Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 47 ⚡️

When Vega felt the ground returning beneath her feet, she fixed her posture and steadied herself to not fall down onto the ground but she felt so weak that fell anyway, dropping to the dusty ground with a groan and to make her luck better – the kettle dropped onto her head and then cluttered to the ground. Somewhere close at hand, a voice said, "Back again, the blood traitor brats, is it true their father's dying...?"

"OUT!" roared a second voice, and Vega – rubbing the back of her head – looked up to see that Sirius had come rushing into the gloomy basement kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place.

The only sources of light were the fire and one guttering candle, which illuminated the remains of a solitary supper. Kreacher was disappearing through the door to the hall, looking back at them malevolently as he hitched up his loincloth; Sirius was hurrying toward them all, looking anxious.

Sirius himself was unshaven and still in his day clothes; there was also a slightly Mundungus-like whiff of stale drink about him. Vega got onto her feet and helped Ginny up a well before dusting her clothes off while Sirius scanned them.

"What's going on?" Sirius asked as he looked at Vega and Harry, and Vega felt slightly uncomfortable about repeating that. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured –"

"Ask Harry," Fred said.

"Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," George said.

Both the twins and Ginny were staring at Vega and Harry. Kreacher's footsteps had stopped on the stairs outside. Vega's insides were churning at the attention and she wished all these eyes would stop looking at her but she didn't dare turn away.

However, it was Harry who spoke up, "It was – I had a – a kind of – vision..." And he told them all that he had seen, though he altered the story so that it sounded as though he had watched from the side-lines with Vega as the snake attacked, rather than from behind the snake's own eyes.

Ron, who was still very white, gave him a fleeting look at this, but did not speak, and neither did Vega, who was just feeling too sick with being witness of Mr. Weasley's horrible attack. When Harry had finished, Fred, George, and Ginny continued to stare at him for a moment, and Vega could see the slightest bit of accusatory glints in their eyes.

"Is Mum here?" Fred asked, turning to Sirius.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," Sirius replied. "The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's letting Molly know now,"

"We've got to go to St. Mungo's," Ginny said urgently. She looked around at her brothers; they were, of course, still in their pyjamas. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything –?"

"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!" Sirius exclaimed.

"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," Fred retorted, with a mulish expression. "He's our dad!"

"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?" Sirius inquired.

"What does that matter?" George responded hotly.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry and Vega are having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" Sirius said angrily. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"

Fred and George looked as though they could not care less what the Ministry made of anything, something that Vega could quite honestly understand – she would be the same if Dora, Ted or Dromeda had been the one attacked. Ron was still white-faced and silent.