Chapter 6
Fred was starting to wonder if Alicia was right and there was something wrong with him, because he appeared to be woefully out of the loop.
“Fred!” Fred nearly toppled over as Lee ran into him, George on his heels. “Did you hear?”
Fred had just come from planting stinkbombs in Umbridge’s office, but those weren’t supposed to have gone off yet, so he was assuming they weren’t talking about that. “Uh.”
George rolled his eyes. “Dude, you are completely MIA all the time. Umbridge’s decree.”
Fred pursed his lips as he thought. He assumed they weren’t talking about the one that made her high inquisitor, whatever that meant, because that one was old news. Even Fred had heard about it. “There’s a new one?”
“There’s- Fred!” George sighed deeply. “She disbanded all clubs.”
“Oh.” Fred thought. “Er, I’m not part of any clubs.”
“Yes you are.” Lee said urgently. “Clubs and teams.”
“Teams- she disbanded quidditch?” Fred stood angrily. “What! She can’t do that!”
“She can and she did. Angelina has to ask for permission to reform. She’s requested you don’t piss her off anymore than you already have.” Of course George was only there because his girlfriend asked him to be. Fred suddenly winced. “Fred?”
“I uh, I may have just set stinkbombs in her office. They’re set to go off in about twenty minutes.”
“What is it with your complete vendetta against her?” George said in wonder. “What’d she do to you?”
Fred stuck his arm behind his back. “Nothing. Come on, we should try to get them before they go off.”
“Way ahead of you dude!” Lee was already halfway down the hall. George looked at Fred suspiciously, but was forced to give up his impromptu staring contest when Fred bolted after Lee.
“You used to tell me everything,” George hissed as they hurtled around the corner towards Umbridge’s office. Fred ignored the pang in his chest at that, it was obviously just because he was out of shape and not because his twin seemed to think he didn’t trust him.
“Still do Georgie. I just hate her because she’s awful, and I need to do something to entertain myself when you’re with Angelina all the time.”
“You could hang out with our other friends, you know.” George said lowly. Fred peeked around the corner and ignored his brother. “Lee sees you the most out of any of them, which isn’t impressive because we live with him. Seriously, what is going on with you?”
If Fred was being completely honest, he didn’t know. It wasn’t because George was always with Angie, even though that was part of it. He felt like he was spiraling out of control, a horrible brother and a horrible friend, and couldn’t do anything to stop it, and instead of thinking about it he had decided to ignore his problems. Which meant avoiding everything that reminded him of his problems, which included all his friends. Whoops.
“Nothing, I’m fine.”
“Percy said you’ve only written once this semester.”
“Colluding with Percy now, are we?” Fred snapped. “I told you, I’m fine.” He realized George was just going to keep going, so instead of continuing the conversation he ducked past Lee and lunged for the door. It was quick work to collect all the stinkbombs, and he tossed the bag to Lee before Lee or his brother realized what was going on. He’d just ducked out of the office and was sprinting across the hall when he heard a foreboding ‘hem hem’ from behind him. He froze, closing his eyes in resignation. When he’d opened them again Lee and George had hidden themselves, which was good, because he knew what was coming next.
“Running in the halls Mr. Weasley?” Umbridge looked smug. Fred hated her.
“You know me.” Fred said weakly, with a half hearted smile. “I like to get my workouts in.”
“Detention.” She said. Fred sighed. “For a month.”
“Wha- a month?” Fred exclaimed. “That’s a day offense at best!”
“Yes,” Umbridge held up a stinkbomb. Fred internally groaned. “But this is not. You’ve lost again Mr. Weasley. One day you’ll learn to stop trying. It’s best to just behave.”
“Can’t say I agree with that sentiment.” Fred muttered.
Umbridge smiled toxically. “I’ll see you at 8pm.” She said brightly, because she was the worst, and turned back into her office. The door slammed shut, and Fred’s shoulders slumped. He’d lost this round, and he was pretty sure he was actually currently losing the whole war. He heard George and Lee come up beside him, but didn’t turn to look at them.
