Summers at The Burrow - Fred Weasley

Chapter Sixty-five - Arthur in Danger

It was the last day of school before holiday. we were trying to cause as much subtle chaos as we possibly could. Umbridge would not be permitted to stop us from going home tomorrow so any and everything we do today to make her life even worse would go virtually unpunished unless she could pull something out of her toad-like butt fast enough to get us to stop.

we were supposed to have one final DA meeting tonight before we would stop for holiday and Hermione was spewing warnings at us at every time we saw her. she knew exactly what we were doing. everyone did. that was mostly because everyone was talking about what we were doing.

we had started with getting Filch and Madame Pince to kiss under a mistletoe that we levitated above them while they were having a private chat in the library. we were supposed to be at breakfast but we weren't hungry because we had been snacking in the night. there was a small crowd of students returning things to the library as they were due that morning and we managed to pull off our little stunt with the little crowd watching.

we don't care for the fame it gets us but it's still does well to share a laugh in the troubling times what with Umbridge around.

as we were walking down the halls McGonagall appeared in front of us and we halted.

"excuse me?" i spoke quickly as i nearly ran into her.

"my apologies for startling you. i can see you four are having a lovely time causing all the trouble you possibly can before holiday. Umbridge wont hesitate to give you detentions the first time she gets a hold of you. I'm here to give you a detention on her behalf but also to keep her from opening those scars on your hands again."

"so are you actually giving us detention?" George asked.

"yes. I believe you are the last class of the day so i will just have you back after supper for two hours to help me sort out some old papers."

"oh, alright." i said trying to remember when the DA meeting was tonight.

"that should be aright." Lee said and McGonagall nodded at us once before turning and being off on her way.

"I'm still a tad bit confused." Fred spoke with a chuckle.

"she's saving our butts. We're acquainted with McGonagall well enough that it will probably end up with the four of us just sitting down with her for a chat. maybe we can tell her what Umbridge has been doing to us." i said.

"you should tell her what she's been doing to you." Fred said with urgency. "what she's done to you is worse than anything she's done to us."

"wait, what has she done to you? no one's told me."

"Umbridge didn't think the message was sinking in far enough so she changed it so the message began scaring on the bottom of my foot." i said as i avoided eye contact. it wasn't worth keeping it a secret anymore.

"is that why you've been hobbling everywhere and getting Fred to carry you out of detentions?" Lee asked.

"yup." Fred answered for me. "it didn't take me long to figure out what was going on and she promised she wouldn't lie to me, so-"

"does anyone else know?" George asked.

"McGonagall, Pomfrey, Snape and Dumbledore." i answered.

"wait, why Snape?" Fred questioned.

"he found a trail of blood coming from my shoe while i was serving a different detention for him and he forced me to tell him what was happening. He was the one who told Dumbledore. that's why the headmaster came and whispered in my ear that one breakfast."