Don't know if any of you noticed or care, but I went through to try and make this easier to read. After each chapter will be a link to the next posted chapter. That way you can filter through all the comments.

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Chapter 18

Raven woke up the next day in her room. She felt as though she had been run over by a troll. Snape knocked on the door and came in with a tray of bacon and toast.

“So you do know how to cook. You’ve been holding out on me,” she said with a smile. As she sat up, she noticed her right hand seemed to be heavier. She looked down and saw a bandage around her hand. “It wasn’t a dream.”

“No,“ he said sitting at her desk chair after putting the tray of food next to her bed. “After you fainted, I brought you up here. You’ve been asleep for twelve hours.”

“What are we going to do?” she asked nibbling on a piece of bacon.

“I went over to the Weasley’s early this morning. Apparently there was an incident at the world cup last night after you left,” he said. Raven was filled with dread. She was worried about George. “Don’t worry about Mr. Weasley…he’s fine. Everyone made it back to the Burrow safely.”

“What happened? Did the parties get too out of control?” she asked.

“No. Death Eaters arrived and one conjured the Dark Mark.”

“Was anyone hurt?”

“I haven’t looked at my Daily Prophet for today…I’ve been a little busy.”

“Did you talk to Mrs. Weasley?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes. Don’t worry…George wasn’t awake,” he said. Raven breathed a sigh of relief. “Mrs. Weasley told me that she talked to George. He was upset but understood your reasons for not telling him. I told her about the ring and what happened last night. I advised her that if George is to see you it would be to either his or your disadvantage. So I strongly advise you, to keep him away, if you want to keep him safe.”

“What makes you think he is in danger?” she asked. “Draco and Lucius aren’t stupid enough to do anything to us. They can’t kill us. So why worry?”

“Lucius Malfoy has put a spell on you that is mysterious in nature. It is one that I have never seen or heard of. Whatever it is, it’s dark magic. I do not have experience with spells of this kind… you know…love type spells. But if its coming from Lucius, he will do whatever he can to protect what he has obviously sought out to get,” he said as if he was teaching one of his classes.

“So what you are saying? Is there nothing I can do?” she said getting perturbed.

“I don’t have the sources here to see if there is a counter spell,” he said getting up. “Now, Mrs. Weasley has sent your trunk back to the Leaky Cauldron. You will be spending the remainder of your summer holiday there. I have left strict instructions with Tom, the barkeep, to insure that you rarely leave. You do not want to enter Diagon Alley and bump into any one of the Malfoys.”

“Don’t think I can handle myself?” she said smugly.

“I think you would have been able to before yesterday,” he said opening her door to leave. “Now I think they have the upper hand and on your own, you don’t stand a chance.”

“Oh, wow! Thanks for the boost of confidence,” she said sarcastically. “Anything else you would like to say to bring me down some more?”

With that, Snape left her room. She looked at her finger with the ring. Snape wrapped her finger where she started to bleed. She took off the wrapping and the cut was gone but a bruise formed around her finger. A small smile came to her face. She could not believe how comforting Snape was being towards her. He was actually trying to help and protect her. She looked at the ring again and then out of her window. The fact that Lucius would take advantage of her relationship with her father and use it to trick her into putting the ring on made her angry.

Several days had passed and she was sitting in the Leaky Cauldron reading a letter from Hermione she received while she was there. Hermione said that she talked to George about what had happened and that she was going to put all of her book knowledge to work, to find a way to get her out of this spell. The letter was going okay, until she said that George missed her desperately and wanted to see her. Raven also wanted to see George. She knew that she would feel better wrapped in his arms. There was always a feeling of being safe when he hugged her. She needed that safety more than ever now.

“Miss Raven, why don’t you get out for an hour or two? You haven’t left since you got here…it’s a beautiful day. I know your Uncle said you should limit your excursions, but he never said to cut them out altogether.” said Tom the barkeeper at the Leaky Cauldron.

“I guess I can,” she said putting the letter in her pocket. “I won’t be long.”

She went to the back of the bar and tapped on a brick wall with her wand to let her into Diagon Alley. It was bustling with parents and students shopping for last minute Hogwarts needs. She went to Flourish and Blott’s bookstore and tried to find a book on her situation but they told her that underage readers were restricted from purchasing books of that nature. She even lied and told them that it was for her uncle, Severus Snape. They told her he would have to come into purchase it. She eventually gave up and left.

After a quick stop to get some ice cream at Florean Fortescue‘s Ice Cream Parlor, she saw Narcissa Malfoy, who unfortunately saw her.

“Well, well, well…what do we have here?” she said in a cold voice. “Ah, I see you accepted my son’s ring.”

“Not that I had a choice. And don’t pretend that you didn’t know that I had it on,” Raven snapped back. Here was her opportunity to try and get back at a Malfoy for what is going on.

“Dear, watch your attitude. I know more about this spell than you do. I know what it is capable of,” she said grabbing the hand with the ring. Raven wanted to go off. “It is a beautiful creation, is it not? I had a hand in designing it.”

“Well you can have it back. I think it’s hideous,” Raven said sarcastically.

“Tomorrow you head off to Hogwarts. And might I suggest that you be good,” Narcissa said getting up in Raven’s face. “Try not to pull any of those incidents on my son like you did last year. Remember, we’re watching you.”

