WEIRD, WEIRD, WEIRDER

♡

after Briar, but she didn't get a chance to ask him how he's been, since when they sat down for dinner, Briar ended up answering all sorts of questions about Beauxbatons. Like, no, there aren't houses... Yes, you share a dorm with one other student, and yes, they're not always the same year as you... Also, yes, I have made new friends, and yes, I guess I've settled in all right... It then turned into Percy trying to ask Briar about her grandpa, and Briar feeling a little weird the whole time, considering Percy's infatuation for him.

But, now, Briar's standing in the bathroom upstairs, dressed in her pyjamas and brushing her teeth. A couple weeks into Beauxbatons, Briar realised how everyone else there seemed to have nice pyjamas, not just old joggers and a hoodie, and she started to get herself a couple nice sets, so she felt a little less inferior standing next to Fleur, who had pretty satin pyjama shirts, with matching shorts. Briar wears her light pink satin pyjamas, a red scrunchie keeping her hair tied up for now. She rinses her mouth with water and looks up in the mirror, her inner eye telling her that Harry will arrive in three, two...

She remembers when she first met Harry, on his first day at Hogwarts. Briar's got this bad habit when she meets people — a million possibilities are thrown towards her by her inner eye, who shows her every possible thing that could happen between them. Like, if Briar had been nasty and they didn't get along. Or, if they didn't along at the start. Or, if they got along immediately, because Briar said, "Oh, our parents were friends!" She chose the latter option.

Since then, they've realised that they both have the same godfather, but that was years after Briar became Harry's honorary big sister. It started around his first Christmas at Hogwarts, when Briar's grandpa was going to be busy all Christmas so she and Livvy stayed at school.

"Hey, Briar," says Harry. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"What's up?" she says, turning around, wiping toothpaste off her mouth onto her flannel. She looks at him, and it's weird... He looks worried about something. Briar doesn't know what, but she knows his frown enough, and the way he's standing, looking a little awkward, as if he feels apprehensive speaking about this, to know that he's worried about something.

"I... I had a weird dream."

Briar nods. "OK..."

Harry looks around. He moves into the bathroom properly, closing the door behind him, as if he was worried that someone was going to walk into the hallway and overhear accidentally. Briar follows suit, turning on one of the taps, so there's some noise.

"It was about Vol—You-Know-Who."

Briar crosses her arms, brows furrowing. "What happened in it?"

"He was in this old house," says Harry. "There was this old man, a muggle, that was trying to see who the intruders were, and there was also a snake, and Wormtail, and this other man..." Briar nods along, and Harry looks at her. "I don't know if it was, you know, like one of your dreams. But I just thought it was weird. Especially since..." He pauses. "You can't tell anyone this." Briar crosses her heart with her fingers. "My scar... hurt afterwards."

"Oh," says Briar, stepping forwards. She looks at his forehead, at the lightning bolt scar, and she tilts her head. "What else happened in the dream?"

"The old man was killed by the snake," says Harry.

"OK," says Briar. "If you want, we can keep an ear out on the muggle radio for the next few days, see if they say anything about a strange death..." She looks at the scar again. For the longest time, she seemed to forget about the meaning behind it, who gave it to him. "When did your scar hurt last?"

"The last time he was at Hogwarts," says Harry. "Do you think what happened in my dream will happen?"

"I don't know," says Briar. "But if the last time it hurt, it was because he was near... That must mean the dream's significant." She lets out a sigh. "Look, Harry, listen out on the news, but don't lose sleep over it. If it happens, it happens."

Harry looks surprised by that. "You think I should just... wait around?"

"Obviously you had that dream for a reason, but if you don't know the reason yet, there's no point in you worrying, because it's not going to do you any good?" she says. "Have you spoken to Sirius about it?"

"Not yet," he says.

"Make sure you do that," says Briar. "Have you, uh, told Ron and Hermione?" He shakes his head. "Do you want to...?" He shakes his head. Briar thinks about herself, with full moons, with the pain in between them, and her stubbornness towards keeping it all from the twins. "Fair enough... 'Night, Harry."

"'Night," says Harry.

Briar switches off the tap, and walks back into the twins' bedroom. She sits down on the camping bed in between both of theirs. Both of them have their initials stuck to their headboards, and in the ten minutes she's been out of the room, they've tried to attach a 'B' to the awkward iron headboard on the camping bed. Briar snorts at that. On the floor, shoved underneath Fred's bed, is a gift bag... Next to it, since the underneath of George's bed is already filled with joke products and things hiding them, is a birthday card, addressed to her. She pretends she hasn't seen it.

"I hope we're staying up late," says George. "How pathetic would it be, for you to turn sixteen and to sleep through the clock striking midnight?"

"Can't have my sweet sixteenth being pathetic, can we?" says Briar, letting out a laugh. "Didn't your mum say we have to be ready to leave at, like, six in the morning?"

