SWEATER WEATHER! percy weasley

ix. Till the very end

The sun had only just touched the small farmhouse when Tatum crawled out of bed. She went to touch the opposite side when her hands found nothing but the cold, wrinkled sheets in which Percy had left just hours ago. He had gone into work earlier than usual at his bosses request. It bothered Tatum, knowing that Percy was forced to work for such a corrupt institution. He did his best to hide his distress from her, but Tatum could see straight through him. 

Her feet met the cold floor as she sauntered down the stairs to the kitchen.

There was an unfamiliar face standing by the window sill, sipping coffee. It was a young woman with bushy brown hair, and a pained expression written clearly on her tanned face.

Tatum shuffled awkwardly. "Um, hello."

The bushy haired girl jumped, spilling her coffee. Apparently she had been deep in thought.

"Oh bugger." Tatum heard her whisper. She pulled out her wand and vanished the spilled coffee.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-" Tatum started.

"Don't worry about it, it isn't a big deal." The girl smiled weakly.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and you must be Tatum."

"Yes, that's me."

"I know Percy pretty well, were not as close as his other brothers and Ginny, but he was a big help to me back in school." Hermione explained.

"You went to the same school as Percy? Tatum inquired. I heard it's wonderful."

"It was, up until the ministry and you-know-who began infiltrating it." Hermione said with an annoyed glint in her eye.

"What? Those people took over a school?"

Hermione nodded grimly. "This world wasn't always dark. It was a beautiful, magical place and people like us were lucky enough to be apart of it."

Tatum furrowed her brows. "People like us?"

"Muggles. Said Hermione. Surely the Weasley's have told you what they are."

"Oh, people without magic. But you have a wand, and you went to a magic school, how can you be non-magical?"

"It's a bit complicated, some people can have non-magical parents but still possess magic, muggleborns."  Explained Hermione.

"You're just a muggle, make sense?" She explained further when Tatum's face remained to look confused.

"Sort of."

"Hermione, when did you get here?"

Tatum turned to see the youngest of the Weasley brothers come up to hug Hermione. Weird. She didn't even here him come down the stairs.

"Just last night, Ron." Said Hermione.

It might've been from the lack of sleep, but Tatum could've sworn that Hermione started glowing when Ron embraced her, and she was looking ten times happier than she had looked before Ron came into the room.

As the day continued, Tatum found herself alone a lot. There were many long meetings being held that Tatum couldn't be apart of. Percy had tried explaining to her that it's an extremely exclusive, not to mention dangerous, team of skilled witches and wizards. Tatum tried to understand the situation, but couldn't help but think of the whole thing as some sort of high school "cool kids" club.

She couldn't even contact Ryder or Lola for assurance in their safety. Tatum had no way of knowing if they were captured by death eaters, or if they were even alive at all. The thought made her heart sink to the pit of her stomach.

Tatum, Lola, and Ryder had been friends since they were eleven. It was Lola that had found Tatum in an alley way after running away from yet another foster home. It was Ryder that would cheer her up when people in school would comment about her having no parents. It was supposed to be the three of them, till the very end.