𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚘𝚞𝚛 | 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲

• Chapter 15 •

George's POV:
"Holy shit!" I cried quickly steering away from the mansion
Fred pressed himself further into his seat, gripping his seatbelt for dear life. I couldn't blame him.

"Go!" Fred shouted looking back
I didn't know what the hell was going on but obviously not good as both Fred and Sage started screaming at me for drive faster.

I spared a look in the rear view mirror. The room Sage had just jumped out of was completely engulfed in flames and people and Elves were scrambling around trying to find out what was going on.

"What the hell was that?!" Fred roared flipping around in his seat, looking quite angry.
"You came for me!" Sage cried, like actual tears, wrapping her arms around Fred's neck

If only she knew I had to drag him with me, he was by no means here willfully. Fred looked at me with a shocked look and slightly horrified look.
"I knew if you were handing out your address that it must be pretty bad." I spoke

She let go of Fred, quickly wiping at her face .
"Thank you."
"So, I think some explanations are in order. Starting with how you got that nasty mark across your face."

"I, fell." She replied
Not a great liar. Good to know. I decided not to push that topic as she obviously didn't want to share.
"Alright. How about why is that room on fire?"

"I must've knocked over my lamp when I jumped out the window." She said still looking back at the house
"Okay. How about why things were obviously so bad here that you lettered ME so we could come and get you?"

She didn't reply to that one, just kept looking down. I gave up asking any questions that would give me insight into her home life. Hallie had said it was bad, but I don't think I imagined it at this level.

"I got one." Fred piped up smiling widely
I knew that smile, he was furious.
"How about, what the hell are we gonna say when we walk into our house with a Jackson in tow and mum kills us?!"

"We'll make something up!" I replied
"She's going to find out anyway!"
"Not if her last names stays a secret between us!"
"What of one of the others recognizes her? Ron and Percy have both seen her around!"

"They haven't seen her well enough to pick her out of a lineup!" I defended
"I'm sorry." Sage sniffled quietly from the backseat "I didn't mean to put you guys in this situation."

Fred huffed sitting back in his seat but gave up his squabbling. Girls crying made him uncomfortable.
"It's fine. We wouldn't have come and got you if we couldn't handle it."

We drove for a while in dead silence before the burrow came into sight. Sage sat forward looking at the house like it was the most beautiful place she'd ever seen, like we hadn't picked her up from a mansion.

I parked the car back in the shed where it was, Fred grabbing Sage's bags as we snuck as silently as we could back up to the house. As much as I hated to admit it, Fred had a point.

What were we going to say to mum? Hiding her in our room for three whole weeks without anyone finding out seemed unrealistic and any one of the others could recognize her at any point and we'd be screwed.

We got into a house creeping around to see if anyone was awake. They weren't. Which didn't seem to make me feel any better. Fred led the way up to our room warning about the one creaky step to avoid.

Entering our room Fred tossed sages bag in the corner and sat down on his bed running his hands through his hair.
"We have the World Cup!" He piped up suddenly, obviously not believing in this mission

"Well, crap." I replied
Sage looked between us, confused on what we were talking about.
"I could stay here? Pretend to get sick at the last minute." I offered
Fred didn't seem to like this idea as he paced in front of his bed

"Why did we do this?" He groaned "We are going to get caught! And then mum is going to search our room for any other hidden girls and find all our other contraband and we will be sunk!"

"We will not be sunk! We will figure out something."
"Business, sunk!" He retorted
"Fred-"
"Our social lives, sunk!"
"Fred!" I hissed

A knock at the door causing us all to jump and panic. Fred grabbed Sage shoving her under his bed covers and sat practically on top of her making it look like she was a lump of covers and not a human being.

I opened the door trying not to look terrified "What's up Ginny."
"I heard voices." She mumbled wiping the sleep from her eyes
"Just us, we were talking about the World Cup."

She perked up looking fully alert and pushed her way into our room.
"I wanna talk about the cup!"
Fred and I exchanged a panicked glance, Sage was going to suffocate before we had to worry about getting caught.

Ginny went on for two whole hours about the cup and how excited she was. If I wasn't so scared about Sage I would have found it amusing but I could only let out a relieved sigh when she left.

Fred stood up quickly pulling back the covers, revealing a very rumpled looking Sage. She sat up taking in big gasps of air after having been under Fred's weight for two hours.

"We're screwed." I finally agreed

-

How we managed to keep Sage hidden for an entire week, is beyond me. Fred and I snuck her food from downstairs and she managed to remain dead silent unless we were in the room already being loud.

Our siblings suspected us of course but they always suspected us and no one dared to go into our room anyway scared of what kind of prank we had set of for those not permitted in.

We kept her pallet between Fred's bed and the wall on the far side of the room, that way if anyone did come in while she was sleeping they wouldn't be able to see her.

But there was still one concern. The quidditch World Cup. All of us were going except for mum. Making it nearly impossible for Sage to get any resources without getting caught. And mum would be bound to hear someone upstairs with the house so quiet.

"She replied." Fred spoke coming into our room breaking the staring contest that I didn't know me and Sage were in
"What did she say?" Sage asked resting her chin on her arms

Fred's eyes passed over the page looking for an answer "She's back home now, she says if we can get you half way to her house she'll meet us there."
"Great, we got her in we can get her out."
"And be back in time to pack our things and leave early, you know how dad is."

"Hey! If we can rescue the chosen one from his barred prison at only fourteen, I'm sure we can get Sage halfway to Hallie's house."
"Guess we have no other choice." Fred glared at Sage who glared right back at him

"Alright Sage. Get your things together, tomorrow, we're getting you outta here."

1250 Words | Apr. 11 2023