⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ (xi. to realise) ↳ in which she recognises his pain
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'THE CHOICE HE'D MADE HE COULD NOT COMPREHEND, HIS BLOOD A GRIM SECRET THEY HAD TO COMMAND'
Cafe Bonheur, Diagon Alley ━━━━ December 6th, 2000
An entire week passed before Asteria saw Fred again. After he'd crashed her peaceful night of potion-making with his drunken rowdiness and relationship problems, she'd left him to sleep it off in the factory - making sure to leave him one of her esteemed hangover potions that Theo swore by.
Asteria assumed the redhead was avoiding her because he'd remembered all the things his loose lips had shared and were apprehensive that she was going to bombard him with insults.
He had given her the ammunition, all she was left to do was pull the trigger.
Not that she had any desire to, of course. Even as dry and vindictive as she was, Asteria knew there were boundaries when it came to insults.
The actual reason Fred was avoiding her was much more mundane.
He was embarrassed. Not only were his intoxicated actions recurrently playing in his mind, but the redhead also couldn't seem to forget the bombshell Percy had dropped the other morning.
Asteria was the one that had saved his life.
The woman he'd viciously ridiculed for months, believing her to be just as evil as the ones who'd inflicted such pain and devastation on the Wizarding World in their years of tyranny turned out to be nothing like he'd expected her to be.
He couldn't face her. Having to admit that his assumptions and prejudiced opinions were built upon falsehoods was hard enough to admit to himself - there was no possible way his dignity would allow him to admit it to her. She'd never let him live it down.
Whilst Percy's admission had made Fred question quite a lot, his knowledge of Asteria's taunting nature had not needed to be revised. He may not have known her as much as he assumed he did, but he knew her well enough to know she would tease him relentlessly if he admitted to being wrong.
The fact that she was still a Death Eater was also to blame for his hesitance. Granted, Percy's declaration did make him question her loyalty quite substantially but he still couldn't allow himself to trust her without knowing the full ins and outs.
Asteria Nott had turned out to be some kind of an enigma over the past week, and Fred couldn't fight the curious desire that clawed at him to figure her out. Even despite how much he despised himself for the very thought.
It was George that finally (and literally) knocked some sense into him after noticing his twin's affluent behaviour. Whether Fred thought any differently about Asteria or not, he owed her his gratitude.
