An Affair to Remember (Fred Weasley)

38) Excuses

The door slammed shut as Noah disappeared into the dark night, his entire body shaking with fury. Adrienne seized the opportunity, finally picking herself up from the edge of her bed and running towards the telephone. She dialled the familiar number and he picked up, his voice sleepy on the other end.

She started to cry, narrating the incident to him word by word, her teeth chattering, hands shaking, body quivering as guilt and fear coursed through her veins. "Draco please, you're the only one I can trust" tears streamed down Adrienne's face as she slumped against the wall, hearing his heavy breaths on the other side of the phone.

"Adrienne I can't believe you did this, you-you fucking obliviated them. Do you know how dangerous that is?" Draco said in disbelief, his hands running through his platinum locks.

"I-I know, it was on an impulse, I didn't mean to..." Adrienne spoke between breaths, her chest heaving up and down as she tried to calm herself. But every time she did, the dazed expressions of the Weasleys floated through her mind and more tears spilled out of her eyes.

"Fine, I'll go there and take care of them, but you promise to stay away from them don't you? You can't go anywhere near them" Draco warned, quickly pulling on his coat. Adrienne sighed in relief, "Yes...yes...I promise"

This was the last thing Draco had expected to hear when the telephone rang at 11 in the night. He couldn't believe what Adrienne had just told him, he didn't know things had become this bad. Draco quickly apparated to the Burrow, magicking the door open to be met with a heart wrenching sight.

Uneasiness filled the Burrow, the smell of forgotten wine glasses and Christmas dinner wafting unpleasantly through the air. Arthur and Molly sat on the dining table, their head in their hands. Oliver, Hermione, Ron, George and Harry were in the living room while Fred lay on the floor against the wall, just how Adrienne was slumped against the wall back at her home. Ginny sat next to him, her knees pulled to her chest. The expressions on all their faces resembled that of utter confusion.

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" Ron asked, too disoriented to even be angry at the unwelcome guest in their home. Draco clasped his hands in front of him, glancing at them all one by one "I-I was passing by and thought I'd pop in, is everything okay?"

"Why do you care?" Harry asked, his brows furrowed as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"For the love of Merlin" Mrs. Weasley squeezed her eyes shut in irritation, "Don't you boys start fighting now. Draco dear, welcome" she said kindly to him and Draco nodded politely before looking over at Fred.

"Everything alright there mate?" he asked. Fred and George were the only Weasleys who patched things up with Draco after the war, no one else had ever really made an effort.

Fred still continued to stare into nothingness, his hands laying by his sides, his chin on his chest. Draco frowned, walking over to him and crouching down on the floor so that they were on the same level "You look like you've been punched" Draco attempted to joke. How was he supposed to deal with a bunch of obliviated wizards and witches? He had no experience in this area and taking them to St. Mungo's would only raise questions.

"I-I...what on god's earth is happening?" Ginny asked from beside Fred, massaging her temples with her fingers, "It's like one minute I was eating dinner and the next someone hit me on the head with a chair"

"Devil's claw" Mrs. Weasley muttered to herself, weakly lifting her wand and mixing some devil's claw powder into a jug of water. Draco went over to help her, pouring the water into glasses for everyone.

"Do you know what happened?" Draco asked cautiously, handing all of them a glass which they slowly and hesitantly pressed to their lips, unsure of wether to drink.

"Happened? Nothing happened. We were all eating dinner and suddenly, everything blacked out" George spoke from the living room. That's when realisation hit Draco, Adrienne had not only wiped their memories, she had also altered them to make them think that they were doing nothing else except eating a family dinner.

"Dinner you say? Well then it must be rebileef poisoning, you know how those pesky little things can get in your food don't you?" Draco chuckled nervously, trying to think up of any excuse that could make them thing this whole incident was nothing but a severe case of rebileef poisoning, a common kind that occurred in many wizarding households.

"Rebileef poisoning...of course" Mr. Weasley mumbled, "Made us black out..." he said. Draco nodded, holding his arm out for Ginny. She held on to it, lifting herself up "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked.

"Like I said, thought I'd stop by to check on you lot" he shrugged. Ginny looked at him, confused, Draco was the last person who would ever want anything to do with the Weasleys.

"All that doesn't matter though, I was just here to make sure you're all doing alright" Draco asked, biting back the overarching question that was threatening to fall out of his lips: Did they remember Adrienne and Noah?

"We're doing fine, unfortunate Christmas dinner is all" Hermione said with a tone of finality in her voice. She rose from the couch and walked over to Fred "Get up" she ordered. Fred finally snapped back to his senses and grabbed her outstretched hand, pulling himself up.

"Was anyone else here? I feel like we're missing someone" Ron spoke, following Hermione into the living room. Hermione shook her head and so did Ginny, "What are you talking about? It was just us" Ginny scoffed.

"No he's right, someone else was definitely here" Fred spoke finally, his voice raspy from remaining silent the whole time. Draco felt his heart hammer in his chest and he let out another nervous chuckle "The poisoning must have gotten to you the worst, no one else was here Fred" he said.

"No, no, someone was definitely here" Fred mumbled, walking over to the window and peering out of it. Draco mentally scolded Adrienne, she was absolutely terrible at charms. She probably hadn't done it right, which is why Fred had a small inkling that something was wrong.

"Don't be daft, c'mon now, I'll help all of you get sorted and then go back home, it's getting late" Draco hurried them, afraid that they would catch on if they lingered on the situation for too long.

Fred's fingertips lingered on the cool windowpane for a few seconds as he searched for something. Anything. But all he was met with was a thick, white blanket of snow and the twinkling of a lamp in the distance. His hand dropped to his side and he receded into the warmth of the Burrow, all the while feeling uneasy and terribly, terribly lost.

.

"What are you doing on the floor?" Noah asked as he finally got back home at 12:30 AM. Adrienne looked up at him, lips pursed together. Her tears had longed dried on her cheeks and she still wore the same clothes she had worn earlier that morning at The Burrow.

"Nothing" she muttered, getting up from the cold ground. Her entire body had gone rigid and she could barely move, but she had no choice. "Are we going to talk about this? You fucking cheated on me" Noah spat, following her into the bedroom.

"I did. So what? Does it really matter to you? You don't even love me and you're pretending as if you haven't fucked countless girls before" she finally said, she had never confronted him about this before but Draco had ratted Noah out to her once a long time ago.

"That's besides the point" Noah muttered angrily, leaning against the doorframe. But then, his next words surprised her.

"I'm willing to let go of it if you promise never to go back to him again. If you promise that you'll live with me, have my children and continue to be what you are supposed to be - a Davis" he said. Adrienne stared at him, unsure of how to respond. "You promise to never go to him?" he repeated.

"How could I? He's forgotten about me" she whispered.