my best friends brother - fred weasley

lxix. grief

The halls are a different, chilling, kind of silent as I walk through them, searching for Fred. There's no sign of life anywhere .The paintings are deserted, the staircases are still, all the Death Eaters have disappeared and all students are either hiding, in the Great Hall or dead on the floor. I trip over on my way into the entrance hall, as I put my hands out to catch myself, I grip onto something cold. I flicker my eyes up to see what it is, coming face to face with a student. Her neck has been ripped open, all the blood drained from her body, leaving her a pale blue, almost white, colour. Looking up at the frizzy hair, I notice the purple headband that belongs to Lavender Brown. It takes all of my power to not vomit. It was only a few hours ago that her obnoxious laughing was filling the Room of Requirement. And only a year ago that she was hanging off of Ron, begging for him to return her affection. Several gags and close calls later, I'm able to peel my eyes away from Lavenders body, noticing all of the other students bodies that were littered around the body, either unfound or too far gone to try and move.

What if he's here? I think to myself, scanning the floor quickly, not identifying any of the students. Not wanting to identify any of them, rather.

"Fred!" I scream his name for the thousandth time, walking away from the hall, shaking the thought from my mind, heading toward Gryffindor Tower. There's a soft echo of metal clanging in front of me. "Fred!" I yell again, fastening my pace to follow the sound, tripping over some of the steps. The metal clatters again when I reach the landing at the top of the stairs. There's no one there. The Fat Lady has disappeared, leaving no trace, and all that's in front of me is a blank painting and an old, rusted suit of armour, standing guard of the door.

"Oh, thank Merlin!" Fred's voice calls from behind the armour. "It's so good to see you."

"Fred?" I walk over, knocking the fake armour to the ground, Fred is sitting in the floor, his arms at his side and a pool of blood surrounding him, expanding slowly. I can't even look at him, his eyes are sunken and dark, his skin is so pale that it's almost transparent. I kneel at his side, feeling his forehead and placing my hand at the source of the bleeding. His skin is as cold as Lavenders was, and I can feel him shiver.

"Oh my god, Fred! How long have you been bleeding?" I take out my wand, holding my hand to the wound. When I take my hand away, it's soaked in his blood, dripping to the ground. Removing my other hand from his forehead, I take my wand out of my back pocket, waving it over his side.

"I don't... know." He sighs, a playful tone in his voice, gazing up at me lovingly.

"Vulnera Sanentur." I mutter repeatedly, trying to close up his wound. "Come on, let's get you to the Great Hall." I hook his arm over my neck, lifting him up to his feet. He stumbles for a few steps, but slowly the colour come back to him and I feel heat coming back into his skin.

"Wow, you're so good." He gushes, staring down at me.

"How did you get here?" I ask as we struggle down the stairs.

"I tried to go the common room, but she's gone." He whined, turning his head back to the common room, disappointed. I purposely steered us around the rooms and hallways that contained bodies as we headed to the Great Hall. With time, he slowly returned to his usual self, cracking a few jokes and his voice deepening from the airy tone he adopted from blood loss. But I must've missed a cue on a joke because Fred snapped in front of my face while I was deep in thought, wondering what was going to happen in the next few minutes when we walk through the doors. "We just walked the length of the school and you didn't say one thing." He stopped as we reached the doors of the Great Hall, noticing that I had been avoiding eye contact with him.

"Oh, I'm just-" I stared down as he took my hands in his.

"Who?" He asked, his voice steady.

"What do you mean?"