Junoesque ✿George Weasley✿

65.

"We'll meet up next Tuesday, yeah?"

"Will do! Stay safe guys!"

Blair waved to the three that departed on their separate ways. She had enjoyed their get together and had been filled in with what had been going on with all her old friends. Mina was dating a boy and will be going on her fourth date with him this Friday. She was hoping that he'd ask her to be his girlfriend and Poppy stated that if he didn't, she should drop him then and there. But Mina whined and said that she really liked him. Poppy hadn't had much happen since leaving Hogwarts. She'd gotten a job at a local post office for Muggle post and said that she was happy laying low while the safety of Muggleborns was currently being threatened. As for Nancy, she was training to be an Auror for the Ministry of Magic. Blair knew that the girl was talented in charm work, but she never knew that she'd sign up and be accepted in such a difficult and challenging course. But she wished her well and wanted to hear about her training through their weekly meet-ups.

Instead of heading towards the Leaky Cauldron to head back to the flat, Blair decided to take a short detour. She turned down particular streets and found the bustling crowd that came with walking through London disappear, leaving individual trailers who were on their way home or heading to specific places. Blair walked along the path as if she was coming home from King's Cross station. She would walk this same route every time she'd leave for the holidays and could remember the heavy stone that would be in her stomach. Christmas was never a good time for her, but that had changed completely since meeting the Weasleys. She would never have to spend the 25th of December in her concrete room that had one single piece of red tinsel that she would put across her window sill again. One year, it had been torn up by Jasper as it was usually his place to sit and watch the day go by. He thought he had been replaced by some sparkly, red creature that Blair had grown to love instead. But she was able to save it before he completely tore it up with his claws.

She stopped in front of what used to be the iron gate that surrounded Wool's Orphanage. Instead, the gate had been taken down and replaced with a block of post boxes with numbers one through twenty-eight on it. Behind it sat its older brother with its twenty-eight windows and beige brick walls. The entire orphanage was gone and had been replaced with a modern set of flats that London was in dire need for its mass population. Blair thought about all the children that she used to have to sit with at meal times and during playtime, and how they're all now at schools in Leeds. Miss Wool is probably there too, listing off all the children that should be there. She knew that the woman had completely ignored the fact that Blair was missing because her file had been taken by Professor Dumbledore. But now she was eighteen and in the Muggle world, she was classified as an adult. If she'd had stayed at the orphanage in Leeds, she would have only just left to live on her own at the beginning of the summer holidays.

When Professor Dumbledore had told her that the orphanage was set to be demolished at the end of the month, she had believed him immediately and didn't feel an ounce of sorrow for the place. From the walls to the other occupants of the building, she hated every part of living there. Her childhood had been lost because of the suspicion of her practising witchcraft. She had been oppressed and isolated for what she was (or for what they thought she was) and had lost most of her life to the awful place. Hogwarts had been her sanctuary, yet even that had been tarnished in her last year by Dolores Jane Umbridge.

But Blair reminded herself of where she was now. Sure, she had a tough childhood in the Muggle world and an alienated experience in the Wizarding world for her Death Eater connotation, but she had grown so much from it all. She should appreciate what she had now. She lived above a vibrantly orange shop in Diagon Alley with her boyfriend who she loved. She had friends that she would meet up with every week and frequently saw the Weasleys at The Burrow. She could do magic whenever she wanted and made potions for the successful shop below her flat. Life couldn't have been better and she was happy; happier than she ever could have been if she had followed how her life was going before she met her friends at Hogwarts.