The Haunting of Judith Wagner{George Weasley}

Chapter Fourteen

"I never actually bothered to think how snitches were made." Fred said watching Judith work alongside her grandfather.

"Why is he wearing gloves?" he asked as Norman picked up the little orb in his hands.

She turned in her chair to face him.

"Well, it's because the snitches have flesh memory." she said. "That's how the snitch can tell who actually caught it in case it becomes a debate out on the field. If the charmer touches it with bare skin, it's no use. It has to be handled by glove until it makes it way out to the field. Then when it is caught, that snitch is no longer put to use. It's retired."

"How can he not know this, didn't you say they both played quidditch?" Norman asked.

Judith nudged her grandfather with a face.

"Granted, my main concern was never the snitch." Fred said. "My mind was always occupied with bludgers."

"You don't have to defend yourself, Fred." she told him. " He knows way too much about snitches and I only know this stuff because of him."

"It's interesting stuff, you can't deny that." Norman said. "Do you know the history of the golden snitch, my boy?"

He waited for Judith to pass along the answer.

"No, he doesn't." she sighed knowing the story was going to be drawn out. She looked to Fred. "You might want to make yourself comfortable."

"It all started back in 1269," Norman began, "when Barberus Bragge released a golden snidget during a match...."

"You know, I didn't know there was so much to metal-charming, either." Fred said as he and Judith left the household in order for Judith to return to her flat for a fresh change of clothes.

"Well, it's tricky work...besides incorporating magic into the metal, you have to manipulate so that even when after you're dead, the object still works."

"So your grandfather comes from a long line of metal charmers?"

"No, he apprenticed under another metal charmer for a couple of decades before going out onto his own. He learned how to make a sneakoscope before making a snitch...which sounds completely backwards now that I mention it."

"And you want to be a metal charmer?"

"Yeah, I always thought it was cool. I may not be an expert one right now, but I'm making progress, at least I made an oval today." she chuckled. "That's a big step from my peanut snitches."

"Alright, so you work on your metal charming and work at the tea shop, what does your brother do again?"

"He works for the Wizengamot Administration, you know, all the clerical duties and such. Maintain court documents and stuff like that."

"Wow, that sounds incredibly boring."

Judith couldn't help but laugh. "It does sound rather boring, doesn't it? I suppose it might be."

"No wonder he's so bitter."

"I wish he would come around more, I'm sure if he spent less time working and more time around his family he would be a happier person. But lately he's just so...angry and moody. He wasn't even this bad back when we were in school. I don't know what's wrong with him."

"My brother Percy was like that for the longest time, you remember him don't you?"

"Of course I do, because if he wasn't bossing people around in your house, he was bossing all the other students around." Judith said.

"Yeah, that sounds about accurate." Fred nodded. "But when he went to work for the Ministry...he really did change for the worse. Completely shut out his own family and listened to the word of the Ministry before anyone else. It was only at the final battle did he really come to his sense. I only got to experience briefly. Imagine, you go your entire life having one of the most serious people in your family, and then moments before you die, they decided to make a joke."

"That's not depressing at all, Fred." Judith muttered. "Perhaps you can talk to him too then? Through me of course. If anyone in your family decides to believe me that is."

"They will."

Judith remembered a time where she had overheard her grandmother tell Nathaniel about mediums contacting the dead, rather than the dead contacting them. Their minds and spirits would venture in limbo to reach out to the spirits in hope that they would be heard.

As she took a hot bath that same evening, her mind wandered to the theory, and she thought about trying to contact Renna. When she and Fred had arrived to the Wagner home that evening, she had found her grandmother holding a session with a young widow who was beginning Bethany to contact her late husband.

But her nana refused, she said she didn't go contacting spirits because it could end up with the wrong spirit coming forward. Limbo wasn't home to just good spirits, it was home to trapped spirits, ones that wanted a way out and would do anything to escape.

She lowered herself further into the water, her eyes the only part visible as she held her breath for a few moments, enjoying the water that was causing her skin to turn red. She closed her eyes allowing her body to fully relax.

"Judith...."

The water turned ice cold causing Judith's eyes to open instantly, except she only found herself in darkness. She lifted her face out of the water.

The voice wasn't normal and it didn't belong to anyone she knew personally. It was scratchy and sounded winded, but even in it's weak form, the anger was prominent.

"H-h-hello?" she called out, her own voice shook terribly. She tried to move and get out of the tub, however, her entire body remain motionless. She didn't have control of her limbs anymore.

Suddenly, her body jolted and she found herself under the frigid unable to breathe, or pull herself out.

"JUDITH!"