"It takes us five minutes to get ready," says Fred, shrugging.

"That's because you're already beautiful," says Briar, rolling her eyes at him. To herself, she thinks, I'm not fucking lying, Weasley.

"So you don't want to stay up for your birthday?" says George, frowning.

"Well, no, I do, I'll just be tired tomorrow," says Briar. She thinks about the past year, of the amount of bad nights she's had, and how she's had to trudge through with school regardless. "But that's fine. I'll catch up tomorrow night."

"That's the spirit," says Fred, grinning.

Briar smiles back at him, as George switches the lights off. She lies back on her bed for a few minutes, and she goes, "You know, you two haven't properly told me what Hogwarts has been like, since I left..."

♡

HOGWARTS HAS NOT CHANGED, apparently.

She found this out just before George dozed off for good, breaking his own code of conduct for being pathetic. If anything, Briar thought it was pretty funny, and Fred joked about taking the piss out of him in the morning, when he's realised his idiocy. Still, Briar lies back on the camping bed, as Fred tells her what's happened at the Quidditch matches over the past year, putting an emphasis on what he's done.

"Show off," she whispers, reaching across and putting her hand on his face. She giggles, as she moves her hand back. "Cedric helped Hufflepuff win, though?"

"You still fancy him?" asks Fred.

"Woah, no, I was just saying," says Briar, frowning. She feels wrong fancying people, especially in the way she fancied Cedric towards the end of fourth year. Because now, she can't fancy people, without her brain conjuring up what would happen if they went out, and they found out the truth about her. She's disgusting, she understands. She just doesn't want to set herself up for misery when she already knows the truth.

She glances over, where the clock is on the bedside table. "Oh, shit!" she says, and she sits up, grinning at Fred. "Five minutes!"

"We'll be the same age again!" he says, smiling back at her.

"Uh, yeah, until April, and then it's all over again," she says.

"But I turn seventeen... so I can do magic wherever," says Fred, and he grins cheekily at her, leaning closer. "You won't be able to, will you? You fool."

"Yeah, but, who will turn fifty sooner? That'll be you, you fool," she says, sitting up straight, like she's trying to square up to him. She sits with a smirk on her face, and he grins back at her, before she starts to laugh quietly, checking the time again. "Four minutes! When do I get my present, Freddie?"

"Uh, when George is awake to see you open it?" says Fred.

"But—" And she juts her bottom lip out, pouting. "It's my birthday. You can't say no to me. It's against the rules of the universe."

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Pleaseee."

Fred pauses, and Briar feels hopeful, before he grins. "No."

"What if it was my one birthday wish? To open my birthday present from you two, the second it's my birthday?"

"Well, you'll have to keep dreaming."

"Fred. Pleaseeeeee."

"No!"

"Freddieeee."

"... No."

"I'll love you forever?"

"... You already do?"

"But even more!" says Briar, and she jumps forwards, sitting on his bed now, holding onto his hands and she juts her bottom lip out still, trying to look sympathetic. "Please, Freddieeeee."

"Will you ever shut up?"

"When you say yes, I will," says Briar with a grin. She frowns at him for a minute, thinking whether or not to pluck out a vision she's had and bargain using that. But, she tries her hardest to look sympathetic and appealing, before finally, he sighs.

"I was going to surprise you with something else," says Fred slowly. Briar's eyes light up. Up close, Briar thinks the same as she thought earlier — he looks different. "Although I was going to wait until we were alone to give it to you."

"Well," says Briar, talking softly. She stands up, extending her hand for him to take it. "We'll go into the kitchen."

Fred hesitates, before he shrugs, in a what the hell way, leaning backwards to pull out a small wrapped box, about the size of a purse... Briar smiles at him, and she keeps her hand out, waiting still for him to take hold of it.

They walk down the stairs, trying their best to stay quiet. The worst part is sneaking past his parents' room, but after that feat, the rest is easy, and they reach the kitchen, quietly closing the door behind themselves.

Briar watches the clock turn to midnight, and she smiles at Fred. "Perfect timing," she says.

"I sort of thought about giving it to you once we got your other stuff, so I thought I'd just get you it myself," says Fred, as he gives her the box. Briar begins to open it, and she glances up at him, spotting that he looks nervous. She smiles at him. "I hope you like it."

"I'll love it just because you got me it," says Briar, as she takes the paper off, opening the box. Inside, there's a small book, about the size of a cassette tape, with red dragon skin covering the outside. Briar opens it, and here's the weird part — it isn't a book, or some sort of journal. Inside, there's a massive block of parchment, like all of the pages have been stuck together, and the only one available to read is the first one.

"Basically, along with the other joke products, we've been trying to develop this, as well — it allows you to talk to the person with the matching one, so it wouldn't matter how far away you could be from the other person, you can talk to them almost immediately, using this," says Fred. He grins at her. "Don't think I need to tell you that I've got the other one."

