"No! Fred! No!"

Ellie struggled to hear the agonizing voice over the screams and shouts of the destruction. She tried to remove the broken stone and glass fallen from the wall destroyed only moments before. With each movement, she felt a sharp pain in her left arm.

"Fred! Why? Why?"

There was the muffled voice again. Was it Ron? No, this voice was lower, and she could detect that slight pompous tone…

"Percy!" She heard Hermione call, and then gasp.

"Oh my God!"

"Ellie! Where's Ellie?" Harry asked frantically.

"Over here!" she called weakly, pulling her right arm up and waving it.

Harry staggered over, careful not to trip on the debris scattered from the explosion. He held out his left hand and she took it with her right, pulling herself up.

"You all right?" he asked slowly, avoiding her eyes and looking at the ground.

"I'm fine," she lied, trying to ignore the pain in her left arm as she hid it under her robe.

Together they walked carefully to where Percy kneeled, pounding the ground with his fists.

"I'll kill him, I'll kill him!" he was shouting.

Kneeling beside Percy was Hermione, nearly sobbing, and Ron standing above her, his eyes foggy and his freckled face white.

Something was wrong, Ellie panicked. Where was Fred and why was everyone kneeling? She turned to Harry and glared at him.

"Harry, what's going on?" she demanded as they approached the group. "Where's-

"Fred."

She didn't recognize him for a moment. He was buried underneath the blocks of stone, only his head and right leg visible. The grin was still etched on his face. His eyes were open, but they no longer held any depth as he stared unblinking.

An unbearable pain overcame Ellie's body as she dropped to her knees. No, no, he's fine, she assured herself. He's just teasing, he's done it before.

"Fred, stop messing around. Please Fred, it's not funny," she pleaded.

Hermione and Harry exchanged a worried look. Ron's head was bowed.
"Fred, please say something, Fred, FRED!" Ellie's voice was growing increasingly desperate with each word she spoke as she shook him violently, urging him to wake up. Her head was pounding, but she no longer felt the pain in her arm.

She tried to hold back the tears, but they insisted on coming. She looked at his grinning face, his crooked smile, and his brown eyes. This was the face she had loved for years, the face she couldn't bear to say goodbye to, but she knew the truth and forced herself to finally accept it: Fred wasn't joking.

"How could you leave me?" Ellie whispered. She bowed her head and a tear fell onto his right hand, followed by another and another. She closed her eyes.

Someone moved beside her and gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

"It's going to be all right. We'll get through this," Hermione encouraged.

Ron dropped to his knees as well and Harry joined Percy on the ground, trying to calm him. Despite the screams and explosions of the battle down the corridor, they remained huddled around Fred's body.

Ellie's mind drifted back to the summer evenings of the past summer, before she had set out with Harry, Ron and Hermione on the search for Horcruxes. Those evenings when she and Fred had sat beside the garden, listening to the angry voices of the gnomes scurrying about and discussing Quidditch and future plans for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with George.

She remembered listening to Potterwatch after she'd left, anxious to hear his voice while on the search for Horcruxes, and the joy she felt in her heart when he dedicated an 'I love you' to her over the broadcast, somehow always seeming to know she was listening wherever she was. Just by hearing his voice, his laugh, no matter how far he was, was enough to get Ellie through each day and now his voice was gone forever.

"No, no it's not," she whispered at last.

"Ellie…" Hermione warned cautiously, knowing what was going to happen next.

Ellie stood up as another explosion boomed at the corner of the corridor.

"No, it's not going to be all right! Fred is dead! He's dead, don't you get it?" she shouted angrily. "How can you just say everything will be all right? He's gone! Gone, damn it! And he's…he's never coming…" Ellie struggled to finish the words as tears flooded her eyes again. She could feel the pain feeding on her heart, making it difficult to breathe. But something stronger was overcoming the pain, something she had never felt so strongly before: hatred.

It was flowing everywhere in her body, through every bone and vein. She hated everyone; she hated the Death Eaters, she hated Voldemort for starting everything, she hated Harry for letting it happen, but most of all, she hated herself for not doing anything about it. The realizations that someone was responsible for Fred's death made her yearn only for revenge; to kill the person who had done it.

Ellie sighed, feeling defeated. She didn't even know who had killed him. But someone had to have seen it, someone beside Fred before the explosion…

"Percy!"

Percy looked up at Ellie from the ground, his face grimy and expressionless.

