It was a cold winter's day at Hogwarts. Snow littered the ground like a thick white blanket.
A snow storm had passed not but a few hours passed, but you would never guess by the sweet calm that the present held.
Classes were still in session, so the natural tranquility of winter was only disturbed by an over decorated van driving up to Hogwarts.
On the side in odd distorted letters it read 'Weasley & Weasley'. It came into park a bit of a distance away from the castle. Two red-headed twins emerged from the vehicle. The doors made a soft sound as they closed, but in the calm serenity it seemed to reverberate off the trees.
"Wow, never thought I'd really miss this place." Fred nodded at his brothers statement, staring up with him at the magnificent castle that was Hogwarts. Fred laughed
a little and nudged his brother.
"Maybe we should just be thankful its still open, how many times has something try to shut this place down?" George let out a little noise of amusement,
leaning his frame back while whistling.
"A lot...but we're not here to help protect it anymore, Ron said they finally got a security system, might have helped them when we were still around to cause our own chaos upon this place."
George said with a mirthful tone with a mischievous grin breaking out onto his features. He went around to the side of his van to pop a switch. After the switch was popped, a side door to the van swung open and a whole display of glowing potions and other magical items arranged themselves
upon mini-shelves that were building themselves up on a platform right outside of their business on wheels. Fred patted his equally evil twin on the back, smiling proudly at their display.
"In our defense, we were here to pick up our siblings and their friends to take them home for winter's break." Fred said.
"We can't help it if we happened to bring along some of our merch with us and the students want to buy it off us."George added, the boys looked at each other and high-fived. Slightly to the left of their display was a mini-ladder on the vehicle. They had installed it in preparation for this, so they could stand the top, it was another thing to help the students plainly see them when class let out. Fred looked down at his shiny,new watch he was able to buy with the profits from their company.
"Got about another ten minutes before they let out....George?" When Fred had looked up,
he saw his brother looking intently out into the woods and immediately he could tell something was wrong. "What's wrong?" Fred asked with a touch of concern and skepticism, he was wondering if this was a little prank his brother was going to pull on a few seconds, Fred didn't say anything, and didn't even move. The only movement he made was when he narrowed his eyes at something in the distance. Fred tried seeing what is was George was so fixed on, but couldn't. Fred stumbled slightly as the van
shifted from the weight change,George had jumped off and began running out into the woods. It only took a few seconds for Fred to see what he was running after , it was something black,surronded by a very distinct red color, but what got George charging after it, was the fact that it was human shaped.
Fred's reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys to the van, hitting a button letting the display rearrange itself back into the van. He jumped down and started following his brother who was already half way to whatever it was they were after. In a rare moment of actually thinking about what they were doing before doing it. He shouted, "STOP!George! What if it's a trap? Or what if whatever attacked them is still nearby." Fred caught up to George , and placed a hand on his shoulder to catch himself while he recollected his energy. Being closer now made the scene even more horrifying.
They couldn't tell much, but they could see a long object glinting in the afternoon sun, sticking out from a very much indeed human figure, an unmoving one at that. Blood streched out in the snow, leaving the injured person in an area of red that seemed to scream out in the white enviroment. George took another step forward, squinting his eyes trying to get a better view. Fred hung back for a few moments, chewing on his lip. He wanted to save whoever it was. He really did, but even though he and his brother seemed to live outside of the horridness that was happening around the world. He coudln't deny these were dark times. Fred looked down, not wanted to view it anylonger. "They're probably already dead, the best thing we can do now is go and find help." Fred hating letting himself submit to his better insticts, usually he could just be brash and do what he wanted without giving it a second thought, but he just didn't know this time. Fred took a step back, tugging at his brothers shoulder. George turned around and looked him dead in the eyes.
"Well Fred, the brilliant thing about being a twin, is there's two of us. One can go find help, while the other tries to go help now." George kept walking boldly after what they were after. Fred sighed in aggravation and followed.
"I'm not leaving you out here alone. Come on then." Fred and George walked side by side into the wilderness. They stopped an eight-foot distance away to really survey the damage. "Bloody Hell!" Both boys went to put their hands to their mouths. Mostly in shock, but the smell of bloody contributed to the action. They took a few more catious steps forward. Staring at what they could now see, was a young girl. They would have missed her if she had not beeing wearing such dark clothes and blood; her skin was just as pale as the snow and would make for useful camoflage. That's not excatly what they were noticing at the moment though. The horrifying scene was more than they ever wanted to witness in their life times. She was battered and bruised, cuts and other manor of injuries were scattered about this girls body. Her black hair was drenched in her own blood, sticking to her face , the only part of her features being visiable was her mouth. Her lips were red, chapped and bruised. It hung slightly ajar and overflowed with more blood that just dripped down her chin. Her body was propped up against a tree, and they could see they blood still rushing down the wood from an unseen injury to the back of her skull. However, the most noticable mutalation, was the silver glint Fred had saw earlier. It was a wide metal broom stick, the front end had impaled her and stuck itself in the ground.
The twins gave each other an uneasy look. Fred winced and looked away, clenching and unclenching his fist. George shut his eyes tight and held onto his brothers arm in a deathgrip. "Told you so...." Fred said wincing, glancing eyes slightly averted upwards and he noticed the fallen branches and damage to the surronding trees. "Didn't Ginny mention something about a barrier in letters to Mum?" Fred looked at the castle, trying to caculate how someone could hit the barrier and end up at this spot.
