"Well...fuck."
"Shitting hell."
"Fuck me."
"And me."
"Well that settles it, our chances of being bloody murdered are now extremely high."
"Now you know how I feel."
"Oh, whatever Harry."
Jessica listened to the bleak atmosphere in the common room from the middle step of the Gryffindor tower staircase. She was listening intently in plain school uniform, waiting for the fallout to simmer down and settle in.
After falling asleep exhaustedly in the owlery, she and Fred woke up to golden sunshine the next morning with nothing but each other to keep themselves warm. After discussing it for a short while, Fred had convinced her that the others had to know if she was going to stay with them for the next couple of days, and Jessica reluctantly agreed on the condition that Fred was the one who told them. They took a slow early morning stroll back up to the castle whilst it was still sunrise and waited in the seventh year boys dormitories until everyone had gone to breakfast. Fred had gone ahead and pulled back Ron, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and George to stay behind, and Jessica just waited...waiting to go through the explanation all over again.
"Guys don't be so down about this!" Fred said as he stood in front of all of them, "it's not a big deal!"
"Not a big deal?" Ron questioned worriedly from the sofa, his voice squeaking in parts, "not a big deal? She's got her back marked for Voldemort with that necklace of hers and you're saying it's not a big deal?!"
"Well yes that's true but we don't need to worry do we," said Fred encouragingly, knowing Jessica was listening and trying to keep it positive, "Harry is the same and yet he's still here!"
"Barely," Harry responded abruptly from the floor next to Ginny, "you try avoiding death every year mate."
There was a pause and Jessica knew Fred was doing his best to not jump forward and ring Harry's throat at his pessimism. "What I mean is," Fred continued, "we're used to Voldemort being an issue, we just need to keep her safe like we do Harry. This doesn't change anything."
"I don't think that's particularly the case Fred," spoke Hermione from the sofa, "if Voldemort wants to use her as a weapon there's little he won't do to try and get her. Right now she's a higher priority for him than Harry, he's already proved that with what Draco's done. She's in danger and so is everyone who gets in Voldemorts way."
Hermione was the smartest witch in the year for a reason, but that didn't mean she was the most emotionally intelligent. Jessica was glad she had told Fred first about her past, otherwise, Hermione's logical observations would have made her drown herself in the Black Lake for sure if she had found her instead.
"Well thanks Hermione for that positive input as always," Fred muttered frustratedly, "what does anyone else think? Literally anyone else."
"Well I'm sold," said George who was causally laying across one of the comfy armchairs and eating a string of liquorice, "I knew she was way cooler than any of you idiots."
"No Hermione's right," Ron argued, the tremble in his voice growing stronger, "the Order didn't want us to know for a reason. They don't want us involved. We shouldn't even be discussing this."
"Ron-"
"No Ginny, Ron's on to something," Hermione interrupted, causing Ginny to be silent, "with her being in Slytherin it was always suspicious but now with Dumbledore advising she gives herself up...maybe we should listen to him. I trust his judgement, he knows what he's doing. He must know she's not going to be hurt."
"Are you kidding me?" Fred exclaimed, "it's clear he doesn't give a crap about what happens to her!"
"Yeah he's used her as a pawn this whole time," Ginny added to back up her big brother, "that doesn't sit right with me. I know what it's like to be cursed and have no one help you to get out of it. I'll do anything to make sure no one goes through the same."
Jessica smiled softly. She knew Ginny would have her back.
"Dumbledore knows more about Voldemort than anyone else," Hermione argued back stiffly, "and the Order too. We should do what they want which is to stay out of it. We're doing our bit by continuing Dumbledores Army."
"There is no Dumbledores Army anymore you tit," George goaded across the room with a mouthful of sweets, "and why is that? Because Draco was fucking tracking Jess while she was fixing your injuries. You're already involved, get used to it. This is our only chance at rebellion now."
This is exactly what Jessica didn't want - them all fighting between themselves.
