"FRED WEASLEY, DON'T YOU DARE!" I screeched, giggling as I ran down the halls of my second favourite place in the world.

Hogwarts was alive with students walking to and from classes, but thankfully Fred and I weren't here for class as we were both 20 years old. We were both here as a favor to Tonks and Remus because tonight was a full moon and they couldn't perform Auror duties at the school.

Fred, being the idiot that he is, decided to skip out on working at the shop for the day and spend some time with his girlfriend (that's me) at his old school. Basically, we were asked to walk around the halls, making sure that there were no death eater attacks tonight, even though the school is full of them at this very moment.

As I tear down the halls, hearing my muggle Converse shoes squeak along the stone floors, all I can do is let out a pitiful squeak as I trip over a carpet and fall flat on my back. Hearing Fred's roaring laughter directly behind me, I look up to see short ginger hair, a shower of freckles, and bright blue eyes.

"Kates, what are you doing on the ground?" He chuckled as he decided to lie down beside me despite the glares of the Hogwarts students that are walking to class.

"I didn't fall on purpose, you idiot! The carpet tripped me" I try to explain.

"The carpet, you say? It looks completely safe to me. Look!" He exclaims as he jumps to his feet and does a little jig while humming to himself.

Rolling my eyes and laughing, I get to my feet and proceed to walk down the hall, leaving my boyfriend dancing by himself. I walk past the great hall and out of the huge wooden doors.

Slowly making my way down the grassy hills, I hear students in the greenhouses that I pass, chatting and laughing at eachother. I smile and remember the days when Fred, George and I would make mayhem at every time possible. Especially in potions. The students in our class would be waiting for another 'Weasley-Bell outbreak' as they called it and Fred, George, and I were always up for the challenge.

Finally arriving at my destination, I found the quidditch pitch to be deserted. I sprint over to the broom cupboard and unlock it with my want, to grab a school broom and hurl myself up into the air. As I soar above the quidditch pitch, I close my eyes and feel my long blonde hair whipping in the wind. Breathing in the afternoon air, I slowly start to do laps around the perimeter until I am speeding as fast as the old school broom will let me.

"Want to play with my ball?" A smug voice asks with a smile in his voice.

"Only if you'll play with me" I respond, turning to see Fred in the air, only a foot away from me. He throws a Quaffle at me and I catch it with ease.

"I would all day, darling" He says with a wink and a crooked smile. Before I can respond, he takes off to the opposite side of the pitch, leaving me with my mouth hanging open.

"ALRIGHT BELL, LETS SEE IF YOU CAN THROW AS FAST AS YOU CAN EAT" Fred bellowed across the pitch which earned him a Quaffle directly to the stomach.

We played two-person quidditch for hours, until the sun set. After, we decided to go down to the kitchens, as we missed dinner. We passed children in the halls, walking in neat rows, looking oddly like chess pieces. Fred and I exchanged worried looks and he pulled a first year from the lines.

"Hey kid, aren't you all supposed to be in bed?" Fred inquired.

"Yes, sir. But Professor Snape has insisted on having an assembly in the Great Hall. No one knows why." The terrified boy squeaked.

"Kates, maybe we should go to the room of requirement, just in case Snape is going to call the Death Eaters tonight." Fred whispered to me as he pulled his eyebrows together.

"Yeah, okay. But we should grab Ginny and my brother Stephen before we go."

So we weave through the students, passing many tired, scratched, bruised faces, until we find the Gryffindor bunch. I immediately spot Ginny's bright hair and grab her hand as she passes us.

"Katie! Fred? What are you two doing here?" Ginny whispers to us, with a worried glance at the teachers lining the walls.

"Come on Gin, we've got to find Stephen. Any idea where the fifth years are?" Fred asks Ginny while we all scan the large group of Gryffindors.

"Kates?" I hear behind me. It was just a whisper, but I recognize the voice.

"Oh Merlin, Stephen!" I squeak as I turn to see my brother's bruised face. His blonde hair is curled and sticks up at strange angles like it always does. Mum used to buy muggle hair gel, because no charms would make it stay down. His grey eyes are a tad darker than mine and he stands not much shorter than me even though I am about 5'9. I force myself into his arms, whether he likes it or not, for a hug.

"All right, Fred, Ginny?" Stephen asks as he looks over my shoulder, us still hugging.

"Never better, shortie" Fred quips as I pull away from him.

"Hi Stephen" Ginny smiles sweetly.

"Mum and Dad are gonna kill you, Stephen. You know you weren't supposed to get hurt" I scold as we start to walk away from the Great Hall, towards the seventh floor corridor.

