on rush of business had come from. She also wondered what he would think of Luna’s bright blue hair. Mr. Lovegood had replied that it was “quite charming. You could be a fairy my dear, in a blue bell.” The dye had worked quite a bit differently on Luna’s blond hair than on Amanda’s black hair. Luna looked like a walking neon sign. It was the best joke Ginny had ever bought. Ginny had walked with Luna down to her first lesson. Amanda had laid out finger charts for the guitar chords and demonstrated two of them for Luna twice before Luna had started strumming and humming them repeatedly to herself. Amanda had taken a break from teaching to talk to Ginny. She was a bit concerned about teaching a pupil who didn’t own a guitar. “Knowing Luna, she’ll do just fine." Ginny reassured her. "I think she’ll get a guitar soon too. Her dad has a magazine that he owns. It went through a bit of a slump, but it’s picking up business.” “How’s George’s joke shop picking up?” Amanda had asked. “Must be good. He sold two hundred copies of the Quibbler in three days. That’s the Lovegood magazine. He hadn’t had two hundred people in the store in the two weeks that I was helping him.” Ginny replied. “That’s good. I haven’t known how to get in touch with him. He had said something about Fred’s account. I won’t need it for a while. I wish I knew how much was in it. I’ve tried to start planning a bit more. The private lessons are a windfall. I think I might start advertising them to others.” Amanda spun a ring around on her thumb. Ginny tried to remember the conversion factor. She wondered if George was planning on giving the five hundred Galleons that was Fred’s, or the whole thousand. They hadn’t talked about it. “I’ll speak with Bill. He’s the banker in the family. Actually, he’ll probably want to speak with you directly at some point.” Ginny knew she wasn’t answering the question exactly. “Dad said something about a trust fund, but I didn’t catch the details. Sorry.” “No, that’s fine. You know, I just realized, I’ve forgotten the name of their shop. If I went to London, I wouldn’t even know where to go. Not that I get into town that often, but I might every once in a while.” “Well, it’s in a bit of London that can be tricky to find.” Ginny stalled and looked over at Luna. Luna was still going back and forth between the two cords she had been shown with utter contentedness. “It’s called the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. It’s on Diagon Alley. The part that intersects with Knockturn Alley. There’s a bookstore called Flourish and Blotts nearby.” After the years of living in secrecy away from Muggles, Ginny was amazed at how much she could say without breaking the Statute of Secrecy. After all, there was no way that a Muggle could find Diagon Alley, and nothing in its name revealed the presence of magic. “I’ve never heard of a Diagon or Knockturn Alley. That’s an odd name, isn’t it? Your brothers have a flare for business. Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes! I think Fred had told me that one time. Told me he was wizard at lots of things. He was, too.” Amanda sounded sad again, but part of her mouth still twitched up. “I think I’ve heard enough of those two chords.” She decided, and moved back into her lesson. Luna left with a loaned book that morning and instructions to practice the fingering of four chords as best as she could. She had already memorized the order of the strings by the time the lesson ended. ---- Harry came on a surprise visit that weekend. He had bought Ginny a broom, just in case she wanted to practice Quidditch, he told her. She chided him on the price of it, but he waved her off saying it was an early birthday present. She noticed he had his own with him, too. “You didn’t fly all the way from London, did you? You can Apparate now!” Ginny asked, astounded. “I much prefer brooms,” Harry replied. “I think I had enough of Apparating to last a lifetime. Besides, flying gives me time to think. I feel good, flying.” “You should stay for lunch,” Luna invited. “Then we can practice Quidditch afterwards. I wasn’t here on your last visit. And I won’t serve Gurdyroots.” Mr. Lovegood extended his invitation as well, along with several dozen repetitions of apologies, all of which Harry had heard before. When they finally settled in though, Mr. Lovegood was quiet and all the kids talked. Luna told Harry about her guitar lessons. She was interested to hear he had several favourite Muggle bands. Ginny wrote them down with her quill on the back of a spare bit of parchment while Harry helped Luna clear the dishes. She tucked the parchment in her pocket before he could see what she was up to. Luna decided that she needed to find some species for her Care of Magical Creatures studies and left Ginny and Harry to practice flying Quidditch by themselves for a few hours. They hardly talked. It was a wonderful time and Ginny couldn’t bring herself to ruin it with the nagging thoughts of the last few days. Horcruxes seemed like a half-forgotten, distant nightmare in the sunny daylight out on the hillside. Harry left early that afternoon. He was flying back to London instead of Apparating, so he needed an early start. Ginny tried not be annoyed at the time they were missing. He pulled her in and kissed her before he left. “Flying helps me sort my head out, Ginny. I barely have any time to think these days. There’s a lot for us to talk about–when you get back. Take care of yourself, ok? There are still more Death Eaters wandering about than I am comfortable with. I got through the enchantments on this place too easily. I think I’ve fixed them, but….You might want to test a few.” Ginny nodded, but frowned. “You're probably fine. I've just been hearing things about a group led by Montague. So I'm worried. There's no way he would know you're here, though.” Harry replied to the unspoken question. He kissed her forehead right where she was frowning, squeezed her waist, hopped on his broom, and flew off. ---- Ginny asked Luna and Mr. Lovegood about the enchantments that evening. Mr. Lovegood insisted that there were no protective measures necessary besides the Muggle-Repelling Charm mandated by the Ministry. The war was over, after all, and everything had turned out okay. “Yes, Daddy,” Luna agreed, “but if Harry Potter is still worried about someone, maybe we should do a few enchantments. After all, Ginny is his girlfriend. She was a bit of a target last year. Not everyone is in Azkaban yet.” “As you wish then, dear,” Mr. Lovegood responded. “But do make sure that our mail can come through, and that the animals travel freely, and that I can get authors in for interviews.” Luna set an alarm up around the edges of the property that evening, along with a charm that would deter anyone who was there without an invitation–wizard or Muggle. Ginny decided that the village could perhaps use protection too. After all, Fred had thought it might be a target. Luna agreed that they would go down in the morning and set up charms while people were at church. She could go right down to the centre under a Disillusionment Charm and do spells non-verbally. Ginny wished she was of age. She was better at the Defensive spells, but she could not possibly do them near Muggles without a Ministry inquiry. Her dad’s new promotion was not something she was willing to risk–not when Luna could help out. |
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