Serpentine ; Fred Weasley

Ninety-four

"I'm sorry, but with what you've told me, the baby can't be Fred's."

I closed my eyes as that was exactly what I was afraid of. I had already known but a part of me simply hoped it wasn't true.

Fleur looked at me with sympathy in her eyes, but I just looked at Fred who leaned against the doorway, biting down on his thumb while looking at my covered stomach.

I had been here for a couple of days now with time and space to calm down and get used to being safe around people who didn't want to hurt me.

"Then I don't want to keep it." I said. "I want it gone."

"...okay." Fleur nodded. "Well, you're only at the very start so we've got time. Going out now to get what we need, isn't safe. The safest option would be St. Mungo's, but we can't do that either."

I glanced at her, then looked at Fred as his eyes flipped up to mine.

"I'll go get it." He said. "I'll sneak into St. Mungo's—"

"No." Fleur interrupted him as she shook her head. "It's too dangerous, Frederick. We have to wait."

"Wait?" Fred asked and looked at her. "For what? For the war to end? We don't know when that will be. She doesn't want this child and if we wait, she might have to end up giving birth to it!"

I flinched at the way he raised his voice, and I closed my eyes, counting to ten in my head.

"We will figure it out." Fleur said. "I'll check with Bill. Maybe there is something we can do. A potion perhaps."

Fleur gave my shoulder a squeeze before she left the living room, and I felt Fred take a seat next to me, causing me to flinch again.

"Can I see the cut on your arm?" He asked me and I looked at him to see him hold out his hand.

My arm had to heal up the muggle way. When being in hiding, we couldn't use our  wands.

"Be careful. It hurts." I said as I placed my arm in his hand.

"It hurts?" He asked as he carefully unwrapped the gaze to take a look at the wound. "You should've said something. We have painkillers."

"I don't want painkillers."

Fred glanced at my face.

"Of course you—" then he realised what I really meant, and he sighed, shaking his head. "...I'm getting you painkillers."

He sighed as he tapped the skin close to the wound, causing me to hiss in pain.

"It looks infected." He said. "One second. Let me go and get Charlie. I think he's got a potion that fight infections."

I watched Fred as he stood up and made his way through the house, while I looked down at my stitched up arm.

It was red and sore, some kind of yellowish pus coming from it and it felt hot.

I moved my hand to the wound, looking at the stitches and feeling an urge to pull them out to feel the pain.

I wondered what it would feel like. How much it would hurt.

Just as I went to tug at the stitches, I heard footsteps and I looked up to see Fred enter with two vials.

"Alright, this one's for the infection and this is for the pain." He said and sat in front of me, on the edge of the sofa table.

He handed me the vial with some green liquid in it, and I stared at it, moving the vial to see the liquid move around as well.

"Drink it." He told me, and I glanced at him before popping it open, then drinking all of it.

I coughed at the horrible taste and as I wiped my mouth on the back of my hand, Fred handed me the other vial which contained blue liquid.

"This is for the pain?" I asked, and Fred nodded. "Yeah... no thanks."

"Kai, drink the potion."

I shook my head, trying to hand it back to him but he wouldn't take it.

"Why do you want to be in pain?" He asked me. "Kai, c'mon. Please. I can't stand to see you like this. I can't stand to see you hiss in pain every time you make a wrong movement. I can't stand to see you hurting. Please just drink it."

I stared at his eyes as he spoke, and I closed my eyes, gathering the courage before I grabbed the vial and popped it open, then downed it.

"Thank you." Fred breathed, carefully bringing a hand up to gently take my chin in his hand, making me look at him.

He smiled softly at me, brushing his thumb over the corner of my lips, and I offered him a soft smile before looking away.

"I'll get some more gaze and then I'll wrap your arm again." He told me, getting up and disappearing into the bathroom.

I stared at my arm again, until he returned and I kept looking at the stitches until I was no longer able to, due to him wrapping it in gaze.

"I'm sorry." I said as I moved my eyes to stare at him. He shortly flicked his eyes up to meet mine, then went back to wrapping my arm.

"About what?"

I shrugged.

"I haven't kissed you." I said. "I've been here for days but I haven't kissed you."

"Take your time, lovely." He said, running his hand up to my elbow before he looked at me. "Don't rush into anything you're not comfortable with, alright?"

I nodded slowly.

"I want to." I whispered. "But I don't think I can. What if I won't ever be able to kiss you again?"

He moved his hand up to my jaw, brushing his thumb over my cheek as he looked at me.

"Then we'll make it work without kissing." He with with a smile. "Though I'm sure that with time, you'll be able to, yeah?"

I nodded and he rested his forehead against mine, before kissing me on the head as he stood up.

"Do you want tea?" He asked, but I shook my head.

"No thanks. It's fine."

"Okay..." he said softly, brushing his hand over my shoulder as he walked into the kitchen.

I sat with one of the empty vials, turning it over in my hand, looking at it.

"We're going tonight." I heard Harry's voice as he, Ron and Hermione walked down the stairs. "It has to be in her vault. We just need to get in, grab it and get out. Should be easy."

"Right. Easy." Ron breathed while I looked up to glance at them, then looked at the vial again.

"What're you planning?" I asked, staring at my own reflection in the vial.

"Uh... the Gringotts thing we've planned." Hermione told me. "Remember we mentioned it?"

I nodded slowly.

"Oh... yeah."

"You wanna come?" Ron joked, and I looked at him while seeing Fred turn to look at him as well, obviously having heard him.

"Mate!"

"What?" Ron asked and looked at his older brother. "I was joking! Of course she's not gonna come with after what happened to her."

I looked down, then closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"What idiot jokes about something like that?" Hermione asked, hissing at Ron in a whisper, but I could still hear it. "You're an idiot, Ronald. Learn when to keep your mouth shut."

I tried to shut out their voices, not wanting to listen to their argument so instead I got up and walked upstairs.