"Well, yeah. But I kinda took over Fred and George's roll of prankster. It gives people hope, you know?" Stephen grinned, turning to look at Fred.

I always knew that Stephen admired Fred. Our family would constantly stay at the Burrow during the summer for one week or so and Stephen could always be found in Fred and George's room, making his own fireworks or watching the boys explain their newest inventions. When Fred and George moved out, and I moved in with them in the flat above the shop, Stephen would come over at every time he could get away from Hogwarts, sometimes for one night and sometimes for an entire weekend. We couldn't tell my parents because they would be furious, but we made sure that Stephen wasn't found out by teachers. He was popular enough at school to have a bunch of Gryffindor friends claim that Stephen was there the whole weekend, just hiding in the common room, or practicing quidditch at the pitch. Being a Bell means that we have natural quidditch skills and almost every Bell to go to Hogwarts has made it onto the house quidditch team.

I am pulled from my thoughts as I hear the doors to the room of requirement creak open. I follow Fred through the doors with Stephen right behind me, with Ginny bringing up the rear.

As we walked into the large room lined with beds hanging from the ceiling, there were many whispers and people talking. Stephen walked over to some of his Gryffindor friends that were forced into hiding. Fred went off to his family, probably to try to find George. And Ginny walked over to talk to Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Not too many people noticed us walk in. I look for my best friends, Angelina and Alicia because I know they came here a few days ago. The Death Eaters wanted them for their army because they both come from wizarding families and are amazing witches.

"KATES!"

"OOF!" I was tackled to the ground by two girls my height. I opened my eyes to see two sets of eyes looking back at me, one pair of chocolate brown eyes, and another of bright green.

"Kates. We were so worried. We thought…." Alicia Spinnet trailed off, tears starting to pool in her vivid green eyes.

"We thought the Death Eaters had you." Angelina Johnson finished for her friend bravely.

"I would go down with a fight; you two would know that I was taken." I snickered to the girls as they stepped off of me and helped me up. I finally got a chance to look at the girls and I noticed that they both had ugly scars on their faces and all visible parts of their skin. Angelina, always the braver of us, was standing straight and tall, her dark skin shone with sweat. Her beautiful dark hair was plaited back in a neat braid. Turning to Alicia, I noticed that she was looking a lot worse than Angelina. She had fresh cuts all along the right side of her face and her usually straight, long hair was cut to her collarbone. The last time I saw her was at Bill and Fleur's wedding. That was before we all had to go into hiding.

We were all herded into the Burrow by a bunch of scary looking Death Eaters. Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ginny, Alicia, Angelina, Fleur, and I were all standing in the kitchen. The rest of the guests had gotten away, thanks to Kingsley's warning. The Death Eaters tortured us in front of eachother. They demanded information on the whereabouts of Harry Potter and they knew that we had the information. All of us were order members, so we knew that we would sooner die than rat Harry out. That night was horrible but no one cried or flinched. Alicia stood in George's arms, Fred took my hand, Bill and Fleur whispered to eachother, Ginny and Angelina stood strong and proud, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley stood infront of us all as unforgivable curse after unforgiveable curse was thrown at us individually. When the Death Eaters finally left, we all collapsed on the cold, tile floor, holding eachother, telling eachother that it was going to be okay. We were gone within the hour, leaving behind our childhood home behind.

"Katie, dear? Are you okay?" I looked up from my seat on the floor, into Mrs. Weasley's warm, happy face. Her face had aged considerably since the last time I had seen her. We were all on the run, and her children (biologically and not) were in the middle of the battle.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Just thinking." I replied to her. She hesitated, about to say something, but then decided against it and just nodded. Mrs. Weasley gave me a small smile with a nod and walked away. I smiled after her, remembering how I used to run away from home for weeks when I was mad or sad and go to the Burrow by floo. I had family at the Burrow. The Weasleys were my family. My parents knew the Weasleys from their time at Hogwarts. Mrs. Weasley and my mum were inseparable as they were both Gryffindors. I grew up at the Burrow. Learning to walk and talk on the linoleum floors of the kitchen along with the twins, teaching Ginny how to be a chaser in the field behind the house, sitting on the roof of the Burrow with Fred and George, long after we were supposed to be in bed, talking about their dream shop and Hogwarts. It seemed like a dream, so happy and safe.

"BOOM!" A large sound shook the walls of the castle, resulting in everyone jumping to their feet and drawing their wands, wildly looking for the intruder. Fred was immediately at my side, his wand in his left hand, my hand in his right.

"It's time," He breathed.