The Lion in the Snake Den | Fred Weasley x Fem! Reader

trigger warnings: domestic abuse, bullying

Time seemed to simultaneously stop and fly by in those few seconds.

I'd already given my piece, relayed to the old hat upon my head the words that had been told to me from birth, had chased and tortured me for years. Years that I had spent pretending to be comforted and at peace with my fate.

'Well, it sure is a pity, but I suppose if that's what you truly desire, child... I supposed I'll have to put you in SLY-'

'WAIT!' I felt myself physically lurch at that word, half-spoken, by the old hat, and almost uttered my plea aloud, barely holding it to the confinement of my thoughts. My shoulders- no, my whole body- was shaking at what I was about to do. At everything I was about to change.

'Hmm?' The hat's hum awoke me from my panic. My eyes flew open and went straight to that table across the room, the three boys with faces mirroring my own, garbed in green and silver.

That next thought I made was a prayer to the hat, a decision I had been longing to make for ages, but never, to this day, had the nerve to voice.

I could hear the hat's smile as it privately said to me, 'I can't say I'm displeased with your resolve,' before shouting, aloud and proud to the room of students:

"GRYFFINDOR!"