Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

The Inquisitorial Squad

"Good luck." I whispered, scanning everyone's faces. This was not the evening I had pictured after finishing OWLs. Ron's hair faded into the distance before us as I split off from the younger girls. It would hardly look suspicious, a prefect guarding a supposedly gaseous hallway. And Ginny and Luna could just say a prefect told them to guard the opposite side.

I reached the end of the hallway, as far as I thought I could get without losing sight of Umbridge's doorway.

"Sorry, guys. Someone's played a terrible prank down here." I lied to a few smaller students, most likely second years judging from the way they listened at once, turning to find a new route.

"Oi, let us by." An older student grumbled, stepping closer.

"I'm sorry, no one can come down this way until we get a teacher to fix this up. Someone's set off Garroting Gas. It's quite dangerous."

"We'll hold our breath." The boys chuckled, moving to nudge me aside. I pulled my wand out and held it out before me.

"You'd hate to cost Ravenclaw points so close to the end of term." I suggested. Other students were now taking the hint, turning back as they watched the scene before them. Soon enough, the corridor fell quiet, students hardly even headed this way.

I stood still for a few minutes, leaning back on the wall, trying to ignore the somersaults my stomach was doing.

How could Voldemort have gotten to Sirius? He was in, quite literally, a safe house. Was the Weasley's house that safe? Were Fred and George still there?

I looked over, two figures appearing at the end of the hallway. Had something gone wrong? Or had Ginny and Luna not been able to talk these students out of passing down the corridor.

As they drew closer, I felt the somersaults in my chest halt, a chill eating through my skin now. One of the figures was large, nearly twice the width of the other, arms long and thick. The thinner boy wore a humorless smirk, white blonde hair and gray eyes boring into my own.

"Well, Crabbe. I didn't smell any gas. Made it through just fine, didn't we?" Draco said, his voice echoing down the empty hallway. I took a single step back, weighing my options. I had no chance to take the both of them. Crabbe may have been stupid, but Draco undoubtedly knew more dark spells than I would ever be able to learn.

"Don't run." Draco jerked his head towards me only slightly before Crabbe jumped, seizing both my arms behind my back at once.

"What are you doing?" A new voice appeared over my own, the three of us turning to see Neville, wand raised before him, wavering between the two Slytherin boys.

"Longbottom," Draco chuckled, his own wand lazily at his side. "How about you get out of here before I make you regret it."

"Expelliar-"

"Expulso!" Draco merely had to twitch his arm up, the blue light slamming into Neville's body and throwing him against the stone walls behind us.

"No!" I screamed, my own voice probably echoing throughout the school, but I didn't care. I scanned Neville's body for only a second before he began to stir, slowly pulling himself up from the ground.

"Get him." Draco ordered, stepping closer to Crabbe and me. "I've got her." He lips curved into snarl, yet he looked like he was having the time of his life.

"You're sick. You're both sick. This isn't a game, you could have killed him-" I sucked in a quick breath as the boy's grip on my wrists tightened. He shoved me towards Umbridge's office so roughly that if he hadn't been holding me up, I would have toppled.