Towers - Fred Weasley

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IT WAS A STUPID IDEA, possibly the stupidest she had ever had but she wasn't going to put anyone in danger knowing the notes were delivered to inside her bathroom. Ebony walked down the street in Diagon Alley in the darkness of the night. 

There was a noise behind her but she continued to walk until she reached the Leaky Cauldron. It was closed and the lights inside were already out. Ebony looked down at her feet for a moment, desperately waiting for something to happen or someone to show up. 

The musical tone her Horned Serpent Core wand produced echoed in her head. It started off low but the volume became louder and louder as if it were footsteps that neared her every second. Ebony remained standing with her eyes on the ground underneath her. 

A hand on her shoulder made her jump, she turned around to face -- to her horror -- a person hidden beneath a dark cloak and a mask that showed nothing but the Dark Mark. Ebony had seen countless Death Eaters dressed like that but she told herself to stay calm.

The person didn't say anything, simply looked her up and down before handing her a piece of parchment. Ebony looked down at the paper when she had taken it only to be forced backwards into a wall. The Death Eater's hand was now wrapped around her neck tightly, she tried her best to stay calm and not freak out. 

A moment passed -- it felt like an eternity -- her airways got cut off and the breath inside her was now officially trapped. She started to choke until the pressure disappeared and she fell down on the ground, grasping for breath. Ebony closed her eyes, a dizzy feeling took over her entire body.

Whoever just stood in front of her knew how to get the message across. It was an obvious threat meant to scare her enough so much that she wouldn't dream of disobeying. Death Eaters were scary but never did she encounter one that did not use a wand -- or magic for that matter -- to claim their victims. She carefully folded open the piece of parchment that was given to her.

I heard you make a great set of powerful wands. 

Deliver twelve by tomorrow night in Knockturn Alley.

You will know where.

Yep, that was an obvious threat. Ebony overweighed her options for a moment, she did not study the wand cores Ollivander had shipped out from America and Asia yet. She should definitely do that considering the Death Eaters won't use them to let flowers grow faster.

The next morning she knew everything she needed to know and when she opened Ollivanders, she looked at the bunch of wands she had made over the summer. They were a great collection of different wand cores Ollivander had never used before. She wanted to master all and she's doing fine considering she just started but these wands had flaws. And they were amazing.

Veela hair: Ebony realized they do not last very long and make great 'temporary wands' since the hair would die after a while. Especially in the hands of someone who is tied to the dark arts. Hence why she took 4 wands with this core.

Thestral Hair: A very unstable wand core that would make magic so much more difficult to master. Very stubborn and annoying. She took 2 with this core.

Troll whisker: Insane useless wands which would power down magic so much that even if you try to do the hard spells, it would not work. Good for beginners though. She took four.

Coral: Easy breakable and extremely fragile wands. She was sure these would break if you stared at it too long. She took two of them. 

With the twelve basically useless wands, she made note to not share their cores and simply put them each in boxes. She put the twelve boxes inside a bag and left them behind the counter. 

As she had predicted, since school had started and not many people wandered down Diagon Alley, she didn't have many customers. Fred was the only one who came inside in the evening.

"It is awfully quiet, even our joke shop isn't very popular by adults. . ." Fred stared at his girlfriend as she gave him an innocent smile. "What are you hiding?"

"Me? Hiding something?"

"Ebs?" Fred asked and raised a brow at her. Ebony shook her head with a fake-confused stare on her face. The redhead walked around the counter and saw the bag placed by her feet. "What's inside?"

"Wands."

"Why do you have a bag with like a dozen wands?" 

"To throw away." 

Again, Fred eyed her up and down suspiciously but hummed regardless. Ebony was glad when he seemed to not be asking anything about them anymore.

"So, George wants to start painting today, are you up to it?"

"Yep, when I close I come up to you."

"Good." Fred said and leaned down to kiss her before walking back to the door. "See you in a few." Ebony nodded and watched him leave. She breathed out a sigh of relief and leaned against the counter.

After seven o'clock and after she had closed the shop, she went down to Weasley Wizard Wheezes as promised and helped her boyfriend and best friend paint the walls of the living room. It took much longer than expected, without magic this seemed like a real task.

"I don't understand. Why can't we just use a spell and get it over with?" George asked, groaning.

"Because we'll all feel a lot more accomplished if we do it ourselves--" Ebony was cut off by a yawn escaping her lips. "Well, tomorrow the kitchen?"

"Sounds good to me." Fred stated with a nod. "Do I accompany you home, or. . .?"

"No, I'll just apparate. Goodnight George. Goonight Freddie." She gave her boyfriend a kiss and apparated down into Ollivanders. 

Ebony grabbed the bag filled with wands and walked outside and towards Knockturn Alley. She hadn't ever really been there and therefor also didn't really know what she was looking for but shen she saw a strange looking chest. Definitely out of the ordinary. 

She walked over and opened it before putting the bag inside and closing the chest again. Ebony turned around and walked towards the exit of the alley when she came face to face with none other than Fred Weasley.

"You're just apparating home, huh?"

"Fred, I can explain--"

"Not here." He took her hand and apparated towards the now empty apartment above the Weasley shop. "Go on, tell me everything."

"I had to. They were threatening your life." Ebony mumbled and handed him the note she had found in her bathroom. "I figured I rather have you live than losing you too."

"You went alone?"

"And I received a note from a Death Eater saying they wanted twelve wands of special cores. I just delivered them." Ebony explained. "I paid whatever depth I owed." Fred stared at her suspiciously and walked closer. He reached up and watched her flinch.

"Love?" He asked and puhed the top of her turleneck aside to reveal the red marks left by the choking event from the previous night. "Merlin's beard. . . love, what happened?"

"I--" Ebony looked down and did her best not to cry. She closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and looked back at her boyfriend. "I'm okay, it's okay." 

"Come here." Fred pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her frame. Ebony let her body melt against his, giving up on fighting away everything. "You're so incredibly brave." 

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Written: 25/07/2023

Word Count: 1258