Yours, Fred | f. weasley x reader

Chapter 22: The Summer After

"Y/N, this is Sirius, my godfather. Sirius this is Y/N, I told you about her before," Harry said as he patted the bed at his feet for you to sit down.

"I understand this must be strange for you, Y/N, but I promise I mean you no harm," Sirius told you sincerely with a glint of sadness in his eyes. You sat up on the bed with Harry and looked at the man in front of you.

"No it's fine, they told me everything that happened, and I know you're innocent. It's just strange to see you here, and in person. I thought you were in hiding?" you studied him, noticing how different he looked from the 'wanted' posters that had been pasted around Hogsmeade last year, he now wore clean clothes and a well-tailored jacket, and his hair and beard were trimmed neatly.

He grinned good-naturedly, "I'm still in hiding, I just managed to find better lodgings than the cave I was in last year," you smiled at his easy humour, "I was summoned by Professor Dumbledore after what happened yesterday," his eyes softened as he looked at you, "I'm so sorry about your friend." You nodded in acknowledgement, "thank you, Mr Black."

"Please, call me Sirius. We're both basically extended members of Harry's family at this stage aren't we? I've a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of each other," he looked at his godson who nodded keenly, and then you all jumped with a start as you heard footsteps approaching.

Before your eyes, Sirius transformed into a black dog who hopped up onto the bed next to you and faced in the direction of whoever was approaching, and before you could even form a coherent thought about the matter Harry whispered, "animagus," which answered your silent question as you observed the dog, Sirius, who sat next to you.

A woman's fragile voice spoke from outside the curtains, and Harry told her to come in. A pale and worn Mrs Diggory stepped through the curtains and smiled at you both sadly, "I know you're resting Mr Potter, but I just wanted to visit you as soon as I could, Amos wanted to come but he, well...." Her eyes were glassy as she trailed off and stared intently at Harry.

She reached forward and took his hand in hers, "thank you for trying to save our son, and thank you for bringing him back to us." Harry blinked back tears and he nodded at the woman who squeezed his hand and then she turned to you. "Y/N Y/L/N?" You nodded slowly, surprised that she knew who you were. "Cedric..." she cleared her throat, "he spoke of you often, you were a great friend to him."

Tears welled up in your eyes and you swallowed a lump in your throat, you could only nod in acknowledgement of her words. She reached into her coat and pulled out an envelope, "we found this in his dorm room, among a few others he never got to send. It's addressed to you," she handed it to you and then squeezed your shoulder in her frail hand as she said polite and subdued goodbyes to you both, before making her way out of the Hospital Wing.

You stared down at the envelope in your hands with your name written in Cedric's familiar cursive, recognising it from your years spent together in the library doing homework and studying. You couldn't bring yourself to open it that day, telling yourself that you just needed time before reading his last words to you and that you would wait until after the memorial service that was being held in his honour.

---

A month later, you were still staring down at the same, unopened letter. Harry's words echoed in your mind, encouraging you to look at it and give yourself closure. Even the twins, who you'd seen once when they Apparated to your hometown within the first week of summer, had encouraged you to open it rather than torturing yourself by putting it off. Your mind drifted to the twins then, you hadn't seen them in weeks and they told you that their parents didn't think it was safe for them to be drawing attention to your Muggle neighbourhood, but that they'd see you soon.