Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

The Astronomy Tower

Cassidy

I finally remembered to shut my mouth when I could feel the cold air hitting my teeth. I looked from Fred back to the scene in front of us, thick red and white blankets strewn across the wooden floors of the Astronomy tower, the stars sparkling above us, gentle snowflakes falling outside the terrace.

Fred hadn't made a sound since we had stepped through the door. I turned to him and raised my eyebrows, confused.

"Never heard you this quiet, Freddie." I teased, earning me an eye roll and a smile.

"You like it?" He asked, and I could see the nervousness behind his smile now.

"Of course I do!" I hurried to answer him, wanting the nervous look to go away. "How'd you do this? Why'd you do this?" I changed my question to the one I really wanted to know, as funny as Fred marching up and down the stairs for hours with all of these blankets over his shoulders.

He didn't answer me at first, instead leading us over to the blankets near the edge of the large room, the roof barely covering us from the falling snow. He plopped onto the pile of blankets, pulling some on top of him and nodded for me to follow. I sat across from him, watching as he pulled a huge tin from next to the blankets, opening it to reveal dozens of beautifully painted Christmas cookies. Reindeers with color changing noses, Santas with sprinkles dancing along his hat, glistening stars and green wreaths that looked to be made of real greenery.

"There's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight, I heard. Thought it would be cool to watch." He shrugged, biting the nose off a Rudolph cookie and offering me the tin. I nodded, looking to the sky to see if I could spot anything as I bit into a cookie wreath to find that the lifelike branches were still in fact frosted. "And..." He continued, making me look to him again. "I'm sure your Christmas wasn't... great. Teesy made us these. Couldn't get my hands on a tree though, not enough time or a plan for that one."

I shook my head slightly, smiling at him for a second too long before remembering to pull away.

"You're amazing, you know that?" I avoided his eyes for fear he would see through me in an instant. Because this was perfect. Everything about this was perfect. Being here with him, the stars, the snow, the blankets, I couldn't have thought up a better date if I had tried.

Nope. Not a date. Stop that.

"I've been told." He smirked, leaning back against the wall and setting the cookie tin down once he had eaten his fill. "There! It's gonna start!" He glanced at his watch when he saw the first bright star fly across the sky.

I looked up through the snow, watching the streaks of light flying through the dark sky, pulling the blankets up to my shoulders to fight off the chill.

"I should have told you to wear a warmer sweater, that's my bad." He muttered, and I realized he had been watching me.

"I'm fine! It's worth it."

"C'mere." His voice came out so soft, I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't just imagined his words. "Come on, you're shivering!" He let out his effortless laugh and I crawled to his side.

He waited until I was sat next to him and then pulled the blankets over the two of us, his arm settling around my waist and I hoped he couldn't feel the fluttering of the thousands of butterflies inside my stomach.

We watched the flying stars in silence for what felt like hours, hardly noticing the cold when I was this close to him.

"What do you want to do when you graduate?" I asked, realizing that he knew the one thing I had never told anyone else, but I knew next to nothing about him.