Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

Happy Birthday

Cassidy

I heard the door click shut and blinked a few times to ensure I was actually awake. Ginny was never up before me, but there was her bed empty on the other end of our room.

I stepped to the floor and pulled a gray sweatshirt from my trunk, throwing it on over my tank top to follow her and see what had her up this early.

As I stepped out of the doorway, I heard muffled talking from the kitchen where the group of redheads were moving frantically around the kitchen with the exception of Ron and George who both looked as if they were working on five minutes of sleep.

"Why are you all up?" I yelped as they jumped around at the sound of my voice.

"Cassidy!" George whined, batter smeared along his cheek although I wasn't sure he knew it was there.

"Now we've woken up early for nothing." Ron grumbled before Molly slapped him on the hand, taking the whisk from him and finishing his job.

"Way to go Ginny, we said leave quietly." Fred rolled his eyes, a smile attached to his lips.

"What are you doing?" I asked, walking further into the room and stopping in front of George, wiping the batter from his cheek and flicking it into the sink.

"Making you birthday pancakes, what does it look like?" Charlie smiled, flicking the spoon he was holding and smiling when a glob landed in George's hair, leading me to guess he was the reason for the batter on his cheek.

"You guys didn't have to do that." I muttered, glaring at Fred who I had explicitly instructed to not tell them about my birthday.

"Sure we did! You're part of the family now." Ginny smiled, flipping the first pancake sloppily on the hotplate.

"We got berries too, help yourself." Molly said, smiling nearly ear to ear as she set the first pile of pancakes on the table, the boys sitting down with me as Ginny continued to cook.

"Happy Birthday, Cassidy." George smiled, plopping two fat pancakes on my plate before helping himself.

I laughed, spooning some fruit next to them. "Thanks Georgie. Thank you guys for breakfast, that was sweet."

I tried to give them all a glance when all my eyes wanted to focus on was Fred. I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep this entire week, not since he had almost kissed me outside.

But he hadn't. And once again, we hadn't brought it up. Maybe I was losing it. Maybe I had schizophrenia and this was all in my head.

"Here, sweetheart." Molly set a lumpy package on the table next to my plate and I felt my heart fall.

"Molly, please, you shouldn't have." I felt guilty, praying it wasn't something expensive as I gently ripped into the paper and watched a hat and a matching pair of yellow and black mittens fall into my lap.

"I've never gotten to make anything Hufflepuff, it was a treat! Just like it's been to have you here." She crossed her arms over her chest and watched as I ran my fingers over the gift. It was incredibly soft, like all of the sweaters the Weasley boys and Ginny had all received for Christmas.

I jumped from my seat and wrapped my arms around the small woman, feeling her arms go around me at once.

"Thank you." I said softly and she nodded before I returned to my half eaten breakfast.

"Well Cass, what do you want to do today?" George asked as Molly started out the back door, most likely to feed the chickens.

"Nothing special! I usually don't do much for my birthday. Fred wasn't supposed to tell anyone." I glared at him again and he threw his hands up in surrender.