Vulnerability || George Weasley

Conversations About House Elves

Phoenix spent the remainder of what would have been her Charms and Transfiguration lessons in the Hospital Wing. She had managed to convince Madam Pomfrey that she had been sick in one of the girls' bathrooms during Defence Against the Dark Arts and was given a potion that made her stomach feel as though there was a whirlpool inside it.

"You're free to go now Miss Lancaster," said Madam Pomfrey when the time for dinner at approached. "I suggest that you get plenty of food and an early night."

"Thank you Madam Pomfrey," Phoenix replied as she exited the Hospital Wing. But instead of turning the corridor towards where the marble staircase were however, she took a shortcut through tapestry to the Gryffindor common room but almost immediately ran straight into-

"Pixy!"

"Nix!"

"Fred, George," Phoenix murmured as George pulled her into bone crushing hug.

"We were just coming to look for you to go to dinner," said Fred frantically.

"I-I've already had food in the Hospital Wing," she lied as George pulled away, Fred looked at her suspiciously.

"What the hell happened in Defence Against the Dark Arts, you scared the shit out of us!" George grabbed her face between his hands and studied her face, as if checking for any signs of harm.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?!" Fred and George both yelled and Phoenix jumped, looking up at them, wide eyed.

George looked almost angry as he bellowed, "You screamed and stared at the spider like somebody just died!"

Her eyes burned at this and she shook her head madly, covering her ears and squeezing her eyes tight shut, "Don't say that!" she whimpered, a lump in her throat, feeling the tears spilling from her closed eyes. "Don't say that George!"

"What?" George grabbed her wrists, but she struggled against him as she tried to stop the tears from falling. She didn't want to cry in front of them, she doubted that they knew how to deal with an emotional teenage girl.

"Leave me alone!" she cried, her voice breaking at the strain of trying not to cry.

"Phoenix, we're your best friends-"

"Just leave me alone," she sobbed as the tears finally cascaded down her cheeks. She stopped struggling against George, staring down at her shoes. She let out a painful sob that shook her entire body and she slid down the wall. Fred and George stared at her in alarm; they had never seen her cry before. They both sat down on either side of her, staring at her as she sobbed.

George took her hands carefully in his and caressed them with his thumbs as Fred put an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him and these small comforts made her sob even more. The three of them stayed there as sounds of students running up and down the marble staircase had faded as Phoenix's sobs had subsided slightly.

"I-I think," Phoenix said in a shaky, "I saw my mum die."

"What?" Fred said quickly, looking at her with concern and complete shock on his face.

"When Moody cast the Killing Curse..." she said in a voice so small, that if the rest of the school had still been running up and down the distant corridors and passage ways, Fred and George would have struggled to hear her. "I... I saw the flash of green light but then... something just happened and I just saw this image of a body on the floor and I could screaming and crying and I felt... like I wanted to scream," she screwed up her eyes and shivered. "It was terrifying... " she stared at a spider that scuttling across the floor and was reminded her of the lesson. "I can still her screaming in my head..."