Safe With Me ~ Fred Weasley

The Goblet of Fire

"Alright, slow down!" I laughed, trying my best to keep up with the three boys, each at least two heads taller than me.

"Not our fault you're slow! Some of us have championships to win!" Fred called, looking back to shoot me wink.

We finally reached the main floor after multiple near misses of disappearing steps and sliding staircases. Fred, George and Lee all held slightly crumpled pieces of parchment in their hands, each with their name scrawled as neatly as they could muster in their over-excited state. George's other hand held a skinny glass bottle, a cork stuck in the top.

"Alrighty. Just a sip oughta do, we only need a few months each."

I sat on the bench next to Hermione, her nose buried in a book.

"That's not going to work." She sang, not looking up from her spot on the page and I smiled, silently agreeing.

"And why is that, Granger?" George asked, taking a seat on her other side.

"Because." She scoffed. "Dumbledore drew that age line himself. He's not going to be fooled by something as pathetically dimwitted as an aging potion."

"Ah, but that's what makes it so genius." Fred whispered, his head just in between our ears. "Because it's so pathetically dimwitted."

"Ready boys?" Lee asked, looking between the twins.

"Bottoms up." Fred grinned, taking the bottle from George and swallowing a small sip before handing it to Lee. Everyone near us stared in silent anticipation, waiting for some sign that the potion had done anything at all.

"Did it work?" Lee asked, looking down his body as if the extra few months would be visible to him.

Before either of them could answer, Fred took a big jump and landed on the inside of the age line, George joining him a second after.

They grinned at each other as the crowd cheered, Lee smiling and gearing up to jump when all of the sudden, the age line glowed a fierce red and the twins were thrown from the Goblet across the room, landing hard on the stone floor.

I gasped, Hermione finally looking up from her book and laughing at once.

Both boys had sprouted full beards, rivaling Dumbledore's. Their hair was gray, their skin wrinkled, and they were glaring at each other with fury in their eyes.

"George!"

"Was your idea!"

Lee was doubled over in laughter, along with most of the crowd as the Weasley boys began grabbing at each other's new facial hair, rolling around on the floor. I rushed over and stepped in between them, holding down a laugh at how ridiculous they looked.

"You both look like you belong in a nursing home... for mental patients." I teased, reaching a hand out to help them both to their feet. "Come on, Madame Pomfrey will have some fun with this one."

"Honestly, probably not the worse she's seen from us." Fred sighed dramatically.

"Not even close. Remember third year after we-"

"Shut up, please." Fred hissed, and George smirked, knowing he could share this secret at any time.

In less than two hours, Madame Pomfrey had cleared the boys of their beards and the gray was almost all out of their hair.

"Now that I've seen what you look like as an old man, I think we need to talk..." I whispered into Fred's ear, rushing backwards before he could reach out to retaliate.

"I'm sorry you guys couldn't enter. I know you were excited." I offered them a sad smile, even though I couldn't have been happier. I didn't want either of them competing in a tournament that had been canceled due to too high of a death rate.