Decree No.29 (O.C) Fred Weasley/ Draco Malfoy

Fire & Rain Part Two

"Okay, this is what's going to happen," Fred told her firmly, rain pellets running down his hair and nose, "I'm going to stand here, and you're going to talk. You'll tell me everything that's been going on with you. I'm not going to react. I'm just going to listen. But if I catch on for one moment that you're not telling me the whole truth, I'll walk away and never speak to you again. I'm serious, Jess. This is the last time I'm asking."

Jessica stared at him in the cold and wet, prepared for the moment she thought would never come. It was frightening, perhaps the most scared she had ever felt. But she had to tell him. They couldn't go on like this.

And so...she told him everything. Every event, every sidetrack, every little detail she could remember. Right from the beginning, when she and her aunt are attacked, and straight through to what Dumbledore had just gotten her to agree to with Umbridge and Azkaban.

She talked for an hour straight, and Fred just listened the whole time. He kept to his word and didn't react or interrupt to ask questions. All he did was sit down on a bench so that he could support himself from shock. By the time she had finished, the rain had ended, and Fred was crouching over with his face in his hands.

If she'd have known any better, she would've thought he had wanted to scream.

"Please say something," Jessica begged quietly. She had never been more worried to find out what someone thought about her, and she wanted to hear another voice besides her own. Her mouth was dry from lack of saliva.

Fred sat there silent for a minute more and then rubbed his face harshly, prompting him to sit up as red a tomato. "This necklace," he said dully, purposely looking down and avoiding her gaze, "how do you get it off?"

"Sacrificing my life for someone else," she answered. It was amazing how easy it was to tell him the truth now, and she was just happy that he had spoken at all. "That's the closest thing Bill and Tonks could find, but to be honest after repeating everything like that, I'm starting to think that's the worst-case scenario. That would kill me and leave the necklace for him to take. At least if it's on me I can control it."

Fred's shoulders lowered with a thud and his palms turned inwards into a prayer position. His head collided with them a few times as he took in his new information and Jessica watched on nervously as he became more and more agitated, muttering to himself under his breath.

"Right."

Fred stood up with determination and started walking back down the courtyard towards the Black Lake.

"Fred?" Jessica called out nervously.

When he didn't answer, she ran to him, and after catching up, her worst fear was confirmed. He was angry.

Really angry.

"I knew there was something about you," Fred muttered as he picked up a pebble from the cobbles below his feet. He threw it far into the lake with power. "I should've known from the start when I found out you had read muggle books...and that night in London. I ignored so many things just because it was you!"

"I know, I'm sorry, I lied," Jessica apologised, her breath quickening as the overwhelming anxiety that she might have just lost Fred hit her body. "I didn't have a choice...but just stay here. I can explain more."

She reached for his arm but he jumped away from her, not wanting to be touched, the single act pushing a dagger through her heart.

"That school you said you went to before as well," Fred continued as he turned towards the extended grounds. "I looked up Cambridge and saw it was a muggle university. I just assumed you went there when you were younger because you were a genius or something and your parents wanted you to have a muggle education!"