Isla's eyes flickered all over their room, and she didn't quite know what to make of it.

It surely looked the same. Her dresser stood where she left it, so did Ava's. The beds were the same, so were the tables next to them. Still, something was unusual.

Perhaps it was the change that they all had lived through. The loss of close and dear ones haunted the otherwise spectacular, happy castle. It felt strange to the both of them, being here in a time like this one.

''So...'' Ava caught her attention, ''How are you doing?'' She asked her friend, and Isla froze in her doings.

''What do you—''

''Don't play dumb with me.'' Ava hewed her off, ''How are you feeling? It's been over a year since Fred... left us.''

''It's fine.'' Isla's jaws clenched and then unclenched at the spoken name. She tried so hard not to seem bothered with it, even if all she wanted was to fade inside. She forced a tense smile, ''Nothing to worry about.''

''Don't do that.'' Ava's stare held seriously. Her voice was stern, ''Don't shut me out like that. I know you were close, and he was someone special to you, and to lose that—''

''A lot of people lost their loved ones to the war, Ava. It's not just me, and it's not sad for me. It's sad for George and Ron—'' Isla shook her head, and her fingers curled into fists, ''It's sad for Ginny, and this isn't about me.''

''You lost your cousin, someone that you have grown up with, Isla.'' Ava pushed herself off her bed, and she tried to show her comfort, ''It's not a completion, and you can't feel bad for grieving. You're just as important as his siblings.''

"I know." She muttered, placing her clothes in her closet, "I just don't want to talk about it."

"Fine," Ava rolled her eyes away from Isla, and her sight immediately landed on the envelope resting on her bed, "So when are you going to open it—"

"Not now." Isla shot back, shoving her clothes in on the shelf. The constant mentioning of the letter had her held on such an edge that she almost felt sick. "Can we just have one normal day back before we get to all of these arranged marriages things? It's stressful as it is, isn't it?''

''Not for me.'' Ava smirked, ''Can I at least guess who I think you'll get?''

Isla sighed heavily and has dropped to her bed as Ava flopped down next to her, ''Mhm... let's see. You're in Slytherin, but with a muggle-born mother, so my guess is that you'll have to choose between two Gryffindor's, maybe a Ravenclaw?''

Isla pinched her eyes shut, and all her thoughts about falling in love came rushing back over her. She didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to care.

It was going to be arranged. She doesn't have to fall in love if she doesn't want to.

Ava fiddled with the Slytherin ring on her finger, ''I just don't get it, we get a whole year on us to choose, right?''

''We do,'' Isla sighed, ''Imagine having to choose the person you're spending the rest of your life with within a year. It's impossible. How are we supposed to fall in love with someone so fast?''

''Fast?'' Ava shouted. Her spine flew off the mattress, ''It's a whole year, Isla! We have until graduation on us, and that's plenty of time.''

Isla stayed quiet.

Her mind got the better of her again. She didn't like this. She didn't like this at all.

''I think the hard part is choosing. What if you fall in love with them both? I mean — you have to get to know both of them, right? So you have to spend time with them and build a relationship, but what if we fall for them both?''

''Yeah...'' Isla mumbled, twisting a lock of her hair between her fingers as she peered up at her friend, ''Imagine.''

''Well, that's not going to be a problem for me,'' Ava stood tall on her feet again, ''I have to go with Zabini. My father would never approve anyone else.''

''Do they—'' Isla propped herself on her elbows, ''Do they get choices too, or is it just the girls?''

Ava hummed, ''Just the girls. The boys have to agree with whomever we choose, and the one we don't choose is left alone.''

''Left alone?'' Isla tipped her head, ''What do you mean left alone?''

''They will never get married, never have a family... As much as the Ministry wants the bloodlines to get back on track, they don't want overpopulation... or something like that. I read it in the paper the other day.''

''I see...'' She mumbled again, and she silently groaned to herself, ''Let's not talk about that more, any of it.''

''Well, you have to open it before classes begin tomorrow. I want to know what your choices are so we can start planning this.'' Ava strode over to the door, and her hand closed around the doorknob as she took a step outside, ''I'm going for a smoke, are you coming?''

''I hate smoking.'' Isla shot her friend a glare as she rolled over to her stomach, ''But I'll see you at dinner?''

Ava sighed annoyingly at her friend before she slowly started to shut the door, ''Yes, you will, but don't forget to meet us at the lake after! We still have that thing, remember?''

''How could I forget?'' Isla grinned before her friend slammed the wood shut, leaving her alone in their room.

Isla couldn't stop thinking about that doomed letter, how her future rested within the pearly envelope, and how her mother supposedly had sent her about twenty owls just to ask her about it.

