Dark Come Soon

Ramona was happy to introduce her friends to Alex and she hoped that with time Alex would open up more. It wasn’t good to be secluded, to not have friends. Ramona understood Alex’s fear. She couldn’t imagine what it felt to have visions, but she could understand the fear Alex had. It didn’t mean Ramona was going to allow Alex to become anti-social. She knew she could help her and that’s what she planned to do.

The plan was already working. Fred was showing her all kinds of things that were making her laugh. For example, there was some bubbles that when you blew them they would giggle and then make a farting sound then they popped.

Ramona spotted Hermione and she left George’s side to go greet her friend. She introduced Alex to Hermione and Ginny who also happened to be there. Alex look uncomfortable, but Ramona made sure that she felt a little more at ease. She knew Hermione and Ginny would make her feel welcomed.

“Have you been sorted yet?” Hermione asked.

Alex shook her head. “Not until the beginning of the year.”

“Maybe you’ll get into Gryffindor,” Ginny said with a smile.

Ramona spotted Harry, so she called him. He walked over to them and she hugged him. She was a very affectionate person when it came to her friends. When she let him go, she introduced Alex to him. They shook hands and Alex seemed more at ease.

She decided to leave them since they looked like they were having a good time. Ramona walked around the shop and she was surprised when she saw Ron looking at the group behind a couple of boxes. Ramona walked up behind him and tickled his sides.

“Bloody hell!” He yelped and jumped causing him to knock over the boxes. A couple of people around gave them odd looks. Ramona laughed a bit.

“What are you doing, Ron?” she asked him.

His red face turned to her. “I was… I was…” he glanced back to the group. She followed his gaze.

“Stalking Alex,” she finished for him.

“Yeah… NO!” he recovered quickly and then turned even redder.

“Oh dear Ronald,” she shook her head.

“Don’t call me by my full name Ramona.”

“I happen to like my full name, so it doesn’t work on me. You like Alex,” she grinned.

“I don’t!” he defended himself. “She’s… American so I’m curious.”

“About what? Look, Ron, you better be careful. Alex is different from other girls.”

“How different?” he questioned. “Like crazy different?”

She narrowed her eyes sharply that caused Ron to flinch. “No and don’t ever think that again. She’s had a hard time. She had to leave her mates to come here. Give her time to adjust. I can promise you that she’s an amazing person.”

Ron looked back at Alex who had a smile on her lips. “Yeah, I can tell that by just looking at her,” he cleared his throat and looked back at Ramona. “You aren’t going to tell anyone, are you?”

“That you have a crush on Alex?” she smirked and Ron groaned. “Of course not, Ron. Geez, we’ve been friends a long time. I’m not going to rat you out.”

Ramona was looking at the love potions that lasted for a day and then smirked. She could use one of these one day. She liked to have fun. Someone tapped her shoulder and she turned around and saw Alex.

“Oh, hey,” she said with a bright smile and then looked around. “Where did Hermione, Harry and Ron go?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure. I was with Ginny for a while and then I didn’t see them so I went looking for you.”

Ramona looked around and then just laughed and shook her head. “They probably snuck out with Harry’s invisibility cloak.”

“An invisibility cloak? Aren’t those rare?” Alex asked.

“I only know of one and it’s Harry’s. They’ll be back and Mrs. Weasley isn’t going to be happy,” she said when she saw the redheaded woman looking flustered. “Mrs. Weasley!” Ramona called out. She would keep the mother hen busy while the little chicks snuck out to do who knows what.

Once more Ramona introduced Alex and then Alex’s dad and Sybil walked into the shop and it was perfect to distract Mrs. Weasley until the guys got back.

“You are devious,” Alex whispered to Ramona.

“I am,” she grinned.

When the guys were back, Mrs. Weasley didn’t even care to tell ask them where they were, but not Ramona.

“Okay, I just saved your arses from getting busted, so what happened?” she asked them. Alex was with her parents, so the guys told her where they went. They told her about Draco going to Knockturn Alley and the shop he went to all down to the last detail of Hermione’s failed attempt to act. “You should’ve taken me. I totally would have been able to do it.”

