The Scars to Prove It

The cool glass against Carina’s cheek was comforting in the crowded compartment. In all honesty, it probably was not actually crowded. It only contained the girl and her boys: George, Fred, Lee, as well as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. However, to Carina (especially in a time such as now), eight people in one suffocating space was a tad difficult to deal with.

It had been fourteen days since the note was found on Carina’s bedside table, since the bed was found empty, since Professor McGonagall was found waiting for the four outside her office. Farren was gone, once again, and all they could do was wait. There was no way Carina’s parents would have acknowledged her letter asking for permission to visit in the middle of the school year, much less actually respond and let her go. The Weasley’s had no means to get there, and Lee’s family was far from comfortable letting him visit a dying Muggle and her daughter in the non-Wizarding community alone. So here they were, being hurtled into London and still a million miles away from their friend.

The others all had their wands held tight, playfully tossing disarming spells back and forth. Here and there, she could hear the small explosion and a puff of smoke from a disintegrated card in Exploding Snap. Anything to spend the last few hours with magic privileges to the fullest.

“Rye, why don’t you join us?” George asked, just as Fred shouted “Expelliarmus!” from over his twin’s shoulder. Carina spun, but her wand was not in reach and Lee had to chuckle out a “Protego!” to keep the spell from harming her.

She sat up once more, but made sure that her fingers found her wand in the depths of her robes pocket. “No thank you, boys, you can continue on with… whatever it is you’re doing.” She moved to turn back around and face the limitless scene zooming by her window, but two twins plopped down on either side of her to keep her where she was.

“What’s up, Rina? You’re being pretty…”

“Pensive. More than usual, at least.”

Carina shrugged and wrapped her arms around the twins who were now quite a bit bigger than she. It had certainly been noticeable when they showed up to school last year a foot taller, shoulders broader, and voices deeper, but she still had not grown used to the fact that they were all growing up.

“Just thinking. You might as well know now, I might be staying with you lot for the summer.”

Grins broke out on their faces instantaneously. George grabbed a wizard chess piece and chucked it at his younger brother’s back. “You hear that, Weasley clan? Rye might be staying with us this summer!” they said in unison. Ron shot Carina a sheepish smile and glared at the twins before turning back to his game with Harry and Lee.

Their gazes once more swooped down onto Carina, and when they realized she was not quite as joyful as they, they were rather dismayed. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it Rina?”

“Or do you not like us anymore?”

“Because we can go away if you want.” Carina glanced up at their pouting faces before cracking a smile and shoving them both playfully with the arms once wrapped around their shoulders.

“Only reason I would be coming is because no one else will be at the train station willing to take me home,” she said lightly, but their grins dropped in a second.

“You don’t think your parents will come get you this year?”

“Not even your mum?”

Carina rolled her eyes at their seriousness. “Really, you haven’t seen it coming? Think of the terms I left with last summer.” And there was a brief moment of silence as no one wanted to speak about the terms that had brought Carina to the Burrow last summer.

“Well I suppose it will be a much more fun summer than usual,” Fred offered with a smile. “Maybe even Farren can visit sometime after…”

There was a short silence before George spoke up. “I figure we’ll be visiting her first, mate.”

The three adolescents nodded silently, lost in their own world as Lee urged Harry to move his rook to evade capture and let his knight be taken. Either way, neither had a chance against Ron, who seemed to know this by the smirk on his face.

The rest of the train ride went by much the same as it had before, though this time, Carina did strike up a light conversation with Hermione about the book she was reading. Once the Express pulled into King’s Cross, the taller boys helped everyone get their luggage from the racks and they all headed out into the crowded platform.

Looking was useless, Carina knew, but she also knew that she had to. Molly had been so sure that her parents would come pick her up, and it caused Carina to realize that the woman did not, and possibly would not, understand the idea that there were some people in the world who could not love but themselves. The platform was packed, and the only family that caught Carina’s eye as being one that could possibly be hers was the Malfoy’s, and they sent her such a dirty glare that she could not help but skip off the platform and all the way after the twins with a silly grin on her face. It was foolish to believe she was untouchable, but as the past few weeks she had been so rebellious, it was hard to not get caught up in it. Might as well embrace the fact that she would be hunted until the day she or Voldemort died, eh?

After a hug from Lee, he had scooted around the crowd and found his way to his parents, and they had already Apparated away. Harry said a long farewell to his friends, and then he and Hermione left through the brick wall once more to find their Muggle families on the other side, seeing as they could not come in.

Sighing deeply as her fourth year finally ended, Carina trailed after Ron, Ginny, George and Fred to their parents. Molly’s smile faded into one of pity as her eyes landed on the dark haired girl who stuck out so fantastically from her own family.