“She really hates you man.” Lee said with a low whistle. “What’d you do to her?”
“I’ve waged a war against her and she’s not enjoying the battle.” Fred responded, when it became clear they expected an answer.
George scoffed. “Who’re you, Percy?”
“Nah, Percy would never be in trouble like this.” Fred stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned around. “I’m one of the Weasley twins, always causing trouble.”
“Yeah, where’ve you been George?” Lee slung an arm around his shoulder, which would’ve been comforting if Fred didn’t feel them sharing a glance behind his back. Now it just felt like a trap. “Fred definitely has more detentions than you at this point.”
“What do you mean?” George followed them down the hall, keeping pace easily.
Lee and Fred shared a bewildered look, which was surprisingly genuine. Maybe they weren’t colluding? Hard to say, Fred didn’t know anymore. “Uh, I have detention with her pretty much daily.” Fred said slowly. “Where’ve you been?”
George frowned. “I guess I thought you were just avoiding me.” He muttered. Lee threw his hands up in the air.
“Exhausting! You two are exhausting! Can you just communicate?”
“Who’s that?” Fred asked flatly. Lee’s hands went to his hair, and he looked like he was going to pull it out. “Joking, man. George and I do communicate, right George?”
George looked like he wanted to disagree, so Fred decided to steamroll over him and not give him the chance. “Right! Always able to read each other’s minds, twin brain, so you don’t even hear us scheming. Speaking of schemes, I’ve got to go, Hermione wanted to ask about defense spells that Harry could teach and I told her I’d find a list. Bye!” Fred darted away, but took a sharp right into an abandoned classroom instead of continuing down the hall. He held a hand to his chest in a vain attempt to calm his racing heart as he listened to George and Lee skitter around the corner after him.
George swore. “Where did he go?”
“He’s quick, dude, you should know that.”
“Yeah but not that fast!” There was a thud, followed by a long breath of foul language, like George had kicked a wall. “What is going on with him?”
“Uh, shouldn’t you know the answer to that?” Lee sounded simultaneously unimpressed and horrified. Impressive tonal range, that guy.
“Yeah and I don’t and it’s freaking me out a bit!” George sounded frantic and Fred almost felt bad, but then he remembered his twin had Angelina to comfort him and he felt less bad. He’d get over it. “I don’t know what to do, Lee! I barely see him, and when I do he’s clearly lying to me or changing the subject to the shop so fast my head spins, and I just want my brother back!”
“You’re being dramatic, he’s still there. Have you tried talking to him?”
“Uh, yeah! And he’s avoiding me so a fat load of good that’s doing me.” There was another thud. George was usually better at controlling his temper. “Even Percy doesn’t know what’s up.”
“You owled him?”
“Yeah, him and Charlie and Bill, to ask if Fred’s at least talking to them. They all said they’ve barely heard from him. Percy was the most helpful, said Fred was probably still struggling with the third task and all that, but I don’t know. He’s never been like this before, it’s scaring me.”
“He’s fine, George, he’s not in any danger. He’s just acting a little weird, but uh, no offense, all of you have been weird since the third task.”
“You try having your older brother almost die on you,” George muttered miserably.
“I’m not saying there’s no reason for it, I’m just saying you have been. Fred’s flavor of weird turns out to be avoiding all of us. Ginny’s flavor of weird is being incessantly clingy. Ron’s flavor of weird is spending all his time with Hermione and Harry and practicing crazy obscure defense spells. Your flavor of weird is hanging out with Angie all the time.”
“Do you think that’s it? Fred’s mad I’m spending more time with Angie? Because I’m trying to spend time with him but he keeps disappearing. I’ll spend less time with her if it means he talks to me again.” George sounded like he’d had an epiphany, and Fred almost burst out of the classroom to tell him that wasn’t it, and he was happy for him, but oh look! Fred was shaking so bad he couldn’t move. When did that happen?
