Irresistible - f.weasley

15: ☆ crack in the code ☆

My eyes blinked open from the sleep I was in, and I looked around not even remembering when I had closed them. Fred's arm was laying loosely over my waist and I played with his fingers, trying to convince myself to just stay in bed with him as long as I could.

But I couldn't.

I had spent the last three weeks moping around and only being able to use my brain to rack up different plans. Not only did I have Ron here now, but we also had the notepad and I wouldn't lose the lead I had just gotten.

I carefully lifted his arm off me and onto the sheet, so I could roll quietly out of bed. Instead of settling for the robe, I grabbed a pair of Fred's clothes that looked a little bit on the smaller end and wore those.

Nobody was awake yet, I knew they weren't. The other three actually worked for a living and I knew their schedules as if it were my own. Each day I liked waking up early so that I could stare out at the openness of the grass and dream of what it would be like to reunite with the other three.

It's funny, even though I was being fed and clothed here, I was still just as trapped as when I had been in the metal cage.

I made sure to quietly go down the steps, and carefully twist the knob to the front door so no one else would wake up. At first I almost shouted when I saw someone sitting several feet in front of me, their back towards me. But when I saw the red hair, I had to remind myself that Ron came to us last night.

He seemed to not be surprised of my presence when I sat next to him, both of us enjoying the silence and being reunited with someone who was going through the same thing as them.

"I think you owe me an explanation," I broke the silence and turned my body towards him slightly, "I promise not to judge you until you tell me everything."

He cleared his throat and kept his gaze on the empty space of land in front of us, "I didn't mean to do it. As soon as I left I wanted to go back, but I apparated straight into the grounds of where a group of Snatchers were camping out."

"And you couldn't apparate back to them immediately?" I asked.

"I had no time," he shook his head, "the Snatchers tried to stun me as soon as I got there. So I tried to run—bloody fast those people are. Wouldn't of escaped if I hadn't learn that one jinx from Hermione, you know the tripping one."

"Yeah I do," I nodded and felt my heart sadden at the name of my friend. I wanted so badly to be by her side right now, so that both of our brains could challenge each other like I knew they did.

"Well ever since then i've been running from the Snatchers. I did end up going back to them, but by the time I did they were already gone," he frowned and looked at me this time in my face, "you have to understand that as soon as I left I realized the mistake I made. It was that bloody Horcrux that made me do it—"

"Hold on. Made you?" I interrupted and felt a wave of fear creep over me, "you're saying there's magic in there that can control you?"

"No not at all," he assured me, "it wasn't what it made me do, but how it made me feel. It's got a similar power to dementors, but instead of sucking the life out of you it sucks all of your happiest memories."

"Wow that's awful," I said saddened, "and so that's what it did to you three?"

"Well only to the person who wore the locket," he explained, "Harry didn't want to take a risk of losing the locket over what we went through to find it. So we had to take turns over who wore it since the thing was impossible to destroy."

"I thought just as much," I grimaced, "if it was that easy to destroy I feel like Dumbledore would have done it all himself."

"Yeah exactly. We were just all under so much stress. Not only did we not know what happened to you, but we had just gone through so much to get a Horcrux we couldn't destroy. The locket drove me mad and made me see things—uh like Harry and Hermione," he said with an embarrassed tone.