Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [1]

⚡️ Chapter 17 ⚡️

Ron had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return. He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Harry roughly shook him awake. In a matter of seconds, though, he was wide-eyed as Vega and Harry began to tell him and Hermione what had happened in the Forest.

Harry couldn't sit down. He paced up and down in front of the fire. He was still shaking. But he wasn't the only one. Vega's hands were shaking heavily and she had long hidden them in her robe pockets. Hermione kept peering at her eyes and Vega didn't like the look on her face.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort..." Harry muttered. "And Voldemort's waiting in the Forest... and all this time, we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

"Stop saying the name!" Ron said in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them. Harry wasn't listening.

"Firenze saved us, but he shouldn't have done..." Harry continued on. "Bane was furious... He was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort's coming back... Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill us... I suppose that's written in the stars as well..."

"I don't think that it what is written in the stars," Vega said, watching him pace around the fireplace. She felt an shiver down her back. "There must be a mistake,"

"Will you stop saying the name!" Ron hissed.

"So, all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone," Harry went on feverishly, "Then Voldemort will be able to come and finish Vega and I off ... Well, I suppose Bane will be happy.'

Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort, "Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you two.

"Anyway, who says the centaurs are right?" Hermione continued. "It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic. Anyway, we should all go to bed now, it's very late,"

"I'm going to warm up a bit," Vega muttered as she sat down closer to the fireplace while Ron and Hermione stood up to leave. "I'll be up in a moment,"

"Be quick, okay?" Hermione said. "Good night," She left for the girls' dormitory while Ron pulled Harry off to their own dormitory, telling him off for using Voldemort's name.

Vega stared into the fireplace, watching the flames dance around. She wasn't sure what the centaurs had been talking about. She liked to study stars, too, but clearly, the centaurs would be far better than her in doing so. Could it be that her and Harry's death was written on the hands of Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest?

What was Voldemort even doing in the Forbidden Forest? And if he really was in there, how could Dumbledore not have noticed this? He must know if someone as powerful and dangerous as Voldemort was roaming around killing unicorns in the Forbidden Forest. She shivered slightly and wrapped her arms tighter around herself.

"What are you doing up, still?"

Vega turned around and saw Fred standing beneath the boys' dormitory with his arms crossed over his chest. She noticed old parchment sticking out of his pocket but responded with a shrug.

"How was the detention in the Forbidden Forest?" Fred asked. "George and I would kill for one of those," Vega wasn't sure how he knew where they had gone off to.

"I don't think anyone would send you two in there with Hagrid," Vega said as he walked over to where she was sitting. "You'll trick him and run off,"

"You bet," Fred said with a grin and Vega shook her head at him. "So, how did it go?" Vega shivered slightly and shook her head once more.