"Yeah, it's suppose to keep intruders out... " George looked down at the girl, starting to question if they should try and save her or not. "She could be a deatheater." His eyes averted to her arms, checking for the deatheaters tattoo. He then noticed her clothes were torn to shreds and her skin left exposed to the cruel winters temperatures. He shook his head, he had let himself get distracted, he reexamined her for the mark, yet could find none in his line of vision. Fred had done the same, and shrugged at his brother. "Poor thing," George sighed out, closing his eyes tightly,trying to erase the image from his brain.
"Come on, lets go get someone." He whipped his wand out, perpared to perform a transport spell. George allowed himself one glance back and his eyes widened.
"Wait," George stated bewildered. Fred gave him a questioning back and looked back at the corpse, and realized, she was breathing. The two brothers rushed over immediately. Fred picked up her wrist, placing his two fingers over the vein. George being braver, put his fingers to the side of her neck, and pressed his head against her chest, listening for a heartbeat. He sat up, blood on his pale ,freckled face and his orange hair now matted with a tone of red. Fred and George smiled at each other, "Tough little bugger." They said at the same time. Their moment of relaxation was interupted by the fact they still couldn't help her very well with her impaled like that. "Must have barely missed her heart." Fred said , looking the broom up and down.
"Fred, I'll stay with her, go get help. Look, they're right there." George pointed to a group of students standing around the van, it had been 20 minutes since classes let out , and most of the other students were gone, Harry Potter and gang were waiting for their ride out of Hogwarts.. "Tell them to get !" Fred prepared his wand ,but gave his brother a serious look before leaving, "Just so you know, if you get hurt out here, I'm going to stay at your bedside in the infirmary everyday singing 'The song that doesn't end' until your head explodes." George gave a small laugh , as Fred uttered the charm for a transportation spell and disappeared from George's side. George put his attention back on the highly injured girl. "How are you even still alive..." He murmured to himself, inspecting her body again. He looked away to see if help was on the way. His laced his hands together, resting his forehead on them. He kept chanting more to himself than her. "Come on kid, you're gonna make it." Suddenly, his head snapped up. A groan had emitted from the body of the girl. He lurched forward a bit from his crouch. "It's gonna be alright, don't move, don't want to damage yourself more." He felt bad for the girl, being awake through all this pain must be awful. He was waiting for her to scream, but she didn't, must not have had the energy.
"Uhh.......urg.....ouhhh." She made noises and squirmed, she must have noticed the pain because her eye shoot open and her mouth opened wide to scream. George went to her side to try and calm her down. However,it backfired, because as soon as she caught site of him, she panicked more. "Please! No more! Leave me alone, please! Don't touch me! I'm sorry ! I'm sorry! I didn't ask for this!" She screamed and fought, in the midst of all her ruckus, she had managed to nail George, right in the nose. George began to panic, her injuries were bad enough, all that fighting could kill her. Especially with the giant metal object through her torso.
"Hey! I'm the good guy. I'm not here to hurt you honest." He winced, trying to ignore the pain of his own injury now."Crazy woman..." He was going to try and pin her down, but that'd throw her into a fear frenzy. He just kept looking out back towards where Hogwards was located, hoping , praying ,help would arrive soon. "What's taking so long?" He started shaking. "Stop that! Don't you know you could kill yourself?!" Before the girl had just been failing her limps about. Now , she was squirming her torso, and that metal object was creeping closer and closer to her heart.
" I won't...." She said breathlessly. Fred knitted his brows together. 'Won't what?' he thought to himself. Then just shook it off. She was in a state of delirium. "I can't...." She started thrashing again, even harder this time. George was getting agitated, this girl was being ridiculous, couldn't she show concern for her own life? "Just be quiet, please, calm down, help is on the way." He scooted back a little bit, hoping it would help her calm down. She did, it seemed as if she had passed out again. George was on alert , afraid she had kicked the bucket this time. He learned from injury though, he wasn't getting close to her again. Finally, after ten long minutes, that seemed like ten days to George. Help arrived, Dumbledoore first, followed by Professor McGonagall, and Hagrid, then a cluster of students, including Nevil, Harry , Hermione, Ron, Luna , and Ginny. Hermione gasped at the scene like the other students, and held onto Ron tightly, burring her head into his shoulders. Harry , attempting to be a gentleman, and knowing the horrors of seeing death, stepped in front of Ginny. Nevil, well, he had fainted upon the first sights of blood. Dumbledoore scratched his beard, looking down suspiciously, yet calmly at the girl. "I don't think she's one of our students...." He said mysteriously. A very thoughtful look was played upon his old features.
"Is she alive?" Professor McGonagall asked, lacking sincerity, already thinking she knew the answer. However, the bloody body started her thrashing fits again. She screamed loudly, gripping the broom stick weakly ,trying to pull it out herself. "
"Well does that answer your question?" Fred stated, walking right passed her to kneel down beside the injured party.
"What happened to your nose?" Harry inquired , staring at George's bloody face. Fred looked at his brother questionably, and smirked a little, even though it was laced with relief that this was the only injury he sustained.
"This bloody mad woman is what happened, she's been throwing fits like this since you left, she's deathly frightened of people. If she doesn't stop she could kill her self!" He threw his hands in the air, huffing loudly , walking in a small circle , while rubbing his chin. Fred just laughed at him,
"Got your arse kicked by a half dead girl?" He said, trying to make light of the situation. "If she's got enough energy to throw punches like that she should live. The problem is that damned broomstick." Dumbledoore began casting a spell. The girl screamed her hardest, and fought with all of what was left of her might.
"We're just trying to help so you won't die. Calm down." George pleaded. Then, all of a sudden, the girl's body grew calm. Everyone looked at her , growing tense. Fred gulped, hoping his comment about her not dying at this point hadn't jinxed them. The girl's head tilted back softly, like she was staring up at the sky, and in the calmest voice she whispered out, almost painfully. "I . Can't. Die."
