Speak Now sequel: Leave Me Behind (Fred Weasley Fic)

Dungeon's and Fear

(Fred)

We had packed most of our important belongings in the apartment above the shop into boxes, as after we celebrated Nicki's birthday with the pie mum had made and sent over, we would move off to a safe location with the rest of the family. We need only wait for Remus Lupin to drop Nicki off after whatever it was they were doing together this early morning. I frowned at my own ignorance over what it was they did all those days and nights, held up in Lupin's home with a pregnant Tonks.

"It's purely inconvenient that we have to pack up and go," George grumbled and I chuckled as a small crack sounded, and we both looked up to meet Ruby, who stood there with a smile.

"Still hungover?" She cooed teasingly, kissing George's cheek before she took a seat on the couch and watched us pack.

"Living is pain," George and I both groaned in unison, and even after all these years, I fought off the urge to look at my twin in surprise of our likeness.

"Ugh," Ruby scrunched her face up, "I hate it when you both do that." She grimaced and George and I grinned,

"So does Nicki," we continued to talk in unison and Ruby rolled her eyes and sat up straight.

"Speaking of Nicki, it's cool and all that she went home with you- I get it. But a heads up would have been nice," she complained, and my stomach dropped in an instant. That sickly feeling that lined my stomach when I woke this morning worsened, and it made me wonder if it was the hangover, or my instinct that perhaps something wasn't right. George and I quickly glanced at each other before looking back at Ruby.

"She didn't go to yours last night?" My stomach twisted into an unimaginable knot as I asked the question I was so afraid of, and the pretty girl frowned.

"You know she didn't," she said firmly, leaning back into the couch. When George and I looked at one another again, Ruby stood up and raised her hands. "I don't want to hear this, you guys aren't funny." She groaned, "with all that's going on right now in our world, you'd have thought you guys would be a bit more serious." Ruby complained and I rubbed my hand over my face as my mouth ran dry.

"Rube," George started when I couldn't find my voice, "Nicki didn't come home with us last night." It had been a long time since I'd heard George so serious and concerned, and suddenly the dead pan tone in my twins voice, mixed with the way Ruby's face fell, sent me over the edge.

"No," I almost cried, and I apparated to Lupin's before I even had time to think.

*

(Nicki)

My hearing was the first thing returned to me, and that returned sense offered me no clues as to where I was and what had happened. The faint sound of dripping forced shivers to travel up my spine, and uncomfortably, I shifted in my spot. The ground beneath me was hard and harshly cool- so cool it almost felt damp. I didn't want to open my eyes, and instead I squeezed them shut tight and began to whisper in a chant to myself.

"It's a dream, it's a dream, it's a dream, it's a dream," I whispered softly, and the way my voice bounced off the walls, I realised how empty the room was. A pain throbbed inside my cranium- a mixture of a hangover and the side affects of whatever had happened to me.

"You know, I actually did always love watching you sleep?" The voice that called out from the darkness was so cool and familiar. An unimaginable chill erupted from my heart and poisoned every inch of me, freezing me in my spot- my breath stopped but my heart continued to pump the chilling fear through me. "But then you'd wake up, and I mean..." The person started up again, and I could hear the shuffling of their footsteps as they clearly stood and advanced towards me. "Draining," the person exclaimed in a groan that reverberated off the walls of the empty room. "It was just so draining!" Jack chuckled with a sigh, and I could hear his breath when his footsteps stopped in front of me, and he crouched. "Nicki..." He cooed so softly that it was almost painful, and the sound of it bouncing off the walls and coming back to me, set off the sensation that he was every where. I kept my eyes shut closed as I winced at his voice. "Nicolette," he called again, but I couldn't seem to move. "Nicolette!" I could hear the impatience in his voice- the desperation, and even if I wanted to acknowledge him, I couldn't- I was locked in one place. "Look at me!" He bellowed, and ripping me up from my fetal position on the cold floor, Jack grabbed me by the front of my shirt and forced me upright. Only now did I dare look at him, and doing so made me so aware that this wasn't another one of my nightmares.