“Nah, I don’t think that’s it.” Lee’s voice started to move away from the door and down the hall. “I think the third task messed him up as much as the rest of you and he’s trying to figure out how he feels about all of it. I mean, I don’t think you latching onto Ange helped, but I’ve tried talking to Fred about it and he sounds mostly happy for you. Um, more recently that is. He did say once he wanted to punch her in the face so actually you hanging around Ange might’ve been more of it than I was originally thinking.” Lee sounded confused by the end of his spiel, which was good, because if he’d figured out what Fred was feeling before Fred figured out what Fred was feeling Fred might’ve actually had to talk to George.
“So I should stop hanging around Angie so much then.”
“No, the solution is not to stop hanging out with your girlfriend, what is wrong with you? Just, I don’t know, talk to Fred and tell him you’re still here for him and want to hang out.”
“I’ve never had to actually talk to Fred before.” George admitted softly. Fred had to strain his ears to hear it because of the distance and the volume. “We’ve just always known what the other is thinking.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to the real world. You guys are older now, you don’t live in each other’s back pocket. Fred seems to have forged his own wild independence, now you’ve got to catch up and also figure out how to communicate with him in it. Uh, let me know when you figure that out, cause I’d kinda like to talk to one of my best friends too.”
“You see more of him than I do at this point.”
“That is so not true…” Lee and George’s voices faded out, and Fred sank to the floor, his heart pounding. He thought about everything he’d just overheard, but instead of feeling upset like he knew he should’ve he just felt numb. Lee was right, the third task and almost losing Percy had messed Fred up. He felt like he was drowning in the war and it hadn’t even started yet and it really freaked him out. He wondered, absently, if the reason he was pushing everyone away was because he was so scared of feeling out of control again when he was about to lose someone that he’d rather have no one to lose.
He cut that train of thought off, because that was honestly really depressing, and instead focused on his hand. It was an angry red, like always, and he knew at this point that even without more detention it was definitely going to scar. The good news was he was keeping Umbridge occupied, and only Harry regularly had detention with her from what he’d heard. Everyone else got detention under different teachers, or were just erasing answers out of old textbooks while listening to the hag talk. Fred was willing to keep doing this, keep her attention on him, if it meant no one else got hurt. It had the added bonus of keeping him occupied so he didn’t have to talk to all the people he was avoiding. Win win really.
He shifted and realized his foot had fallen asleep. Clearly he’d sat there for long enough. He stood, legs shaking a bit, and decided to go back to the common room. Hopefully George and Lee were still looking for him.
Lee and George were in fact still looking for him, and continued to look for him until after dinner that night, which Fred skipped. He was locked in on his tax notes, which rarely happened, and he decided to get quality work done. It was always easier to focus on hard legal stuff when he didn’t want to think about anything else.
“Where were you?” George demanded as he burst into the common room. “Fred, stop, look at me, you skipped dinner.”
“Wasn’t hungry.” Fred muttered. “Hey, I think I figured out form-”
“I don’t care.” George smacked the paper out of his hand. “And bullshit, you weren’t hungry. We’re always hungry. Tell me what’s actually going on.”
Fred stared up at his brother with wide eyes, he’d never seen George this upset. He actually didn’t know George could get this angry, especially not with him. “I’m fine, George.”
“You’re not!” George yelled. The entire common room jumped, and then stared at them. Fred waved them off. George lowered his voice, but he still sounded furious. “Fred. You’re not okay. You’ve been avoiding me for weeks, basically all term, and apparently you have detention with that toxic hag nightly, and I don’t know what’s going on with you and I always know what’s going on with you. So stop it with the ‘you’re fine’ stuff and talk to me.”
Fred coughed slightly. George glared at him. Fred collected his papers. George didn’t move. Fred was starting to get worried he’d actually have to talk to George when the portrait swung open and a devastated looking Angelina entered. “Oh, look, there’s Angelina, she looks sad.”
