Chéri || Fred Weasley

lxxxvii

Despite how much Alicia, George and Lee pleaded Madeleine, she refused to go to Fred's bachelor party. She spent all of her Friday in the café with Teddy, working on Fred and Angelina's cake though the making of it only made her heart ache even more. Teddy could tell that Maddie was feeling down so while she worked, he was glued to her side, changing his hair color into vibrant shades to try and get her to smile. Saturday night, Andromeda took Teddy back to her house to allow her niece to have some much needed time alone, so that's where the blonde could be found now. Sitting on her couch with Duchess by her side as she read Pride and Prejudice for the hundredth time, wishing deep inside that she could be reading it to Fred instead.

"Hey," Alicia said as she stepped outside from the blonde's fireplace, followed by Lee, George and Lizzie who was holding a large burgundy leather case that looked like a large book.

"Hey? What are you all doing here?" Maddie asked and noticed the melancholic expression in each of their faces.

"We have something, that we need to give you," George cleared his throat.

"Alicia suggested burning it but they aren't our memories, so it's your choice what happens to it," Liz said quietly and handed Maddie the leather book. It was thick and heavy but what caught her eye, were the two letters engraved in the front of it. F&M.

"What is this?" Maddie asked and looked up at them.

"It's a photo album, about you and Fred," George said.

"How?" Maddie frowned.

"When the two of you were distracted we would usually snap pictures and that's how we came up with the idea," Lee sighed.

"We planned," Liz looked at her and took a deep breath. "We thought that in the end it would be you and Fred. That you two would end up getting married so we planned on giving the two of you this on your wedding day, but-"

"But, he's marrying Angelina instead of me so you're giving me this because it's now forever over between us and starting a marriage by keeping a photo album with your ex whatever the fuck we were is not healthy," Maddie said coldly. "Does he know?"

"No," all but Alicia said, the latter who was looking rather resentfully at the rest for dragging her with them.

"Didn't think so," Maddie breathed. "So what do you want me to with this?"

"Like I said, it's your choice what you to with it so we'll leave you to it then," Liz whispered and stood up to apparate along George. Lee disappearing next with Alicia, who refused to meet Madeleine's eyes.

Once they were gone, Maddie looked down to the photo album in her hands and delicately traced the engraved letters before opening it. It was all there. Madeleine and Fred's love story narrated in moving photographs. It was all there. Her eyes scanned through each page, remembering the conversations with him, the lingering glances and subtle touches when they were still keeping their love a secret of their own. All of the stolen kisses, all of the nights out together and the nights cuddled in his bed back at school. She couldn't breathe. Her lungs felt as if they were on fire as she passed through the pages faster and her eyes settled on a picture the night of Fred's eighteenth birthday.

They were dancing in the middle of a London street, laughing after getting their tattoos of each other inked in their skin. The picture moved again and Fred spun an eighteen year old Maddie before pressing his lips with her with a wide grin on his face. She let out the breath she didn't know she was holding and didn't notice the silent tears leaving her eyes. Tear drop stains were now imprinted on the pages as she scanned the pictures once more and she felt angrier than she had felt in a while. She took a large blanket that was on the basket next to the couch, grabbed the photo album and apparated to the twins' flat where all of her friends were but Fred, luckily.