Yours, Fred | f. weasley x reader

Chapter 54: The Snatchers

"Later, Freddo," Lee said to him with a mock salute as Fred left the flat, and then he turned to you with a grin, "Potterwatch is apparently the talk of the town these days."

"I'm not surprised," you told him as you put the kettle on, "it's great that people can hear what's really going on out there. Remus and Kingsley did a fantastic job on their segments last week." Lee nodded in agreement and he poured you both tea and gestured for you to go ahead and sit down, which you did.

"Have you heard from Jack yet, Lee?" you asked him and he sighed and shook his head, his dark curls bouncing at the movement.

"Not a word, but I suppose they're hiding out somewhere. I just...I wish he'd tell me he's okay, you know?" He put down your mug of tea on the table in front of you and sat down beside you with his own. You gave his wrist a gentle squeeze, "I'm sorry, I can't imagine what that must be like for you."

He shrugged sadly, "not much I can do about it, at least Potterwatch is keeping me occupied. Plus, it's far more rewarding than bringing coffees to stupid editors who cut the actual important news out from the Daily Prophet." He scowled and then he changed the subject, "when does your Auror training start back?"

"Tomorrow, actually. I'm quite nervous to be honest, what with the Ministry being infiltrated and not knowing who's under the Imperius Curse," you rubbed your eyes, feeling the familiar stress rising inside you, "I'm not sure what to expect, or if the Auror Department has been affected or not. I'm just going to go in and see what's happening, I don't even know if training is still going ahead as planned. Tonks isn't mentoring me anymore since my first year is finished, and she doesn't know a thing. She's actually stopped going into the Ministry completely since the wedding."

"Just be careful," Lee said solemnly, giving you a worried look, "Merlin knows what kind of stuff they're up to in there these days."

---

You stepped out of the green flames into the Atrium and anxiously adjusted your uniform jacket. Fred and George had been extremely reluctant to let you go but you'd insisted, saying that your Auror training would be more useful than ever as the violence increased around you, and you didn't want to just put your life on pause if you didn't have a proper reason to. You knew you were being optimistic in hoping that the Auror Department was untouched by dark wizards, but you had no way of knowing without investigating for yourself. You'd promised the twins that if things were bad on the first day, you'd call it quits and get out of danger as soon as possible.

You walked through the Atrium and noticed a large crowd gathered in front of the fountain, only the fountain was no longer adorned by the golden sculptures of magical beings. Instead, it now depicted hundreds of stone people simultaneously holding up and being crushed by a platform on which statues of robed and wand-yielding figures stood.

You slowly walked up to the crowd to get a closer look, and you saw that the stonework of hundreds of people being crushed under the platform were wearing Muggle clothing, and your mouth immediately went dry.

You saw the new Minister for Magic, Pius Thicknesse, addressing the crowd and reporters, and beside him stood a tall man with long blond hair tied back in a low ponytail, and on the other side stood Dolores Umbridge.

You clenched your jaw and backed away, accidentally bumping into two wizards you didn't recognise, and when you mumbled an apology, their attention lingered on you for long enough that your skin crawled uncomfortably.

You kept walking and in the distance you spotted the familiar curly red head of Percy Weasley, who you hadn't spoken to in over two years. He was walking quickly and his face was pale and his eyes were darting around nervously, but before you could think any more about him, your attention was drawn to a billboard on a nearby wall of the Atrium.