"And did you not hear what I said?" Fred said to Hermione, both twins now teaming up with each other, "Dumbledore obliviated her whole family, would you like it if your parents forgot you?"
Hermione couldn't think of a counter-argument and shrunk a little in her posture. "No, but-"
"Exactly," Fred stated, "so stop challenging us for the sake of it and be fucking compassionate, she's sacrificed so much of her happiness to make sure this all worked and you can't even be arsed to return the favour!"
"Yeah but you said she wanted to protect us," said Ron who had now become more aggressive since his brothers had focused on Hermione, "but she wasn't risking death to protect us like we would be risking for her. We're friends and we like her but we've known Harry for years, have you thought that if we do this for her it leaves Harry wide open! It might be Voldemorts plan!"
"Oh and so Harry's life is more important than hers?" Ginny challenged him.
Everyone was stunned, including Jessica, as everyone knew about Ginny's lifelong crush on Harry. Perhaps she was over him more than everyone thought, or perhaps she was so rilled up about this being a boy versus girl thing that she would strongly side with Jessica no matter what. Either way, it was a big enough statement to leave Ron grappling for words.
"Well-I-uh, Harry is-"
"Word of advice," George advised as he leant down to Ron's ear, "don't finish that sentence."
Harry, who had been quiet up until now, had been watching this all unfold. He was the person Jessica was most curious to hear from, and she didn't have to wait much longer after Ron mentioned his right to freedom of speech.
"I agree with Fred," said Harry calmly, lifting his head to be met with an attentive audience. Ron and Hermione looked at him quizzically, whilst Fred, George and Ginny shared a glance of disbelief. Jessica leaned forward on the step, hoping to catch a peek at what he was about to say next. "This whole year we've been saying how we want to train everyone up to fight, to be like the Order. And what, the first chance we get to do something good we back out because it's a tad riskier than what we were expecting? That's not like us. I'm not going to sit around and let a girl be thrown to the dark side just because I have problems of my own."
George and Ginny looked around the back of everyone to share a smug smile. They knew with Harry on their side that they would now win at convincing the others. Ron and Hermione lifted their eye line to each other and had an unspoken conversation, Jessica's heart filling up with hope. Fred, who was the only one who could see her face, glimpsed at her from the front of the room and winked at her comfortingly. He seemed to be confident about what the outcome was going to be.
"I'm in if you are," Ron said to Hermione.
Hermione reluctantly gave up and sunk into the red velvet cushions behind her with a large exhale. Everyone awaited her decision, for it would be the first time Hermione would not win a logical argument. She sat there twiddling her thumbs, eyes closed, and Ginny was just about to smack her awake when she opened her eyes and stared at Fred suspiciously. It was as if she had just remembered something.
"One last question," she asked him with a pointed tone, "how did you even find out all this? I mean we've all just got back on speaking terms...I didn't think you were that close."
Jessica's breath halted as Ron, Ginny and Harry slowly looked up at Fred to join Hermione in waiting for his answer. It was the first time she saw a weakness in him as he stared at Hermione, speechless. When they had talked about telling the others they had planned to do it together, but only after he had told them about her true story. Fred thought that it would be too much for them to handle in one go. Especially for Ron.
George grinned and sat up in his chair eagerly, finishing off the last piece of his sweet. "Oh this should be good," he mumbled to himself.
"What?" asked Ron cluelessly who had heard him.
Fred fumbled on his words as he tried to grasp together an answer that would make sense. Jessica watched on as he reached for the back of his neck to itch it, finding his nerves entirely enduring considering he was usually so confident. "Well, you see.."
"Oh my god!" Ginny gasped and she clasped her hand to her open mouth, turning to George excitedly, "no-fucking-way."
"Yes way," George smiled back to her, enjoying that his sister had been the first one to work it out.
"What?" asked Harry, who was just as oblivious as Ron.
"Oh my christ," said Hermione as she caught on too, putting her head in her hands forcefully as she couldn't bear to look at Fred, "I knew it."
