“You actually are joking, Perce…. I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were“”
BOOM! Fred’s sentence was interrupted by an explosion so enormous that he was lifted off his feet. He flew backwards through the air, bits of rock and rubble pummeling his entire body. Covering his face with his hands, he continued to soar until, with a crash that knocked all the wind out of him, he hit the ground. Lights popped in front of his eyes. Blinking furiously, he tried to stand up, but stumbled; his leg seemed to be injured. Wincing slightly, he got to his feet, scanning the scene.
The whole corridor in which he, Percy, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and the two Death Eaters had been dueling had been ripped apart by the curse that had hit it. Pieces of the castle lay scattered across the floor, and when he looked up, he could see the moon. Fred squinted through the clearing dust. Far, far away, he saw the battle still being fought. With a pang that had nothing to do with his injured leg, he thought of George. Was he all right? Fred wanted to go and look for him but“
In the distance, he could see shapes moving. The others! Limping, he walked as fast as he could towards the stirring figures. It was Ron who was nearest him.
“Fred!” he cried. “It’s you! What“what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Fred said. “Are you hurt? Are you“ ”
But he stopped talking at once, for beside Ron, he could see the bodies of the two Death Eaters, weirdly disfigured by the boulder-sized stones that had crushed them.
“Serves them right for trying to do us in,” Fred said scornfully. Ron grimaced, looking disgusted at one of the mangled bodies: Pius Thicknesse’s arm had been twisted all the way around. Recovering himself, Ron looked up and said, voice trembling,
“Have you seen the others? Are they all right?”
“Wait a moment, someone’s coming!” said Fred. He raised his wand at the approaching figure, its face obscured in the thick layer of dust still in the air. But then it settled, and he could see that it was Percy.
“All right, you two?” Percy said. “What happened to your leg?”
“It’s nothing,” said Fred. “Gone off themselves, actually. I thought they might’ve lobbed it off like they did to George. Look, I think I see the others over there,” Fred said, pointing at the other moving shapes in the distance. “Let’s go see if they’re hurt.” Ron nodded, but at that precise moment, they heard a terrible scream, and saw jets of light flying through the air. More Death Eaters had arrived and they were heading in their direction. Fred and Ron sprinted as fast as they could through the rubble to meet them. Fred could see that the two Death Eaters that had arrived were not wearing masks. The first was Antonin Dolohov, the second, Bellatrix Lestrange. Behind them, Fred could see the forms of Harry and Hermione unconscious on the ground. But he did not have time to check if they were all right, for the two Death Eaters had fired curses straight at him, Ron, and Percy.
“Crucio! Crucio! Crucio!” Bellatrix was shrieking, cackling between curses. All three of them sent spell after spell after spell at the two Death Eaters, narrowly dodging jets of green and red light shooting from the end of their enemies’ wands.
“Give it up! You cannot win!” Dolohov screamed at them. But just then, Fred and Percy both sent Stunning Spells flying at him, hitting him squarely in the face. The combined force of the two spells sent Dolohov soaring through the air. He smashed into one of the half destroyed stone walls and lay still.
“Nice one!” Fred shouted to Percy, and they both ran to help Ron. But as they ran, Bellatrix aimed a curse at their brother, and he fell, knocked out. As quick as lightning, she turned her wand on Fred and Percy.
Fred felt a jet of light hit him across the face, and he fell to the ground. Pain seared on all parts of his face, and when he put his hand to his own cheek, he saw that he was bleeding. Laughing madly, Bellatrix then pointed her wand triumphantly at Percy, who had run to Ron’s side.
“NO!” Fred cried, struggling to rise, but“
“AVADA KEDAVRA!” Bellatrix screamed.
Fred watched, horrified, as a jet of blinding green light filled the air, moving as if in slow motion. He could see Percy kneeling by Ron’s side, his wand held limply in one hand, a look of surprise on his bespectacled face. And then he crumpled to the ground, his horn-rimmed glasses slipping onto the floor, where they shattered.
“NO!” Fred cried again. “NO!” He dragged himself to Percy’s body, and shook it as hard as he could.
“No…no…Perce…Percy!” The world was ending. He could not breathe. He could not see. All he could think about was Percy, and how Percy was…dead. His brother was dead. His brother, whom he had thought he hated for three years, but whom he had really loved deep down, was now gone forever. He would never be able to speak to him again. Percy was gone.
