𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 | f. w

xxxiii. unhinged

chapter thirty-three
UNHINGED

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a/n: this chapter will jump between past/present a lot. be mindful of that as well as the overall dark themes displayed.

» » FRED WENT STRAIGHT back to the flat after figuring out where Edith might have been taken to. The others had been impatiently waiting for him to come back ever since they got back from their own search party. Fred was livid, to say the least, he wanted them to apparate to Malfoy Manor directly.

"What are we waiting for?! We know where she's been taken! Let's go!", he shouted, grabbing his wand. In that moment, he wasn't thinking straight. He would've done anything to get her back, even risk his own neck going in without so much as a rescue plan.

"Hold on a minute", Ravi spoke up, seemingly the most rational of the bunch. "We can't just go waltzing in without a proper plan. It'll be a suicide mission. We need to figure something out first."

"Okay. What do you propose we do?", Fred huffed annoyingly. He knew that every second spent talking about it, was another second spent just wasting time. Edith was taken--possibly kidnapped and tortured--and here they all were, doing small talk. "We are just wasting time here. Merlin knows what he's doing to her", he sobbed. He was still crying, his eyes bloodshot and puffy from the tears.

No one uttered a thing. Instead, they all suffered in silence, contemplating ways of rescuing her. Nothing that came to mind, however, seemed nearly good enough. They had to do this right, there was no saying what could go wrong if they just let each of their hearts decide.

The crack of someone apparating filled the air, and the group found themselves surprised to see Charlie and Florin appear in the flat.

"We have a plan", Charlie stated half confidently. Fred raised a brow. He couldn't grasp how fast they both had gotten the information of Edith being taken. He had only a day ago written to his big brother, pouring his heart out as the tears leaked onto the paper.

✦✧✦

Edith slept through the first night without even the smallest of nightmares. Perhaps it had to do with how exhausted she felt, or she was simply lucky. Whatever the reason was, Fred found himself letting out a deep breath of relief at seeing her sleeping soundly. He kept guard by her side through most of the night, making sure to keep somewhat of a distance to not scare her, should she wake up. He wanted to remain by her side, keep careful watch over her. He'd do anything to keep from something like this ever happening to her again. He'd be damned if she had to go through such a thing a second time.

✦✧✦

The next couple of weeks proved to be more difficult than the group could ever guess. Al though Edith slept through the first night back, she quickly found herself grasping at straws when it came to her own sanity. She barely ate, stopped talking, and the nightmares started plaguing her mind. The others—particularly Fred—-tried their outmost to comfort her, but nothing seemed to work. She was falling apart at the seams, and all they could do was watch,

Still, the worst of days was yet to come.

It was an otherwise quiet Thursday, and Fred was busy tending to the shop, while Ravi (who had taken over Edith's position as Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts while she was recovering from what happened) was at work, and Florin and Charlie were off doing God knows what. Charlie had come back for the time being, living in a shared flat with Florin. They all needed to be by Edith's side while she was going through this, and that meant staying as close to her as possible.

"Edith, love—are you up?", Fred asked carefully, opening the door to her bedroom slightly, carrying a tray of breakfast food in his hands. He had been trying to make sure she would at least get some nutrition in her system, reminding her several times throughout the day to eat.

"I'm not hungry", the girl spoke from underneath the covers. She had spent weeks just lying in bed, either looking at the ceiling quietly or sobbing her eyes out. The latter would happen often. Too often to count.

"Come on, darling. You gotta eat—", the ginger persisted, groaning as he saw Edith turn her back to him, ignoring his pleads.

"Just leave me alone, will you? I don't need you to feel sorry for me."

"Ed—"

"JUST GO!", she screamed into the pillow, starling the ginger. "I SAID GET OUT!", she yelled loudly, sobs escaping her mouth as she trembled, her body shaking.

Fred was absolutely heartbroken. He wanted nothing more than to take the pain Edith was experiencing and relieve her from it, even it that meant taking it for himself. He couldn't stand to see her so broken—so utterly terrified—-panic displayed on her face. She was hurting, and he felt useless. So useless that when he finished in the shop for the day and went to go to sleep, he'd usually fall asleep sobbing. He just couldn't take the pain of knowing how much he loved her, and how little he could do to help her. It broke him from inside, it broke his heart knowing someone made her that way.

✦✧✦

"We have a plan"

'The plan' wasn't so much a foolproof plan as it was an ginormous risk. Charlie and Florin had come up with the brilliant idea that they would try and lure Lucius Malfoy from the manor using Polyjuice Potion. Violet, being the only female of the four, would go in, looking like Rosalind Gannon, and flirt with him so that the others could get in and grab Edith without him knowing. It was a risk, in no way a foolproof plan, but it was the only one they had.

"You ready?", Charlie asked Violet for the third time, making sure she was truly okay with the plan. To that, she nodded, grabbing at the small vial and downing it. After a few seconds, Violet Langley looked nothing like herself. Instead, her strawberry blonde hair had turned short and black and her otherwise light eyes were now dark.

"Wicked", Florin and Charlie exclaimed at the same time, smiling at each other.

✦✧✦

"I don't know what to do. She won't talk to me, and when she does—she just screams at me to leave her alone—", Fred cried, sobbing into his brothers arms. Charlie tried his outmost to comfort him, patting his back and sharing with him words of comfort. Still, nothing anyone did seemed to help him. He just wanted to be able to see Edith happy once again, to have her smile at him and embrace him as she once did. Before all of this, there was still a certain light in her eyes whenever he saw her, and that light was now gone.

"You're doing everything that you can, Freddie. You gotta let her come to you. What she's been through—it—it takes time. Just let her know you'll be there, that's all you can do right now".

"God-I love her so much, Charlie", he croaked.

"I know. I know you do", he whispered.

⬩ word count: 1233