Alexandra Weasley: Book 6

19

"It's still a no, Hermione."

"Think of it as a Christmas gift." Hermione pleaded. "You'd be giving him a whole cousin."

"I'm not telling him." Alex said adamantly. "And lower your voice."

"But he's so lonely." Hermione said and snuck a glance over to Pedro who sat alone at the staff table.

"Even if I did tell him, what do you think's going to happen?"

"I don't know. He gets a family. He trusts you."

"And look what I did with that trust. I told you."

"Alex!" Hermione groaned, a little louder than she'd planned.

"Okay, I'm full. I'm going to go. I'll see you later."

"Whatever." Hermione huffed and Alex walked away.

The ashwinder egg had thawed during the holidays so Alex, under Slughorn's watch, carefully broke the time charm and stood guard, never taking her eyes off until it started to melt. The moment she saw gold, she added her previously prepared horseradish and closed the lid.

There was a small bang. Alex waited a little while before taking off the lid and mixing slowly. Once she saw the egg calming somewhat, she added the juiced squill bulb and watched it smoothen. The potion turned a reddish gold. The egg shells began collecting at the top of the potion and Alex used her slotted spoon to collect each and every single piece. Once she had, she'd decided to mix a little longer and took the potion off heat, to let the ingredients mix. She put it away again.

Alex ended up headed towards the library with Hermione, who was yet again pestering her.
"Two can play at this game." She finally said, looking up. "You should tell Ron how you feel."

"You said that's a bad idea because he needs to come to the conclusion on his own. Otherwise he'll get confused and things will get messed up."

"Damn it." Alex huffed. "I did say that. Because it's true." They walked in to see Pedro at a table of his own. He glanced up and smiled before looking away. Hermione smirked and walked right over. "Hermione!" Alex hissed but Hermione had already reached him.

"Hello." She greeted. He was looking over alchemy books, and coming up with what looked like a lesson plan.

"Hi." He greeted. Alex put on a strained smile. He looked around at his scattered things on the table. "Sorry, just trying to get a hang for this teaching thing. You wanna sit?"

"Sure." Hermione flopped into a seat. Alex rolled her eyes but followed suit.

"So are you two always in the library?" He asked.

"Not always. Sometimes we're out in the forest."

"Or the Hufflepuff common room."

"What do you do out in the forest?"

"Um..." the girls looked at each other before shrugging.

"And how are you finding our school so far?" Hermione asked.

"It's- it's great. You guys are great students, and willing to learn and it's all a lot different to Castelobruxo." He said. "Have you settled your argument?"

Alex glared at her friend before looking at Pedro. "Our what?"

"You seem to always be debating something. I don't mean to pry, just wondering if I need to delay your partnership in my class for a few weeks."

"Maybe you could settle it for us." Hermione offered. Alex pinched her. "What? You asked Harry. And maybe another set of fresh eyes will help." Alex rolled her eyes again but let Hermione continue. "So, we were presented with a hypothetical situation and we can't agree on how we'd settle it. Imagine you found out you had a cousin. The other person doesn't know. Do you tell them? Or do you keep it a secret?"

"How comes the other person doesn't know?"

"I don't know. It's hypothetical. But then there's a second scenario. Imagine you were the cousin. Would you want to be told?"

"That's tricky." He said.

"Hermione thinks-"

"No, wait. Let's hear his unbiased answer and then tell him our thoughts."

"Okay, fine. So, what do you think? In your own personal point of view?" Alex asked.

"I think... in the times we're in, it would be a little cruel to find out. You never know who you're going to lose, either to the death eaters or to death. So, personally, I wouldn't want to know if I had family. Not until the dangers pass." He said. "But on the other hand, if I was the one who knew, I'm not sure what I would do."

"See?" Alex said. "I said I would want to know for the sake of knowing. But that's just me, personally. I like knowing things. But I wouldn't tell them, because it's the worst possible time."

"And I think, I would want to know, but I'd also tell. Because even if things did end wrong, if I were to find out I had family out there and miss out on getting to know them- that would hurt more than having gotten to know them and losing them. And those are only worst case scenarios."

"Sometimes not getting to know them is easier. There are no expectations, even if you find out after, you can't get disappointed. But if you were to get to know them and then they die, because you know that's a real thing that can happen, and you find out later that there's a lot more to them than you think, that's going to hurt."

"Is that what you're afraid of? That you're going to die and he'll be disappointed when he learns more about you?" Hermione switched to Japanese.

"I was disappointed in my mother." Alex countered. Hermione looked piteously at her. Pedro looked between the two of them and then just turned to his own work.

A/N- So, Pedro doesn't even want to know, I guess. Oop.

Favourite line is "Damn it." Alex huffed. "I did say that."