Obliviate My Rebellion {Book 3}

4. Tension in the headquarters

We sat there for a bit, wrapped up in the moment and the security of each other. We weren't going to be distant from each other any more, we were going to be proper sisters--and help each other out.

I was so relieved though. I didn't want to go through this alone, and I didn't want the others to go through this alone either. Together we could help each other and stick together for once and for all.

Suddenly, Hollie sagged forward onto my shoulder, her teary face making tracks on my bare arms. I pulled her back from me, to see she had fallen asleep. I pointed this out to Lacey, and carefully she scooped Hollie into her arms.

"It's been a long day." Lacey concluded, as her sister's dark head drooped with tiredness. "Would you open the door?"

I opened the door, to find a dark and dreary room with a double bed in the centre. There were some clothes on the dresser and some basic items--plus a tattered book.

Lacey tucked Hollie into the double bed, and stroked her sister's hair in a soothing motion. "That ginger girl--Ginny I think--gave us some clothes to wear for now. Mrs Weasley's going to get us some more soon though."

"That's good." I said, feeling a twinge of guilt. I had all my belongings, they were with Harry. Lacey and Hollie had literally nothing but each other.

I clenched my fist, my nails digging into the scarred palms. NO. I shouted in my head. I won't feel bad. I won't.

"You've got your guilty expression on again." Lacey said accusingly. "But don't worry we have no possessions. We have each other, that's the main thing."

I looked at Lacey sideways. She looked as if she'd matured a lot in the time we'd been apart. Her cropped hair was no longer bleached, it had mostly returned to dark brown--though some blonde bits lingered.

Her expression was no longer one of irritation and a furious restlessness with the world. She looked calm, but with an underlying fiery expression for change.

"Have I got something on my face?" Lacey smiled wryly, as she turned on one of the gas lamps in the room. "You keep staring at me."

"Isn't it weird," I told her quietly. "That it was only a year ago we were hating each other, and everything was so... normal."

Lacey chuckled. "You've got that right." she paused. "Everything was so much simpler when there was only bad and good, right and wrong. Now... I don't even know whether what mum did was right or wrong. I don't know whether Mark was actually trying to get Robyn back... or if he was blinded with guilt and grief."

"What was she like?" I asked quietly. "Robyn, I mean."

I was curious about the girl who had looked just like me. There was some nagging feeling inside that wanted to know what sort of life the Oswins could have had without Voldemort's interference.

"She screamed the house down, for one thing." Lacey said fondly. "She was just so pure and I used to dream of the day when I'd be able to look after her. But that day never came."

"You've got Hollie."

Lacey smiled, and stroked Hollie's head. "Yeah, I guess I have." she looked at me. "And I have you, little miss 'I get cake from convicts.'"

I couldn't help cracking a smile. "So I guess you've figured out Sirius isn't a mass murderer?"

"I still can't believe I fell for it." Lacey shook her head. "I kept thinking some mad-man was going to knife me in the middle of the night!"

"Sorry for that." I smiled. "But it's a little bit funny if you think about it."

Lacey punched me in the shoulder and rolled her eyes. "He did go to prison though, right?"