The Lost Witch | Fred Weasley

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

We were leaving Charms class on Tuesday when Fred noticed it. All us girls and the three boys were leaving the classroom and headed for lunch as a group when Fred reached for my hand to hold it.

I winced and pulled away as his fingers brushed the back of my hand. I quickly tried to act like nothing happened, but he had noticed.

He looked down at my hand and grabbed my elbow, stopping me in my tracks. The group behind us stopped too, forcing other students to walk around us.

"What happened to your hand?" he questioned, reaching for it.

"Oh, nothing. I cut it in Herbology yesterday. Come on, I'm starving." I tried to get us to move, but he grabbed my upper arm pulling me back the step I just took and turned me towards him.

"You forget, I'm the smart one. George's the thick one," he nodded sideways at his brother. "Hey!" George let out in a highly offended tone.

"But... you didn't cut yourself in Herbology yesterday. Your hand was fine after class," Angelina stated, confused. Never should've partnered with someone as observant as Angelina. Everyone turned to me as I rolled my eyes. Damn. These people see me much too often.

Fred reached down and gently grabbed my wrist and the tip of my fingers, lifting my hand up for him to inspect.

"It looks really irritated. Did you burn it?" he asked as he inspected the damage, the others getting closer too.

"Wait, your hand does look like it's been cut but it's already healed. Although it looks too irritated to be a regular cut," Angelina mused studying it.

"What the hell happened?" Fred questioned looking at me instead of my hand now.

I groaned loudly, throwing my head back. "Ugh! You people are way too invested in my life. I think we need some distance from each other, we have a very unhealthy relationship," I joked making Lee and Amelia chuckle. Lucy merely gave me a stern look, telling me she wouldn't distract so easily.

"What. Happened?" Fred asked again in a gentle, but firm voice. I looked directly at him, blocking out the others when I finally answered, "Detention."

"Huh?" went through the group. "What do you mean detention? You cut yourself while writing lines?" I laughed bitterly at George's question.

"In a way, yeah. You see Dolores Umbridge has this unique method of punishment called, 'torturing children'," I rolled my eyes, still laughing at the irony of the line she made me carve into my own hand. If this didn't count as violence in her books, what the hell did she think I did to Draco?

Everyone's eyes went wide. I held up my hand and let Fred inspect it closer. His eyes turned dark and thunderous. "She made you write 'I must not resort to violence', while violently carving said message into your hand?" he asked, his voice level. Intimidatingly level. Quite hot actually.

Alicia was covering her mouth with her hands and Amelia had tears in her eyes. George looked about ready to go find her and beat her up worse than he did Malfoy, Lucy ready to join him, while the others gaped at me.

I turned back to Fred, gently poking his stomach with my finger. "Come on, Sweet Pea. Even you can't laugh at the irony in that," I chuckled.

But he didn't laugh with me. He didn't even crack a smile as I tried to lighten the mood. His jaw was set so tightly I could imagine the sound if his teeth grinding, his expression unreadable. I turned to the others for help but none of them wanted to help me lift the tension either.

With an annoyed huff, I headed for the Great Hall again, this time, no one stopping me.

I sat down beside Ginny and had started to get myself some food when they all came rushing in after me for part two of the conversation.