"Percy, who did it? Who killed him?" she demanded.

Again, Percy only looked at her.

"Percy, tell me! Tell me who killed Fred!" she repeated angrily.

Percy looked at her for another moment, his eyes flashing.

"Rookwood," he replied bitterly.

Harry quickly stood up and faced Ellie.

"Ellie, I know what you're thinking. We can't do this right now. We'll find him and we'll get him, but we have to get the Horcruxes," he reminded her. "We can't do this right now. We need you. If we don't get Voldemort, everyone will die."

Ellie glared at him, hatred burning her face.

"It doesn't matter if I live anymore," she spat. "So one person is not enough? Fred died, but that's not enough is it? Not enough to care?"

She turned to Ron.

"Ron, he was your brother, damn it!"

No one said anything. Ron turned a deep shade of red, mimicking his hair. Percy stood up and leaned against the wall, waiting for something to happen.

"So that's it?" Ellie finally said, looking at Harry and Hermione's determined faces. "That's how much Fred Weasley meant to you?"

"Ellie, please, please!" Hermione begged, her eyes full of tears. She tugged at Ellie's arm. "We have to get the snake, we have to go!"

Ellie pulled away, ignoring Hermione's pleas.

"Leave his body here. Let him wither away." She forced the bitter words. "And you know what," her voice rising, "you can all just go to hell!"

And with those final words, she turned and ran. She ran to leave the world behind, to leave those last few excruciating moments. She didn't know where to go for a brief second, angry at her own confusion. She narrowly avoided a shot of green light, adrenaline pumping through her veins as she continued running. She didn't look back at Harry and the others calling for her to stop.

"Ellie!"

She turned around to see Percy panting behind her, trying to catch up. His eyes were narrowed and his face flushed.

"Percy, what the hell are you doing?" she called, and turned around to see him as they ran.

"I have to kill him!" Percy snarled.

Rookwood, she remembered. There was a large group of people at the corner of the corridor. Some were in Hogwarts uniforms, others disguised in hooded black robes.

"Which one is he?" she shouted to Percy behind her as they approached the horde.

Students and Death Eaters were dueling vigorously. Ellie saw Dean and Seamus, and even though she was supposed to be hiding, Ginny weaving through the crowd.

Ellie and Percy stopped. Percy pointed to a tall dark-haired man. His hood was down and he was sending curse after curse at Hannah Abbott.

So this is him, she told herself. Curses were flying through her head; all she had to do was raise her wand and the deed would be done.

"I'll take him," she called to Percy over the erupting noise.

"Ellie, you can't. He'll kill you; he knows more Dark magic than all the Death Eaters combined!" He made an attempt to grab her arms. She shoved him away and reached for her wand, taking aim directly at Rookwood only feet away.

"George! George, you have to stop her!" Percy cried frantically. "She can't do this, she'll regret it!"

George? Ellie turned around for a brief moment, only pausing to see him running from her right toward her, looking worried and confused.

Oh God, George, she panicked. How do we tell George?

"No!" she heard him cry, but it was too late.

"Crucio!"

It was pain as she had never experienced. Her skin was on fire, her limbs twisting and writhing in agony. It felt like needles were puncturing every nerve in her body and all she could do was scream and silently pray for death.

She was scared. She remembered what had happened to Neville's parents. Death would be an easier relief. When was it going to stop? She felt her body weakening with each second and her vision was slowly blurring, until all she could see was black. Somewhere though, she could hear voices. The fighting was still going on, she guessed. Anger was bubbling inside of her. Was no one going to do anything about her?

A voice, however, distinguished itself and she could hear it clearly, almost a shout.

"Avada Ked-

"Stupefy!"

The pain stopped immediately, leaving only a vague numbness in its place. The anger at failing to avenge Fred's death was prevalent, but slowly disintegrating, and an overwhelming wave of grief overcame her body so strongly she began to tremble.

Everything around her was slowly clearing up; she could make out faces above her and slowly recognized nearby voices.

"Ellie! Ellie, thank God! Are you all right?"

She could feel him breathing; he was directly above her. She raised her head and looked into his worried brown eyes, his ginger hair shaggy from the fighting and the blood stained on his cheeks, covering his freckles.

"George," she whispered weakly. "F-F-Fred, he's-he's…"

But George and everything else disappeared into the blackness as she dropped her head onto the stone floor and all consciousness was drained.