"Tell me the story of the battle, Mum!" begged Louis, red curls bouncing as he sat up in bed. The middle-aged woman beside him sighed, a faint smile appearing on her perfect face as she leaned forward to kiss her son, her blonde hair falling into a sheet in front of her eyes.
"All right, Lou," she said, an exasperated tone to her voice. "When Voldemort attacked 'ogwarts, 'arry Potter was looking for somet'ing, somet'ing zat would 'elp 'im defeat Voldemort. Zat was what 'e 'ad been doing for months and months beforehand. But at last 'e came to 'ogwarts. Your father and I were part of ze people trying to 'old off ze Death Eaters so 'e could find it."
"But he never did, right Mum?" asked Louis, his blue eyes bright.
Fleur Weasley shook her head, and now her eyes were clouded with sadness. Her English had improved over the past twenty years, but there was still a faint hint of an accent. "'e never did. 'e had just come out of ze Room of Requirement, when suddenly zere was an explosion. 'e and Fred were killed. Ron Weasley--'arry's best friend--and 'arry's girlfriend 'ermione tried to keep fighting. But zey were both killed by Death Eaters."
Louis's eyes were sad now, but they glimmered with hope as he looked up. "But we're going to defeat Voldy-mort someday, right?" he asked, smiling.
Fleur nodded. "After 'arry, Ron, and 'ermione died, Ginny gazzered 'er old school friends--Luna, Neville, Dean, Seamus--and ozzers who would be on ze run when Voldemort won ze war. Zey brought zem back 'ere, to ze Burrow and cast spells so ze Death Eaters would never find us. We formed a group called Dumbledore's Army, and we're going to fight off Voldemort someday."
Louis grinned. "I'm going to join the D.A. when I turn seventeen, right?"
Fleur nodded, stroking his hair. Then she stood up. "Well, better get some sleep. Goodnight, Louis.”
"Bonne nuit," Louis said sleepily, and Fleur flicked the light switch. She stretched, and then turned to see her daughter, Victoire.
"You tell him about the battle like it is a child's bedtime story," Victoire snapped, placing her hands on her hips. Though all three of Bill and Fleur's children were part Veela, Victoire looked it the most. She had a sheen about her pale skin that looked as if she glowed, and her eyes were wide and blue. But there was a Weasley like strawberry tint to her blonde hair, and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
Fleur looked disapprovingly at her daughter. "'e enjoys 'earing eet."
Victoire frowned, brushing a stray lock of her hair out of her eyes. "But, it's the reason I can't go to Hogwarts...neither can Teddy! The D.A. hasn't found a clue about what Harry was doing before he died--and it's not like the Daily Prophet's going to talk about that when they write articles about him. They call him 'The Boy who Died!'. The battle isn't something to tell to Louis. Or Dominique, for that matter. What happened that night sealed our whole fate. That's why we're stuck in this house. Because Harry Potter died!"
Fleur narrowed her icy blue eyes, and opened her mouth, but suddenly the door banged open. Ginny Weasley stood in the doorway, arms crossed.
Her brown eyes were cold and unfeeling, her hair, once bright and fiery, hung dull against her back. She was an empty shell, hollow and violent. She wanted revenge--she had wanted it for twenty years. Everyone knew she was the most affected by Ron's death, of all her brothers it had been he she was the closest to. She had never gotten over it.
"Don't talk that way about Harry," she said, her voice strong and stable.
Victoire felt her heart pounding. "Sorry, Aunt Ginny," she said weakly, and the woman went back into her room. Fleur looked troubled and distant, but snapped out of it when she saw her daughter.
"You 'old your tongue," she said, and walked out of the room, leaving Victoire standing uncertain in the hallway. Aunt Ginny was the leader of the DA, but she was moody, and liked to be alone. Sometimes Victoire felt that she was missing something. Something important, about Ginny's story that she didn't already know.
"Are you okay?" a kind voice asked, and Victoire turned to see Luna Longbottom floating dreamily next to her. Her blonde hair hung just beneath her shoulders, her wide, protruding eyes sweeping over Victoire.
"Yeah, fine," Victoire said glumly as Luna put a hand on her shoulder.
"Ginny's been through much. Do not take it personally. At sixteen she had lost three of her closest friends, and an older brother," Luna said, her voice sounding far-off. "She believed she could have saved them."
Victoire shrugged. "I bet Grandmum and Grandpa felt the same way. But they got over it."
Luna sighed. "You wouldn't understand. You weren't there." There was a pause, in which Luna looked up at the wall, where hung a peculiar clock. Each hand had a person's name on it, and each was pointing to, instead of numbers, places to be. The hand that said‘Neville Longbottom’ was now just switching from ‘Travelling’ to ‘The Burrow’. "Excuse me, but I believe Neville is home. I'll have to go greet him. He'd have brought the most recent issue of the Quibbler with him, too. I'll have to see if there's a follow-up story on the one about the Blibbering Humdinger yesterday."
Victoire tried not to roll her eyes as she went back into her room. It was a nice room--it had once been Ron's. It had a wonderful view of the fields beyond the Burrow. Victoire sometimes hated it though. One got tired of staying in virtually the same bedroom for the whole of her life. She asked herself yet again why Harry Potter had had to pick such an inconvenient time to die. Maybe the world would be better--he would have won the war, and she could have gone to school, to learn to be a proper witch, instead of the small lessons the D.A. provided to underage witches and wizards. She was almost of age, too. She would turn seventeen on August first. This would have been her last year at Hogwarts.
She flopped down on her bed, letting a sigh escape from deep within. She imagined Ron lying on the same bed, twenty years ago. He had been about her age, friends with Harry Potter; the Chosen One, the Boy Who Lived. They had all expected him to win the war, win the war that had happened just a year before she was born. A war that defined her whole life.
Victoire got up from her bed, sunlight pouring in from the window and onto the dull carpet. She opened the closet door, reaching for her wand. The closet was full of dusty boxes, stacked on top of her. Boxes of Ron's stuff. She grabbed her wand (Cherry and Veela hair, twelve inches, springy) and it tinkled to the floor. It rolled behind the boxes. "Stinksap," she muttered, getting down onto her hands and knees, and sneezing as dust went up into her nose. As she was reaching for her wand, she noticed a small envelope tucked behind the boxes. It was addressed to "Professor McGonagall, Hogwarts." Eyebrows raised, Victoire reached for it, and pulled it out. Forgetting about her wand entirely, she sat down on her bed and opened the envelope, and took out the letter. It was yellowing, but the words were still bold on the page. The letters were perfectly written, the whole thing shining, even though it must have been decades old.
Dear Professor,
I believe this is yours--I will not be needing it next year.
Have a wonderful summer!
Sincerely,
Hermione Jean Granger
Victoire's eyes widened. It was really from the Hermione Granger? She opened the envelope again, wondering what it was Hermione was talking about. Inside was a fine gold chain. She lifted it out. It was obviously a necklace of some sort. On the end of the golden chain was a small hourglass. Fine grains of sand sparkled in the bottom. It's so pretty! Victoire thought, and put it around her neck.
The necklace gleamed and caught the light, and Victoire didn't notice a slip of paper fall to the floor. If she had looked closer, it was a small tag, that read:
Time Turner #568
Extremely dangerous!
If found, return to the Ministry of Magic at once!
As the Sand Falls by EnchantmentCamels
Chapter Endnotes: A/N Thanks go to Sagen my beta for this chapter! :)
This is my first submission to MNFF, so I really appreciate constructive criticism. This will be continued, I will try to get another chapter out as fast as I can. Thanks for reading!