31. Dates

5.1K 206 46
                                    


Fourth Book

Late-December, 1994
Sixth Year

"-You know, you're being a git for making Angelina wait so long," Fred mused while he and George prepared for bed.

"Still haven't dropped that, have you?" George asked with a yawn.

Fred had been on his arse about asking Angelina to the Yule Ball for a while now. Unbeknownst to the younger of the two, it was because Fred had caught wind of the fact that she was quite upset over not having a date.

"Do you even plan on asking her?" Fred asked while taking his shirt off.

George sighed.

"Yeah, probably,"

Fred raised an eyebrow at his brother.

"If you don't, someone else will,"

There was a tense pause between the twin brothers.

"That's rich, coming from you," George muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fred snapped quietly.

Lee Jordan was snoring softly from his side of the dorm. George turned to Fred and looked him up and down with a smirk.

"How's Ara?"

There was an undertone to the question that, frankly, irritated Fred.

-

Ara and Fred sat silently at their usual library table.

The blonde of the two had been complaining about her headaches lately. Fred insisted that they were being caused by the way Ara'd been ruining herself while trying to develop enough cognitive skills in Mermish to understand Cedric's egg.

"-Ar', it's been two days. I'm telling the House Elf's that they're not allowed to bring you anymore coffee,"

"No! Please, Freddie, I'm going to-"

"You're going to bed,"

Somehow, the pair had gotten into the routine of Fred running a hand through Ara's hair gently in an attempt to soothe her pain. The blonde would sigh contently every once in a while, but refused to look away from her language notes.

Fred couldn't really help her any more than that, so with the hand that was not occasionally massaging Ara's scalp, he sketched.

He'd been sketching a lot lately.

"What're you drawing?" Ara mumbled, not taking her eyes off the Mermish conjugation she'd written down.

Fred looked up at her and shrugged.

"Nothing,"

Ara looked away from her linguistic notes for what felt like the first time in ages.

"Let me see," She mumbled, reaching to grab the boys parchment. She caught a glimpse of what looked like multiple 'W's written in different fonts.

"Focus on your research," Fred teased, quickly pulling his sketches out of her reach.

Ara narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm sick of research," She said simply and tried to grab Fred's parchment again, "-Let me see,"

"No,"

"It's not like you can keep a secret from me," Ara said simply before standing up and trying to grab the sketches again, "-I'm going to find out eventually,"

The Outlying Serpent { Fred Weasley }Where stories live. Discover now