Fred Weasley x Reader (slow and Steady)

Ch 72: Fight or Flight

Warmth, the warm sands and waves rush past my feet as I sink my toes deeper into the sand. The rush of the wind as it rushes through, pulling the sand with it; the grass behind the large beach house loudly rustles. Complete silence. Utter peace. With my arms outstretched, I lean my head back and take in a deep long breath, clean pristine air. The salt from the water mixes with the wind. No cars or clusters of people to flood my hearing, no shoulders to bump into, no smell of burning wood and oils. Nature in its purest form.

"We should be getting inside soon, we're cutting it kind of close." A voice speaks up."Honestly we should be inside by now."

Keeping my eyes closed, I reply to the familiar voice. "Just a few more minutes."

A sigh, "if I keep giving you 'a few more minutes' then it'll turn into us coming inside further and further past the limit." An amused laughter followed the sentence.

Turning around, I place a hand on my hip and grin. Leaning against a small pact hill of sand, Fred raises an eyebrow. "What even is the point of me having a time limit?"

"You know why, y/n." Letting out a sigh, he stands up brushing the sand off of his pant legs. "We're lucky mum and dad felt it was safe enough to even go outside for an hour."

It had taken them weeks to come to that decision. After we had arrived at the beach house, their mother and father had been more nervous than they had been when this whole mess started. Mr. Weasley had left his job and stayed alongside us as we remained entirely radio silent, the burrow now empty. Several weeks we had sat blind to the events of the world, events that might have been occurring at the school. We had no idea how Hermione, Ron, and Harry were doing; let alone how Ginny was doing. The last we had heard of her had been her fiasco with the sword they had been after. No idea if she was safe. No idea of how badly they'd punish her.

The thought of such had been so intensely overwhelming for Molly that she had been in a loud panic after we had apparated. Demanding why she shouldn't storm the castle and pull her little girl out of the lion's den. Her little girl. She'd spend the next couple of nights crying alongside Arthur as he'd soothe her, her worry was warranted.

"Yes, that alone took an incredibly long amount of time hiding before they deemed it alright." I huffed.

"For good reason." He stepped closer, hand outstretched, waiting for me to grab his hand.

"The base of it is a good idea, but we've been careful. Your mother has been the only one to go out into town, for Merlin's sake Fred I have yet to see another person on this beach. We are entirely alone. How will they know I'm here?" I asked, my hand gesturing to the empty beach around us.

"We have to be prepared for any possibility, I can't have them take you." He looked at me worriedly, his eyebrows creasing.

"They're not going to, it's been what? Months since we've seen the last snatcher? And that was in Hogsmeade. What if they've given up?" I proposed.

"We've already talked about this with father, people like that aren't going to give up. So long as they keep getting paid, they're going to keep going. Those people are sick, they live for the hunt y/n. We've just been lucky." His hands gripped my biceps.

"All of that seems so much like a small chance." I looked down.

"Small as it may be, it's still a chance." Removing one of his hands from my arm, he gently raised my chin to look up at him, his eyes burning with ferocity. "Twice they have been after you, one nearly killing you, I'm not going to leave a third attempt up to chance. Please." He pleaded.