Marooned - Fred Weasley

Chapter 76: A Centuries Old Story

They approached the door and Hermione knocked. Not long after, Luna's father, Xenophilius Lovegood appeared at the slim opening of the door. He had white hair just like Luna, that enchanting and dreamy aura about him, Sarah actually saw a lot of Luna in him.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he mumbled, his mouth was practically touching the wooden door. Once a bit of light got to him, Sarah noticed he actually had hollow eyes and mismatched socks, something sad in his gaze.

Hermione stepped away, letting Harry through.

"I'm Harry Potter," he waved briefly as he climbed up the remaining stairs. "We met a few months ago."

"Ah,"  Mr Lovegood nodded, "Yes. Lovely wedding that was, until the...um, unexpected drop ins."

Fred clenched his jaw looking down, twiddling the fabric of his pocket between his index and thumb bitterly, he wasn't exactly enjoying going back to those few weeks.

Luna's father invited them all inside, Fred still deep in his thoughts before Sarah pulled him out of them, "Look."

She rested her hand on his shoulder and pointed at a tall green bush to their left, right by the entrance of the house. It had floating orange fruits that looked like balloons. "Dirigible plums," she said, beaming. "It's not the entire house but there is a sort of colorful balloon."

Fred's feet planted into place and he stared at those plums for longer than necessary, he was seeing much more than those floating plums. He became overwhelmed by a new wave of feelings that demanded to be expressed somehow. So he rested his forehead against hers for a second, tilted his head so their noses touched. They were risking going to the Lovegoods, one more second wouldn't hurt.

"It's just plums, Weasley," she chuckled, but definitely not complaining.

Fred didn't respond to that. He pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips over her cheek, sealing a deeply meaningful and intimate kiss on her skin. "It's not just plums. Definitely not just plums."

"Whenever you're done with the sappiness," George had appeared under the doorframe and mocked them teasingly, "There's tea made." He looked over his shoulder and leaned in to whisper, "Don't drink it. It's terrible. I think he's mixed up the salt and sugar."

"That's why you interrupted our moment? To tell us your tea's all salty?" grumbled Fred, a deep frown accompanying his scolding tone.

George nodded without a single once of shame, "Also there's some story about to start, figured at least Sarah was interested in hearing about it."

Fred's shoulders dropped with a long huff that Sarah took for utter frustration at his twin. "It's okay, George," she said with a nod and after a last glance, he walked away.

"Is there something wrong?" she immediately asked Fred as soon as they were alone again, her hands redirecting his eyes towards her, "You don't usually get like this unless there's something going on."

"Nothing's going on, I promise," he whispered sincerely, "I mean, nothing aside from what is actually going on."

"But you'd tell me, right? If there were."

"Of course," his answer flew out without a shred of hesitation. "I just-" he ran his thumb over her cheek, his eyes flickering toward every detail of her face before meeting her eyes once again. "I just needed a moment."

George had been right, Sarah indeed wanted to hear what they were talking about inside, but right now Fred mattered more. She froze to allow him to take the time he needed. She often forgot how draining it can all be. To move from a danger to another, stumble over pieces of your heart because every time it finally heals, something else breaks it. She had built some sort of immunity to it, to the atrocity of all that's happening around them, she would go as far as to dare to say she was used to it and it didn't shock her anymore. It wasn't the same for Fred, she needed to remember that.