THE TWO WITNESSES | RON WEASLEY [BOOK TWO]

9. TREASURE

Gene thought she might have been excused from her horrible nightmares, just once, after the perilous night she had had. But evidently not.

She couldn't rid herself of the images of the snake, Wormtail, the sound of hers and Harry's names being whispered. That dangerously familiar cold and venomous voice seeping into her mind, like she was being poisoned, slowly but surely with each nightmare that came. 

She woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath as Lorelai let go of her. Gene eventually calmed down, head shifting to gauge her surroundings.

"Everything okay?" Lorelai asked worriedly as Gene began to sit up in bed, drawing her knees closer to her chest. She could only muster a nod in response, though it didn't convince Lorelai much. She didn't bother attempting to get back to sleep and instead, got ready for the day a little earlier than usual.

And somehow, even after reliving her hair-raising nightmare all over again, her mind still went to Ron after last night. Nothing was making sense anymore. Her days were filled with a macabre sort of silence, where people could just tell that Gene wasn't quite in the mood, so she had been left alone.

Gene even found recluse in McGonagall's office, the pair sitting in a comfortable silence as they did their respective work, with McGonagall silently offering Gene a biscuit every once in a while, usually being bourbons.

After a particularly long session in McGonagall's office, Gene decided to roam Hogwarts alone seeing as she had no lessons for the rest of the day, until she had bumped into Cedric on her way to the bridge.

"Hey," he began with a small smile.

Gene returned the smile easily now, a vast contrast to the Gene that Cedric had passed in various corridors over the last few days.

"That's the first time you've smiled since the Ball." she didn't realise she was that obvious, "Are you alright now?" he asked and Gene only nodded.

"Where are you headed?" she asked, noticing his eyes darting to and fro.

"Nowhere in particular. But I am looking for Potter. Have you seen him?" he asked hopefully, as they walked alongside one another across the bridge.

Gene tensed at his name, even though he hadn't been the one to upset her last night. But he was friends with the one who had, which meant she had to carry on ignoring and avoiding the innocent two. It wasn't fair, but Gene never was.

She began to shake her head in response, though she spotted Harry already looking at her, along with Hermione. There was something that might have been guilt in his eyes, but Gene couldn't be sure.

"Over there." Gene nodded her head forward, hanging back as Cedric went to speak to Harry privately.

Hermione took his place beside her, suddenly wrapping her arms around Gene in a brief hug, so brief that Gene barely had time to return it.

"Ron is sorry, you know." she muttered, but Gene only scoffed. She doubted it. Ron wasn't ever sorry. And if he was, he was probably lying.

She glanced up as Cedric nodded his head, gesturing for her to follow and she did, offering a smile in Hermione's direction. Gene's hand went to her scar as she passed Harry and he scratched his forehead discreetly. That was good. Harry had the dream again, same as Gene.

So maybe it wasn't good at all.

The next few days involved Gene spending a good few hours with Cedric at a time, having found some common interests over the course of should have been study sessions, though they hardly studied. Eventually, they got kicked out of the library for laughing too much and far too loudly, before they parted ways just before 10 o'clock each evening.