Within You, Without You

I picked my head up at the sound of footsteps. I sat there, mind and body frozen with my hands right in the front of my face, hoping that whoever was coming was similar to a T-Rex in the fact that their sight was based off of motion.

A pair of feet and legs came into my eyesight, but I remained frozen. There's still a chance that...

"Lucy?"

Dammit, I cursed in my mind. Sadness was bad enough, but it's even worst when it's public sadness. I looked up and saw Fred Weasley standing in front of me.

"Lucy, if you don't hurry up, Gryffindor is going to be missing someone for dinner," He said smiling.

"What about you, Fred?" I asked back, as strong as possible.

He just grinned at that. "You still can tell us apart after all."

I shifted my mouth into a quick empty grin. "Told you," I stated, and hoped that soon he'd be on his way, and I could figure out pulling myself together.

Fred took a step towards me, and his features changed. They became confused and concerned. Great.
"Hey, Lucy, are you okay?" He asked, taking another step closer.

"I'm fine. What would make you ask that?" I answered, probably a bit too quickly.

Fred then sat down next to me. "There's a sadness to your face," He told me, looking at me. I looked away, wishing that my face wouldn't express how I felt so obviously. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him smile. "Well come on, Lucy! You wanna push Peeves down the stairs?"

I looked over at him. "How do you push a poltergeist down stairs?"

"Half the fun is figuring out!" He said, standing up. He held his hand out in front of me. "Come on."

I looked up at him. I'm guessing that the sadness hadn't left yet, because at my look his hand dropped and his smile disappeared. "Look Fred. It's nice and all what you're trying to do. But this has been a stressful week for me, and it seemed that just now everything in my life had just come crashing into my mind. Okay? So no, I don't want to push Peeves down the stairs. Maybe some other day, but no. Not today."

Fred looked at me in silence for a couple seconds. "What if we-"

I looked back up at him. "No Fred! No," I took a deep breath. What a monster I am. The only person that has shown concern for me from the student body, and I yell at him. "I'm sorry for yelling. But no."

"Do you want me to shut up?" He asked me.

"Yes," I answered quietly.

"Do you want me to leave?"

I paused. I thought of how lonely it feels, and how the feeling of someone there, even if they don't understand you feels a lot better. I know that I didn't want someone to find me before, but since I was already found, well...
"No," I answered, even more quiet. I looked away, feeling foolish for my now obvious need of humanity. It's just that it's been a lonely lonely week, and if I just needed one moment with someone around, this would be it.

Fred came and sat down next to me. We sat mere inches from each other, looking straight ahead. I didn't know much of the Weasley twins, but I'm quite sure that this side of this Weasley was one that usually was not seen. After a minute or so of sitting in silence, Fred broke it. "Look Lucy, I know you said you wanted me to shut up, but I just wanted to say something, okay?"

Knowing that he'd see me out of the corner of his eye, I nodded.

"I haven't been through a whole lot of tragedy in my life. I get upset a lot of times, sure, but the way I deal with them is just by doing what I always do, which is doing pranks and making people laugh. So maybe I can't exactly understand what you are going through. I probably have never felt what you're dealing with. But if you need to talk to someone, I'll listen, and I'll try and understand as best as I can, alright?"

I was struck and surprised by what he said. I wasn't expecting anything close to what he said. It really meant a lot. He was the first to talk to me here, and now, a week later, he's reaching out. The first person to reach out in god knows how long to me, excluding professors here. Maybe I should've tried to become friends with people, and not just be a loner. Maybe I could've saved myself some loneliness that I felt this week.
"Thanks, Fred. That means a whole lot," I said, still surprised that someone could be that kindhearted to someone he really didn't know.

I looked over at him, and he smiled at me, and I brought a smile to my face in return. I turned and looked in front of me then, staring at the armoured knight in front of me. Suddenly, another pair of footsteps came into our hearing.

The both of us looked in the direction of the sound. "Oi, that'd be George," Fred said.

"What did you two do that you're running around here anyway?" I asked, and Fred just smiled. I didn't even question how he knew it was his brother; they're twins, they are able to do that. Fred just smiled at my question. Suddenly, I started to get nervous. I know there was no reason to, but I still did, nonetheless.

Fred looked over at me, eyebrows furrowed. "Do you want him to see you?" He asked me. As if he could read my mind. He understood that I was uncomfortable with people seeing me upset.

Astonished that he could understand that without needing me to explain, I said "Not really."

He nodded. "Alright, out of sight you go!" He stated, standing up. He then picked me up by my arm, and pushed me across the corridor. I was going to ask what he was doing, but then realized I was in the shadows of the armoured knight. Unable to be seen.

I stayed behind the knight, not being able to see what was happening, but I heard the footsteps get closer and finally stop.

"Oi Fred, you ended up here too?" George asked.

"Yeah. Did you see Filch when you ran?"

"Nope. Did you?" He answered, both of them chuckling. I should've known they did some prank and that's why they were running around.

"No," Fred said, and they laughed a bit again. "Look, let's make our way to dinner, right? You go first, and then I'll come as well. Make it less suspicious."

"As if we never even did it. Although, who else would have?"

"Doesn't matter, if they can't catch us, there's nothing they can do!"

With that, the twins said their goodbyes to each other. I heard George's footsteps run back the way they came, back down to the main area of the castle and making his way to the great hall.
After his footsteps faded completely, I shifted a bit out of the shadows of the knight and Fred walked over to me.

"Thanks," I said, smiling a bit.

"No problem, Lucy. Now, why don't we go down to dinner?" Fred asked.

I was about to reply, when I heard something faintly. "Wait," I said, and Fred looked at me confused.
I strained my ears. There was definitely something coming. They were footsteps, but they were different from a person's footsteps. They were much lighter, and there were more than just two feet.
I realized it was probably Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat. And I already knew that wherever that cat ended up, Filch was sure to follow.

Upon my realization my eyes widened. Fred would get in trouble for whatever prank he did, and I would be guilty due to association. Knowing I had to act fast, I grabbed Fred and went back into the shadows behind the armoured knight.