AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh my goodness guys, I'm sorry this took so long to upload!!! I've been so busy with school that it's not even funny. Plus, my job is getting in the way since it's that holiday time of year again. Anyway, I do hope you all enjoy this chapter. In my opinion it's rather boring, but a lot of stuff happens. I've also just started writing chapter 15, but that won't be done for quite some time. Please, please have patience with me! I'm only human. Updated: 11/15/07
Rosie's eyes fluttered open to see pale light illuminating the curtains around her. Her lips—or what remained of them anyway—felt very dry and horribly chapped. Looking down at her arm, she noted with relief that her cast had been removed and the arm was perfectly healthy. It seemed like Madam Pomfrey had fixed it as she slept. She sat up gingerly, reaching for the water pitcher. Taking a tiny sip to wet her mouth, she blinked several times to rid herself of any lingering sleepiness.
Though she could not get out of bed yet owing to her still disfigured leg, Rosie yawned and stretched. She was about to call for Madam Pomfrey when the woman herself pulled back one of the curtains, smiling warmly.
"How are you feeling, dear?" she asked kindly, placing a tray loaded with food in front of Rosie. The motherly nurse also placed a steaming mug on the tray; Rosie hoped it was the medicinal potion she needed to put her leg and mouth back to normal. Rosie smiled in thanks and began cutting up some eggs and sausage.
"I feel all right," she replied as she swallowed a bite of egg. "But um… who was it that brought me up here? I only remember seeing the flashes from those students' wands before I blacked out."
Madam Pomfrey's smile faded a bit as she nudged the healing potion towards Rosie insistently. "Well, I know that you would like to have been rescued by Mr. Weasley (at the mention of Fred, Rosie looked hopeful), but sadly that is not the case. According to your dear friend Meredith, he hasn't been seen for three days now."
"Three days?!" Rosie exclaimed. Warning bells clanged loudly in her subconscious mind. "Has anyone gone looking for him?" she asked frantically. The nurse nodded reassuringly.
"Yes, but so far the search has been fruitless; however, the headmaster is doing his very best to find him."
Rosie still harbored a suspicious and gnawing feeling in her gut as she downed the potion. There was something going on, something odd, but she had no idea what it was, nor whom would want Fred hurt.
Suddenly she choked with realization.
'Perhaps a hex, maybe a jinx or two might… misfire on him.'
That kind of trouble could spell just one thing.
Draco Malfoy.
Rosie stayed in the hospital wing for another three days, over which time her lip was completely restored by Madam Pomfrey. Her leg was treated and healed, but even so, Rosie would never walk quite the same. Also, a faint scar remained on the right side of her upper right thigh; a white, irregular blob. Still, Rosie was thankful that she could walk. Though she was hit with mountains of missed assignments, she shoved it all aside and tried to think of what Malfoy might have done to Fred.
The evening she was released—a rather warm one for January—Rosie lay sprawled on her stomach, poring over the game of chess she had started with Meredith. Rosie, fittingly, was losing; her pawn had been mercilessly taken by one of Meredith's bishops and a knight had been crushed by the white queen. With a sigh, Rosie moved a pawn forward to block one of Meredith's and rolled over onto her back.
"Where could Malfoy have taken him?" she asked for the umpteenth time. Meredith, who was levitating Rosie's Advanced Transfiguration Techniques, Volume I, sighed in exasperation.
"Rosie, I just don't know. What we need is a clue. What I'd like to know is who brought you to the hospital wing," the blonde girl brooded, chewing at the tip of a quill.
'Who, indeed?' Rosie wondered, going back to a forgotten make-up essay for Charms; it was something about Unknowables.
"What are Unknowables, anyway, Mer?" Rosie asked. Meredith shrugged and turned; she had busied herself by turning her blonde hair different shades of purple and blue.
"Oh, things like Unplottable places, stuff you can't put on maps or find by Apparition or spells.. They come in handy when you want to hide things."
Rosie gaped. There was her answer, spelled right out for her.
"Meredith, if you knew that, why didn't you ever tell me?!" she cried. "And more importantly, why don't you apply this to your schoolwork?"
Meredith chuckled. "Well, you never asked."
"But then how are we going to get in to the Room of Requirement?" Rosie asked, her tone a little crestfallen.
