The Haunting of Judith Wagner{George Weasley}

Chapter Eleven

Judith awoke the next morning to find the weather had taken a turn for the worse as it poured rain outside. It was as if the skies were reflecting the mourning that had taken the night before. She pushed herself out of her bed as her head ached slightly, something that usually happened after a heavy night of crying.

She left to her bathroom to get ready for the day knowing she had work in only a couple of hours. She checked down the hallway but didn't see Fred anywhere in sight.  She only hoped she hadn't scared him off in her unstable state.

She showered quickly and left the bathroom brushing her teeth as she set her tea kettle on the stove to allow some water to boil.

Turning around, Fred was a good couple feet from her causing her to jump and nearly swallow the toothpaste foam in her mouth. She clutched at her chest glaring at him.

Judith went to scold him when she noticed immediately that Fred wasn't smiling, in fact, he looked horrible.

She ran to her bathroom to spit the contents in her mouth into the sink and quickly rinsed it before running back. He hadn't moved from his spot.

"Fred, what's wrong?"

"I thought I had accepted the fact that I was dead...but..." he shook his head. "I guess I was wrong.'

Judith frowned and stood before him, wishing she could hug him to offer some sort of comfort.

"I'm sorry, Fred."

"I visited the shop last night after you had fallen asleep. I went to go see George and...it's so much worse than I thought. I don't want my family to hurt. My mother..this morning I saw her. All she did before everyone woke up in the house was cry. Then when she heard everyone start to wake, she put on a smile as if everything was okay. But it's not okay, my family isn't okay."

"Fred, they're grieving. It's what happens when someone passes away."

"It's been over a year-"

"So?" Judith countered. "A year is nothing especially when they've spent so much longer with you. You don't just wake up one day and feel better about someone passing away. You have your good days and your bad days. "

Fred continued to shake his head. "My family shouldn't be suffering, they don't deserve this-"

"No one deserves to feel this type of pain." She said. "No one, Fred. You have to come to understand that it's possible that they will never fully heal over your loss. They will see better days, but they will never fully get over it. In the back of their minds and in their hearts they will always feeling slight pain they they think of you."

"I don't want to be dead!" he yelled over covering his face.

Judith fell silent eyeing him sadly.

"I don't want to be dead I want to be alive..I want to be with my family. I..." he crumbled to the ground.

Judith lowered herself slowly kneeling before him.

"Fred..." she spoke his name softly. "Remember you died fighting for a noble cause. Your death wasn't in vain, you died fighting for something right...so that your family could live in a better world."

"How can they enjoy the better world when all they do is cry over me?"

Judith sat in the middle of her floor, waiting for Fred to say something but for awhile it seemed the two only sat in pure silence. Eventually, she had to get up and finish getting for work but Fred didn't move from his spot as she moved around the flat.

"Fred," she called to him as she neared the front door, " I have to head to work, are you coming?"

He didn't answer and remained on the floor facing away from her.

She gave a slight nod of her head and walked out closing and locking the door behind her.

"Are you okay?" Alma asked approaching Judith as she wiped down the counter.

"Yeah, why?" Judith asked.

"You've been cleaning the same spot for twenty minutes." Alma told her.

Judith peered down and pulled the rag back with a sigh. She looked over to her friend and shook her head.

"I've just been feeling really..out of it lately."

"I can tell." Alma said. "Maybe you should take a vacation, Judy. You look like you need some rest."

"I don't think rest can fix my problem."

'Well, there's only one way to tell...don't worry I'll cover your shifts for a couple of days, but you seriously need a break. Go home or go to your grandparents house and relax."

Judith couldn't find herself protesting and nodded her head in agreement as she walked to the back of the shop.

She went to turn on the light, but it didn't work.

"What in the-" she had just changed the light bulb the other day, it couldn't have burned out so quickly.

She found herself standing in complete darkness until she grabbed her wand.

"Lumos." she muttered softly. The tip of her wand lit up and suddenly, Renna was before.

No longer in the tea shop backroom, Judith found herself back in Hogwarts during the battle. Renna was on the ground, in the same position that was burned into Judith's memory. Still and unmoving, Renna just laid there, her eyes glossed over staring up at the sky.

"Renna!" she dropped down to her knees just as she had done that day and tried to wake her friend hoping she had only been stunned.

"Renna!" she screamed.

"Judith..." a voice hissed in her ear, she turned around and her eyes widened in horror.

George entered the tea shop after waking up that morning and realizing he had never told Judith when and where on the Tuesday they were to meet. He found Judith's co-worker sorting through several boxes of tea muttering to herself as he neared her.

"Excuse me?" he called out to her.

"Yes?" the woman looked up at him.

"Is Judith here?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, she's in the back just-"

They heard a scream come from the back room.

"Judith!" Alma exclaimed running to the back with George behind her.

The two found Judith on the floor, her arms wrapped around herself as she was pressed up against the wall, shaking.

Her skin was clammy and drenched in sweat as something had seemingly spooked her. She was breathing heavily as George lowered himself to her eye level.

"Judith? Can you hear me?" He hesitated to touch her but lifted his hand to touch her shoulder.

She screeched at his touch and tried to get away but George grabbed onto her to avoid being hit.

"Shh...Judith relax, it's me. It's George!" he told her. "Look, look at me!"

His hands grabbed the side of her face.

Her eyes finally met his and she stopped fighting his hold.

"George?"