acatalepsy [Fred Weasley]

6 - Truth

"Professor!... Professor!" Harry shouts at Lupin, clumsily rising from his seat in the Hall and beginning to follow him out.

"Not now, Harry. I'm busy" He responds bluntly, continuing his haste walk after Atlas and Fred.

"Professor!" Harry shouted louder, catching up with him just outside the doors, grabbing onto the sleeve of his robe. "Just listen to me, please"

Remus turns around and stares at him, waiting for him to say whatever it is that he wants to.

"Look, I understand that you want to protect Atlas, she's your daughter and you want to keep her safe but Fred is an amazing guy - you know that, you've taught him for almost two years now. Anyone can see that he's as good for her as she is for him. You can't expect her to find herself and be happy if you're constantly breathing down their necks" Harry explains to him.

Lupin's face softens and it's clear that he's really listening to what he's saying and he knows that Harry's right but, at the same time, he can't help but hate the idea of anyone being that 'close' to his daughter, even if it is Fred.

"Harry, I appreciate your concern but... you don't understand what it's like. You're not a parent and seeing Atlas with someone is hard, especially when they're sticking their tongues down each other's throats in front of me"

"Professor Lupin, I understand where you're coming from but you know that you can trust Atlas and I know that you can trust Fred. Please, just... let them be together and stop running after them for the smallest things"

"...Okay. But if he EVER hurts her, I'll be killing you as well as him. You can apologise to your father for me" and they both let out a small chuckle.

Harry then turns back around and sits back down with the others at the table and Remus slowly walks back to his rightful place at the teachers' table.

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Not realising that they're not being chased anymore, Fred and Atlas continue to make their way to the Gryffindor Common Room.
About halfway there, they stop running and just walk, believing that they've managed to lose Lupin. They walk in silence, both of them awkward after their kiss because of how they felt.

"So... I bet that shut Pansy up" Fred laughs uncomfortably.

"Haha, yeah" Atlas responds, avoiding all eye contact with him.

The rest of the walk was quiet, there was no one else in the corridors because they were all still at dinner and they didn't know how to talk to each other.
When they reached the Common Room, Fred said the password to let them in but he gestured for Atlas to walk in first, like a gentleman.

"Um, do you maybe wanna talk?" Atlas asks him as she walks into the room.

"Uh, yeah, sure" He responds, running his hands through the hair on the back of his head and down onto his neck.

When they walked in, they noticed that there were a few 7th years studying so for privacy, and not to disturb them, they went up to Fred's room.

"Well, day one was... a lot more than I was expecting" She comments, sitting on Fred's bed, grabbing the teddy that he's had since he was a baby and holding it. It was clear that he'd had it a long time, it was the first thing he was given as a baby, he and George have matching ones. They both have tiny little sweaters with 'F' and 'G' written on them, miniature versions of the exact same ones that Molly makes them every year.

"Yeah, I knew it was going to be a challenge but I didn't think it was going to be anything like that" he agrees, leaning on the end post of George's bed, facing Atlas.