"Briar Lupin had dreamt, predicted, foreseen death more times than she cared to admit. If she actually remembered all of the times it had occurred, at least."
Sequel to Blue.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
UMBRIDGE REFUTED
✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪
ALTHOUGH SHE AWOKE, STILL curled up at the side of the bed, where the mattress hit the wall, she woke up early, like usual, and felt the need to get home before her parents realised that she vanished. Sitting upright, Briar picked up one of Fred's arms to move it off of her, before she Apparated back into her bedroom.
Sergeant woke up, but he was like Briar, in that he woke up early. He did it because Briar usually walked him in the school grounds in the morning, but still. He jumped up, claimed a part of the bed, where the grooves in the duvet made a suitable bed for him and went still again. Briar exhaled and grabbed the magazine on the bedside table, the one with Alicia Silverstone on the front.
Thirty minutes passed. Briar threw the magazine to the side, clicked her fingers to get Sergeant jumping off of her bed and towards her, and quickly made her bed. It was half-seven, and the house was buzzing with noise already, thanks to the recent addition to the family. Sergeant's fur brushed against Briar's leg as they walked down the stairs, passing sickly-sweets photographs lined in assorted frames.
She walked into the kitchen, Sergeant leaving her side to go through the opened kitchen door. A minute passed, and Laurel walked in. "The owl refused to come inside," she explained. Briar shrugged. "Your father and I have been meaning to ask — would you prefer to go to Kings Cross with your friends and the guard, or would you prefer to go with just me and Livvy? And Teddy, but he'll just be in a pushchair, no doubt."
"I'd like to just go with you and the boys," said Briar. Laurel looked surprised, and Briar frowned. "You just asked me—"
"I thought that you'd choose to go with your friends," said Laurel. She went to flick the kettle on. As she glanced back, she was smirking joyfully. "Considering you went back last night." Briar's mouth dropped. "Yeah, your dad knows, too. You can't trick us, sweetie. But, I would've struggled with my grandma's death if it hadn't been for my friends — Livvy's parents — and Remus would've struggled with being a werewolf if he didn't have the friends that he did, so, we're not going to stop you from seeing them if that helps."
Briar smiled.
"People deal with grief differently," said Laurel. "Just because you're my daughter doesn't mean we deal with it the same."
Briar crossed her arms. "I like being alone, but I sometimes want to be with them, because they take my mind off of it for a while," she said. "But, then, when I do think about something else, I snap out of it and feel awful because I wasn't thinking about Cedric."
