The Girl who Survived (Fred Weasley)

CH 63. Reactions

A/N: Picking up almost exactly where we left off. The truth about Elodie's arm is revealed and a moment with Sirius as the house sleeps gives clarity to why Elodie goes through live the way she does.

Songs of the chapter: 

In Case you don't live forever - Ben Platt

HNY - Stephen Rennicks

Ice Dance - Danny Elfman

Leaves From the Vine - AtinPiano

All through the night - Sleeping at Last

~Elodie's POV~

The whole time I was at St. Mungo's, I felt like I was moving in a haze. Not really aware of my movements, or what I was doing, but continuing on anyway. I took the Floo back to Grimmauld Place with Molly and Fred. Everyone kept trying to talk to me, but everything still sounded as if I was listening through a pillow. I should have told the healer about it, but I felt like I was going to throw up if I had to keep breathing in the smell of latex gloves.

"I want to take a shower," I said as we walked into the kitchen and removed my jumper, throwing it into the trash bin. My arm was bandaged, so none of them had seen the way Greyback had cut my arm. How he'd managed to brand me with a scar that would never fade.

"Your barley on your feet, I can draw you a bath instead," Molly insisted before turning to leave the room.

"Thank you," I said to her and sat down in front of Sirius and reached my arm out so he could help me undo the knots on my cuffs to remove them. I looked up at Fred who was standing at the end of the table, as far away from me as possible. "Alright Freddie? What's going on?" I asked him, annoyed by his distance.

"What's going on?" He said with a slight chuckle, throwing his head back. "Right, well, I'm just trying to piece together why you would try and go head-to-head with a bloody werewolf, why you'd jump in front of a killing curse," He said without looking at me.

"They weren't going to kill me. Lucius Malfoy said that You-Know-Who doesn't want any of them hurting me," I said, trying to comfort him in a weird way, though I knew it wouldn't work.

"He doesn't want you harmed... yet you still got hurt," He pressed on.

"He's not wrong, Elodie," Remus agreed from his seat in front of me. "You can't be so reckless. Especially with creatures as vile as Greyback. And then to use a spell you know nothing about-"

"Nothing worse happened. I barely got hurt, the rest was my own doing. Okay I trusted what I knew-" I said trying to downplay the situation for their benefit. Not wanting to argue with anyone anymore.

"You, getting hurt at all, is bad. Why can't you see that?" Fred said, finally looking at me. His eyes were pained, and now I could see, it was worry that was affecting him. He leaned forward to use the table as support to keep himself steady.

I stood from my seat and took a cautious step closer to him. I could feel his anger bubbling inside of him. It filled the room with a different sort of tension. One where he was no longer voicing the concerns of everyone else in the room. But solely his own.

"Fred, I've been through worse. It's nothing to worry about," I explained to him calmly.

"Don't you see, how that's the problem!?" Fred shouted as he slammed his fist on the top of the kitchen table.