And then an anger like he had never known before overcame him. All he wanted to do was to hurt the one who had done this. He wanted to hurt Bellatrix Lestrange, to see her writhe with pain. She would pay for what she had done. She had killed his brother and now she was going to be killed by him. Fred wanted to see her dead. And as he sat there, still clutching his brother’s body, he thought of Mad-Eye, of Sirius, of Dumbledore…he thought of everyone who had died because of these horrible people, these Death Eaters.
A numb sort of fury in his mind, he wiped blood and tears away from his face with his hand. And still unable to stand up, he looked around furiously. Where was Bellatrix?
Then he saw her. She was walking slowly towards him with a gleeful look in her eye. She raised her wand.
“Just one more left,” she said, a wildly determined look in her eye. “No one left to help you, is there, Weasley?”
“I don’t need any help,” Fred shot back. His body shaking from the pain in his face and leg and from the anger coursing through his veins, he stood up slowly, pointing his wand at Bellatrix.
“Going to avenge your brother’s death are you? And if I recall rightly, we’ve already scarred your dear twin brother. Now you’re going to kill me, you blood traitor?” Bellatrix twirled her wand in her hand, a smile playing across her gaunt face.
“Yeah, I suppose so,” Fred said sarcastically and with surprising calmness. “I’m going to kill you tonight. I’m going to kill you for all the pain you’ve caused. All you Death Eaters have caused so much pain and you don’t even care!” His voice was rising now. “You all don’t give a damn who you kill, do you? Alastor Moody? Sirius Black? Albus Dumbledore? My“my“brother“”
His voice caught in his throat. He just glared at Bellatrix, his wand at his side.
She took a step toward him. “Those people were mere obstacles. They were in the way of the Dark Lord’s plan. They died, as you will, because they could not see the truth. The Dark Lord’s reign is here, Weasley. Accept it. If you don’t, if you try and resist, you will die, just as your brother died. So choose. Do you bow down and accept your fate? Or do you fight?”
Fred raised his wand. “I will fight.”
“Foolish boy.” With a flourish, Bellatrix hit Fred with the Cruciatus Curse. He fell to the ground screaming and writhing with pain. It was pain beyond anything he had ever felt in his life.
“Still want to fight, Weasley?” Bellatrix said tauntingly.
Fred knelt on the ground as his body shook horribly. His injured leg and face burned as if they were on fire. With the last of his strength, he raised his wand and sent a jet of red light at Bellatrix, but with a flick of her wand, it vanished in a puff of smoke.
“Do you still think you are going to kill me tonight, Weasley? Or do you still need convincing?” She hit him again with the Cruciatus Curse. Fred fell from his knees to the ground, writhing with pain again. All he could hear was the sound of his own screams and Bellatrix’s cruel laughter. He could not fail…he couldn’t. He had to kill her. He had to for Percy…but...
Again and again she Cruciated him, her laughter becoming louder with each curse. And then it all stopped. He lay there, face down on the ground, hardly breathing, his vision cloudy. He didn’t even have the energy to lift his head when he saw a dark shape moving toward him.
“This is the consequence of your choice,” he heard Bellatrix say. “You chose to fight me, and when you did that, you chose death.”
It was over. He was going to die, just as Percy had done. He screwed up his face in agony as he thought of Percy, who had just come back to them, who he had just forgiven. Fred would never have the chance to tell him that he was sorry for the way he and George had always treated him. Percy never had deserved such torture. And because of Bellatrix, he would never have the chance or be able to avenge his death. He had failed. Fred thought of George, of Bill and Charlie, and of his mum and dad. As he lay there, tears ran silently down his face and to the cold ground.
Fred heard Bellatrix say the curse, and he shut his eyes tightly. But that could not keep out the flash of green light, the sound of rushing wind, or the total darkness that consumed him.
Choosing to Fight by x2pttrclue32
Chapter Notes: Hello all. This story takes place during DH, but it does deviate from canon as you will soon see. I changed things around a bit. For reference, this story starts off right near the end of chapter thirty-one, The Battle of Hogwarts.
And thanks to my betas, Faded and Forgotten, thegirllikeme, and solemnlyswear_x!
Also, as a disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, spells, etc. in the story. They all belong to J.K. Rowling. Furthermore, I did not write the first line of this story. It was written by J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.