𝙰𝙽𝙶𝙴𝙻 𝙾𝙵 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙷 | 𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚆𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚢

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔳𝔦𝔦

Maria was confusing Fred to the point that he was ready to explode.

One second he thought he was finally getting through to her and the next minute she was avoiding him. Fred thought back on everything he had done the last time they had talked, wondering if he had done something to upset her. When Fred tried talking to Perseus about it, his worries were simply shrugged off.

"It's just Maria being Maria," Perseus told the redhead reluctantly. While Perseus hadn't been avoiding everyone like Maria, Fred could tell he wasn't always present in the moment when they hung out as something was always on the back of his mind.

"But is it something I did?" Fred asked, stopping Perseus from leaving him without any answers.

"Listen, she's going through a lot right now," Perseus tried to stay as vague as possible. While Fred knew about Maria's powers, he wasn't quite ready for the world to know his father was a murdering psychopath.

"Do you think you could talk to her?" Fred knew it was a stupid question as Maria had been avoiding everyone, including Perseus, but he had the slightest hope that if anyone could get through to her it would be her own twin.

"She not talking to me," Perseus snapped as he was once again reminded about his and Maria's spat. Fred's shoulders slumped in defeat as he realized he wasn't getting anywhere with Perseus.

"Hey, Perseus, look," George interrupted their conversation as he threw his arm over Fred's shoulder and waved a newspaper around with a grin. "You look just like that crazy prisoner that escaped from Azkaban."

Perseus tensed at the mention of his father as Fred looked over at George and the newspaper with curious eyes. 

"Isn't that great?" George asked grinned as Fred's eye narrowed at Perseus, who suddenly seemed to grow timid and worried. "Imagine all the first years we could prank if we just dressed you up a bit?"

Fred elbowed George in the side when he realized Perseus wasn't joking along with him. George's face morphed into a frown as he shot his brother a glare and elbowed him in retaliation. Fred ignored him as he snatched the newspaper from him.

Staring down at newspaper clipping of the escaped prisoner from Azkaban, Fred could see the resemblance between Perseus and Sirius Black like George had joked about. The thing that bothered Fred was simply how similar they truly did look. If Fred hadn't known Sirius Black was a prisoner, he would've automatically assumed he was Perseus's dad.

Looking at it more closely, he noticed the smaller details. Like the way Sirius's unruly hair seemed to match Perseus's wild hair. Fred noticed Perseus had the same strong jawline that Sirius had despite being locked away for thirteen years in Azkaban. In every detail Fred noticed in the newspaper, he could somehow find a resemblance between Perseus or even Maria.

It seemed impossible that Sirius Black could be related to his friends in any way, however, there had to be some relationship between them. The similarities were too uncanny to simply be a coincidence.

It wasn't until that moment that Fred remembered Maria and Perseus never talked about their father. He remained a complete mystery that Fred never considered looking into. The more he thought about it, the more the pieces clicked together. Perhaps there was a reason Maria and Perseus never shared their last name with anyone else, even their best friends.

"Bloody hell," Fred muttered as he stared at Perseus with wide eyes. "He's your father, isn't he?"

"Yeah, right," George chuckled before he caught sight of Perseus's face. George's eyes widened in disbelief as he realized the truth in Fred's words.

"You can't tell anyone," Perseus muttered as he grabbed the newspaper from them and shoved it into the trash can. 

"Perseus, I-" George seemed at a loss of words for once as he struggled to apologize. "If I had known-"

"You didn't know," Perseus's sharp voice cut him off. "You weren't supposed to know. No one was."

"Is that what Maria is so upset about?" Fred questioned as he tried to fit all the pieces together on his own. The more he thought about it, the more it all started to make sense.

"Maria has this insane notion that our father is innocent," Perseus scoffed at the very idea of his father not being guilty. "I'm trying to keep her safe."

"Don't you think she could be right?" Fred continued with furrowed eyebrows. From what he had learned in the past year was the crazy ideas Maria came up with often had a habit of turning up as part of the truth. "I mean, she must have a pretty good reas-"

"My father is a murdering psychopath that needs to be kept away from my sister," Perseus voice rose, causing a few heads in the Leaky Cauldron to turn their way. Perseus let out a slow breath as he struggled to control himself before his eyes snapped to Fred. "If you cared about my sister, you'd keep her away from that maniac too."

Perseus left Fred taken aback by his words as he stormed away from the two Weasley twins. Fred was hurt that Perseus obviously didn't trust him enough to help him and his sister.

"Let's just leave it, Fred," George nudged his brother out of his thoughts as they made their way up to their room. "Perseus obviously doesn't want us involved."

Fred didn't answer his brother as he trudged up the stairs, following his brother upstairs. When he reached the top, however, he paused as he locked eyes with a familiar pair of silver eyes. Maria froze, her hand wrapped around the doorknob to her room as Fred found himself glued to his own spot. Maria broke their connection, a look of regret washing over her face, as she slipped back inside her room, leaving Fred to stare at her door with a thoughtful look.

Maybe Perseus didn't want Fred involved, but the redhead had a the strange feeling that he was meant to get involved.