BITTERSWEET ; FRED WEASLEY

PROLOGUE

SEPTEMBER 2ND 1989

"Freddie's gonna love you!" 11 year old George Weasley smiled widely at the young girl infront of him before grabbing her hand and before she had time to speak, the next thing you know they were running down the halls of Hogwarts to reach the Gryffindor common room.

The young girl laughed at the small ginger dragging her across the castle, "Whose Freddie? Where are you taking me, Weasley?" she asked.

They finally reached the Fat Lady.

"You'll see" George still had that smile on his face, the girl could tell he was more than excited to introduce her to this Freddie, he spoke of. George said the password to get into the common room, still holding her hand and once again, the young girl was dragged along.

The ginger stopped once they stepped into the common room, still a tight grip on her hand and he scanned the room with wide eyes before his eyes landed on another boy, who looked exactly like him.

"There!" he exclaimed, dragging the girl one last time. They made way to the young boy he was speaking about, "Fred!" George was now panting, out of breath from the Tour De Castle they had ran.

The ginger turned around to face his twin, "George! Why are you out of breath-" he patted George on his back, "Why are you sweaty?" he spoke removing his hand from his back, now rubbing on his trousers, "Who is this?" he was now referring to the girl next to him.

Freds eyes looked down to their hands, which were still linked together. The brunette followed his eyes to realise what he was looking at, the girl felt her face go hot and quickly took her hand back from Georges. Fred's eyebrows furrowed.

"Merlin, Fred" George was still panting dramatically, "Enough with twenty questions, let me catch my breath" He sat on the chair that was next to the three of them. The other two followed him, standing infront of him whilst he sat, "Phew. That was some exercise wasn't it, Lydia?"

Lydia just laughed the boy, "We only ran down three flights of stairs, George" the girl shook her head, "Besides, it was you that was running. I was just getting dragged along" Lydia crossed her arms as she stood infront of the boy.

"I'm going to repeat myself" Fred spoke up, "Who is this?" he was once again referring to the girl stood next to him.

"Lydia Carter, meet Fred Weasley." he introduced the pair to each other, "He's my brother, if you can't tell" George joked. "Fred, I've met our partner in crime! We've barely been here one day and Lydia has just done the funniest prank of Flitwick. Plus she can speak Italian and-"

"We don't need a partner in crime" Fred shook his head, "We've got Lee, Lee Jordan".

"Yes but-" George tried to speak again but once, was cut off by Fred.

"I don't think we need anymore people in on our pranks, George!" Fred seemed to dislike Lydia, "Besides... she's a girl."

Lydia scoffed, "Sorry George, but I have to laugh at your brother" she turned to face Fred, with her arms still crossed, "You don't want to be friends with me because i'm a girl?"

With Lydia being 11, she was used to the whole 'Girls can't do this. Girls can't do that' malarkey, but she was brought up to ignore it. To defend herself. She was taught that most boys would grow out of it, so most of the time (like most 11 year old girls would do), she'd ignore it but this time she decided to defend herself.

"Seems like your brothers a little bit of a pussy, George" she spoke, "I feel like we're gonna be good friends, Weasley" she high-fived George before turning to Fred once more, "We're not. I hope your robe gets set on fire."

Lydia now strut away with confidence from the two boys and to the opposite side of the common room where a few other first years were sitting.

"Hope your robes get set on fire. How pathetic" Fred scoffed, "What an insult. George, if you want us to be friends with people at least find ones that have better insult-"

"Fred your robes are on fire." George jumped up from his seat. Fred told him not to be ridiculous but George pointed at the bottom of his robe, where it was on fire.

The two boys both screamed, causing everyone's attention to turn to them. Everybody laughed as they both jumped around trying everything to put it out. Once it was put out, they looked around the room confused.

"Hey Weasley!" Lydia shouted across from the room with a wand in hand, "I guess my wishes come true!" she laughed along with the group of people she was with.

Freds face turned as red as his hair. For once in his life, he felt embarrassed. He knew that this wouldn't be easy for him, since he assumed they were on the same level of pettiness.

George nudged his brother, now panting again but this time from all the screaming and jumping, "Told you she was good."

"Oh bore off" Fred rolled his eyes.