ARRANGED | FRED WEASLEY

𝐋𝐗𝐕

𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄

━━━━━━━━━━━━

The moment the word "awake" slipped through Ron's lips, everyone in the room went deadly quiet, trying to process his words and the immense significance they carried. Lilith looked at Fred, utterly puzzled. Remus stared at the floor wide-eyed, and the rest went pale due to the shock.

"W-what?" Remus was the first one to break the thick silence. "Ron..." he hesitated again. Remus wanted to ask if this was some sick joke, but knowing Ron and the expression he carried on his face, Remus knew the Weasley boy was not lying. The Chosen One had awakened.

"Take us to him! Quickly!" Sirius burst in a nervous but excited tone in his voice. The man was desperate to reunite with his godson, the living memory of James and Lily that so vividly resided in that kid.

Ron nodded frantically and rushed through the dimly illuminated and endless corridors of the headquarters, followed by the nervous stomping of those behind him. The door that most of them had already seen at least once waited for them, and Ron opened it carefully and slowly. Inside the room, the beep of a machine monitoring a heartbeat was once again heard, along with Hermione's soft voice in a tone so low it made the words almost incomprehensible. As the group entered hesitantly and with the weight of silence on their shoulders, the scene before them staggered them.

Harry Potter himself was sitting on the bed that had warmed his unconscious body for a year, pale-looking, staring at Hermione with a confused gaze and breathing deeply, trying to process Hermione's soothing words. He looked incredibly out of place, like a deer caught in traffic, and despite his hair growing longer and his features turning sharper and manlier, his green eyes, behind his usual pair of glasses, were still the same. He was still The Boy Who Lived. 

"Hermione...H-Hermione, I'm calm...please, tell me, where are we?" Harry mumbled, trying to figure out everything around him. His voice sounded hoarse due to the amount of time he had spent without using it.

The young woman took a deep breath, and her brown eyes sought Ron in hopes of getting some help to explain the immense turn of events that had happened since the last time Harry's eyes had been open.

"Where are we? How's the battle going? Why are we not out there fighting?" Harry asks again, getting more anxious and looking at his two friends. His nervousness and the poor lighting inside of the room almost hid the rest of the people in the shadows from his sight. 

"Harry...I need you to try and process this as best as you can, alright?" Hermione begins with a nervous and hesitant tone. "What we are about to tell you...It isn't easy. Harry, you have been asleep for some time; you already know that-"

"Yeah, I...I saw Dumbledore in my sleep. He was guiding me, telling me what to do, how to stop Voldemort," Potter interrupted her. "I destroyed the Horrocrux inside me, Hermione. I finally did it!"

"That's great, Harry," she gave him a brief trembly smile before continuing. "Well, what I am trying to tell you is that...your sleep has lasted...more than what we initially intended, and some things have... complicated, to say the least."

Harry frowned slightly, confused about what could have possibly gone worst considering the already awful situation they had been immersed in.

"Mate, we...well, you..." Ron started, not knowing well how to continue. He took a deep breath and tried to gather his thoughts together. "After you fell asleep, we waited with you for some hours. But, since you weren't waking up, the battle was still going on, and we were kinda in the losing team without you...the Order commanded a retreat. So we left Hogwarts with you and hid in here, in the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, waiting for you to wake up and keeping you safe from Voldemort and the Death Eaters."