Obsidian & Bronze {Fred Weasley}

2. The attack

"Hannah Abbott, Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy"

My heart sank. Initially I wasn't sure why I could feel impending panic washing over me, but slowly my brain comprehend what I had just heard. Immediately the room around me started spinning, the cheers and shouts of encouraging peers all morphing into hazy clouds of incoherent sound. I tried desperately to calm my breathing as my eyes searched for Remus, but I was unsuccessful.

My heart was thumping so loud it slowly became the only sound I was sure of. "Ardelle? You ok?" Harry asked, although it was faint and I could barely hear him and I was in no frame of mind to respond to his concern without bursting into child like sobs.

The heated burn in my heart was rising, filling my chest and making its way into my head. The pain so numbing I couldn't help but choke slightly from the lack of ventilation.

I swung my legs over the bench and desperately tried to fix my gaze upon the door, I just needed to get outside. I slowly started walking towards the entrance of the great hall. I wasn't entirely sure if anyone even noticed, or if everyone noticed, but I didn't care, I just needed to leave.

Once I had stepped out of the hall I threw myself against the wall just outside, my legs were far too weak to hold me up any longer. As my body came crashing down and my back made contact with the wall, I let out a fairly audible sob as I fought for air.

My cries increased considerably in volume as my body convulsed rapidly and my chest was rising and falling as I so desperately tried to catch my breath. I brought my knees up to my chest and placed my forehead into them shielding myself from the world.

I waited, waited for Remus's grip. I waited to feel my head fall into his chest and for his sweet humming and the subtle yet ever so comforting scent of tea to pull me back into reality.

This panic had been going on so long that the nerves had started converting into nothing but pain and fear, intense fear that my remaining breath was slowly fleeting and I could not pull myself back together. And there it was, the final straw, the last of my compurse slipping through my fingers, as the walls crumbling down and the floor no longer apparent beneath me.

Nothing was clear except the sound of the doors to the great hall in front of me swinging open and a tall figure threw himself down to reach my level.

Fred.

He took my hands and gripped them within his own, but not before lifting my chin slightly with the tips of his fingers so that my gaze locked with his. He took a large and full breath, gesturing for me to replicate it but it was no use. My body continued to shake and my sobs only became more violent as the embarssent sunk in.

"Ardelle. Ardelle look at me. You're safe, I promise you are safe. I'm here and I am not going to let anything bad happen. I need you to try and breathe with me" His tone was so collected, warm like Remus's but something about it was uniquely his own.

I nodded slowly and watched him take another deep and heavy breath, squeezing my hands tighter within his own as he did so. I managed to replicate the inhale before choking and sputtering from lack of air.

"You did so well, again for me. In and hold it" I copied his movements. "Good, now release" and I did. This continued for what felt like hours before he had successfully brought me back to a reasonable state.

"George is going to get Lupin ok?" He spoke clearly and reassuringly as he gently eased the strength of his grip on my hands. I shot my head to look at him and gripped his hands tighter, I wasn't ready to let go.

"Woah woah it's ok, I won't let go, I've got you, I'm right here" Fred chuckled softly as he tightened his grip on mine and repositioned himself on the floor looking even more uncomfortable than I must have. His long limbs crushed under his heavy torso, although the look on his face didn't display that he minded.