Kiara Cartier (Fred Weasley Love Series)

Ch. 16: Dinner at the Burrow

"Kiara Cartier."

Chapter 16: Dinner at the Burrow

During the next few days after Kiara and Fred went to the cinemas for their date, Kiara began to notice something strange as she worked in the day at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Personally, she wondered if she was being more sceptical than usual since they were followed by an unknown person but she couldn't help but notice that there were an increased amount of Death Eater patrols in Diagon Alley and less of a presence from the Snatchers. Even more worryingly, Kiara felt as if they were glancing in the direction of the store much more often than before, particularly at her when she stared outside the main window. It made her doubt her secret identity, making her wonder if they knew somehow. But, if they did, they wouldn't wait around for her. They would've come for her by now.

She expressed her concerns to Fred and George after the first few times, who were yet to notice this at all. They both knew that Kiara was under an overwhelming amount of stress and mutually believed that she was being paranoid. They didn't share this thought with her however, especially Fred who didn't want her to think that he didn't believe her. Realistically, he believed his girlfriend but he didn't think that the Death Eaters were more suspicious of Aria Cartier than before.

They didn't have any reason to be suspicious of her.

"Fred, I think I need to move to the backroom for a while," Kiara admitted in a low voice on a Monday afternoon behind the curtain to the back room, after catching a Death Eater staring at her while she served a customer. When she attempted to discreetly wave Fred over to see the same, the Death Eater had moved along and vanished from their spot. "I can't keep working on the shop floor. I'm constantly looking over my shoulder out this window and they're staring at me. I'm sorry for making you shorter during work hours but it's driving me insane and I can't... I can't even..."

"Hey, it's okay," Fred said quietly, hugging her. "Of course you can work in here, especially if it will make you feel better. George and I were thinking that we should consider hiring an extra in the near future anyway. We have the Christmas holidays coming up, which means we'll have some Hogwarts students back again for shopping, as well as people coming in to buy Christmas presents."

"As long as it isn't another Verity," Kiara muttered darkly, making Fred chuckle.

"I will make sure that you meet whoever we interview before we hire them," Fred assured Kiara, kissing her softly. "And, then if they turn out like Verity, it won't be completely my fault."

"I knew you had an underlying motive," Kiara rolled her eyes, shrugging off her magenta robes since she was working in the back room from now on.

"We have dinner at the Burrow tonight as well, so we'll be leaving once we close the store. Mum and Dad want to see us, since we haven't been for a while." Kiara nodded in response and began sorting through the packaged boxes and pulling out products which needed to be restocked on the shelves. "So, I'll see you in about three hours. Just call me if you need anything, I'll come running."

Kiara rolled her eyes and began humming inattentively, turning her attention back to the products and magicking them to their rightful spot on the shelves. For the remainder of her shift, she felt slightly calmer than before. She didn't feel as if a constant sinister pair of eyes were watching her every move, although the anxieties were still playing on her mind. She didn't feel exposed or that her disguise was at risk of being torn apart and unravelled. Several times, Fred peered into the back room to check on her, unknown to Kiara. He was pleased to see that she was smiling to herself, singing some random tune or humming quietly under her breath. It had been days since he'd seen her act so calmly, and he knew that moving her to work in the back room was a good decision.