Despite having suggested he stop hanging out with Angelina earlier that day George was still a very good boyfriend, and so despite himself he turned. Fred took that opportunity, the few seconds when George was distracted to shove his papers in his bag and bolt for the exit. He overheard Angelina telling George woodenly that Umbridge ‘needed time to think’ and there would be no practice with was good because even though detention hadn’t conflicted with quidditch up until this point an 8pm start time was going to start making it.
“Wait, Fred, where are you going?” George yelled. Fred ducked out of the portrait.
“Detention!” He yelled over his shoulder. He slammed into Harry on the way out. “Oops, sorry Harry, gotta run!”
“Where are you going?” Ron called after him. George appeared at the portrait doorway looking pissed and Fred ran faster.
“Detention with the hag, don’t wait up!” He yelled back. He hurtled around the corner and made it to Umbridge’s room in record time. He took a few deep breaths and then knocked on the door. It swung open, and he was greeted with her sickly sweet smile.
“Mr. Weasley! You are right on time. Take a seat.”
Fred did. What else could he do?
Quidditch was reinstated later that week, but it didn’t matter because Fred had detention all the time anyways.
“Are you sure you can’t skip?” Angelina demanded. Fred sighed.
“Not if I want to live.” He muttered. George looked horrified. “Just an expression. She’s just a controlling hag, that’s all.”
“Well how long do you have detention at 8pm for?”
“Uh, the next month.”
“Are you serious? What did you do to her?”
“Removed the stinkbombs I put in her office.” Fred said. Angelina looked furious. “I was taking them out!”
“I know, it’s just.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, looking awfully like Percy. “Ugh, I’ll figure something out.” She stomped away, muttering to herself. George stayed back, looking incredibly worried.
“Fred-”
“I’m fine, I don’t want to talk about it.” Fred said firmly. “Go join Angie please.”
“Fred.” George sat down next to him. “Please. I’m still your twin, I know somethings wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Fred said, which was closer to the truth than he’d like to admit. Nothing was really wrong, he didn’t know why he was acting like this. “Just, go join Angie, please.”
“Fred-”
“George.” Fred glanced at his brother, and then went back to staring at his plate. “Look, once I figure out what’s going on, I’ll let you know, okay?”
“I don’t think I believe that.” George said finally. Fred shrugged and stood.
“It’s the best I’ve got.” And then he was off to, you guessed it, detention. It was really putting a damper on pretty much everything, and meant that he was late to the first meeting of Harry’s super secret defense club. And by late he meant he rolled in just as they were all dispersing.
“Where were you tonight?” Harry asked. Fred shrugged.
“Perpetual detention with Umbridge at 8.” He told him. “How’d it go?”
“Fine. Covered the expelliarmus. What’s she got you doing?” Harry looked incredibly suspicious, and Fred didn’t really have the energy to lie to him.
“Lines,” He muttered. “Same as you.”
“Oh.” They watched as Angelina pulled George out, even though he clearly wanted to talk to Fred. “Uh, essence of murtlap helps.”
“Huh?”
“With the um, scars? Wounds? I don’t know, it helps though.”
Fred winced as he brushed his hand against the fabric in his pocket. “Oh. Thanks.”
“Yeah. How’ve you been treating it?”
“Haven’t. Just been wrapping it up. Healing charms don’t work.”
“I know.” Harry turned to face him. “Fred, Ron’s worried about you. So’s Ginny. And don’t get me started on George.”
“I’m fine.”
“Clearly not.” Harry rolled his eyes, and Fred was struck by how mature the 15 year old was. “Does George know? About the quill?”
“Of course not.” Fred scoffed. “And I better not hear about you telling him.”
“Why not?” Harry challenged. “He’d be upset.”
