CHAPTER XXIX:
mon papillon

( July 1995 )

      AFTER GEORGE AND GINGER'S EXCHANGE, THE FUNERAL FOR CEDRIC BEGAN. Ginger sat with her back straight, almost painfully so, ankles crossed, and an absent expression on her face while she stared at the open casket.

      George had been sitting with his twin and Lee in the section of seats across from her and he couldn't help himself from looking her way through the ceremony. He looked the way of the speaker for only a moment and when he turned back to her she still had the same absent expression but with violent tears streaming down her face while her breathing had visibly become shallow.

      She blinked gaining back her awareness. George watched as her face contorted to match the tears relentlessly falling onto her dress.

Eventually, she became too overwhelmed and stood up leaving. Fred had lifted his hand to tap George about it but George had already been standing up with an, "I know," and followed her to a secluded field on the Diggory resistance.

Her cries left her to be sat in the grass in front of a grand tree she and Cedric used to climb. George followed the sounds of pitiful sobs to the pretty girl behind them. How was it that she managed to still look pretty while crying? It was a wonder to George.

He wordlessly sat beside her, knees to his chest as he silently provided Ginger with his dense company. She most likely looked like a tall child, crying in the grass like she had been, desperately wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. But George didn't mind. He didn't mind her crying, and he didn't mind when she eventually put her body weight on his side and shoulder. His arm hesitantly wrapped around her shoulders to comfort her but from Georges's perspective, it only seemed to make matters worse as she began crying into his chest practically lying in his lap like a child.

The twin wasn't very good at spouting words of comfort, that had been a proven fact when Ron had been distressed over Scabbers really being Peter Pettigrew and he responded with "do you think he could've killed you in his rat form if he wanted to?" His mother ended up hitting him over the head with a newspaper that day.

The point was, George being terrible at verbal comfort was perfect for Ginger. She had been hearing condolences from people for hours and George was a breath of fresh air with his silence only offering her physical comfort. He was all she needed for the time being.

GEORGE EVENTUALLY HAD TO LEAVE GINGER AS HIS MOTHER WISHED HER BOYS WOULD RETURN HOME AFTER THE FUNERAL. Cedric had finally been buried, George made an effort to make sure Ginger wasn't there to witness it in fear it would be her final straw for the day and she would end up in her own shiny casket.

So there she sat, the foot of the tombstone on her back as she sat behind the fresh patch of covered soil where her best friend would lie forever.

Her tears had finally ceased as her eyes had become dehydrated for the day, so she was just a sniffling girl with her arms wrapped around her knees that had been to her chest. "You know..." she began with a sniffle. "You were probably- probably the best person I've ever met," she hiccuped mid-sentence speaking to the wind as if Cedric were right there beside her. Well, he was, but not there, elbow to elbow, knee to knee.

      "I do wish you would hurry and become that butterfly though. It's been quite boring without you here." Just as she was finished with speaking to the grave, a white-letter hairstreak butterfly fluttered over to the tombstone, resting its wings and allowing Ginger to get a look. A moment of realization seemed to have waved over her as she went to her knees to be closer to the off white insect. It flitted its wings to her fingers that had lied beside it. She gently raised her hand closer to her face with her eyes beginning to glaze over.

      "Ah, mon papillon, you look even more poetic than you could even imagine." Gentle tears of relief and contentment fell from her golden eyes as she kept the butterfly in her company.

      After a few moments of spending time with the insect, its wings began to flutter as it left her just as quick as it came. "Mon amie, please do visit," she quietly spoke watching her beloved friend flutter away.

      Standing up from the ground, Ginger brought herself to finally go back into the house as the sun had begun setting. Opening and closing the door with her entrance, her legs carried her to the staircase but a voice halted her. "Ginger, dear, could I speak with you for a moment?" Amos beckoned from the kitchen.

She looked at him expectantly to show she was listening. "Would you...would you like to take... his room?" he asked lowly, careful not to put too much feeling at the thought of his son.

She turned her head away considering it for a bit but turned back and nodded with a kind and sad smile. "I'd love to."

NOTE. can we appreciate the new cover for a moment?

LIKE LOOK AT MISS MOON 🧎🏽‍♀️
moving on 🚶🏽‍♀️ so i was thinking about making a separate book to separate the different eras/movies/books but i feel like thatd be too many covers and graphics for me to make cause ive literally made 12 different covers only for 10 books 😐 so we're staying here for good and following out till the end to deathly hallows 🤷🏽‍♀️