Through the trees/ I will find you;/ I will heal the ruins left inside you/ Coz I'm still here breathing now.../ I'm still here breathing now.../ I'm still here breathing now...-Through the trees: Low Shoulder (Jennifer's Body Soundtrack)

Fred,

I don't know if they'll let you back in but you need to get back up here. About five minutes after you left Katie scraped part of her skin on a cursed necklace. She's alive but in a critical condition. I don't know what's happening between you two, but Leanne said something about letting you know and she's in a complete state so I said I'd write- come up to Hogwarts.

Rachel.

*

The doors to the hospital wing burst open and Fred marched in.

"Mr Weasley!" exclaimed Madam Pomfrey "What-"

"Where's Katie?" he cut across her.

"She's- I'm not sure-"

"WHERE IS SHE?" he shouted.

"She's over here."

Anna Jacks stuck her head around a curtain. "You must be Fred."

Fred nodded mutely and took a couple of hesitant steps forward. Katie's mother twitched her lips in a strained attempt at an encouraging smile, and then he stepped behind the curtain.

Katie's skin was deathly white, her lips pale; cracked and parched. She seemed to have shrunk within the few hours since he'd last seen her. Her hands were balled up, as if in pain and her hair looked dry as it hung around her face. She looked as though she was barely breathing.

But for Fred the worst part was her expression. It was completely blank. Obviously he was relieved that there was no pain registering, but it was utterly devoid of emotion. It wasn't even the calm of induced sleep. It was just....nothing.

It looked like she was dead already.

*

Snow falls gently. She stands next to a boy with startlingly orange hair, who is getting told off by a man with a hooked nose.

A tall girl stands behind the man, crying. Antlers are sticking out of her head. The ginger boy loses house points and is given detention.

"Why did you do that?" she asks once they are alone.

He shrugs "No one bullies my friends" he says firmly.....

*

Once Katie was moved to St Mungos Fred had to accept that life would have to continue. The healers weren't hopeful about her survival. They told him time and time again that they didn't know if they could heal her. Fred knew this.

It didn't mean he had to believe it.

He visited her everyday and chatted to her about his day, about what their friends were doing, what was happening in the world. He knew she could hear him, even if she couldn't respond.

*

She's on a broom, wind whipping through her hair. No nerves, just excitement. She ducks a bludger, weaves through the identical twins, passes to a black girl, who passes it to a very pale girl. The pale girl returns it to her. It's a low throw, but she swoops down and catches it. She flies forward to face the Keeper. This is it. She aims- she throws, praying, hoping, and...it goes in.

"Ok," shouts the Keeper "You're in."

The two chasers whoop and the twins cheer.

"Well done." Says one, zooming past her.

"Great catch." Says the other "And you managed to miss all those bludgers that I aimed at your face- we'll make a player out of you yet".....

*

November saw Katie lie blankly in the hospital bed for her 18th birthday. Fred sat next to her, holding her hand, blathering on as usual.

"...they've gone Dean Thomas to replace you, but Ginny doesn't think he's as good as you even though he's her boyfriend- although I don't know if she's just being nice seeing as you're lying here. They won the first match by quite a bit, even Ron was playing well apparently. And, even more surprisingly, he's got himself a girlfriend. Lavender something I think her name is."

He paused. There was a cough. At the door were three blonde, glamorous women, who could only be her sisters: Andrea, Phoebe and Amy. Behind them was their brother, Michael.

"Hi," Fred said nervously, standing up hastily "I'll just-"

He leaned over and kissed Katie on the cheek. "Happy Birthday Kate." He whispered.

*

The celebrations seem to go on all night, the huge Quidditch cup sitting on a table in the middle of the room.

She's dancing with the red-haired boy- what's his name? She feels as though she should know it. It flutters at the back of her mind like a feather in the wind and every time she makes a garb for it, it slips through her fingers.

But the boy is singing in her ear now. He's much closer and his breath tickles her neck. She feels as though she's been waiting for this moment for a while. Their eyes lock and his head begins to dip-

But the common room is quiet now and a Scottish voice is berating them. The boy steps away...

*

"...and then me, George and Ginny threw parsnip at him and he marched off with the Minister the stupid..." Fred trailed off and gazed at Katie's expressionless face. Her hair was straw like, but it had grown and it was part blonde, part fading red.

He couldn't fool himself for much longer. In two months there had been nothing. They told him that the brain waves were minimal. Her heart was beating, but that was about it.

He'd tried so hard to remain positive, but he couldn't prevent the despair washing over him. Some Christmas this was turning out to be.

"Can you hear me Katie?" he whispered "Can you tell I'm here?"

"I think she can."

Fred jumped and turned. Phoebe Bell smiled sadly.

"Her aura changes when you're here." She told him. "Like she knows you're there, like she wants to respond."

Aura? Normally Fred would have replied with something sceptical and laced heavily with sarcasm, but he found his throat had closed him, so instead he just nodded.

"You don't look like you believe in auras." She said with a quick grin. Fred was taken aback at how similar Phoebe and Katie's smiles were.

"Neither do you." He returned. They might have identical smiles, but they didn't have anything else in common. She was dressed in muggle clothes, a smart shirt and pencil skirt combination. She inclined her head slightly.

"Don't let clothes deceive you." She replied "Your disbelief was written on your face."

She took a seat "Why don't you carry on talking to her?" she suggested "I think she likes it."

Fred hesitated. Phoebe took his hand and squeezed it gently. He nodded and turned back to Katie.

"Lee's got a job on the WWN. It's only making tea but he's very proud of himself..."

They told him that there was almost no hope, but there was still a chance and he'd cling onto it for the rest of his life if he had to.