"Will someone tell us what is happening please!" Ron demanded.
Ginny smacked his leg hard from the floor, making him flinch. "They're hooking up," she laughed as she pointed at Fred, "oh my god did you slip her a love potion or something? How the hell did you pull that off?"
"Oi," said Fred, clearly offended as Jessica raised her eyebrow flirtatiously in agreement. He straightened his school tie to preem his ego, "I think we're pretty equal okay."
"No that can't be right," Ron stated, "you-you hated her for ages, there wasn't a time when you weren't angry at her!"
George coughed obnoxiously loud and mumbled "angry sex," followed by another cough to cover it up. Fred leaned over and hit him around the back of his head. "We haven't even done it yet you dickhead."
"Awh why didn't Draco let you join in?" Ginny teased as George was too busy laughing to care about Fred's beatings. This immediately caused Fred to stop and turn to Ginny and debate whether the no hitting girls rule still applied to your annoying younger sister.
"She never did it with Draco," he snapped back and then he cautiously looked over to Jessica out of the corner of his eye. Jessica shook her head in confirmation and his face relaxed out of relief, kicking Ginny lightly at her knees, "so shut up."
"Have I completely missed something here?" asked Harry who still didn't have a clue what was going on.
"You miss everything," sighed Ginny as she tapped him on the shoulder with pity, "but to be honest you get a pass this year with you know, old no-nose being in your head."
Jessicas ears pricked up.
Voldemort in his head? What, like her visions?
She hadn't heard about that...
She desperately wanted him to expand on that now he had said it and wanted to know why Fred hadn't said anything to her if he knew that himself. It sounded like something obvious to mention.
"And it's true Ron," Hermione said as she lifted her head from her hands wearily, "they've been happening ever since last summer."
"Wait, Hermione knew before I did?" George asked Fred, slightly hurt, "I wasn't the first to know?!"
"You knew?" Ron asked him before Fred could reply.
"Of course I knew, I'm his bloody brother!" George replied plainly as if Ron wasn't the same relation, "I even had to cover for him at New Years when they snuck back at 1 in the morning. The stress of carrying this secret has been killing me, I could barely think with all the pressure!
Jessica couldn't help but think that George was being slightly dramatic there, and judging by the looks of everyone in the room she wasn't alone.
"But...she wasn't allowed out of the house..." Harry muttered to himself, "...Sirius said so...how did she get out...?"
The poor boy's download speed really was set on slow.
"I had to tell George, I had to tell someone," Fred explained to Ron's red face, but then he looked over his head at Jessica, "but I didn't know you knew Hermione!" to which Jessica simply shrugged and mouthed 'I was going to tell you'.
"I only knew at the beginning," Hermione replied and she looked behind her at where Fred was looking. Jessica was able to lean backwards just in time so that she wasn't seen. "I thought I had warned her off you when she started dating Adrain but obviously not."
Fred's mind was now completely distracted. "Hold on," he said to Hermione, "what do you mean you thought you had 'warned' her off me?"
Hermione shifted in her seat nervously as Fred's eyes narrowed down upon her, however, she still managed to keep her chin up to maintain the air of confidence. Jessica knew this wasn't going to go well. "When she showed interest in you after that first Quidditch match at Grimmauld Place I told her all about how you were with girls and that she was better off staying away," Hermione said like she was reciting something from a book, "you didn't have the best reputation Fred and she was nice. I wanted to at least protect one girl from you whilst I had the chance."
"Reputation?" Fred disputed angrily, "what reputation? That's bollocks!"
"Bollocks is it?" Hermione argued back to everyone's surprise, "why don't we go get Angelina and ask her what you put her through? We'll see if it's bollocks then won't we!"
"Exactly, Angelina, one girl!" Fred shouted back, "you clearly haven't put the dictionary on your reading list because a one-time occurrence doesn't count as a reputation!"
George and Ginny kept their eyes between the pair like they were watching an intense tennis match. George even went into his pocket and pulled out a packet of pumpkin drops for Ginny to take one from.
