International Love | Fred Weasley

Chapter 71

Fred knew something was wrong from the moment he stepped into the kitchen of the Burrow on Sunday morning. Even after with a rough night without much sleep – he knew the bags under his eyes were clearly visible but he was too tired to conceal them – he saw it: everyone became silent the moment he walked down the stair. His mother is standing with tear-stained cheeks in front of the oven, while the rest of his family looks at him with pity in their eyes. George stands up and opens his mouth to say something, but he seems to decide against it as no words leave his mouth.

From the corner of his eyes, Fred sees Ron and Harry – both sitting at the kitchen table near the fireplace – trying to hide a piece of parchment from him.

"What is going on?" Fred asks, "Is there any news about-"

His voice dies down and he looks at the people in the room. Harry hits Ron who quickly tries to throw the piece of parchment in the fireplace to burn it. But before his younger brother even reaches the fireplace, Fred already has his wand out and casts: "Accio parchment!"

In no time, the piece of parchment flies toward him. It is the Daily Prophet, Fred notices when he catches it out of the air. With furrowed eyebrows, he looks around the room before he turns the paper to the front page.

As soon as he has turned the paper around, he sees her.

Elena.

Right there on the front page.

A lump appears in his throat and with wides eyes, he reads the headline and the article on the cover of the newspaper:

A POINT OF LIGHT IN THESE DARK TIMES: THE NEW MRS. WARRINGTON ANNOUNCED

– Written by A. Fenetre, pictures by R. Letterford –

It has been a dark time in the Wizarding World with the return of You-Know-Who, but there is a small point of light coming from the Warrington Family. Last Friday evening, during the party that was organized specially for this news at the famous Warrington Manor, the very well-known pure-blood Warrington family announced the future wife of their only son, Cassius Nicodemus Warrington.

"We are very happy to announce such happy news in these dark times," said Nicodemus Warrington Sr. himself to our reporter on site, "It is good to have a point of light that brings hope and it is good to celebrate the beautiful things in these dark times."

As well known within the pure-blood circles, Cassius Warrington has been single for quite some time now. With his father almost retiring from his job as Head-Obliviator, all eyes are on his son to follow in his footsteps.

The question of the night was, of course, who the new Mrs. Warrington is going to be. According to Nicodemus Warrington Sr., it is none other than the French witch Elena Dubos. She is quite an unknown figure, but we did some digging for our dear readers. Elena Dubos attended Beauxbatons before she went to Hogwarts last year to fish her education in Great Britain rather than in France for reasons that are currently unknown to us.

We talked to our Gossip Correspondent Rita Skeeter about this news and she told us that there were rumors that Elena Dubos was in a relationship with Fred Weasley, one of the owners of Weasleys" Wizards Wheezes in Diagon Alley, until recently. The two were spotted by our correspondent together in London while going out for dinner together. When we asked Mr. Warrington Sr. about this, he wouldn't respond.

For the rest of the article, go to Page 9.

With the article, a picture of two people is published: a black-haired woman and a brown-haired man. The two were standing in front of a large staircase and the man has his arm wrapped around the waist of the woman while he has a hand on the man's chest. On the ring finger of the woman shines a ring with a large diamond. The man – Fred recognizes the smug face of Cassius Warrington – looks very proud into the camera, while the woman smiles brightly.