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Fred Weasley would never admit it to anyone, but everyone could clearly see he was miserable.
The past few days had been filled with nothing but moping around. No one could remember the last time they had heard the redheaded twin laugh, or even smile. He, along with Perseus, had mysteriously stopped pulling pranks. Even George and Lee had cut back on the pranks, realizing that they weren't as fun without the whole group participating.
Perseus had remained locked up in his dorm, refusing to let anyone visit him as he was left to mope by himself, unable to process anything that was going on. Fred had taken a much different approach by pretending everything was fine, even though it obviously wasn't.
Fred trudged to class every morning, although he used to skip most of his classes before the incident. He remained quiet and reserved during class, and even during breaks and meals in the Great Hall. The pranks from him stopped, and several students noticed that he would barely eat anything at all.
The students in Hogwarts had no idea where the change had come from. The events that Perseus and Fred had been told remained a secret to the students as Dumbledore didn't want to alarm the students. But the two boys knew the truth.
Maria Black was missing, and presumably dead.
Fred felt guilty. He had obviously been the last person to see Maria before she had disappeared. He couldn't stop himself from replaying the events in his head until he couldn't focus on anything else. He had offered to walk her back, but he wondered why he never did. She had seemed worried, and he wondered why he hadn't more adamant to help her. All the small things he could've done came back to haunt him, and he found himself tossing and turning at night, unable to sleep when Maria was missing, hurt, and possibly dead while he could've done something.
"Freddie, tell me what's wrong," George finally demanded during dinner one evening, fed up with his twin's behavior and wanting to do anything to help his other half. "You and Perseus have been acting weird the past few days and I want to know why. You can't hide stuff from me."
"It's nothing," Fred muttered, barely lifting his eyes from his plate as he conversed with his twin.
"Don't lie to me," George retorted. "I swear this better not be about this girl, Maria. I haven't seen her the past few days but just because-"
"It's none of your business!" Fred suddenly snapped, surprising George enough to shut him up for once in his life. He and Fred had never fought before, at least for anything serious, and he couldn't decide if he was more shocked or hurt by his outburst.
George opened his mouth, to say what remains forever unknown, before snapping it shut again. He seemed to struggle with what to say before deciding to simply leave as things were before any more harsh words were shared. He stormed out of the Great Hall, which didn't go unnoticed by the rest of Hogwarts as rumors began to swirl around the school once again. Fred barely cared to notice as he continued to sit and stare at his spot at the Gryffindor table.
Ginny entered the Great Hall after George stormed out, unnoticed by Fred as she hurriedly made her way to him. She knew that if she didn't tell him now, with the diary finally gone, she would never have the courage to tell him the truth.
"Fred," Ginny ran up to her older brother with a mixture of relief and guilt written upon her face.
"Not now, Ginny," Fred dismissed his sister as he stared blankly at the food sitting in front of him.
"It's important, Fred," Ginny rushed out as her eyes darted nervously around them, taking in everything and everyone suspiciously. "It's about-"
Ginny paused abruptly as her eyes caught sight of Harry Potter, along with a familiar, haunting diary in his hands. Her face turned a ghostly white as her once relieved expression turned into absolute horror.
"Nevermind," Ginny stated as she slowly backed away, much to the confusion of her older brother. "It's not that important."
Fred glanced away from his plate to see his sister running out of the Great Hall, but soon turned back to his full plate of food, assuming his sister was just worried about dumb, first-year problems.
