LUCKY FLOWER||FRED WEASLEY {REWRITING/MOVED}

YEAR TWO: CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

"Woah!"

"Agh!"

"Merlin's–"

"Ow!"

Harry clutched his nose, doubling over in pain as he felt his eyes water at the impact. "What was that for?!"

"Oh gosh, Harry, I'm so sorry!" Rapunzel exclaimed frantically. "I was looking for you and then I heard the voice again and then you came around the corner and scared me!"

"You've gotta stop making a habit of breaking people's noses," Fred chimed, playfully nudging Rapunzel, who frowned and nudged his shin with her foot. "You alright, Harry?"

"I'm good, I'm okay." Harry waved it off, wrinkling his nose. "I don't think it's broken. Maybe, it's kind of numb."

Rapunzel winced, wringing her hands. "Sorry."

"I'm fine, it's fine." He assured her. "We were looking for you, actually. There's been...something happened."

Rapunzel's attention shifted to Ron, all colour drained from his face and he seemed like he was holding back tears.

"Ron?"

"It's Ginny," he finally spoke. "It's got Ginny."

Rapunzel looked up at Fred and George, horror written across their faces and significantly paler than they were moments before.

"What do you mean? Petrified?" Rapunzel pressed, but Ron shook his head.

"Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever."

~*~

"Lockhart may be useless–"

"—That's an understatement."

"But he's going to try and get into the chamber, we can tell him what we know!"

The five students ran through the empty defence against the dark arts classroom, the three Weasley children just about leading the sprint, before darting up the stairs to Lockhart's office.

Harry threw the door open, clanging loudly against the wall as the others rushed in after him.

"Professor!" Harry approached Lockhart, who was fussing over his desk. "Professor, we have information for you!"

Now that they had stopped running, the teens noticed that what Lockhart was fussing over was a suitcase. He was packing up to leave.

"Got somewhere else to be?" Rapunzel asked, raising a brow. She reminded herself that her wand was in the pocket of her skirt.

"Erm...well, yes." Lockhart stammered, looking not unlike a deer caught in headlights, hair tussled and he looked as though he had been sweating profusely for some time now.

"Got to go, urgent call, unavoidable." He smiled nervously, looking between the five students who essentially had cornered him into his office.

"What about my sister?!" Ron exclaimed, gesturing to Fred and George. "Our sister?!"

Rapunzel could hear Fred's breathing become heavier, angrier. While Ron was in shock, Fred was seething.

While Rapunzel would've loved nothing more to see Lockhart get decked by Fred of all people, it wouldn't really help. So she took his hand in hers, gently prying his fingers open so he wouldn't leave crescent-shaped indents in his palms.

Fred glanced down at her, brows furrowed as she leaned towards him.

"Have your wand ready," she whispered, and Fred nodded.

"Well, um..." Lockhart continued to prattle about, packing up his things while not once taking his gaze off the group of five; visibly anxious that they were planning something or would jump him when his back was turned.

To be fair, it seemed like Fred and George were considering the latter idea.

"...most unfortunate, no one regrets more than I."

Ron was starting to get angry now, the shock fizzling out. He had a particularly prominent vein in his forehead when he was angry, turns out.

"You're the defence against the dark arts teacher! You can't go now!"

"Well I must say—when I took the job, there was nothing in the job description about—" Lockhart was becoming increasingly frantic, his hair was bobbing about with every movement and his eyes were wide.

He tried to pass Harry, who simply stepped in front of him. Turns out Harry wasn't much shorter than Lockhart.

"So...what?" George spoke up. "Just gonna run off? Even after all those tales of heroism in your books?" He sounded sarcastic, as if he didn't believe any of these stories. He'd be right not to.

"Books can be misleading." Lockhart shot back, as if that was a decent response.

"You wrote them!" Harry exclaimed incredulously, looking both incredibly confused yet increasingly done with the situation, and the rest of them were feeling pretty similar.

"My dear boy...do use your common sense!" Lockhart's hands hovered in the air, as if contemplating to grab Harry and shake him until his brain rattled around his skull.

"My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things!" Lockhart paused, the confession sitting in the air now. He had most definitely realized his mistake.

"Did you just...admit to being a fraud?" Rapunzel almost laughed at how ridiculous it was. They had made him so upset he'd just admitted he was a liar. "Who took credit for stuff other people did?"

"Is there anything you can do?" Ron asked, meant to mock Lockhart but now he'd opened a can of worms; he'd given him ideas.

"Yes, now that you mention it."

Rapunzel suddenly felt incredibly uneasy, slowly reaching for her wand until she felt the comfort of the smooth wood.

Fred noticed the movement, releasing Rapunzel's hand to do the same.

"I'm rather gifted with memory charms. Otherwise, you see, all those wizards would've gone blabby, and I never would've sold another book." He seemed especially smug, a direct threat in his words.

From the corner of her eye, Rapunzel spotted George slowly reaching for his own wand.

"In fact, er," he turned his back, scratching the back of his neck, feigning sheepishness. "I'm going to have to do the same to you."

Lockhart grabbed hold of his wand, whirling back around only to come face with five very angry teenagers, all pointing their wands at him.

"Don't even think about it."