petrichor ☆ fred weasley

n i n e

"I don't think so Fred.."

The sound of the Honeydukes entrance bell rang, and Persephone looked up to the sight of her three friends leaving the store. They made their way over to herself and the twins, and as expected, a licorice wand already draping from the mouth of Augustus.

"Well it was good to see you boys, but we have stuff to do, things to buy, you know how it is." Persephone said as she began to stand up from her seat in between the twins.

Fred lightly grabbed her hand, pulling her back down momentarily. "Meet us in the Three Broomsticks at one thirty if you want to help finalising our pranks."

An electric shock sensation crept up her arm, causing her to shiver. With a quick nod and a reply of "we will have to see", Persephone stood back up, and made her way over to her friends.

She accepted the bag from the outstretched arm of Cedric, glancing inside to see a collection of chocolates and sweets, as well as a few extra sickles change.

"What was that about?" muttered Augustus after a large bit of his licorice wand.

Out of all her friends, it was Augustus that had the biggest problem about her friendship with the Weasley twins. Though he couldn't help it, the obvious angst from being rival beaters on the Quidditch pitch and his extremely protective nature had affected his judgement. Persephone understood this of course, but she wished he didn't make his distaste towards the twins so obvious.

"They were just keeping me company." Persephone said quietly, "now can we please go to Madam Puddifoot's?"

The boys groaned loudly, causing Persephone to turn around and death stare them.

"I need to get some tea for Dad, seeing as though you two drank it all last time we were visiting."

"Well, Klara and I are going to, uh, go buy that new beanie she wanted, from Gladrags, you know how long she spends in there. We will just be saving time." Augustus blurted out.

"I don't need a new beanie?" questioned Klara, pointing at the one positioned on top of her loose curls.

"Did I say beanie? Wow I meant gloves. Come on, lets go." He grabbed her arm, practically dragging her away from the teashop.

Persephone stuck up her finger as he scampered away down the cobblestone road, "Wimp!"

"Can't we just get some from the kitchens, the same tea that all the professors drink" complained Cedric, "I hate it in there, its so, uh, pink"

Grabbing his hand, Persephone pulled him in the direction of the teashop.

"Dad likes the chamomile from Madam Puddifoot's the most, it helps him sleep better. And what do you boys have against this teashop? It's just tea!"

+ + + +

Full and warm, due to the amazing Halloween Feast, Persephone was curled up in her poster bed. Her cat Salem, outstretched beside her, and her Herbology textbook lying next to her, abandoned. A cup of tea, forgotten, was still steaming, positioned on her beside table, waiting to be drunk in the still and silent dorm. In that stage of unconscious consciousness, Persephone was taking in all the sounds of the almost silent dorm; Klara's heavy breaths, Salem's occasional purr, the light splattering of rain against the window. Suddenly, the door burst open, and Persephone jumped up in fright, causing the abandoned textbook to fall to the floor with large bang.

The other girls stirred around her, awoken by the disturbance.

"Everyone up, Everyone up now!" cried Professor Sprout, dressed in her familiar green fluffy robe.

"Professor, what's wrong?" asked Persephone as she looked towards her frantic teacher.

"Someone will explain it to you later, I need you to help get everyone up and gathered in the common room. Make sure everyone's up and no one leaves the common room, especially you."

Still extremely confused, Persephone got to her feet and glanced over her dorm. Both Freya and Kamaria were already moving, slipping their feet into slippers and wrapping themselves in nightrobes.

"We can go wake up the older girls if you want to wake up the younger girls?" offered Freya as they made their way out the door.

Persephone nodded thankfully, rushing over to Klara.

"Wake up Klara, we need to leave."

"As if its morning already" groaned Klara, throwing the blanket over her head.

"It's not, somethings wrong."

This caused her to wake up, "what's wrong?"

"I don't know, Sprout didn't say."

As the pair departed the room, Persephone began to wonder why they were being removed from their rooms in the middle of the night.

Suddenly she thought of Fred and George and the Halloween pranks they were planning. Obviously something had gone wrong, something had been damaged, or worse, somebody had been hurt.

Not long after, the entire Hufflepuff house had congregated into the common room, all yawning and wiping their eyes. Cedric stood at the front, calming the first years as they waited for Sprout to finish checking the dorms to ensure no one was left sleeping in their beds.

Eventually, after the group had squeezed out of the entrance hole, they began to rush towards the Great Hall, Professor Sprout in the lead with Cedric and Persephone at the end.

"What do you think's going on Ced? Sprout wouldn't tell us" whispered Persephone, trying not to let her nervousness show.

"I've got absolutely no clue Persi, she wouldn't tell us either. We were all up playing exploding snap and then Gus said he thought he heard a scream, but we all said he was imagining it, and then Sprout came rushing in, telling us to wake everyone."

Persephone bit her lip nervously. Surely it wasn't one of the Weasley twins, they wouldn't be stupid enough to do something that dangerous, would they?

Cedric reached out towards her, grabbing her hand in his, squeezing it gently.

Once the group arrived at the Great Hall, they all entered to see the entire school congregating in groups, obviously gossiping about the event that was unfolding in front of them.

Glancing through the crowd, Persephone's eyes scanned for one of the twins, eventually focusing on the two mops of flaming red hair. She quickly made her way towards them, pushing away the crowd to get in front of them.

"Are you guys okay? What did you do?" She exclaimed in whisper when she got close enough.

"Why do you think this has anything to do with us?" Fred questioned, confusion plastered across his face.

"Has this not got to do with your Halloween pranks?"

"No, we were getting ready to do them befo-"

Suddenly, Persephone was yanked from behind into the arms of her father.

"Thank Merlin you're alright" muttered Lupin into his daughters hair. Pressing a kiss to her forehead and giving the Weasley twins a sceptical glance, he released Persephone from her grasp.

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Well, Persephone, Sirius Black got into the castle tonight."

+ + +

thank you for your patience with this chapter! means a lot

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