[on hold] 𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐓&𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐍 → 𝑓. 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

xi . blinded

chapter eleven
BLINDED

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   HE WAS close, so close to her, that all he needed to have done would have been closing that breath of a gap still remaining between the two of them. His mind was screaming for it, his heart close to bursting. Just a small move ... A tiny little move ... Fred felt Ruby shiver, and he closed his eyes ...

   Even through his eyelids he could see the bright green light, so he snapped his eyes open, jerking back, as Ruby flinched, her head jerking around to face the sky above them, her lips parted. Fred followed her gaze and the racing of his heart increased, forgotten was his daydream about her Ruby's soft lips on his just for one more time.

   Emerald green had drenched the night in light; a skull painted high above them into the starry sky, and the stars around it had gone blind. The skull's eyes were gleaming blood red, and in that moment Fred began to realise what he was facing, it opened its mouth, a snake winding out instead of a tongue.

   "What in the name of great Helga Hufflepuff is this?", Ruby breathed, her eyes still locked with the skull's red gleaming ones.

   Fred had never seen it in real life, but he exactly knew what it was. He had heard about it a lot when he was younger, and in this very moment he had no doubt about the meaning of this threat hanging above their heads. With a shiver running down his spiney he turned his neck, scanning the forest around them. Though the skull had lifted the darkness still long shadows were spreading beneath the trees surrounding them. Fred felt the tiny hair on his arms raising in fear of what was luring in the dark, aiming for Ruby, the muggle-born. The target.

   The crack of a twig made him grasp Ruby's hand, and her eyes locked with his.

   "We should leave", he said, trying to sound calm. She stared back at him like a shy deer in the headlights.

   "Don't you think we should wait for your dad or ... or anyone?"

   "Anyone is exactly the reason why we should leave", Fred denied her suggestion. "Ruby, do you know what this is?" He nodded up at the skull above them.

   Ruby shrugged. "I first thought it were the Leprechauns, but they wouldn't have people panicking like that, I guess."

   "It is the Dark Mark", Fred said, feeling the muscles in his jaw tightening. They were wasting time. "You-Know-Who's sign. Dad had told us about it. He and his folks had conjured it whenever they had murdered." 

   He didn't intend to scare her even more, but by the look upon his face, he had done exactly that. The green light was giving her pale face a frightening touch, making her look like a corpse, and Fred's stomach rebelled by this thought, turning and twisting painfully.