“Exactly. This isn’t something he needs to worry about. He deserves to have a carefree 7th year, happy with his girlfriend. Not worrying about his twin and his stupid feud with a ministry official.”
“George isn’t having a carefree 7th year, he’s worried about you all the time he just doesn’t know why.” Harry sighed. “Look, I won’t tell him, I know there’s people I’m keeping this from. Just, think about it? Please? You and I both know he’d be furious if he found out you were keeping this from him.”
“Yeah, he would be.” Fred clapped Harry on the shoulder. “We’re already in too deep. He’ll be mad regardless, I want to delay that as long as possible. Once he finds out he’ll also have detention with her, just to spite me, and then his year really will be ruined.”
“Fred-” Harry looked just as frustrated as George did, so Fred did the proper thing and ignored him.
“Know I’m on your roster even if I can’t show up. Have a good night Harry!” Fred ducked out of the room of requirement. The hallway was blessedly empty, but Fred hurried straight back to his dorm. Despite his bravado when facing Umbridge, the detentions were starting to wear on him, and he wasn’t looking to get more. At this point, he just needed to get to Christmas without a breakdown. Maybe the break would clear his head, and give him a bit of a fresh start.
Fred could not get to Christmas without a breakdown. Fred couldn’t get past the first quidditch match without a breakdown. In his defense, Malfoy had totally deserved it. He had played fine, he and George were off their game to Angelina’s fury, but they had won, which was a plus. The real problem started once the game was won, and specifically, once Fred heard what Malfoy was saying.
“We wanted to write another couple verses!” He heard Malfoy yell at Harry. Katie and Alicia were hugging him, so Fred didn’t feel like he needed to get involved until he heard the next sentence. “Only, we couldn’t find something that rhymes with “should be dead and buried”. Wanted to write about his brother, you see.”
Harry looked furious, and all at once Fred realized who Malfoy was talking about. He’d heard the nasty song about Ron, did his brotherly duty for once and told him to ignore it. The problem was, Ron’s brother was also Fred’s brother, and Fred was not going to let insults like that about Percy slide. Especially not from the guy who’s dad almost killed him.
“Hey, Malfoy!” He yelled. George stumbled after him, clearly also having heard what Malfoy had said. Angelina swore as she tried to grab Fred’s arm.
“Let him go Fred, let him yell, he’s just sore he lost-” She started. Fred shrugged her off and then punched Malfoy in the face. There was a moment of silence, and then Harry snorted, which was really the beginning of the end.
“Think that’s funny, do you Potter?” Malfoy sneered. Fred clearly hadn’t hit him hard enough. He felt hands on his back, George and Angelina were trying to pull him back, but then Malfoy spoke again. “Yeah, you like the Weasleys don’t you, spend your holidays there-”
“Shut up Malfoy!” Fred said hotly. Malfoy scowled.
“Well?” He demanded loudly. “Goyle, Crabbe, help me!” Goyle, who was very large for a 5th year in Fred’s opinion started forward first. George swore.
“Time to go Freddie!” He said, trying to pull Fred back. Fred was trying to listen to him, because he wasn’t a complete idiot, but was a little caught up by Goyle grabbing his arm and pulling him straight into his fist. “Fred!”
Malfoy cackled. “That’s more like it!” Fred groaned as Goyle buried a fist in his stomach, and tried to move out of the way but another person, probably Crabbe because Malfoy couldn’t do his own dirty work, was holding him still.
“Stop it!” George yelled, lunging for Fred. Crabbe dropped Fred to push George away, and Goyle decided that if Fred was on the ground he could just kick him. Fred had to appreciate the ingenuity, really. He curled over, trying to protect his organs even though it was probably too late for him, and he heard the girls screaming. The assault stopped suddenly when Madam Hooch made her way over.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She demanded loudly. Fred gagged and spat up blood, which he realized very hazily was probably very bad. George yelped and was beside him, trying to help him sit up.
“You’re so stupid, what were you thinking?” He muttered.