“I’m sure they’ll come,” she said softly, pulling Carina into a warm embrace. It was odd how only six months ago she had seen the woman, and now she had to bend down slightly to give her a hug. “We’ll just wait until this crowd thins down, how about that?”

And wait they did. They waited for a half an hour, until every person had left the platform.

“Mum, I’m sure if they want to find her, they’ll know where she is,” Fred sighed, leaning his forehead against one of the many stone columns out of sheer boredom. “Why would we let her go back with them anyway?”

“Because maybe Altair realizes his mistake and wants to make amends! He only has one shot, she’s his only daughter!”

“Rosier realizing he made a mistake is never going to happen,” Carina said dryly. “Him wanting to make amends is only twice as unlikely, and that is impossible.”

Mrs. Weasley finally gave in. “We have to Side-Along Apparate since the car’s gone,” she sighed. “Ron, Ginny, and Carina with Aurthur, Fred and George with me.”

Carina blinked, and after biting her lip through the unpleasant experience before even opening her eyes, she knew she was in the Burrow. The warmth soothed her skin from the chilly breeze of London, and the smell of cedar wood and meals cooking were enough to tell her that she was in her safe place. Blinking her eyes opened, she realized that while they had been at King’s Cross all that time, dusk had faded into night and the stars were shining brightly. The Weasley children unhappily stuck their wands far away so they would not be tempted and carried their bags by hand up the winding steps to their rooms. Carina turned to the Weasleys with a smile.

“Thank you for opening your home to me,” she said softly, smiling because she was living in a house she considered a real home and with the adults she considered to be real parents.

Molly smiled back down at her in the warm way that she always did. “We would like to speak to you for a moment before you settle in, if that is not a problem.”

Carina swallowed, worried that they were soon going to kick her out. She nodded, sliding into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, and soon followed by Mr. And Mrs. Weasley.

“We have been talking — Molly and I, that is — about your situation with your family, and today was the breaking point for us. Although it would not be for long, we were wondering if it would be in your best interest for us to become your legal guardians. We ask this because, as of right now, your family could show up at any time and simply whisk you back with them —”

“Yes! Yes, of course, I would love to! When can we start?”

The Weasleys were quite started by how much louder the usually-quiet girl had become, but she was far too happy to notice.

“If you would like, we can meet with a councilor in the Family Affairs department of the Ministry tomorrow morning.”

With a small squeak of excitement, Carina threw her arms around the adults and skipped up the stairs with her luggage in tow.



“Why won’t you tell us where you’re going?” George whined, rolling around to face Carina from her bed. She paid no notice as she combed her hair once more, pulled it into a bun, and slipped on a pair of plain black robes.

“I told you once, Weasley. I’ll tell you when we get back.”

“You will come home, right?” Fred asked, standing next to her mirror worriedly.

“Of course I’m coming back. You guys! It’s just meeting. We shouldn’t even be there for an hour.”

And they certainly were not there for an hour. The moment the three walked into the small room, Carine could tell nothing would come of this; it was because of the pitying look that the councilor was giving them that she already knew.

They sat opposite of him silently, and he whisked his wand to pull a folder out of a file from across the room. The papers whizzed over to his desk, between Molly and Carina, and right into his open hand.

“I reviewed this request of yours, Miss Rosier, more than I usually do. It is a terrible story that you have, probably one of the worst I’ve heard since young Andromeda’s.” He set the papers down gently, and looked right into the pale green eyes across from him. “I’m terribly sorry, Miss Rosier. But seeing that you are already fifteen and a half, you are only a year and a half from coming of age. With typical transfers of guardianship, it takes about nine months to a year to go through the courts and be approved by the Minister, but I fear that yours would take quite a bit more time… and money. I’m afraid that it’s just too late.”

Carina nodded, her heart sinking a little. She gave the Weasleys a reassuring smile before she stood and headed towards the door. She turned to give the wizard a smile as well. “Thank you for your time as well as your concern.”

The small group retraced their steps back to the large hall of fireplaces spitting wizards and witches out here and there. A large, warm hand rested on Carina’s shoulder before she could reach the nearest “exit” fireplace. She looked up to see the warm, pitying eyes of Mr. Weasley.

“I’m really sorry to put you through all this,” he said lowly. “I should have looked into it deeper before letting you know. This is my fault.”

Carina smiled and shook her head. “I’m glad I knew, because now I can at least act as if you two were my parents, even if the book says otherwise. Besides, I am not worried that my family will contact me in any way for the next year and a half. They’re far too ashamed to even try.” She smiled once more before grabbing a handful of Floo Powder and stepping into the fireplace.

“The Burrow!”