Trust No One // Fred Weasley

14. Checkmate

✩☾ Checkmate ☽✩
TW: Blood & Death of a character

The deadly anticipation was a killer feeling within all the players who were not selected. Each step approaching the viewing room felt like a second closer to someone's inevitable death. Kreacher paused in front of double doors that seemed to be dipped in rich gold melded into the form of a snake for handles. The doors swung open as everyone stepped aside before being smacked with them. Everyone began piling in as the viewing room was divided with a glass in the middle, the other side was filled with what Teddy assumed to be the investors. All of those wearing the masks that they had wore at the masquerade ball.

Teddy was the last one in the room, not being able to bare what was awaiting her inside. The death of a brother and a lover? The worst she could ever imagine. She stood at the entrance of the double doors, terrified to step foot and be locked in. Wiping a tear away before anyone could see, George had been the only one looking at her in the room. Her eyes met his as they both shared the same sad painful expression. She broke away from his gaze as her eyes were now past him. They landed on a man wearing a familiar mask, the same mask the Peter Pettigrew had wore at the ball. It was him. He had been staring at her this entire time, lifting his golden glass up towards her bowing his head in paying some sort of respect towards her. Chills ran down her spine as she brought her attention towards George, who was now standing in front of her.

George opened his mouth to speak, but Teddy began shaking her head towards him, "Please... Georgie, don't."

He said with his voice slightly cracking in pain, "Okay..."

They both scanned the room for empty seats as most had been taken up, all except two spots right at the front of the viewing room. No one wanted to be near the front, no one wanted the closest view of their peers hopelessly dying before them all.

The feeling was quickly scaling over every inch of Teddy's body. Fear. Her hands shaking beside her. The cold sweat becoming prevalent behind her neck and on her forehead. Goosebumps spreading across her skin, but her body feeling like a wildfire. Every breath she inhaled and exhaled thinning making it harder to breathe each time. She felt as if for some reason the main event was her. People watching. No, waiting. Waiting for her to just implode on herself. Teddy jumped to the sound of the double doors slamming shut. Glancing behind her, she could only see the fear in everyone's eyes. No one felt safe anymore.

Teddy took her seat alongside George right in the middle front. They both sat in silence being hidden away by the whispers and chatters of those around them. George eventually began to speak to Juniper who was sitting behind him alongside Ivy and Nora. Teddy couldn't bring herself to join in the conversation as her eyes were now plastered on the wizarding chess board displayed on the ground level where soon the selected players would approach.

▕⃝⃤

{Song Guide: Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen}

There's something behind the feeling of knowing that you are soon to die. The things you enjoy most in life now becoming a sudden thing of the past. The people you love most fading away at your grasp. The memories, the fun times, hope, all being just a figment of the imagination to convince you your ending date wasn't soon approaching.

Ron walked alongside his brother as they were being escorted to what everyone would consider one of the main events of the tournament. They hadn't been told what their doom was, it was a secret to be exposed upon arrival. All the things running through Ron's mind was what was the last thing he had told his parents, Ginny, his other brothers, his friends, Hermione, Harry. He couldn't bring himself to think if he had left on a bad note with anyone. If today was his last day in the wizarding world, he wanted to be known as a good man. One who was funny, courageous, brave, all the things anyone would want to be known as.