If I'm Lucky {Fred Weasley}

Gone Underground

It's alright if we go to sleep,

Just please wake me up if you have bad dreams.

The slight static echo of my headphones rang into my ears as I ambled back and forth in a small bedroom at Fred's Auntie Muriel's home. This high-pitched noise screeched in my ear and left just as quickly as it appeared, but it was now a common occurrence for me. The piercing sound droned endlessly for a few days when it first happened, nearly driving me mad. It was from an injury I received during the battle that succeeded Bill and Fleur's wedding.

It was my own fault really, but I would make the same decision again if I had to go back and relive it. I was fighting alongside Fred when somehow, the strap to my bag had been severed and flew off my body as we tried to flee the tent. When I realized what had happened, I backtracked and dove for it. It was only for a split second, but right as I reached my bag, a flash of red light barely missed my face and exploded the overturned chair and table beside me. It was loud, catapulting me onto my back and knocking the wind out of me, and I was immediately met with a sharp sound in my ear drum. With the bag still gripped in my hand, I laid there disoriented, trying to recapture the breath that had been knocked out of me. Through the blurry vision, I barely made out Fred diving on top of me to shield me with his body before apparating us to where we now resided in hiding.

I had no choice...or I don't believe I did. We needed everything I packed; it had all the necessities. It had Cedric's stuff in it too. I never used any charm on them before in fear that I would somehow accidentally use irreversible magic that would ruin everything, but I had to keep them in my bag in case something happened, and something did happen. We got ambushed at the wedding. Not only did it have Cedric's stuff, but it also had every gift from Fred that I could have possibly saved over time, like the flower he gave me. It even carried pictures of Fred and me during Christmas break in the middle of his 7th year. God, that might as well have been 100 years ago. Time went by so fast and somehow remained stagnant.

It can feel like that in a place like this. I was grateful that his Auntie Muriel took us in, but I must admit that she definitely wasn't my favourite Weasley. She was the hardest to get along with, actually. I was surprised to even have to comprehend that she could be related to the caring red-headed family that I fell in love with nearly a lifetime ago.

Still dragging my feet around the room, I tried to pay attention to everything I felt physically, like the cold wooden floors underneath my bare feet, Fred's knitted sweater with his initial that hung past my shorts and hands. My legs were exposed to the frigid air in the room, but I didn't mind. Usually, I hated the cold, but lately, I craved it. It distracted me from other horrific thoughts and allowed me to feel something on the numb days.

That foreboding intuition I had over Cedric's fate long ago has now returned in full force. Actually, it was stronger than before, and this time it honed in on Fred. I could feel myself retreating mentally and becoming a shell of a person again, but it was so hard to reach out to anyone. Fred knew, though, and he always tried to help. He would tell me jokes and make me my favourite foods so I could get food down easier because that became incredibly hard to do again. He held me when the nightmares returned, but they were all about him now. Images of him being thrown into the air and landing lifelessly on the ground repeated each night in my mind, almost like the magical photos in the wizarding universe.

Sighing, I brought my hands to the neck of his sweater and nuzzled my face in it to take in the scent that lingered on the woolly threads. He should be home any minute now. I just finished listening to him, Remus, and Lee Jordan on Potter Watch, a channel Lee frequently hosted on hidden networks within the radio. Listening to Fred joke around about being called Rodent with his old friend warmed my heart and almost made me laugh. It's like I could see Fred's annoyed face right in front of me when he whinged about the nickname. What made me the happiest was that he got to reunite with Lee. The twins were pretty devastated when their long-time best friend and fellow prankster had to transfer out of Hogwarts during 5th year. It hit them hard; I think it was the only time I had ever seen them depressed. They didn't pull any pranks for almost two months after his departure.