“You’re Dumbledore’s granddaughter everyone knows who you are,” Harry pointed out.

“Harry might as well gone in too,” Ron said.

“Okay you’re right on that part,” she mumbled. “I still think I would’ve done a better job than Hermione though.”

“Mona,” Alex joined them and said hi to the guys, “we’re leaving. Are you ready?”

Ramona hugged her friends and told them she would see them at Hogwarts soon. She knew they had questions why their Divination professor was with them, but they didn’t ask in front of Alex. Ramona linked arms with Alex and said they should said goodbye to the twins.

George and Fred were with their mom. Ramona said goodbye to the twins and then they left the shop. Ramona was glad to see her friends again. It reminded her that life was good. Despite how dark the times were there was still laughter and joy in the world.

Back at Hogwarts Alex said she was going to go paint. Ramona was going to practice with her guitar for a while. She went to her room, took off her green sweater and tossed it somewhere. She picked up her guitar and then she sat on the bed.

She started to sing a song by Nirvana “Come as You Are”. She could definitely say that Nirvana was one of her influence in music too.

“Memoria, memoria, memoria,” she sang softly. “Come downsed in mud soaked in bleach as I want you to be. As a friend, as a friend, as an old memoria, memoria, memoria, memoria. And I swear that I don’t have a gun. No I don’t have a gun. No I don’t have a gun.” She could lost herself in the music. She could forget everything when she was singing or playing guitar.

When she finished playing the song, she thought about what Draco was up to. It was clearly something not good. Borgin and Burkes wasn’t a good place. She had gone there when she strayed from her grandfather’s side when she was very little. He had been so worried. She had been in the shop looking a the objects until the owner caught her. She didn’t like going there.

Her grandfather was more at Hogwarts now that school was just a few days away. They would have dinner together and sometimes they would join Andres and Alex.

“Which house do you want to be sorted in?” Ramona asked Alex one day when they were both outside. Ramona had her guitar and Alex had her sketch pad and there was also weed.

“Maybe Slytherin so we can be in the same house,” she smiled.

Ramona shook her head. “As rad as that would be, I don’t Slytherin is for you.”

“Aw, you’re using my words now.”

“And soon you’ll be cursing like a bloody English too,” Ramona laughed. “I think you belong more in Ravenclaw. They’re pretty cool. A little arrogant cause they’re supposed to be smart, but my friend Luna is good.”

“You have a lot of friends.”

“Outside of my house, yes, but no one inside of my house.”

“Why did they isolate you?”

“My grandfather is Albus Dumbledore. He put a lot of the relatives in Slytherin to Azkaban. They hold grudges and plus everyone expected me to get sorted into Gryffindor. It was my dream, and when that stupid old hat yelled Slytherin in my first year… well… it sucked. For a while I was alone and didn’t talk to anyone, but then I met Ron and even though we were from rival houses we became friends. Then I became friends with everyone else.”

“Ron is the redhead one related to the twins, right?”

Ramona giggled. “Yes. All of their family have been in Gryffindor. He has like three other brothers you haven’t met yet. William, Charlie and Percy. They’re a lovely family. I’ve always been jealous of Ron, well anyone with parents basically.”

“Why?”

“Don’t get me wrong. I love my grandfather and he’s been the best, but… sometimes a girl needs the comfort of her mother and the strength of her father,” she was opening up something she didn’t do often despite her outgoing personality. “Plus I wanted siblings.”

“I’ve always wanted a brother or sister too. I had a lot of cousins, but it wasn’t the same. Luckily I had my nana to be my mother but… I always wondered who my mother was and if she thought about me.”

“She did though. I’m close to all the professors, Alex and I knew that Sybil was hiding something. A deep pain no one knew and now it was you. The pain of not having you with her. It pained her.”

“Why didn’t she reach out to me then?”

Ramona shrugged a shoulder. “I’m not sure. I can’t answer that. You’ll have to ask her. If you want answers then you have to ask her.”

Alex groaned. “Fuck. Let’s go invade the kitchen and eat.”

“Dibs on the chocolate cake!” Ramona stood up.

“How do you know there’s going to be chocolate cake?”

“Because it’s my favorite.”