Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [7]

⚡️ Chapter 23 ⚡️

"Vega, wake up!"

Vega's eyes flew open and her vision cleared, though she could still feel wet tears cascading down her cheeks. She was lying on one of the lower bunks beneath a heap of blankets. She could tell clearly that it was almost dawn by the stillness and quality of the cold, flat light beyond the canvas ceiling. She was drenched in tears and sweat, she could feel it on the sheets and blankets surrounding her yet it was all very confusing to her.

"Are you alright?" Hermione whispered. "Harry! You're awake, too!"

Looking to her right side, Vega found that Harry was lying in the bunk next to her, looking quite as horrible as Vega felt. Hermione continued to eye her, "I Apparated us out of there, where are we?"

"You did good," Vega whispered back. "Did we all get here all right? No one is Splinched, right?" Hermione shook her head and Vega sighed in relief before lying through her teeth, "I'm fine,"

"What about you, Harry?" Hermione asked. "Do you feel all – all right?"

"Yes," Harry lied. "So, we're safe?"

"Yes," Hermione replied. "I had to use a Hover Charm to get you two into your bunks. I couldn't lift you. You've been... well, you both haven't been quite ..."

There were purple shadows under her brown eyes and Vega noticed a small sponge in her hand: She had been wiping their faces, and that concerned Vega.

"You've been ill," Hermione finished. "Quite ill,"

"How long ago did we leave?" Vega asked. "How long has it been?"

"Hours ago," Hermione replied. "It's nearly morning,"

"And we've been... what, unconscious?" Vega inquired.

"Not exactly," Hermione uncomfortably. "Both of you've been shouting, screaming and moaning and ... things," she added in a tone that made both Vega and Harry feel uneasy.

"Oh," Vega breathed. "I'm sorry..."

"I couldn't get the Horcrux off you, Vega," Hermione said, and Vega knew she wanted to change the subject. "It was stuck, stuck to your chest. You've got a mark; I'm sorry, I had to use a Severing Charm to get it away. The snake hit you too, but I've cleaned the wound and put some dittany on it ... oh, Vega, you were bleeding so bad! You were so hurt!"

"No, Hermione," Vega answered softly and quietly. "She was the snake... or the snake was her... All that time, it was the snake, somehow... inside of her body..."

"W-what?" Hermione asked fearfully.

Vega looked at Harry and watched his face contort in disgust over himself. She could see he was still disturbed by what he just saw through Voldemort's eyes. And she couldn't quite blame him for it – she had been an audience; he saw through the eyes of the criminal.

"Bathilda must have been dead a while, Hermione," Vega said as she grabbed her head, closing her eyes. She could still smell Bathilda's house on herself; it made the whole thing horribly vivid. "The snake... was inside her, Hermione. Tom Riddle put it in there... in Godric's Hollow, to wait for us... he knew we'd go back there... our suspicions were correct..."

"The snake was inside her?" Hermione asked.

When Vega opened her eyes again, she saw that Hermione looked quite rightfully revolted, nauseated as Vega nodded slowly to confirm it.

"Lupin said there would be magic we'd never imagined... he was right," Vega said. "And she didn't want to talk in front of you, because it was Parseltongue, all Parseltongue, and I didn't realise... I was too overcome with the locket's magic... neither of us realised, but of course we could understand her. Once we were up in the room, the snake sent a message to Tom Riddle, I heard it happen inside my head... he told her to hold us down,"