"A one-time occurrence?" Hermione laughed, "oh that's rich. You've been with nearly every girl of age in this school twice over. I wouldn't be surprised if you started on the teachers next!"
"I was a single guy, I was allowed to do that stuff," Fred shot back, " but you were just jealous by the sounds of it, it wouldn't surprise me that you said that to her because you couldn't handle her getting a boyfriend before you as the new girl! You were clipping her wings so she didn't surpass you like literally every other girl in this school."
"That's a complete lie!" Hermione disagreed passionately, "I was looking forward to having another girl around me actually. It gets lonely only hanging out with boys all day. What I didn't want is for you to make her fall for you and then chuck her away for the next one like you have done with everyone else. If you did that then it would've made it awkward for her to be around us and I would have lost another friend thanks to you yet again. You're not capable of a lasting relationship Fred."
"Well, you see that's where you're wrong Hermione because I fucking love her so fuck you."
"Wait you what?" George asked.
"Yeah, you what?" Hermione repeated.
Though arguably very childish in the delivery, Freds admission pushed Jessica to stand up and finally step down the stairs to join her friends in the common room. No one noticed her doing it, except for Fred, so when he spoke next it was like they were the only two people in the room.
"Yeah," he said, locking eyes with Jessica and looking at her like he never wanted to lay his sight on anything else ever again, "I love her, and that's why I'm going to do everything in my power to keep her safe whether you lot want to help out or not."
Jessica was utterly enamoured with him. He had stepped up and been her strength without a second glance just when she needed it the most. She didn't know why she had made them keep it a secret for so long, the reasons as to why it had seemed so important had slipped her mind right now. Now it just felt so right, and with them being around their friends, she was falling harder every second. She touched her chest to touch her ever-growing heart and strangely felt her necklace glowing tepid-warm. It wasn't a vision, nor a defence mechanism to protect her. It was just reacting with her body, almost like her strong emotions were giving it its power by reflecting her mood within.
"Bloody hell," said Ginny, "I never thought I'd see the day when you dropped that word."
"Me neither," said Ron who appeared dumbfounded.
"I did," George stated proudly, "I'm happy for you mate."
Fred nodded at him thankfully and George returned the favour. It made Jessica think about her sister for the first time in a long time, and about how much she missed gossiping with her about boys and her life. Her little sister would've loved Fred, she knew she would have. She would've been glad Jessica had found someone like him.
Hermione got up off the sofa with a regretful expression on her dainty face and walked over to Fred, all the eyes in the room carefully watching what she was about to do. To everyone's astonishment, she held out her hand. "I'm sorry," she apologised, swallowing her pride to admit defeat, "I was wrong to intervene like that, it was none of my business. I didn't realise it was different this time."
Fred stared down at her hand with detest and Jessica silently pleaded for him to forgive her. It wasn't Hermione's fault, they just looked at things differently. However, her worry was without reason, as Fred smiled broadly and pulled Hermione in by her hand for a brotherly hug. "Oh stop it," he said, "you wouldn't be Hermione Granger if you didn't stick your nose into everything. I'm sorry for what I said too. It's not like there wasn't any evidence to what you told her, I was a bit of an idiot, still am really, and you were just trying to do the right thing. But just promise me that if we ever fight you'll take the odd one out, I wouldn't be able to survive battling both of your brains."
Hermione let out a chuckle and promised that she absolutely would never sit one out if he was the one in the wrong and this made the whole room laugh, especially Fred who replied that he would never expect anything less. Jessica's heart was as full as ever as everything was fitting into place. This time yesterday the world appeared to be falling at her feet at an alarming rate, but now time was ticking beautifully slow. She had friends, true friends, who knew everything about her and didn't want to run away. She could've watched this scene play out in front of her forever.
"Well I think that settles it, we've all got to help," a relieved Hermione announced as Fred broke the hug, "what did she have in mind?"
