Briar ⋆ Fred Weasley (2)

━ nine: directly from manufacturers

     "Nonsense!" said Percy. Briar had never felt so grateful for Percy Weasley's existence and determination to not believe in the strange-yet-true statements his siblings often declared. "You have too much to eat, Ron — had a nightmare—"

     "I'm telling you—"

     "Now, really, enough's enough!" said McGonagall, slamming the portrait behind her as she returned to the common room. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"

     Briar had to cover her mouth to keep her small smile hidden, upon the sight of Percy looking so embarrassed at the idea. "I certainly didn't authorise this, Professor!" he said. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare—"

     "IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" yelled Ron. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

     McGonagall went quiet for a moment. "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley," she said, "how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"

     "Ask him!" exclaimed Ron. Trembling terribly, he pointed towards the back of the portrait, which now happened to be Sir Cadogan, instead of the Fat Lady. "Ask him if he saw—"

     The whole congregation of students went silent as McGonagall went back to the portrait, pushing it open to speak to Sir Cadogan on the other side.

     "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"

     "Certainly, good lady!"

     "You — you did? But — but the password!"

     "He had 'em! Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

     Briar was twirling a strand of her blonde hair around her finger. McGonagall closed the portrait behind her, looking just as stunned as Briar was trying not to. "Which person," said McGonagall, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

     There was silence, until Neville Longbottom made the noise of a terrified hedgehog, and raised his hand.

✪ ✪ ✪ ✪

     The security around the school had tightened and sealed and went from being a fairly safe facility to being the wizard equivalent of a spaceship. If anyone unwanted stepped foot, they'd be killed, although through a Dementor snogging them, rather than being sliced by a lightsaber. So, after spending a good ten minutes figuring out what food she had left Sirius with, she figured out that she could wait it out for a few days, just until it was easier to sneak out.

     But, soon, it got to the point that Briar couldn't think about anything without adding, but Sirius is probably starving, shit, shit, he's going to die, he's going to starve to death because of me I'm a terrible person. So, Briar took as much food as she possibly could from the kitchens thirty minutes after the others left for Hogsmeade, and ran in the direction of the Room of Requirement. The way she figured it unless she heard a cat bell, she'd be safe of Filch.

     Briar had given Sirius the food, and instantly burst into, "What the fuck were you doing? Don't look at me like that — you almost got yourself arrested and trying to make sure that you're alive is bad enough as it is without this happening because now it feels even worse every time I want to tell Mum or Dad but know I can't just in case anything happens and I'm sorry that you can't see them but I'm terrified of getting them into trouble when they've done nothing wrong, it's just me trying to help and feel less like my only good quality is seeing the future and I want to help you, because you're my godfather and—"