stardust ⋮ george weasley

forty-nine :

F O R T Y - N I N E

⋮✰⋮

[warning: i probably should've mentioned this earlier, but a lot of part 3 is going to deal heavily with ptsd, so this is just a trigger warning going forward]

⋮✰⋮

Adeline woke up screaming for the third time that week.

As the summer went on, Adeline was finding it increasingly difficult to get a full night of rest. More often than not, Adeline found herself shaking and screaming in her sleep as she dreamt and relived that night in the graveyard. She had long ago learnt to cast the Silencing Charm around her room so no one else in her house could hear her when she woke up from her nightmares.

Some nights, Adeline couldn't even sleep at all because she was terrified to face the dreams that awaited her.

Adeline hoped the dreams would go away by the time she was back at Hogwarts or even when she went to stay with George. She didn't know what she would do if she had to explain to everyone why it had become so difficult for her to sleep at night.

As much as she hated to admit it – not that Adeline ever would out loud – the summer had been absolutely miserable. She attempted to put on a good image in the few letters that she sent to her friends and George. Adeline tried talking about the positives, even though there weren't many. She couldn't talk about the nightmares or how her parents treated her like even more than a freak than before. So she tried talked a lot about the books she read or the new knitting techniques she learnt or stories from the bookshop where she worked.

Adeline didn't mention how she had to start taking a new route to work because the old one passed by her town's graveyard.

When she woke up that night, it took Adeline a few minutes to calm herself back down again. She took a few deep breaths before reaching over to her bedside table where two photographs sat. The first was a photo of her, Estelle, Ophelia, and Melanie during their fourth year, laughing under one of the huge trees that sat by the Black Lake. The second picture was one of her and George at the Yule Ball slow-dancing that Angelina and Fred had sneakily took.

She held the photographs tight to her chest, trying to feel as if her friends were still comforting and holding her even though they couldn't be there. Adeline then placed the photos back down on her nightstand and rested her head back on her pillow, knowing that there was little chance she'd be able to fall asleep again that night.

⋮✰⋮

The small clock in Adeline's room read 5:59, and her foot tapped at a fast pace against the ground as she waited for the clock to strike 6.

She wasn't sure how George and Mrs. Weasley were coming to pick her up. All Adeline knew was that George said in his letters that they'd be there at 6pm that evening, and that she wanted to run out of the house without even acknowledging her family.

Then Adeline heard a crashing sound from the sitting room and the sounds of her parents screaming.

Cursing quietly to herself, Adeline grabbed her trunk and ran as quickly as she could down the hall. In the sitting room, Adeline found her parents and Emily staring wide-eyed at George and Mrs. Weasley, who were staring a little guiltily at the ash-covered white carpet.

George was the first one to notice her standing there, and in spite of the situation, George couldn't help but crack a wide smile. "Addie!"

Adeline's father stared back and forth between Adeline and the two Weasleys. "You know these people?"