"You can't judge a book by its cover, Rhea"
"Yeah well, I can judge a person by their thoughts"
For Rhea Devereux, being in other people's mind was as easy as taking candy from a baby. Being born with the gift of Legilimency, it was something she wa...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The end of term exams were around the corner, and so was the Christmas break. The whole castle was decorated beautifully. Long garlands and various branches of mistletoe hung in the aisles. Rhea was unconsciously avoiding said plant, but many couples stopped whenever they saw one.
Disgusting, she thought.
Snow covered all of Hogwarts, which made Rhea happy. Taking one of the hats that her aunt had knitted for her, she met Josh in the common room, Marlene was waiting for them outside so they headed to the portrait.
"You took your time" said the blonde girl and just when Rhea was about to answer, someone called her.
"I can't believe an Avery would dare to wear knitted clothes" scoffed Ariel Avery, who was about to enter the common room. "Just when I thought you weren't enough of an embarrassment to the family, what would your father say if-"
"He's not here, is he?" she spat out the words, "and looking at the path you're following, Ariel, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up being his cellmate" she said, referring to the mark she knew he had on his arm.
"Is that a threat, little cousin?" he smirked.
"You bet your arse it is" she responded, and he laughed while entering the common room. As if just noticing that Josh and Marlene were there, she had a surprised expression on her face, and her friends looked at her, confused. "Oh, hello"
"What was that?" asked Marlene, concerned.
"Are you related to that excuse of a human being?" questioned Josh.
"Unbelievable right? How someone so wonderful like me has a cousin so... hideous" she said, "I guess I can tell you the story now, I mean you look like you're dying to know..."
"I mean yes, but I don't want you to tell us just because you feel you need to, you know?" Marlene said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"It's all right" she waved her off, "you're my best friends... I'm just going to ask you to not look at me differently because of what happened" she said and they nodded.
Walking to the snow-covered yard, Rhea told them the same thing she told Josie and Lily the first day of second year and they had the same shocked expression on their faces.
"I'm so sorry" said Marlene, she never knew that someone so joyful had such a terrible past, and honesty, neither did Josh.
Rhea shrugged, "don't be, it's not your fault" she added, "anyway, he's locked up in Azkaban"
"He's not getting out then" mused Marlene and Rhea nodded.
✧☽✧
When the holidays finally came, the group of five fourth years were sitting in a compartment of the train back to London.
