Thick and Thin • a Fred Weasley Story •

Through Thick and Thin

Only moments after Harry had left, Taylor walked into the courtyard to see her best friend crumbled upon the ground, sobs heaving her chest on the cold, dirty stone.

She had rushed over to Lydia, wrapping her arms around the girl and slowly lifting her off the ground, clutching the side of her head and engulfing her in her arms. Lydia felt broken as she was guided back to the Great Hall, tears falling from her eyes like a broken water pipe that no one can fix.

Watching Harry walk to his death shattered every part of Lydia.

He was destined to die, in only minutes, he was bound to... there is no possible way he can stand up to Voldemort himself alone. He's going to die and Lydia could do nothing to stop him.

For what feels like a century, Lydia is curled in Fred's arm on one of the long benches in the Great Hall, attempting to put an end to her tears but failing. Eventually, her eyes dry and she's left feeling nothing.

As she sits with Fred, wrapped in his arms, Lydia's mind weakly flickers to the moments she shared with Harry, making the pain all the more worse...

The way he smiled at her when she said he believed him three years ago.

The laughs they shared teaching Dumbledore's Army.

The second she stood up beside him at Slughorn's dinner party, just to make sure he wasn't embarrassed to do it alone in front of his crush.

The time he curled himself in her arms when Voldemort was fighting the Headmaster, how he felt clutching her as they held each other close.

The times she made him smile when he felt all alone.

The tears don't stop leaking out of the corners of Lydia's eyes as Fred holds her close, the sounds of grieving friends and Argus Filch sweeping up the rocky remains of the Great Hall seeming to be incredibly drowned out by Lydia's pain.

After a while, Lydia hears something in the distance, the distinct sounds of many approaching the castle... she lifts her head from Fred arms.

Finding herself standing without really knowing why, Lydia looks to the open entrance of the Great Hall. Many around her are doing the same, beginning to walk towards the noise. Ginny is at the front, looking distraught as she has no idea where Harry went.

Lydia and Fred walk side by side all the way to the doors of the Hall and past them, all the way into the courtyard with every Hogwarts survivor following close behind.

When Lydia is standing in the broken remains of the courtyard, right behind Neville and Ginny, she sees Hagrid. He's holding someone, limp, draping in his large arms, and leading the army of death eaters along with Voldemort himself.

"Who is that?" Lydia hears Ginny say in a desperate voice. "Hagrid's carrying? Neville, who is it?"

Lydia cannot make out the face of the body in Hagrid's arms, but she doesn't need to.

She feels Fred's hand slip into hers at her side.

Voldemort's taunting, ringing voice echoes in the courtyard.

"Harry Potter... is dead!"

"NO!" Ginny shrieks, running forward. "NO!"

Arthur grabs his daughter and pulls her back as Voldemort twists around and spits, "Silence!"

Everything in Lydia seems to crumble right in that moment.

Everything that, before, was only cracked, edging on collapse, breaks completely with Lord Voldemort's words.