AMOR FATI . . . fred weasley

I...DIE FROM A FART

'DON'T BRING JOHANNAH INTO THIS!' Arthur bellows, his cheeks verging on purple. Joey's only ever seen him like this once: losing his shit with Lucius Malfoy in Flourish and Blotts, which was both stunning and terrifying. 'You're upsetting your mother!'

'Good!' Percy spits. 'I couldn't care less!'

With that he storms from the kitchen, leaving every redhead at the table reeling, Molly's passionate sobs the only sound to dent the silence. Slow and then all at once.

It makes Joey want to cry, watching them. The family that took her in so lovingly when they didn't need to, and here they are, ripped to shreds by one of their own.

Fred shoves away from the table and thunders up the stairs. George and Joey follow him at once, the latter leaning into the former's hand as he places it on the small of her back.

They hear Fred before they see him, his wand twisting violently in the air. A window smashes and a wall of books crumples to the floor like a paper doll.

'Shit,' George murmurs, kicking at a weathered copy of Hogwarts: A History.

Joey takes a hesitant step into the room where she spends entire summers. All she wants - all she needs - is to calm him down. 'Freddie...'

'I want to be on my own!' he yells, turning around to face them. Tear stains like garish scars embedded on his cheeks.

'Joe, come on,' George says with a soft tug at her sleeve.

'But-'

'Come on.'

She laces her fingers through his and they step back out onto the landing, sinking down on the stairs, so they're facing each other with backs against the walls. Joey rests her stumpy legs in George's lap and sighs, her eyes droopy with worry.

'I just don't understand why he gets so angry,' she murmurs.

'He's just being a prick. Ignore him, that's what I do all the time.'

'But I only want to help you! Both of you.'

'Oh, young Johannah. We don't deserve you.'

Joey frowns because she doesn't believe that in a heartbeat. If anything, she thinks, it's the other way around; she's the one who feels like she's infinitely winning the lottery when she's with them. 'Don't be a silly sausage!' she says, hugging her knees to her chest.

'I'm being deadly serious!'

She smiles. 'Wow, does it hurt?'

George gasps - ever the expert in amateur dramatics! - and reaches out to tickle her, but Joey, giggling, is already sliding down the stairs like a child to escape his clutches.

Some of the stairs groan as she bumps down them, but she's laughing too loud to care - that is, until she sees Cedric's Quidditch jumper hanging in the hall, and hears Molly Weasley's muffled cries in the kitchen, and all the nasty jigsaw pieces are fitting together again.

'Joe, what's the matter?' George asks, running down to her. And for a moment she considers telling him - he is much more tender than his twin, after all - but Joey can't dump her grief on him like that.

She swears she's meant to be a nice person!

So instead she says, brightly, turning around with a plastic smile, 'Nothing!'

Honestly? Everything.

THE NEXT MORNING, Fred's acting like nothing happened, which is absolutely fine by Joey as she's already stressed enough.