Raven (Fred x oc)

27. Explinations

By noon the following day, we were all released. The first person I saw was Angelina. "Val!" she shouted, rushing up to me. Instantly, she wrapped her arms around me tightly. "Merlin, I was so scared. I thought something happened to you. Everyone heard about Sirius and what happened and-"

"Ange, I'm fine," I insisted, hugging her back equally as tightly. "I was right, Angelina, he was innocent. We proved it." Pulling away from me, she gave a look of disbelief. Lowering my voice to where she could barely hear me, I said, "Peter Pettigrew is alive."

"Get out," she shouted. "You're kidding!"

"I wish I was," I said grimly.

"Valerie," Fred called, running up to me.

"I'll tell you everything later, Ange," I promised. She nodded and left, leaving me with Fred.

"We need to talk," he said firmly. I nodded. We walked in silence through the grounds until we reached the lake. At the edge, Fred stopped, turning to face me. "You have a lot to explain," he said.

"I know," I sighed.

"I-I mean, nothing yesterday made any sense!" Fred exclaimed. "I was talking to you and your dad and you were fine, but then five minutes later you followed after me with a broken arm with all these vague and strange instructions. And there's a rumor that Sirius Black was captured then escaped. What happened yesterday, Val?!"

"This is going to take a while," I said, sitting down on the grass and leaning back against a tree. Fred sat down next to me as I stared out into the lake. "I guess I should start with when you headed back to the castle. Sirius and I kept talking after you left. We talked for about ten minutes."

"No, you ran after me," Fred interrupted.

"Just listen," I said, not looking at him as I studied the features of the lake. "Dad had figured out long ago that Peter Pettigrew had been the one to betray Lily and James. He left to make sure Pettigrew got into the Shrieking Shack where we decided to meet. My job was to get Harry in there. I waited in the Willow until I saw Dad dragging Ron in. I knew Harry would follow after Ron so I just went in, didn't see the point if he would show up anyway."

I paused, thinking of how to explain the conversation over the two hours we had been in there. Finally, I resumed, "As expected, Harry and Hermione showed up. Then we were down there talking for a long time. Long story short, we proved that Peter Pettigrew was alive. As Scabbers."

"What?" Fred explained. "You're not serious."

"Unfortunately," I replied. "Remus showed up, Harry used me as a hostage and broke my arm."

"Harry did that?" Fred scoffed.

"Don't do anything," I ordered, looking over at him. He shook his head, but quieted to listen. "Eventually Harry grew to believe us. Snape showed up, Harry, Ron, and Hermione knocked him out." I frowned, trying to remember everything. "Dad and Remus were going to kill Pettigrew. They wanted revenge for what he had done to James and Lily."

"Harry and I convinced them to bring him up to the castle so we could get Dad exonerated. Remus and Ron bound themselves to Pettigrew and we set off. But there was a factor we forgot and it ruined our plans." I paused. "Remus is a werewolf." Fred's expression changed to one of surprise, but he didn't say anything. "Last night was the full moon. He didn't drink the potion that allows him to keep his head when he turns. He was pursuing us when Snape delivered it."

"Dad is also an animagus," I admitted. "He changes into this big black dog. He fought off Remus so he didn't hurt any of us and Pettigrew changed back into a rat and escaped. I'm honestly not really sure what happened next exactly, but I was trying to help Sirius. He was down by the lake and there were hundred of dementors." The wind ran its fingers through my hair as I spotted the giant squid moving around in the lake. "One of them approached me, lowered its hood, and tried to perform the Dementor's Kiss on me. I blacked out before anything else happened."

"When I woke up, I was in the hospital wing," I resumed. "Fudge and Snape were talking outside the door. Fudge was congratulating Snape for his valiant effort in protecting us." I scoffed. "He said that Dad had bewitched Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but that I was working with him all along." I rolled my eyes. "Then I realized, I had been chained to the bed by my wrist and ankles. Snape and Fudge came in and told us they were about to perform the Dementor's Kiss on Dad."

"I, uh, kind of freaked out," I admitted. "I started thrashing around and even broke my other wrist in the process because they were so tight." Fred reached out, grabbing hold of my still-bruised wrist. He gently brushed his thumb over it, but didn't say anything as I went on, "Dumbledore eventually showed up and made them leave so he could talk to us. Ron was passed out so it was just Harry, Hermione, and I."

"He was being vague and confusing," I said. "Only Hermione seemed to understand what he meant. Turns out she had a time turner. We went back three hours." I glanced over at Fred and I could see him working everything out.

"So when you spoke to me," Fred realized, "you were you from the future? That's why your arm was already broken?" I nodded.

"I knew we would need to break Dad out of Flitwick's office and I knew he would need a wand and I also knew I had my dad's old wand in my trunk so..."

"You asked me to get Angelina to get it so you could get it back to him," Fred filled in.

"Exactly," I replied. "I also thought it would be better if no magic was involved in how the window was open, at least not fresh magic, hence my request of you. So, I was supposed to wait in the woods for Harry and Hermione after they got Buckbeak, but I saw an opportunity to get into the Shrieking Shack so I could be right behind the others when they left, but when I got in there, my exhaustion hit me and I fell asleep."

"When I woke up, the dementors were already swarming the past versions of us," I explained. "Harry cast the patronus that saved us and I met up with them in the woods. We got on Buckbeak and flew to get Dad. It was quicker than we expected because he had already found his wand. We flew up on the battlements, said goodbye, and he left on Buckbeak. We had to rush through the castle because we only had ten minutes to get back to the hospital wing, mostly because if we didn't they'd see I wasn't chained up."

"We just managed it before Fudge and Snape stormed into the room with Dumbledore. They decided I wasn't guilty and I was released. And that's basically it," I finished. "I just went out to calm down Remus, went to sleep, talked to Angelina, and here we are." Glancing over at him, I asked, "Everything make sense now?"

"No, not really," he said before letting out a chuckle. "But I understand why you did what you did."

"So we good?" I asked.

"Yeah, we're good," he replied, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Smiling, I lay my head on his shoulder and watched as the giant squid lazily moved around.

After a pause, I said, "You know you can't tell anyone about any of that, right? Don't even say something to Ron or anyone in your family, especially not your parents."

"Yeah, I know," he sighed. "What about George, though? He wouldn't tell anyone."

After thinking a moment, I said, "I guess you could tell him. I'm telling Angelina anyways. We can tell the two of them at the same time." Gently he kissed my cheek, causing me to chuckle, laying my head back on his shoulder.