Chéri || Fred Weasley

lxxiv

Madeleine had been stuck in time since seeing Fred that chilly mid-January afternoon. Even though she had to pretend for his and her sake, the blonde could feel a little bit of light creeping into her tarnished soul. After all, he was her sun, he was her light and she would get out for him. The time was not right yet and it was only a matter of time when she would be given a task to perform on her own or with at least two companions that she could easily get rid off. It ignited something in her, knowing that by this point, it was only a matter of time until she got out.

There were only a couple of things that Maddie had to worry before coming up with a strategy to escape. Number one, being that when she did, all of her family would become a target; meaning that the death eaters could easily get to Clotilde at Hogwarts. Clotilde, that was the first time in months she thought about her sister and it only pushed the need to escape further. Number two, she had to think about the Weasleys' safety because they were her second family and there was no way in hell she would ever put them in danger.

Patience was never Madeleine's strong suit but right now, it would give her an advantage so after much consideration, she begrudgingly agreed with herself to wait a while longer. She was sitting in her dark bedroom, an imperturbable charm around the room as she secretly listened to Potterwatch. Hearing Lee's voice always brought a nostalgic smile to her face. She truly missed him as much as she missed Liz, Alicia and George.

Time stopped all of a sudden when she heard Lee's sad voice from the small radio Kreacher had brought the first day she was captured. "But before we hear from Royal and Romulus, let's take a moment to report those deaths that the Wizarding Wireless Network News and Daily Prophet don't think important enough to mention. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell."

Her heart dropped as she heard Lee mentioning that her uncle, kind and caring Ted Tonks had died. Or murdered, more like it. Madeleine swallowed hard and zoomed out for the time being, only thinking about her aunt and her pregnant cousin who were now all alone. Who now knew that pain she had felt when she lost her father. She felt angry as silent tears ran down her cheeks and in that moment, the darkness returned to her as she vowed internally to make the one who killed her uncle pay. The voice she longed to hear snapped her from the dark thoughs her mind was circling and with tear stained cheeks, she smiled at the sound of Fred.

"'Rodent'?" he said indignantly and she could pitcure the scowl on his face. "I'm not being 'Rodent,' no way, I told you I wanted to be 'Rapier'!"

"Oh, all right then. 'Rapier,' could you please give us your take on the various stories we've been hearing about the Chief Death Eater?" Lee said and the blonde could also see him rolling his eyes by the tone he was using.

"Yes, River, I can," Fred said as Maddie closes her eyes to imagine as if he was in the room only talking to her. "As our listeners will know, unless they've taken refuge at the bottom of a garden pond or somewhere similar, You Know Who's strategy of remaining in the shadows is creating a nice little climate of panic. Mind you, if all the alleged sightings of him are genuine, we must have a good nineteen You-Know-Whos running around the place."

"Which suits him, of course," said Kingsley. "The air of mystery is creating more terror than actually showing himself."

"Agreed," Fred said. "So people, let's try and calm down a bit. Things are bad enough without inventing stuff as well. For instance, this new idea that You Know Who can kill with a single glance from his eyes. That's a basilisk, listeners. One simple test: Check wether the thing that's glaring at you has got legs. If it has, it's safe to look into its eyes, although if it really is You Know Who, that's still likely to be the last thing you ever do." Maddie chuckled and couldn't help to miss him even more. Missing his good jokes, his bad jokes that also made her laugh. His laugh when she laughed at one of his jokes or bad pick up lines.