Serendipity (Fred Weasley HP)

Chapter One - A Blast From The Past

"You have got to be kidding me." Halley groaned and covered her nose as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat on board the Hogwarts express. Lee Jordan looked positively dumbstruck as the dungbomb went off in his hand meanwhile the twins were trying not to choke on the stench while laughing loudly.

"This is why you don't carry around expired dungbombs..." Hal coughed and opened the window of the compartment and stuck her head just outside breathing in the fresh air quickly while the twins stepped out into the hallway for a moment to catch their breath.

"I..." Lee tried to find the words but was quickly silenced by his coughing fit. "Sorry." He mumbled as his three friends sat back down, waving their hands around trying to get rid of the smell.

"Anyway! As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted." George gave Lee a pointed look, "How did you and McGonagall take the news of Black's escape?"

Halley knew the second she read the words in the Daily Prophet that this year was going to be difficult. It was bad enough that everyone already thought of her as the secret spawn of evil, but now she'd have to deal with whispers and rumours about her possibly helping her father while he's on the run. "Gran and I had a visit from some ministry workers, they tried to make it seem like they were just making sure he hadn't contacted us, but I know they suspect me of helping him in some way. After the visit, Gran spent three days muttering around the house about how rude it was for grown men to accuse a fifteen-year-old of aiding and abetting a criminal that I hardly knew." The young Black shrugged. If she couldn't laugh about the situation her only other option was to blow up at random people and that didn't seem like the best plan long term.
"I tell you what though, anyone annoys me this year I'll just tell them my dad will get them." She joked and tucked her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.

George, Fred and Lee laughed and pretended to plead in front of Halley. "Oh please don't set your murderous lunatic for a father on us, we'll buy you chocolate every time we go to Hogsmeade." Fred gave her the puppy dog eyes while George and Lee sniggered.

"He's not a murderous lunatic..." Hal said with a roll of her eyes and a lopsided smile before being jolted out of her seat slightly. The train had come to an abrupt halt but they were nowhere near Hogwarts yet, "Did we break down?" She asked Fred when he got up and stuck his head out the compartment door since he was the closest out of the four of them.

"Dunno, everyone else looks just as confused though." He said sitting back down before going slightly cross-eyed as he looked at his breath. The temperature had just dropped 30 degrees and Hal tucked her hands into her sleeves shivering. The smiles from their faces had dropped and without needed to say anything they knew that they were all feeling the same thing. This empty hollowness in their chests, as if every piece of joy they'd ever experienced had left them. The lights went out and the train fell silent. Suddenly the compartment door opened and a body fell through onto the floor.
"Who's that?!" George asked sharply as he peered into the darkness.

"Who are you?" Came the shaky reply.

But it came as soon as it went, the train started moving again, the temperature went back to normal and the lights came back on illuminating everyone's worried faces including the gate crasher. "Malfoy?!" The four of them exclaimed staring down at the pale haired, pale faced third year Slytherin. Recognition flashed across his stunned features and he scrambled off the floor and out of the compartment faster than you could say pure blood. 

"What the he-" She was cut off by a tall scruffy looking gentleman stopping in the doorway of their compartment. Now there was someone who looked like they could do with a weeks worth of sleep in one night.