WHO: Alicia Spinnet, Oliver Wood, George Weasley WHAT: Trying to come to terms with an unexpected death WHERE: Alicia’s flat WHEN: Monday (backdated) RATING: R for language
Oliver threw his journal against the far wall, sending a picture of his father in his Wasps jersey and broom tumbling to the floor. He tried to sound as collected as possible in his journal, but no way could he do that. With the journals totally exposed, there was no way he was subjecting his thoughts on Katie’s death to the likes of harpies like Tracy Davis. His anger at her thoughtlessness and snarkiness grated on him. His anger quickly turned to sorrow as Katie’s face flashed in his mind’s eye. He saw Katie in her Gryffindor uniform, hugging him madly after their final House Cup. He saw her twinkle-eyed laugh as they sat around the Leaky celebrating her joining the Harpies. He saw him, with Katie and Alicia, walking arm in arm in Diagon Alley just a few months before, and without even realizing it, he felt the hot tears pour down his face. From down in the depths of his soul, a low moan bellowed from his chest, until it became a bellow. His grief and his anger merged into one; fighting the uncontrollable anger welling up inside him, he focused his rage on his wall and punched a hole right through the plaster. The pain cut his grief, dulled the ache in his heart, and stopped his scream. He sank on the couch, holding his bloody hand, and staring into space. Right, he needed to get to Alicia. He grabbed his wand and quietly said a pain relief spell (he would deal with fixing his hand later), and after wrapping his hand in a bandage and splashing water on his face, he apparated to outside Alicia’s door.
~*~
George knew a thing or two about grief. He knew the way a person’s guts could go cold and the way the heart suddenly seems to vanish. He knew what a person could think in those first few hours, what they could be tempted to do. This was a field that he had never expected to become an expert on, and yet here he was. He knew Alicia would be taking this the hardest of anyone, and that worried him.
While Oliver may have taken the direct approach - putting fist to plaster - George had spent several minutes resorting to his old grief standby, trashing his sitting room. The various odds and ends in his front room had been repaired too many times to count, and cleanup would have to wait until after he had seen to Alicia. He just hoped Ginny didn’t misinterpret the destroyed sitting room.
On his way out the door, he paused for a moment in debate. His reckless side won in the end and he dashed back to the kitchen to grab a bottle of Ogden’s that he’d stashed beneath the sink. Firewhiskey might not make anything better, but he just didn’t care.
Outside on the front step, he turned on the spot, vanishing into nothingness and arriving moments after Oliver.
~*~
After Alicia made her very unfortunate discovery, she had locked herself in her room and cried. For a while, Alicia had just stayed in Katie’s flat, unsure of what she could do for her best friend at this point, and that had seriously taken its toll on her. She didn’t want to accept the truth. She had tried spell after spell to try to wake her up but it did absolutely no good, and the fact she was just there with the body that used to be Katie Bell got to be too much for her to handle after a while. She had finally decided on alerting the Ministry, and waited for them before heading home.
As soon as she got into her own flat, Alicia had headed straight for her kitchen. At first, it seemed like finding something to eat seemed to be the right decision, but as she had started to make something, she found herself getting sick to her stomach. She had even dropped her wand midway through so now her kitchen was splattered with various food products and a cabinet close to the floor now had an angry burn mark in it. From there, Alicia had simply collapsed on the couch in a fit of uncontrollably sobbing and that’s how she stayed. For almost four hours, she had simply cried and understandably so.
After writing in her journal about Katie’s death, Alicia had taken it upon herself to turn over every picture that had Katie in it so she didn’t have to see the forever smiling face of a girl she’d never see again. Now more than ever, Alicia felt sick to her stomach and surely there had to be some potion she could take to get rid of it, but all she wanted to do was cry.
When there was a knock at her door, Alicia picked herself up off of her bed and slowly made her way around to the door. When she opened it, it took her a moment to get a clear sight of who was there as her tears seriously blurred her vision but once she realized that it was Oliver and George, she stepped aside, leaning on the nearest wall while they came inside. She didn’t know what she was supposed to say right now, or even if any words could come out of her mouth. Alicia attempted to give the two of them a smile, but it failed miserably. What really was there to smile about right now anyway.