"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.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
BRIAR'S LAMENT
✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪ ✪
IT WAS THE NIGHT before Christmas and the whole house was sound; everyone was asleep, including the hound. The decorations throughout the house were dim and still, for there would be no eyes to feast upon them until seven o'clock the next morning. Although one bedroom was short of its two inhabitants, and the lone inhabitant in that room had laid awake for hours before finally drifting out of the state of worry, the house was peaceful.
Until, the grandfather clock downstairs chimed and declared the beginning of the witching hour. Upon the first chime, the eldest of the children woke up. Her waking was abrupt and cut through the silence so much that the dog asleep next to her bed woke up, barking loudly. Her bedroom had been charmed to keep the noise inside it contained within the four walls, but the door had been propped ajar by an old teddy, which the dog miraculously hadn't stolen in the night to chew.
The eldest child — a seventeen-year-old blonde, with strange scars all over her body, mostly hidden by fabric during the daylight hours — gripped onto the side of the bed. In a panic, her eyes widened, and she pulled off her t-shirt, leaving her in her bra and pyjama shorts. (The Nightmare Before Christmas ones. Jack Skellington was her favourite character.)
Quickly, she shouted, "MUM!"
And, just like that, the serenity went splat.
"Briar, what's the matter—?"
"The skin on my back is killing me. It's like with the vision about Arthur Weasley — I'm fine, I know that it's going to hurt, but I can't see what it's going to say—"
Laurel grabbed the nearest piece of parchment, and the pencil lying next to it. Under her breath, she mumbled, "I should've made time to go to the hospital, I was too busy sorting out the full moon with Remus, and Christmas, and looking after Teddy—"
"It's fine, Mum, it's fine," said Briar. She gritted her teeth. "It hurts."
A stuffed toy was thrown onto Briar's lap. Princess Aurora.
"Hug onto that," said Laurel. She moved Briar's hair over her shoulder, and Briar shuddered from her cold hands. "Sorry. Right. It's going to be fine, Briar. You've done this before, both with scars, and the old sort. This'll be over and done with, I'll make you a cup of tea, and you can go back to sleep. I'll make a cure tonight. One more vision like this. One last time."
