Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(187) Suits

Florence decided to pay the Manor a visit during her second week of break. She had found use of her time helping around the shop, however Fred and George had gotten to the point where they had felt bad that she was doing things that someone would do if they were getting paid of their labor, but knowing that she wasn't getting paid. Every time she had tried to help from that point, Fred and George insisted that she busy herself with something else. However, when she had gotten to the house, not a single person was in the living room.

She frowned, knowing full well that at least Julien and Sloan were supposed to be home, as they were supposed to have the month off too. Florence then noticed that the door to her mum's old office was locked, signaling that there was a meeting with the Order going on. She sighed, before climbing up the stairs to her room to keep herself occupied, not knowing if they were going to be done any time soon. 

Florence came across Miss Mimsy on her way to her room, the cat licking her lips as though she had just come from eating a rather delicious meal. She meowed at the sight of Florence, trotting over to her and rubbing her body against her leg. Florence picked her up, surprised at the lack of protest from the feline, before the two entered her room together.

It had just been how she left it the last time she was over. Despite the many Order guests that come in and out of the Manor, Sloan and the others had made sure to specify that her room was off limits. It was Florence's safe space, no matter how old she was.

She set Miss Mimsy down on the bed, the cat immediately burrowing in to the duvets, Florence noticing that it was fresh. It might have been the work of Sirius, as Remus had said the last time that the man kept himself busy by doing chores around the house. Florence smiled at this, making a mental note to thank Sirius once she saw him. There was not much to do in her room, so Florence made use of her time by looking through the boxes she had left behind to see if there was anything she wanted to take back to the apartment.

She heard a knock on the door, Florence calling for them to come in. Julien opened the door, a look of relief washing over him at the sight of Florence, "Well, I don't know why I was half expecting some intruder to be in your room, but I did." He said, "How long have you been in here?"

"Not long, really." she replied, shoving one of the boxes back under her bed, "I noticed everyone was in the office room so I just kept myself busy."

Julien offered her a small smile, "Yeah... big Order meeting, which, technically you could have sat in for. Dad says not to bother you with it for now but honestly I don't see any harm in you participating in meetings from time to time. He's just paranoid like that..."

"Well," Florence pondered, "You can just tell me about it, can't you?"

"I suppose so..." he concluded, moving to take a seat on Florence's bed, "Its about Dumbledore. He's been doing a lot of things, and acting kind of... cryptic..." Julien said. He promptly told her about his little plan to retrieve an object that was said to be one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Florence frowned at this, "Horcruxes... there's more than one??" she said, rather astonished. She had read briefly about Horcruxes in one of the books she found in the library that one time she was looking for references for a Charms essay. It was said that the act of splitting one's soul was the darkest form of magic. Voldemort had done many atrocious acts, but Florence had underestimated the extent of his evil.

"I know.." Julien said, a grim expression on his face, "It makes my spine tingle just thinking about it... its such dark magic, but Dumbledore seems to be making light of the situation."

"In what way?"

"Well, for one, when we had asked him how many people he wanted with him for the operation...he said he only needed Harry."