Déjà Vu

Chapter 16

~ Fred ~

It's that time of the night on Friday where everyone has accumulated in the Gryffindor common room, and Fred has a pep in his step while he makes the short walk from his room to join everyone. He's planning to make a bigger move on Evelyn tonight; maybe he'll figure out a way to dance with her or maybe he'll pretend they're in second year and make everyone play spin the bottle. He's not quite sure what his plan is -- just anything to get her thinking about him.

She's starting to give in to him a little bit, he can tell. If he keeps at it, keeps reminding her that he's right there and exactly what she wants, he's sure that she'll fold -- especially when she hasn't seen her boyfriend in a while.

He has a wide, hopeful smile on his face when he walks into the noisy room, his eyes bright as they search for the girl that he wants to spend every ounce of his energy on.

His smile drops right off of his face when she sees her though, mostly because she's sitting on the arm of a chair in which her boyfriend is sitting. He hadn't even known that Nick was coming this weekend. Nick's hand is draped across her crossed legs, his hand tucked beneath her bare thigh while she leans into him. They're talking to all the others and laughing about something, Evelyn looking at Nick with sunshine in her eyes while she laughs. Fred absolutely hates it.

He takes a moment to gather himself and puts his smile right back on his face before he walks over. This can work too. He can make it work. He will make it work.

He takes one more deep breath and sets off to the group, gathering all of his confidence as he walks.

"Well, hello there," he says with a wide smile once he reaches the couple.

He has everyone's attention for a moment before Ginny keeps talking to the others about whatever she was on about, leaving only Evelyn and Nick's eyes on him. Evelyn's rolling her eyes, but Nick looks clueless.

"Hi, Fred," Evelyn nearly grumbles, sounding the opposite of pleased to see him. He doesn't take it to heart, he's used to it.

"Hey, Ev," he says with a predatory smile, tossing in the nickname just for fun. He then turns his attention to the man whose hands are in places that they shouldn't be. "And you must be Nicolas."

Nick laughs and reaches out a hand for Fred to shake, thankfully the one that had been on Evelyn's leg. "It's just Nick, actually," he says, sounding completely oblivious to the fact that Fred had messed up his name on purpose.

"Right," Fred says while reluctantly shaking his hand. He hadn't really gotten a good look at Nick when he'd seen him and Evelyn at the Three Broomsticks, but he's looking at him now. He's not ugly, per se, with dirty blonde hair, tan skin, and a light dusting of freckles, but he doesn't have anything on Fred, if he does say so himself.  "You're a lot shorter than I imagined you'd be."

"Fred," Evelyn hisses with a warning glare.

Nick just laughs and waves her off. "Yeah, I know I'm not the tallest. I'm taller than her, though. That's all that matters, right?" he says with a chuckle.

Fred nods, even though he respectfully disagrees. Evelyn had told him countless times how much she loved how much taller he is than her.

He sits down on the couch directly next to the armchair that they're perched on, making it so that Evelyn is seated right between him and Nick. "So," he starts, his smile widening on his face. "What have you two lovebirds been up to?"

Evelyn rolls her eyes at his obviously mocking tone, but Nick still doesn't seem to notice. "I just got here, actually," Nick says and looks at Evelyn with a smile. "We ran into Padma and Luna in the hall and they said that we should come here. I had to beg Ev to let me come, though. She really didn't want to for some reason," he says with a teasing smile while still looking at his girlfriend.