The Chaser : A Fred Weasley Fan Fic

Thirty Five: Nonsense

There was no end of year party. No celebration to mark the end of the tournament. It felt as though one moment we were at Hogwarts and the next we weren't.

Even the journey on the Hogwarts express was docile. Fred and George didn't set off fireworks down the corridor or try to charm the woman that pushed the trolley into giving them free sweets. We simply sat in our carriage in silence.

Leaving Fred for the summer was far harder than it had been the previous year. For the first time ever I felt sick to my stomach at the sight of my mother waiting for me at the station. I wanted to go to The Burrow. I wanted to be surrounded by magic and Fred and his family. I wanted know he was safe.

After Cedric, there wasn't a moment that I could rest. I'd had incessant dreams of him every night the first week I was home. His face would swirl and distort. His calming voice would echo, staying the same things I'd heard all before. Nothing new. Because there would never be anything new from him. Cedric was gone.

Being muggles, my parents didn't understand. A boy had died in the care of the school, so the school was to blame in their eyes.

"A tournament?" my father blustered over dinner my second week home, "Well what did they expect? Putting children in danger like that. It would never happen here"

I felt more estranged from them than ever. Even Alfie, who'd returned home from university for the summer, didn't understand why I ever wanted to go back.

One balmy evening, he perched beside me on the small window seat in my bedroom, just watching me as I gazed aimlessly at the stars, hoping to see a glimmer of something other than the boring street lamps outside.

"Did you know him?" Alfie asked quietly.

"Yes"

"Were you close?"

"At one point, I suppose" I shrugged. I couldn't put it into words, not to my older brother.

"I'm sorry," he sighed, bringing his knees up to his chin, "Don't go back Till"

"I have to"

"You don't. You could go to another one"

"There isn't another one" I cut, trying to keep my temper, "Besides, it's not the school's fault"

He sat in silence until the sun began to come up and finally slunk to his own bedroom. I felt powerless here. As though the entire magical world didn't exist when I was back in my bedroom in North London.

I was of age to now to perform magic outside of school, but I barely got a chance to practice with my wand or use my broomstick without somebody seeing. My Quidditch skills would be rusty as ever after all these months not playing and worst of all, Fred hadn't replied to a single letter. My owl would come and go, leaving with a letter and returning with an empty beak.

"What's the matter?" I cooed, stroking the owl's head.

The owl nestled her head into my palm reassuringly as if to tell me that Fred had been getting my letters, but sometimes I wondered if I just imagined it. It was more likely that she was only doing it to get more treats. Even knowing that he was getting my letters and not writing back was heartbreaking in itself.

It was becoming unbearable.

In the middle of July, there was a day where the sun had become so overwhelmingly hot that there was  nothing else to do but lounge in the garden.

Laying in the sun, feeling the rays on my skin, was the only thing that seemed to make me forget about everything happening at Hogwarts. So I relished in it. Taking my books to study out with me as I lay stretched on a sun lounger between the overgrown grass.