Briar looks up at him, almost in tears. "I love it," she says quietly. She jumps up, throwing her arms around him, and saying, "I love it so much. You shouldn't have, you shouldn't have..."

"So," says Fred, grinning at her. "About you loving me even more..."

"You don't make it difficult, do you?" says Briar, kissing his cheek.

Briar tries to hold back the thoughts of has he always been this... sweet? Because she knows the territory her mind's going to wander into, if she doesn't act properly, and it worries her. She's not ruining one of her best friendships simply because she got feelings and she had to let him know the truth about her. He'd be disgusted, full stop. There's no use in her thinking these things, because it can't happen...

It won't happen.

♡

BRIAR WAKES UP HALFWAY through one of her 'weird' dreams, the sort that linger in her brain in the morning, the basis of them coming true after some time. Often, she'll dream about people she's about to meet: she dreamt about the twins the night before she met them, just like she dreamt about Fleur. They're never easy to read, though. Fleur was a figure, glowing brightly with long, silver hair. Harry was black hair and the scar. As soon as she meets them, sometime that day, she'll connect the dots, but until that point, Briar's got an image in her mind, of a girl with ice-white hair...

They're woken up around half-five, with Mrs Weasley flicking on the bedroom light. It takes a minute for Briar to sit up, and by that point George has realised that (a) he fell asleep, like a dumbass, and (b) it was Briar's birthday. Up until the second the whole group leave the Burrow, having to walk to the Portkey to get to the World Cup, the Burrow had been filled with chaos. Her birthdays are always a little bit manic, so it's not a big deal, but still. She had tried to hide as many of the twins' sweets as possible, so that their mum wouldn't find them lying around later on — but, the twins tried to do the same, forgetting that their mum would in fact search them, and those were taken off of them, leaving the two of them in a mood as the three left the house, a couple minutes before everyone else.

"She means well," says Briar to the twins, as she puts on her sunglasses, ignoring the fact that it's not that sunny, she just likes wearing them.

Fred scoffs, whereas George shakes his head.

"She thinks we're wasting our time," says Fred.

Briar tries to protest, but she knows it's true. Mrs Weasley doesn't understand — yet — that Fred and George are onto something here. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes could become something, Briar knows it, they just need to work at it for now. Because, think about. There aren't any major joke shops in the UK. There's Zonko's, and that's sort-of it. But even then, that's just one small shop in Hogsmeade. No one has seized this opportunity yet... And the Weasley twins pursuing it is just as good as the marauders doing so.

They continue walking towards the Portkey, and if Briar wasn't in high spirits because of her birthday, she would be complaining by now. Her feet are already killing her, her shoes rubbing against her heels, and she's half tempted to get the twins to carry her. They must be strong, Briar thinks, thankful her sunglasses are hiding the inquisitive look across her face, as she glances across at the two. They must be... Considering Fred full-on picked me up when he hugged me yesterday... And like there's no reason why they both wouldn't as strong as the other... And then, she glances at the two again, remembering that they play Quidditch, and her mind goes from, See, Fred's arms are sort-of muscular, to, OH... Fred's arms are muscular...

This is becoming a problem.

For the rest of the walk up the hill, Briar just... doesn't look across at the twins. She doesn't understand why she keeps on looking at Fred that way, and realistically, if now's the time she's getting a crush on him, what kind of fucked-up timing is this? Briar doesn't see him, like, at all. For the majority of the year, she's in a different country... There are the Midlands and the sea between them, and Malecrit knows how massive both of those are.

Not to mention, nothing could happen, anyway. She forgets this, all of the time, but she feels as if she tries to keep it out of her thoughts. She can't have a boyfriend, can she? She's a monster. No one in their right mind would fall for her if they knew the truth, and if they liked her, and then they found out, they'd go running. No one wants the werewolf.

By the time they reach the top of the hill, the others having caught up to them, after Briar told the twins that she wanted to sit down ("I don't care if you're still pissed off and don't want your family to catch up, it is my birthday and I want to sit down") they spot two other figures standing on the hill. Briar realises the tallest is Cedric Diggory, the boy from the year above, who she was sort-of friends with. (By this she means: they were friends, then they kissed before she left Hogwarts, and then Briar very awkwardly met up with him in the summer and told him that she was leaving, and for them to just be friends... Again. No one wants the werewolf.)

But, Briar can't show that. Briar can't show the world the way her heart hurts whenever she thinks about the fact that no one wants the werewolf. She can't show the world that something is bothering her, because then the curse wins. So, the notion of Briar Crouch is put back into play — she'll deal with this like she deals with everything, and she'll act just like she always does.

"Hey, stranger," says Briar, grinning at Cedric.

Cedric smiles back at her. "You still remember me?"

Briar rolls her eyes. "I don't know... Were you the one I kissed after that Quidditch match or before...?" she begins, and she lets out a laugh. "Joking... I know which one was you." Cedric snorts, and Briar starts to laugh again, as he hugs her.