CANDY CRUSH {Fred Weasley}

70

Weirder Than Usual

The entire next week or so Fred observed something was wrong with George, he was a little moody around everyone, even with Ginny, someone with whom he was always patient, it was irritating Fred too. Now sitting in the library with Ainsley and Charlie, while Ainsley was reading some book on Herbology, Charlie was working on perfecting her recent creation which he still didn't know what it was. George was god knows where, he had left Fred on his own which was why he was in the library with the other two, he knew he had to talk to George but it would be better to talk to their best friends beforehand.

"Have you noticed something off with George?" Ainsley asked before Fred could utter a word, Fred perked up before nodding his head furiously.

"Yes, thank god I thought I was the only one," Fred exclaimed loudly which caused the people sitting at their adjacent table to shush him, he raised his arms in surrender before turning to Ainsley and Charlie.

"What's going on?" Charlie questioned as she looked between the two, she had absolutely no idea what was happening.

"George's been acting weird," Ainsley said.

"What's new?" Charlie commented as she furrowed her eyebrows. Fred gave her an unimpressed look when she looked over at him with a smile hoping he would get the joke.

"Weirder than usual, he's quiet which is something he doesn't do, he always has an opinion," Ainsley said as he closed his Transfiguration book and pushed it away from himself, Charlie also sighed before closing her journal and folding her hands and rested her elbows on the table before resting her chin on it.

"Have you tried talking to him?" Charlie asked as she looked between Ainsley and Fred.

"He's not really hanging around me, he leaves as soon as the classes are over and then Quidditch Practice," Ainsley said with a slight frown on his face, Fred and Charlie exchanged a look before shrugging.

"Do you know anything?" Ainsley asked Fred who just shook his head. 

"Maybe it's something you did, Ain. You always do something," Charlie said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, I always do something? Do you really want me to count the times–"

"Okay, cut it out," Fred said before either of them start bickering. "We have to focus on things on hand,"

"Maybe he's worried about Umbridge?" Ainsley questioned.

"I doubt it, George's not the one to be scared of some new teacher, I mean he's never afraid of Professor McGonagall and she's the top level kind of scary," Charlie said as the bell for dinner went off. They all sighed collectively before packing up their things and walked out of the library neither of them spoke as they made their towards the Great Hall, students were pouring in from all parts of the castle. There was chattering all around, Luna and Ginny were sitting with Neville, who was surprisingly not sitting with his usual friends, Dean and Seamus, George was nowhere to be seen. Ainsley and Charlie decided to return to the Ravenclaw table, letting Fred do the talking with his brother first, he knew what to do, at least they hoped so.

Fred wiped his hands against his pants as he took a seat beside Ron, who was busy talking to Harry and Hermione who seemed to be discussing something very secretive probably related to the Order as they didn't stop talking when he joined them but they quickly stopped talking when Angelina sat across from him along with Katie and Alicia.

"Where George?" Angelina asked, their past differences seemed to be have been resolved.

"There he is," Alicia said as she pointed at George who had walked into the hall, he smiled at everyone before taking a seat beside Fred. 

"Everything okay?" he asked as the food appeared on the table. Angelina nodded as she and the other girls started talking about something, Fred turned to George who had put the meat and veg on his plate and was eating it pretty quickly.

"You're going to choke if you eat that fast," Fred said. George gave a shrug before chugging down the entire meal with water and wiped his mouth before standing up and turned to Angelina and the other girls.

"I'll see you guys later," 

"You done?" Katie said with wide eyes as she hadn't even finished with even half of her plate.

"Yeah,"

"What's with him?" Alicia asked Fred who was watching his brother walk out of the Great Hall.

"I am not sure,"

George had successfully avoided the group for the rest of the day, after Quidditch Practice he had gone to the showers and decided to spend the rest of the time there trying to avoid Fred, he figured if he stayed there Fred would eventually go to sleep. This entire thing was eating him on the inside, his relationship with Ainsley was still new, he had yet to come out to his family, he was sure Ron and Ginny knew but his parents didn't and writing a letter to them about this didn't fit right to him. On top of that, he couldn't help but feel inferior to Ainsley, the interaction they had about Ainsley wanting to become a Healer had affected him more than it should have and there wasn't anything he could do about that. 

Opening a joke shop was his passion and he loved Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. 

He couldn't talk about this to Ainsley because he didn't want his boyfriend to feel bad and he couldn't talk to Fred as he wouldn't understand, so his only option left was Charlie, so he quickly changed and walked out of the showers hoping he would find her without needing the Marauders map. He walked out of the Gryffindor common room and towards the castle's main entrance where usually the Head Boy and Head Girl do their rounds after completing the entire castle, he was thankful that no one caught him climbing down multiple staircases until; 

"George?" Ron's voice echoed throughout the corridor, George cursed under his breath as he turned around to face his little brother, the only thing he was thankful about was that Hermione wasn't with Ron at the moment. 

"What are you doing outside?" Ron asked as he neared George.

"Uh-I need to talk to Charlie," George said.

"But Charlie's in Romania," Ron said as George closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Not our brother Charlie, the other one, the one that stayed with us, honestly Ron–"

"Yeah, yeah, I know the other Charlie, she's on the seventh floor," Ron said as George groaned softly, he had just climbed down from the seventh floor where the Gryffindor common room is located, and now he had to climb up the stairs once again. 

"Why do you want to meet with Charlie? Where's Fred? Are you planning on pranking? What has Charlie got to do with it? Is she inventing something new? George!" 

But George was already on the top of the staircase as Ron was rambling, he heard Ron say something about someone on the third floor but choose to ignore it, he knew every shortcut in the castle. He was slightly out of breath as he reached the seventh-floor corridor and now the biggest task was to find Charlie and hope that she hadn't gone to some other floor, carefully he started towards the Divination classroom and then to the Arithmancy but still there was no sign of her. He was about to give up and return to the common room but when he turned around the corner he came face to face with her but not in a way he had expected.

"What are you doing?"