CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE - Result of Reveries

"Please don't tell them I failed," Mundungus Fletcher begged, grasping for Attuoria's arm. "I didn't tell you anything, right? I didn't say anything bad?"

"Relax," said Attuoria, choosing her words carefully. "You didn't say any more than I already know."

Mundungus hesitated, but then let go of her wrist and sat back down on the chair in front of the fire. "Nothing more than you already know…"

"Sirius sent you, didn't he?" Attuoria asked casually as she sorted the gifts she bought today. She needed to get the items up to each respective room before everyone got back.

That question caught Mundungus off-guard. He snapped his head towards her. "No," he said defensively, but one look in his eyes and she knew she was right.

"That's why he asked you to drive them today. It was an alibi." Attuoria mused. The man stayed silent.

"You don't like him." Attuoria stated, and his eyes widened. "Why obey his orders?"

"Well he doesn't like you, either, so that makes two of us." Dung grumbled, avoiding her question as he stared absently into the fire.

"What are you planning to steal this time?"

"Stop using your Legilimency on me! Haven't you had enough?" Mundungus leapt up from his seat, angrily planting himself in front of Attuoria. She glanced down at him calmly. Somehow from this angle, he looked rather elfish (especially since he was still wearing that black lace witch's robe).

"I'm not using Legilimency," Attuoria said truthfully. She hadn't looked into his thoughts. "You're just very easy to read."

Mundungus growled, shoving past her and stomping towards the front hallway. He stopped at the front door, with Attuoria still watching him curiously from the doorway of the dining room.

"You better watch yourself, girl," he said throatily. "There are ears in this house."

With a loud slam of the front door, he was gone.

Not thinking much of his threat, Attuoria grabbed her book bag from the dining table and made her way upstairs. Upon entering each room, she placed a gift at the foot of their bed, along with a small parchment note with her name on it. And since she didn't have her gift for Harry, she wrote him a small card, telling him that she was going to give him something once they got back to school.

Everything was in place. She just had to wait for them to get home. Now, it was time to pay her new Knarl some attention.

In her shared room with the twins, the small hedgehog stared up at her with gleaming black eyes, peaking its snout out of the metal bars of the cage. Attuoria pulled out the empty glass Streeler tank and placed it on the floor. She conjured up some soil inside the tank, before scattering in the daisy seeds Hagrid gave her. A simple Herbivicus Charm allowed the daisies to bloom within a minute. The tank was now ready for the Knarl to live in.

Attuoria carried the metal cage over, lifting up the hatch on the side to allow the Knarl to hop into its new home. The creature dove in without hesitation, eager to devour the small white flowers that were continuously sprouting all across the soil.

Perhaps she should control the speed of the daisy's regrowth so that the Knarl doesn't become obese.

After the glass tank with the Knarl was placed back onto the bedside table, Attuoria sat down on Fred's bed and stared at this small being. Her thoughts slowly trailed back to her interaction with the Malfoys. Mundungus said Lucius Malfoy had intel for her. Did the Order know something she didn't? How did Sirius accurately guess that some Death Eater was going to meet her in Diagon Alley, when she herself had no idea?

Sirius's thoughts this morning were clear. His only reason for sending Mundungus was because he felt suspicious of Attuoria's outing. There was nothing else to it- no special message from the Order, no special intel about the Death Eaters. Attuoria sighed, leaning back to lie down on the soft mattress. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed before she heard Walburga Black's portrait in the entrance hall screech out a long list of wizarding profanities. They were back.

Attuoria ran downstairs to greet everyone, immediately noticing the bleak looks on Harry, Ron, and Hermione's faces. Did Mr Weasley get worse?

But when Harry's gaze met hers, she heard his thoughts and realised that they saw Neville Longbottom's parents: the couple that had been tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange. Attuoria had heard Bellatrix talk of this before. The torturing of the Longbottoms was something she was extremely proud of.

"Oh Attuoria!" Mrs Weasley said brightly as she unwrapped the scarf from her neck. "You're back! How was shopping? Did you have enough money?"

Attuoria nodded. "Yep. I got everything I needed. How's Mr Weasley?"

Mrs Weasley's face fell for just a split second before it was replaced by a warm smile. "He's holding up fine. I'm sure he'll be back in a month."

"Attuoria!" Fred and George yelled at the same time, fighting through the crowd towards the girl on the stairs. "Did you miss me?" The two boys said simultaneously.

Attuoria smiled. "Maybe a bit."

"I bet she misses me more," said George, who immediately received a hard elbow in the ribs from Fred.

