chaos ~ fred weasley

59. both but none

                  *No one's POV*

When Fred comes to, he finds himself altogether disoriented and blinking his eyes quickly to adjust to the harsh whiteness of the place he is in. He is lying on a cool, uneven floor, and as he raises his head slowly and sits up he becomes more and more confused. Looking down at himself frantically as the last few moments come back to him—the crushing weight of the walls of the castle decimating his bones and internal organs, the pain he felt even just for a moment— he finds that instead of seeing a mangled body, he is fine. Dressed in a light grey shirt and white trousers, Fred's body is the same, skin as intact and pale as ever.

He takes note of his body and how it feels with a strange sense of surprise. The injuries he thought he had sustained a re nonexistent, yes, but he still feels this dull ache in the core of his body—not in the centre physically, but somewhere deep inside that he isn't sure can be quantified.

Something isn't right, he knows this, but he also feels strangely... at peace. This scares him a little. Instead of focusing on this, he interlocks his thumbs and index fingers together and pulls at them subconsciously, standing as he wonders whether George will join him somewhere here.

He feels sunlight on his face as if he is outside, but the sun is nowhere to be seen. Still, he recognizes where he is, vaguely—yes. It's Diagon Alley as if someone stripped it of all the signs and storefronts and any colour of any sort. Instead of bustling wizards and witches selling their wares and bright shops, his shop, there is just white. One shop's sign, he notices with a vague sense of surprise, is coloured—the Leaky Cauldron. Something inexplicable pulls him towards it, and so he does, walking slowly but surely towards it and feeling simultaneously better and worse by the second. It's like his insides are at war.

He pushes open the door hesitantly and steps inside, surveying the scene in front of him. Why here? He thinks to himself as he observes the white staircase, the white chairs and tables, and the big white bar. No alcohol there. He turns towards where the fireplace is, and notices that it is on, and the fire has colour to it. In fact, the fire seems to become more saturated as he gazes at it, and to his surprise, it turns purple.

Fred's heart drops.

He almost expects the voice that says, "that would be courtesy of me."

For a moment, Fred isn't sure if he'll turn around. He wants to just remain here, feeling like his insides are being pulled in different directions, and staring at the purple fire for all of eternity. Maybe he could. But he doesn't—instead, he spins slowly on his heel, coming face to face with Venus Jordan.

Vee sits casually in one of the chairs, but her wince of pain as she shifts to face Fred does not go unnoticed by him. She too is not dressed in the clothes she was wearing during the battle, and instead is wearing a white dress, not unlike a nightgown.

"What are you doing here?" Fred half says, half gasps as he moves towards where she sits in one of the chairs, leaning her elbow leisurely on the table.

"I could ask you the same thing," Vee responds. She's trying to be coy and mysterious to alleviate the discomfort that she also feels inside, and hers is considerably more painful than Fred's.

Fred raises a brow but stays silent for a moment. "Where is here, anyway?"

"I think this is the Leaky Cauldron," she replies before pausing, taking out her hairband and letting her hair down. She kept it tied up so it was out of her face for the battle, but her fight is over. This isn't needed. "I know that's not what you're asking. This is a kind of waiting room to move onto the next thing. It's—well, it's where you go when you're dead, Fred."