Kiara Cartier (Fred Weasley Love Series)

Ch. 3: Fears

"Kiara Cartier."

Chapter 3: Fears

The next two days were tense for everyone at the Burrow. Mad-Eye's death hung over everyone's heads like a thick fog after a terrible storm. Mrs Weasley's and Fleur's eyes were red and puffy while Hermione and Ginny had purple circles under their eyes. The next morning after the mission at breakfast, no one spoke or said a word. Kiara opened her mouth a few times to make conversation but she decided against it, realising that everyone needed their personal time to grieve.

Fred immediately began to regret his decision to stay at the Burrow once he gathered their clothes and items and brought them over that day. While George was ordered to rest and take it easy, Fred and Kiara were busy with chores and preparations for the wedding that they barely had time to spend alone together. Although the work was exhausting, it was nothing in comparison with the errands that Mrs Weasley delivered upon Harry, Ron and Hermione. They were long and tedious with an underlying motive that prevented the trio from speaking closely with each other and possibly, delaying them from leaving if they couldn't plan their mission to find the horcruxes. From this, Kiara realised that Mrs Weasley wasn't aware that Kiara may be joining them or that she had any idea at all what they were up too, as Kiara assisted Harry, Ron and Hermione separately with certain tasks. It is possible that she presumed Kiara would stay with Fred and George instead. Ultimately, Kiara was grateful that Mrs Weasley hadn't cornered her and interrogated her about the trio's task.

The Burrow was filled with people over the next few days, particularly as Fred, George and Kiara were now staying there until after the wedding. In addition however, they were often joined by other Order members for dinner now, because the Burrow replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. After Dumbledore died who was the original SecretKeeper, the SecretKeeper responsibility changed to be shared between each of the people to whom Dumbledore confided Grimmauld Place's location. It created a greater danger as it increased the possibility of the Death Eaters getting the secret out of somebody.

"Honestly, it's so obvious that they're up to something, isn't it?" Fred muttered to Kiara one night during dinner. They were watching Harry, Hermione and Ron sitting at opposite ends of the table; strategically placed by Mrs Weasley so that they couldn't secretly converse. The trio exchanged looks every so often, hoping they were discreet but they weren't. "They should try and hide it better."

"They're acting a bit 'eerie', hey?" George nodded on the other side of Kiara with a cheeky wink. Fred and Kiara smirked slightly into their dinner.

"There isn't really any shortage on these ear jokes, are there?" Kiara said, amused. George looked slightly ridiculous with his head half bandaged, looking like a living mummy. She tried pointing that out to him earlier that day, but George couldn't comprehend why he would look like a mother.

"While you've been helping mum with the big list of stuff that she wants you to do every day, I've been coming up with a few more. Being seriously injured has given me a lot of free time," George shrugged, smiling widely. "It's open up my schedule nice and wide."

"Seriously injured or mentally deranged?" Fred muttered darkly.

"Could you repeat that for me, Fred?" George asked, pointing at the side of his head where his ear should be. "I can't hear you, I've lost an ear."

Kiara covered her grin with her hand, realising that it wasn't an appropriate time to laugh as the conversation at the dinner table changed to Mad-Eye and their failed attempts to recover his body, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle. As such, they were unable to hold a funeral for him.