my best friends brother - fred weasley

lv. aftermath

The hallucinations seem to continue when I wake up, seeing my room. As in the room that I grew up in when I lived with my mother. I lazily drop my head to the side, seeing Fred sitting in the corner of my room, head hung as though he was asleep. I keep looking around the room with my eyes as far open as I can get them, and see Ginny sleeping at the end of the bed. The door to my room slowly creaks open and my mum walks in with three glasses of water. Fred immediately jolts awake, taking all three of the glasses from my mums hands, the mumble to each other, sneaking worried glances my way. Eventually, she purses her lips and closes the door slowly, letting Fred relax the slightest little bit before his attention is turned to me. He quietly makes his way over, sitting next to the bed so that we're face to face.

"Good morning, sunshine." He smiles sadly, placing the glasses on my side table.

"G-" I try to reply but my throat feels like it has been ripped out.

"Don't talk." He hushes me, "You screamed bloody murder for about 5 minutes straight, along with being strangled and attacked. You don't really have a voice at the moment." He explains, seeing my confused look. Ginny rolls over in her sleep at my feet, facing away from us. Feeling useless without my voice, I just stare into his eyes sadly, my bottom lip turning into a pout.

"I'm so sorry I didn't stop you from going, or at least fighting harder to go with you." He brushes the hair out of my eyes and plants a kiss on my forehead. "Hearing what was happening was the worst thing I've experienced, and not being able to do anything I..."

I have to put my hand over his mouth to stop him from rambling apologetically. I try my hardest to communicate through only facial expressions, which seems to work quite well.

"They burned the Burrow down, Bellatrix and Fenrir. Your mum let us stay here for the night before you all go back to Hogwarts. Although, I don't think she wants you to go back. I know, I know. I've been vouching pretty hard for you to go back, I told her about how happy you are there and about all your friends. She's still deciding." He explains for me. my face must've faltered for a second because he began rambling. "Unless you don't want to go back, that's fine I can suggest that. You can stay here and go to a muggle school and everything while this is all happening so you're safe. Or you can come stay at the shop during school if you want, I make a really good apple pie." I have to put my hand over his mouth to stop him from losing his breath. 

"Come here." I whisper as faint as I can so that my throat doesn't burst into flames. I wrap my hands around his neck and pull him into the bed with me, being mindful of how stiff and sore my body was. I hadn't even checked the wounds in my skin, but I assumed they were bad. 

"Muggle rooms are so boring, y'know." He starts talking to himself, taking advantage of how quiet I have to be. "Where's the flavour?" He points to my bare white walls, my room is sparkling clean compared to his. I take the time to admire the way his face lights up when he gets to talk on and on for as long as he wants, how his eyes glance over to me every few sentences to make sure I'm still paying attention. His heartbeat races underneath my hand every time our eyes meet, it's like our first week of dating all over again. I shuffle up to whisper in a rare moment of silence. 

"Did your house burn down or was that a hallucination"

"That was real." 

"How is everyone?"

"They're all okay, no one was really hurt. I mean except for you. Harry and Ginny took on Bellatrix pretty well by themselves, mums still trying to decide if she's upset with them for running out. The house is being fixed up now, should be back within a few days."

"We're really at my house?"

"Yeah, your mum took us in because the shop was too dangerous for us all to be at. She's such a lovely woman." The corners of his lips turn up into a smile. 

"She can be." I mumble back. "I don't want to go back to Hogwarts tomorrow."

"My offer still stands for staying with George and I. Unless you'd rather stay here in your boring muggle room."

"No, I still need to go to school. And I can't just hide from everything going on." 

"You don't need to hide, but you also don't need to literally run into the face of danger and the Cruciatus curse." He pokes fun at my irrationality. 

"Hey!" I defend, my voice hoarse. "If I went out first you would've been right behind me." 

"I should've been." 

⊱✿⊰

The train ride back to Hogwarts was filled with either complete silence, or nervous chatter amongst us. Hermione sat in our compartment this time, feeling guilty about what had happened over Christmas, but we all reminded her countless of time that she didn't need to say sorry or be sad for us. She practised her healing spell on me again, insisting that it was working, but my body still stung all over. 

"Wow Hermione, I can barely feel it at all!" I lied, trying to keep her hopes up, but I couldn't lean back against the seat at all. I planned to sneak into Dumbledore's office and use some help from Forks, if he was still on his sudden vacation. "Harry, do you know if Dumbledore will be back?"

"Probably, I don't know anything about his these days." He shrugs, uncomfortably watching Lavender Brown make eyes at Ron through the window of the compartment. 

"Why don't you break up with her, Ron?" I asked, knowing that neither of the other two would. 

"It's complicated. You can't just dump a girl out of nowhere." He defends himself, keeping the awkward eye contact with Lavender. 

"You can when you hate the girl."

"I don't hate her, she's my girlfriend." He wines, making sure to not look at Hermione directly, who practically has steam coming from her ears. 

"So this is the girl you're going to bring home to your family? To Molly and Arthur? And Ginny and Bill and Fleur and Charlie? I wonder what Fred and George would-" I start talking, trying to diffuse the tension built up, but I only get a laugh from Harry. 

"Of course not, she's just a school girlfriend. I'll break up with her eventually." He shrugs, waving Lavender off.

"Put the poor girl out of her misery, Ron. I thought I raised you better." I turn my nose up slightly at him.