A/N: So, this is a one-shot set at the beginning of Deathly Hallows. It's short, but sweet. I own Sonya Black and and Nina Dragneel. It's a companion piece to my story "How to Save a Life" which is a cross over with Harry Potter and the Anime "Fairy Tail". You don't really have to read it, but it would make me happy if you did. :) Anyways, enjoy!
They were frustrating Harry. Telling him that what he had seen wasn't what happened. That his wand couldn't have acted on its own. Harry stormed out of the room. Nina fought her way out of Fred's arms. He had grabbed her the second she and Sonya Black had walked into the house and hadn't let her go since.
"Harry?" Nina knocked on the door frame softly before sitting down on the couch next to her charge. (He hadn't actually been her charge since Dumbledore had died, but the title had stuck in the six years they'd known each other.)
"Would you tell Sonya I'm sorry about George's ear?"
Nina's lips turned up at the corners.
"Sure, sure." She grabbed Harry's hand. "I believe you, you know..."
"I don't see why." He eyed the tattoos on her wrists. On her left were Fred's initals as well as those of their would-be child, and on her right was three 'W's, (WWW, with the ends of each W connecting.) standing for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. That one had been a joke, now permanent between the twins and herself. "No one else does."
"I've known you for almost seven years, Harry Potter, and not once have you ever told me something that wasn't entirely the truth."
Harry stared at his guardian- no, his sister- and he finally broke down.
"We lost Mad-Eye! And Hedwig! And George lost his ear. Fred nearly lost you and you both lost the baby! It's all my fault! Damn it! Why does it have to be me? What could I have possibly done to deserve any of it?"
"Harry," Nina sighed, pulling the boy- because no matter how much he'd been through, that's exactly what he was, a boy, just like she was only a girl- into her arms. She wiped his tears away, despite the stinging she felt in her own eyes at the mention of her lost child. "You listen to me. None of this is your fault. Phineas was premature. Nothing anyone could do about that. Mad-Eye didn't have what Snake-Boy wanted so he offed him. George knew that he could loose a limb during this and he's thankful it was just his ear. Hedwig, tragic as it is, was a better loss than you, Harry. None of us would be able to defeat him- not even me. It's not your fault."
Harry cried himself to sleep. Nina bit her lip and lay him down, covering him with a knitted blanket. When she entered the kitchen again, Fred was waiting for her. Everyone else, including George, had gone up to sleep. Fred's lips remained sealed, he just held out his hand to her.
Nina took it hesitantly and he pulled her to him, waiting for her to break down just like harry had. She had kept everything bottled up since they'd lost the baby- at the beginning of her sixth year, mind you. It wasn't healthy, and they both knew it. Fred would be the first to admit he'd cried in his brother's arms for days when Madame Pomfrey had told him. So it was only a matter of time now.
He kept his right hand tightly in her left. With the other he led her right hand to his shoulder before letting it drop to her hip. He swayed with her slowly, staring into her eyes. After a few seconds he began to hum.
"What are you doing?" Nina whispered.
"Shut up, Nina." Fred's eyes slid closed.
A small emotion, either anger or despair, crept into Nina's heart.
"Fred-"
"Shut up, Nina!" Fred decended upon her, grabbing her in his arms and sitting heavilly in one of the mismatched kitchen chairs. His voice softened. "Do whatever you need to. Hit me, hex me, beat me to a bloody pulp. Just let it out. I'm here."
Nina gasped quietly, and it was followed by several more.
"I'm about to blubber all over you if you don't let me go, Fred."
"Mm-hm." Fred nuzzled his face into her neck, willingly offering his own neck as compensation.
His simple answer sent her chest into almost painful constrictions. And all at once, she burst into long, heart wrenching sobs. He hadn't heard her cry like this. Not ever, except for when Cedric died. Cedric Diggory had, during that one year, become one of her best friends. And Fred had the sudden realization that she was crying harder now than she had then.
Listening to her sobs, and feeling her tears hit the skin on his neck made tears prickle in Fred's own eyes. He let it go, breathing unsteadily against her neck, laying kisses there every now and again.
And together, after hours of tears, they went up the stairs to the room they shared with George, and held each other until they fell asleep in the early hours of the morning.