Confident | Fred Weasley

Chapter 64 | Empty

Sarah had suffered from another nightmare, where she had the pleasure of watching her friends all die, one by one. She shot up in bed, duvet sliding down to her waist, with goosebumps slithering up her arms.

Sarah took a deep breath, eyes scanning the dark room for threats. It took her a moment, but she realised she was in her bedroom, far away from the Department of Mysteries.

Beside her, Fred shuffled, staring up at her with heavy-lidded eyes.

"You okay?" He asked groggily, the fraction of moonlight that lit up his face disappearing when a passing cloud covered it.

"I'm fine," Sarah replied calmly, almost in a rehearsed manner.

Fred and Sarah had shared this conversation many times prior to this, which was slowly beginning to concern the both of them.

"Sure?" Fred asked again, his voice barely above a whisper.

Sarah nodded, as she lay back down, her heart rate slowly calming down. Fred shuffled closer, pulling the duvet back over her shoulders.

There was a moment of silence, which Fred breached.

"Sarah, I'm worried about you," He said, his hand nervously fiddling with the hem of her t-shirt.

Sarah found herself at a loss of words. She knew that these nightmares had got to a point where they were interrupting Fred's sleep too, so she wasn't sure why she was surprised to hear him say this.

There was a voice in the back of her head screaming at her to listen to him.

Sarah shuffled around to face him, blue eyes meeting brown. Sarah was terrified to see that his eyes were welled up, as if he was about to cry.

"I don't know what's wrong with me," Sarah admitted.

She was drowning, the light of the upper world disappearing as she sunk below its watery depths.

"Let me help," Fred whispered.

A hand was reaching down to stop Sarah from drowning, offering to pull her back to the surface, where she could breath again.

She took it.

Sarah and Fred had an uneventful day, in which Sarah was trapped in meetings and Fred was doing inventory at the shop. Nearing the evening, Sarah returned to the shop, which had no customers.

It was odd. The shop was rarely this quiet when it was open. She couldn't help but wonder if something had happened.

A jolt of panic at that thought caused Sarah to speed up her steps. After hurrying through the winding shelves, Sarah headed for the tills, where Verity stood.

"You seen Fred?" Sarah asked.

Verity, who had previously been tapping at the counter in boredom, brightened up in interest. Sarah wondered how long Verity had been waiting for a customer.

"He's in the basement on inventory. Mr Weasley - the other one I mean - put him there because he was all giddy about something. I thought it had something to do with you, actually," Verity answered. Her voice had been hoarse until she cleared her throat.

Sarah furrowed her brows, but her tense shoulders slumped in relief, "Oh, thank god. I thought something had happened because the shop is so quiet!"

Verity glanced at the empty shelves with a frown, "Oddly enough, I was thinking the same thing. Did you see anything weird on your way down?"

Sarah leaned against the counter, dark hair falling in her face, "No, I apparated right outside. Although, Diagon Alley seems quiet too."

"I'm going to go see what's going on - " Verity stated, as she pushed past the gate that separated the shopkeepers from the rest of the shop.