Before you (Fred Weasley)

CHAPTER 59

"Got everything?" I asked, looking at our two bags on the couch.

"Yep" Bella said, spooning some ice cream into her mouth.

"Toothbrush?"

"Yes"

"Underwear?"

"Yep"

"Clothes?"

"Alice-"

"Shoes?"

"Alice!"

"What?"

"You're freaking out" Bella said, dropping the spoon into the empty bowl.

"No I'm not, what are you talking about?"

"Yes you are, why on earth would I forget to pack any of those things? I know you're nervous to meet Fred's family but they can't be monsters can they?"

"I've already met them before Bella, it's just, they think I'm involved with the death eaters and they're going to hate me forever. I even left in the middle of Christmas last year without telling them" I rambled.

"Alice, I promise you, nothing can go wrong. You'll explain everything to them and they'll understand"

To be honest, the Weasleys didn't scare me as much as Harry did. Harry would be livid, it had taken a lot for him to trust me last year and all I had done was fed him lies.

There was a loud crack and Fred apparated in our cottage.

"Ready?" Fred asked us. He still hadn't told me what 'mission' he was going to go on.

"Yea" I said nervously, standing up from my chair. Bella went into the living room to get our bags while Fred walked up to me and kissed me on my forehead.

"Don't be nervous love, I promise everything will be fine" he smiled softly.

Why did he have to be so goddamn cute?

"Thanks Fred" I sighed.

"Can you get off of my sister so that we can get going already?" Bella said from behind us.

"Okay okay" said Fred before grabbing both of our arms and disapparating from the cottage.

We arrived at the entrance of The Burrow.

"Now, you both can go inside, I have to go, I'll be back soon" Fred said before apparating away once again. Merlin knows what was going on.

"C'mon Alice" said Bella, leading me to the door. She knocked on it and after a few moments Mrs. Weasley opened it, a warm smile on her face.

"Come in! Come in!" she said, hugging us both.

"Mrs. Weasley I'm so sorry about last Christmas, it was very rude of to leave without warning you. Even after you welcomed me so kindly into your house" I rambled.

She looked at me like I had grown two heads.

"Don't be silly! That's barely a thing to apologise for! Fred told me you had a family emergency and you had to leave immediately" she said before looking at Bella.

"And you must be Alice's sister, lovely to have you dear" I noticed that Mrs. Weasley looked a little nervous.

"Is that Alice?" I looked to see Ginny run down the stairs and envelope us both in a hug.

After exchanging pleasantries and introducing Bella to Molly and Ginny, we sat on the table. Molly went to the kitchen to make us some tea.

Both of them didn't know about my former death eater status, I decided it would be best to tell them when everyone got here.

"Ginny? Where is everyone else?"

"Oh, Fred didn't tell you? They've gone to get Harry from the Dursleys"

"But why was Fred so secretive about it?" I asked.

"Because, Harry can't be found by Voldemort and so all of the order are going to drink polyjuice potion to turn themselves into Harry and bring them here, hopefully confusing the death eaters as to which one the real Harry is"

"So there are death eaters involved? That's dangerous!" No wonder Fred hadn't told me anything.

"Yea, but we can only cross our fingers and hope everything goes according to the plan"

"But why didn't Harry just drink polyjuice potion to turn himself into someone else? That would've been so much easier" I said.

"Huh, I don't know" said Ginny.

Molly returned to the table with four cups of tea and we sipped from it nervously. What if something terrible happened? The death eaters were powerful.

No. I couldn't let myself think these thoughts. Fred, George, and everyone else would be perfectly fine.

I decided to distract myself by taking our bags upstairs.

"Mrs. Weasley, will me and Bella be staying in Ginny's room?" I asked.

"Yes, dear" she said, absent-mindedly, looking at the door every now and then. I picked up both of our bags and climbed up the steps. I had only just reached the first floor when I heard a commotion downstairs. I walked down the hall, trying to locate Ginny's room but I couldn't remember where it was.

There was some more noise and Mrs. Weasley let out a cry as if something terrible at happened. I clutched the bags tighter, still looking for Ginny's room. I felt like a coward. I was to scared to go down to see what was going on. What if the order members didn't believe me?

I finally found her room and dumped the bags inside, making my way back to the stairs. Before I could go down, I heard Fred's voice. I sighed in relief, he was alright.

I slowly walked down the stairs to see many people crouched around the couch. Harry was standing behind it and Mrs. Weasley and Fred in front. Bella was standing with Ginny and another man I recognised as Remus Lupin standing a bit far off.

From my place I could see someone lying on the couch.

It was George.

I forgot all of my worries and ran towards him to see if he was alright.

Fred looked at me and then back at George, his face masked with concern.

"How you feeling Georgie?" Fred asked.

Blood streamed down the side of George's face. He had lost an ear.

"Saint like, I'm holy" he croaked, a smile on his face.

Was he alright?

Fred seemed to read my mind.

"Is his mind affected?" he asked, not looking away from George.

"No, I'm holey Fred, geddit?" he weakly pointed to whatever was left of his ear.

"The whole wide world of ear-related humour and you go for 'I'm holey', pathetic" Fred shook his head with a smile.

"Reckon I'm still better looking than you" said George.

I sighed in relief.

After a few minutes, Hermione and Ron arrived along with Kingsley and Tonks. I got up from my seat on the floor and it was only then that the others noticed that I was there.

I saw Hermione, Ron and Harry stare at me. But Harry had a different look on his face.

"What the hell is she doing here?" he said in a dangerously low tone.

"Harry, what do you mean?" Molly asked, looking at him.

Harry opened his mouth and Hermione and Ron shot him warning looks but that didn't stop him.

"She's a death eater" he said, loudly and clearly for everyone to hear.

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