"No, I'm sure she misses the better-looking one more." Fred retorted.

"Yeah, that's me," said George, bringing his arm in front of Fred's face in an attempt to get him out of the way.

"Alright ladies enough fighting, make way for the actual best-looking one in the family," a female voice called from the bottom of the stairs, and the twins separated themselves to reveal Ginny, who grinned at Attuoria.

"Hey! I've barely gotten to talk to you since the last time at the Quidditch trials," she said, walking up the creaking steps. "How're things going with Malfoy?" Ginny teased, earning herself a sharp look from Fred.

"Stop it, you're hurting pwoor Fweddie's fweelings," George cooed as his brother slapped him.

"Kidding, kidding." Ginny rolled her eyes, patting Attuoria on the shoulder. "Have fun with these nutters."

Attuoria watched as Ginny headed further up the stairs. She hadn't said a word to her, yet it seemed as if they had a conversation. Ginny's confidence was really quite impressive.

"Ignore her," said George, grinning brightly.

"She's the real nutter," Fred added, beaming up at her as well. "So what have you been up to?"

"Come upstairs!" Attuoria said cheerfully, a warm feeling flowing up her chest. "I'll show you."

She guided the twins up to their bedroom on the third floor, where their gifts were waiting.

"Oh! You got your Knarl a tank and a little garden!" Fred exclaimed, immediately noticing their new friend sitting next to the bed.

"To be honest I think the Knarl is better off in the wild, but since this was Hagrid's gift, I'd better keep it for a little while. Anyways, this is for you," Attuoria grabbed the pair of leather gloves from the bedside table and held it up to George. Then, she took out the Reverie candle, which suddenly seemed rather small in comparison. "And this is for you," she said to Fred, who stared at it, confused.

"Where… Where did you get such high quality gloves?" George choked out, his mouth wide open. "They must cost a fortune!"

Attuoria shrugged. "Yeah it was expensive but it's fine, I got it at half price. I couldn't find Quidditch gloves, so this was the closest to it."

"Are you kidding?" George gasped, still not taking his eyes off of his gift. "This is better than Quidditch gloves! Thank you!"

Enclosed tightly in George's embrace, Attuoria spotted Fred frowning at the white candle in his hands.

"That's not just a normal candle," she said, and George immediately let go of her to observe the candle with his brother. "Apparently it causes hallucinations. I felt like this candle would be a good source of inspiration for your joke products."

"So… how does it work?" George asked, glancing at Attuoria momentarily.

"You just light it. The fumes cause hallucinations."

"Let's give it a shot!" Fred exclaimed, pulling out his wand out from his sweater sleeve. "Incendio," he said quietly, casting a small flickering flame onto the wick of the candle. Almost immediately, the orange fire turned green.

"Woah…" George breathed, edging his face closer to the candle as Fred placed it onto the bedside table. "So now we wait?"

"Now we wait," Fred nodded, backtracking a few steps to sit down on his bed. Attuoria did the same, and so did George. The three of them waited in silence, unsure of what was going to happen next.

But what did happen next was nothing like Attuoria expected.

Within a minute, Fred and George had slumped over, completely unconscious. Attuoria would've been alarmed if not for the gentle rise and fall of their chests indicating that they were still alive. For a split second she had wondered if the woman had gotten the Reverie and Streel candles mixed up.

Did the candle have no effect on her? Hallucinations were a trick on the mind. Maybe her demon mind wasn't susceptible to these low-level tricks. She was part of an entirely different dimension. In her world, they were the ones hallucinating the humans.

Yet, she was still curious to see the effects of the candle. Were these hallucinations as vivid as dreams? More vivid, even?

Only one way to find out.

Attuoria leant over to Fred and flipped him so that he was lying face-up on the bed. She gently tugged open his eyelid, glancing at his dark brown eyes and entering his mind.

It looked like a jungle. It probably was a jungle. Except there were firecrackers flying everywhere, puffskeins all over the trees, and a giant snake on the ground, hissing aggressively at the small fluff balls. It took Attuoria a moment to realise that Fred was on a tree as well, rapidly puffskeins at the snake using… a Beater's bat?

Attuoria wasn't able to enter his hallucination, since her mind-reading abilities limited her to observe from the outside. But nevertheless, it was a fun show. Fred had somehow shoved a firecracker into the puffskein's mouth, creating a sparkling, exploding fluffy ball of fire that went whizzing into the giant snake's eye.

"TAKE THAT YOU MONSTER!" Fred's thoughts sang out as he packed yet another fireball.