"Well," Meredith quipped with a grin, "I doubt that 'I need to save my true love from the purest evil' is going to work." At this, Rosie scoffed, going back to the chess game.
Meredith had indeed taken her pawn, but now several of Meredith's pieces were open to an attack from Rosie's bishop. She took them, and quickly. It seemed as though things were turning in her favor once more.
Still, Rosie missed her cat and Fred.
"So, how do you like it here, Weasley?" Malfoy sneered, tracing his wand along Fred's jaw line. The normally humorous redhead curled his lip in disgust.
"Blow me, scum," Fred spat defiantly, jerking his head away from Malfoy's wand. The pale Slytherin prince chuckled maliciously.
"Not so tough when I've got you in a few ropes, are you? Tell me, what is it like to be totally helpless, at the mercy of someone you despise?"
Fred snorted. "Please. A Puffskein's got more balls than you do."
Malfoy's face darkened and he drew back his fist, not wasting any time in giving Fred a bloody lip. The redhead laughed.
"Wow, didn't think you had it in you, pasty face. Figured you wouldn't want to dirty your girly little hands."
"Shut up!" Malfoy screeched, punching Fred in the face again.
"Who's at whose mercy now, eh, Draconia?" Fred chuckled, despite the pain in his jaw that was increasing steadily. "I'm not as helpless as you think."
"Don't forget who's got your wand, blood traitor!" Draco snarled, waving the worn piece of wood in front of Fred's nose. Fred would have shrugged had he not been strapped so tightly to a stiff oak chair. He wasn't fazed by Malfoy at all; the Slytherin boy barely had control over his own wand as it was.
Fred cocked his head, his jaw set and resolute despite the situation. He'd find a way out—he always did. His eyes roamed the room—it had become delightfully full of various torturous and binding instruments according to Malfoy's twisted likings. The Room of Requirement had become as dank as the dungeons and equally as dim, a very light fog shrouding the floor. That could become useful later, but first Fred needed a way to get loose.
"Why so quiet?" Draco asked mockingly, spinning Fred's wand between his long fingers. "Perhaps if you stay quiet, I'll let you get up and walk a bit."
Fred gave him a long, hard look, weighing his options. First, he could mention how he was contemplating beating Draco's face in with a broom, or he could let Draco have his weak victory for the moment.
He satisfied himself by biting his tongue.
Malfoy smirked and waved his wand, the ropes binding Fred's legs together disappearing, allowing him to stand and walk, but Fred could still not move his arms, which were securely bound behind his back. Fred got to his feet, sneering at Malfoy, though he could not say that it didn't feel great to stand up. For the past couple days, Fred had been bound to that awful chair and given meager amounts of food and drink that Malfoy's cronies brought from the kitchens, with Malfoy taunting him at every moment.
Whenever Fred was left alone, however, he did everything nonmagical that he could think of to get free, but alas, Malfoy had searched him and taken everything Muggle-related from him, which included a small pocketknife. His only sense of time was whenever Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle entered or left the Room of Requirement, and Fred guessed that almost four days had gone by. Plus, with their comings and goings, Fred did not know what was going on in the rest of Hogwarts, as Malfoy Silenced Fred whenever he tried to coerce information from Malfoy's less intelligent bodyguards. It was, overall, quite a predicament.
Malfoy had planned it quite well, Stunning Fred as he pushed aside a tapestry to take a hidden passage. Fred always used that passage as a shortcut to the Great Hall for lunch. He had been so distracted by thoughts of seeing Rosie that he had been caught completely off guard.
Fred's insides squirmed. He had never even made it to the Hall to see Rosie before he had been kidnapped. Could Malfoy have done something to her as well? If not, how was she? Where was she? Could she be looking for him at that very moment? There were just too many questions without answers.
Still, Fred dearly missed Rosie, and he vowed to beat the living daylights out of Malfoy if the scum had harmed one hair on her head.
Little did he know that Rosie was pacing just outside the Room of Requirement, thinking of everything she could to try and get into the room. She was not only frustrated, but desperate, even with Meredith standing by. In fact, Rosie was so distraught that she slumped down in front of where she knew the room to be and cried. The salt tears leaked freely from her eyes as she shook with sobs.
