The Girl who Survived (Fred Weasley)

CH 86. Rubies on the Pitch

"Stop, you're done," Mum said urgently and she pulled out an unmoving child, lips the same color as the bruise on the bridge of Fred's nose.

His eyes were open, seeing the way mum frantically moved to cut the cord and take the child into the next room. Everyone saw the way she wrapped the blanket, as to shield the exhausted girl from the reason her child wasn't crying. We all cleared the room, leaving Tonks to heal her, while we followed mum to see what was going on. Rapidly moving, Sirius flicked his wand to clear the contents off the top of his desk to allow mum a space to work.

"What's happening? Why isn't she crying?" Remus asked nervously as he towered over the two of them.

"Come on darling, come on," Mum said, waving her wand, casting healing spells and diagnostic spells round and round. I stood with my back against the wall, watching in horror from a distance.

Fred shouldn't have looked up.

Godric knows I wish I hadn't. It was like we began to realize that we were all in the same horrid nightmare.

"Come on little girl, just one little breath," Mum said pressing gently on her chest in between each wave of her wand. "Please," She whispered, choking on a breath. But everyone already knew. "Come on, breathe for Gran."

It would break her. In turn, it would break Fred. Because all he ever wanted, more than the actual baby, more than the marriage as a whole, was for Elodie to be happy. Happy with him. Happy with life.

Hell it was what life owed her. But this? This was just cruel.

"Molly," Dad said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. I felt my knees ask for relief from carrying my weight as I slid down the wall and met the floor, bringing my hands up to my ears.

She dropped her wand and covered her mouth with her hand, to silence a cry. I felt my legs give out underneath me, as I slid down the wall, hugging my knees to my chest. It was more than too much.

And for a moment, the entire world was silent. For a moment, even the rain outside had ceased to fall. For a moment, the only thing that existed in the world was the realization that all the universe wanted to do, was take from my best friend in the next room over.

It wanted to kill her from the inside out.

But all it took was that singular moment. And in a chill that ran up our spins, seemingly out of nowhere, a tiny cough filled the space.

And as that tiny cough filled the space with noise once again, a cry erupted, and the cold air left the space, giving relief with it.

"Did you-?" Sirius asked as mum picked her up and properly swaddled her.

"Oh, oh, oh. There, there," she cooed, ignoring everyone else, giving her full and undivided attention to the tiny creature in her hands. "Gave us all a right good scare, you did," She said, wiping her clean to look fresh and new.

"Molly," Tonks said as she entered the room, sleeves covered in a horrid red dye that revealed the truth of what was almost a possibility in the other room. "She's healed," She said simply.

"Got mummy all patched up, have you dear?" Mum said in a coo, as if she was still speaking to the baby.

"That's just it," Tonks said hesitantly as she stepped around the other side of the desk to fall exhaustedly into the chair. "She wasn't talking to Fred or me. I- I don't think it was the dittany or I that healed her."

I looked up at Sirius and Remus who exchanged looks with my dad. If it was true what they said had happened in the department of mysteries at the beginning of summer, then the only explanation would be that she herself had not only given life to the tiny creature that was part her and part Freddie. But she'd also saved herself. For the second time.