Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

Crucio

I dabbed the now-red cloth over the slice along Maddie's arm, wincing each time she hissed in discomfort. It had been nearly a month now, nearly a month of silent hallways, nauseating lessons and watching all of my classmates head to bed each night with new cuts and bruises.

"Will you finally stop mouthing off now?" Bri asked from the arm of the couch behind Maddie, her singular bruise from the second week of lessons now almost entirely fading from her skin.

"It's not that easy, Brianna." Maddie shot back, "The shit they talk about is disgusting, it makes me sick to my stomach - Careful, Cassidy!" She whined.

"Yet Hannah and Cassidy have both managed to avoid giant slashes in their skin..." Bri mentioned, my stomach dropping before Maddie had even spoken.

"They're Sacred 28, even if they're only half. Cassidy's mum is a bloody death eater, you think they're going to lay a finger on her?" She shouted into the emptying common room, my hand falling from her now clean cut.

"Maddie!" Bri's eyes were wide and stern, an almost McGonagall look taking over her face as Maddie's expression fell back to normal, brown eyes shooting to mine.

"Shit, I'm... Cass, I'm sorry."

I shook my head, vanishing the bloody cloth from the table and climbing to my feet.

"It's not fair." I muttered, "I don't want to be treated like them. I don't want to be lumped in with Malfoy and Nott and all of them."

"You're not." Bri promised, setting a hand on my shoulder before I pulled from her reach.

"I'm... I'm going to bed." I nodded a goodnight to my roommates and hurried up the steps, glancing towards the windows quickly as I shut the door, holding back my sigh at the familiar sight. No Chip. No Errol. No owls of any kind had greeted me all term, aside from the three trips Chip had returned from empty handed, waiting patiently for a bite of cracker before flying off towards the owlery again.

They were fine. They were just busy. Or worse, in hiding. That's why they couldn't write. But they were fine.

The Daily Prophet was delivered to Hannah every day, the four of us scouring over each page for any clues from the outside world, despite knowing that nothing of importance would show up in the paper, not these days. Still, the death of a Weasley... They were still Sacred 28, which was becoming rapidly more clear by the day, was one of the only things that mattered anymore. They would have to mention it.

I threw the blankets over myself, turning away from the window and forcing my eyes shut. Molly would have written. She would have written by now, even if it wasn't a terrifying time. Even if we weren't in a war. She would have written something by now, a new recipe she'd been working on, a deal she'd gotten at the market on a color-changing yarn, checking in on Ginny.

Fred would have written. He promised.

"Oh, my God." Bri's eyes were wide as they flicked over the front page of the prophet, everyone within earshot spun towards her, heart's stopped.

"What? Who?" I breathed, reaching for the paper before she flattened it to the table, a photo of a destroyed Ministry of Magic taking up most of the page, papers flying through the atrium, the title in large bold letters at the top:

MINISTRY CONFIRMS SIGHTING: UNDESIRABLE NO. 1 AND ASSOCIATES

At the bottom of the page were two large pictures of Harry and Hermione. "Wanted for questioning regarding the death of Albus Dumbledore." I scoffed, craning my head to read the words beneath the pictures.