"Mer, he's right on the other side of this wall and I can't do a thing!" she choked out, her voice hoarse and strained. "The one person I care about most is on the other side, and I can't get to him!"
Meredith crouched down next to her and held her comfortingly, chiding her softly. "Hush now, dearest. Fred knows you're looking for him; in fact, he's probably worried sick about you. Plus, this is Fred we're talking about. He'll find a way out."
Rosie looked up at Meredith, wiping her eyes and smiling weakly. "Thanks Mer. I'm sorry; it's just that I'm so worried—"
"You had best be off to your dormitories, my dear girls, before I am forced to not only deduct five points from each of you, but give you detention as well," drawled a bored voice. "Now wouldn't that be tedious?"
Snape's thin, sour milk-colored lips curled into an icy smile. Rosie's stomach turned when she looked up at him, but she knew better than to say anything. Meredith made to offer a smart retort, but Rosie put a hand on Meredith's arm, hastily composing herself.
"Sorry, Professor," Rosie said as respectfully as she could manage. To this, Snape only nodded curtly and motioned for them to be off. Without a word, Rosie jumped to her feet and pulled Meredith along with her, turning the corner to head for the Ravenclaw dormitories.
However, Rosie wouldn't be defeated that easily.
As soon as she and Meredith were out of Snape's sight, Rosie pulled Meredith into a hidden corridor covered by a tapestry. Snape followed after them, just as Rosie had hoped, so she cast an Invisibility Charm on herself and Meredith in case he lifted the tapestry. She could hear Snape's even, quick footsteps echoing on the stone floors as he turned the corner and stopped in front of the tapestry. Rosie held her breath, praying to every god she could think of that this time, Snape would walk past.
Her blood pounded in her ears.
The tapestry shifted and a long, sallow finger curled around it.
It was over. Rosie and Meredith were going to get detention and thus be foiled in their attempt to rescue Fred.
Therefore, it was quite a shock when Professor Sprout's voice sounded out of nowhere.
"Ah, there you are, Severus! I know it is quite late, but I was attending to my Mandrakes, and one of them—"
"You require a mending antidote?" Snape cut her off, his long finger sliding away and out of Rosie's sight. The girl almost collapsed with relief.
"Sharp as always!" Professor Sprout clicked cheerily. "Now if you would just take me to your private store…"
Their voices faded away gradually as they made for the dungeons. When Rosie was sure they were gone, she exhaled loudly and sank to her knees. Meredith, who was used to evading teachers, smiled.
"Wow, Fred's been rubbing off on you, hasn't he?" the sly blonde asked as she pushed the tapestry aside for Rosie. The now not-so-meek girl smiled weakly.
"Yeah… I just… I just hope he's okay," Rosie replied, going back to the corridor and staring fixedly at the blank wall where she knew the Room of Requirement to be. "I think I'm going to wait here until Malfoy shows his ugly face," she stated resolutely with a frown, holding her wand at the ready. She was going to make him pay dearly for kidnapping Fred.
Meredith did not miss the dark look that passed over her friend's face. "I'll take the first watch," she offered, moving to take Rosie's place. Rosie was stiff at first, but then she nodded, knowing that even in her current state, she would eventually tire and therefore not be able to face Malfoy.
As Rosie stepped back to watch back at the corner, she couldn't help but shiver ever so slightly. Hogwarts was so different in the dead of night. The walls seemed larger, more close together, and definitely more foreboding. Even though Meredith was just feet from her, though, Rosie hadn't ever felt so alone in the castle before. Before, when she hadn't been dating Fred, she wouldn't have felt so afraid. She had been used to being by herself, never relying on anyone other than Meredith for comfort. Sure, having Meredith around was nice, but Fred was different. Fred didn't just comfort her with a few heartfelt words and a hug. He truly made her feel better about herself. He lifted her self-esteem; he made her laugh. Soft kisses and gentle cuddling assured her that everything would be all right. Fred had taught her how to have fun and not be so studious all the time, how to be comfortable with herself.
Yet…
Rosie had forgotten how to be without him.
Her world seemed so empty without Fred, so hollow… so…
"Rosie!" hissed Meredith suddenly, tearing her from her downwardly spiraling thoughts. "The room is opening!"