He almost didn't recognize her when he bumped into her in the common room.
Her hair was cut short, just below her jaw. She still hadn't learned how to tame it because it was still a mess of tangled curls, exaggerated with the new cut. She looked thin, much more than she did last year. Shadows accentuated her cheekbones and jaw, which looked like they could cut a steak, and her eyes, nose, and lips only looked bigger with the loss of body in her cheeks. She looked practically malnourished.
But she looked good.
Fred cleared his head with a series of quick blinks, the corner of his mouth perking up.
"Hi."
"Hi." Her voice was stronger, if that was even possible, and she held herself with a confidence she didn't have before. She looked so much older. Maybe it was the eyeliner she had smudged around her eyes, or the way her skirt was rolled up at the waist, the pleated hem pulled up past her knees, or maybe it was the way she looked at him with those predatory eyes, reading him like a book.
He cleared his throat.
"Good summer?"
She raised her eyebrows, nodding.
"Yeah, good. Yours?"
He nodded back, trying to blink away her stare, but she kept her eyes trained on him. The corner of her mouth was pulled up the tiniest bit in a satisfied smirk and she bounced her knee as she shifted her weight.
"Well maybe I'll see you in class, yeah?"
A dryness had overcome his mouth and he swallowed it away, letting out a little "mm hm" as she walked past him, looking him up and down and her smirk growing.
He spun around to watch her walk up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.
"Well that is something." Lee stepped up beside him, hands in pockets as he dipped down slightly to catch a glimpse of Sylvia's legs before she was out of sight.
Fred blinked and turned back along side Lee, widening his eyes as he loosened his tie and let out a heavy puff of air from his mouth. Lee snorted and shook his head.
"You, me, and everyone else, mate."
"Bloody hell," Ron ogled from down the breakfast table, dropping his toast back onto his plate as his jaw went slack. Beside him, Hermione's jaw dropped as well, but with more of a mortified undertone to it.
They weren't the only ones staring, either. As she walked by, a group of Hufflepuff boys fell into a hypnosis as Sylvia entered the Great Hall, twisting in their seats to get a better look. Andrew Saxby choked on his water, sputtering it out onto his shirt.
Sylvia Callis was wearing fishnets. On the first day of her last year of school, she was wearing fishnets under her skirt.
"Christ on a cross!" Lee hissed, coughing out a laugh.
Fred felt his own eyebrows raise as she strode by, short hair bouncing with every step and a face so hardened it looked like she was out for blood. In her hand was a piece of parchment, crumpling under her grip. Beside him, George guffawed.
"Cool."
She marched right up to the Slytherin table and slammed the paper down in front of Quentin, making his plate rattle. He merely raised an eyebrow down at it, an amused smirk on his lips.
Fred couldn't hear what he was saying, but his mouth formed the words, "what's this?"
The hiss of her voice was just loud enough for the Gryffindor table to hear.
YOU ARE READING
Bad Decisions | Fred Weasley
Fanfiction"We were together. I forget the rest." Fred didn't like her. In fact, he had decided, first year, that he despised her. Despised is a strong word and he meant every bit of it when he told her to her face. ••• An inspired playlist: https://youtube.co...