“Wasn’t.” Fred muttered, coughing up more blood. Distantly he heard Madam Hooch in the background tearing into Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Through a swollen eye he peered at Malfoy, and saw he had a split lip. His injury wasn’t doing him any good though, as Madam Hooch was refusing to believe Fred started it.
“He deserved it, he hit me first!”
“And then you nearly killed him!” Alicia yelled, falling to her knees next to Fred. Fred winced at the volume of her voice. “Shit, Fred are you okay?”
“Just fine.” Fred slurred. He blinked, and the world was tilting. “Oh look, George, there’s three of us.”
“What?” George’s face grew tight with alarm. “Wait, Fred, no-”
Fred did not hear the end of his sentence because suddenly his hearing went out, and the world grew dark. Fred pitched sideways and felt George scrambling to grab him as he passed out.
Fred woke up in the hospital wing to see George curled up beside his bed. Angelina and the rest of the team plus Lee were next to him, Angelina ranting about something, but Fred couldn’t make out the specific words. All of a sudden all his senses rushed back to him, and he felt the intense need to vomit. He gagged, leaned over, and did so.
“Fred!” George was by his side before he’d finished emptying the contents of his stomach onto the floor. Angelina crinkled her nose and then vanished it. Good lass.
“Fred, are you alright?” George’s hands were on his shoulders, pushing him gently back onto the bed. Fred gagged in response. “Freddie?”
“Fine.” He managed. “I’m fine.”
“Oh, now we know you’re lying.” Katie said. She glared at him from the foot of his bed. “You had a broken nose, two broken ribs, one nearly punctured your lung by the way, and two black eyes. What were you thinking, hitting Malfoy like that?”
“I was thinking he deserved it.” Fred muttered, laying back on the bed. George snorted.
“You’re not wrong,” He said. “He kept going about Percy, after. I honestly think that’s what kept you out of detention, despite Umbridge’s best efforts.”
“No detention for that?”
“No,” Angelina said hollowly, “just a lifelong quidditch ban.”
“A what?” Fred blinked. “That exists?”
“For as long as Umbridge is here, yes.”
“Just a year then, till something disastrous happens to her.”
“It doesn’t matter, Fred, we graduate this year,” George shook his head. “McGonagall’s appealing it, going straight to the minister. Fortunately Malfoy got one too, and Crabbe and Goyle, so Slytherins out more players than we are.”
“Who’s out for us?” Fred asked. Alicia laughed.
“You and George. Harry was almost out, but then McGonagall pointed out he hadn’t actually done anything. George probably could’ve avoided it, but then Malfoy started about how that was two Weasleys who lost consciousness dramatically in a year and George broke his nose. In front of the professors.”
“You what?” A laugh bubbled up from Fred’s chest. “I thought you were telling me to stay out of it.”
“Yeah well, you try having your twin pass out in front of you and then the idiot who was responsible for it start talking trash. You’d’ve punched him too.”
“I did punch him.” Fred corrected. “I assume that’s why I’m out.”
“Yes.” Angelina said morosely. “No more beaters for us.”
“You’ll find new ones.” Fred muttered.
“That’s not the point, I want you two!” She pulled at her braids. George sighed.
“I’m not sorry.” He said, “And I’d do it again.”
“Nobody expects anything less from you George.” Alicia smirked. “We’ll find new beaters, hopefully young ones who can stay after we all gradaute. Maybe this isn’t a bad thing Ange.”
“It’s awful.” Angelina said flatly. Then she sat heavily in the chair George had vacated. “I’m glad you’re alright, Fred.”
“Am I?” Fred asked. “Because my insides feel all twisted.”
“Probably the concussion.” Katie said brightly. “You got one of those too.”
Lee sighed. “Fred, you lost that fight. Badly.”
“It was three on one, it's not my fault.” Fred yawned. “Ugh, I’m tired.”
“Go to sleep,” George said firmly. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”