"Isn't this animal cruelty?" Attuoria projected this question into his mind, and she saw Fred frown inside his hallucination landscape, before she heard a response.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

Fair enough. When battling with a giant snake, sacrificing a few puffskeins might just be for the greater good.

Seeing enough of Fred's hallucination, Attuoria decided to head over to George. Since she was already fully immersed in Fred's mind, to move onto another mind was much more simple. She travelled the empty space between their two consciences, following the sound of George's thoughts.

George's hallucination was slightly less chaotic than Fred, but still absolutely insane. He stood atop the astronomy tower, waving his wand whilst conducting a singing group of Mooncalves. Extendable ears surrounded them like a floating audience, bouncing up and down to the beat of the Mooncalf song. George looked like he was deeply enjoying himself, and Attuoria didn't quite want to interrupt him.

Exiting from George's mind, Attuoria returned her conscience back into her own body, finally taking in the scene around her again. The two were completely knocked out, Fred lying face-up on his bed, and George lying on his side.

Attuoria glanced at the glowing green candle, wondering if she should blow out the flames. If she blew it out now, the effects of the candle should wear off within a few minutes.

"Attuoria!" a voice called from somewhere in the house. It sounded like Harry. "Attuoria where are you?"

She quickly blew out the green flames on the candle, sitting back down onto the bed just as the bedroom door swung open.

Ron stood in the doorway, staring blankly at the occupants in the room. "Harry? I found her." Ron called, his eyes not moving from Attuoria's gaze. "What's wrong with them?" He asked, a frown forming on his face.

"Um, nothing. They're just asleep. Dreaming, actually. Weird dreams." Attuoria said, ignoring the fact that Ron was now grimacing at his brother's unconscious bodies. "Hallucinating, maybe?" she added, probably making her case even worse.

"Hey Attuoria- woah," Harry stopped mid sentence, poking out his head from the side of the doorway. "What's up with them?"

"They're fine," Attuoria reassured. "They'll wake up in a minute or two."

"Did they use themselves as test subjects for their own joke products?" Ron asked.

"Er… something like that," Attuoria took one last glance back at the twins before putting her full attention on her other friends. "So, what do you guys need me for?"

"Well, nothing, actually," said Harry. "I was just wondering where you were."

"Really? So you just made me run all those stairs because you were curious where she was? You could've come here yourself!" Ron complained, glaring at his best friend, who was grinning back at him.

"But you found her before me, and that saved time, didn't it? Thanks for your service," Harry said cheekily, and Ron shoved him with his elbow.

"Where's Hermione?" Attuoria asked, noticing that their other best friend wasn't present.

"I think she's bothering Kreacher," Ron grumbled. "She's still on about the whole, what's that elf organisation thing she made again?"

"S.P.E.W.?" Harry suggested.

"Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare," Attuoria spelled out slowly. "Yeah, I think she mentioned it a few times."

"A few times?" Ron gasped. "You mean every second of the day! Did you see all those weird little things she knitted? Those were all for the house elves!"

"Ohh," Attuoria marvelled. "That's what they were!"

"Of course I've still got lots of room for improvement, but you don't have to be so mean about it," Hermione's voice sounded from behind Ron, who jumped slightly at the sound.

"Bloody hell, how did you get here?"

Hermione made a face. "I walked up the stairs…?"

"WHA-OH!" A sudden yell grabbed all of their attention, and they watched as Fred shot upright on his bed, his eyes wide open like he just saw a ghost. "I swear, just a few more puffskeins and that damn snake would've- Oh." He finally noticed the large crowd at the end of his room. "What's everyone doing here?"

"Nothing." Attuoria said, glancing around at her friends. "Literally nothing."

"Wonderful!" George exclaimed, and everyone turned to look at him. He was still lying flat down on the bed, his eyes closed, but a small smile formed on his face. "Beautiful, absolutely amazing. Wow, I should get a career in that…" His voice trailed down to a mumble before his eyes finally opened.

He blinked slowly a few times, registering the scene in front of him. "Hey, did I fall asleep? But I'm positive that was real…"

"Unfortunately, George, Mooncalves don't sing as well as you think." said Attuoria, earning a few confused looks from the people around her.

"Well I think they sing very well," George defended his imaginary choir. "Even better than the Hogwarts choir, if I do say so myself."

"What the hell…" Attuoria heard Ron mutter under his breath.

"Alright! If you guys have nothing else to say, kindly get out of the room because George and I have business to attend to!" Fred announced grandly, hopping off of his bed and shoving everyone out. "Bye-bye!"

The door slammed shut in their faces.

