Chéri || Fred Weasley

lxxvii

With the amount of adrenaline coursing through her veins, she was able to run all around the castle shouting for him. The most horrible dreadful feeling took over her as she went back to the first floor of the castle. Fred was not on the seventh floor like he said he would be, and her mind could only go to dark places when her calls weren't answered. Madeleine couldn't bring herself to go inside the great hall, fearing that if she did, he would be lying lifeless on the floor so she decided to keep looking for him instead. "FRED! FRED!"

"MADELEINE!" his voice echoed through the silent castle when he heard her call his name again. "WHERE ARE YOU?"

"FRED!" she turned around and saw him standing there, a feeling of relief washed over her as she ran into his arms crying. He was alive, he was alive and that was all the mattered.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he cupped her cheeks and she noticed the tear stains in his eyes but what truly gave him away was the look of sorrow and pity in the pools of honey of his eyes.

"Who's dead?" she blurted and held his hand tightly in hers.

"Mads-" his voice cracked.

"Who's dead, Fred?" she repeated louder but there was no answer.

She had never ran as fast as she did in her twenty years of life, her heart beating out of her chest the moment she ran inside the great hall, Fred following behind. The house tables were gone and the room was crowded as healers and mediwitches treated the wounded. The dead were lying in a row in the middle of the hall and she quickly scanned their faces but she could only recognize Lavender Brown from them, and then she noticed.

A large group of mainly readheads were surrounding three bodies who laid on the floor unmoving. She could spot Timothée's mop of dark blonde hair, he was sobbing, holding onto their mother who was crying as well. This couldn't be happening, she refused to believe that whoever laid in the middle of that circle were who she though they were.

"It was my fault. I should've protected her but I didn't, it should've been me," Fred placed his hand on her shoulder.

Without answering, she pushed past the crowd and dropped on her knees as time truly did stop. She looked at Remus and Dora who were pale and still, peaceful looking as their hands were almost touching. Her gaze moved and landed on her sister's closed eyes, her entire body covered in blood, bruises and dirt but a soft smile danced across her lips. The world stopped spinning when she took Clotilde's still, cold hand into hers but she refused to accept it.

They were all watching her every move but she didn't give a fuck. Clotilde was just resting because she got injured but she wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead because there was a soft smile on her lips and the dead did not smile. Maddie's airways felt constricted, she was struggling to breathe as she came closer to her little sister's body who hadn't reacted to her gentle touch.

"I'm so sorry my love," Fred tried lifting her from the floor but she pushed him away.

"No, she's fine," Maddie laughed dryly as tears refuse to leave her eyes. "I can fix it, I can fix it, I can fix it," she said rapidly out loud to herself, placing her fingertips on top of Clo's heart that no longer pumped blood and she felt the coldness taking over her own body.

"Madeleine-" Cressida kneeled next to Clo's body to stroke her blood stained blonde curls.

"NO! I CAN FIX HER!" Maddie screamed as she allowed the tears to finally run freely. "I PROMISED HIM THAT I WOULD PROTECT HER! I CAN FIX HER AND SHE'LL BE ALRIGHT! SHE'LL BE ALRIGHT BECAUSE I WILL FIX HER."