Essential Hope

“I’m telling you!” Harry said angrily, stomping after Fred, Hermione and me as we headed to potions.

“Harry, Draco isn’t a Death Eater,” Hermione said tiredly, glancing at me for support. I widened my eyes; I’d already shot down one of Harry’s insane theories earlier. I didn’t want to get into it again. But Hermione continued to stare at me, and her look was starting to get threatening.

“Look,” I started, looking over to Harry. “Draco’s insane. He’s a dumbass, and a bit of a creeper, but he’s not a Death Eater. Personally I don’t think he’s smart enough to be one, and-“

“So I’m a dumbass?” I heard a cold voice ask from behind us. I whipped around, pulling Fred with me.

Draco was standing just a foot or so away, an arm lazily wrapped around Pansy’s shoulders. Crabbe and Goyle were off behind Draco with Blaise and Flint.

“You heard me,” I said coolly, leaning back into Fred’s protective hold. He gave my shoulder a squeeze.

“You better watch it, Werner,” he hissed, coming towards me. Fred pushed me behind him as he stepped up to Draco. Fred was a few inches taller, and much more muscular than Draco. I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face as I saw Draco take a step back.

“Fuck off, Malfoy,” Fred said, his voice low. “It’s not smart for you to come around intimidating my girlfriend.”

“I can do whatever I want, Weasel,” Draco growled, beginning to pull his wand out. “If I want to call Kelsey a slut, I can. If I want to fuck Kelsey, I can. If I want to hurt Kelsey-“

Fred’s arm snapped forward so fast I didn’t have time to register what had happened until I saw Draco on the floor, gripping his nose.

“Don’t even think about touching Kelsey.”

Immediately, Crabbe and Goyle took off, too chicken to face Fred. Blaise and Flint didn’t waste any time rushing forward to attack, though.

Blaise lunged at Fred, wands forgotten. As Flint went after me, Harry lunged past Hermione and I and tackled Flint to the ground. A crowd had gathered around the fight, and Hermione was off looking for a teacher.

“McGonagall’s coming!” A first year screeched. Fred was up off of Blaise in an instant, and he yanked Harry up. Blaise and Flint scrabbled to their feet, and then helped Draco up.

Fred grabbed my shoulders, lowered me to the ground, and hissed,

“I love you, don’t hold this against me,” and pulled out his wand. He pointed it at my face, and though I didn’t feel anything, I heard surprised gasps from everyone around us. Fred ran towards Draco, yanked him back, and threw him on top of me. I was pretty confused.

I heard Professor McGonagall’s voice telling us to break up the fight. Draco’s eyes locked with mine, and as he took in my face, he gasped and hissed,

“Bloody hell!”

I saw McGonagall push through the crowd, and take in the site of Draco on top of me. I then saw Fred rush forward and yank Draco back as he yelled,

“Get your filthy hands off my girlfriend!”

“Mr. Malfoy! What have you done to Ms. Werner?!” McGonagall cried, rushing over to help me up. No one said anything about what Fred had done as I was pulled to my feet. Draco was glowering at me, and he spat,

“I didn’t do anything! That Weasley boy did that to her face!”

“Oh, right,” Fred snorted, rolling his eyes. “Like I’d hit my own girlfriend. You’re mental.”

“Mr. Malfoy, my office, now!” McGonagall spat, grabbing the arm of his robe and yanking him after her. Once she was gone, Fred came over to me, pointed his wand at my face again, and whispered a spell.

“Sorry, love,” he said, kissing my cheek. The crowd had dispersed, so it was only Fred, Hermione, Harry and I.

“That was brilliant!” Harry laughed, high-fiving Fred.

“Malfoy’ll have detention for a month!”

“That was very immature,” Hermione said disapprovingly. Fred and Harry rolled their eyes.

“Guys,” I said, noting how empty the halls were. “We’re a little late…”

“Oh great,” Harry groaned. We had Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Snape wouldn’t be happy to see us this late.

“I’ll see you at lunch, love,” Fred said, kissing me briefly.

“Bye,” I called after him as he rushed off towards the Astronomy tower.

