Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

Black's Break in

Fred

I could pick out George's snores from the rest of the Great Hall's for the past hours, yet I hadn't had a second of sleep. For the first bit, I was too caught up thinking about the possibility of Sirius Black being inside the castle, the fact that everyone had been thinking of the entire year, that he could be here for Harry. Yet even after I pushed those questions from my mind, I still couldn't let myself sleep with her next to me. Her soft breathing only stopping for a second any time she would turn over in her sleep. Did I think anything could happen to us, with Dumbledore and his hand picked staff watching over everyone? No. Did that mean I was going to take my eyes off her, even just the outline of her in the dark room? Absolutely not.

It had been stupid to grab her. She was right, she could have fallen. But I knew I wasn't letting her sleep way in the corner with her friends all by themselves... And she looked so cute, so small, and so fragile. She had been one of the only ones who had appeared to have gotten ready for bed, the rest of them resorted to sleeping in their clothes from dinner. That didn't surprise me about her in the slightest. She had thrown her hair up into the messiest bun, pieces of her hair jutting out and framing her face, and was wearing a dark pink set of pajamas that somehow made her look even smaller than she already was and somehow in the dark room, her freckles were more visible than they had been in Hogsmeade today.

The main reason for my lack of sleep however, was the fact that Cassidy had been shivering in her sleeping bag next to mine for the past five minutes, and I didn't think I could take it anymore. She had balled her fists into the slippery fabric and had it tucked near her face, and even I could admit it was cold in here. I had spent the last 300 seconds debating my course of actions. Everything in me wanted to just reach out and pull the tiny girl closer to me until she stopped shaking, but even in my weary state, I knew that wouldn't end well. If she didn't wake up confused and scared, she would be creeped out and avoid me for the rest of time.

I slowly reached over to the girl and against my better judgement to wake her, slid my fingers across the loose hair around her face softly.

"Cassy..." I whispered, hoping not to wake any of the sleepers near us. She didn't stir, the shivering continued. I leaned closer to her face and shook her shoulder gently. "Cassidy."

Her eyes flew open and she scanned around her for a few seconds before seeming to remember where we were. Then she looked to me, obviously not remembering that she was sleeping with the Gryffindors.

"I'm sorry for waking you... you were shivering." I spoke softly, noticing that she obviously still felt cold. She pressed her hand to her nose, trying to warm it up and I held in a laugh.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you up." She breathed, crossing her legs inside the sleeping bag and moving to lay back on the stone floor.

"You didn't." I lied, watching her for a second before deciding. "You cold?"

She nodded, looking up at the floating candles as if wishing one would make it's way down to us.

"Come here then." I held back a smile, not wanting her to think I meant anything by this. I just didn't want her to spend her whole night frozen solid.

She hesitated for just a second, her eyes scanning the rest of our friends before sliding her bag as close to my body as she could get. It was better than I had hoped, never in a million years would I have thought I would have a half-asleep Cassidy Olsen wrapped beneath my arm, lying her head against my chest.

"Warmer?" I whispered, not being able to hold back my smile any longer, but knowing she couldn't see my face from where she lay. I felt her nod into my chest as the shivers slowly subsided.