Muggle | 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

Chapter 64

I felt a powerful jerk pull me forward, the ground vanished from beneath my feet, and the next moment my feet hit the ground again hardly.

     Looking around, I found myself back in Grimmauld Place, in the middle of the kitchen.

     "Back again, the blood traitor brats, is it true their father's dying . . . ?"

     "OUT!" roared a second voice and with that, we saw Sirius hurrying toward us all, looking anxious.

     He was unshaven and still in his day clothes; there was also a slightly whiff of stale drink about him as he looked around at us in horror.

     "What's going on?" he said, stretching out a hand to help Ginny up. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been injured —"

     "Ask these two," said Fred, looking at me and Harry.

     "Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," said George.

     But I looked down and remained quiet, letting Harry explain all about his vision. Ron, who was still very white, gave him a fleeting look, but did not speak.

     I knew I was too late to stop the attack from happening and cursed myself over and over for it, but I was glad that it didn't cause as much damage as it was supposed to and that they had managed to stop the snake from going any further.

     When Harry had finished, Fred, George, and Ginny continued to stare at him for a moment.

     "Is Mum here?" said Fred, turning to Sirius.

     "She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," said Sirius. "The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's letting Molly know now."

     "We've got to go to St. Mungo's," said Ginny urgently. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything —?"

     "Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!" said Sirius.

     " 'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," said Fred, with a mulish expression, "he's our dad!"

     "And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?"

     "What does that matter?" said George hotly.

     "It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" said Sirius angrily. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"

    "Somebody else could have told us. . . ." Ginny tried to reason. "We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry. . . ."

     "Like who?" said Sirius impatiently. "Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's —"

     "We don't care about the dumb Order!" shouted Fred.

     "It's our dad dying we're talking about!" yelled George.

     "Your father knew what he was getting into, and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order!" said Sirius angrily in his turn. "This is how it is — this is why you're not in the Order — you don't understand — there are things worth dying for!"

     "Easy for you to say, stuck here!" bellowed Fred. "I don't see you risking your neck!"

     The little color remaining in Sirius's face drained from it. But before he could say anything, I beat him into it and turned to Fred, shouting,

"Don't you dare have a go at him!"

     "Lexi, it's fine," Sirius tried to say. "Let it go —"

     "Do you think he wants to be here!?" I said to Fred angrily. "You don't know what it's like being stuck in this hell hole!"

     "And I suppose you know, do you?" Fred shouted back, and then said in a mock-realization, "Oh, that's right! Of course you do! Just like how you knew that our  dad was going to be attacked tonight!"

     I went pale by those words and gulped, staring at him blankly. "Yes, I knew, but—"

     "See!? You're not even denying it!" he yelled. "You knew this was going to happen! You knew it, yet you didn't even try to stop it!"

     "Fred, I swear I had forgotten about it!" I tried to explain. "I had completely forgotten, but the moment I remembered I ran up to Dumbledore and told him! I tried to stop it but I was too late—!"

     "Stop lying!"

     "I'm not lying!"

     "ENOUGH!" Sirius yelled, silencing us both.

     Fred's face fell, as if finally coming back to his senses and just realizing what he had been saying.

     By that, my sight went blurry and so I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to prevent my tears from falling, not wanting to cry in front of anyone.

      But knowing that I couldn't hold them back anymore, I quickly turned on my heels, left the room, and ran upstairs, finally letting the teardrops stream down my cheeks.