Déjà Vu

Chapter 22

~ Fred ~

Fred had known that the quidditch world cup was big; he's read articles about it, has even seen pictures of it, but he hadn't expected it to be so. Incredibly. Huge. The stadium is absolutely ginormous, the rows of seats packed with thousands upon thousands of wizards decked out in their favorite team's gear and face paint. It's absolutely magnificent and it's everything he's been waiting for. He should be overjoyed and having the time of his life.

But he's not.

He's not having the time of his life because Evelyn is ignoring him. She'd walked up to their seats with Hermione, Ginny, and Luna, the three of them wearing matching clothes and face paint corresponding with the colors of their favorite quidditch team, and she's stuck to their sides like glue ever since they sat down. She looks magnificent, really, layered up to combat the cold, a striped scarf bundled up around her neck, leaving just her rosy cheeks and pink lips exposed to the cold air. He wants to tell her this, and he tries to, but she always manages to avoid him whenever he tries to approach her, hiding behind one of the girls or straight up walking away from him. He doesn't quite know what to do, but he decides that he'll try to approach her as they all head back to Hogwarts later that day, the school not staying another night at the campground.

He diverts his attention away from Evelyn and to the quidditch game once it begins, successful in his task and immersing himself in the excitement of the game until the winner is announced. Once the game is over, though, his attention is immediately back on Evelyn. He tries to walk with her back to the campground but, of course, she is too fast for him.

He tries to find her while the students pack up their things, hoping to corner her and make her talk to him about the night before, but she isn't inside of her tent when he peeks his head inside. He tries again to talk to her while they wait for the portkeys, but she slips away from him each and every time he tries to walk up to her, even quickly disappearing into thin air one time by latching onto someone else's portkey.

He searches for her when he arrives back at the castle, but according to Ginny, she's already back up at Ravenclaw by the time he's back. It's incredibly frustrating, is what it is, but he tries to keep his cool while he walks back to his bedroom. He knows that he could go chase her down Ravenclaw, as long as they haven't changed the password since he last heard it from Ginny, but cornering her into her bedroom feels wrong after being avoided all day. He'll just have to wait until tomorrow; then he'll seek her out and they can talk about it. Everything.

He sleeps horribly that night, tossing and turning with a head full of thoughts of one particular brunette. He thinks about how she'd looked in his sweater, how her lips had felt against his after so long without getting to feel them, how she'd felt pressed up against him when he woke up that morning. He thinks about everything that the kiss could mean and he thinks about what she must be thinking about right now. He thinks about how she could be thinking of how to avoid Fred some more or how to break up with her boyfriend or how to let Fred down gently or how to drop everything and be single. Maybe she's thinking of switching over to girls for a while. Who knows? She could be thinking anything at the moment, and it's driving him absolutely crazy.

He manages to fall asleep at some point, his eyebrows slowly unfurling as he drops deeper into slumber. He dreams of soft, caramel skin, of deep brown eyes, of long, dark eyelashes, and of that wide, bright smile that could make his stomach flutter even in the worst of times. He still feels giddy with it when he wakes up in the morning, but it only takes all but two seconds for him to realize that it had only been his imagination. He'd do anything to make it a reality.

He gives himself a pep-talk as he walks to breakfast, ready to chase after Evelyn once they finish eating so that they can finally talk, no matter how quickly she tries to run from him. She kissed him. They're going to talk about it.