Alexandra Weasley: Book 6

5

"Why isn't Snape teaching potions?" Alex groaned.

"I never said he wasn't."

"But you said Dumbledore recruited Slughorn.

"Maybe he's the new DADA teacher."

"He was my parents' old potions teacher. He teaches potions, not defense."

"Then I have no answers for you, Alex."

"What about Snape? There's only one biological relative I want teaching me at Hogwarts and I have to tell you it's not the guy eating dinner with my family downstairs."

"I don't know about Snape. Harry didn't ask." Alex huffed.

"I am not losing Snape." She said. "I can't lose him too, and I can only have him if he's my potions teacher but if he's not my potions teacher then I can't-"

"Relax. You're not losing Snape. He wouldn't just... disappear. Okay? He might be working alongside Slughorn. We could have co-teachers. You remember how exhausted he was last year." Alex nodded. "Or Slughorn's going to be the new DADA teacher. You're jumping to conclusions because you know Slughorn used to be the potions teacher. Just because he's coming back, doesn't mean he's teaching potions. People can have more than one specialty."

"Okay, fine. You might be right." She agreed.

"And there's only a week left until school."

"Right, yeah."

"So relax. He wouldn't leave without saying anything."

"Okay. But what if he did?"

"Oh, nothing's going to get through to you." Hermione huffed and jumped up. She grabbed Alex and dragged her out.

"Stop! What are you doing?"

Molly was bringing in the clothes strung on the clothing line when Hermione dragged Alex out to her.
"Mrs Weasley." She started politely. "If Slughorn's teaching us potions this year, where's Professor Snape going to be? Have you heard anything?"

Molly looked at her daughter who was staring hopefully. "I'm sorry, no. I haven't." Alex's shoulders slumped in disappointment. "I'll ask Dumbledore the next time I see him."

"Thanks." Alex muttered and apparated away.

"Really?" Hermione asked, reaching the room a minute later.

"Sorry." Alex apologised sheepishly.

Alex was in the garden with her siblings, Hermione and Harry. Ginny was complaining about Fleur again.
"I wish Bill would just come and take Phlegm back to wherever they were living before here. Why did he have to dump her with us?"

"Ginny!" Alex eventually looked up from her book.

"What? You can't possibly like her."

"Ginny's got a point." Hermione said. "Fleur's not exactly miss stimulating conversation. You're only nice to her because Bill asked you to."

"Harry's hardly one for original thoughts, and you don't see me complaining." Alex shrugged.

"You complain every other minute." Hermione pointed out but Alex ignored it.

"And anyways, Fleur is nice. So why don't we cut her some slack? Ginny, Bill loves her and is marrying her. She makes him happy. That should be enough. And the way we've all been treating her has been appalling. Her family, and everyone she's ever known, is in France. They're in another country and the only way she has to contact them are letters. And she came to England alone and met Bill and they love each other and he brought her here. He trusted us, as his family, to make her feel welcome and to be nice to her. To look after her. And instead we have Ron who swoons whenever she enters a room and you who calls her phlegm and insults her and mum who doesn't even try to hide her feelings either."

"Alex-"

"Bill asked this one thing of us. Fleur's trying. She doesn't know what it's like to have such a large family but she's trying to be a part of this one, and we haven't been treating her very kindly in turn." Alex stormed back into the house, passing Fleur at the door. "Hi."

"Thank you." Fleur offered a smile.

"Even when you didn't like me, you were nice. And my brother loves you. So, welcome to the family." Alex shrugged. Fleur wrapped her arms around Alex and hugged hard. Alex stiffened and made no move to hug back. "I gotta- I'm gonna- toilet!" She stuttered and ran up the stairs.

"You have to leave your room." Hermione said, opening the curtains wide the next week. "You've been quiet since we ran into Malfoy in Diagon alley."

"I don't wanna leave."

"Not even to see Ginny force herself to stop calling Fleur Phlegm?"

"Not even."

"Okay, either you come down or I'm gonna go strike up a conversation with Pedro."

"Don't you dare!" Alex glared and Hermione smirked. She groaned but moved off her bed. "Fine."

When Alex got downstairs, she saw Fleur and Pedro bonding over a magazine and Fleur's plans for the wedding. "Alex!" Fleur called her over, noticing her and the Hufflepuff reluctantly walked over.

"Hi." She said.

"Come, sit. Sit!" She said, flipping through to a bookmarked page. "What do you think of this? I think you would look delightful in pink. You, Amélie and Ginny can match."

"Yay." She said, the lack of enthusiasm very much evident in her voice. Pedro looked all too smug at her discomfort. "Pedro, do you remember Amélie from the competition? She's Fleur's cousin."

"Oh, I had no idea." He grinned. "I think you two will look so adorable in pink."

"Do you have anything yellow in there? I'm sort of partial to clothes with my house pride. Yellow or gold would be sort of a halfway point for Ginny and I."

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea. You're right, the pink would look terrible with your sister's hair."

"I wouldn't go so far to say-"

"It means a lot to me, Alex, that you're so kind. I am glad to be having you as a sister. I apologise for believing Cho."

"Seriously, no worries." Alex said. "We don't have to talk about that."

"... so no pink?" Pedro was smirking.

"This is exactly why I'm not going to be calling you professor." She told him.

"Then I'll take points. That's how the system works at Hogwarts, right?"

"I have teachers who like me. It'll be easy to win back however much you take from me."

"She once lost ten points and won back a hundred to prove a point." Hermione added, catching the last of the conversation. She leaned over the armchair, resting her forearm on Alex's shoulder.

"The bet was off, so that didn't count."

"You still won back the points you lost tenfold."

A/N- I really want more of Alex and Bill. She and he were so close and I genuinely hate myself for not developing that relationship more 😭

Anyways, favourite line is "Harry's hardly one for original thoughts, and you don't see me complaining." Alex shrugged.