She didn't want to open it just yet, because when she did, it all would become real. It turned to reality, and she wasn't ready for that.

For her future to be fated.

For her to be responsible for someone's misery, for her to be responsible for her own.

She glanced at the photos on her dresser before she pushed herself off the mattress, and her fingers trailed over the glass.

It was a picture of her and her cousins, the Weasleys.

The fact that she was by blood, indeed a Weasley, was one of the things she actually adored about herself, but also her deepest, darkest secret. No one, except her best friends Ava, Mila, and Leo, knew about it.

Isla's father was one of the brothers to Arthur Weasley, but a doomed one at that. He didn't walk in the tracks as his brothers did, no. They didn't have the same parents, and Isla's father united with the dark side at a young age. Even if his heart was a peaceful place, he was always drawn to the forbidden.

After years as a Death Eater, he married and had children with a muggle that he had to shelter from Voldemort. With that came exile from the Weasleys. Not because he fell in love with Isla's mother, but because he was a loyal servant of the Dark Lord, and his family broke all ties they held with him.

Therefore Isla, her sister, and their parents took her mother's last name, Clarke. Not that it stopped Isla from becoming friends with the Weasleys, it surely didn't. They knew her secret, and they loved her more than anything.

She would usually lie to her parents and tell them that she stayed behind in school over certain holidays — when she, in reality, joined the Weasleys at the burrow. Molly, the mother of her cousins, made her swear never to tell her father about the relationship they held, and Isla never did.

And then — then her father was killed in the war by no other than his own brother. Arthur had to take her father's life because he wouldn't stop. He would never give in and leave Voldemort's side, he would fight for the darkness until he seized his last breath, and he did.

Her head shook as she looked at the picture, and her eyes landed on Fred. She hated herself for what happened to him. That they all lost the most kindest souls of them all and that George now was alone.

''I can't do this—'' Isla muttered underneath her breath as she tilted the picture down and let the faces of her cousins rest against the dresser.

Everything had changed so drastically, and nothing seemed to be the same anymore. She couldn't expect it to be after everything that had happened. Still, she could never prepare for what was about to come.

_____

The sable gloom embraced her, and the mellow wind stroked against her cheeks as she walked her way down the grass-covered ground, over the hill pathing to the black lake. She didn't quite know what to expect of the tradition her friend wanted them to start, but if it were Ava and Leo wishing for her to do something — something they believed would do her good, it would be.

''Over here!'' Ava jumped up and down at the shoreline, waving her arms in the air for Isla's attention, ''We're over here.''

Isla felt a curl on her upper lip at how ridiculous her friend looked as she stood on her tippy toes in the dusk shadows, seeking for her to join them. She stumbled close. Her eyes flickered over the darkened lake and the pieces of paper resting on the ground.

''What is this?'' Isla smiled towards them as Leo backed away, picking the sheets up, and with a twitch of his wand — the piece shifted into a glowing ball of light.

''It's for Fred.'' Leo hunched to the ground, and he picked another piece up, reaching it over to his sister.

''For Fred, Lavender, Colin, and everyone else who isn't with us anymore.'' Ava rose, shouldering Isla to the side, ''We wanted to start this very... interesting year off with honoring them.''

Her heart ached, and her mind seemed to do the same for a silent minute. It was hard for all of them, losing friends and family to the war, and even if a rising was on the horizon and the world held in a better state than it did a year ago — it still hurt.

Some part of her always would.

Fred wasn't with them anymore. Her other cousin, Ron, left school together with his friends and didn't come back for their last year.

Even if they never were to be seen together out in the open, having him in the same classes as her, walking in the same halls, was comforting.

''Here, you go.'' Leo held the paper box out for her to take, clocking her out of her lost mind, ''You know what to do.''

Isla did, and with a light switch of her wand, she mumbled a spell underneath her breath. The thin coat spread in flames as it rose from her hands, floating in the air in front of her. Her eyes shut, and her fingers tensed around her wand, and she whispered another spell for that ball of light to lift high up to the skies above her.

All the cubes around them slowly rose from the ground, and her hand stretched in front of her towards the lake as the material shifted after her gesture.

It lit up the dimmed water line in all types of coral and scarlet shades as the flaming pieces of magic traveled across it. The honor for their fallen friends and family brightened the settings around them, just like the people who had lost their lives did.

''Not so bad, mhm?'' Leo's face fell into a soft look as they stood beside each other, watching as the burning pieces pathed further away.

Isla smiled shyly to herself as her head tipped to lean against his shoulder, with Ava's hand sneaking to intertwine with hers.

''No, not so bad.''

The world was indeed on its way to peace, while hers was coursing to burn in flames similar to the ones she'd just set on fire.

_____