Decree No.29 (O.C) Fred Weasley/ Draco Malfoy

The Letters Of Pursuit

Considering how the Christmas break had started, Jessica's last day of it was rather enjoyable. She had many more visitors than usual, with about half of Grimmauld Place knocking on her door when the rest of the Order wasn't looking.

First was Molly and Arthur, who came in at 10 am with some fresh biscuits and questions about calculators, respectively, then Kreacher knocked in around lunchtime to ask if he could dust all of her new jewellery as a treat at 2 o'clock. Bill apparated in, carrying a small number of gold ships that he had taken out of her aunt's vault for her, and then finally, Ginny came running in late in the afternoon, hoping to discuss a relationship issue she was having with her boyfriend, Michael Corner.

Jessica tried to tell her that she was probably not the best person to ask for advice, but all Ginny wanted was someone to listen to her who wasn't her brother.

Her last visit of the day was from Tonks, who came into her room whilst the others were having dinner. Jessica had already finished her Shepherd's Pie by then and was feeling a bit restless with the anticipation of returning to Hogwarts, so Tonks suggested they have some fun. She took Jessica up to the attic and taught her a few jinxes that could come in handy when dealing with Umbridge, which was a bit dangerous considering Jessica had already changed into a blue silk nightdress that exposed most of her skin. Still, luckily, she didn't get hurt.

After a bit of running around, Jessica asked if she knew any spells that could create pretend scars on people. Surprisingly, Tonks did, so she taught Jessica to use them on Neville and Luna when saving them from detention. After Ginny's admission, Jessica couldn't have her plan given away by Neville, who had no markings on him.

By the time Jessica got back to her room, she was exhausted. Being isolated made her forget how tiring being around people all day was. It was a good tired, but draining, and now she just wanted to go to bed and sleep the hours away.

She opened the door to her bedroom with little strength and went to stumble in, but she stopped in the doorway after seeing that somebody was already sitting on her bed. It was Fred, dressed in the same black jumper he had been wearing all day when playing quidditch with the boys, and from the noise she could hear from downstairs, he had come up much earlier than everyone else.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, trying to hide her nervousness. After days of being ignored, she was finally going to get answers, but now she was finding herself not really wanting any. When she was tired, she was never very good at putting the right words together, and one wrong word would tick him off.

Fred stared at the floor, avoiding her eyes, and pulled out the Polaroid image they had taken at Trafalgar Square from his front pocket. "I came to give you this," he said dully as he held it out to her, his eyes glazing over in thought. "I did the Gemini charm on it, so you had a copy, too. I thought you might have appreciated a delivery in person."

He was acting a little weird, almost upset to be there, so Jessica reached out to take it from him tentatively. As she was about to hold it, Fred flicked it onto the bed with little care, causing the mild smile on her face to vanish.

"Are you okay?" Jessica asked him, picking up on the fact that he clearly wasn't.

Fred pouted tactlessly and finally looked up at her with piercing eyes while reaching into his back pocket. Jessica was a little uncomfortable meeting his sight as he was angry about something to be this quiet. Fred Weasley was never quiet.

He did not remove eye contact with her as he drew out a large stack of parchments folded over in size. As she looked downwards at his hand, Jessica recognised the parchment immediately and her heart started beating faster out of anxiousness. She side-eyed her pillow, and unfortunately, as it was emptied, her hunch was correct.