With the noise cancelling earplugs jammed into his ears, Fred jumped to his feet and hurried to Calliope's side. He found her quivering on her bed, hands pressed over her ears and eyes screwed tightly shut.

Fred's mind jumped to all of the terrible things that could have happened to leave her in this state, but seeing Calliope this way and feeling the fear radiating off of her drew his mind away from these things and left him utterly fixated on ensuring that she was okay. 

He sat down tentatively on the bed beside her and pulled her into his lap, stroking her hair and caressing her cheeks. He knew that she was crying as violent sobs wracked through her body, but due to the earplugs, which he dare not remove, he couldn't hear her anguish. 

It took Calliope a while to compose herself enough to sit up and look at Fred, with pain laced through every part of her gaze. Tentatively Fred removed his earplugs, waiting with apprehension for Calliope to tell him what had happened.

Wild scenarios ran through his head, growing more and more far fetched every second. Voldemort had broken into Hogwarts and killed Ron and Ginny, he had found Number 12 Grimmauld Place and tortured everyone there for information or perhaps Dumbledore himself had been killed. Something extremely bad had happened, he could feel that radiating from Calliope.

But she did not speak a word, simply gazing at him with pained eyes.

"What happened?" he croaked, unable to bear the apprehensive silence any longer.

Calliope let out a small choked sound in way of words. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes tightly, before opening them and finally speaking. "It's your Dad Fred."

"What about him?" Unnoticed by either of them George had entered the room.

Fred didn't need to ask what Calliope knew about his father. There was only one thing that she could possibly have sensed about Arthur Weasley that caused her so much pain.

Fred listened numbly as Calliope (through tears) explained what had happened in the Department of Mysteries. How Harry and several other members of the DA had gone there thinking Sirius was in danger, only to find that it was a trap. How the Order of the Pheonix had intervened, how Bellatrix had aimed an unknown spell at Sirius, how he had dodged it at the last second, how it had zoomed through the veil of death and hit Arthur square in the chest. How he was gone before anyone could get to him.

Calliope's breathing was ragged, she pulled her knees up to her chest and screwed her eyes shut again, trying to rid herself of the vision of Arthur lying motionless on the floor, his eyes wide and staring.

George's legs gave way underneath him and he sunk down to the floor, using the door frame to anchor him to the world.

Whilst Fred could feel the waves of grief radiating from Calliope, he felt completely numb. Unable to register what had happened. It wasn't possible, he had seen his father less than 12 hours ago at the Order meeting, he would see him again in the morning when Arthur returned to help with the shop set up.

But no one would show up the next morning. Arthur Weasley was gone.

So don't kill me but this is the end of the book. The Epilogue will come within the next few days and then Whispers will be out!
Remember to vote, comment and not murder me!
~Em xx