Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [1]

⚡️ Chapter 18 ⚡️

After the dinner, Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat nervously apart in the Gryffindor Common Room. Nobody bothered them; none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to Harry any more, after all. This was the first night he hadn't been upset by it

Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try and break. Vega was looking through the books they could get out of the library, looking for spells that would help them out. Harry and Ron didn't talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do.

Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed.

"Better get the Cloak," Ron muttered, as Lee Jordan finally left the common room, stretching and yawning. Harry nodded and ran upstairs to their dark dormitory.

"We'd better put the Cloak on here," Harry said as he came back down. "And make sure it covers all four of us – if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own –"

"What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.

"Nothing, Neville, nothing," Harry said, hurriedly putting the Cloak behind his back. Neville stared at their guilty faces. Vega shuffled her feet uncomfortably.

"You're going out again," Neville said.

"No, no, no," Hermione said. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?" Vega glanced at the grandfather clock by the door. They didn't have a lot of time to spare.

"You can't go out," Neville replied insistently. "You'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble," Vega shared a look with her friends.

"You don't understand," Harry said. "This is important,"

But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate, "I won't let you do it," He said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole, "I'll – I'll fight you!"

"Neville," Ron exploded finally. "Get away from that hole and don't be an idiot –"

"Don't you call me an idiot!" Neville responded. "I don't think you should be breaking anymore! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"

"Yes, but not to us," Ron said in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing," He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.

"Go on then, try and hit me!" Neville said, raising his fists. Vega stared at him in surprise. "I'm ready!" Harry turned to Vega and Hermione.

"Do something," Harry said desperately. Vega immediately shook her head no at this, there was no way she was going to point her wand at Neville. H

"Neville," Hermione said as she stepped forward. "I'm really, really sorry about this," She raised her wand and cried, "Petrificus Totalus,"

Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His entire body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board. Vega groaned loudly and hurried over with Hermione to turn him over. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.

"What have you done to him?" Harry whispered.

"It's a full Body-Bind," Vega muttered as she looked away from Neville, not wanting to look at him at all. "Neville, we're really sorry," Harry and Ron looked at Vega, who looked very distressed.

"We had to, Neville, no time to explain," Harry said.

"You'll understand later, Neville," Ron said , as they stepped over him and pulled on the Invisibility Cloak.