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'our hearts were broken in the same places'
[John Green, Turtles All The Way Down]
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A gentle knock at the door made Ivy's heart hammer in her chest as she walked down the stairs, quickly combing a hand through the brown strands of her hair.
Night had fallen by now, but the temperature had yet to cool down as the sun's warmth lingered on the ground. With her trunk at the door, backpack slung over her shoulder and old converse loosely tied, Ivy's hand met the brass doorknob, and she hesitated, but opened it. The light from inside leaking out into the shadowy night.
A warm familiarity calmed her trepidation as Molly Weasley's kind face met her sight.
"Oh, Ivy! How are you?" she pulled her into a tight, motherly hug. The soft chirps of crickets hidden within the dry grassy fields rang through the night as a cool breeze met her skin.
"Hi, Mrs Weasley," Ivy said over Molly's shoulder, the physical contact soothing her former unease, orange hair tickling her cheek as she hugged back. "I'm okay."
"Oh, call me Molly, dear, I've known you since you were a baby!" She pulled away, and her hands met Ivy's arms as she spoke. "You've grown so much! I'm sorry I'm so late, we had a bit of a situation. Have you eaten?"
"Yeah, I have...what situation?" her brow furrowed, but Molly brushed off her bemusement.
"No need to worry about that now," she said, which only encouraged the questions spiralling in Ivy's mind. "Are you ready to go? All packed?"
"Yeah," Ivy leaned through the doorway and brought her trunk into view. She stepped further outside and closed the front door, leaving them eclipsed in the night's shadow.
"Perfect! Now just grab my arm; we'll be apparating there. Have you apparated before?"
"Once with my dad, yeah," Ivy swallowed thickly, remembering the way her stomach seemed to pull and twist in on itself all at once those years ago. She put her hand on Molly's outstretched elbow, holding on tight. "Uh, where exactly are we going—?"
She was cut off as the world seemed to blur together around her into multiple colours and elongated shapes. It became hard to breathe like she was being squeezed down a tight tube, and just as the dizziness was starting to make Ivy's head hurt, it stopped, and her feet landed hard on a stretch of wet pavement.
She stumbled, but Molly balanced her as she swallowed down the bile that threatened to rise from her throat. Ivy's hand clutched the handle of her trunk as she surveyed her surroundings. The air was dense and humid, and the street they were on was only faintly lit by a streetlight; its warm glow creating golden sparkles on the rain-glossed road behind them.