Harry, Hermione and I sprinted off towards the classroom, hoping Snape wouldn’t be too harsh. We arrived in just a few minutes, panting and stumbling through the door.

“I suppose there’s a reason you three are ten minutes late to my class,” Snape said, glaring at us as we hurried towards our usual table. Ron had saved us seats.

Harry sat beside Ron, I sat beside Harry, and Hermione sat beside me, refusing to be near Ron.

The day was pretty boring after that. Classes seemed to drag on, and even lunch wasn’t as exciting. This is why Winter break always sucked; it was so hard to get back into the routine of school. By the time we’d eaten dinner and collapsed in the common room, we were ready for Summer Break.

“Bloody hell,” Ron groaned from beside Harry. They were both collapsed on the ground, their homework spread out around them. Fred and George were seated on the couch; I was sitting on Fred’s lap and Angelina was on George’s. I was going over my potions homework, and Fred wasn’t helping. Every other word I wrote kept turning into ‘Fred’, ‘Chinchilla’ or ‘Banana’. So far, my paper read,

The Fred potion helps keep Chinchilla’s from becoming intoxicated by Bananas.

I rolled my eyes as I read the rest of my paper over.

“You’re less than no help, you know that?” I said sourly to Fred, who grinned at me. He changed the words to ‘Hermione’, ‘Koala’ and ‘Steak’. After I’d finished another line, I read,

By properly using the Hermione brew, you’ll discover that Koalas will suddenly disappear and be replaced by slime-covered Steaks.

“Damnit, Fred,” I sighed, changing the words back. Fred just laughed.

“Oh, you know you love me,” he laughed, kissing my neck.

“You think so?” I asked, flicking his arm.

“Nope, I know so.”

I rolled my eyes and got up off his lap.

“Can I come?”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” I told him, smoothing out my uniform.

“Your point?”

“Stay here and don’t mess up my paper,” I told him, leaning down and kissing him sweetly.

I decided I’d change into my pajamas, seeing as I’d be more comfortable. After I went to the bathroom, I pulled my over sized pajama pants and tanktop on. Most people were downstairs or asleep, so I changed in peace. As I went to grab my brush off my beside table, I saw an envelope leaning up against my lamp. The front of it was addressed to:

Only for the eyes of Kelsey Lynette Werner

Curious now, I grabbed the envelope. It was heavier than I had expected. I sat down on my bed and opened it carefully. I dumped the envelope out onto the bed. There were four things in it.

There was a folded piece of parchment, a folded picture, and two rings on a thin silver chain.

I grabbed the two rings to examine them closer. My heart literally stopped. I felt like time was slowing down as I read the inscription on the inside of the silver band.

Michael Blake Werner

This was my father’s wedding ring.

My hands were shaking now as I examined the second ring. It was small, like a child’s ring. A slender gold band twisted around a small, heart-shaped diamond. It seemed familiar, though I couldn’t place it. Something wasn’t right.

I grabbed the photograph and unfolded it; I felt tears sting my eyes.

My father was standing in front of our old house. One of his arms was wrapped around my mothers shoulders, and on his hip was a little girl. She had curled blonde hair and bright-green blue eyes.

I studied the picture; that little girl was me. I looked about five or six. On my right middle finger was a small golden ring. The diamond glittered in the sun.

I was scared; where had these things come from?

Reluctantly, I reached over and opened the note.

Blood is thicker than water, love is thicker than blood.

Diamonds are forever, but love outlasts them eternally.

Daddy’s little girl, until the day she dies,

You can never run, Kelsey. You shall never be free.

I dropped the note.

I was shaking, and tears were falling down my cheeks and staining my shirt and pants. The first two lines were of a song my mom had written for me. My dad used to sing it when I was upset or scared; now the words just seemed to haunt me.

No one else knew those words except for my mom, and there was no way she could have put the note in my room.

The hairs on my neck stood up, and I felt shivers run down my spine; I whipped around, my eyes settling on the window across from my bed.

For just a second, I could have sworn I’d seen the outline of a man staring at me. But as I stood up, the outline turned into nothing more than a haze of smoke; the smoke swirled with the wind, and disappeared into the sky.