The Era of Aria Snape

81

Chapter Eighty-One

THE FAMILIAR BROWN walls of the burrow greeted Aria's eyes as they fluttered open from a very restless night of sleep. Sun was streaming in through the curtains and Molly Weasley's voice sounded above everything else from downstairs.

A small smile gave way to Aria's face, but it quickly vanished.

She wrapped a gown tightly around herself before slowly descending the staircase. She was greeted with several smiling faces.

"Aria." Molly walked towards her, arms open as she planted a kiss on her cheek. "Good morning love. Eggs for breakfast." She muttered and hurried back into the kitchen.

Aria took her usual seat next to George. "Morning, sleepy."

"Hey." Their fingers entwined underneath the table. George had been as supportive as he possibly could have during this time, but she knew that dealing with things like this wasn't really his strong suit and some days went by when they hardly uttered a word to each other, despite being in the same room the entire time.

Countless days went by the same way. She would wake up, eat, help Molly around the house, sit and listen in on everyone's conversations and then go to bed. She repeated this cycle for weeks.

It wasn't until one day when Ron burst through the door, almost out of breath. "Harry's been expelled."

"What?"

"He's expelled! Bloody hell, bloody hell..." Ron muttered.

Aria stood to her feet. "For what, Ronald?"

George glanced at her. That was the most she'd said in weeks when speaking out of turn.

"Performed a spell in front of his cousin or something like that. There's to be a hearing."

"When and where?" Aria located her wand quickly, prepared to leave at that very instant.

"It's in a few days, but—"

"Everybody up," Molly called, clapping for everyone's attention. "The Order will have heard about this." She looked to Arthur. "We should go to the headquarters."

He nodded. "Quite right. Come now, everyone."

Aria glanced at her boyfriend. "What are they talking about?"

George shrugged, throwing his arm carelessly around her shoulder before stepping into the fireplace and calling out "Twelve Grimmauld Place." As Arthur had done before him.

Aria found herself flying out of the fireplace into an unfamiliar house. She stood up, wiped herself free of soot, and looked around. "Where are we?"

"This is the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix."

"And what's that?"

"You'll learn shortly, now go upstairs with George and pick a room out." Molly ushered them away swiftly.

"Aria," George said, following her into a room. "What's going on?"

"How the bloody hell should I know? I know less than you."

"I meant with you." He mumbled and moved closer to her. "It's like you're a whole different person and I don't understand it."

Aria bit her lip nervously. She hadn't been very open with George. Of course, he knew the basics, like everyone else seemed to, he'd heard the rumors, but she had never straight up told him what actually had happened.

She figured that if she was going to confide in anyone at this point, it might as well have been him.

She gestured to the bed and sat opposite him, holding his hands in hers. "It's..." she didn't know how to begin. It was strange having to explain thoughts that she'd been pondering over for weeks. "A lot has happened."

"I know."

"Too much, actually." She blinked back a few tears. "Everything changed when I went into that maze. I would have done anything to win, when we ended up in that graveyard I thought about leaving Harry there. Vold- The Dark Lord had chosen me, he wanted me to be there and join him. I had already seen Cedric die and I contemplated allowing myself to succumb to him, but then he wanted to kill Harry and I just couldn't let him!" Tears fell down her face now. George reached out and cradled her against his chest. "So I defied his wishes and fought alongside Harry. Our curses... collided or something and ghosts appeared around us. That's how Lily spoke to me and after that, well, everything is pretty much a blur. A lot of things make more sense now that I've had time to decipher them." She wiped her eyes.

"What things?" He asked, rubbing his hand along her back.

"Well, firstly why my father never let me go near Harry. He was lying to me this whole time!" She huffed, feeling more angry than sad. "Also, how Lupin acted towards me, had an obsession with my eyes he did, turns out he was good friends with Lily. He even turned my hair ginger, like hers in one lesson, I know why my father had such a freak out about that now." Aria thought about what else had suddenly become apparent to her. "How Sirius Black looked at me, what he said to dad in the Shrieking Shack." George nodded, listening intently to every word she said. "A lot of my Divination lessons make sense now." She feigned a laugh.

"You've had a rough year." He squeezed her tightly.

She nodded stiffly against his chest.

"But you've got me and my family and now Harry. You're practically family, Aria, which is why..."

She looked up as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box.

"It's not what it looks like." He blushed upon seeing her expression. "It's a ring but not for marriage, just as a promise." He took her hand and slipped it onto her finger. "A promise that I'll love you no matter what and always."

A few tears slipped from Aria's eyes, but for the first time in a while, they weren't tears of sadness, rather complete and utter joy. "I love you so much, George." She whispered.

"I love you too. Now, come on." He pulled away and looked down at her. "Let's go help, Harry."