Obsidian & Bronze {Fred Weasley}

39. The moving party

"Hey there" His voice was softer this time, he picked his tone more carefully, it was soft enough to have been missed amongst the night air, but I heard it. He knew I heard it.

My eyes were transfixed on his lips, the slight quirk of the corners of his mouth as he spoke. God, why couldn't I stop looking at his lips?

"Hey" I whispered back in a distant, far away sort of tone that felt detached from my body, and as I spoke the thoughts in my brain were mounting at an alarming speed and my hammering heart was proving harder to swallow with each passing second.

"How have you been?" Fred asked sadly, aimlessly playing with his thumbs, as though the only appropriate response was to suddenly unpack the ruins of my life right there in the middle of the street.

The wind had begun to pick up slightly, mother nature's way of sensing a thickening tension, and the air began to bite as it wiped through the sky, although a damp mugginess still lingered from the weeks that had passed.

"I've been great" I lied, my smile broadening overenthusiastically, "And you?" I added rather formally, disgusted at how distant we seemed.

"Yeah I've been good" Fred lied too, and I just hoped my lie had not appeared as blatantly false as his just did, nervously reaching up to absentmindedly play with the locket round his neck, an action I don't think he even detected he was doing. I said nothing.

And just as he went to speak again, someone appeared over Fred's shoulder, his eyes immediately igniting at the sight of me. George.

He pushed himself past Fred at an alarming rate and lifted me off to the floor, my legs subconsciously securing round his waist as he wrapped his arms around mine. I had missed the scent that invaded my senses as I burrowed my head into his shoulder, it was similar to Fred's but distinctly different.

"Ari!" He exclaimed, holding my torso so tight my breaths shook as they escaped me, his tousled ginger locks tickling my cheek as he held his head close to mine, "I've missed you"

"I've missed you too Georgie, look I am so sorry about-" I began to explain, the relief of meeting George failing to ease my mind full of harboured guilt that was eating away at me.

"No, stop" George interjected, "I don't want your apologises. You did nothing wrong"

And we didn't say another word about it, we didn't need to.

George soon put me down and went to stand beside his brother, gathering some boxes as he went, when a visible idea washed his strong features, "We're having a moving in party for our new apartment above the shop on Friday, you should come"

I immediately glanced over to Harry whose expression, despite the fact he would deny otherwise, clearly conveyed his existing knowledge of this party and then over to Fred, who gave me a shy smile.

"Yeah, if Fred's okay with it" The words tasted bitter, since when did we have to creep around each other like this?

Fred stood silent for a moment, his mind somewhere far away before he realised the three of us were staring over at him and he began aggressively nodding his head,"Yeah, yeah of course, yeah, that's fine, yeah" His hands were stuffed in his pockets now, and he was bouncing on his heels as though he needed the looe.

"Bye" I whispered solemnly with a gentle nod of my head as Harry and I started walking away from the shop, quickly halted by the sound of Fred's voice once again.

"Ari?"

"Yeah?"

"It was nice to see you"

"It was nice to see you too Fred"