Twin Fall ↠ A Fred Weasley story

23. Us

The gentle buzz in the great hall the following morning felt extremely loud in Jess's ears. She was being very deliberate and taking her time with any movement she made, as if she was thinking too hard about what she was doing.

She had a book open on the table that she was merely skimming over. She was playing with her food before taking small bites to keep her going. Jess was hyper-aware that Fred and George were sat further down the table, so she was doing her best to not look at them. She was trying hard to be relaxed, and she didn't want Fred to catch her looking at him.

She was very much looking forward to spending time with Fred, that much could be said. The very fact she was one of the first students down to breakfast gave that away. Even now, her foot was tapping nervously; she had a giddiness about her - a bubbling excitement ready to overflow.

Across from Jess and completely unaware of her raising anxiety, Ron and Harry were still discussing the previous day's quidditch match.

"You must be the only seeker to have won a game with his mouth. At least at Hogwarts." Ron decided.

"It's certainly big enough," Jess said, nonchalantly.

Ron laughed and Harry muttered, "shut up" under his breath.

"Your fourth goal was wicked too. Great eye to drop below and catch the ball. I've written and told Charlie everything about it," said Ron, proudly.

"Wasn't Charlie a seeker?" asked Harry.

"Yeah. Everyone said he was good enough to play professionally, but he always had a weird obsession with dragons," he shrugged.

"Where did that even come from?" Jess looked up from her book.

"Yeah, I mean who looks at a dragon and goes, 'I fancy one of them as a pet'" Harry joked.

"Except Hagrid," Jess pointed out.

"Yeah, except Hagrid."

Ron shrugged, "think it was a mixture of him loving Care of Magical Creatures and actually spending lots of time outdoors with Hagrid. He knew he had loads of weird creatures, so used to visit him a lot. I was gutted when he gave up quidditch though."

"Why?" Harry quizzed.

"Think of the free games I could've gone to!"

"Morning you," a familiar voice chimed from behind Jess. She spun to look at Fred who was stood grinning and dressed in his winter robes.

"Morning," she replied.

Fred tilted his head to his younger brother, "what free games are you on about?"

"I'm saying if Charlie would've gone professional, we could've gone to loads of quidditch games."

"That reminds me actually, Mum sent Percy a letter yesterday for us all," said Fred. "Her and Dad are going to Romania to visit him for Christmas, so we're here for the holidays."

"You're staying for Christmas!" Jess smiled widely at Ron and Harry. Harry's eyes had lit up too; they'd never had a proper Christmas before.

"Looks like it," Ron grinned. "I remember Bill stopping here a couple of times and he said the dinners were amazing!"

"We've never had a Christmas dinner," said Harry. "Can't wait!"

"What!" Fred exclaimed, he looked between Harry and Jess. "You've never had a Christmas dinner?"

They shook their heads at him.

"What did you have to eat on Christmas then?" asked Ron.

"Beans on toast, or something like that," said Jess. "And maybe left over turkey sandwiches at night. But, that stopped when Dudley started eating more."