"Well, that was weird." Hermione commented.

"You don't say," said Harry, scratching his head lightly. "So, er, what now?"

Attuoria twirled around to face her friends. "Did you guys get my gifts?"

"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed. "Thanks for the quill, it'll be so much easier to write long essays now without having to cross everything out. Do you like the journal I gave you? I wasn't quite sure what you would want, so that was the best I could do."

"Oh yeah!" Attuoria suddenly remembered Hermione's advice for her to write a diary. "When I saw it, I really reflected upon myself. It sort of grounded me, if you know what I mean."

Hermione just smiled, and Attuoria guessed that she understood her response.

"You guys are such nerds," said Ron jokingly (maybe). "But thanks for the ice cream, Attuoria. Did you get a chance to try out Florean Fortescue's sundaes? They're really good."

"No, I didn't stop to eat." Attuoria frowned. "Should I have?"

"We'll take you there next time, most likely over the summer," said Hermione. "Well, if you're still here."

"You better be."

Attuoria shrugged. "Probably?"

She noticed that Harry hadn't said a word. They exchanged a knowing glance before Hermione asked, "Did you get something for Harry?"

"Yeah," Attuoria and Harry said at the same time, before falling silent again.

A few seconds passed.

"Well, what did you get?" Hermioned pressed on.

"Um-"

"She got me a new cage for Hedwig," Harry interrupted Attuoria, who had been hesitant to answer. Attuoria's eyebrows raised just slightly at his blatant lie. "Apparently I wasn't treating Hedwig nice enough."

Well, she might as well play along.

"I'm just saying, the ride to Hogwarts is long, and if you want to keep her in the cage, you should make sure she's comfortable."

"Yeah yeah, I'm sure Hedwig is very grateful for your existence." Harry said, rolling his eyes comically, and Attuoria laughed.

"Oh I know she is."

"RON! COME DOWN HERE AND SET THE TABLE!" Mrs Weasley's voice boomed from downstairs. "DINNER WILL BE READY SOON!"

Ron groaned, but pulled himself towards the direction of the staircase. "Oh Merlin save me…"

"I'll help you," said Hermione, following Ron down the stairs.

It was just Attuoria and Harry left.

"So now I have to get you a new cage for Hedwig?" Attuoria asked as Harry began walking to his room.

"Nah it's fine, that was just an excuse to stop Hermione from asking any further," Harry said with a shrug, pushing the door open to his and Ron's room, letting Attuoria in behind him.

"Yeah, but now she'll be suspicious if your cage is still the same when we head back to school." Attuoria approached the empty bird cage sitting at the foot of his bed near his trunk. "I'll just make a few additions."

"Like what?" Harry slumped down onto his bed, picking up Attuoria's note to him and holding it up in front of his face. "It's just a cage."

"Like I said, you could always make it more comfortable for her." Attuoria pulled out her wand and sat down cross-legged next to the cage. This was just some simple transfiguration. She slowly traced shapes in the air above the cage, and small flower-like embroideries began to form along its wires. The metal turned from a dull copper brown to a mixture of shiny silver and gold. The single perch in the middle of the cage turned into a wooden branch, stretching out to form thin vines along the sides.

She then conjured up a small bath pan at the bottom of the cage, with a layer of clean water for both bathing and drinking, whichever one Hedwig wished for it to be.

"There. Here's your new cage."

Harry sat up and glanced over his bed to observe Attuoria's handiwork.

"Wow. That's very nice. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Hedwig."

They were silent for a while before Harry spoke up.

"You really think a piece of Wiggenweld tree bark is going to help me?" Harry asked.

"No, not really." Attuoria answered truthfully. "I'm only giving it to you in hopes that it'll prevent certain things in the future."

"You think more bad things are going to happen to me?"

"Yeah."

Harry grimaced at her. "Right, forgot that I could count on you to make me feel better."

Attuoria made the same face back at him. "Anytime." But after a few moments of hesitation, she added, "sorry."

He sighed. "It's fine. It's good that I have someone constantly throwing reality in my face. Keeps me on track."

"On track for what?" Attuoria asked, but she kind of already knew the answer.

"For Voldemort, obviously. You think he's just going to come back to life and stop there? He tried to kill me once, twice, and he'll do it again." Harry said gravely, his mood dampening significantly.

Attuoria stared at the ground, unsure of what to say. She almost felt guilty that she was a part of his problem. No, as long as she never directly impacted him negatively, it should be fine. She knew Voldemort well enough to know that he was too greedy to let anyone else take on Harry- he wanted the glory to himself.