Order Only: Private message to Fred Weasley and George Weasley

[alt_terry]

Feel terrible.

Neville wrote to his parents. I...I overheard them talking about it. They don't know I was listening.

Guess Neville knew about that dark rite in advance, because Seamus told him beforehand. Seamus expected to be the one to die, but then Professor Dolohov fixed things so that he wouldn't, but he had to kill his mum instead. But Neville didn't know exactly what happened until Seamus Finnegan woke up from a nightmare when he got back to school. And he blurted out the truth to Neville.

He's just horrified. Neville, I mean. To find out that his roommate's a murderer.

Do you think Neville would hate me, if he knew the truth?

I haven't told any of them. You're the only ones who know. And Lee.

But it's just eating away at me. That they don't know. But if I lose all those friendships if they knew the truth...how could I stand it?

Comments

[alt_gredforge]

Didn't you say Frank explained the concept of self-defence to you? And the difference between being someone who's killed and someone who's a murderer?

[alt_terry]

Well, wasn't it sort of self-defence for Seamus? If that was his choice, between killing her and dying himself?

[alt_gredforge]

We don't know. Maybe you should ask Frank.

[alt_terry]

He'll just be hacked off at me for overhearing. Except I didn't mean to, exactly. I was the Professor, so they sort overlooked me. And I was dozing, so maybe they thought I was asleep, but their voices woke me up.

[alt_gredforge]

Well.

You said Neville was horrified. But that doesn't necessarily mean he hates Seamus, does it. We expect he'll be horrified if you tell the truth about this. But that doesn't mean you'll lose his friendship. We're still your friends, us and Lee, right?

[alt_gredforge]

Do you need to tell? You said it was eating away at you.

[alt_terry]

I think I do. But I'm scared to.

I'm really scared.

[alt_terry]

It's really the last secret.

[alt_gredforge]

And it's a big one, we see that. But it's not everything about you, Terry. It isn't even the most important thing.

[alt_terry]

Oh, yeah? Then what is?

[alt_gredforge]

The most important thing is that you're still a decent person, even after everything that the git threw at you. And that you survived.

They are your friends, Terry. If you need to tell, you can go ahead and do it.

If you were a Gryffindor, we'd tell you that you can still be brave, even if you're scared. Maybe that's true of Ravenclaws, too. Except you're just going to have to Ravenclaw-logically reason it out for yourself, whether it's the best thing for you to do. We Gryffindors tend to blurt things out impulsively instead and then deal with the consequences, come what may.

We'll stand by you, either way. And if you do, tell us if they're being gits about it. We'll knock their heads together for you.

[alt_terry]

I'll think about it. That's the only good thing I can think of about my mum being dead.

The git was never able to use her against me like that.

[alt_gredforge]

You should talk to Frank. Or Alice. Maybe that would help you decide. And yeah, maybe they'll be chagrined that you heard, but maybe it's a good thing for you to talk about with them.
It's okay to talk to people who are looking out for you, Terry.