An Affair to Remember (Fred Weasley)

49) Stuck

Everything could have been perfect. It really could have. But the more Fred stayed in Adrienne's arms, the more he began to remember. Little things started coming back to him, fluttering back to his mind where they belonged. One would've expected him to be excited, overjoyed even, to be reunited with the love of his life. 

But that was not the case.

Because the more he remembered, the more angry he started to feel. The woman he had trusted with all of his heart had snatched away something of utmost importance from him, his memory. His memory. Adrienne's arms around him started to feel more like a trap than exultation. He felt his breath leaving his chest again, his hands starting to shake, tears brimming in the corners of his eyes and he knew then that things could never be the same.

"Wait..." Fred said, slowly pulling himself away from her.

"Fred?" she spoke, confused. Fred pried herself free from his embrace, slightly falling backwards. Adrienne gazed at him worriedly. Fred shakily stood up on his feet and Adrienne followed, but Fred took a few steps away from her, as if trying to distance himself from her.

"Fred? What's wrong?" Adrienne asked, unsure of wether to stay in her place or not. By the look on Fred's face, she decided to stay put, but she couldn't help the feeling of her heart beating out of her chest, as if something bad was about to happen.

"I can't...I can't do this" he murmured, "I can't"

"Can't do what?" Adrienne's lip quivered. Today had been emotionally tolling and to deal with an entire situation as complicated as this seemed out of the question. But she had no choice but to face it because she was the one who had caused it.

"Whatever the hell this is, you-you expect me to just be okay with this?" he said, his voice raising by a few decibels. He was looking at everything else but her, as if he was trying to find a way to get out of the hallway. Adrienne knew him well enough to realise that he might be panicking.

"Fred I don't understand, you were okay just a few minutes ago-"

"Well now I'm not, okay? I'm not even a little okay! What the fuck is happening anyway? A woman who I didn't know just a few days ago suddenly appears out of nowhere after stealing my memory from me? I can barely even figure out when I last got a good nights sleep, forget the last time I felt at peace because of all the nightmares. And then this..." Fred blabbered, pacing the hallway up and down.

Tears slipped down Adrienne's cheeks, her hands twitching by her sides, aching to calm Fred down. But she knew that she was the last person who could do so because she was the reason he was behaving like this in the first place. "I-I know I was in the wrong but can we just talk about this please?"

Fred furrowed his eyebrows "Talk-TALK ABOUT THIS? You've got to be kidding me, there's nothing to talk about. You lied to me"

"I didn't lie to you, I just chose to protect you from all the shit that went down in my life!" Adrienne protested.

"I don't need protection! I'm old enough to handle my problems very well on my own, I don't need you doing that for me" Fred spat, his hands fisting by his sides, a tell-tale sign that his anger was going to get out of control.

"This wasn't just any problem, this had to do with the safety of your family" Adrienne said quietly.

"My family, of course, the family whose memory you fucking wiped out too. None of them remember a single thing and who's to blame for that? Huh? You left all of us in the dark Adrienne, do you even know how it feels to be clueless about a huge, missing chunk of your life suddenly starts to worm its way back out of nowhere?" Fred yelled, he was getting out of breath, his ears turning red, his skin warm.

Adrienne tried not to think about how she missed her name falling from his lips and focussed on how to solve their fight. But Fred was in no state to have a meaningful conversation, "What do you want me to do now? What's done is done I can't undo it can I?" Adrienne asked, starting to get slightly angry herself.

"I don't expect you to do anything, I just want to go, there's nothing we can do about this" Fred said, after a few moments of heated silence.

Adrienne's heart thumped in her chest at his words, "You mean, you just want to forget this whole thing? Get on with life?" she asked.

"Yes, but get on with life...alone"

There it was, what she had been fearing all along. "You mean you just want to throw away everything and pretend that whatever happened between us didn't even exist?

Fred raised his eyebrows "You're one to fucking talk seeing as you did exactly that"

"Fred you can't be serious, we can sort this out. I'm not asking you to get back together with me but I just want to be on good terms, on the same page!"

"We're far past that stage, there's nothing we can do now"

"Yes there is-"

"No there isn't! I-I'm going to go now, I've to be back before everyone starts getting worried" he replied, dusting his trousers before turning around on his heels, heading out of the lodge and disappearing from her sight.

Tears streamed down Adrienne's face, she didn't have any right to stop him because she was the one who had completely messed up his life. She deserved every bit of his anger and she didn't blame him for all the nasty words he had said to her.

Her back slumped against the wall as she slid down it, her face finding its place in her hands as a sob rattled through her. She was losing him...for the third time in her life, and there was nothing she could do about it. 

But suddenly, she was interrupted with footsteps sounding in the lodge again. "I-I can't leave" Fred's voice sounded in the hallway.

Adrienne looked up, quickly wiping her tears, "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Because there's no fucking portkey" Fred grumbled, "How the hell am I supposed to get out of here without a portkey? I can't possibly apparate such a long distance"

Adrienne stood there quietly, fiddling with her fingers. "Well?" Fred asked impatiently.

"Well...I can't acquire a portkey until at least a week because according the the letter I got from the Ministry, you booked a stay in my lodge for three weeks. I'm going to need a week to make an enquiry to the Ministry to grant you and I an early portkey out of here" Adrienne said quickly.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me" Fred yelled in exasperation, "Is there really no other way out of here?"

"Unless you're willing to walk ninety miles, no, you're stuck here for the next week"

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A/N: Here's a short chapter to get you started, I'm so glad you guys are on board with the idea of me adding more chapters to this book...for the second time