Fred looked at Jessica and one by one they all turned around to see her standing there. They were all looking to her for answers instead of with judgement, a feeling she still couldn't quite comprehend considering she had lied to them all for a year. She walked forward next to Fred and they put their arms around each other, Fred kissing her on top of the forehead. Ginny and Hermione smiled at the action.
"Yep that's going to take some getting used to," Ron gagged, as uncomfortable as ever.
"If you're disgusted by that if you have a big shocker coming for you when you go through puberty," Ginny mumbled. Hermione high-fived her from above.
Jessica began immediately to say a speech of her own. She had been thinking for months about what she would say when they all finally found out, and now the moment almost didn't seem real. "Guys I'm really-"
"Don't," Harry interrupted immediately as he got to his feet, "I think I speak for everyone when I say that we accept you and that you don't have to justify yourself, you've done it too much to us already. We're the sorry ones for not spotting it soon, well at least I am, I've known you how long and it's only taken me until now to realise we grew up on the same road."
"You live on Privet Drive?" Jessica asked in bewilderment, "but how come we didn't know each other until this year?"
"No idea, but I'm sure we can catch up on that as well as our shared experiences with having unwanted things in our heads," said Harry, "but before then let's get you out of here. Tell us your plan because there's no way in hell I'm going to let Voldemort successfully kill another teenager. I think me once a year is quite enough."
Jessica looked up to Fred. "Well, really it's Fred's plan, he's the expert."
Fred mischievously grinned and urged the others to gather around. They all followed and stood up in a close-knit circle, George having a new lease of energy and almost jumping off the chair to join them. "Right," Fred told them as they all leaned in, "we have two days until the trial and Jess needs to be gone by then. The problem is, Umbridge, Draco, and all the Inquisitorial Squad will be on the lookout. Draco especially after knowing what we know, he won't let her leave easily."
"Yeah, and the only reason Pansy and Theo aren't looking for me right now is because I threw them down the stairs," said Jessica, "we need to distract all of them if we can."
"You threw them down the stairs?" asked Ginny with amazement.
Jessica shrugged, "Yeah, I'd had enough of them."
"If you don't marry her I will," George whispered to Fred behind Jessica's head.
"Can we get back to my plan please!" Fred ordered, pulling Jessica closer into him and away from his brother. George was only joking of course, but he wasn't taking any chances. He had the same charm as him after all.
"But we can't sneak her out, all the passageways are blocked," said Ron, "that bitch has everywhere in this castle covered."
"And all the exits in the grounds too," Harry added.
"Exactly, so we're not going to sneak her out," Fred explained, "we need to create a distraction so big that no one is going to notice her going upwards."
"Upwards?" Hermione questioned with doubt.
"Please tell me your thinking what I'm thinking," said George. The brothers grew large grins on their faces in sync.
"Sure am," said Fred with a glint in his eye, "it's time to finally pull off Operation 'Weasleys Wizard Wheezes' with the greatest escape of all time." He then turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione, "you guys don't care about your exams do you?"
"No," Harry and Ron chorused over Hermione's quite stern "yes."
"Good," said Fred, "you'll be centre stage then."
"And what about me?" Ginny asked, not wanting to be forgotten, "you can't just leave me out, I've been better than all of you in Dumbledore's Army!"
"Well sis," Fred told her dotingly from opposite, "if I remember right then the whole Inquisitorial Squad aren't partaking in exams, and that means you're in charge of making sure Jess can fight them off if they come looking."
Jessica and Ginny looked at each other confidently, Ginny giving her a wink that wonderfully was reminiscent of her brother. Jessica had seen Ginny cast her Patronus from the one time she attended a DA session...and she was absolutely okay to have her on her team.
"...except for Draco," Fred continued sternly, looking at everyone in the room, "you leave him to me."
"Well," said Jessica, having a sudden glorious thought come to her, "if I'm going to need back up anyway, I think it might be worth me talking to a few more people. I think it's time the Slytherins finally got a taste of their own medicine...don't you think?"