Callidora ☆ Fred Weasley

[chapter 191]

Fred immediately looked towards the counter.

Calli saw it happen.

His eyes narrowed.

A slice was missing from the pie.

He looked personally wounded.

"She took my slice." He whispered.

Calli stared at him.

For several seconds, she genuinely couldn't form words at how incredulous it all seemed.

"Fred."

"Of all people. Bellatrix bloody Lestrange ate my pie."

Calli stared at him.

Then something dangerously close to hysterical laughter climbed into her throat.

She swallowed it.

Barely.

"We have just spent several minutes hiding in a cupboard from my father and two escaped Death Eaters."

"Pantry."

"What?"

"It was more of a pantry."

Calli's eyes twitched.

Fred apparently decided self-preservation was still worth attempting.

"Right. Not important."

"No."

Calli grabbed his hand.

"Move."

He moved.

Quickly.

Out of the kitchen.

Through the servants' corridor.

Up the narrow staircase.

Every sound made Calli's pulse jump.

Every distant voice made her wonder if someone had realised Tinky and Chorky weren't coming back.

But now something else followed her through the corridors.

Not merely Bellatrix.

Not merely Rodolphus.

Their words.

Corvus.

The arrangement.

Not for much longer.

Once school ends.

A few months.

That was all.

For months, the end of Hogwarts had represented freedom.

Fred's shop.

The flat upstairs.

A ridiculous kettle they didn't own yet.

A future Calli had begun, cautiously, to believe might actually belong to her.

But her father had been counting down the same months for an entirely different reason.

So had Corvus.

So, apparently, had the Lestranges.

They were preparing.

Calli's grip tightened around Fred's hand.

He glanced at her.

She didn't say anything.

Neither did he.

But his hand tightened back.

They reached the upper corridor.

The silenced Nott ancestor was still furiously gesturing from her portrait.