Narcissa turned away and Raven was left standing there shocked and baffled. “What do you mean, you’re ‘watching me?‘ she yelled but Narcissa didn’t reply. What on earth was she talking about when she says that they were watching her? Did this ring do something else she wasn’t aware of?

She turned to head back to the Leaky Cauldron but saw a familiar face heading into the bookstore. It was Mrs. Weasley. She quickly looked around to find George but he was no where to be found. She ran to follow Mrs. Weasley and after a moment caught up with her. Mrs. Weasley looked as though she was doing some shopping and stopped into Flourish and Blott's to purchase some books.

“Mrs. Weasley!” Raven said with a casual smile.

“Oh! Raven, dear,” she said dropping her parcels and hugging her tight. “How are you? Your uncle told me what happened.”

“I was doing okay, considering, but that changed when I bumped into Narcissa Malfoy a moment ago,” she said still confused. “Why do they have to knock me down and then rub it in my face later? Is it karma? Did I ask for this?”

“No one deserves this,” she said bending down to pick up her parcels.

“Here, let me help,” Raven said grabbing some of the items that Mrs. Weasley was carrying, to ease her load.

“I must say that I don’t know much about karma, but from what I do understand of it, you didn’t ask for this. You may have shared words with the Malfoys in the past but nothing could have warranted this.”

Raven and Mrs. Weasley found a bench to sit on. Mrs. Weasley arranged her packages to keep them close, and then focused all of her attention to Raven.

“How’s George?” Raven finally asked.

“He’s hurting. I’ve let him and Fred run amok to try and cheer him up. It’s gotten to the point where I am going to have to put my foot down. But he seems to be back to normal,” she said. “He said you probably would not want to him sulking around and would want him to be himself.”

“Yeah, he’s right,” she said smiling. “I miss him though.”

“I wouldn’t expect you not to miss him,” Mrs. Weasley said rubbing Raven‘s back. “He misses you too. True love is too hard to let go of.”

“I’m not going to let go,” Raven declared. “Lucius can throw every submission spell in the book at me and I won’t stop loving your son.”

“I know, dear. You’re a fighter. It’s in your blood,” said Mrs. Weasley. “You know, dear. I knew your mother. Not real well, mind you, but I knew enough about her that I can tell, very much, that her spirit is in you.”

Raven knew a lot about her mother. It was comforting to hear someone else talk about her, in a nice way.

“She was feisty. Everyone thought it might have been her upbringing. But where she was there was fire and sometimes ice, there was generosity and kindness. She never let people get to her and would always help those in need.”

“Was she the same year as you?”

“No, she was several years younger than I. She started Hogwarts when I was a fifth year. Persephone clung to Andromeda Black. I always thought they were sisters, the way Andromeda took care of her. It turned out that Andromeda was her cousin. We were all in a bit of shock when we heard that one. The few that knew your mothers story, respected her enough that we kept it quiet. It was already shameful enough to find out what her family did to her. To embarrass her more by telling her we knew her secret…well, it wouldn’t have been right.”

“It really did bother her, didn’t it? I mean, she wrote in her journal about the pain she felt. It hurt her to be lied to for all of those years. Words, after a while, don’t mean anything until you know the story to back it up.”

“I’ll tell you, we were all surprised by her announcement that she was to marry Tobias Snape. We never knew they were together, really. Your mother was very private. Sirius took it the worst. He was angry and disappointed in his sister. You-Know-Who’s reign of terror had been going on for about five years or so and it was not unknown that your father was a follower.”

As much as Raven loved her father, it was sometimes a hard pill to swallow knowing her father supported such an evil cause and evil man.

“I’m sorry for bringing all this up to you.” Mrs. Weasley grabbed both of Raven’s hands. “My point is this, love is a strange thing. We can find it in the most unlikely places. Once we have it, no love spell can ever take it away.”

Raven smiled. These words felt very comforting.

“You love George. It’s very clear that the two of you are going to need each other the most during this time. Your mother loved your father very much. And no matter what was going on around her, with the anger about her marriage and losing the ones that she was closest to, she still loved him. Her love for him brought you into this world. You are a bright, beautiful, talented, loving girl. True love bring brings people like that into the world.”

Raven and Mrs. Weasley talked all the way to the nearest Floo network and said their goodbyes. Raven wished she could have gone with her but knew that it was not in the cards.

Raven could only hope that when tomorrow comes and she is leaving for Hogwarts, that there is not going to be an incident with Draco. She was also hoping for a glimpse of George. To look at him right now would be comfort enough. Her heart began to sink. Thinking he was at home, probably pretending to be himself, to try and not think about all that is going on, made her feel guilty and heartbroken. If she had just kept herself from snapping at all of the Malfoys and told George the truth, all of this might have been avoided, or at least happened later, when she was better able to deal with it.

As she lay in bed, she thought about this night one year ago. Things were much different when she had lain in this bed. She had made new, unexpected friends, and met the love of her life, although she didn’t know it at the time. Her future seemed so much brighter than it did at this very moment. Her school year was not going to go well at all, she already knew it. All she wanted now, besides George, was a happy dream; a dream about George and their sunset viewing, or anything that had nothing to do with the Malfoys. She could have a dream where she was in a room where everything was made of ice cream, she didn’t care. Just one last dream, in what she thought was her last night of freedom.

Chapter 19